Our 20+ years of experience building marketing teams and recruiting Content Marketers has taught us the following... content marketing roles are now being redefined and better aligned to the overall marketing growth strategies.
This means, your next content marketing hire will most likely fall into one of these three common content candidate profiles. Figuring out which of the three you need to hire is essential for creating a successful hiring outcome.
The 3 Classic Content Marketers for Tech Companies:
The Start-Up Content Marketer
- This role is often the second marketer to be hired after Demand Gen
- They are responsible for all content marketing (from top to bottom of the funnel), often with much smaller budgets
- Content includes anything the organization needs (i.e. blogs, video production, spec sheets, case studies and more)
- The goal of this hire is to be a hybrid writer/creator as well as a marketer to get content out the door
- Metrics can vary wildly depending on the need/stage of the company
The Top of Funnel Content Marketer
- This role is all about the content that facilitates discovery
- Focused on creating mostly non-branded content that drives engagement, answers category questions, and introduces prospects to solutions and the product/service
- Content includes SEO-focused blogs, social media, video, podcasts, influencer outreach, etc.
- The goal of this hire is to push prospects into the funnel
- Metrics are mostly centered around driving brand awareness and lead generation
The Mid/Bottom of Funnel Content Marketer
- This role is all about creating content that drives consideration and purchases
- Focused on creating branded content that helps potential customers understand the product/service and ultimately convert them into customers
- Mid-funnel content includes ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, guides, webinars, etc.
- Bottom funnel content includes competitive comparison docs, customer stories, testimonials, product spec sheets, etc.
- The goal of this hire is to ‘convince and convert’
- Metrics are mostly centered around Leads to MQL to SQL conversation and making sure SDRs have enough leads in their pipeline
When hiring a Content Marketer it is important to first understand the outcomes necessary to drive organizational growth. Once that has been established, it is then much easier to refine the experience and skill sets necessary. Searching for and hiring the candidate whose skills best align with the overall departmental and organizational growth goals help to ensure hiring success.