So, you want a job in content marketing? Here are 5 roles and what they mean
Laura Blackwell is The Drum’s content executive, working on stories at the center of the marketing industry. For The Drum’s Content Marketing in Focus, she breaks down some of the roles available in the realm of content.
From creative thinking to strategic planning, content marketers are expected to wear many hats / Mailchimp via Unsplash
Marketing is a seemingly elusive industry; it’s not always clear what someone means when they say they work in marketing. Content marketing is a multifaceted beast all on its own. And, obviously, what we mean by ‘content’ is always changing. Wondering what the difference is between a content manager and a content strategist? Let’s look at some of the roles available in content marketing.
Copywriter
The primary role of a copywriter is to persuade. As the saying goes, ‘content tells, copy sells’. A copywriter is tasked with communicating the essence of a brand’s values at every touchpoint, or wherever there’s an opportunity to engage an audience. As we all know, content is literally everywhere, so it’s a copywriter’s job to cut through the noise.
As TrunkBBI’s head of copy, Jason Westall, puts it: “Often, it means digesting a whopping-great brief and turning it into a single line, concept, campaign, or story. There’s a lot of experimentation”. Whether it’s for a landing page, billboard, or blog post – a copywriter will make every character count.
Social media manager
A social media manager’s role can vary – a lot. They may need to possess a wealth of skills, from copywriting to some basic design. They'll live and breathe social media metrics and have a flair for the right tone of voice when it comes to adapting copy across social platforms. Depending on the size of the brand or agency, they might collaborate with in-house designers to create on-brand graphics and other marketing materials. Aside from channelling a brand’s entire personality through humanized, engaging copy, a social media manager’s role is inherently strategic. They’ll plan and execute perfectly timed social campaigns and be tapped into trends.
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Content strategist
Similar to the above, a content strategist will help to develop campaigns and keep tabs on performance metrics, but across multiple digital platforms. They’re largely responsible for the developing of content ideas and editorial calendars and using specialist SEO knowledge and tools to inform their decisions. Working closely with marketing and sometimes salespeople, a content strategist is required to be analytical as well as creative, specializing in things like keyword research and interpreting results from tools like SEMrush and AHrefs.
Content manager
Content managers will oversee the content team day-to-day and are responsible for distributing relevant content that consistently amplifies the company’s values to retain and attract customers - rather than specializing in the strategy side of things.
However, this can vary depending on the size and structure of the company. For example: a smaller company or agency might only have one content manager who is responsible for the company’s overall content strategy, as well as briefing others and owning the editorial calendar. Whereas a bigger company might have multiple content managers, supported by a team of content execs. Get the gist?
Email marketing manager
Imagine all the above - but through the medium of email. Email marketing managers are the driving force of all email communications, creating bespoke targeted campaigns and sometimes newsletters for different email lists. They might work closely with a designer to create email templates and will most likely use a tool like Hubspot or Mailchimp to schedule sends. Email marketing is all about experimenting; A/B testing is often used to compare the effectiveness (i.e. open and click-through rates) of different campaigns on segmented audiences.
Still interested in a job in content? We have openings in the US, London, and Glasgow. Check out our current vacancies.
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