Here's What a Traditional Content Marketing Career Path Looks Like
A content marketing career path includes three job experience levels: entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level. And the average salaries can range from $50,000/year to more than $200,000/year.
Of course, this can get more granular. But from a high-level perspective, a content marketing career path includes these three titles:
Content marketing specialist (entry-level)
Manager, content marketing (mid-level)
VP, content marketing (senior-level)
The most exciting part about a content marketing career path is that no two look the same.
Because content marketing is such a dynamic marketing discipline, there are many paths you can take to ascend up the corporate ladder.
Today's post will not only cover what a traditional content marketing career path looks like. But also cover what non-traditional roles (and skills) can help you touch those higher salaries you're looking for.
What is the best content marketing career path?
The best content marketing career path is one that's specific to your goals.
Every content marketer gets the opportunity to develop their career in content marketing however they see fit. Whether you want to lean more toward writing or video production, or work at a start-up or at a Fortune 500 company is fully up to you.
And there are many tangential roles available to you across the marketing spectrum that can also support you in moving up your content marketing career path.
Here's a more extensive content marketing career path:
Entry-level positions
Content strategist
Content marketing associate
Content marketing specialist
Content marketing manager
Senior content marketing manager
Principal content marketing manager
Average salaries: $50,000 - $130,000
Mid-level positions
Manager, content marketing
Senior manager, content marketing
Director, content marketing
Senior director, content marketing
Average salaries: $90,000 - $180,000
Senior-level positions
Head of content*
VP, content marketing
SVP, content marketing
Chief content officer**
Average salaries: $150,000 - +$200,000
*Head of content roles can fit into any of the three job experience levels, they will vary depending on years of experience required.
**Chief content officer roles are extremely rare.
It's important to remember that these roles and titles are ever-evolving since content marketing is a relatively new, and changing, marketing discipline.
Looking for a content marketing job? Check out our job board.
What content marketing skills do you need to become highly paid?
If you're to effectively navigate your content marketing career path, you'll have to pick up many skills along the way.
At the end of the day, the best content marketers are ones who understand content strategies, content creation, and target audience insights. And then executing those content strategies while managing a content team or a group of content creators that can ensure each piece of content generates results.
A content marketer is expected to know a lot.
From writing and search engine optimization (SEO) to video production and design, it can all seem out of reach. But if you break it down by job experience level, you'll get a better understanding of what may be expected of you.
Here's the content marketing skills you'll need per job experience level:
Entry-level content marketing skills
Writing
Flexibility
Time management
Mid-level content marketing skills
Writing
Design
Flexibility
Leadership
Time management
Content marketing strategy
Senior-level content marketing skills
Writing
Design
Video production
Flexibility
Leadership
Executive presence
Time management
Content marketing strategy
Cross-functional marketing knowledge
Again, this isn't meant to be an exhaustive, all-encompassing list.
But a basic breakdown to help you get a clear picture of the many technical and soft skills you'll need to cultivate throughout your content marketing career path.
Why should you consider a career in content marketing?
The content marketing industry is growing. And the means content marketing professionals like you will reap the benefits.
Here are three reasons you should consider a career in content marketing:
It's a growing industry.
The content marketing market is expected to grow by 16% from 2020 to 2025. And businesses will spend nearly $700 billion dollars on content marketing by 2025.
It's an important marketing discipline.
Digital content continues to grow in importance as more businesses realize the impact of investing in their content marketing efforts. Content marketing today is more that social media posts, it directly impacts revenue.
It's both a science and art-form.
The first two points are around financial opportunity. This point is about fulfillment. If you're a creative and methodical content marketing professional, you will have a blast in this field of work.
In closing
If you're considering a career in content marketing, I recommend you do it.
It's not only a dynamic, fast-paced marketing discipline. But it's part of a growing industry.
And it offers huge upside from a financial standpoint, too.
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