Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Content Marketing Guru
💰 $70,000 - $130,000
🎯 Role Definition
We are seeking a strategic and hands-on Content Marketing Guru to lead our content strategy, production, distribution, and optimization across all owned and earned channels. This role is responsible for developing buyer-focused, SEO-optimized content that fuels top-of-funnel acquisition, nurtures leads through the funnel, and provides scalable thought leadership for product and brand positioning. The ideal candidate partners with product, demand gen, design, PR, and revenue teams to create measurable content programs that increase organic traffic, improve conversion rates, support sales enablement, and grow brand trust.
Key search & SEO terms: content marketing, content strategy, SEO content, editorial calendar, blog management, long-form content, lead generation, content operations, content analytics, content distribution.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Content Marketing Manager
- SEO Manager or SEO Specialist
- Product Marketing Manager
Advancement To:
- Head of Content / Content Director
- VP of Marketing
- Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Lateral Moves:
- Growth Marketing Lead
- Demand Gen Director
- Brand / Communications Lead
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Develop and own a comprehensive content strategy and editorial roadmap aligned to the business goals (SEO growth, lead generation, product adoption, retention), including quarterly themes, channel mix, gating strategy, and measurable KPIs.
- Create, edit, and optimize long-form content (pillar pages, white papers, ebooks, guides, case studies) designed for organic discovery and lead capture, ensuring each asset maps to a buyer persona and stage of the funnel.
- Lead keyword research, topical mapping, and on-page SEO practices to identify content opportunities, prioritize high-impact topics, and increase search visibility and domain authority.
- Manage the end-to-end editorial calendar across blogs, newsletters, social, and gated content; coordinate brief creation, resource allocation, deadlines, and publishing cadence to maximize velocity and quality.
- Produce high-quality written assets (blogs, landing pages, product copy, email campaigns, scripts for video/podcast) and work with designers and video producers to translate ideas into engaging multimedia content.
- Drive content distribution and amplification plans that include organic social, paid social amplifications, email nurture sequences, syndication, partnerships, and outreach to maximize reach and conversions.
- Establish and measure core content KPIs (organic sessions, MQLs from content, lead conversion rate, time on page, bounce rate, SERP rankings, backlinks) and provide a monthly performance dashboard with actionable recommendations.
- Build and manage a high-performing content team and a vetted network of freelance writers, editors, SEO specialists, and creative agencies; define roles, set expectations, and optimize workflows for scale.
- Implement content optimization and refresh programs to update evergreen content, reclaim lost organic traffic, and convert high-traffic but low-conversion pages into lead generators.
- Partner closely with Demand Gen and Sales to design content-led campaigns that support pipeline generation and accelerate deals, including sales enablement playbooks, ROI calculators, and case study frameworks.
- Own the company blog and CMS processes (e.g., WordPress), including templates, metadata, internal linking strategy, and publishing best practices to ensure content is discoverable and performant.
- Conduct competitive and content gap analyses to identify white space opportunities and inform product positioning, messaging, and thought leadership topics.
- Lead link-building, guest posting, and influencer outreach initiatives to drive topical authority, referral traffic, and high-quality backlinks to priority pages.
- Create buyer-journey-aligned nurture sequences and lead magnets that feed the marketing automation platform and increase MQL to SQL conversion velocity.
- Design experiments and A/B tests for headlines, CTAs, content formats, and landing pages to continuously improve conversion rates and engagement metrics.
- Maintain and evolve the brand voice, editorial guidelines, and content governance to ensure consistency across channels, regions, and stakeholder teams.
- Lead cross-functional content sprints to support product launches, pricing changes, and go-to-market campaigns, ensuring tight alignment on messaging and assets required by launch date.
- Own content budget and vendor relationships; assess ROI for tools (SEO/keyword platforms, CMS plugins, analytics) and creative partners to scale production efficiently.
- Ensure accessibility, localization readiness, and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) best practices are embedded in content creation and publication processes.
- Mentor and train internal SMEs (product, engineering, customer success) to contribute thought leadership content and repurpose technical knowledge into customer-facing assets.
