5 essential roles every content marketing team needs

This article originally appeared on PR Daily in March of 2018.

When company leaders decide to invest in content marketing, they often redefine the roles of their marketing team.

Too often, the people working in traditional marketing departments lack the skills needed to carry out a successful content marketing initiative.

This does not mean you have to fire everyone and start over. However, you should create a team with the agility and ability to think differently. The group must be willing to abandon the old muscle memory of selling first, and instead reorient the organization to be relentless advocates for the audience.

Based upon where content marketing is today—and where things are headed—here are the five professionals you must have to build your dream team:

1. A journalist

Content marketing is fueled by storytelling, and journalists typically are tremendous storytellers. For starters, they’re curious. Experienced journalists also tend to write with readers in mind. Journalists have a natural inclination to put the audience first—even ahead of their own organization.

The best content marketing is relentlessly devoted to the needs, preferences and interests of the audience. Journalists create the “audience-first lens” that content marketing teams must have.