What does a Content Marketing Manager do?
Content marketing managers plan and ship the articles, guides, newsletters and videos that bring in an audience and turn it into customers.
- Open roles now
- 26
- Median pay (6 posts)
- $207k
- Remote
- 27%
- Most-requested tool
- Generative AI
The job
A content marketing manager decides what the company publishes, why, and for whom, and then makes sure it ships at a quality bar people notice. The job is part editor, part strategist and part project manager. At a startup you'll write a lot of it yourself; at a larger company you'll run writers, freelancers and subject matter experts.
Good content programs are tied to a business goal: organic traffic that converts, a newsletter that sells, sales content that shortens deals, or thought leadership that builds the brand. The best content marketers can say which goal each piece serves and how they'll know it worked.
AI has made average content free, which makes great content worth more. The job now rewards original research, real expertise pulled out of people inside the company, a distinct voice, and a process that uses AI for speed without letting quality slide.
A typical week
- Run the editorial calendar and unblock pieces stuck in review
- Interview a subject matter expert and turn the call into an outline
- Edit two freelance drafts against the brief and the style guide
- Repurpose a top-performing piece into a newsletter, social posts and a sales one-pager
- Review content performance: traffic, signups and assisted pipeline
How they're measured
- Signups, leads or pipeline attributed to or assisted by content
- Organic traffic to content and its conversion rate
- Newsletter subscribers and engagement
- Output against the calendar, at the quality bar
- Content used by sales in deals
Skills that matter
- Editing
- Turning a rough draft into something clear and specific is the core craft.
- Strategy tied to goals
- Every piece should have a job and a way to measure it.
- SEO fundamentals
- Search is still the biggest source of compounding traffic.
- Interviewing experts
- Original insight comes from people, not from rewriting the top results.
- Distribution
- Publishing is half the job; getting it read is the other half.
- AI-assisted production
- Using AI for research and drafts while keeping a human quality bar.
Tools employers ask for
Share of 27 content marketing job posts on HeyMarketers in the last 12 months that name each tool.
- Generative AI26%
Pay
The median base salary on full-time content marketing posts is $207k, and the middle half pay $205k to $221k (6 posts with published pay, last 12 months).
Career path
- 1
Content writer or specialist
Writes and publishes, learns SEO and editing.
- 2
Content marketing manager
Owns strategy and the calendar, manages freelancers.
- 3
Senior content manager or managing editor
Runs a team and several programs.
- 4
Head of content or editorial director
Owns content as a channel and the brand's voice.
Open content marketing roles by level right now: mid level 50%, senior 4%, lead or director 46%.
How to stand out
- Show pieces that drove a business result and explain how you know.
- Include something you edited heavily, with the before and after.
- Have a point of view on what to stop publishing, not just what to start.
- Show a repeatable process, not just great one-off pieces.
Preparing for interviews? See the questions content marketing managers get asked, or read a typical job description.
Open content marketing roles
- Content Strategy Lead, Executive Programs · Anthropic
- Lead Economist, Editorial · Wealthfront
- Senior Editor, Podcast Editorial · Spotify
- Content Marketing Manager Indonesia · Spotify
- Technical Content Manager · Okta
- Technical Content Lead · Okta
Hiring now: Stripe, Harvey, Okta, Paddle, Spotify, Adyen.
See all 26 open content marketing jobsQuestions
What does a Content Marketing Manager do?
A content marketing manager decides what the company publishes, why, and for whom, and then makes sure it ships at a quality bar people notice. The job is part editor, part strategist and part project manager. At a startup you'll write a lot of it yourself; at a larger company you'll run writers, freelancers and subject matter experts.
How much does a Content Marketing Manager make?
Full-time content marketing roles on HeyMarketers pay a median base salary of $207k, and half pay between $205k and $221k. That's from 6 job posts with published pay in the last 12 months.
Are content marketing managers remote?
27% of the 26 open content marketing roles on HeyMarketers right now are remote. The rest are on-site or hybrid.