Content Editor to Content Writer: An Interview with Matt Scott
From proofreader to content editor to soon-to-be senior content writer, Matt has done a lot in his time at WMG.
We wanted to find out more about his time at the agency, how his role progression came about and a little insight into life in our content team.
Tell us about your time with WMG so far…
So, I started in January last year. One of my big reasons for coming to the business was that I’d worked from home for two years and I wanted to be back in an office environment. That lasted for about six weeks before the pandemic kicked in…
I’ve been working from home since, but that experience has been fine with lots of support from the whole content team and the whole business as well. My job title when I first joined was proof-reader, which has since become content editor ahead of my next role change which will be a senior content writer.
The content editor role is quite a diverse, flexible role within the content team. Proofreader was mainly focused on proofreading the content and it’s a very small part of the content team. In the content editor role, we’re able to explore different parts of the team and other processes we might be interested in. That’s why we changed the title to content editor to reflect the diversity of the role.
The main task of content editor is still proofreading our content for clients and some of our outreach content too. This involves making sure that it’s as accurate as it can be and ensuring it’s set up to perform the best it can from an SEO perspective. As content editors, we also write some content. We’ve helped with content audits for clients too to show them where they can improve their website compared to competitors and things like that. The content editor role is a bit of an all-rounder.
It sounds like the content team is quite flexible. Are you given the opportunity to explore different skills and figure out what you’re really interested in?
Yes, big time. The interesting thing for me with the move from content editor to senior content writer is that it was part of my progression plan. But the idea was put forward by our Head of Content and Social, Emma Sibbles. In other jobs or businesses, that’s never really happened. They might say one day you can do this, or you can do that. But when it comes down to it, you’ve got to really push for a promotion or progression whereas my progression here has been the other way around.
Was your new role change led by the enjoyment from the role you were already doing?
Yes, definitely. We needed a new senior content writer on the team and the progression path from the writing side is already established. People usually go from junior to senior content writers and then from content writers up to strategists. This still gives me the chance to do a lot of the stuff I was doing in my old role.
For example, one of the things I’ve been doing since I started at WMG is not just working in the content team, but also working with the outreach team. In the outreach team, they have to proofread and write content themselves at times. I’ve worked with some of their new starters to get them up to speed and help them improve their skills. I’ll still be looking at our processes too, which is something that I do a lot of now.
Essentially my job role change just switches the balance from content editor, who mostly edits the content, to content writer, who mostly writes the content. So, there’s still scope within my new role to do all the other bits that I’m personally interested in as well.
I guess another one of the main differences between the writing role and the editing role is that there’s a lot more time to focus on individual clients. So, in the editor role, there are a number of clients that we’re the point of contact for and we usually take ownership of their content. When you have to edit all the content for all the clients, you have to delegate a lot of that out. But now that I’m going to be a content writer, all of that will just come back to me which means I’ll get to know the clients a little better.
Can you tell me more about how your team engage with the clients?
Engaging with the clients is an established part of the senior content writer role. You’re expected to be a strong point of contact for them.
We have team members who are specialists in certain topics such as finance or insurance. In most cases, these specialisms are formed organically. For example, if we have one writer who has worked heavily on a finance client, they’ll be well-positioned to work on others. I’m hoping I’ll be able to carve out a similar niche for myself as this will allow me to feed some of that information back into the other writers and elevate the whole team as a result.
Any advice for someone who’s considering a career in the content team?
My advice would be to keep writing and keep reading. Having come in as an editor, it was a soft landing in a sense. I was reading all different types of content that I hadn’t worked with previously. For me, coming from a sports journalist role to working at WMG in SEO content was a complete career change in itself.
But for anyone looking to join WMG’s content team, we set everything up for success. Everyone is ambitious in their own way but the only way that we can achieve success is by everyone being good and this is understood across the full team. If someone needs help with something, we are all willing to step in or we’ll find a place where they can get that help.
What would you say you enjoy most about working in the team?
It’s probably the people. We’ve built personal relationships which have been more important than ever in the last year. We’ve not just turned up to our jobs, typed out some content and then logged off again. We’ve been chatting with each other and getting together when we’ve been allowed, whether that’s in smaller groups or across the whole team. It’s a very friendly team to work in and I think that’s probably the best bit.
Could you be suited to a role in our content team? We’re currently on the lookout for a content writer! Take a read of the job description if you fancy a career as a wordsmith or read more about life at WMG