What is a Content Creator?

The online world of content creation today is filled with incredible content. Gone are the days of having to purchase boring encyclopedia books or having to phone a business to find out about their products and services. Today, there are incredibly talented Content Creators designing high-quality videos, images, and text for brands online. All of them, compete to capture the attention of potential customers and show their expertise. But the question remains, what is a Content Creator?

Digitalmarketing.com defines a Content Creator as someone who creates appealing and awe-inspiring content for the viewers. As a creative, who doesn’t love the sound of awe-inspiring content! Not to mention, this skill set is definitely in high demand in 2022. With more and more brands heading online, competition is fierce for top-ranking, quality content. More and more brands are turning to dedicated, creative Content Creators to produce high-quality content, whether in-house or freelance content creators.  

 

Using Your Creativity

Being a Content Creator is a great way to earn a living from your natural creative flair.It’s an opportunity to think outside the box while meeting a need for talented creatives online.No matter your creative style, whether the written word, design or audio or visual, there is a content medium for you.It is important to make sure you are happy with the content you want to create.

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‍Content Creation Process

To be on top of your game as a content creator, you need a content strategy to help you become more productive with your time and plan engaging content for your subscribers. You will be on the right path to becoming a successful content creator with the right strategy. 

Whether your content production is for TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, planning content ideas is the best step forward. Research the different types of content for your niche; this will help you develop into a professional content creator.

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Why Are Content Creators In Demand?

Becoming a Content Creator is definitely an in-demand job. For those who can do it well, brands around the world pay top dollar for well-written copy, great imagery, and well-executed video content.

Recent statistics show that “Content marketing creates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 64% less.” See the statistics here. This is a huge return on investment for any brand. A Content Creator can help a brand capitalize on this return by making engaging content. Now, not to get all serious, but it’s important to know just how valuable your skillset is, so here are some of the tangible benefits of effective Content Creation:

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Who Needs a Content Creator?

As a business owner or someone who cannot produce content, you may need a digital content creator to help you figure out where to start. Many content creators can help you get the media content you need through an in-house team or freelance writers. Here are a few things to remember when hiring someone to create content for your business. You can hire content creators to work for you in-house or pay for freelance workers.

In-house content creators can be a great asset to your business. They are usually familiar with your brand and can help create consistently high-quality content. However, they can also be more expensive and require more management than freelance creators.

 

Freelance writers can be a great option if you need more flexibility or want to try out different voices for your brand.

What Do Influencers Do?

An influencer is someone who has the ability to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship. Influencers can be categorized by the size of their social following, their area of expertise, or their ability to drive engagement. The most common type of influencer is a social media influencer. Social media influencers are people who have amassed a large following on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or Snapchat.

Establishing A Brand’s Credibility & Expertise

A Content Creator can help a brand establish credibility in the eyes of its potential customers. They can create content that is highly targeted to the industry and provide useful information or display their expertise and knowledge on certain topics. 

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Gaining The Customer’s Trust

Building trust is critically important in a digital world where we no longer meet face-to-face. Creating content that demonstrates competence and authority on a subject helps to build this trust. Effective Content Creators help customers to perceive the value of a brand by building this trust with valuable content online.

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Building Brand Awareness

In the good old days, you had to do mass advertising campaigns and pay huge amounts of money for people to see your brand. Now, with the benefit of the internet, brands can put expert content, all across the web. 

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Boosting SEO, To Be Found By New Customers

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, basically, it’s being found on Google when someone types in a search query. Having your content seen by Google as ‘authoritative’ on a certain subject or industry can mean that new customers can find a brand more easily when searching online. 

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Encouraging Existing Customers to Buy Again

How do you stay front of mind with a customer who has already purchased from a brand? By producing amazing content like emails, blogs and videos that they can subscribe to, and keep them coming back for more. 

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Getting Free Brand Awareness Online

Lastly, by creating and disseminating high-quality content online, brands get their name out there for free.

So it’s pretty clear that creating content is really important, making Content Creation an in-demand profession. But what type of content is made?

