What are the key ingredients for a great Content Director? By Hannah Rand
Content - that most unemotional word for a marketer’s most wonderous tool for connecting with the hearts and wallets of their customer. Traditionally seen as a delivery mechanism to get brand messaging out to customers, content now *is* the brand – and one that is more scalable and provides a more reliable feedback loop. Smart brands that use content as an integral part of their marketing strategy are ahead of the game in terms of engagement and image as a result.
The function of a Content Director has changed dramatically in the last decade. For one thing, the term Content Director didn’t widely exist a decade ago. You might have been an Editorial Director or a Head of Content at forward-thinking organisations, but were most likely siloed from other core marketing and PR functions. Now Content Directors are more likely to act as Creative Directors, with oversight of all aspects of brand comms, visual identity, tone and audience agenda.
By pulling a Content Director into the central nerve centre of your business, you’ll bring your customer into the heart of your brand decision making. 81% of shoppers research a brand or a service on social media before they buy a product. So if your Instagram or TikTok channel aren’t getting the same love as store or ATL, you’re missing a trick. If your newsletters aren’t as creative and compelling as your paid media strategy, your brand won’t feel joined up.
So, what are the key ingredients for a great Content Director?
1. Understand the balance between brand and audience
Content Directors will naturally lean towards an audience-first strategy. We are audience experts, with Who, What, When, Where, Why deeply imbedded in our professional psyche – with Who being the most important consideration. However, the role of a Content Director (as opposed to the content team) is knowing where to marry channel need with brand need; how to ensure that brands integrate deeply into the dreams and desires of the consumer, but don’t let the audience (or algorithm) eat the brand.
2. Zoomed-in focus, zoomed-out vision
Equally, allow your teams to be channel experts. Things move at lightening pace in the content world - this week’s Reels is next week’s BeReal. Threads eats Twitter, Twitter becomes X. Content Directors need to champion the brand vision and use their teams to translate that to channel. Content Directors should have the chops to see the big picture, and handle big projects, teams, manage multiple stakeholders and clients, etc. So, hire platform experts, and let them be the experts - they are the fearless hunters, you provide the compass and spears.
3. Be highly collaborative but don’t compromise.
Content is most effective when it serves all departmental needs, but don’t let anybody put your content baby in the corner. A Content Director needs to be embedded in the forward planning of the brand, in order for the content strategy to be absolutely central to brand and marketing strategy – not an afterthought. Hands up if you know a brand that has a ‘blog’ section on the top nav, which does a half decent job of capturing some organic traffic, but can’t be shopped from? Yep, it still happens. Content is CRM, mailers, social channels, product pages, landing pages… but also store signage, clothing labels, packaging – any consumer touchpoint.
4. Process and organisational skills
None of the above can happen if you don’t have the right structures in place. Do you have copy teams who aren’t synched in efficiently with buying, design and packaging? Do you have separate teams working on loyalty apps and customer service bots to your social channels? Do paid and organic teams sit in the same organisational structure? Create processes to allow content teams to speak to any department that has an audience connect early on.
5. Embrace ChatGPT
Advances in AI will open new creative opportunities, rather than steal them. Take product descriptions for example – a pretty functional aka tedious job for any content or copywriter. If you’re a brand that needs this to be automated, go for it, but use your real humans to sense check for tone, wit and branding. (Although – note - smart brands prioritise PLPs in the brand hierarchy – as many of your customers will bypass your ached-over landing pages and go straight to product.) In the world of AI, leadership in creativity and brand nuance will be even more important.
About Hannah Rand
Hannah is a creative and content director with extensive experience developing creative platforms for premium lifestyle brands. A former magazine editor she is a storyteller at heart, with a passion for purpose-led brands that have a vision for positive change.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-rand
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