Essential Habits of a Successful Content Marketer [Expert Roundup]

Content is an essential part of a business’ marketing strategy. It does not only help a brand build its authority but it also helps to attract and convert prospects.

As a content marketer, it is important to know how to plan, create and promote content that contributes to the success of a business.

Here are some valuable tips from content marketing experts to help you become a highly effective content marketer.

Tony DeGennaro, Dragon Social

So I’d say I have a few habits that make me a more effective content marketer. I have 3 that I can think of off the top of my head.

First off, I read a ton of content. I look at content created not only by my competition but throughout various industries to both improve my knowledge on various subjects and see what other content marketers are doing. There’s been many a time where I’ve noticed a clever opt-in or formatting strategy and gone directly back to my blog and implemented it immediately. It helps you to stay on top of the latest trends and make sure you’re not missing out on any of the newer tricks for converting subscribers or increasing traffic.

Second, I check the data on my website multiple times a day. With just a quick glance I can tell what is working, what isn’t, and where my site needs improvement. Data is invaluable to a content marketer and each action we take should be guided by the data that we’ve collected.

Third, I update my content very frequently. I take great pride in my content and want to make sure all my statistics, figures, and information is as up to date as possible. Each piece of content is a living document that needs to be nurtured and grown over time. Every time I see information that’s missing from one of my articles or new statistics that have been released I quickly go back to my articles and add it in. Sometimes it’s just a sentence or two, but it can be very effective for keeping your content relevant.

Tony DeGennaro is the Director of Marketing at Dragon Social.

Marko Saric, MarkoSaric.com

The most effective habit to become a successful content marketer is not being afraid to try things out and fail. In the fast-moving digital marketing world, the best practices can be very wrong for specific niche cases or even very outdated. That’s why a successful content marketer is someone who is not afraid to try new things, experiment and learn from them. Sometimes you may fail but in pretty much all cases you will learn something that will make your future activities better and more effective.

Ben Taylor, HomeWorkingClub.com

The habit that brings me success in marketing my content is a simple one: always produce something better than everything already out there. There are very few subjects where there’s not already great content ranking in Google. As such, there’s little point in “phoning it in.” Google is getting better and better at assessing quality, so if somebody has already covered your topic, you MUST bring something extra to the table if you want your content to rise to the top and gain attention.

Bart Turczynski, Zety

Becoming a rockstar content marketer might feel akin to climbing Mountain Everest, blindfolded.

But—

There are a couple of effective habits that will help springboard your content marketing career.

11x your writing skills

You need to learn how to produce delicious, mouth-watering copy. Otherwise, you’ll be bombarding the Internet with fluffy pieces that don’t solve the reader’s problem.

How?

Write and read as much as you humanly can.

Make friends with the technical stuff

It’s not enough to just write good copy. You need to know how to market your content, so it hits 1st SERP. That means you need to learn SEO copywriting, keyword research, etc.,

Best way to do it?

Online learning platforms that are choke-full with quality info.

Equip yourself with killer research skills

Your content needs to solve the reader’s problem. That means you need to serve the best advice possible and become a go-to expert on any topic within 48 hours.
So—slamdunk research skills are a must.

How to get them?

Read, write and learn as much as you can. Plus, picking up several google search commands (e..g, ‘how to become a content marketer’ + ‘Reddit’) wouldn’t hurt either 😉

Jamie Kehoe, Venturi

Here are 3 habits that I got into when I took my first Content Management position.

1. Follow up on every link building outreach email you send, successful or not.

Follow their blog updates, comment on their most recently published post. Just let them know you’re around and that you’re in this together.

Content marketing lives and dies on relationships. If you’re not actively building relationship nurturing into your daily outreach then you’re missing out on an opportunity.

Related: How to Do Email Outreach Like a Pro

2. Maker Morning, Manager Afternoon

We all know this one. Save your writing, creating and building for the morning. Take your emails, admin and outreach into the afternoon.

This isn’t just about using the right energy at the right time, it’s about setting boundaries and expectations for yourself.

3. Go To Meetups

I try to attend as many local Meetups as possible. If I can fit them into my schedule I’m there – learning about everything and anything. This fresh perspective, away from the circles Content Marketers always find themselves in, can really unlock some learnings.

Ayse Basak Incekas, Megaventory

Allocate Time For Yourself

Every day, try to do something that you enjoy. You can fill your mind with peace by regularly doing something that you would love to do. It doesn’t necessarily to be something directly about an achievement. Drive in your favorite roads, take your headphones and walk in a peaceful park or do something else that makes you happy. Then, you will realize that you have improved your creativity skills and gathered energy and motivation to focus on your success. Remember that creativity is the key to being a successful content marketer.

Write Down Your Thoughts

The palest ink is stronger than the sharpest memory. Make a habit of writing down your thoughts. This habit will help you to remind things that may give you inspiration for your content. It will also improve your writing skills.

Jakub Kliszczak, CrazyCall

I’d say that one of the most important habits that make it or break it for every successful content marketer is monitoring the performance.

All top-notch content marketers know that there’s a little-to-no chance that you’ll put out a piece of content and it will perform well over time (unless you’re in a 0.1% when it comes to domain authority). This makes monitoring more than necessary. And that’s why best content marketers do tremendous research, create content, monitor its performance and adjust it accordingly to the results.

This makes you immune to updates that Google may introduce or changes that your competitors may apply. You’ll always see what’s going on and be ready to react.

That’s why I believe monitoring performance is one of the habits of successful content marketers.

Elizabeth Hadden, Tandem Interactive

I think that viewing content as a conversation is a great habit. When you look at your content this way, you’re able to filter out bad content and only focus on producing content that adds to a conversation rather than just making noise. You can’t just speak for the sake of talking, and the same goes for content, if you write content just to target keywords, nobody will pay attention.

Listening is an important part of creating good content. All marketers should be in the habit of listening to the news, to their user comments, and to their analytics. All of these pieces can tell you what’s working with your content and what isn’t. Checking analytics regularly will help you understand where your content is falling short.

Brooks Manley, Brooks Manley Marketing

I believe the most important habit a successful content marketer can have is the rhythm of asking questions, experimenting, and drawing conclusions.

Regularly asking what’s working, running tests, and revisiting pieces of content is crucial to success. The laziness of posting regularly and hoping something big happens doesn’t work in 2019.

Noman Asghar, Fan Jackets

There are some signs which tell that someone is successful Content Marketers.

Reading: Gathering ideas is not difficult just try to read the blogs and articles to increase your abilities. A good reader has good writing skills which is the key part of improvement.

Connections: Stay connected with the same niche people to remain up to update with the industry. It can help you to adopt new methods and tricks as soon as possible and you can easily jump to the next level. If you have more connections then you can see more content of others and new ideas will come in your mind automatically.

Sharing Ideas: To overcome hesitations its necessary to share your ideas with others the more you share the more you will get bits of advice and correction from the seniors. They will tell you the right path and you can become pro.

Target: Successful content marketers always try to complete the task before the deadline. To achieve the target hard work and passion needed.

Analysis: Vital part of content marketing is to check the results whether your strategies and content are working or not. Think about why your work is not working or getting a low output.

Conclusion

As a content marketer, you need to polish your skills and learn the habit of continuous improvement to stay on top of the game. Your role does not stop after creating content. You also need to analyze the results and find the gaps that you should fill.

Thanks to the content marketing experts who shared their tips on becoming a  successful content marketer!

How about you? Do you have other tips that can help content marketers become successful? Let us know in the comments below!