If you want to become a content manager, there are a few key skills that you need. It’s a role that can be part marketing manager, part copywriter, and part editor. You’re responsible for the overview of the whole content marketing system, and the strategy, and making sure the plan is put into action.
As a content manager for some pretty awesome brands, I’m here to share some tips on how you can make the move from copywriter or marketing exec to becoming a content manager.
How to become a content manager
First of all, you’re gonna need some rock-solid copywriting skills for content management. A firm grounding in SEO is also important as you’ll want your content to bring people to your website. And you’ll also need that growth manager knowledge.
It also won’t hurt to have a favourite content management system and email marketing software. But if you’re an outsourced content manager, like me, then you’ll get lots of experience using many of them (and it’s why I’m always happy to recommend software).
Then you’ll need good project management skills. If you’re working with a small team, you need to make sure the work is getting done on time for the next stage of the content process. When you work with a wider team, one bottleneck can throw out all the deadlines. This is particularly important when you’re dealing with fast-moving content – the kind of stuff that falls out of your campaigns or daily content and is responding to an event or viral post.
This is when the leadership skills crop up. If you’re managing a team who is doing the delivery, then you need to know they will react in the right ways to an unexpected event.
Think about that Weetbix and Heinz Beans tweet. Brands needed to trust their social media people to hop onto that without going through slow layers of approval. A content manager will usually flag up these campaigns and make a decision (or give space for the team to do their best work) at speed.
Finally, a good content manager needs expert editing skills. A content manager is essentially an editor of a website. They decide what is newsworthy enough for publishing and what stories they need to tell. When you think of content management in this way, you can see how having that overview of all the moving parts makes a big difference in what content can do for your business.
Copywriting skills
The basis of a good content manager will need excellent content writing skills and copywriting expertise.
And if you fancy finding out how being a content writer differs from being a copywriter, check this out here.
At the heart of understanding what makes good content is understanding the audience. I’ve always thought that journalism training is a solid basis for writing. You get used to tight deadlines and justifying why the article needs to exist – why the audience will want to read it. And you get good at eeking out the right information to tell the story.
As Rin Hamburgh, owner of the copywriting agency, Rin Hamburgh & Co, explains:
“Being a journalist trains you to do a number of things. First, you’re always thinking about your reader. What interests them, what do they need to know, what will entertain them? You haven’t got a sale agenda. Second, you become an expert at spotting the hook. What’s the one core message or take away that each piece of content is trying to communicate? And finally, you know how to draw the right information from people. This is vital for the briefing stage of a content project, especially if you’re working with complex of technical subjects.
“That said, to be a good content creator you have to have additional skills. Unlike in journalism, where reading the copy is the end goal, as a content marketer you need to drive business results. Which means there’s a lot more strategic thinking to be done, you need to drive some sort of action and be able to deliver a return on investment.”
There is nothing worse than producing work for the sake of it. And if you can’t justify why it exists on your (or your client’s) website, then do you really need it?
Editing
The best content happens when you edit. Having good editing skills is probably more important than writing something great in the first place.
Being able to turn a piece of work into something of beauty is a real challenge. I’ll admit that my most nerve-wracking work is editing the writing of other copywriters. They are great writers and it’s an absolute honour to go through and edit their work.
Likewise, I like to get someone else to edit my work.
No one is above having a good editor look over their work. And editing is a partnership – one that is often hidden and silent.
Now, I love editing work. It’s a bit like writing a review of a truly crap band. You can get the knives out and cut away. You are seeing the work from a totally different, outside perspective because when you write, you become too close to it.
You get word-blind after a while and a good editor can see what your work should be.
I particularly like this analogy from Chi Ndimele, proofreader and copy editor:
Editing does to content what salt does to food. Any content that doesn’t go through the editing process is a pain to read. But maybe, as a content writer, you already appreciate that editing your content is important. Hiring an editor will help you focus time on building your business, get a fresh perspective on your content, improve your bottom line, and get the most out of your content.
