How to Hire a Content Marketer

Looking to hire a Content Marketer?

This hiring kit will give you the guidance needed to hire the right content marketer, the first time.

The term “content marketer” can refer to a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. You might be running solo and looking to bring in someone to jumpstart your content marketing initiative. Or, perhaps you have an expanding business who is looking to add talent to an existing content team.

This hiring kit includes:

Job Titles and Descriptions

It’s important to know what role you’d like your new hire to fill. A fully fleshed-out content marketing team at a large corporation will include most, if not all, of these roles while a small operation might include only one.

We’ll begin with a high-level overview of each position:

Chief Content Officer – Executive-level content creator, responsible for creation and distribution of all digital content across all brands as they develop, lead, and enforce the voice and strategic branding of the organization.

Director of Editorial – The top editor on a content team who manages a team of content producers. They often manage vendor relationships, strategic partnerships, and supervise, plan, and set strategy for the content team.

Managing Editor – Oversees design and content, managing a group of writers, freelancers, and researchers. Reviews all assignments before publication to assure accuracy and brand alignment. Leads and directs the work of writers, freelancers, and other content producers.

Copy Editor – Reviews raw content and improves formatting, style, accuracy, and brand alignment. Assures content is easily digestible and free of errors.

Graphic Designer – Assembles images, typography, and other visuals to make visual content engaging and memorable while maintaining brand consistency.

SEO – Responsible for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, fixing or making recommendations to fix technical issues related to search and optimizing multichannel content (YouTube, Pinterest, blog, etc.) to achieve the highest return on investment.

Brand Journalist – Produces a variety of multimedia that communicates brand value to a company’s customers including customer stories, case studies, and white papers that convert prospects into customers.

Video Marketing Manager – Creates and leverages interviews, testimonials, demos, and other storytelling styles on video format to strengthen emotional connections, engagement levels, and marketing initiatives.

Social Media Manager – Creates and distributes content across social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to establish brand authority, manages company reputation, provides social customer care, facilitates partnerships with key influencers on the social web, and introduces offers where appropriate.

Community Manager – Creates and distributes content to an identified community (internal or external, owned or unowned) to facilitate conversation and relationship-building between community members.

It’s important to note that the positions listed above are roles, not necessarily individual people with individual titles. If you are a smaller company, you might have one person who fulfills several of these roles.

"Your Managing Editor is your foundation upon which your content team is built." In most cases, if you’re building a brand new content team, hire the Managing Editor role first. The right Managing Editor for a budding content team can be a “jack of all trades” that handles a myriad of roles and responsibilities, particularly with written content. When hiring a one-person content team, look for an individual with superb Managing Editor skills but, remember, any additional skills (SEO, video, graphic design) will be enormously valuable to a budding content team.

Your Managing Editor is your foundation upon which your content team is built. Add new members to this team based on the gaps presented by your Managing Editor. For example, your Managing Editor may be a great writer and knows how to handle Photoshop, but not so hot at SEO and video marketing. Use your next hire to close the video marketing and SEO gaps.

Use the organizational chart below when you are ready to add specialists and expand your content team.

Organizational Chart

Your organizational chart will depend on the size of your organization, the temperament, talent, and experience of your team members (among other things), but the configuration below is a solid starting point for many organizations:

Remember, if you’re just getting started — begin by hiring the Managing Editor role.

When your team grows to five or more, consider adding a Director of Editorial position. And, for those with fully fleshed out content teams with multiple hires in the same role (multiple social media marketers, video marketers, etc.) start looking to add a Chief Content Officer.

(NOTE: Want to be a content marketing master? Get our step-by-step plan for turning content into free, organic traffic and get certified as a Content Marketing Specialist. And for a limited time, save 90% on our Content Mastery Certificate Course. But hurry! This deal ends August 31, 2017 at midnight.)

Job Posting Builder

The following section is designed to build a custom job posting appropriate for your unique circumstances. The makeup of your job posting will depend on the skills needed by your company, salary available, and availability of talent.

