10 Essential Content Marketing Roles for a Successful Strategy
An increasing number of businesses are seeing the value of a clear content marketing strategy. At the start of 2022, 57% had a defined process, and that number jumped to 66% the following year.
However, your content marketing strategy doesn’t just involve what you’re doing but also who is doing it and how. If you’re going to succeed, you need to fill all of the essential content marketing roles.
What are those assignments, and who should handle them? Discover the answer in this breakdown.
Key Takeaways:
- Content marketing now requires a team with defined roles because a lone wolf can’t compete in today’s market.
- A few of the top 10 roles include creators, editors, strategists, designers, and tech specialists.
- As you grow, consider bringing on additional managers, curators, specialists, and even a chief content officer.
- Remember to define the roles of teams and not just that of individual workers.
Why You Need To Define and Fill Content Marketing Roles
The uninitiated might equate a content marketer with simply being a blog writer. However, the term “content marketer” doesn’t just mean “writer” any more than being “mechanic” means someone who works on cars.
For any profession, different skills and assignments overlap, but the best teams have their specialists. Likewise, if your content is going to succeed, you need to fill all of the essential content marketing roles.
However, assembling a capable team could be as hard as bringing together all of the Avengers. The illustration below shows just how much goes into a comprehensive content marketing strategy:
The One-Man Marketing Band Is Dead
All too often a brand’s content marketing “team” is just a one-person show. If that’s you, you might be worrying if it’s worth the effort to hire additional individuals or shift an employee’s focus toward content.
Remember that all solid investments require time for the payout. As Philip VanDusen explains, you have to have the patience for content marketing or you will suck at it.
The good news is you don’t have to immediately take on the expense of a bunch of full-time employees to benefit from solid content publishing. By outsourcing critical content marketing roles, you can get up to speed faster and with a higher return on investment than on your own.
The Winners Have Content Marketing Teams
The proof that you need a team is also evident from the fact that the companies succeeding at content marketing focus a substantial portion of their team on content creation and publishing. Consider the LinkedIn data on these organizations:
- HubSpot lists 2,203 of its 9,454 employees as having content marketing roles.
- TED employs 724 people who work in content.
- LinkedIn itself has 6,736 individuals in content.
- 238 of GoPro’s 1,535 workers work in content.
- Birchbox has 4 of its 50 team members working in content.
Even smaller businesses that are killing it hire or outsource content marketing roles, such as Dollar Shave Club and Nooma. Again, many of these same firms still outsource roles; the key is to get someone on the job!
10 Important Content Marketing Roles
We’ve found at least 10 different roles that a single content marketer would have to handle. Once you see all that content marketing involves, you’ll understand even more why the companies that hire teams excel.
1. Content Creators
These are the content marketing roles people first think of and rightly so. The specific assignments here include dedicated writers, photographers, and videographers.
The best option for most small and mid-sized companies is to outsource content creation to a marketing firm to cover these roles. A lone freelancer could produce great quality but often won’t have the resources to ensure that content meets SEO goals.
2. Editors, Proofers, Researchers (and Their Assistants)
All great creators have someone behind the scenes supporting and double-checking their work. Editors, proofers, and researchers help keep the quality high by fact-checking and watching out for grammar mistakes that make your written work look low-rent.
Editors are also an initial step to ensure the content fits your brand image. You’ll find that even video and audio content marketing roles need a qualified editor.
Editors are responsible for communicating with creators about corrections, as well as formatting and uploading content. Once the team expands to a point where an editor is struggling to handle the load, an editorial assistant is in order.
Initially, your best assistants will either be existing content creators or someone with technical SEO skills. Try to consistently use the same people as assistants so they become efficient at the work instead of passing these assignments around haphazardly to anyone with extra time.
3. Analytics Specialists
Companies across industries have been on a hiring frenzy for data analysts. Unsurprisingly, marketing departments and firms have been leading that charge.
An analytics specialist not only peruses the numbers to understand what’s working but also has the skills to communicate why. Great analysts make complex facts simple and help you stay ahead of the trends.
4. Content Curators
Content curation can be a huge time saver for everyone in content marketing roles. Writer’s block and burnout are all too real, but you don’t have to always create something brand new to have effective daily content.
In fact, a content strategy should never only focus on creating net-new material. A team’s curator supplements original content by finding and re-purposing the best content from your team and from around the web.
5. Content Marketing Strategist or Manager
Once you have more than a few people working in any content marketing roles, you’ll need to hire a content strategist to coordinate the team’s efforts. The strategist understands your brand and develops tactics that meet your company’s larger objectives.
