News editor Jobs in Minneapolis, MN

Marketing Content Lead

sparQ is building the WordPress of business software - a free, self-hostable operations platform for small businesses that replaces Slack, QuickBooks, Jobber, and a dozen other SaaS tools with one system. We're pre-launch, our product is ready, and now we need to build the audience that will drive it.

This is a rare opportunity for a sharp, creative, self-driven marketer to own the entire content presence of a product from day one. You won't be managing a content calendar that someone else built. You'll be building it. You'll be writing, producing, publishing, and iterating - and working directly with the founder and dev team.

We produce technical content for developers and self-hosters, and practical content for small business owners. You'll do both - with AI tools as your force multiplier.

What You'll Do

Writing & Publishing (your core output)

• Publish 3 blog posts per week - a mix of SEO-driven how-tos, opinion pieces, product updates, and thought leadership targeted at SMB owners and self-hosters
• Help publish technical architecture posts and developer guides in collaboration with the dev team (they'll give you the knowledge, you give it narrative shape)
• Produce comparison pages, landing page copy, product release notes, and newsletter content
• Maintain a consistent voice across all written properties: sparqone.com, developer.sparqone.com, help.sparqone.com

Video & Animation

• Produce short-form explainer and tutorial videos using AI tools (Synthesia, HeyGen, Kling, or similar) for YouTube and social
• Create product walkthroughs, feature highlights, and "how sparQ replaced X" style videos
• Build a YouTube channel presence from scratch - thumbnails, titles, descriptions, channel optimization

Community & Distribution

• Drive organic growth via Reddit (r/selfhosted, r/smallbusiness, r/HVAC, r/Python), Hacker News, Product Hunt, and niche forums
• Help manage the sparQ community forum (Flarum at community.sparqone.com) - seeding discussions, responding to users, surfacing feedback
• Support beta tester outreach for the Ignition program - writing DMs, forum posts, and cold emails

Analytics & Iteration

• Track content performance in Google Analytics 4 across all sparqone.com subdomains
• Use data to figure out what's working and write more of it; kill what isn't
• Report weekly to the founder: what published, what performed, what's next

What We're Looking For

Hard Requirements

• Strong writer - clear, opinionated, and able to calibrate between "talk to a plumber" and "talk to a Python developer"
• Comfortable using AI tools productively (not just aware of them - actively using them in your workflow)
• Can read and understand technical documentation well enough to explain it to a non-technical audience
• Self-directed - this role has high autonomy and requires someone who creates their own structure

Strong Signals (nice to have)

• Personal blog, newsletter, YouTube channel, or other content property you've built
• Experience with video production or AI video generation tools
• Familiarity with developer communities (GitHub, HN, r/selfhosted, Product Hunt)
• Experience with SEO - keyword research, on-page optimization, link building basics
• Background in or genuine interest in small business / field service / trades industries
• Degree in marketing, communications, journalism, or computer science - or no degree at all with great work to show

Role Details

Tools & Environment

We use AI extensively. You should too. Expected stack for this role:

Writing -Claude, ChatGPT, Notion or similar for drafting and editing

Video / Animation - HeyGen, Synthesia, Kling AI, CapCut, or equivalent

SEO - Ahrefs or Semrush (we'll provide access)

Analytics - Google Analytics 4 across sparqone.com subdomains

Design - Canva, Figma basics, or whatever you use

Community - Discourse forum, Reddit, Hacker News, Product Hunt

What Success Looks Like

30 Days

• You know the product well enough to demo it to a stranger
• First 12 blog posts published across 3 content pillars you defined
• YouTube channel created and first 2 videos published
• Actively posting in 5+ relevant communities

90 Days

• Content machine running at 3 posts/week without prompting
• 10+ YouTube videos live with growing watch time
• At least one piece of content driving meaningful inbound traffic or signups
• Ignition beta program has 50+ engaged testers partly from your outreach

6 Months

• sparQ has a recognizable voice and growing audience in self-hosted and SMB communities
• SEO footprint established - ranking for at least 20 target keywords
• YouTube channel at 500+ subscribers with consistent upload cadence
• Content directly attributable to trial signups and managed hosting conversions

How to Apply

A short intro (35 sentences) about why this role and why now

Links to writing samples, a portfolio, a YouTube channel, a blog - anything you've produced

One piece of content you'd pitch for sparQ's first week - just a title and 2-sentence angle is enough

We do look at every link you send.