Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Written Communications Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

The Written Communications Analyst is a cross-functional content professional responsible for producing, editing, governing, and optimizing written content across internal and external channels. This role ensures clear, consistent brand voice and messaging, enforces style and accessibility standards, partners with product and subject-matter experts to translate complex information into reader-focused content, and measures content performance to drive continuous improvement. Ideal candidates combine strong editorial judgment with analytical fluency, CMS experience, and stakeholder management skills.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Content Writer, Copywriter, or Communications Coordinator transitioning into analytics-driven content roles.
Technical Writer or Documentation Specialist with experience translating technical topics for broader audiences.
Marketing Specialist or SEO Content Specialist moving into strategic content governance and measurement.

Advancement To:

Senior Written Communications Analyst or Content Strategist focused on cross-channel content planning and governance.
Communications Manager or Manager of Content Strategy leading teams and integrated campaigns.
Director of Corporate Communications, Head of Content, or Product Content Lead responsible for multi-channel editorial strategy and content operations.

Lateral Moves:

UX Writer or Product Content Designer focusing on microcopy and user flows.
Information Architect or Content Designer working on taxonomy and content models.
Localization Manager or Translation Lead managing global content programs.

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Draft, revise, and polish high-volume external and internal copy—including press releases, product documentation, knowledge base articles, email campaigns, intranet updates, and policy communications—ensuring clarity, accuracy, and alignment with brand voice and SEO best practices.
Lead content strategy for assigned products or service lines by conducting audience research, developing messaging frameworks, and mapping content to the user journey to improve comprehension and conversion.
Develop, maintain, and evangelize editorial style guides, tone-of-voice guidelines, and content governance policies that standardize language, formatting, and legal/regulatory compliance across departments.
Partner closely with product managers, engineers, legal, compliance, and subject-matter experts to translate technical and regulatory information into plain-language content tailored to target audiences and reading levels.
Optimize content for discoverability and performance by applying keyword research, on-page SEO techniques, meta descriptions, structured data considerations, and internal linking strategies.
Manage and publish content in content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, AEM, or Zendesk, including templating, metadata tagging, revisions, and version control best practices.
Conduct comprehensive content audits and gap analyses across web properties and documentation repositories to prioritize retirements, consolidations, and new content development based on usage and business impact.
Create and maintain reusable content components, templates, and modular documentation frameworks to accelerate content creation, improve consistency, and reduce localization costs.
Establish and track content performance KPIs (search ranking, organic traffic, time on page, task completion, help center deflection, readability scores) using analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, or product telemetry.
Implement A/B tests and iterative content experiments to validate hypotheses on copy, calls-to-action, and information architecture, and surface recommendations to product and marketing teams.
Lead cross-functional content initiatives, project-manage editorial calendars, prioritize backlogs, and coordinate multi-stage review and approval workflows to meet deadlines and stakeholder expectations.
Review, edit, and quality-assure content produced by other writers, agencies, or stakeholders to elevate clarity, tone, grammar, and brand alignment while preserving original intent and technical accuracy.
Ensure content meets accessibility and inclusivity standards (WCAG) and plain-language principles by performing accessibility checks, readability testing, and remediation where necessary.
Support localization and internationalization efforts by preparing source content for translation, managing style and glossary for vendors, and validating localized deliverables for cultural appropriateness and accuracy.
Develop and deliver training, playbooks, and office hours to upskill business partners and internal writers on style, SEO basics, content templates, and the CMS to decentralize content production.
Work with legal and compliance teams to review and update customer-facing policies, terms, and regulatory content, ensuring that messaging is legally accurate and understandable to lay audiences.
Create executive communications and talking points, briefing documents, and content kits for leadership, providing succinct, on-message narrative and citation-ready fact checking.
Capture user feedback and support ticket trends to inform documentation improvements and prioritize FAQ and troubleshooting content that reduces support volume and increases self-service success.
Maintain content lifecycle processes including version control, archival policies, and content retirement criteria to keep repositories current, searchable, and manageable at scale.
