An era of choice. That is what a lot of people would describe this time. Almost everything is at the palm of our hands. We don’t want to get handed with anything, instead we want to choose what’s best for us. This is the reason why conventional marketing strategies no longer fit today’s demographic, and so comes content marketing. Along with the dawn of a new type of strategy comes a new form of profession, content marketing manager.
What is Content Marketing?
The idea of content marketing has been around for quite a while. You might have gotten into a website and experienced its results first hand, you just didn’t know it. In its core, content marketing is creating value for your brand by producing quality content related to your industry.
Still confused? For example, if you are running a shoe brand, you create content that aims to help your audience such as how to choose the right shoe, different types of footwear, and so on. By being the helpful guide that you are, a customer is likely to be more inclined to purchase your products.
When you compare this to conventional marketing strategies which involves showing people what they don’t need through ads, this is the more economical strategy. You are creating content for people who are already in the market to seek your products. What happens is that you don’t end up investing in a strategy that is aimed on people who have no affinity to approach your brand.
Content marketing pillars on the concept of putting value on your brand. The more helpful content you produce, the more valuable you become, with or without your products. Once you have generated customer trust and loyalty, converting leads to customers is a simple task.
Want to go further deeper into strategies that help build your brand value? You might want to check inbound marketing strategies.
What Do Content Marketing Managers Do?
You now see the value of content marketing, but you don’t know where to start. You might be wondering how to begin your campaign or what you should be preparing first. Let this be said as early as now, content marketing is a technical task performed by experienced professionals. The same goes for inbound marketing.
Mastering content marketing cannot be done overnight, nor by reading through articles on the internet. So, if you are starting a business and want to implement content marketing strategies, the fastest way would be getting yourself a content marketing manager.
A lot of tasks fall under this role including content planning, strategy implementations, and data analysis. From conceptualizing what to create and how to create it to how it performs, that all falls under the content marketing manager.
They start with creating a content marketing plan. It contains the series of materials to be created through a period of time. This is the most crucial part. One article or video isn’t enough. It should be supplemented by followup content to emphasize the goal and value that you are creating.
Once plans are laid out, the next thing would be for the content marketing manager is to ensure that every detail is followed. In the event that things don’t work out as expected, it is their job to come up with appropriate solutions.
Last but not the least, the content is published and its performance is tracked and monitored. How does it stack up in search engine results? Is it generating traffic? What should be done to improve the reputation of the said content? All of these must be answered by the content marketing manager.
The Ideal Content Marketing Manager
Knowing how extensive and crucial the role of a content marketing manager is, it is important to find the best one. Unfortunately, there is no one criterion to look at. The profession is a mixture of tasks. Flexibility and versatility in a lot of of fields is a must. Fortunately, we broke things down to three areas.
Experience
When talking about experience, you don’t necessarily have to look at the time they have spent as a content marketing manager. Most of them didn’t start out as such but instead began their experience in other professions. This includes being an SEO specialist, content writer or producer, and data analyst. The wider the set of specialties a content marketing manager has, the better they are going to be.
Education
There is no degree that will train a person on how to become a content marketing manager. Nevertheless, there are professions that will give them an edge and be better with their work. This includes those who have majored in business management or marketing.
Even if a content marketing manager has a degree that is quite distant, it is still something to look at. Any higher educational attainment reflects an individual’s professionalism, hard work, and flexibility. As a matter of fact, 59% of content marketing manager job listings require at least a bachelor’s degree.
Skills and Expertise
With how extensive the responsibilities of a content marketing manager is, they should be equipped in a number of skills and expertise. From planning and creating content to knowing what and how to use tools to track web traffic progress.
A content marketing manager should have a strong grasp of the language of the market they are targeting. Since this is the internet, search engine optimization is another important skill. Lastly, data analysis via Google analytics is a must to monitor the success of the content.
Responsibilities of A Content Marketing Manager
We repeatedly said that the responsibilities of a content marketing manager is extensively wide, but what are they? What does each represent in the success of the overall marketing campaign? To answer those questions, we broke them down into seven categories.
Research and Competitor Analysis
The first step to every successful marketing campaign is knowing what to write. Understand the target demographic and realize where the competition is lacking. It is the job of the content marketing manager to make all these necessary research. This is the first and most crucial step that will determine whether or not your marketing campaign will succeed.
Making Content Marketing Plans
One type of content is not enough. A content marketing campaign involves a series of material that will get the attention of your audience and then hook them in. With that being said, this is not just about making content, but continuously providing what is needed.
Unless there is a laid out plan on what and when to create, things could easily get disorganized. Failing to provide your audience the material they need during a specific stage can ultimately cause them to lose interest.
Preparing an Editorial Calendar
All types of content need to be revised at some point. It is not that it’s not good, it’s just that your audience are going to want something different down the road. Providing them with something they already know but presented in a different way with some new information reinforces their belief that they have learned a lot and is still continuously learning more.
Just like creating content, editing should be completely strategic. How and when something is revised should be carefully planned. The new material should then be delivered during a specific period to your audience.
