What Does a Content Marketing Manager Do?

We are now officially living in a digital world. The rise in consumer interest in digital content continues to accelerate, so much so that the global content marketing industry is expected to grow by USD 417.85 billion over the next four years.

As the digital content marketing industry becomes more specialized, the need for skilled content marketing managers will continue to increase. 

What is a content marketing manager? 

A content marketing manager is a marketing professional responsible for managing a company’s content marketing initiatives. They oversee content marketing strategy, content creation, editing, promotion, and reviewing content marketing metrics. To ensure that content marketing runs smoothly, content marketing managers communicate closely with other team members, such as the CEO, content creators, content strategists, copy editors, and SEO specialists.

Content marketing fits under the umbrella of digital marketing, which is delivered through digital channels like websites, social media, and search engines. Content marketing aims to connect and engage audiences with creative and compelling content that resonates with a target audience. Content types can be videos, photos, or blog posts, and other types of content. Content marketing aims to encourage the viewer or reader to take action by providing an educational and informative point of view. Content marketing managers help make sure this all runs smoothly.

Skills and education

A prospective content marketing manager will require a Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Personal Relations, or a related field. Past experience and exemplary results from previous projects are also desirable. 

The role of a content marketing manager can vary day-to-day, so a wide range of skills is recommended. These include:

• Excellent interpersonal skills, as there is interaction with many internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong project management skills to direct team members and oversee projects.
• Attention to detail, which ensures a high level of quality across all content. 
• The knowledge and understanding of data and analytics to track progress and analyze marketing strategies.
• Time management skills, as there are usually multiple projects and campaigns occurring simultaneously. 
• Skilled in content writing and editing a wide range of content, including social media copy, email newsletters, website copy, and infographics.
• Effective at communicating to minimize miscommunication and misunderstandings and improve the efficiency of the content output.
• Video production and graphic design skills can also be helpful, especially with the rise in the popularity of video and image-based content. 

Responsibilities

A content marketing manager’s role is fast-paced, creative, and multi-faceted. In this leadership role, a content marketing manager often has to wear many hats and juggle multiple projects at once. Here are the primary responsibilities of this role. 

Competitor research and analysis

Competitor research is a vital step of a content marketing strategy as it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a business in its industry. Contrary to popular belief, analyzing competitors doesn’t mean copying off the ideas of others. A good content marketing manager will be inspired by other brands, their content, and how they interact with their audience — and then apply it to their content strategy.

Identifying target audience

Identifying the target audience helps you plan out marketing efforts to reach the most prospects. Depending on the type of content being produced, a content marketing manager can draft up different audience personas to see if all the content they are producing is relevant. After identifying the target audience, they can then tailor the content strategy to their demographic, specific interests, and related industries.

Preparing a content marketing strategy

One of the most important roles of a content marketing manager is planning and executing a successful content marketing strategy. This strategy takes the goals of a business and utilizes content to achieve them. These goals often include improving brand awareness, driving more revenue, optimizing SEO for better search engine positioning, and increasing audience engagement and interaction.

Creating marketing calendars

A content calendar helps managers organize all their content, plan upcoming campaigns, and keep track of their marketing tactics. Planning out deadlines and tasks allows for visualization at a higher level and keeps the rest of the team engaged and held accountable. A content marketing manager may create one calendar as an overview or choose to create several different types depending on the platform and the type of content campaigns carried out.

Utilizing content marketing tools

Various types of content marketing tools are designed to drive traffic to websites, generate and convert leads, and undergo audience analysis. These tools often include a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, data-rich tools like Google Analytics, Data Studio, and platforms to run ads and campaigns on. A content marketing manager will need to know how to operate these tools and implement them into a content marketing strategy.

Analyzing content performance

Digital content is constantly evolving at a rapid pace. By using data and insights from the tools mentioned above, content marketing managers can see what’s working and what aspects of the strategy need to be adjusted. Understanding data is crucial as it helps to improve the customer experience, which enhances a business’s credibility and reputation. 

Forecasting content marketing trends

It’s important to continuously evolve a content marketing strategy to accommodate customer feedback, potential changes in the digital landscape, and business upgrades. A content marketing manager will have to stay on top of current trends over various digital platforms while keeping up with the latest research and marketing insights.

The bottom line

A content marketing manager effectively ties together all the parts of a content strategy to deliver valuable and compelling content. 

If you’re creative, love to keep up with the current trends, and have a burning desire to create content that makes a difference, then a career as a content marketing manager will be a great fit.