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Types of Digital Content

For the sake of this article, we are going to stick to online content. Broadly speaking, the main types of content that a Content Marketer makes is text, images or videos. Below we’ve listed some examples of the type of content you could produce as a Content Creator:

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Text

Blogs & Articles

Almost every brand online today has a website. To build credibility with your audience and increase your SEO rankings on Google, it’s important to have blogs and articles. These blogs and articles should demonstrate the brand's credibility and expertise, as well as be engaging for their target audience.

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Website Content

Another form of written content is writing on a website. This style of writing needs to be concise and to the point with clear CTAs (Call To Action) to help the customers make purchasing decisions. 

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Product Descriptions

Like website content, product descriptions for e-commerce businesses need to be catchy and to the point. It should describe the product accurately and create a sense of urgency for the buyer. 

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White Papers

These are informational documents usually created for a company to promote or highlight the features of a solution, product, or service that it offers. These are most commonly used by large corporations or brands that may have a more ‘technical’ product or service on offer. 

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Ebooks

Not normally the length of an actual novel, Ebooks are an opportunity for a brand to provide insights or helpful tips and tricks in an area of expertise. It’s great for enhancing their reputation and generating new leads. 

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Social Media Managers

Many companies and marketers have been looking for the best content creators, social media managers, bloggers, and influencers. This is due to the growing importance of content marketing and social media in today's business world.

Digital content creators are responsible for creating high-quality, engaging content that will attract readers and followers. Social media managers are responsible for promoting this content across various social media platforms. Bloggers write articles or create videos that provide valuable information or insights on a given topic. Influencers have a large following on social media and can help promote a brand or product to their followers.

These roles are essential in helping businesses reach their target audiences and achieve their marketing goals. If you have experience in any of these areas, you may be able to find work with a marketing team or business.

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Images

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Website Banners

Accompanying a blog or article is typically an eye-catching website banner. This banner needs to catch the reader's attention and visually summarise why they should read the article.

Statistics & Infographics

Nobody wants to read big long sentences of statistical information. Successful Visual Content Marketers are able to take these stats and make them visually appealing to the customer. 

Quotes

Like infographics, creating unique, visual representations of words is a great way to capture the attention of potential customers. These are commonly used to highlight a key point on a website or as great content for a social media post. 

Visual CTAs

A Call to action (CTA) is critically important for any business as it improves the user experience and drives conversion. By designing visually appealing CTAs, you can help brands to increase their website conversions and drive more business. 

Memes & GIFs

Typically used for social media, brands love to use memes and GIFs to relate to their customers in a more personal way. Creating catchy and relatable memes and GIFs are a great way to help build relationships with customers. 

Photos

So much of the visual content available online began from a photo. Photography is an excellent type of visual content that can be built upon to create personalized content for a specific audience.

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Videos

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Brand Films

A video like this is designed to help the audience become better acquainted with a brand's values, vision, and mission. This can be a powerful visual medium a Content Creator can produce to tell a story, and really engage with the targeted audience.

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Educational Videos

These are great to show a brand’s expertise. As a Visual Content Creator, you can make learning fast and fun with catchy and interactive educational videos.

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Testimonial Videos

Testimonial videos are a great way to help brands to build trust and credibility with their audience. This content can be used on any of their platforms from social media, to websites and even offline at tradeshows or corporate offices. 

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Unboxings

Really popular on Youtube, unboxings are great visual content that shows off a brand's products in a detailed and relatable way. 

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Vlogs

Like a blog, vlogs can help a brand communicate regularly with its target market. Keeping them engaged with the brand and bringing up to date information and useful tips and tricks. This type of content can really help create a sense of community as customers can interact with likes, comments, and shares.

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Interviews

A great way to get to know a brand's management or relate to current customers is with an interview. This visual medium can be shared across virtually any online platform and is a great way to build credibility and trust. 

