Content Planning

As a writer exploring the world of content management, I found myself asking the same questions you might be grappling with right now: What does a content manager really do? How is it different from being a content writer? And most importantly, could this be my next career move? After weeks of digging into the role — examining job descriptions, industry insights, and speaking with professionals — I’ve come to see content management in a whole new light. It’s far more strategic than I expected, blending the creative skills we writers already have with business acumen, project management, and leadership. In this guide, I will explain everything I have learned about the content manager role, including its daily responsibilities, the key skills to develop, and its place in the broader content landscape. Whether you’re a writer like me who is considering this transition or someone brand-new to the field, consider this a roadmap to discovering what it truly takes to succeed as a content manager. Table of Contents What is a content manager? What does a content manager do? Content Manager Skills Types of Content Managers What It Really Takes to Succeed as a Content Manager How to Become a Content Manager Content Manager Job Description Examples When I started learning about content management as a role, I assumed it was just an elevated version of a writer’s job. But the deeper I dug, the more I realized how much strategy and coordination this role actually involves. Content managers are the architects of a brand’s content strategy. They don’t just write — they figure out what to say, how to say it, and when to say it, all while staying true to the brand’s voice. Their goal? To create content that doesn’t just exist but connects with an audience and drives action. But that’s just one part of the job. Being a content manager also means wearing multiple hats: leading projects, coordinating with teams across marketing, design, and even product, and making sure every piece of content fits into the bigger picture. It’s like being a conductor of a very creative orchestra. This isn’t a role you usually step into right out of the gate. Most content managers bring a few years of experience in marketing, communications, or project management to the table. They’re expected to guide their team, make strategic decisions, and help others grow—all while juggling deadlines and delivering results. If you’re thinking about becoming a content manager (like me), start looking at ways to stretch your skills. Lead a project. Learn about SEO and analytics. Start thinking about content beyond the words — what’s its purpose, and how does it align with a brand’s goals? That’s just a glimpse into the role. Up next, we’ll dive into the daily tasks and responsibilities that bring this job to life. One thing I quickly learned is that the role of a content manager can look very different depending on the company structure. At a startup, a content manager might be the entire marketing department, juggling everything from strategy to execution. In a larger enterprise, they might specialize, managing content for a single team or project. No matter the setting, content managers take on a variety of responsibilities. They might own the editorial calendar, plan out content topics, analyze data reports, manage social media accounts, or even write long-form editorial pieces. It’s a role that balances creative output with strategic oversight. As Alicia Collins, global brand marketing leader at HubSpot, explains, “Content managers wear many hats. Their job consists of so many moving parts — managing blogs, managing social, managing offers … in some cases, they can be a one-person marketing team.” Even with all these variations, there are some common threads that tie the role together. Let’s dive into those shared responsibilities and what they really mean for day-to-day work. Content Manager Responsibilities The responsibilities of a content manager include: Auditing the existing content on the company’s website for brand voice, relevance, and optimization. Researching competitors to find content gaps and keyword gaps that your company hasn’t yet covered. Creating a new content strategy that can help your company reach its traffic goals Promoting a consistent brand identity through the company’s social media profiles. Creating a long-term and short-term content publishing calendar and social media calendar. Writing the new content or managing a team of freelancers and writers to create the new content. Monitor the content’s performance through online tools such as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console. What sorts of skills do you need to carry out these responsibilities? I’ll dive into more detail next. By now, you probably have a clear idea of what a content manager does. But understanding the role is just the first step. The next question is: What skills do you need to not just do the job, but thrive in it? Content managers are more than creators — they’re storytellers with a strategic lens. Every piece of content they produce or oversee reflects the company’s brand and speaks directly to its audience. It’s not just about writing a great blog post; it’s about telling stories that build