What Title Should Content Marketing Writers Use?
It was easy back in the primarily print and even early online days to know what to call ourselves. It was pretty cut and dried. Some people called themselves freelance writers, while others preferred freelance journalists. Everyone knew what that meant – you wrote stories as an independent writer for multiple outlets. There was little confusion.
But in those days, clients didn’t typically come looking for writers. Instead, it was the writer who was responsible for pitching ideas to publications to get work. So it really didn’t matter what you called yourself for the most part, because you found the work and approached publications instead of the other way around.
Then came content marketing writing
And everything changed.
The biggest change, IMHO, is that finding clients is now a two-way street instead of primarily a one-way street. Yes, you still need to market yourself to prospective content clients. But oftentimes, clients come looking for writers with a specific expertise. I get about four to eight inquires every month from prospective clients that find me through my website or LinkedIn page.
This means that potential clients are searching for YOU both on Google and on LinkedIn. And the only way that they will find you is if you are using the same search terms that they are using to look for you. And since a higher weight is given in Google to page titles and job titles in LinkedIn, it is now very important what you call yourself.
But that is not all that has changed. It used to be that writers primarily found ideas, interviewed sources and wrote compelling stories. But that is just a fraction of what we spend our days doing. We do SEO. We tweet and post on LinkedIn. We write and use audience personas. We help our clients create a content strategy. We follow and measure conversion metrics. And our stories aren’t always told now through the written word. Our work now includes infographics, video scripts, podcast scripts, webcasts and many other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten about.
Creative Titles Galore
So writers started calling themselves other job titles that more accurately reflect what they do. And I started to see a lot of content creator titles popping up. As well as many other versions such as Chief Storyteller, Head Word Nerd, you name and someone has probably used it as a LinkedIn. Many writers also have aversion to the term “content marketing” (which is a whole different post) and avoid it at all costs by using “custom content” to avoid the previous taboo word “marketing” in their title, which ads even more variety.
While I love the creativity, I personally think that by using another title in LinkedIn and on your webpage that does not include “writer” in it, you are missing out on many potential clients that may be looking for someone with your exact skill sets. They are searching for someone in your niche who is a writer, but if you use other words, then they cannot find you and so they give the gig to another writer. To a lesser extent, I think that freelance writers should also include content marketing in their title if that is the type of work they are looking to land. This is the reason that my title has remained Freelance Content Marketing Writer and most likely always will as long as my primary gigs involve writing in some manner.
That said, I think it is totally fine (and probably advisable) to include additional titles along with the word writer. if you have other specialties that would separate you from other freelancers with a skill a client is looking for. For example, I include Strategist in my title because I have experience in creating content strategy and clients hire me for this service. I also think that if you have experience in video, it is a very smart idea to include this as part of your title.
The trick is to know which terms potential clients will be searching for. And a good place to start is to look at job ads to see the titles that potential clients are using when posting gigs. Don’t just take one ad as gospel, but keep an eye on multiple job sites over several weeks and keep watching to see the overall trend of the job titles for the specific jobs that are the best fit for your unique skills. By keeping an eye on what clients are looking for, you can help make it as easy as possible for them to find you. And that is exactly how to save marketing time and increase the number of new clients.
What do you call yourself? Have you changed your title recently? Why did you pick your title?
Great points and great post. I call myself a Content Marketing Writer and Journalist in all my personal marketing stuff.
That works well for you. I think I earned $800 in 2016 from journalism and that was from a trade publication, so I’m thinking that I may remove Journalist from my siggy line because in all honesty I prefer working with companies.
Hey, good, point, but I’m placing a bet both ways and calling myself a copywriter / journalist. I ditched the ‘freelancer’ prefix a couple of months ago as it sounds like I’m between jobs, which I’m not. The balance of copywriting and journalism if what keeps me jumping out of bed and into my home office each morn.
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Thanks for posting! I totally agree on leaving the journalist if you are doing journalism work. I took mine out because I’m not really interested in writing for publications at this point. Are you doing content marketing writing as well as copy writing or just copy writing? If you are doing content writing as well as copywriting then I would definitely add content writing or content marketing writing since copywriting and content marketing writing are too separate things.