A thorough job posting has six components:

Position Summary
Roles & Responsibilities
Skill Requirements
Education & Experience
Benefits & Salary
About the Company

Step 2: Choose Roles & Responsibilities

In this next step, you will add detail to the role this new hire will play in your organization. Keep in mind, finding a candidate who will fit each and every role or responsibility below is not possible. For example, you’re unlikely to find a candidate with proficiency in SEO, copy editing, and graphic design. 3.1_Quotebox2

Consider creating a job posting with certain roles and responsibilities listed that are absolutely necessary and others listed as “nice to haves.”

Now, choose the roles and responsibilities for which you want to hire. Common job titles associated with the roles are noted in parentheses.

Key:

(CCO) Chief Content Officer
(DE) Director of Editorial
(ME) Managing Editor
(CE) Copy Editor
(GD) Graphic Designer
(SEO) SEO
(BJ) Brand Journalist
(VMM) Video Marketing Manager
(SMM) Social Media Manager
(CM) Community Manager

Developing and managing a content marketing strategy that supports organizational goals across all brands and customer avatars, from the top to the bottom of the marketing and sales funnel including [ENTER ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS e.g. Increasing Brand and Offer Awareness, Growing Website Traffic, Generating Leads, Acquiring Customers, Retaining Customers]. (CCO, DE)

Lead efforts on customer and competitive research to refine brand positioning and build brand recognition. (CCO)

Oversee existing Content Team and support team growth, development, and implementation of new initiatives. (CCO, DE)

Develop and manage key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the objectives of the organization. (CCO, DE)

Create, edit, and manage the production of digital and print content that is consistent with the organization’s brand, style, and tone. (CCO, DE)

Develop and maintain a content calendar that attracts and appeals to the organization’s target customer avatars. (CCO, DE)

Creation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the planning, execution, optimization, distribution, and amplification of the organization’s content. (CCO, DE, ME)

Managing in-house and outsourced content creators, editors, data analysts, graphic designers, videographers, developers, etc. (CCO, DE)

Defining, creating, and upholding the organization’s Style Guide. Overseeing the scheduling, publication, and overall consistency of [YOUR ORGANIZATION]’s content assets. (ME)

Coordinating day-to-day editorial operations, managing in-house and outsourced content creators, editors, graphic designers, videographers, developers, etc. (ME)

Reviewing all assignments before publication to ensure material is accurate and on-brand. (ME)

Leading and directing the work of content produced by content team members including text, images, audio, and video, making sure all team members are on task and meeting deadlines. (ME)

Assisting in ideation, planning, and execution of the editorial and content marketing calendar that attracts and appeals to the organization’s various customer avatars. (ME)

Monitoring and reporting on content marketing metrics and KPIs. (ME, DE)

Ensuring readability of content by identifying and correcting mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. (CE, ME)

Checking accuracy of facts, dates, names, captions, statistics, etc. located in all content. (CE, ME)

Maintaining consistency of the brand by upholding the organization’s style guide standards on tense, voice, tone, and the spelling/capitalization of certain words as they relate to the organization. (CE, ME)

Identifying successful content and mapping out new ways to repurpose (i.e. a blog post into a YouTube video) to amplify the organization’s message. (CE, ME)

Creating copy, engaging headlines and subheads, proofreading, and deep line editing for spelling, grammar, and brand consistency. (CE, ME)

Creating and maintaining brand consistency through the use of the organization’s branding and style guide standards on logos, colors, typography, and other graphic collateral. (GD)

Designing engaging and creative images for use in a variety of digital assets including social media, images for written content, presentations, etc. (GD)

Collaborating closely with other members of the content team to brainstorm and plan editorial calendar by determining scope and realistic deadlines for various design content. (GD)

Creating accurate graphics, charts, graphs, etc. that visually support the context of given content. (GD)

Defining editorial standards for maximizing search success on all content including the website, blog, social media platforms, and other communication channels. (SEO)

