What does it take to attract a talented content manager?
Finding qualified candidates who can excel at content creation and management can be a time-intensive task for both agencies and in-house recruiters.
Our management team has hired over 100+ content marketers—and has helped over a dozen content marketing specialists grow into content management roles through the years.
We’ve learned some invaluable lessons along the way, including how to create a posting that attracts the right candidate. Whether you’re hoping to fill your position with an internal or external candidate, the best place to start is by creating the perfect job description.
Read on for a closer look at how to best structure your job posting to identify the most qualified candidates—or jump to our content manager job posting template.
What Are The Responsibilities of a Content Manager?
Content manager positions and job responsibilities can often vary from role to role. Expectations may also look different depending on if you’re hiring for an in-house role or an agency position. To combat this, we’ve compiled the responsibilities we look for at Siege, as well as additional qualifications that may be required for more niche job postings. It’s worth noting that every content manager role will look a little different—and so should your job posting.
Content Manager Responsibilities
At Siege, our content managers are responsible for managing a team of content marketing specialists. Each content manager executes client strategy and trains their team of direct reports to create content that ranks and performs strongly across client KPIs.
When vetting potential candidates, we look for specialists with strong writing capabilities, as well as those with a propensity for leadership.
Additionally, we’ve created a framework called “ROOLS,” which we use when evaluating potential content managers and considering how their performance compares to the responsibilities of their role.
These metrics outline what excellencies we consider most important across both soft and hard skills. While specific to our internal values, this framework is also applicable to those hoping to grow their content marketing and leadership expertise at other organizations.
While we recognize that everyday looks a little different in this role—and depends on a manager’s unique client load—the following “ROOLS” help our content managers understand the bigger picture of what we’re all working toward.
The “ROOLS” and responsibilities of a content manager at Siege:
- Recognizes the Team: Content managers that excel at Siege shine at recognizing individual team members’ strengths, identifying projects that will help them grow and excel and lifting them up across the agency.
- Outreach Excellence: We look to our management team to be able to ideate and promote content across all industries and formats, and train up a team to do the same.
- Hyper-Organized: Like many agencies, we’re a fast-paced place, and we look to content managers to juggle multiple competing priorities at any given moment.
- Leadership, Demonstrated: Content marketing is a moving target and we look to our leaders to step up and light the way forward in a vocal manner in order to make the largest macro impact.
- SEO Strategy and Passion: Successful content managers have a strong background in technical SEO and are able to stay on top of client strategy—and understand why clients may not be improving even though we are hitting link goals.
Additional Content Manager Roles
If you’re hiring for a content manager role that’s slightly more niche, you’ll want to update the responsibilities and requirements you list accordingly.
While the list of job titles below is not exhaustive, it’s a good starting place to identify what skills you may want to highlight if you’re hiring for a more specific content manager role.
Brand Content Manager Responsibilities
A brand content manager position will usually require a communicator who can excel at multiple types of content creation, and who is able to understand the ins and outs of one specific brand.
At some organizations, brand content managers may be required to create internal company communications documents like powerpoints, blog posts or newsletters.
At other companies, brand content managers may be responsible for creating external web copy that is meant to rank, generate backlinks and garner impressions for the brand.
Brand content manager responsibilities might include:
- Overseeing content creation for the brand’s media channels
- Managing brand identity and communication strategy
- Copy editing content for consistency and to match brand voice
Social Media Content Manager Responsibilities
If you’re looking for someone to create short-form sound bites for various social media channels, you’re likely looking for a social media content manager.
While there may be some overlap with the basic skills required for a more general content manager position, it’s worth adjusting your posting accordingly to ensure you attract the right candidate.
Specific responsibilities for a social media content manager might look like:
- Developing and executing strategies for multiple channels including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube
- Tracking social media KPIs to monitor engagement and campaign performance
- Community management and engaging with followers in a timely manner
Digital Content Manager Responsibilities
A digital content manager position is usually the best job title to use if you’re looking for a “jack of all trades” content creator. These types of roles typically include a hybrid of responsibilities including social media management, email campaigns and SEO content creation and strategy.
If this sounds like the role you’re hiring for, you’ll likely want to highlight the following responsibilities:
- Managing campaigns across all digital and social platforms
- Monitoring blog and social media traffic and reporting on trends
- Brainstorming content that performs well across channels
Requirements for a Content Manager
When creating the ideal job posting for your open position, it’s imperative to highlight what skills are an absolute must. We’ve compiled a list of the typical job requirements for a content manager position for you to use as a jumping-off point.
- 3–4+ years experience in a similar role
- 1–2 years managing a team of two or more people
- Degree in marketing, journalism, public relations or a related field
- Understanding of SEO best practices and keyword research tools
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Understanding of HTML
The requirements you list should reflect anything that’s non-negotiable for your role. This will save you from interviewing candidates, only to discover they’re missing a core competency necessary for success.
Content Manager Job Posting Template
Now that you’ve considered what responsibilities and requirements are core to your role, it’s time to craft your job description.
The best way to ensure your content manager job posting will lead to qualified candidates is to make it as specific as possible. When writing your posting, make sure to drill down into what makes your post unique from others out there. The more specific you can be from the get-go, the more likely you are to identify—and retain—the right candidate.
Use the following copy as a template for your own content manager job posting. Make sure to update the responsibilities and skills to match the specifications of your role and the type of content manager you’re looking for.
Our team is looking for a data-driven and creative content creator to join our team. Duties include ideating and creating high-quality, unique content that generates online placements and ranks, copywriting team members’ content to meet brand standards, managing our editorial calendar and tracking content performance against KPIs. The right candidate feels confident leveraging data to create original deliverables including infographics, blog articles and survey content.
Responsibilities include:
-
- Creating content that performs strongly across multiple platforms
- Nurturing and developing relationships with reporters and the press to generate web placements
- Ideating creative content ideas across industries
- Performing keyword research and staying abreast of industry trends
- Iterating on content strategy to ensure success
- Copy-editing content for AP-style to match brand voice
Required skills:
-
- 3+ years of experience in content creation, copywriting, SEO or marketing
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate across teams and departments
- Strong project management skills, including proficiency in project management tools
- Copywriting and/or blogging experience
- Basic to intermediary SEO knowledge
What Makes a Good Content Manager?
Once your job posting is live, it’s time to start vetting candidates. To ensure any new team member is able to thrive in the role, keep in mind the traits that define a good content manager when you’re reviewing applications and interviewing prospective hires.
We’ve consistently found that content managers who are solutions-oriented and able to see the big picture—while also managing the small details of individual content projects—are most likely to thrive in this type of role long-term. As mentioned, our ROOLS framework also helps us work to grow content managers across both soft skills and technical capabilities.
Make sure to ask probing questions during the interview stage to ensure your candidate meets all of the requirements of your job posting. In an industry that’s ever-changing, it’s key to hire team members that are hungry to learn and aren’t afraid to ask questions.
Interested in joining our team? Check out our open job postings.
