Whether you're fresh out of college or in search of your next career step, the digital job market is ripe for picking. Content Marketing is a great place to start if you're not only a good writer, but a solid communicator and people/project manager.
So, What Does a Content Marketing Manager Do?
As a Content Marketing Manager, you're in charge of creating, editing, and publishing original content. It's never easy to succinctly explain what a Content Marketing Manager does because they wear many hats.
You need to be able to balance producing your own content with overseeing what others produce, while also ensuring that all content aligns with the company's voice, strategy, and brand.
Furthermore, you need to ensure that content is completed, edited, and published on time and later track its performance. So if you fashion yourself a bit of a renaissance woman, working in Content Marketing as a Content Marketing Manager might be a great fit for you.
Let's take a look at what a Content Marketing Manager does (and how to become one) in a bit more detail so you can determine whether it's a good fit for you.
Becoming a Content Marketing Manager 101
Content Marketing Managers need to be skilled in a wide variety of tasks, so before you seek a Content Marketing Management role, you should build you should build your experience as an individual contributor.
You should seek roles that allow you to develop the following skills:
- Copywriting (for Blogs, Websites, Marketing Emails, Infographics, eBooks, Reports, & More)
- Editing/Proofreading
- SEO
- Analytics
- Familiarity with Content Management Systems (CMS)
- Web Content/UX Writing
- Social Media
- AdWords
- Video/Graphics Production & Editing
You don't need to be an expert in each of these areas, but you should be familiar with them and highly skilled in at least one. As a Content Marketing Manager, you'll be overseeing a team of writers, designers, and videographers/editors that produce content for your team/client, so you should understand what resources they need to do their work well in order to support them.
You'll likely continue producing content of your own in addition to overseeing others' work, so make sure you're extremely comfortable telling stories and converting users via at least one of these mediums.
Soft Skills Needed to Succeed in Content Marketing Management
A good Content Marketing Manager, as the name suggests, needs to be skilled in Management. Not just of Content, but of the people that produce it (freelancers, staff writers, guest posters, etc.).
You need to be able to craft a content strategy and stick to it, measuring content performance against KPIs and tweaking the strategy as necessary in order to hit your goals.
Thus, you need to be creative, analytical, inspiring, and strategic, all at once.
In order to balance these priorities, you'll need to develop the following soft skills:
- Time management
- File management & distribution skills
- Communication & writing skills
- Advertisement-related skills
- Teamwork & collaboration
- Pro-active decision making
- Software-related skills and competencies
- Coaching/Mentoring (Feedback delivery, etc.)
- Goal-oriented thinking
Content Marketing Manager Median Income
Last but not least, let's talk about the benjamins. According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for Content Managers is $64,367 and the average annual salary for Content Marketing Managers is $81,078.
The two roles are sometimes used synonymously, but if you have extensive marketing experience and are good with analytics, you may want to tailor your search towards the slightly higher paying Content Marketing Manager role. It will tend to focus more on the marketing side of content management, ensuring the company's content team is hitting marketing goals related to traffic and conversions.
It's important to keep all of this information in mind when negotiating salaries and answering any questions about your salary expectations.
In Summary
When all is said and done, what does a Content Marketing Manager do? In terms of digital marketing and content creation, a better question might be "what don't they do?"Whether it's blogging, eCommerce product description writing or social media management, a Content Marketing Manager will more than likely have a hand in it. It is a competitive and challenging occupation that can also be highly rewarding for those who are willing to go the extra mile.