Monitor industry trends, competitor content, and channel best practices to recommend improvements in content formats, distribution channels, and storytelling techniques.
Coordinate with design, UX, and multimedia teams to produce integrated content experiences—ensuring that written copy aligns with visual design, microcopy, and interaction patterns for cohesive user experiences.
Support crisis communications and rapid-response content efforts by drafting time-sensitive materials, coordinating approvals, and ensuring consistency across channels during incidents.
Manage relationships with external agency partners, freelance writers, and translation vendors including scope definition, quality assurance, and performance feedback.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc editorial and content analytics requests from stakeholders to inform roadmap decisions and executive reporting.
Contribute to knowledge management and taxonomy development to improve content discoverability and reuse across the enterprise.
Participate in sprint planning, content triage sessions, and retrospective meetings to continuously refine content delivery processes and team output.
Assist in developing content budgets, vendor contracts, and resource plans for documentation and content initiatives.
Provide subject-matter support for cross-team workshops and content-first design sprints that identify user problems and draft narrative solutions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Expert-level copywriting, editing, and proofreading with a proven ability to synthesize complex material into clear, concise content.
Proficiency with content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, Adobe Experience Manager, Zendesk Guide, or similar platforms, including templating and metadata.
Practical knowledge of SEO best practices, keyword research tools (e.g., SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz), and experience optimizing pages for organic search performance.
Familiarity with analytics tools (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Looker, Amplitude) and the ability to translate data into actionable content recommendations.
Experience with technical documentation tools and platforms (Confluence, MadCap Flare, GitHub/Git-based workflows) and version control processes.
Strong understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG) and plain-language principles, and experience applying them to public-facing content.
Ability to conduct content audits, gap analyses, and information architecture reviews using tools like Screaming Frog, Contentful exports, or custom scripts.
Experience managing localization and translation processes, including creating glossaries, style guides for translators, and QA of localized content.
Familiarity with A/B testing and experimentation frameworks for content and messaging optimization (Optimizely, Google Optimize).
Competence with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace for content collaboration, plus basic familiarity with Figma, Sketch, or other design tools for content handoffs.
Working knowledge of legal and regulatory content review practices and the ability to liaise effectively with compliance teams.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail and editorial judgment with the ability to enforce consistency without stifling voice.
Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills; able to negotiate priorities and drive alignment across product, marketing, legal, and engineering teams.
Project management capability, including backlog prioritization, deadline management, and multi-stakeholder coordination in agile and waterfall environments.
Analytical mindset with curiosity for metrics and a habit of using data to inform editorial decisions and measure impact.
Clear communicator and presenter able to explain content strategy and editorial tradeoffs to non-writers and executives.
Adaptability and composure under time pressure, especially during incident response or rapid content updates.
Coaching and mentoring skills to raise the writing quality of non-expert contributors and decentralize content creation.
Problem-solving orientation with a user-first focus and aptitude for simplifying complexity into step-by-step guidance.
Cultural sensitivity and inclusive writing practices to craft accessible, respectful messaging for diverse audiences.
Initiative and ownership, able to independently scope work, propose improvements, and follow tasks to completion.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Communications, Journalism, English, Technical Writing, Marketing, Information Design, or a related discipline.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree in Communications, Technical Communication, Rhetoric, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or related field, or professional certifications in UX writing, content strategy, or SEO.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Communications
Journalism
English / Rhetoric
Technical Writing / Documentation
Marketing / Digital Marketing
Human-Computer Interaction / Information Design

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years of professional experience in writing, editing, content strategy, or technical communications for digital products or corporate channels.

Preferred:

5+ years of experience with demonstrable ownership of content programs, CMS administration, SEO-driven content optimization, and cross-functional stakeholder leadership; experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, legal, government) is a plus.