Monitoring and reporting on search metrics and demonstrating continuous improvement of the SEO strategy. (SEO)

Identifying search traffic growth opportunities for content and products based on analytics. (SEO)

Researching, reporting, and addressing changes in search engine algorithms. (SEO)

Recommending and executing on testing strategies to improve conversion rates on content pages. (SEO)

Troubleshooting and tracking site performance including social sharing, page load speed, and other technical issues related to search marketing. (SEO)

Conducting keyword optimization research for new and existing content pages. (SEO)

Researching the latest in search engine compliance and guidelines and adjusting strategy as necessary. (SEO)

Developing, writing, and distributing press release articles to applicable media outlets. (BJ)

Creating content that is optimized for search and social media traffic. (BJ, ME)

Uncovering unique and interesting stories for multiple audiences (customer, employee, or related industry news) and determining the best platform and audience to distribute. (BJ)

Maintaining a deadline-driven editorial calendar that coordinates time-sensitive articles with general-interest stories. (BJ)

Identifying opportunities to promote specific key messages and company initiatives to customers and the general media. (BJ)

Producing and/or directing video content for YouTube and other video platforms. (BJ, VMM, ME)

Locating and/or initiating creation of engaging and relevant images to complement stories. (BJ, GD, ME)

Creating a video marketing project plan that aligns with organizational content marketing goals. (VMM)

Managing the production of video content (shooting, editing, uploading, optimizing, and adding effects) for use on the organization’s video channels. (VMM)

Managing the production (shooting, editing, uploading, adding effects) of promotional video content for use in selling products and services. (VMM)

Coordinating with the content marketing team to distribute videos that support other content efforts. (VMM)

Leveraging interviews, testimonials, demos, and other storytelling styles to meet the needs of the target audience. (VMM)

Strategically examining available platforms and apps to ensure video content is being widely distributed. (VMM)

Optimizing videos for search engines using keyword-enriched descriptions and tags. (VMM, SEO)

Developing and maintaining a social media strategy that actively addresses listening, networking, influencing, and selling on the social web. (SMM)

Identify authoritative and influential individuals and brands on the social web and implement a social networking strategy to facilitate and nurture strategic partnerships. (SMM)

Monitoring and responding to customer service and reputation management issues on the social web using social listening tools. (SMM)

Establishing authority on the social web through the distribution and sharing of valuable content produced internally and externally. (SMM)

Generating leads and sales from existing customers and prospects on the social web through the distribution of appropriate offers. (SMM)

Monitoring discussions and trends as they pertain to the company, products, and brand. Identifying and reporting trends in sentiment and advising on potential opportunities for content and product creation. (SMM)

Monitoring and measuring the success of social media strategy (i.e. increased engagement, customer acquisition, website traffic, etc.). Identifying, analyzing, and reporting on social media trends to internal team. (SMM)

Creating and maintaining a vibrant sense of community by establishing and upholding the company’s Community Guidelines. (CM)

Addressing customer service issues, both proactively and reactively, that present themselves inside the community. (CM)

Monitoring discussions and trends within the community. Identifying and reporting trends in usage and advising on potential opportunities for content and product creation. (CM)

Monitoring and measuring the success of community engagement (i.e. number of users, number of discussions, etc.). Identifying, analyzing, and reporting on community trends to internal team. (CM)

Identifying key community members and providing opportunities for them to participate on a higher engagement level. (CM)

Identifying and welcoming new members and providing opportunities to introduce and involve them in the community. (CM)

Serving as the primary liaison between community members and the company and act as the community’s primary advocate to the company. (CM)

Step 3: Choose Skill Requirements

In this next step, you’ll choose the specific skills required for this position. As with the roles and responsibilities section, it won’t be possible (or likely necessary) to find a candidate that possesses all of the below skills.

Again, consider listing some skills as necessary and others as an added bonus. Also, list specific hardware, software, or applications your organization is using such as Adobe Creative Suite, Hootsuite, or Lumix GH5 cameras in this section.

