Content is king as it allows brands to create awareness, gain customers’ trust, develop lasting relationships and improve the rate of conversion. This is the reason 82% of marketers spend money on content marketing, and around 84% of organizations develop content marketing strategies.
Companies hire content creators, editors, content strategists, etc., to handle all their content-related needs. All members of a content team work under the supervision of a content manager, who ensures content is produced, published and promoted at the right time according to the company’s goals.
A content manager performs a variety of activities to support a company using engaging, meaningful, and sustainable content. In this article, you will learn what exactly content managers do, how you can become one, and what is the expected salary of a content manager.
What’s a content manager?
A content manager is responsible for developing a consistent brand identity and promoting its products through different kinds of content. In addition to this, he builds content strategies, produces and distributes content on different platforms, and monitors public’s response to measure the content strategy’s success.
In large companies, a content manager oversees the efforts of content creators, editors, and distributors, while in small companies, he may have to develop, promote, and publish content all by himself to delight his target audience.
A content manager creates different forms of content, including videos, social media posts, blog posts, gifs, etc., based on the preferences of his audience.
What does a content manager do?
Day to day activities of a content manager depend on the needs of the company he is working for.
If the company has a well-established content team consisting of numerous employees who help with content creation, then the content manager will simply have to handle that team to ensure they consistently produce quality content.
On the contrary, if he works in a small firm with a content team of 2 to 3 professionals, he may have to do many tasks, including content creation and publishing himself.
Regardless of the company size, here are the basic roles and responsibilities that a content manager plays in organizations.
Create, edit, and publish content
One of the most important roles of a content manager is to create and publish content. He has a deep understanding of the brand’s voice and knows what kind of content his target audience prefers. He uses his research, writing, editing, and proofreading skills to produce content that gets people’s attention.
In small organizations, a content manager writes content on his own, while in larger ones, he has a team of multiple writers who handle this task for him. He assigns them topics and reviews the content before it is published to ensure it is according to the content strategy.
Develop content strategies according to the company’s goals and objectives
Building content strategies is very beneficial as it helps create a roadmap, set priorities, and get desired results. According to a 2021 report, 78% of marketing experts, who had a documented content strategy, believe that their content marketing efforts produced great results.
A content manager takes his time to create an effective content strategy that gets results. In this strategy, he mainly talks about the following points.
- Goals
- Target audience
- Content type
- Content publishing platforms
- Customer journey map
- Style and editorial guidelines
- Targeted topics
He ensures his team has all the resources needed to execute the strategy and produce results. He also measures the strategy’s performance and adjusts it according to the need of the hour.
Optimize content using advanced SEO techniques
Getting your content on the first page of search engines is very important if you want to have organic traffic. A report concludes that 75% of people never leave the first page of the search engine to find answers to their queries.
A content manager optimizes content with advanced SEO techniques to rank higher on Google, social media, and other search engines. Some SEO-related activities that he performs are:
- Conducting keyword research
- Adding image alt texts
- Optimizing images
- Optimizing website speed
Promote content to increase traffic
Writing alone will not help you get the traffic that you deserve. You need to promote your content on different channels to reach your target audience and increase web traffic or the number of followers.
A content manager promotes content on forums (like Quora and Reddit), social media channels, and other sites where his target audience is present.
Reuse content in different forms
A content manager knows how to repurpose content to get the attention of a wider audience.
For instance, if a blog post is getting a lot of attention from his target audience, he may turn any of its catchy lines into a tweet or maybe a meme depending on what it is about. He may target his YouTube subscribers by turning that blog post into a video and his Instagram followers by turning the blog post into a short, interesting social media post.
He is aware of his audience’s preferences and knows how to get their appreciation by creating content according to their taste.
Create a content publishing calendar
Which topics are you going to cover in your next posts? How many posts are you going to publish in a week? When will you get their drafts and revised versions?
A content manager writes answers to all these questions in a clear, organized content publishing calendar.
He is the central figure responsible for handling a content team and ensuring content on blogs, social media, forums, websites, etc., is published according to the content strategy. Creating a content calendar allows him to publish content on all platforms without any delays.
Work closely with marketing and customer service experts
A content manager needs to develop business relationships with the company’s customer service and marketing experts. These teams know customers closely and understand their problems, complaints, and common questions.
Getting information out of them will help content managers generate content that resolves customer concerns, answers their questions, and gets their attention.
Lead a content team
A content manager is responsible for assigning tasks to all members of the content team according to their capabilities and then evaluating their performance.
