Introduction
As a content strategist, creating compelling sample content is crucial for demonstrating your skills and value to potential employers. Your samples need to highlight your strategic thinking, creative flair, and ability to generate engaging content across various formats and platforms. This guide will outline best practices for developing a robust set of samples that showcase your multi-faceted content strengths.
Research the Company and Industries
Start by thoroughly researching the company you want to work for, including their website, blog, social profiles, annual reports, and any other publicly available materials. Understand their business goals, target audiences, brand voice, and preferred channels/formats. Also look at their competitors and trends in their industries. This contextual research will ensure your samples strategically align with the company’s needs and priorities.
Create a Variety of Samples
Potential employers want to see examples of the diverse types of content you could generate for their business. Aim to create 3-5 samples that demonstrate your abilities in different formats like:
Blog posts (300-800 words on topics relevant to the company/industries)
Social media posts for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram with caption text (120 characters for Twitter, up to 2-3 sentences for others)
Email newsletters or alerts (300-600 words with scannable text and visual elements)
Long-form web articles or reports (1,000-2,000 words on industry trends, case studies, etc.)
Video scripts (150-300 words for 30-60 second videos or 3-5 minute tutorials/explainer videos)
Infographics, data charts, or images with brief captions (50-100 words)
Presentation slides and speaking notes for trade shows or internal events
Website copy such as page content, calls-to-action, etc. (100-300 words per page)
Tailor Content to Target Audiences
For each sample, clearly define the goals, audience, key messages and calls-to-action. Consider doing primary and secondary audience profiles with details like demographics, pain points, interests and how they prefer to engage/behave. This will ensure your samples consistently demonstrate strong audience understanding and connection.
Incorporate Relevant Topics and Data
Ground your samples in credible facts, insights and perspectives on important issues pertaining to the targeted business/industries. Find the right balance of industry trends, competitor analyses, case studies, interviews, studies/statistics, tips/advice and storytelling. Link to additional resources for context and credibility. Properly attribute and cite all sources.
Use Engaging Formats and Styles
Show creativity by varying formats, lengths, writing styles and multimedia elements for different sample types. For blogs and articles, switch between Q&As, lists, how-tos, interviews etc. For social, caption short-form content playfully and concisely. Customize visual aspects like images, colors, formatting and layouts per channel. Let natural writing voice and sentence structure shine through. Ensure all content is scannable, shareable and optimizes for each channel.
Apply Strategic Thinking and SEO Best Practices
For each sample, elucidate clear goals, KPIs and metrics for success. Strategize distribution/publication plans and paid promotions if relevant. Include 1-2 sentences on strategic analysis and next steps. Optimize titles, headers, snippets, alt text and internal linking for search and discoverability on and off platforms. Keep metadata like keywords and descriptions relevant and optimized without being “clickbaity.”
Proofread Thoroughly
Have at least two other people proofread your samples and provide feedback on messaging clarity, story/format flow, coherence, stylistic elements and any errors. Edit accordingly based on their perspective. You may even ask them to try sharing or engaging with the samples as target audiences to gauge impact and effectiveness.
Add Context and Refinement Notes
Alongside each sample, provide 2-3 short paragraphs on:
Objective and strategic thinking behind concept and approach
Audience persona or profile it was tailored for
Insights from research used and sources attributed
Distribution/publication plan and desired outcomes
Refinements and optimizations based on testing/feedback
This accompanying context demonstrates deeper strategic thinking abilities beyond just execution. It shows an eagerness to test, learn and improve.
Tailor Your Portfolio Presentation
Curate 3-5 of your strongest, most relevant samples into an organized portfolio or single presentation document. Tailor this based on the specific company/role by calling out how each sample directly applies. Also mention any relevant results, metrics or case studies from published work. Consider designing graphical elements like headers, section dividers to make the overall package visually engaging. You can also showcase subsets of samples on professional websites or digital platforms.
Testing, Feedback and Refinement
Test your samples on friends and peers, get critiqued in networking/mentorship groups, ask professors and advisors to review. Refine further iterations based on constructive criticism related to strategy, creativity, execution,formatting and effectiveness. This testing improves the quality before applying for roles. Continually adding new content allows your portfolio strengths to shine over time.
Conclusion
Developing stellar sample content takes significant time, research and testing. But a robust, diverse portfolio that clearly demonstrates strategic and multi-dimensional abilities sets content strategist applicants above the rest. By tailoring samples based on roles and following best practices, candidates can feel confident their work exemplifies the skills and impact they can deliver for potential employers. With continuous refinement, content samples become powerful assets for beginning a compelling new career in content strategy.
Andrew Stroud