So how can you get your content marketing job descriptions to stand out from the rest? Resist the urge to speed past the creation of the job listing by leaving it to HR or just copying and pasting a result you googled (yes, that includes this post). You’re hiring writers after all, and the job description will help form the early impressions of your company and your team. If you want to capture the attention of the top content talent in your area, roll-up your sleeves, put your marketing hat on and craft a job description that creatively (and accurately!) captures the unique opportunity you’re offering.

Keep reading to check out:

• Our review of the top three google search results for “Content Marketing Job Descriptions”
• The basic architecture of a content marketing job description
• Ideas for crafting THE BEST content marketing job descriptions
• Our favorite content marketing job description online right now

Top Three Articles on Content Marketing Job Descriptions

HubSpot

This is a thorough post covering top twelve job descriptions you should hire for to have an all-start content marketing team. This post includes descriptions from inbound marketing manager to blogger to SEO manager. This post is a great resource for basic job descriptions as well as reasons why you might want to create a position and what to looks for in an application.  Though not all positions are “content marketing positions” per se, it’s helpful to look at the other job descriptions to determine if a content marketing manager is really what you’re looking for. As the creators of the term “inbound marketing” their inbound marketing manager job description is on point. Here it is :

Inbound Marketing Manager Job Description

If your marketing department is just starting to make the shift to an inbound approach, it’s possible you’ll still need to prove the success of your inbound marketing program.

If this is the case, you’ll likely be looking to hire an all-in-one inbound marketer — someone who can build and grow your inbound marketing strategy from the ground up. Look for someone who is very self-motivated and versatile … and gets stuff done. (And if you’re still trying to convince your boss to to make the shift to inbound in the first place, download these 100 stats, charts, and graphs to help you get inbound marketing buy-in.)

Job Description:

We are looking for an amazing, data-driven inbound marketer to own the majority of the marketing funnel for our company. You will be in charge of attracting site traffic, converting that traffic into new leads for the business, and nurturing those leads to close into customers, the latter of which sales leadership will help you accomplish.

Responsibilities:

• Build and manage a rich content/editorial calendarthat attracts a qualified audience to our owned properties (including blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks, reports, webinars, infographics, etc.).
• Grow new leads, including marketing-qualified leads, by converting site traffic through calls-to-action, landing pages, and lead generation content (including offers).
• Optimize our marketing automation and lead nurturing processes through email, content, and social channels.
• Establish closed-loop analytics with sales to understand how our inbound marketing activity turns into customers, and continually refine our process to convert customers.

Requirements:

• BA/BS degree or equivalent work experience
• Some past experience in marketing preferred
• Excellent communicator and creative thinker, with an ability to use data to inform all decisions
• Proficiency in marketing automationand blogging software in order to generate traffic, convert visitors into leads, and then nurture them (using dynamic workflows) into converted customers
• Bonus skills: HTML/CSS, Adobe Creative Suite.

Marketing Insider Group

Marketing Insider Group does a great job of distilling all the qualifications a content marketing manager could have down into three skills. Jere they are:

1. Creating content people actually want

2. Sharing content on the channels they use

3. Measuring the results of content marketing activities

 For their complete content marketing manager job description, check out the full blog post.

Workable

Simple and to the point, this post is a full, content marketing manager job description. Use this post as a jumping-off point to create your own content marketing job description. Workable has a large library of marketing job descriptions, check out other job descriptions on their website to build out your entire marketing team.

Architecture of a Content Marketing Job Description

The basic architecture of a content marketing job description should include:

1. Job title
2. Description of key responsibilities
3. Amount of Experience Expected
4. Technology/Tools they’re expected to use
5. Key teammates they’ll manage or work closely with
6. Salary Range
7. Information about the company, what problems it solves and who it serves

Even the basics require some finesse. Check out Undercover Recruiter’s science backed tips including the ideal length for your job title (spoiler: 50-60 characters).

Ideas for the Best Content Marketing Descriptions

A quick google search for “Content Marketing Job Descriptions” (as of September 2017) will return these top three results (excluding job boards/job search engines). After reviewing each, I find myself feeling like the Goldilocks of content marketing job descriptions, each providing some help but leaving a bit more to be desired.

