Content marketing strategist
Beth Owens writes content for multiple platforms and guides editorial strategies in her role as a content marketing strategist at noissue.
Key facts
Career: Content marketing strategist at noissue
Programme: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
Subjects: Media, Film and Television; Politics and International Relations
"I work as the Content Marketing Strategist for noissue, an eco-friendly packaging company based in Auckland. This was a pretty niche industry just a few years ago, but it's now growing rapidly as sustainable practices become more in demand by consumers.
"We are seeing a much greater collective effort to support brands with eco-friendly practices - so this means offering more innovative solutions to packaging waste and plastic pollution.
"My role involves writing and co-ordinating all of the brand's content and partnerships. This includes our on-site blog, social media copy, case studies, white papers and external blog posts for our partners. I'm also in charge of guiding our overall SEO and editorial strategy.
"It's not unusual for my workload in a given week to be one-third writing, two-thirds research. I often get thrown a topic to write about that I only have surface-level knowledge of. In any case, I'm expected to be 'the expert' for the duration of a blog post or ebook.
It isn't a whole lot different from being assigned an essay at university. It becomes your job to do the digging and find out what information is most relevant, and to present it in the most enlightening way possible.
"An Arts degree has allowed me to hone my research skills and feel confident diving into all kinds of different topics. I knew literally nothing about packaging when I first started my job - now I'm routinely writing 2000 word-plus articles about it!
"I could never have pinpointed content marketing as an area of interest when I was at school, because the industry was in its infancy then. Technology is changing all the time and it brings with it brand new fields for graduates to go into.
"Those broad skills like critical thinking and literacy are the trademarks of an Arts degree, and they are incredibly adaptable to all kinds of different areas. It preps you for a changing world where things never stand still."