By Darren Gilbert

At the same time, you need to know how to speak to people and get them actively involved in what you put out there. That is why in order to be a success, you need certain traits. With that in mind, here are three that you need to have if you ever want to be a success.

You understand people

In order to be a success at anything, you need to understand how to relate with the people around you. After all, you can usually pin your success on how you interact with and deal with people. This is also true with regards any successful content marketer.

Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger explains it a little better: “Smart content marketers are able to put themselves into other people’s shoes, also known as empathy. They realize that the perspective of the audience is what drives content strategy, and they’re able to tap into the little things all the way up to the way a prospective customer views the world.”

In other words, you need to stop thinking that everyone sees something from your view point. It’s one of the biggest mistakes that you can make because it can lead you to missing your target market completely.

You are always thinking outside the box

The road to success does not necessarily have a map. Yes, there are rules and regulations that you should follow. However, you should treat these more as guidelines than anything else. The reason for this is simple: success as a content marketer comes from bringing your own unique perspective on things.

“Look around at the greatest content marketing examples and I’ll show you creativity and unique thinking every time,” writes author and marketer, Marcus Sheridan. “Fact is, the best ones in this industry aren’t looking for a set of ‘rules’ or a ‘road map’ that tells them exactly what they need to do next.”

You shouldn’t wait for someone to tell you how to do something. Instead, of thinking about rules and procedures, think outside the box. That way, you’ll not only get things done; you’ll also come across unique and creative ways of delivering results.
You have serious writing skills

While your success comes from analytical thinking and judging a number of roles, you also need to have serious writing chops. And here, I’m talking about SEO skills, knowledge of HTML and attention to detail as well as the knowledge of how to get people to read and engage with your content.

Michael Gerard, CMO at Curata explains, “Content marketers should, no doubt, be primarily focused on content quality for your audience, but don’t underestimate the power of also optimizing content for search engines.”

In so doing, you are persuading your audience to read your content and engage with it. The way to measure the success of your efforts is to find out how many people actually engage with your content. This includes sharing and talking about it as well as reading it.

What are your thoughts? Do you know of any other traits that a successful content marketer should have? Tell us below.