In other posts, we talked about what content marketing is and what it is for. A content manager is a person who creates, organizes, and publishes information in blogs and social networks. This is a misunderstood profession, as it is still believed that the job of the content manager is simply to write. In this post, we show you what a content manager is and their role in the marketing world.

DEFINITION OF CONTENT MANAGER

This professional manages the content marketing of a company. They may be responsible for writing blog posts or overseeing a team of content marketers. In any case, the content manager has to wear many hats. Their job is to create, position, publish and share articles based on a marketing strategy defined by the company.

As mentioned before, a content manager does not have to be a copywriter (although sometimes it is the same person). The main differences between these two professionals are:

• A copywriter is responsible for sales in the written form. They typically write long-form sales copy on landing pages, email autoresponders, and optimize website copy for conversions. Their sole responsibility is to increase sales via written copy.
• The content manager decides which content is published and which are not, where they are going to be published and when, how their SEO positioning will be, etc. Their main focus is to build out written content that is helpful to their target audience and will increase brand awareness. Having a strong knowledge of SEO is important for the content manager so they can rank articles in Google for the types of searches their target audience is making.

These differences mean that both professionals need specific training for each role. The copywriter must have training in journalism, psychology, and the creation of online sales content. Copywriters are experts in human psychology and have a strong knowledge of consumer markets, products, competitors, and human interaction. The goal of a copywriter is to create engaging copy that captivates consumers' attention, solves a pain point, and triggers an emotional response in consumers to buy the product they are promoting.

In the case of content managers, their training will be much more oriented towards digital marketing and building brand awareness. The goal of a content manager is to create content that is helpful to their target audience and will build trust with them. This is typically done by ranking helpful articles in Google related to the search terms of their target audience. Having solid SEO skills is essential for the content manager. If the articles written by the content marketing team are not ranking high in Google, it is unlikely that they will be viewed and the company will miss out on brand exposure.

HOW A CONTENT MANAGER WORKS

In order to know this profession better, we will put ourselves in the skin of a content manager within a company. The first thing you have to do is define a content strategy according to business objectives defined by the brand.

To do this, the content manager is in permanent contact and communication with the marketing department. They need to have clear objectives in team meetings:

• The goal to utilize a specific marketing strategy
• The target audience towards which the commercial actions of the company will be oriented. This is where you can even define the profile of the buyer
• The type of content needed to attract attention from the target audience
• The creation of a publication calendar that includes when content will be published for online sites

After this process, the content manager meets with his team of editors to brief them:

• Information about the companies or brands for which they are going to write
• The theme of the content and its keywords
• The editorial line to be followed in each article
• How to create valuable content
• The calendar of publications with the deadlines to be met

All this work must be carried out by the content manager through continuous supervision and coordination of the editorial team. Finally, a good content manager must always be measuring and implementing the results generated by its publications.

WHAT IS A CMS? HOW IS IT HELPFUL FOR THE CONTENT MANAGER?

A Content Management System or CMS is essential software for many content managers. Its operation is really simple, which allows anyone without programming knowledge to easily use it.

Each CMS is specific to a type of online site. There are CMS's for web pages, blogs, social networks, etc. Each professional has to choose the content management system that best suits their work needs.

The main advantages of using a well-adapted CMS are:

• It can be used by anyone in the company without the need for specific training in web programming
• It allows the control of many variables that can improve SEO rankings, as well as the indexation.
• It has a high degree of customization and can be adapted to the requirements of a website or blog. In other words, it allows new functions and uses to be added as the need arises. There is a large CMS community of users working to improve this software for content management
• CMS can be scalable for businesses
• Security protocols and encryption features are constantly updated which makes CMS a fairly secure tool for a company

MISTAKES TO BE AVOIDED BY A CONTENT MANAGER

In order to carry out a good content strategy, it is essential that the content manager does not make certain mistakes that may prevent them from achieving business objectives:

• Not utilizing an organized content calendar. Without dates, deadlines or an organization, it will be difficult to hold the content marketing team accountable and provide value to the target audience.
• Creating an SEO strategy full of keywords oriented more to satisfy search engines such as Google than your own customers. Think about what your audience wants and orientate publications based on their most used keywords.
• Creating content and not measure its scope. In a marketing strategy, it is extremely important to constantly check the results generated by the publications. If the content manager is not able to measure the results of his own content strategy, they will not be able to adapt and make effective changes when necessary. They may be investing time and money in publications that aren't really useful to the company.

The role of the content manager is fundamental for companies and their marketing departments. Hopefully, you can take actions with these tips and start implementing an effective content marketing strategy.