You’re looking to advance your career in content strategy. What’s the best way to get there?

I think it's important to recognize that content strategy is a broad field, and can encompass many different roles. This is made even greater when you look at content strategy across different industries. I think it's important to do some self exploration before assessing strengths and weaknesses. Are you passionate about leadership? Do you want to be a principal content strategist at a nonprofit? What kind of salary is important to you? Do you want to manage people? These kinds of questions are important. So, put simply, do some soul-searching first before doing a big self-assessment.

Its important to get some exposure to the complete 'content marketing ecosystem' for your development as a content strategist (as opposed to merely being a content writer/creator). This encompasses research, planning, distribution and analytics. You need to understand, at least at a basic level, how decisions are made on what content to create, how to define and measure success, how to determine which platforms to publish your content on, and how to adjust your strategy based on results and feedback. Even a simple exercise like preparing a brief for a content writer, and reviewing/editing their submitted drafts, can prove very instructive to an aspiring content strategist/manager.

First and foremost, Do you really want to get into this field, or it's just you are escaping from your previous job. If you are really passionate about it. Follow these steps. List down your top 5 favorite creators. Analyze them, study their content thoroughly, find what worked for them and what not. Start Creating your own content, be it videos, text, or posts, it does not matter just start somewhere. Find a mentor. Experiment, fail, learn, Implement.

As the legendary writer Stephen King says, 'Read a lot and write a lot'. That's how the knowledge compounds and makes you more expressive in your writing and creating content strategy. Content strategy is all about holistic long-term outcomes, like revenue, pipeline, traffic (overall traction). The way to get there is to study your competition and co-creators in the industry and determine what differently they are doing using their marketing assets. With that in your aperture, scale your content that sticks with time with your audience. Work on both content stickiness and spreadability when creating your content strategy.

Setting goals could be difficult if you don't know what you want. Ask yourself what things you enjoy and what you don't. Make sure you have some experience in various aspects of content strategy so that you can make informed decisions. Then set long-range goals and work backward to outline the steps that you need to get you there.

Setting clear, SMART goals is like plotting your destination on a map before a journey. Say you aim to lead a content team within two years. This goal isn't just a point on the horizon; it's a beacon guiding your daily actions and decisions. ?? By specifying your aspirations—whether it's mastering SEO analytics, contributing to a Fortune 500 company's content vision, or breaking into the tech industry—you tailor your learning and experiences towards these objectives.

Having a plan with short and long-term goals on a flexible timeline is the best way to keep making progress while also giving yourself some room for if life gets in the way of your plans. For example, if your goal is to move up into a people manager role, your short-term goal might be to find a mentor, and your long-term goal might be to complete a leadership program. From here, break your goals into smaller tasks with a fixed time frame (ex. weekly). Ex. for your short-term goal, your weekly tasks might be to write out your goals for mentorship, research potential mentors, and reach out at least 3 potential mentors. Weekly milestone make your plan actionable, and also give you a way to pause (ex. vacation) by not having due dates.

This is what I have tried. -Find a mentor experienced in content strategy to offer industry insights. -Look for a mentor skilled in areas like copywriting or SEO to enhance specific abilities. -Collaborate with mentors to outline clear goals and actionable steps for advancement. -Schedule consistent meetings for advice, progress updates, and constructive criticism.