Choose which role you want to hire. Common job titles associated with these skills are noted in parentheses.

Content Marketing – Demonstrated experience with successful management and execution of a content marketing strategy. (CCO, DE, ME, GD, SEO, BJ, VMM, SMM, CM)

Leadership – Successful experience leading a team in a project driven environment. (CCO, DE, ME)

Search Engine Optimization – A demonstrated ability to drive traffic to web properties from search engines. (CCO, DE, ME, SEO, BJ)

Social Media Marketing – Proven experience using social media channels to distribute and amplify the organization’s content, manage reputation, develop relationships, and drive website traffic. (CCO, DE, SMM, ME)

Editing – Proven editorial skills including strong language skills and the ability to adjust content to remain consistent with brand, style, and tone. (CCO, DE, ME, CE)

Blogging – Successful management of a business blog that furthers organizational goals. (CCO, DE, ME, CE, BJ)

WordPress – The ability to create content within and troubleshoot issues with the WordPress platform. (ME, CE, SEO)

Copywriting – An understanding of how to create and present content that persuades. (CCO, DE, ME, CE, BJ, SMM)

Lead Generation – Demonstrated experience with using digital and/or print content to generate leads and sales. (CCO, DE, ME)

Analytics – An excellent command of analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics or Omniture, to adjust marketing strategy and tactics. (CCO, DE, ME, SMM)

Design Platforms – Superior proficiency in creating images and photo manipulation with photo design platforms include Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Acrobat Pro. (GD)

Creative – A distinct creative mind in regards to typography, layout, design, and production, as evident by a professional portfolio. (GD)

Organization: Demonstrated ability to multi-task and meet a variety of deadlines. (ME, CE, GD, BJ, VMM)

Coding – Familiarity with HTML and CSS is required; more advanced knowledge of PHP and JavaScript preferred. (SEO, ME)

Critical Thinking – Ability to identify trends and adjust strategy using analytical and quantitative problem-solving. (SEO, VMM, ME)

Journalism – Demonstrated experience in investigating and producing research-based content. (BJ, ME)

Video Production – Demonstrated ability to create compelling visual stories that align with organizational goals. (BJ, VMM)

YouTube Optimization – Ability to drive traffic to video content from search engines and optimize videos for YouTube search. (VMM, SEO)

Social Media Marketing– Prove experience using social media channels to distribute and amplify the organization’s content; familiar with features, audience, and maintenance of key social media platforms. (SMM)

Social Customer Care – Demonstrated ability to handle a variety of customer service-related issues on the social web. (SMM, CM)

Communication Skills – Superior ability to create compelling narratives for internal and external audiences. (SMM, CM, BJ, ME)

Community Management – Demonstrated ability to develop and execute short and long-term community management strategies that influence growth, engagement, and community culture. (CMM)

Relationship Management – A strong understanding of how communities behave on the social web, and how to develop and maintain positive behaviors. (CM)

Step 4: Choose Education & Experience

The level of education and experience you require for the role will depend on the salary you are willing to offer and the availability of talent in the area you are recruiting.

Keep in mind that digital marketing is still a young vocation. While a veteran in more traditional professions (think accounting or human resources) might have 20+ years of experience, the equivalent in digital marketing might be half that.

Choose the level(s) of education and experience you’ll require for this position.

Technical Training
Bachelor’s Degree
Master’s Degree
1+ years professional experience
3+ years professional experience
5+ years professional experience
10+ years professional experience

Step 5: Add Salary, Benefits, & Company Information

The last step in building a solid job posting is the addition of salary and benefits.

Are you offering health and vision insurance? What about 401k matching? Lastly, add a paragraph or two about your company.

Here’s an example from DigitalMarketer’s job postings:

DigitalMarketer is a research, training, and certification company based in Austin, TX that focuses on sharing what’s new and what’s actually working in digital marketing with small businesses, agencies, and marketing professionals.

