In the modern marketplace, content has become the lynchpin of digital and traditional marketing. The right content can build customer trust and bring companies and brands the reach they need to stay relevant and make sales. Due to this, content marketers have become an invaluable resource. As such, the content marketing salary has increased as its value has become clear.
Companies are increasingly realizing that it makes sense to hire a content team for their brand. These teams can work full-time and dedicate their efforts entirely to the one brand. These teams vary in size and are usually made up of a content marketing manager, a strategist and/or editorial planner, content creators, and a content distributor.
The benefit of hiring a full-time content team is that a brand can streamline their marketing efforts, and optimize the process to the finest degree. Often, this technique is combined with the help of freelancers, which can help with work when necessary. Once a business and it’s executives realize the importance of content marketing, then the process of putting a team together and making a strategy can begin.
What is Content Marketing?
The main purpose of content marketing is to attract and bring in new customers. They create and focus their development efforts on the top of the funnel (TOFU), which is a major method of bringing new customers to a brand. This focus on the “customer journey” is one of the guiding aspects of a content marketer’s work.
Content marketing in such a way is vital to boost your company’s presence online on search engine results. A content strategist’s goal is to bring in new customers or “leads” by optimizing everything with this search engine presence always in mind. The main method of doing this is by collecting email addresses. Content marketers use a variety of tools in the form of content to achieve this. The type of content that is often used includes:
- Blog posts
- Whitepapers
- eBooks
- Long-form writing
- Infographics
- Micrographics
- Videos
- Social media content
- Much more
The difference between content marketing and the more traditional forms of marketing is that the focus is on reaching the maximum number of relevant customers possible. This is based on their previous search patterns and what they are interested in already.
What Do Content Marketers Do?
At the heart of work done by content marketers are the needs and goals of the company they represent. The most vital skill an effective content marketer will bring to the job is the ability to develop and optimize a complete content strategy. This strategy will be built with the company’s needs at the forefront of the design philosophy. They will also pivot this strategy towards the target audience. The goal ultimately is to bring in new customers and ensure repeat business.
Content marketers use a vast array of specialized tools to achieve these goals. Mostly, they use online product advertising aided by researching Google statistics, social media interaction, and SEO (search engine optimization), to ensure the best listing results for the company or product.
Many of these tools are based on the ability to communicate effectively with an audience. For this reason, writers and editors tend to be a good fit for the role of content marketer. The skill of writing clearly, with concise and compelling copy is a vital tool for effective content marketing. Altering tone and style quickly to fit with a specific target audience is also key.
What Do Content Marketing Managers Do?
As part of a content marketing team, the marketing managers oversee content strategies and employ content-delivery plans. This happens across different forms of media including print, audio, video, and others. They can work on various platforms including social media, blogs, and many others. Their main focus is on developing the most effective means of driving customer demands for relevant products and brands and making sure that the given deadlines are met.
Content marketing managers mainly oversee the other members of a marketing team. This includes writers, consultants, and others. They ensure that the quality of work is maintained throughout the process, and conduct relevant reviews to make sure. An important part of being a marketing manager staying up to date with the latest news and development in the fields in which your team works.
An effective marketing manager must be skilled in multiple areas, such as writing, editing, and communication. They should also have strong analytical skills and be able to maintain strong and productive relationships with clients and colleagues alike.
Content marketing is a sector that is growing exponentially. Around 90% of B2C marketers now use relevant content to grow their companies. Due to this, people with these skills are begin sought out for these prepositions.
Those looking to become content marketing managers should expect their responsibilities to include:
- Writing content for multiple platforms (blogs, websites, social media, etc)
- Producing media such as videos, podcasts, and more
- Directing content production and managing teams
- Creating and maintaining content strategy plans and calendars
- Work with other departments such as SEO and PR to optimize the effectiveness of the team’s work
- Tracking KPI and metrics to ensure that goals are being met
What Kind of Content Marketing Salary You Should Expect?
Before finding an accurate answer to this, it’s important to look at a range of resources that can offer a glimpse into what kind of salary you can expect as a content marketing manager.
- PayScale: According to PayScale, the average salary of a content marketing manager is $67,446. It also notes that there are sometimes extra bonuses. On average, these are $5,030 for a standard bonus and around $2,500 in the sharing of profit.
- Glassdoor: Glassdoor says that the average wage for a content marketing manager is around $65,539. The average for content marketing as a whole is around $56,779.
- Salary.com: According to this site, the average wage of a content marketing manager is around $72,938 (as of June 28th, 2020). importantly, it also notes that this can depend on many factors, such as education, certifications, extra skills, and more. When taken into account this means that the wage can vary from between $66,028 and $79,177.
- SimplyHired: According to SimplyHired, the average wage is around $66,060
- Indeed: Indeed.com states that the average salary for a content marketer is around $67,662. This is based on 620 sample salaries submitted by users.
Extra Costs
Due to content marketing being such an open, versatile, and ever-changing market place, the additional costs relating to the work can vary hugely.
While many fantastic free tools can and should be used by content marketers, such as Google Analytics, other vital tools can cost many thousands of dollars per year.
Here are some examples of the most common tools within content marketing, and some of the costs that may be incurred in the process of carrying them out.
Project Management
Asana or Trello are both free to use depending on the team size. For larger teams, other software options will perform better, however the cost increases. These can cost upwards of $500 – $7,500 per year.
Design Software
Canva or Adobe Creative Cloud, and Elementor are all free for their basic services, but quickly increase in price the more you use them. This can vary between $10 – $70 per month, or for businesses they can vary between $3,000 – $20,000 per year.
Social Media Management
Buffer or Hootsuite both range from being free to costing $10 per month. For businesses, this increases to $50 – $300 per month.
Analytics Software
Google Analytics and self-serve tools are free to use, but can also vary between $400 – $10,000 per month depending on the services you opt to use. For some companies, Google Analytics in its 360 version can cost upwards of $1 million per year. This is a testament to how useful their features can be.
Content marketing software
SEMrush has a 7-day free trial, but it can get up to $399.95 per month. And if you’d use Ahrefs, their priciest tier can go to $999 per month.
And these are just basic content marketing tools. There are lots of others that a content marketer is using and can add up some serious costs.
Note that for all of these jobs and their corresponding tools, there are often some great free services that can be used, yet at a professional level you still have to pay.
What Kind of Content Marketing Salary to Pay
As we have seen, there is no simple answer when setting a content marketing salary. Depending on a variety of factors, such as business size, budget, goals, and resources, a salary can range from anywhere between $5,000 to $50,000.
Content marketing is an important job. Without a strategy, content marketing may as well be a game of pin the tail of the donkey. This is the importance of a content marketing team that handles strategy.
It’s important to remember two things when deciding on what to pay for your content marketer.
First, it is not an area you should neglect. Content marketing will only continue to grow in importance as business shifts to a more digital existence.
Second, carefully consider what your business needs from a content marketer. Not all businesses are the same, and each requires a particular, tailored service from a marketing team. Hopefully, this article will help you on your road to hiring a great content marketing team.
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