Website Management
You’ll need to be confident in uploading the content, making it look pretty and checking there are no dead links. Basic website housekeeping.
Websites can be complex – more so when there’s e-commerce involved or growth funnels. My best recommendation is to map the content. This will help keep a tight content structure (good for SEO) and know where everything is coming from and going to (good for your future self).
Data analysis
It would be nice to think that content management was all creating the words and videos. Doing the fun stuff. But it isn’t.
It’s a lot of sitting in Google Analytics and Search Console. It’s pouring over data and spreadsheets and then making plans as a result of that data. Or tweaking your strategy as a result of that data.
Content management absolutely should be data-driven. Else how do you know if what you are producing needs to exist in the first place?
You need to know what is working, what is driving traffic and sales, to do more of that good stuff. Otherwise, it’s a bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that some of it sticks.
This means getting your head around Google Analytics and getting ready for the latest updates and changes. It means pouring over the stats of your email marketing campaigns and knowing what you need to do to build your brand on social media.
Knowing your data is only effective if you can then make decisions on what you learn AND put it into action. A fancy report at the end of each month is useless unless you can identify why something didn’t work and what you can do better next time.
Project Management
I had a conversation with a copywriting agency the other week about things we wished we’d known when going freelance. The whole account management side was completely new to me and is to a lot of consultants.
Here’s what usually happens. You sit and write content for a company. The freelancer swans in once a week to do a bit of work and then disappears again. Their time is their own and they are probably getting paid a bit more than you. So you think, ‘I can do that’.
Then the reality bites you on the butt.
Instead of having one boss, you now have several that you need to keep happy. And as luck would have it, all of their deadlines land on the same day. That day you’d planned to do something fun and special for yourself.
There are so many moving parts to content management that you are also effectively a project manager. You need to time what goes out and when to get the right message across and build trust for an end product that needs to be solved.
You might be managing people who do the social media, newsletter, and blogs so you’ll need to keep all of that tied together. Or you might be doing some or all of those things yourself.
You’ve got deadlines and clients all on different project management systems.
If you’re not organised, you will fall flat on your arse here. You need to be an Account Manager as well as a Content Manager if you are going to do this as a consultant. That takes a lot of time and experience.
You may be a great writer or data analyst but it all falls apart if you haven’t got the organisational skills of a Mum of five on a school morning to project manage everyone and everything.
Social Media
A content manager needs to be good at managing the content throughout its whole life span and that means social media.
Social media management is not content management. But… if you are going to be a good content manager then you need to know how your content is going to be used on social media platforms and when. You are the person who ties it all together.
This means understanding the changes on the social platforms your brand uses and how those changes might impact your strategy. For example, Instagram put more oomph behind video and many brands saw a drop in their Instagram reach. But my brands saw growth because I came up with a plan – one that didn’t take up huge amounts of time – and tested it. We put it in place and the accounts grew.
Strategy and overview
As a content manager, you will need to create and manage the overarching strategy of what’s being produced. You’ll need to know what’s happening and when then keep tabs on progress so you can tweak as you go.
How this might look
Let’s take a podcast series as an example. You might get the raw audio and need to add in the intros and outro (or outsource this to a podcast editor). You will have to set a timetable for when it needs to be live. You’ll have created the transcript, put together the show notes, uploaded it to the podcast host and got it ready to go live on the website.
Then you’ll have sent the social media plan to the social media person, the key points and aims for the newsletter to the newsletter person (unless that’s you), and you might even do some snippets and videos to help promote the podcast. Oh, and you’ll no doubt be coming up with innovative ways to get people to review and rate the podcast.
And then next week you start with the next episode and so forth. But come to the end of the month, you’ll look at those analytics and see which episode attracted the most traffic and leads. You’ll adapt your strategy for the next month accordingly. You’ll do more of what works and less of what does not.
You’ll also understand how the podcast strategy fits into the wider content marketing strategy and, ultimately, sales. This will impact the copy, the episode content and how else you might use it.