Too Bland: Workable’s Content Marketing Manager Template – Aptly named a template, it really is just the bare minimum of key responsibilities, tools and technology.

Getting Better: Marketing Insider Groups content marketing manager job description has a bit more depth and industry specific terminology, but still lacks personality.

Nearly Just Right: HubSpot’s 12 Marketing Job Descriptions aren’t limited to just content marketing roles, so you’ll find a little bit of everything here. What I liked best about these are the use of industry statistics to demonstrate the importance and scope of influence of the role – marketers love to be flattered and we’re all looking for a way to make a noticeable impact. Word choice was also very empowering and can be used to demonstrate the importance and perspective the organization puts on marketing. Some examples: “own the majority of our inbound funnel”, “offers and downloadable content are the backbone of inbound marketing”.

Think of the content marketing job descriptions above as a paint by number set. You’ve got the outlines to guide you along, but you choose the way to color them in. Here are some ways you can build upon the templates to craft the perfect content marketing job description:

• Include a relevant industry stat to show the importance of the role and potential impact for the company
• Include examples of some of your top performing content to-date in as many relevant formats as possible
• A qualitative and quantitative description of how success will be measured in this role
  • Share an example of performance reporting or content stats that you’d expect this person to be held to

Quick tip: Some other things to consider when writing a job description is to understand  what motivates employees  (perks? Ability to take ownership of projects? Flexible schedule?) and understand what a creative employee will appreciate in a  job description.

 Content Marketing Job Description Examples 

Still stuck? Here are job descriptions for content marketing roles that caught our eye. When writing your own description, consider what skills are critical to the role you’re hiring for. Most content marketers understand employers are looking for a hybrid combination of skills. According to the Creative Group’s 2017 Salary Guide:

Hybrid professionals are in demand. Creatives with skills outside their specialty are highly marketable. In addition, digital proficiency is becoming a prerequisite for many traditional roles. For example, graphic designers now need to be familiar with web layouts or social media, and copywriters must have knowledge of search engine optimization. Expect this pattern to persist as cross-departmental collaboration becomes the norm.

Some skills to consider in your job description include: data analysis, SEO, design, social media, video, project management and more.

Content Marketing Manager (Drift) 

For the full description, check out the link above. We love the clarity this description provides for what this role will be doing at the company.

What you will be doing on the marketing team at Drift:

• You will lead our Content team, which includes managing internal and external writers, but you will still be a writer first: this job is far from middle management. You’ll be expected to create and produce 90% of the time, so if you love managing people and creating, then you’ve come to the right place.

• You’ll be writing all different types of content — from interviews to original research to case studies and product launches.

• In addition to creating regular content for the Drift blog (2-3x/week), you’ll become a regular contributor to blogs outside of Drift (guest posts, contributed columns, etc.)

• You’ll work across the marketing team to provide content and copy as needed for the Drift website, speaking decks, email copy, Drift Studios, and more.

• You will also be responsible for running our podcast, Seeking Wisdom. This includes managing the team that creates and edits new episodes, the editorial calendar of upcoming guests, promotion for new episodes and more.

Content Strategist (New York Times) 

For the full job, check out their listing on LinkedIn. We loved the introduction’s description of the company and how the role fits in.

T Brand Studio is a fast-growing team of energetic writers/editors, content strategists, videographers, designers and developers creating branded content for The New York Times’s advertisers. Our clients cover the gamut of the New York Times’s advertisers. Increasingly, our clients are looking to T Brand Studio to help them unearth stories to tell on their own channels.

The T Brand Studio Services team is looking for a content strategist to conduct editorial consulting projects. Content strategists work in concert with our 60+ strong creative and production team, leading editorial strategy for multiple branded content projects. The tasks include: conducting pre-sale research, concepting and ideation for branded editorial strategies; presenting to clients and leading senior/executive client meetings; brainstorming, on-site reporting, writing and editing white papers and comprehensive reports. This role is heavily editorial, almost entirely client facing and has a significant travel component. 

