Assembling a content marketing team is extremely challenging. If you’re not a content marketing expert, it can be hard to decide which content strategies work or what job titles are required to keep your content marketing process on track.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this problem; still, successful marketing teams have a few (six, to be precise!) things in common.
Here are 6 content marketing roles to make your dream team come true.
Content Marketing Roles You Need on Your Best Team
Content marketing teams have different structures and sizes and face specific challenges. Your company’s content marketing strategy and brand message determine which type of content marketing team is best for you.
There are two primary options for structuring marketing campaigns: Bottom-up and top-bottom approaches.
The top-bottom approach starts with an experienced, brilliant person, usually a chief marketing officer. They set the overall content marketing strategy and hire the right content marketing team members.
The bottom-up approach is relatively new, more flexible, and better suited to smaller businesses.
You need one or more content creators to get the ball rolling. And as you get closer to your business goals, you expand your content team by hiring a senior content strategist, content editors, executives, and so on.
Both approaches are entirely viable. The choice is more of a strategic decision based on your marketing goals and budget. Now let’s move on from structure and look at what skills you need on your content team.
Here are the six content marketing team roles that form the foundation of successful marketing campaigns.
Head of Content/Chief Content Officer
The chief content officer is at the top of the content marketing pyramid and is responsible for all content marketing efforts: the one who sets and drives the content marketing strategy.
From setting the vision and overall direction to assigning roles, content prioritization, and performance assessment, it’s all in the hands of your CCO. So take your time and be selective!
The CCO oversees your digital media creation (including text, audio, and visual content) across all channels.
They set SMART marketing/business goals to facilitate day-to-day operations. CCOs also create brand guidelines to ensure a consistent brand voice across all content marketing efforts.
To win the marketing game, you need a chief content officer with outstanding skills and experience, excellent command of the English language, excellent organizational, leadership, and time management skills, and a combination of marketing and production mindset.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: CMO or another executive leadership role
- Manages: Content marketing managers and strategists
Content Marketing Manager
Managing and organizing all content marketing assets requires timely planning and careful oversight.
CMM works closely with the CCO to set content marketing strategies, goals, and KPIs. As an internal project manager, the CMM is responsible for keeping the editorial calendar and content ideas flowing.
The content marketing manager works collaboratively and cross-functionally with the strategist and managing editor.
Together, they create content frameworks that will increase market awareness, drive demand generation, and support business development activities.
The CMM continuously tracks and evaluates audience feedback to guide content production in the right direction.
Project management is a very delicate task requiring excellent content-related skills, enterprise software marketing experience, SEO knowledge, and the ability to perform a content gap analysis.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: Head of content
- Manages: Content writers and editors
Support: Content Strategist
CMM often oversees PM tasks and content operations while developing strategies.
However, as project scope increases, many organizations prefer to hire their own content strategists. This division of labor helps CS focus on content strategy, creative vision, and guidance.
Content strategists are the eyes and minds of a marketing team. They provide vision and guidance based on years of experience in digital marketing, content creation, editorial strategy, and UX design.
Content strategists create the image and narrative that drive engagement, awareness, and conversions across digital platforms.
The content strategist role requires solid copywriting skills, a laser-sharp understanding of marketing strategy and web analytics, client-facing communication skills, and significant SEO knowledge.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: Content marketing manager and head of content
- Manages: Content writers
Content Writer
After establishing your goals and determining your vision and mission, it’s time to produce quality content.
From blog articles and social media posts to promotional videos for your YouTube channel, all should be well-structured, researched, and naturally engaging.
The makeup of your marketing team can look very different depending on your market niche, company size, and marketing strategy.
But content writers are always there. Your writers are your storytellers. So they should be able to empathize with your company’s vision and understand content processes.
Above all, a content writer must have a way with words and master the basics of researching and organizing written content. Adaptability is also a big plus, as they may need to change their tone and writing style depending on the project.
Who might you need on the team?
- SEO writers use search engine optimization strategies to write content that improves a website’s ranking in search engine results.
- Copywriters are responsible for producing engaging, clear text for different advertising channels and marketing materials.
- UX writers write clear, concise copy and create a long-lasting customer experience
- Technical writers are subject-matter experts who develop product manuals, how-to guides, website help sections, and journal articles.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Report to: Content marketing manager or content strategist
- Collaborate with: Editors, SEO specialists, designers, editorial assistants, and social media managers
Editor
The editing process ensures no hiccups in the content creation cycle.
Content editors must take care to identify irregularities in grammar, punctuation, text flow, and style. Their primary role is to ensure consistent formatting across the platform.
But editors don’t just appear at the end of the content production process to proofread and put the finishing touches. Their duties include development, design, production, presentation, evaluation, and analysis.
A content editor usually knows everything from HTML, CSS, and on-page optimization to design.