- Coordinate PR and external communications teams to integrate earned media, thought leadership placements, and contributed articles into the overall content cadence.
- Create and maintain SEO-optimized landing pages and pillar clusters for key products and campaigns, driving organic acquisition and paid efficiency.
- Monitor industry trends, algorithm updates, and emerging content formats (short-form video, interactive content) to recommend tactical shifts and innovation investments.
Secondary Functions
- Support cross-functional ad-hoc content requests (sales decks, feature launch FAQs, customer onboarding content) and provide rapid-turnaround editorial support as needed.
- Assist in quarterly planning and contribution to the marketing roadmap, ensuring content deliverables are scoped, resourced, and tracked.
- Partner with analytics and data teams to integrate content event tracking, UTM standards, and conversion attribution across platforms.
- Contribute to the development of internal training materials that enable non-marketing teams to follow content best practices and publish on brand channels.
- Help define and refine customer personas and content triggers used by marketing automation for lifecycle campaigns.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Advanced SEO and content optimization: keyword research, SERP analysis, on-page optimization, schema markup, and technical SEO basics.
- Content strategy and editorial planning: pillar-cluster models, content calendars, and lifecycle mapping.
- CMS proficiency: hands-on experience with WordPress, Contentful, HubSpot CMS, or similar enterprise publishing platforms.
- Analytics and measurement: Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Looker/BigQuery, and dashboarding tools to measure content performance and ROI.
- Marketing automation & email platforms: HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, or similar for nurturing sequences, scoring, and attribution.
- Keyword & SEO tools: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, or Surfer SEO for topic discovery, gap analysis, and backlink tracking.
- CRO & experimentation: A/B testing tools (Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize), hypothesis-driven optimization, and landing page design principles.
- Content production & editing: strong copywriting and long-form content production skills; comfort producing briefs, editing, and quality control.
- Distributed content workflows & collaboration tools: Asana, Trello, Monday.com, Notion, or similar for content operations and approvals.
- Basic HTML/CSS and CMS templating knowledge to troubleshoot publishing issues and work with engineers during launches.
- Multimedia scripting and production awareness: familiarity with podcasting, video scripting, and working with production teams.
- PR & outreach tools: HARO, BuzzStream, or similar for link-building and thought leadership placements.
Soft Skills
- Strategic thinking: ability to translate business goals into measurable content programs and KPIs.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication with a journalist’s attention to clarity and a marketer’s focus on conversion.
- Leadership and people management: capacity to hire, mentor, and scale a content team and contractor ecosystem.
- Project management: strong organizational skills and the ability to coordinate complex multi-channel campaigns and launch deadlines.
- Analytical mindset: data-driven decision maker who can interpret analytics and convert insights into tactical plans.
- Creativity and storytelling: craft compelling narratives that resonate with buyer personas and differentiate the brand.
- Stakeholder management: proven ability to align cross-functional teams (product, sales, PR, design) around content priorities.
- Adaptability and resilience: comfortable with ambiguity and rapid shifts in priorities or search algorithm changes.
- Attention to detail: editorial rigor for grammar, fact-checking, and consistency with brand voice and legal requirements.
- Customer empathy: deep focus on solving real customer problems and mapping content to user intent.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, English, Business, or related field.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Marketing, Journalism, Communications, or an MBA/related advanced credential with significant content marketing experience.
- Certifications (preferred): HubSpot Content Marketing, Google Analytics, or SEO certifications.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Marketing
- Communications / Journalism
- English / Creative Writing
- Business / Digital Media
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
- 5+ years in content marketing, editorial, or SEO roles with increasing responsibility; 3+ years managing teams or contractor networks.
Preferred:
- 7+ years of experience owning content strategy at a SaaS, tech, or B2B growth-stage company with demonstrable results in organic traffic growth, lead generation, and content ROI.
- Proven track record of scaling content operations, optimizing enterprise CMS workflows, and delivering measurable pipeline contribution from content programs.