Our mission is simple: We want to help double the size of 10,000 small businesses by 2020, and we believe the best way to do that is to train a new breed of digital marketing professions so they’re able to leverage modern distribution channels to generate additional leads and sales for their companies.

We’re passionate about this mission, and we absolutely love what we do. If you would like to share in this mission, and you believe you possess an uncommon blend of marketing genius and entrepreneurial irreverence, then we invite you to apply.

Interview Questions

A successful content marketer will be required to think creatively, strategically, and tactically. They are often also required to manage people and/or projects, meet deadlines, and provide proven experience in their given field of expertise.

The following sample interview questions are intentionally behavioral in that they ask the candidate to describe actual scenarios that reveal their level of experience. These are general questions that we ask our content marketer candidates and should be adjusted to fit the role for which you are hiring.

Tell me about the most creative piece of content you have been involved in creating for an organization.

FOLLOW-UP: How did you market that piece of content?
FOLLOW-UP: What organizational goal did that piece of content meet?
FOLLOW-UP: How did you measure the effectiveness of that piece of content?

Tell me about the most successful content marketing project you have managed.

FOLLOW-UP: What organizational goal did that project meet?
FOLLOW-UP: How many team members did you manage during this project, and what were their roles?
FOLLOW-UP: Describe an obstacle you encountered with a team member in this project, and how you overcame it.
FOLLOW-UP: Describe how this project was organized to meet deadlines and objectives.

Tell me about a YouTube video you created that received a high amount of traffic from the YouTube search function.

FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to optimize the video for search?
FOLLOW-UP: Did you optimize the video yourself, or did you leverage a team member familiar with optimizing for video?

Tell me about a time when you used data and analytics to adjust content marketing strategy or tactics.

Tell me about a time when you discovered a customer giving a negative review of the company on social media.

FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to disarm the situation?
FOLLOW-UP: Describe how this strategy affected how you approach social customer care.

Tell me about a piece of content you were involved in creating that received high rankings and traffic from search engines like Google.

FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to optimize that piece of content for search?
FOLLOW-UP: Did you optimize this content yourself, or did you leverage a team member familiar with search engine optimization?

Tell me about a piece of content you were involved in creating that received high exposure from social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

FOLLOW-UP: What tactics did you use to optimize that piece of content for social media?
FOLLOW-UP: Did you optimize this content yourself, or did you leverage a team member familiar with social media marketing?

Tell me about a piece of content you edited, and how you strengthened that piece of content.

Tell me about a piece of content you were involved in creating that used persuasion to generate leads and/or sales.

FOLLOW-UP: Did you create this piece of content yourself, or did you leverage a team member familiar with copywriting and lead/sales generation?

Where to Find Your Next Content Marketer

To find qualified applicants, you can list your job postings on both free and premium job board websites, including:

Free Job Posting Sites

Glassdoor

Glassdoor is a free resource for job seekers to get access to over eight million company reviews, job listings, salary reports, interview reviews, office photos, and more, so they can get a good feel for what companies are like as they consider applications. Glassdoor gets over 19 million monthly visitors, the vast majority of which are in the US.

Portfolium

Portfolium is great if you’re looking for entry-level positions or internships. This site is a place for college students and recent graduates to showcase their work to potential employers. They have a free job board that you can use to recruit from their pool of one million students based on coursework, projects, and experience.

Upwork

If you’re looking to go the freelance route, UpWork is an online aggregator of a variety of content marketers and other self-employed professionals. They have over 10 million registered freelancers and four million registered clients. While they do offer enterprise-level solutions, you can search and browse their network for free.

Paid Job Posting Sites

Indeed

Indeed has over 180 million unique visitors every month from over 50 different countries, and is one of the leaders in job posting sites. They do offer a free option to post job listings, but they also give you the ability to get paid traffic to your listings to attract more leads.

Workable

Workable is a paid tool that posts your job listing on all major job boards and social networking sites, so you can knock out your recruiting efforts in one fell swoop. It also organizes candidate resumes and has a space for notes and feedback, so you can keep all of your important hiring documents in one place.