Enjoyed your post, as usual Jennifer. I’m in the process of revamping my LinkedIn profile (following a several months year-long rebranding of my business which includes a revamped website and marketing campaign). After reading Melonie Dodaro’s “The LinkedIn Code,” I knew my profile had to change big time. Calling myself “writer, editor and marketing professional” did nothing for me because it wasn’t specific enough. Following the study of my audience and my goals, I’m clear on what I do and for whom. Since internal communications is my main focus, that had to be included. My profile has a few titles in it now: Internal Corporate Communications Strategist/Marketing and Branding Expert / B2B and B2C Copywriter. All words that are necessary for particular searches for what I do. Can this be improved? I’m sure. And I’m always on the lookout for improvement. Another thing that is key, is adding the different titles according to what I do within the same company, depending on what prospects need. I learned you can add up to 3 current jobs, so I’m taking advantage of this method as well.
I call myself an Independent Content Writer, Commercial Copywriter and Content Creator. I removed Freelancer because I don’t want to be associated with content mills sites like Upwork. I don’t believe in working for cheap labor. I believe in adding value to my clients as a professional.
I totally hear you. And I have tossed around the idea of removing freelancer many times because I don’t do cheap work or content mills. I everyone who finds me online as well as other people I meet hiring writers how they search for writers and almost all tell me some version of freelance content writer. Since my goal is to be found and the way to do that is to use the same terms online that people looking for you are using to search, I have decided to leave freelance. But like you I totally prefer the word independent and will usually introduce myself that way or say I own my own content marketing writing business. But for SEO purposes, I stick with freelance since I get a higher number of cold inquiries from my website and LinkedIn that other writers I know. But the beauty of being an Independent writer is that we can call ourselves whatever we want! So I’m very happy you found what feels right for you!! :>)
First off, it was so nice to meet you at the ASJA conference in Atlanta! 🙂
Second, I’m glad to see more posts here—I love reading your blog. This is a particularly helpful (and thought-provoking) post because what we choose to call ourselves also reflects how we think of ourselves as writers. I’ve reinvented my title a few times in the past year, and have personally found that including my preferred niches in my LinkedIn and other titles helps to attract the kind of clients I want to work with. So, right now I’m “Freelance Writer / Custom Content / EdTech, Fintech and IoT” and I must say, I can tell that most of my inbound leads must have been looking up a combo of either edtech, fintech, and IoT and “writer.” I am not sure the “custom content” part is doing me any good, so I might switch up the title further…and like you, I enjoy working with companies/agencies a lot, so I am not opposed to the title “content marketing writer” at all. 🙂
It was great to meet you as well! I’m so glad you came! Yes, I’m back to posting regularly. I tend to slack off during the summer.
That’s awesome that you are seeing a difference in adding your niche to your title. I saw a big difference when I changed that.
Yeah, I really only hear writers and maybe some old school agencies use custom content as a term. I really don’t hear the companies and most agencies using it all. Even the custom content council which is the association for these folks changed their name to the Content Council.
You have some fantastic niches. I’ve seen a HUGE need lately for the FinTech lately, I would definitely heavily market that expertise as well as IoT. I do a lot of IoT and it seems to be more and more of my work because it’s really becoming a part of everything tech. I need to add that to my LinkedIn profile and maybe website.
Great post. I recreated my business and my website this year. I went from Freelance Writer to Content Creator, Feature Writer (and Writing Coach, which I’m building right now). I think those explain best what type of writing I do and seem to connect because I’m getting more work and, more importantly, clients who are willing to pay me more based on my expertise and the “professionalism” that comes with these titles.
p.s. really loving your posts!
Content Creator totally works in that context with Feature Writer as part of your title. You make a very valid point that I’m probably going to weave into tomorrows blog posts. Every freelance writer should be getting inbound leads. If you are not then you need to readjust your marketing materials. That’s awesome you that great clients are finding you. You totally deserve the success!!!
Thanks Jennifer. Can’t wait to read you next post!