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Q&As

Brands with complex products or services can really benefit from this type of content. Video Q&As allow people to see and hear from experts and have their questions answered in a way that allows other potential customers to benefit from them. 

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How to Become a Content Creator?

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Reading through the above lists of types of content, has hopefully sparked your interest, but how do you become a Content Creator? We’ve outlined four important steps you should undertake on your journey to becoming an epic Content Creator. 

1. Decide On Your Preferred Content Medium

It’s important to start by figuring out what type of content you like to create. Do you enjoy writing? Bringing images to life with your words? Or perhaps you have an eye for visual layouts and placing multiple elements on a page to create something new? Or, perhaps you can bring magic to life by cutting a video in just the right way.

But no matter the type of content you create, it’s important that you target a specific audience and create content that will be engaging on the platform you’re designing for.

2. Know Your Audience

Marketable content, no matter the medium, always has a few things in common. The most important of all is knowing your audience. The best content is highly targeted content. It shows expertise and typically, can be more in-depth than other content. To be able to produce this type of content you need to do your research and produce clear and concise content that will resonate with your audience. 

3. Create Specifically for Your Intended Platform

Each platform online has a different audience. It’s important that you design your content for that platform. This could be a long-form written article for a corporate blog. A fun, yet informative Instagram post. Or a product comparison video on Youtube. 

4. Practice, Practice, Practice

Last, but probably the most important, is to practice. If you’re new to content creation, you won’t be writing, editing, or designing like a pro overnight. It will take many hours of practice to become an expert in your field. However, don’t let that stop you. With content marketing becoming more and more important online, there are lots of opportunities to develop your skill set. 

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Creator Economy

There are many content-creation entrepreneurs in the new-age creator economy, and many of them are expected to make this transition into full-time content creators in 2022. The trend is being driven by a combination of factors, including the ever-growing popularity of streaming services like Spotify and YouTube and the increasing availability of affordable video and music production tools. 

 

As a result of this shift, we're seeing an explosion in the amount of creative content being produced - everything from music and videos to podcasts and e-books. And while there are some challenges that come with being a content creator (such as maintaining a consistent output), many people are finding that it's a hugely rewarding way to make a living.

 

So if you're thinking about making the jump to content creation, know that you're not alone - and that there's never been a better time to get started.

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How Much Will I Get Paid as a Content Creator?

Working as a Content Creator can be a full-time job or a part-time gig. When working full-time in a salaried position, the average salary is £24,876. However, with online freelancing sites like Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer, there are many entrepreneurial Content Creators who are also creating as a side hustle. You can get paid to create content online, from anywhere in the world, with content averaging from $ 50 USD to $ 150 USD per piece. 

So once you’ve decided on starting your journey as a Content Creator, it’s important to make sure you have the right tools to be able to get the job done.

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Tools for Beginner Content Creators

With so many apps and software available online nowadays, it’s difficult to know what tools to use when you first start out as a Content Creator. Below, we’ve compiled for you our top free tool for each type of beginner Content Creator.

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Grammarly for Content Writers

There are lots of tools to help you, but the number one tool for any content writer online is Grammarly. This program has a very useful, free version and can be downloaded or added to Google Chrome as an extension. Content Writers can change the settings of this application to write in US English or UK English and it helps to ensure you catch any grammatical or spelling errors in your writing. 

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Canva for Content Designers

The best tool to get started online as a Content Designer is Canva. Like Grammarly, this tool has a fantastic free version. Designing graphics, e-books, and more is as easy as clicking and dragging elements on the page. Not to mention the thousands of free templates and designs that they have made available to their free subscribers. 

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Lightworks for Content Video Editors

There are heaps of video editing software available online, including YouTube’s own editing interface. However, the best software for overall use is Lightworks. This software has a free version and you can upgrade to paid when you are ready. It comes with an intuitive and simple interface, as well as detailed tutorials on how to make your videos pop. 

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Final Thoughts

If you are considering a career in online content, there is no better time than now.There are incredible opportunities for salaried employment, or freelancers to create epic content for brands around the globe.

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