In Digital, new areas related to promotion, marketing and online business appear every year. One of them was the profession of a content manager - a specialist who fills product cards on marketplaces, websites, social networks with information and selling materials. This is a promising position with a relatively high level of income. In the article we will tell you what a content manager does, what skills are necessary and how to look for a job.
Briefly about the profession
The peculiarity of this profession lies in the fact that each company itself determines the range of responsibilities of a content manager. In one organization, a specialist fills in and formalizes product cards on the Amazon, AliExpress, Allegro, Walmart, Zalando and other marketplaces, and in another, he deals with content on the website or social networks.
However, regardless of the direction, the content manager is a specialist responsible for the product cards of goods and services, writing, posting articles of different genres and purposes. Often, employers require employees to perform related functions: SEO manager, marketer, analyst, designer.
A content specialist is a very responsible position, since the correctness of the posted descriptions, characteristics of goods and services depends on attentiveness.
A content manager can work remotely because the Internet is used to perform job duties and communicate.
What does a content manager do?
A content manager often performs the duties of an editor, copywriter and SMM specialist, so vacancies for the same position can be radically different from each other. However, the key in the profession is the management of text materials and media, i.e. content management.
The main task of the employee is to update the texts on the official website, in product cards on marketplaces, on the wall of groups in social networks. Information must be true and motivate readers to order a product or service. As a rule, a content manager works in a team with a brand manager, marketer, e-com specialist, designer, photographer or artist and copywriters.
The size of the team and the list of functions of a specialist depends on the size of the company. In startups, small online stores, agencies, the content manager takes on not only the management of materials, but also it’s creation or a recruitment of freelancers who can do the job. In this case, the employee is engaged in proofreading, editing, designing finished content, as well as formalizing of a content plan.
In large organizations, a specialist becomes a team leader and organizes the work cycle, i.e. preparing the semantic core, defining marketing goals, writing texts, adding photos, infographics, and publishing content on the site.
Responsibilities
As you already understand, the range of tasks performed by a content manager is flexible and depends directly on the specifics of the enterprise where he works. For the purposes of this article we will try to briefly describe the details of what a content manager should do during the working day.
Materials preparation
This is the obvious and main task of a specialist. The manager must first create a plan for the day, for the week, for the month ahead, which clearly states what he will work with. Determine the required resources and workload. Prepare and monitor the implementation of the content plan, which includes products, topics, article structures, necessary images, layout specifics. Usually a professional does not create content with his own hand, but only writes technical tasks for colleagues and monitors their implementation. Because of this, a content manager must be well versed in the rules of the language, typography, layout, and design in order to adequately evaluate finished works.
For high-quality ranking of texts and descriptions in search results, a content manager must be well versed in SEO features - to know the rules for generating title, description, keywords, h-tags and micro-markup of the websites. For example, photos and infographics are used not only for beauty and informativeness, but if Alt tags are added to the content, search engines will better index the text in which the image is placed. As a result, SEO-friendly text will attract more traffic, which will increase the number of sales.
Most often, companies do not have all the specialists who are involved in the preparation of materials. Therefore, a high-level content manager simply must be able to find suitable employees on freelance and establish interaction with them.
Attributes linking
The duties of a content manager include linking attributes in various information models of product categories on various trading platforms. Attribute linking is one of the most important tasks when setting up a PIM system or converting information models to create templates for exporting and importing goods.
Search for product information
As a rule, filling out a product card requires maximum information about the characteristics of the product, descriptions, photos and media. But, unfortunately, not all information about the product may be available. Therefore, searching for information on the Internet is used. When searching, attention to detail is important, you need to correctly identify authorized search sources, the required characteristics of files, and take into account possible restrictions on intellectual property rights.
Old content optimization
The same content can be used more than once. In this case, repackaging is performed, for example, to remake the article into a post for a social network, stories, infographics.
As with the preparation of new materials, content managers create TOR for subordinates, and in small companies they perform the task on their own. The main thing is to deeply analyze the source, because usually repackaging involves changing the volume of content. A specialist needs to extract valuable excerpts from a long article, which will form the basis of a story or a post on social networks.
