What does a Content Marketing Manager do?

A Content Marketing Manager plans and produces content that attracts and converts a target audience. They own the editorial calendar, write and edit assets such as blog posts and guides, optimize content for search, manage writers or agencies, and measure how content contributes to traffic, leads, and revenue.

What is the difference between a Content Marketing Manager and a Copywriter?

A Copywriter primarily writes: ads, landing pages, emails, and campaign copy. A Content Marketing Manager owns the broader program: strategy, calendar, SEO, distribution, and measurement, often managing writers rather than producing every word. Smaller teams combine both, so state how much hands-on writing your role includes.

What skills should I look for when hiring a Content Marketing Manager?

Strong writing and editing come first; ask for a portfolio and pay attention to clarity, not just polish. Then look for SEO fundamentals, comfort with analytics, and evidence they have tied content to business results. The best candidates can explain why a piece worked, not just that it did.

Should a Content Marketing Manager know SEO?

Yes, at least the fundamentals. Most content programs depend on organic search, so the manager should understand keyword intent, on-page optimization, and internal linking. Deep technical SEO can live with a specialist or agency, but a content lead who ignores search will waste much of the production budget.

Content Marketing Manager Job Description

There is a wide gap between a content marketer who writes and one who commissions, edits, and runs the program. Both are called content marketing manager, both are valuable, and hiring one while describing the other produces either a frustrated writer buried in briefs or a program manager who cannot hit the quality bar themselves.

The draft below covers planning, production, distribution, and measurement. Before you edit, say which channels and formats matter here, how much of the writing is theirs, and what budget or team they have. Then name the metric you will actually judge this by, because content roles are unusually prone to being measured on whatever is convenient later.

Ask candidates for pieces they wrote or commissioned and what those pieces achieved, since the second half of that answer is where the marketers separate from the writers. The generator below can produce a hands-on writing, editorial program, or search-led version of the description.

Written by Yağmur Erge, HR Content Specialist at Hirex. Reviewed by the Hirex Recruitment Team.
Last updated September 14, 2026.

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About the Content Marketing Manager role

A Content Marketing Manager plans, produces, and distributes content that attracts an audience and turns it into customers. They own the content calendar, write or commission blog posts, guides, case studies, and other assets, and make sure every piece serves a clear goal: organic traffic, lead generation, sales enablement, or brand authority. The role blends editorial craft with marketing accountability.

The role sits between creativity and measurement. A strong Content Marketing Manager understands SEO and keyword intent, briefs and edits writers to a consistent standard, and repurposes one strong idea across formats and channels. They also track what the content actually achieves, using analytics to double down on topics that convert and cut those that only generate vanity traffic. In many teams they manage freelancers, an in-house writer, or an agency.

In your posting, specify your primary channels and content types, whether the role is hands-on writing or mostly editing and managing, the size of any budget or team, and the metrics you will judge success by. Content marketers range from pure writers to program managers, and each profile reads a posting differently, so clarity on these points filters applicants far better than any list of skills.