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How to hire a great content manager

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Content is king. This is an adage we’re probably all sick of by now, but it still rings true in many ways. What is the internet without content, after all? This is why content managers remain one of the most important individuals for many businesses, particularly those in the creative spheres.

In an age of “everything all the time” digital marketing, you need a depth and variety of content to capture the attention and imagination of your intended audience. But this content can’t just be thrown at the wall and expected to stick, it needs to be organised and managed. This is where a good content manager steps in.

But if you’re in the market for a content manager to help bring focus and efficiency to your content, where should you be looking and what should you be looking for?

What is a content manager

The larger your web presence becomes, the more reasons for hiring a content manager, someone who can keep track of all of your content—static, active, or time sensitive as it may be—and who can make sure that content never becomes stale, outdated, or irrelevant.

Content managers are often responsible for the day-to-day oversight of your digital content. Responsibilities may include managing an editorial calendar, uploading content into a content management system, tracking content goals and conversions, and making sure content is always up to date. Often, content managers are also writers or editors.

It’s a role that requires a very specific mindset, tools and skills, with most content managers coming from a communication, business or marketing background, rather than a creative background. That doesn’t mean, however, that creatives don’t make great content managers.

Top content managers are becoming increasingly important for many businesses, as social media and other online channels have compelled companies to hire someone to manage all aspects of their content marketing program.

With more companies realizing the need to produce high-quality content to succeed online, there is greater demand for experienced professionals who can help them achieve this goal. As a result, the need for skilled content managers is only going to increase in the coming years.

But how do you go about ensuring that you hire a content manager that’s able to understand your goals and generate content that furthers them?

What to look for in a content manager

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What makes a great content manager is always going to depend on the business, its sector, its audience and its goals. But there are several qualities that all content managers should possess.

1. The ability to seek out and tell a good story

The best journalists will tell you it is not the story; it is how you tell the story that matters. And this is what content managers do day in and day out. They are telling the story of their brand in a compelling way; they are creating content that drives decisions and managing content delivery in a way that impacts the right people.

And at the centre of all this, they need to have the skills to tell the story in a way that makes people care. The audience is saying: Why should I listen to you? Why do I need to buy your product? How are you different? So every day content managers need to figure out to answer these questions with a story. This is why journalists have the potential to make great content managers.

2. Writing and editing skills

At the heart of it, content management involves writing and more writing, then editing that writing and rewriting again. Content managers have to create content across a range of writing styles; from blogs to newsletters, video scripts to press releases; style guides to training material and social media content.

To do justice to all these they need to read and write every day. This is why you should hire people who are prolific bloggers and/or copywriters.

3. Format agnosticism

Since content can appear in so many different formats, content managers need to be well-versed in all of them. What if tomorrow your company decides to make a video as part of your video marketing efforts? What if you decide that some content is best explained with infographics?

While it is okay to outsource or delegate specialised roles (such as video editor or graphic designer), your content managers need to be familiar with content creation across different channels and know how to optimise these channels for your brand.

4. People skills

It is a common myth that when people work online, they can hide their personalities behind their computers. In fact, the opposite is required of an effective content manager. You need to hire friendly, likeable people, because their offline personality will translate into their online persona.

People are not stupid. They can tell when someone is tendering an apology because the social media crises guidelines say so, and when someone is sincere in their effort to put things right. The people in the latter camp will go the extra mile because it is the right thing to do, not because they are following instructions. These are the people you want to hire.

5. An analytical mind

I am not a data lover. Thankfully, however, there are so many data analytics and data visualisation tools available that make it easy to understand the numbers and what they mean. Making sense of data is a crucial skill for a content manager. When hiring, look for people who can find meaning in your Facebook insights and know which stats in your Google Analytics are the most important in order to measure your conversion rates.

It is not the data per se, but what the data is telling you. A good content manager will ask questions such as: if your data is telling you that your audience is primarily on LinkedIn, why are you posting to Facebook every day?

6. An eye for trends

Content management is a fast-evolving field with many players introducing new tools and methods of doing business. Even the old constants, such as email marketing, are undergoing changes.

So hire someone who not only stays abreast of technological changes in the industry, but can, to some extent, anticipate the direction they are going in. In this way you can be ready and primed to take advantage of trends as they hit their peak.

7. A creative mind

The ability to question, be curious and think creatively are essential qualities to look for in a content manager. This is because there is no one right way to present and disseminate content.

And what works for the competition may not work for you. A good content manager will know how to select ways, methods, styles and formats that best fit your business. To do this, they need to be able to experiment and think creatively.

Where to look for content managers

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Of course, the first place to look should always be your current team. Is there somebody within your ranks you can honestly fulfil all the criteria above? If so, they might be the ideal candidate.

Next, check your existing circle of contacts. Do you know anyone who might make a perfect branding manager but hasn’t been given the opportunity yet? Or perhaps somebody who works in branding for another agency who might be ready to take the next step?

