Are you looking for a new content marketer? Have you thought about what skills they should have? What about their email communication skills? There are a few questions you should ask and skills you should look for when you interview your next prospect.
When beginning an interview, typically you start with a few intro questions. These can be anything from previous work history to potential dream jobs. Then you move into the questions about education, and then into their strengths and weaknesses.
Some of their strengths and weakness are skills, some are more personality. You should be asking for both. It's not only about giving the right answer, but about how the answer was given. With email being the ever increasing form of communication in every business, when interviewing your next prospect you need to check their resume skill in comparison with their email communication skills.
When looking for a new content marketer you will be looking for the obvious skills:
Writing
SEO Knowledge
Design
These are just some of the skills you may be looking for but what does one’s personality bring to those skills? The line between personality and skills are beginning to blend. Your new hire needs to have the personality that works best in their position, sometimes skill is not enough. More importantly you need to take a look at how those personality and skill traits will reflect in their email communication skills.
An infographic created by curata lays out the makeup of an excellent content marketer.
Writing
Being a good writer and having knowledge of SEO (search engine optimization) is important. But... what is a "good writer." A good writer is someone who is well versed in grammar and style. A knowledge of SEO is required as well if you expect to make good use of your great content.
However, if those skills are not coupled with the right personality then they are worthless. Your content marketers should be a free thinker. Their writing must be exceptional but inviting at the same time. Your content writer needs to tell a story through words, images, and video. And more importantly they need to tell your story.
Your content marketers should be a free thinker. Their writing must be exceptional but inviting at the same time. Your content writer needs to tell a story through words, images, and video. And more importantly they need to tell your story.
Think about how these traits will come across with their email communication skills as well. How much do they know about subject lines? A subject line may only be 5 words but picking those 5 words takes skill. Your content marketer needs to be able to grab the attention of a reader in just seconds. With email, there is a series of clicks and intrigue required. Make sure that your content marketer is well versed in more than just long form.
A personality trait that will really excel for email communication skills is humor. Your content writer needs to embrace their humor as they are creating effective email campaigns for your office. Balancing the line between funny and professional can be difficult but if perfected can be a huge win. Humor can add to the story telling part of being a good writer. A good content marketer not only knows a good story but can imagine and visually see the journey your contacts take while reading your message.
Design
Their journey is affected partially by design. When you’re in the interview listen and ask questions that test for an innovative and creative personality. Innovation is one of the email communication skills every office needs. You need someone in the room that isn’t afraid to say the off the wall comment. Now, you may not always go with the idea but it is sure to spark a few others and get the room thinking.
Working with others comes hand and hand with design. When your content marketer is putting together the next email campaign they need to know how to communicate with one another. They need to be open to suggestion and not afraid of failure. Working as a team together is all part of creating the perfect campaign. So when you’re emailing make sure that your content marketer displays collaboration as part of their perfect email communication skills.
Not only for feedback but collaboration is important for crossover. Within a huge organization you need a content marketer that has a good relationship with everyone. They need to be hands on in it all. This is the only way that your content marketer will know exactly what is going on throughout your entire organization.
So when you’re emailing make sure that your content marketer displays collaboration, design, and teamwork as part of their perfect email communication skills.
Questions & Answers
Don’t be afraid to ask the off the wall questions during your interview. Ask them who their favorite superhero is. You may not actually care so much about who they pick but it will allow you the chance to listen to how they construct their answer.
Ask them who their role model is and why. This will show you what they truly care about. With these types of questions, you can see how passionate someone is about something. As well, you can see what they care about. If you are looking for a new content creator you want someone who is passionate about their work — and their life. Most importantly they need to be able to communicate this excitement to you and your readers.
According to a recent study, people who are marketed to through email are more likely to buy a product and are more likely to spend more money. Your content marketer is a crucial part to your company's success; their email communication skills are more important than ever before!
created by curata 2014
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