When many people hear the terms “content marketer” or “content strategist,” they may not fully understand what they mean. Explaining work to family and friends who don't work in media is a nightmare. The titles are not only ambiguous, but have different meanings for different companies. Are these people copywriters? Do they plan for Fortune 1000 companies to rule the world? What qualifies as “content”?
Gregory Ciotti act as a content marketer for Help Scout a helpdesk software company. In just three years, he helped take the company blog from no readers to 350,000 monthly readers and received multiple email lists with 60.00 0 subscribers.
Last month, Ciotti kindly let me follow him for a day so I could report back on what life as a content marketer is like. Here's a look at his typical routine — full of his writing, editing, planning, podcasting, and episodes. The Wire.
7:00 is
Alarm bells rang. On a typical day, Ciotti wakes up with a cup of green tea and four eggs, checking her email to make sure there aren't any urgent issues to deal with. In 2015, Help Scout documented five server failures, four incoming email delays, and two issues with Amazon that affected customers. Fortunately, none of the fires were extinguished this morning.
number 8:00 is
Ciotti likes to tackle big creative projects first, so he often spends his morning writing for the Help Scout blog.
“You're just gifted with so many 'aggregate' hours of work — or, making something out of nothing,” he says. “Books like Daily Rituals has confirmed that many writers struggle to put their intellectual selves on the page after four or five hours. It's a horrible feeling to let your busy work take you away at this precious time. ”
Most Help Scout employees work remotely, so Ciotti writes in his home office across from his bedroom. He is closed off, consciously separating his personal and professional life. When he writes, he likes to be quiet. He wears Bose noise-cancelling headphones; to listen SimplyNoise , a white noise generator; and turn off his Internet from time to time to avoid distractions.
Wi-Fi is on today as he teamed up with the company's co-founder and lead designer, Jared McDaniel, to perfect the copy for a new Help Scout demo Page. On Slack, the two fix 50 duplicate words, cutting some paragraphs while making the “Meet the Team” part a little more friendly and engaging.
Though Ciotti almost embarrassedly admits he spent the better part of an hour arguing 50 words, it's a worthwhile mission as the About page is one of the most popular on his website. the company.
9:00 is
Over the years, Ciotti and other contributors to the Help Scout blog have compiled the most pressing customer service questions from readers. Now, he's gearing up to start a podcast, due out early 2016, to answer those questions.
Along with editorial director Jason Fell and marketer Paul Jun, Ciotti maintains a Google document that now lists 250 questions the team plans to address over time. In 45 minutes, Ciotti chooses which ones to cover, drafts show notes, and finds resources his co-hosts and guests can refer to for the upcoming episode.
“Our teammates have a lot to say, and we find it too difficult to ask them to contribute in writing,” he said. Instead, the marketing team will call on colleagues to share their knowledge and experiences through chat.
Near the end of the hour, Ciotti sent colleagues an email with an overview to prepare them for the recording session.
10:00 is
For the next item on her to-do list, Ciotti reached for her sketchbook, which was filled with bullet points (secrets) of Help Scout's content strategy for 2016. Ciotti notes Some thoughts before moving things over to Keynote, where he developed a formal presentation before the company's quarterly marketing conference.
In the slide show, he covers how the team will plan its editorial calendar, what topics to cover, what mediums to focus on, and updates to the company's key client personalities. .
11:00 is
Over a quick call, Ciotti worked with Cassandra Marketos, a freelancer leading the production of a new e-book for the company. He asked her about the progress and checked to see how the interviews were going.
11:40 is
For the next hour and a half, Ciotti tries to update an old blog post titled “ The Ultimate Guide to Measuring Customer Satisfaction .” Because it is a famous work that generates quite a lot of search traffic, Ciotti updates new information about the work to please the Google gods.
Of course, this isn't just a one-off project. Ciotti maintains a calendar that tells him when articles need to be updated. Generally, that calendar is prioritized based on traffic, so that posts with more traffic get the most attention.
Just before lunch, Ciotti finished his additions and finalized some new images. Often, new visuals are important for articles including screenshots of the Help Scout dashboard to ensure what users see in the blog post matches the latest product developments.
1: 10 pm
With a chicken, corn, and guacamole burrito in hand and an hour blocked off for lunch, Ciotti sat down to review an episode of The Wire, this is where smart marketers turn to for inspiration.
2:10 pm
Before starting work again, Ciotti rested one more time, this time to read. This afternoon, he enjoyed a book on visual communication titled Unfolding Napkins: A Practical Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures . Part, part play, Ciotti uses the book to improve his understanding of visual communication, a skill he hopes will continue to develop for Help Scout.
2:45 pm
With Scouting Help in recruiting a new writer, Ciotti began evaluating applicants. Candidates had to write a piece of original content as part of their application, so Ciotti logged into Workable, a platform the company uses for recruiting, to view and comment on drafts.
He then spent 45 minutes replying to the emails that had piled up and reviewing copy for some Help Scout ads.
4:00 pm
For the next hour, Ciotti was a guest on the Call to Action by Unbounce podcast, hosted by Dan Levy, a content strategist, and Stephanie Saretsky, a multimedia producer. In this episode, he highlights the main draw of an article he wrote last year titled “ Your world in front of our products “: Brands can mask prospects into paying customers by comparing before and after how people benefit from a product.
5:00 pm
Usually, Ciotti tackles all the big projects in one sitting, before lunch. But tonight, he's making an exception adding a few final touches to his presentation on Help Scout 2016's content strategy.
6:45 pm
After we hung up, Ciotti felt like a second breath of writing, around 800 words to learn about how reducing customer effort leads to better customer service.
number 8:00 pm
The workday is over, Ciotti relaxes by reading a book. Today, he sat down on a recliner in his living room to learn about James Salter's Dusk and other stories .
When he's done, Ciotti hangs out in front of the TV to watch another episode of The Wire . Then he does one last thing before bed: On a sticky note, he writes down a list of three to five important tasks he wants to accomplish tomorrow — a ritual that he he borrowed from Marc Andreessen .
As Ciotti told me, “I find it a good way to end the day and create a feeling of being ready to hit the road the next morning.”
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