Materials typesetting
The publication of articles, according to the content strategy, requires knowledge of HTML and CSS hypertext markup languages, style sheets which typically used to create the appearance of the page. Headings, paragraphs, quotation design are not done with buttons, as in Word, but with tags that you need to know.
It is important to note that content management systems (CMS) are now becoming popular, which do not require knowledge of the basics of content markup. They are simpler and more like ordinary text editors. However, most of them are imperfect, so photos can “run into” the text, be cropped. Knowledge of HTML is essential for mastering the profession of a content manager.
Content analysis
To perform analytics, content managers use the 5 most popular services:
• Similarweb;
• Ahrefs;
• Google Analytics;
• Helium10;
• Semrush.
These services will help determine what headings, product descriptions, characteristics should be used in product cards, what worries users in the first place, how to divide the Unique Selling Advantage by bullets, which USPs are better to use in infographics.
Content effectiveness is studied by end-to-end analytics services. It allows you to track the entire path of a person from the first viewing of an advertisement to the purchase of a product. A content manager can identify weaknesses in product content along the way. Perhaps the user was not attracted by the text on the landing page or the design of the ad.
Social networks maintenance
This point should be taken out separately, because maintaining groups on social networks differs from the main functionality of a content manager and usually is the responsibility of an SMM specialist. But the content manager must be able to establish these business processes:
• Writing and publishing content - publishing should take place strictly at a certain time, when the target audience is most active on social media.
• Shooting, design, laying out stories on Instagram, Facebook - although this is a small format, it requires special attention to detail. A bright, attractive video is needed that demonstrates the advantages and capabilities of the product. The content should be targeted at the target audience, i.e. a children’s toy store shows a product in children hands, a beauty salon publishes satisfied clients.
• Communication with subscribers - sense of community is required. The trust of potential customers depends on how well the company communicates with followers.
Sometimes content managers can look for bloggers and place ad integrations. In this case, it is important to correctly determine the cost and prepare content adapted to the target audience of the blog.
Skills and personal qualities
Having studied the vacancies on HeadHunter, we have determined a list of hard skills required for a content manager:
• creation of commercial content;
• writing texts of different genres;
• SEO-optimization;
• creation of landing pages, landing pages;
• organization of mailings of e-mails;
• content analytics;
• work with channels of contextual, targeting advertising;
• search for contractors.
This list can be continued for a long time, since each employer sees the boundaries of this profession in his own way. If you are planning to become a content manager, we recommend you to analyze 2-3 vacancies to get the necessary skills.
In addition, it is important to develop the following soft skills:
• consistency;
• perseverance;
• fast learner;
• communication skills;
• analytical skills;
• storing large amounts of information;
• stress resistance;
• leadership.
A content manager is a potential leader, so he must be ready to master the specialties of subordinates at least at a basic level in order to fairly evaluate their work. He is also obliged to remain calm regardless of the situation, because the coherence of the entire team depends on him.
Salary
The salary of a content manager depends on the experience, skills and size of the company.
If you want to increase your monthly income, we recommend that you constantly master new technologies and content tools. Develop, do not stand still, and in the future, “investment in yourself” will allow you to find a job with a larger area of responsibility and, most importantly, high wages.
How to get a profession
You can find content manager courses that explain the basics of the profession, provide an opportunity to put the acquired skills into practice and complete the first cases. However, it might not help to master everything that may be required, so we recommend that you also study :
• work with various CMS;
• work in PIM systems;
• use of analytics services;
• work in Excel, Figma, Photoshop, html basics;
• content requirements for different platforms;
• negotiating;
To get a position, you do not need to have knowledge in all areas. In any work, the desire to grow and develop is always more important. While you work as a junior content manager, you will be able to practically understand all related areas, develop managerial skills, study the subject area in detail, as well as all kinds of categories and features of various topics.
Summing up
Content management is a profession with a lot of room for growth and the ability to work remotely. If you master it, then in the future you will be able to apply for highly paid positions and, for example, become a product expert or head of content department without any problems. However, you need to be prepared for constant self-development, since it is simply impossible to quickly master everything at once. You will have to learn how to work professionally with content, develop in marketing, time management, web design and project management. Remember that the main thing is desire. Everything will work out for you.