As the largest professional networking site, LinkedIn’s job posting feature puts your ad in front of qualified candidates, whether or not they are actively seeking a job. There is a free demo available if you want to check it out.

CareerBuilder

CareerBuilder boasts 24 million unique visitors per month and works with a wide variety of employers, including 92% of the Fortune 1000. It operates in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America and has partnerships with over 1,000 sites, including 140 newspapers.

Simply Hired

Simply Hired is a targeted pay-per-click job board that includes job listings from 24 countries in 12 different languages. They get 30 million unique visits per month and over one billion job searchers every year.

Training Your Content Marketing Team Member

Congratulations on committing the time and energy to hiring the right content marketer, the first time!

Whether you’re hiring your first content marketer or expanding an existing team, consider onboarding your new hire the right way by certifying them as a Content Marketing Specialist.

In this class, your new content marketer will learn the most up-to-date content marketing strategies and methodologies that are actually working TODAY, including:

How to create your Customer Avatar so you can architect a content strategy that attracts leads and buyers.
The eight tools you’ll need to be an effective content marketer.
The TOFU/MOFU/BOFU content strategy that transforms ice cold prospects at the Top of the Funnel (TOFU) into loyal buyers of even your most expensive products and services at the Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU).
The six types of content you need in the Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) to generate targeted leads and prospects.
Five content types that convert leads into serial, high-ticket buyers.
Twelve Goals, 16 Metrics, and 21 different types of content to create a content strategy that is laser-focused on moving the needle for your organization. (Building this content plan is a snap using our Content Marketing Plan worksheets.)
The 60-Second Editorial Planner document that makes content planning a breeze (seriously… you can plan a week of content in less than a minute).
Six simple article tweaks (our favorite is “Hiding Easter Eggs”) you can make to any piece of content that will get it CONSUMED.
The four proven ways to find people that can create content for you (and the two ways you can motivate them to create outstanding content for you).
Two-hundred-twelve blog post ideas that guarantee you’ll never have writer’s block again including…
Eight blog post types that hijack the virality and authority of OPC (Other People’s Content)… you won’t have to write a single word.
The 11 Point SEO Health Check that uncovers the CATASTROPHIC structural issues that will condemn your website to Google Purgatory. (Learning to spot these issues is guaranteed to make you a hero.)
The SEO silo process that has worked since the first blogs went online in the ‘90s, stopped working when the spammers started keyword stuffing and building shady links, and now is the ONLY thing that works to get free Google traffic.
The nine Components of the Perfect Email Newsletter (including, the “Greased Chute” opening and the “Drill Down” P.S. — two tactics that drive email traffic through the roof).
PLUS… you’ll learn the eight organic (free) and five paid traffic channels you can employ to spread your content across the social web. (Adding these traffic strategies to great content is like pouring gasoline on a bonfire.)

Why Should You Get Certified?

If you’re a business owner, this certification is a great way to learn content marketing yourself. It’s also a great way to train and certify members of your own team to ensure they’re up to speed on the latest trends and best practices.

3.1_Quotebox1_v2 If you’re an agency, this certification is a tangible way to show that you are a Content Marketing Specialist, which could help you attract and retain better, higher-paying clients.

If you’re a student, this certificate can set you apart from other graduates who merely have a business or marketing degree, by teaching you specialized skills employers today are desperately seeking.

If you’re an employee or marketing professional, this certificate can make you more valuable to your company, which is the surest way to get that raise or promotion you likely already deserve (but don’t have a tangible reason to request).

How It Will Work

The Content Marketing Mastery class is an advanced, 6 Module, 40 Lesson online course.

At the end of each module, you will be asked to take a short quiz prior to moving on to the next module. Once you have completed the entire course, you can then sit for the final certification exam, and after passing this exam you will earn the “Certified Content Marketing Specialist” designation, complete with displayable badge and printable certificate (suitable for framing).

Ready to learn more and take the next step? Get all the details now.

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