If your immediate circle isn’t turning up any obvious candidates, the next logical step is to take the search online. LinkedIn is always an option, but it is a vast and cavernous resource. Creativepool, meanwhile, is focused specifically on creative professionals and there are hundreds of content managers within our ranks ready and waiting to meet you.

Writing a job description

Of course, if you’re going to be casting the net our for a content manager, you’ll need to write a decent job description. Start by figuring out how much you can afford to pay them.

The average base pay for a content manager is around $70,000 a year and as the need for qualified content marketers increases, salaries and career opportunities are rising accordingly. Those with more experience and a proven track record of success in this area can also command even higher salaries.

Be specific about your expectations. While it's important to hire the best person for the job, it's equally important to be clear about what your company needs from that person. Ask yourself if this a full-time or freelance position and whether this employee will be receiving editorial support or managing an in-house writing team?

These are all important questions to answer before starting your search. To hire the best content marketing manager for your team, it's important to know your priorities and what goals you want to achieve.

Once you have a clear understanding of what you need, take some time to consider what skills are most valuable in filling that role. For example, if you're looking for someone to manage an existing team of writers then excellent communication and organizational skills are a must. 

Alternatively, if you're looking for someone to help build out your content strategy from scratch, then experience with editorial planning or SEO might be more helpful. Regardless of what skills you prioritize, make sure they align with the needs of the role you're trying to fill. 

With your priorities and skillset in mind, it's time to create a job description for your content manager. This should include a clear overview of what the role entails and any specific requirements or qualifications you have in mind. 

You may also want to note any benefits that come with the position and let candidates know what you can offer. This will help you attract the best talent for the job.

Questions to ask

  • What content management or technical systems have you worked with in the past? How would you rate your experience level with those programs, as well as HTML and/or CSS?
  • Tell me about past projects: How large were the web presences you’ve been responsible for? How many websites, pages, social media networks, etc. did you manage at one time?
  • For this position, we’d also ask for a couple writing or editing samples. Or give a quick copy-editing test to see if your candidate can catch basic typos, inconsistencies, and errors.

Content manager job description example

We are looking for a content marketing manager to join our team. This person is responsible for developing, implementing, and executing an overall content strategy that will help us reach our business goals. This position reports directly to the marketing director.

Responsibilities include:

  • Managing all aspects of the company's blogging and social media accounts, including posting content and engaging with followers on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Writing original blog posts that are optimized for SEO and shareability.
  • Researching topics related to our industry or niche market and brainstorming ideas for new articles or blog posts that could be published on each platform.
  • Working closely with sales representatives to find leads, then developing an outreach plan tailored to each specific lead.
  • Creating videos related to one of our core values (to educate) and posting them on YouTube.

Desired skills and experience:

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Organized with the ability to prioritize tasks.
  • Ability to multitask and work well under pressure.
  • 3+ years of experience in marketing, public relations, or digital media preferred.

You will be a great fit for this role if you enjoy:

  • Working with a team to develop creative content.
  • Generating new ideas to grow our online presence.
  • Tracking analytics to see the results of your efforts.
  • Developing marketing plans.

Content is king

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Content management is a fast-growing industry that's here to stay, so it's important to get involved now if you're not already. With the right person in charge, your business will be well-positioned to take advantage of this opportunity.

All in all, a content manager can take over the burden of creating, planning, and distributing all your content, freeing you up to focus on building your business.

Using Creativepool

Looking to hire a content manager? Creativepool has thousands of super talented content managers waiting to help mange your content and bring order to your website.

There are 3 ways for you to find a content manager on Creativepool.

1. Search and Contact

Want greater control of who you work with and the process behind it? Searching for talent directly and then handpicking who you would like to work is a great way to be proactive in your talent hunting. 

Simply search for content managers and browse through the results. You will be able to look through projects, CVs/Resumes of the talent listed to make an informed decision on your next hire. 

On Creativepool we use a series of indicators to rank our members based on job title. Looking through the top 25 ranked content managers is also a powerful and quick way to view the best in talent on the platform.

Once you have found someone whose style and experience works for you, contact them directly by clicking on the message tab. Searching is ideal if you have a very specific idea on who it is that you would like to be working with. 

2. Post a studiogig 

Looking for a freelance content manager? The quickest way to find available talent is to advertise your brief. With us, briefs for individuals are called studiogigs.

Posting your role is formulated to be quick and easy and once you have posted your role we get busy behind the scenes selecting the best talent to send out your brief to and then post the role on the jobs board. Once you have advertised your brief then just relax and wait for applicants to come to you directly! 

3. Post a job 

If you are looking for a permanent content manager then advertising a content manager job is the way for you to attract talent. The process is identical to posting a studiogig.

Once you have posted your role we will check the details of the adverts, send out job alerts to our community that best match your criteria and post on the jobs board. Like studiogigs applicants will apply to you direct.  

Whether posting a job or a studiogig or searching for talent you are in control on who you hire. You are under no obligation to choose any of the applicants and you negotiate with them directly on rates. 

If you need any help on your talent hunt. You can chat with us or send us a message. We'd be happy to help. 

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