To do this, strategists take in feedback from creators, editors, analysts, and management to build a cohesive strategy. However, the buck still always stops with someone with more authority.
A content strategist is usually your first step before hiring or promoting someone to be a content manager. A manager takes a more responsible role in defining goals for the team and delegating tasks.
This manager is the link between the C-suite and the content creators and contributors. You’ll hire a content marketing manager long before you need to consider bringing on a director or Chief Content Officer.
6. Community Managers
Ensure you’re getting engagement on social platforms and other media by putting someone in the position of community manager. Another name for these content marketing roles is audience development manager.
This person strategizes ways to increase subscriptions or other conversions. The community manager needs to be skillful in communicating with your audience and be a great collaborator with other departments.
7. Production Designers
Enhance the user experience through a top-notch designer who creates attractive visuals to bring content to life. You’ll probably start these roles with a single freelancer or two and may grow into a larger team that requires a manager or director if you run it all in house.
8. Content Specialists
You can run into any number of channels or functions that need a dedicated person to handle an aspect of content marketing that is outside of your team’s expertise. Common examples of these specialist content marketing roles include a person who handles:
- Paid search
- Social media
- Public relations
- Influencer outreach
This work might initially fall under another role, such as a community manager or strategist. However, if you start seeing high returns in one of these areas and need to give it special attention, hire a freelancer or employee for it.
For example, micro-influencers can yield a high ROI. An “influencer wrangler” can be a specialist who cultivates and maintains those relationships for your brand.
9. Tech Specialist
Someone on the team needs to understand the technical aspect of making sure content fulfills SEO demands. It would be a shame for the hard work you put into creating quality content not to rank simply because of an issue with your website.
The responsibilities here can involve developing or overseeing the content or digital asset management systems. As your content grows in quantity, your tech specialist ensures it all runs smoothly.
10. Chief Content Officer or Director of Content Marketing
If you get so large that you need separate individuals and teams for all of the content marketing roles above, the leader of content marketing should be in the C-suite or a director. A good sign you need this position is when you require multiple managers for content marketing departments or sectors.
The CCO or director will set an overarching strategy and goals for the content marketing team. This individual has the final say on the tools and processes in content creation and coordinates the content marketing team’s efforts with other departments.
Tips for Filling Content Marketing Roles
The following guidelines can help as you build your content marketing team.
Remember That Content Marketing Roles Are Fluid
Hopefully, you caught that we’re not saying to go out and hire for all of these content marketing roles immediately. Especially if you’re a boutique operation or just starting, assignments can overlap or might only need an occasional contractor.
Your job, if you’re in marketing leadership, is to find a way to cover the essential areas of:
- Creating content
- Refining and publishing that content
- Maintaining relationships with necessary parties (influencers, partners, and audience)
- Organizing and managing the whole operation in a way that meets company goals
Remember what marketing guru Robert Rose stated: “Roles are activities, not people.” You’ll find that different organizations name and assign these jobs differently.
As you hire, think more about finding all the personalities you need to run a successful content marketing team. With capable individuals, you’ll be able to slot the right people into each position.
Finally, marketing has evolved over the years and so will content marketing itself. Prepare to adjust content marketing roles and your strategy to the times and your current needs.
Identify the Roles of Content Marketing Teams
Content marketing roles will apply to more than individuals. Create teams that handle each aspect of the work, especially when jobs overlap.
Defining content marketing teams keeps everything on focus and not haphazard as you expand. We took a “bottom-up” view of the individual roles, so here’s a “top-down” look at content marketing teams.
Leadership
Strategists, managers, and executives set priorities and budgets. A key function of leadership will be to get a bird’s-eye view of what works and create efficient and replicable processes that editorial and creative teams can follow.
Editorial
The editorial board takes the ball from leadership and specifically plans what content to create. This work involves deciding the specific topics to feature and where these fit in the content calendar.
Production
Writers, photographers, designers, and videographers should be a single unit, not siloed departments. So, don’t let your creative content marketing roles look at other positions in the company as “those people over there.”
Make sure the people producing the content align and create a cohesive message. If the design team is fun and neighborly on a project but the writing team is formal and authoritative, your message isn’t going to gel with your target audience.
Technical
With a storehouse of content, you’ll need the digital and IT experts to coalesce under one umbrella, too. Make web analytics and software experts a unit that keeps your content efforts running smoothly.
Prime the Pump for Filling Your Content Marketing Roles
Filling this list of content marketing roles might seem overwhelming, especially if you’re an SMB. However, you can have a full-fledged group of experts at your side in no time by outsourcing your content to the pros at Marketing Insider Group.
Contact us about our Content Builder Services to see how we can help you get rapid ROI on your content marketing efforts!
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