November 14, 2022
What I Learned In My First Year As A Content Marketer
PV Team

I can remember it as if it was yesterday — I felt like I was in seventh heaven after Point Visible said “yes” to me. 

That was almost a year ago. 

After lurking on their social media profiles for quite some time (in the least weird way possible), the first step in the office felt like I was meeting friends on a Friday afternoon.

However, a tiny seed of self-doubt grew inside me. I’m starting from scratch. What if I’m not creative enough? What if I don’t fit in? What if I made the wrong decision when I left the comforts of my old job? 

Now, I see it’s the best decision I made career-wise. 

Although my first steps in the marketing world were scary, I was driven by a desire to improve myself and find my groove. Along the way to the content marketer I am today, I picked up a few valuable lessons — from a better understanding of myself to a better understanding of the marketing world. 

Lesson #1: Tools are my new BFF now?

Before I was a content marketer, the only concern I had when reading blog posts was if the content was worth my time. 

Now I have plenty of question marks above my head: 

  • What is the DA? 
  • Who are they linking to? 
  • How frequently do they post? 
  • Who is on their content team?
  • Is the post properly optimized?  

Until my onboarding phase, Moz was just the character from White Collar. This connection quickly faded away because I was using the MOZ tool so much — along with Ahrefs, Clearbit, and Pitchbox, among many others. 

I had no idea that being a content marketer and link builder meant using so many tools.

Lesson #2: It’s okay to be human

Another thing I didn’t expect was a lack of formality in conversations. Coming from a highly-formal environment, I was going a bit overboard with showing respect to everyone I came in contact with. 

Suddenly, I was allowed, even required, to be fun? 

From communicating with the editors to communicating with my coworkers, the casual tone was almost always a preferred choice. A friendly and informal style of communication worked so well across every channel and industry that it took me a while to wrap my head around it. 

Everyone encouraged me to use humor (within certain limits) — not just in emails, but in articles too. After all, aside from algorithms, the text I edit has to be appealing to humans as well. 

Appealing content is catchy, fun, engaging, funny, and relatable — all of which are easier to accomplish with an informal tone of voice. Not so surprising when I look at it back nowadays. 

Lesson #3: Creativity vs analysis: Why not both?

As long as I can remember, I was indecisive if I’m more of a creative person or an analytical one.

Content marketing proved to be a perfect blend of both — I get to be creative while editing articles, creating new topics, and writing outreach emails; and I get to use analytical skills while performing content audits, analyzing technical details of the blogs I’m pitching a guest post to, and doing other research projects.

The lesson I learned is that I don’t have to choose — I get to do a job that allows me to exercise both my creativity and my analytical skills, instead of fixating on just one.

Lesson #4: How (not) to deal with rejections

Guest posting is a numbers game — to get a “yes”, you have to get through some “not interested”, a few “not right nows”, and an occasional and dreaded  — “unsubscribe”.

I’m highly sensitive to criticism — so it was really painful (at the beginning) to see anything but a positive response after all the blood, sweat, and tears. Now, it still hurts, but I understand that some editors missed my pitch, or don’t think we’re the right fit for collaboration.

The rejections will never sting me less, but I try to think positively — every rejection I get is a new learning opportunity. Why should I lose my joy over a couple of rejections when I can use that to improve myself professionally? 

When once in a blue moon a rejection does leave me feeling down — there’s always my fluffy four-legged friend who doesn’t know a thing about content marketing but does know a lot about making me smile.

via GIPHY

Lesson #5: Curiosity doesn’t kill the cat

Imagine if Sheldon found himself in the content marketing world — and you’ll get a picture of me in my first months: I had so many questions! 

Aside from the help I asked for in my daily tasks, I asked my campaign lead and other coworkers with more experience a lot of questions. 

Marketing changes quickly and it’s quite beneficial to talk with coworkers and other people in the niche — their advice and hard-learned lessons helped me avoid repeating their mistakes and be more productive. 

For example, instead of using trial and error in my outreach emails, I got plenty of valuable advice on how to land a reply — from creating an eye-catching subject line to hitting the ideal structure of my guest post pitch.

Although I was worried my curiosity gets on people’s nerves, it seems none of my nine lives had been taken away. 

Final nugget of wisdom

The beginning is always the hardest part — words that were painfully true a year ago. I’m looking at the marketing industry with a new perspective, thanks to the experience I gained and the knowledge my coworkers are selflessly sharing. 

Although I have learned a lot, there’s still so much to explore — and I can’t be more excited about that. 

Who is Point Visible?

We are a full-service digital agency with a strong focus on link building and content marketing. CLICK HERE to learn how we help clients get more traffic, leads, and sales.

PV Team
This post is the result of a team effort, with pointers taking their time to research, discuss, design, and write everything you see on this page. It may or may not be the cause of excessive coffee consumption.

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