However, the perfect candidate would be someone who knows content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, Wix, etc.
Different types of editing tasks that make your content flawless:
- Copy editing improves readability and text formatting in terms of spelling, grammar, jargon, punctuation, terminology, and semantics.
- Fact-checking ensures information accuracy.
- Brand voice development is the process of creating instructions and editorial guidelines for communicating with customers. Editors make sure that content fits the company’s content strategy.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Report to: Content marketing manager or content strategist
- Collaborate with: Content writers and editorial assistant
Editorial Assistant
Editorial assistants are the players behind the curtain who ensure everything runs smoothly in the content marketing team. They assist editors with editorial tasks and proofread all content published online.
Editorial assistants’ duties include editorial and administrative tasks, such as checking manuscripts for errors, planning publication deadlines, and making content available on the website.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: Editor and content manager
- Collaborate with: Content creators
Social Media Manager
Once your well-crafted content is ready, it’s “promotion time.” Social media managers develop strategies to increase followers, create and oversee social campaigns, produce content, review analytics, and communicate with the company’s key stakeholders.
In other words, the social media manager is the company’s mouthpiece and oversees interaction with the public by implementing various marketing strategies. The SMM manages content across all platforms to ensure your message reaches the target audience.
Like any other content marketer, SMMs are experienced writers with extensive research skills and SEO knowledge. But they are also masters of platform-specific content optimization and social media analytics. SMMs have a keen sense of social media trends and know how to leverage them to achieve their marketing goals.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: Content marketing manager and head of content
- Collaborates with: Content creators and designers
Support: Outreach Manager/Community Manager
More advanced business campaigns often have two additional hands for crowd-promoting content. The outreach manager or community manager has a similar role to the SMM, except they focus more on acting as a liaison between an organization and its audience.
An active and supportive community is the beating heart of a thriving business.
The outreach manager is there to establish that connection through community marketing, influencer marketing, digital PR, and media outreach.
A community manager is expected to have excellent communication and organizational skills, analytical mindset, adaptability, and last but not least, strong interpersonal skills such as negotiating and problem-solving.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: Content marketing manager
- Collaborates with: Content creators
Growth Marketing Manager
Growth marketing management is at the intersection of marketing and product development and focuses on customer acquisition, activation, retention, and upselling.
The GMM uses marketing analytics tools throughout the funnel to craft data-driven marketing strategies.
The growth marketing manager works with the community manager for audience development. GMMs integrate SEO and CRO techniques into growth hacking strategies to stay competitive in the market.
Placement in content marketing matrix:
- Reports to: Head of Content and CMO
- Collaborate with: CMM, content creators, SMM
Other Roles to Add to Your Content Marketing Team
Once you have laid the groundwork for a content team, you’re one step away from having your content marketing department.
Talk to your strategists and CCO, and get everyone on the same page about the company’s mission.
Now that you have a roadmap, you need to fill in the remaining gaps and hire experts who can contribute to your content strategy.
Here are 4 complementary roles to add to your content team.
Designer
You’ll have difficulty retaining your clients or attracting new audiences without unique creative designs.
Even with the best content, you’ll need graphic designers to stand out from the crowd, attract customers, and increase engagement.
Incorporating users’ aesthetic design preferences into your content creation process builds a far richer and deeper relationship with your customers.
A content designer must be proficient in graphic design and publishing tools, including Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, etc.
Researcher/Data Analyst
Researchers and data analysts gather data from various databases and sources to perform market research and competitor analysis. Analysts’ must-have skills include experience in statistical or mathematical programming, developing original industry reports, and providing technical assistance.
After collecting, processing, and cleaning the data, data analysts develop adjustments to existing market tactics and briefings for the marketing team. Typically, the same person responsible for content strategy is also responsible for research and data analysis.
Email Marketer
The email marketing specialist is a digital content marketer who builds email lists and nurtures leads through online communications.
Email marketers are tasked with creating and monitoring email marketing campaigns, optimizing email design and layout, placing product orders, and handling customer inquiries.
Email marketers must have hands-on experience with HTML and content management systems, marketing automation technology, Google Analytics, and SEO tools.
They also need good project management skills to keep track of the editorial calendar.
Videographer/Podcaster
Video and podcast content marketing are still among the untapped marketing strategies in most industries.
Producing and sharing relevant video content can be your golden opportunity to stand out in a saturated market niche.
By leveraging tools that automate video translation, you can boost both engagement and accessibility, reaching a broader audience. But you must optimize the production flow to secure a stable content generation.
Podcasts are also a fantastic way to engage with a captive audience. Boosting community engagement increases your brand awareness and discoverability.
And, of course, you can always integrate your podcasts into a blog post and distribute them via RSS feeds, emails, and web pages.