Blogger (Adidas)

For the complete description, check  out the link above. In this case we love their key relationships section. If a job has special requirements, building it out into it’s own section might be a good idea. It will help the applicants understand it’s importance.

Key Relationships

• US and Global Business Units and Digital Communications leads.

• US eCommerce Marketing team and the broader US eCommerce team in Portland which includes Site Merchandising, Analytics, Operations, and Brand Communications.

• Newsroom, SEO, Category Owners and Brand Activation.

In addition to having an awesome job description, remember, the company the description is for plays a huge role in talent’s interest. If you’re still not having luck recruiting the right content marketers, have a look at your company culture.

For more on taking your content marketing career to the next level, check out this guide we created with LinkedIn.

Job Market Overview

Content marketing jobs have grown over 350 percent since 2011. The highest concentration of content marketing jobs are in Massachusetts, New York, and California. While some say the forecast for content marketing roles is bleak, others predict content marketing roles will grow and responsibilities will shift to include changing technologies and story-consuming preferences.

Examples of content marketing skills expected as a requirement in the next fives years include augmented and virtual reality, chatbot marketing, and live video. As responsibilities and skill sets grow for content marketers, so do their salaries.

Content Marketing Salary Survey

Creative salaries are increasing. When determining your content marketing salary, consider years of experience, location, and industry. Top resources for calculating average salary include:

• Robert Half Creative Group Salary Guide: A personal calculator supplements this guide. Enter your experience, industry, and location to receive a custom salary range. According to Robert Half, the national average content marketing salary for managers in 2017 is $70,000 to $103,000.
• Glassdoor: Glassdoor gives national and location-specific content marketing salary information. Glassdoor also provides data on company-specific compensation.  According to Glassdoor, the national average salary for content marketing managers is $68,348.
• PayScale: PayScale breaks content marketing salary into subcategories including commission and bonus and can produce a custom salary report based on your experience and skills. According to PayScale, the national average salary for content marketing managers is $64,776.

Quick tip: Want a nice pay bump? Change your title to content strategist. They made between 81k and 104k in 2017.

How to Get a Raise

Asking for a raise requires courage and preparation. Though the average content marketing salary is increasing and the interest in content marketing is growing, many teams are choosing to hire contractors instead of full-time employees or try their hand at supplementing with technology rather than full-time hires. Here are a few things top-content marketers think you should do to help impress your boss and get a raise.

Work Outside of Work

If you’re new to the content marketing space and trying to break in, the best thing you can do to get hired with a competitive starting salary is do content marketing as part of a passion project. Interested in tap-dancing animals? Create a website and grow an audience. We also suggest practicing answers to these questions.

In a similar vein, create notoriety for yourself prior to interviewing. Here’s why:

Develop More Skills

Another challenge in advancing your content marketing career is developing the variety of skills required to succeed. Expanding on these will help in getting a raise.

Arnie Kuenn, CEO of Vertical Measures | @ArnieK

“There are many different roles in content marketing, all requiring different skill sets. But there is one thing I recommend anyone involved in content marketing do to make themselves more valuable to their organization; that is to truly understand your brand’s customer journey so that you can build a strategy that puts the right (optimized) content in front of your customer at the right time. If you become an expert at that, you will be unique within your organization.”

Skills required for content marketers outside writing include html, Google Analytics, programming, marketing strategy, content strategy, thought leadership and brand development.

ROI

Many experts agree one of the best things you can do for a salary bump is prove you’re returning the investment the company is making on you.

Lee Odden, CEO at Top Rank Marketing | @leeodden

“The smartest thing a content marketer can do to increase their salary is to make a clear connection between content marketing strategy, tactics implemented and increased ROI. Marketers are an investment and there’s no better reason to increase that investment than a proven increase in return.”

Quick tips for making the ROI argument to your manager:

• Use numbers: you’re asking for a numerical increase in your content marketing salary. It only makes sense to use numerical reasons to support that increase.
• Track against larger marketing and company goals. Your company is looking to increase revenue, prove your content is helping with this.

Barry Feldman, Author of 'The Road to Recognition' | @FeldmanCreative

“Prove you’ve earned it by help the person that’s responsible for deciding what your salary is find the money. Do everything you can to demonstrate how your work drives the traffic, leads and sales that affects the top line and/or decreases the marketing costs that affect the bottom line.”