And if asked by the client, you’ll know your stats and facts because you are so immersed in it and what’s going on.
Leadership and communication
One of the most surprising things about being a content manager is how much you need to lead a team, even if it’s a virtual team. While you may do all of the job yourself, you will still need to liaise with clients and anyone on their team who relies on or supports your work.
For example, your client may have a VA who does part of the project management. I work with lots of my clients’ VAs to set deadlines and who generally do a brilliant job of keeping everything on track.
Or you might have a couple of marketing people in the team. I often work closely with the marketing manager or brand manager to make sure the team is connecting the dots to other events happening in the business.
A brand person cares that everything remains on brand. And that there’s no messing outside of the guidelines. The developer will want to site that works fast. And a designer, a site that looks pretty. Your client will want the best value for money.
Whereas you will be wanting a website that works for all these things, plus usability, SEO, and content design, and is future-proofed in case something should happen to you and your client is spinning the website plates until they get another content manager.
The key to working with others is always good communication. I make sure I have regular check-ins with clients. Often on a weekly basis, sometimes less frequent depending on the work. This stops things drifting and makes you good at your job. If you want to become a content manager then you’ll need to have first-class communication skills.
Communicating with a remote team is a skill. It wasn’t until the first lockdown that I realised some people struggled with how they were going to do things when no one was in the office. Given that when I worked in an office, most people would email rather than walk over to talk to me, I found this a little surprising.
I’m a phone person. And I like other phone people. Those who think it’s easier and clearer to go through something in a call and then send a round-up of actions at the end.
I also like apps like Slack that keep things out of my emails. Although there are times when I wonder why I have twenty different channels of communication depending on the team.
And if you have a team who is unfamiliar with an app that you know works, help them get their heads around it to use it. They’ll thank you for being so supportive and it will make everyone more productive in the long run.
How to become a content manager
So these are all the skills you need to be a content manager, but how do you actually become one? I can tell you how I became a content manager but that might not be the path that you take. Although there are some things I think every content manager should do before they slap on the job title.
1. Start by uploading your own work
Want to get into the nitty-gritty of websites? Build your own and start by writing about something that interests you. Then you can test and play around in your own space. Find the things that work and that don’t.
2. Do some training
I did a degree in Journalism. The stuff I learned over those few years taught me a lot about writing for an audience and story structure. Plus the basic stuff you need online (although there was less online writing back then) such as headlines, stand firsts and pull quotes.
3. Write lots and ask for more responsibility
If you are already writing blogs for clients then this is a great start. The next step is to ask to upload the blog onto the site yourself. This is the best way to start interacting with websites and playing with how the copy looks on the front end.
4. Get nerdy
If you’ve already got your own site, start getting nerdy with the stats and everything that it can do. Again, test apps and plugins. I started managing membership sites because a client was stuck with a problem and I managed to solve it. Then I could advise others who have the same software on what to do.
5. Start small and work upwards
Yep, like your old-school careers advisor, you’re going to need to start from the bottom and work your way up. By the time you’ve noodled around on your own site, you are going to know a lot more than other people. Show what you can do rather than tell people. Show how you put together a content management strategy and execute it. It’s okay to model on your own site.
What qualifications do you need to be a content manager?
I did my degree in journalism, which is incredibly useful for content marketing. If you want to become a content manager, getting qualifications in copywriting or marketing will be a significant help. Personally, learned marketing on the job.
I worked at an independent record label and was responsible for the sales and marketing of several US record labels in the UK and Europe as well as the main record label. I picked up marketing skills at breakneck speed because that is what was needed and I’m still putting that experience to good use today.
The industry might be different and the systems we use have completely changed but the basic principles remain the same. People might have changed how they buy with the advent of content marketing but the foundations that sit underneath are still very much the same.
And that’s it. I think it’s the best job in the world. Full of different things happening every day, problems to solve, data to analyse and writing to do.
If you’re looking for an outsourced content manager for your brand, get in touch.