Content Creation
There is no content marketing strategy if there is no content to begin with. This is where everything is going to pivot, making it the single most important aspect of your campaign. However, it is not going to be easy.
For example, creating blogs is not just being good with the language of your target audience. It is also about knowing how to present your ideas that it will be perceived positively. Concepts like the golden circle and the buyer’s guide have a huge role to play in connecting with your audience.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your content is only as good as the attention it receives. This means that unless it gets seen, how great your content is not going to matter. Your web traffic is not going to be based on the quality of your work but on how it ranks in search engine results to be seen for people who are in need of your brand.
Making sure that your content ranks high is the work of the content marketing manager. Achieving this involves the use of a mixture of SEO and publication tools. Though, the hardest part is that search engines update their criteria regularly which means it is a continuous and complex learning cycle.
SEO is not just a part of content marketing, but it is a necessity for online marketing regardless of what strategy you implement. Even in inbound marketing, SEO is one of the 6 core marketing principles.
Publishing and Promoting Content
The next job of the content marketing manager is publishing the content. Putting them in websites as guest posts or simply on the brand website. The next thing would then be promoting them.
To get the exposure that your content needs, your content marketing manager needs to take the necessary steps to promote it. This includes having influential social media groups share it and finding effective advertisement avenues. Instagram and Facebook are just some of the platforms with cost-efficient promotion choices.
It is quite a complex step. There are a lot of avenues available. Therefore, it is a constant problem on which ones will have the best return on investment. For the inexperienced, this task can be overwhelming, but not for the skilled content marketing manager.
Performance Monitoring
Knowing how your content is performing is a crucial aspect in content marketing. You just can’t keep on creating and publishing, not knowing whether or not you are being effective. It is possible that despite the barrage of content on your audience, none is hitting the mark and you are not gaining yourself the attention you thought you would.
Monitoring the performance of your content allows you to understand which ones you should be concentrating on. It allows you to see which have higher penetration on your target demographic. It also gives you the opportunity to see what you are doing wrong and build from that for consistent improvement.
Among the things that are being monitored are web traffic. How many people are visiting your website? It can be either that your content is so helpful that readers have the tendency to share it or it is working fairly well in SEO.
Another would be engagement. How many visitors have the tendency to leave a comment, message the brand, or simply share the content? While web traffic is great, engagement shows the population that is likely going to be customers.
Do You Need A Content Marketing Manager?
You now know the responsibilities of a content marketing manager, but you think to yourself: do I actually need one?
Your dilemma revolves around your desire to save on money and learn everything all by yourself. Despite that being actually a possible choice, you might want to reconsider. Content marketing managers have a specific role in your operations and there is a lot to benefit from it.
Organizes Workflow
Unless you want to do all the planning yourself, you are going to want to have a content marketing manager. As a business owner, you already have a lot on your hands. You are likely going to find it difficult to squeeze in content marketing strategies in your busy schedule.
To have an organized workflow in your marketing campaign, you might want to delegate it to a specific person. Someone who is both skilled and an expert of it so that the only thing you have to do is check on the progress.
Minimizes Business Owner’s Burden
Looking at the duties of a content marketing manager, you can definitely say there is a lot to work on. As a matter of fact, maybe a little bit too much. To say the least, it takes one person to do it all, but that might even be an understatement. Depending on the campaign, a content marketing manager might even find it hard to cope up with all the demands and deadlines.
Now, imagine yourself being in that position with all the workload you already have as a business owner. The responsibilities of a content marketing manager doesn’t just add to your work, it doubles it up.
Effective Marketing Campaigns
It is always best to leave everything to the professionals and that applies to content marketing managers. If you don’t know what you are doing, you are likely going to waste both time and money on your campaign. To make things worse, failure is not going to be all that apparent. Before you know that you are not doing a great job, you have already done and spent a lot.
The importance of seeking the help of a professional is much more if you are just starting out your business. Your financial resources aren’t all that much and you need to make the best out of every penny. Content marketing managers make sure that you are getting your money’s worth by ensuring the efficiency of your marketing campaigns. They guarantee that you only have to spend once to get the success you are looking for.
Marketing shouldn’t break your bank, especially if you are running a retail store. There are a lot of free avenues to put your brand name out there. Here’s 21 of our top picks.
Content Marketing Manager vs Content Creator
A common question we usually get is what’s the difference between a content marketing manager and a content creator. If you already have the latter, is it really necessary to hire the former?
If you are quite tight on the budget, it might be tempting to rely your content marketing campaign on your content creator alone. However, that is not going to be the best choice. Content marketing managers specialize not just on content but making sure that it is a successful one. What this means is that they have the skills a content creator is not going to have.
Content creators are only good with what their title suggests, but when it comes to marketing, promoting, and tracking, it’s a completely different story. Not all content creators understand the concept of SEO. Same goes for Google analytics and the idea of a content marketing campaign in general.
In Conclusion
No matter what angle you look at it, content marketing managers are not something you should skimp on when wanting to implement a content marketing campaign. They are the most crucial ingredient in the success of your strategy and for good reasons. Their skills and expertise don’t just guarantee a successful marketing plan, but one that is completely effortless and convenient on your side as the business owner.
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