Pam Didner, B2B Marketing Consultant | @PamDidner

“Make an effort to demonstrate the value you add to the company and other marketing teams. Then, be strategic and articulate the benefits of content marketing to upper management. It’s Do, Show and Tell!”

www.pamdidner.com

Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder of Orbit Media | @crestodina

“Your boss wants to measure ROI, so the skill that has the biggest impact on your perceived value (and therefore your ability to command higher pay) is Analytics. Be the person who can show which actions drive results and which investments are a waste of money. You’ll hold the key to marketing insights …and to a bigger paycheck.”

www.orbitmedia.com

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich and author of Spin Sucks | @ginidietrich

“Show results! While we certainly can prove attribution, if you can show how your content marketing efforts tie to business results, you can ask for that raise. Start with attribution. Move to lead nurturing. And then to the jackpot at the end of the rainbow—a boost in revenue. While content marketing works in tandem with other sales and marketing efforts, if you set up your reporting to show how your efforts brought the lead in, nurtured them, and helped them make a decision to buy, attribution goes to you. Use it the next time you ask for a bump in your salary.”

If you aren’t sure if you’re generating ROI for your organization, you’re not alone. Before asking for a raise, take some time to develop an ROI measurement process your manager supports. Also start getting feedback from the sales team or customer success. If other teams can anecdotally support your claims that your content is helping them close and retain revenue, all the better.

Bernie Borges, Podcaster, CMO of Vengreso | @bernieborges

“A content marketer who directly and indisputably helps the sales team create more qualified sales conversations has the best chance of earning more compensation.”

Stay Current

Ann Handley, Head of Content at MarketingProfs | @MarketingProfs

“Stay curious and keep your skills current. ABS (Always be sharpening!) your content knowledge and skills.”

Todd Wheatland, Author and Speaker, Global Strategy at King Content | @ToddWheatland

“Most people avoid recognising what it is that motivates them, and asking for what they want. It doesn’t matter if you’re an outstanding performer; if you don’t make it clear to your employer what’s important to you, then you are going to lose out comparatively to those that do. Once you’ve found the courage to do that – and let’s face it, most people never will – it’s important to have a sense of both the external market value of your capability, and the reality within your current organization. In my experience, avoid at all costs making it about ‘I could be earning more money somewhere else.’ Stay focused on your current role, the work you’re delivering and the impact you’re having. Make it easy for someone to say Yes – show clearly that you understand what’s important to the overall organization, and how you’re quantifiably driving towards that metric.”

Carla Johnson, Keynote Speaker, Author, Storyteller | @CarlaJohnson

“The best thing a content marketer can do to bump up their salary is to get curious. There are lots of skills a person can learn, but that’s a reactionary approach. That’s seeing where they may get behind the curve and then catching up.  Curious people find opportunities everywhere. They dig into the world around them, understand why ideas and experiences work or inspire the, connect that back to their work and generate great ideas one after the other. Ideas that work within the constraints of the working world. This is how people contribute ideas that excite others and help brands stand out from the crowd. Bosses are strapped for time and have a ton on their plate. But deep down, they always want to deliver the best, most creative work possible. When you consistently make your boss’s job easier and look great at the same time, you become the golden child. And that will always bump up your salary.”

No matter your location, years’ experience or the content marketing salary you’re trying to reach, there are a few things you can do to help get you there.

Improve your marketability by showing off your marketing chops both on and off the court, in and out of the office. Create and grow an audience in your free time.

Make yourself a “multi-sport” athlete. Expand your expertise beyond just writing and into SEO, coding, design, email, paid marketing and more.

Exceed your numbers. If you’re lucky enough to be part of a content marketing team that already has an understanding of how to measure content marketing, then do your best to assure you’re exceeding expectations when it comes to achieving ROI. If your team doesn’t measure ROI for content marketing efforts, create and install a process.

To find out more on how to take the next step in your marketing career, download Curata and LinkedIn’s eBook: The Ultimate Guide to a Content Marketing Career.