How to become a Content Strategist in 2020 and be good at it

Discover how content strategists guide the full lifecycle—from pre-production audits and planning to production, delivery, and post-production maintenance—ensuring accessible content and strong information architecture that supports business goals.

Discover whether the content strategist role fits you, comparing front-end editorial and information architecture paths, and learn the skills, backgrounds, and employer types sought in this growing field.

Delve into content strategy skills—research and analysis, content audits, requirement gathering, user and competitor analysis, and gap analysis—while noting writing and editing are addressed separately, with complementary and nice-to-have skills.

Identify and document both business and audience needs through functional and nonfunctional requirements, using interviews, surveys, focus groups, and contextual inquiries to guide content strategy.

Learn how to conduct content audits that inventory current content, analyze quality, and improve usefulness through quantitative and qualitative methods to guide ongoing optimization.

Research your audience with interviews, focus groups, surveys, and site analytics to create primary and secondary personas that reflect their needs, motivations, and challenges, and tailor content accordingly.

Learn to identify competitors, set comparison criteria, and measure how your content stacks up on topics, formats, keywords, and channels to gain a competitive edge.

Perform gap analysis to move content from the current state to the ideal state by leveraging audits, personas, empathy maps, and journey maps to align business needs with end-user expectations.

Master information architecture to organize content with categories, navigation, and metadata, while integrating complementary skills like content marketing, search engine optimization, and content management system, typography, and accessibility.

Discover nice-to-have skills for content strategists, from Photoshop basics and multimedia content workflows to agile project management, leadership development, and building a standout portfolio.

Gain real-world content strategy experience by auditing current projects, volunteering, and building a compelling portfolio and online presence across LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs.

Master content strategist interview prep, from a concise two-minute self-intro to discussing projects, kpis, and processes, plus optimizing LinkedIn and portfolios for phone, onsite, and written tests.

Develop a clear purpose for the content strategist role by understanding the organization, client, user, and product, and by building a compelling business case to secure budgets and resources.

Learn to plan and execute a content strategy with purpose, evaluate outcomes against user needs, optimize delivery across channels, and maintain consistency with style guides for search engine optimization.

Identify and map stakeholders early, establish direct cross-functional communication, seek ongoing feedback, and align everyone toward a user-centered content strategy while handling disagreements professionally.