He keeps them informed of goals and priorities. He guides them if they need assistance and gives them constructive feedback so they can do better next time. A good content manager is always open to questions and suggestions.
Find new content opportunities
Finding new topics or content ideas can sometimes be challenging, especially if you have been working on a website for years and have already created a lot of content for it.
A content manager explores search engine suggestions, forums, and other similar platforms to find new and better content opportunities that others have not discovered yet.
Analyze the performance of content
Monitoring metrics is a great way to find how well your content and the content strategy perform. That is why a content manager regularly checks important metrics such as traffic sources, traffic demographics, views, keyword growth, and social shares. This analysis helps him understand what’s working and what’s not. It allows him to refine his content strategy to get better output.
Update existing content
Instead of focusing on content creation, a wise content manager also works on refreshing existing content. He updates it by changing old stats with the most recent ones and using the latest search engine optimization practices.
Content manager skills
A content manager needs to have various demanding skills to succeed in this competitive field. Recruiters generally look for the following skills in candidates.
Content creation
One of the essential skills that content managers need is the ability to create content that can help people discover a brand, product, or company.
Content managers should have strong research skills so they can find the latest information. They should be aware of their audience’s preferences and know how to create different forms of content, including eBooks, guides, social media posts, videos, etc.
Editing and proofreading
The volume of online content is increasing very rapidly. Competition is high, so your content needs to be refined, high-quality, and valuable if you want to get and retain your audience’s attention. Content managers should know how to review material so the end product is clear, engaging, and interesting.
SEO
The latest data reveals that more than 500 million tweets are shared daily on Twitter, and around 3.7 million videos are uploaded daily to YouTube, meaning the competition is now very high.
To get ahead of your competitor, you must use advanced SEO techniques. A content manager should be aware of all the best SEO practices, so he can help the brand rank its content higher and get more organic traffic.
Problem-solving skills
A content manager is responsible for supervising a team. He can manage his team effectively only if he knows how to find solutions to daily work-life problems. He needs to be able to diagnose the issue and then fix it using the best possible solution.
Storytelling
Studies show that the average human attention span (8.2 seconds) has reduced more than ever. If you want to gain your audiences’ attention, you must create captivating and engaging content that keeps them hooked until they reach its end.
A content manager needs to know how to capture his target audience’s attention from the very first line of the written content, share valuable information with them, and lead them in a certain direction.
Time management
A content manager has to accomplish many tasks every day. He can achieve his goals and complete daily tasks if he knows how to prioritize each activity based on its importance and complete it within a specific timespan without getting tense about it.
Strategic planning skills
A content manager needs this skill to create effective content strategies. He should create a roadmap, set achievable, smart goals for his team, and ensure they know how to achieve them. He should know how to evaluate the performance of strategies to see if they are helping achieve goals or not.
Content manager salary
According to Zippia, the estimated salary of a content manager in the US is around $75,124 per year or $36.12 per hour. Data suggests that it may range from $50,000 to $111,000, depending on your experience level.
Your salary package depends on the company size, your location, your experience level, and your qualifications. The top five highest-paying US states for content managers are:
- Washington
- Oregon
- California
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
How to become a content manager?
Here is the 6-step guide you can use to become a successful content manager.
Get a university degree: You should have a bachelor’s or master’s degree that shows you have the knowledge a person needs for this role. Some suitable major subjects for these degrees are marketing, social media marketing, communication, writing, and English literature.
Complete marketing course: Taking a certification course will allow you to learn important skills and sharpen them with practice.
Learn about SEO: You should have a strong grasp of SEO before you apply for a content management role. You should know how to use online tools to perform advanced SEO and boost a website’s/social media post’s ranking.
Create your social media channels and a business website: Build your website and social media profiles using all the skills you have learned so far, so you can see how your content performs and what you need to improve.
Apply for entry-level jobs: Content management is a mid-level job. You need to have at least 5-year of work experience to apply for it. So, start with marketing and content-related jobs to gain some experience and develop your skills.
Apply for your dream job: Once you gain experience and learn all the skills a content manager should have, you will be ready to apply for content management. Make sure you prepare a professional portfolio (like a website) and then some basic interview questions before you go for it.
Summary
Content management is an in-demand role. Many companies are leveraging content marketing to increase brand awareness and boost their sales. They need content managers to handle all their content-related activities.
If you are good at content creation, time management, communication, and marketing, content management might be a good career choice for you.