Interested in a career in content marketing? Wondering how to give yourself a head start? While there are certainly any number of degree programs that will get you where you want to go, these five will definitely put you ahead of the pack.
1. Digital Media
One of the best degrees for learning more or less anything digital is obviously going to be a digital media degree. In one of these programs, you will learn anything and everything you could hope to about the online world, from soup to nuts. If you’re interested in content marketing as a career, think about focusing on writing for the web, social media and all the marketing coursework you can take on – though having a solid knowledge of things like information architecture and CMS systems is also fairly handy. Learn and understand everything you can about Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing – these are the underlying principles in all content marketing campaigns.
2. Journalism
In journalism school, you have the opportunity to learn a number of different writing styles – news, features, headlines and captions, press releases, blogging, even social media writing. A number of journalism schools are starting to offer a digital media concentration, which will allow you to get all the benefits of a well-rounded journalism education and a digital media degree, combined.
3. Marketing
For a lot of people who came to the digital media business from the “site side” rather than the “business side” – writers and editors, information architects, designers, HTML coders – the marketing part of the business is something they probably learned on the fly. Traditional marketing techniques and strategies can sound foreign and unfamiliar due to differences in terms and jargon, even if they actually have a fairly deep understanding of the principles at work. But traditional marketing techniques have a huge place in the online world. Understanding the psychology of sales, cold calling, lead generation and sales funnels can put you ahead in the game – these are theories many you work with won’t have encountered.
4. Entrepreneurship
A huge part of content marketing is understanding the entrepreneurial mindset – while you will have opportunities to work for clients of all types, there is an enormous amount of work with small to mid-sized businesses. Having a good grasp of things like business structure, startup needs and ongoing operational demands will help you to best serve your client – your goal is, after all, not just to help bring in traffic, but also to help with conversions on-site. Knowing how businesses actually work will be an enormous strength.
5. Creative Writing
Although you won’t get the same strategic background with a creative writing degree as you might from a journalism program, you will get a solid writing education, learn to handle critique, and develop a sense of storytelling and connecting with the reader – which is what content marketing is really all about. Especially if you want to focus on article marketing, having a strong ability to write without requiring a lot of editing is key to keeping up a steady stream of work. And if you want to work in social media, the ability to craft clever, witty and concise content gems will serve you well.