trust, engage readers, and drive results. We’ve already discussed a few key skills: creativity, strong writing abilities, data interpretation, and organizational prowess. But thriving as a content manager requires more than just the basics. To truly stand out, you’ll also need a working knowledge of some other crucial areas — and that’s exactly what we’ll explore next. 1. SEO Copywriting and Blogging When I first started exploring content management, I assumed my writing skills would be enough. But I quickly learned that while writing is foundational, content managers need a broader understanding of SEO and brand storytelling. Think of it this way: As a content writer, you craft the story. As a content manager, you‘re in charge of an entire narrative strategy that reaches the right audiences through search. You’re not just writing in a brand voice — you’re defining and evolving it

I remember exactly where I was when I stumbled upon the concept of cornerstone content for the first time. It was a fresh winter’s morning in late December, and the sunshine glistened over the frosted ground … Okay, I kid, I kid. So, the cornerstone content model isn’t exactly ‘Moon Landing’ material. But, it did completely revolutionize how I think about and implement content strategy. As a junior content marketer, it gave me my first logical framework for creating, organizing, and managing content production. Before then, it kinda felt like I was throwing content ideas at the wall until something, anything, stuck. There was nothing to “hang my hat on,” so to speak. Aside from a logical framework, cornerstone content also gave me a tried and tested method to increase search engine visibility for my clients. I also know for a fact that cornerstone content formed part of the SEO content strategy that still drives millions of visits to the HubSpot blog today. Interest piqued? Cool! Please keep reading to learn from me and some incredible leaders in the SEO industry. Table of Contents What is cornerstone content? Benefits of Cornerstone Content How to Make Cornerstone Content Tips for Creating Cornerstone Content from the Experts Cornerstone Content Examples What is cornerstone content? Cornerstone content is the most important content on your website. We‘re talking about the best of the best, your magnum opus, the articles or landing pages you’d bend over backward to place in front of your ideal customer or reader‘s eyeballs. In short, it’s content you want organic searchers to come in contact with first. Not only does cornerstone content set the tone for what folks can expect from your brand, website, and offering, but it should also form a critical part of your SEO strategy. Ideally, you want these cornerstone pieces to rank on page one of the search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant queries that your ideal audience uses. Note: You might have heard cornerstone content referred to as “pillar content,” — which, honestly, is low-key my preferred terminology. This also leads me to a little more oh-so-necessary clarification … Cornerstone content vs. cluster content: What’s the difference? To fully understand cornerstone content, I‘d argue you must also understand cluster content. They’re kind of like two halves of a whole that work together to form the pillar (aka cornerstone) cluster content model. Confused? No sweat, let me break this down. A piece of cornerstone content, like an article, functions as an introduction to an entire topic category or subcategory of content on your website. Simply put, it introduces your audience to a core topic or subtopic that you already cover or plan to cover rigorously. Source Cluster content, on the other hand, acts as supplementary content that expands upon and supports your cornerstone content. Example Let’s say you run a music website. Because of the nature of the site, you often share multiple articles about various music genres like pop, metal, and punk. In the cornerstone model, each genre would become like a different category or cornerstone topic you write about. In this example, a cornerstone piece of content might be something like “A complete history of punk music” or “The best punk music from the 70s until now.” Meanwhile, cluster content would involve more niche articles that relate to and thus support the cornerstone content. So that might be something like “The best pop-punk songs from the early 2000s” or “American vs. British punk: what’s the difference?” Benefits of Cornerstone Content If you don’t already know, my panel of hand-selected content experts (ooh, fancy!) are here to share why cornerstone content can be the gift that keeps on giving. Increase search engine visibility. There‘s a reason SEOs joke about criminals hiding bodies on page two of the SERPs … (If you’re wondering, it’s because no one ever looks there. Yuk-yuk-yuk!) But seriously, search engine users rarely look beyond page one. Don’t believe me? Backlinko analyzed 4 million Google search results and found that “only .63% of Google searchers clicked on something from the second page.” Simply put, if search engine users don‘t find what they need, they’re more likely to adjust their search terms than scroll beyond page one. Thus, search engine visibility matters. That’s why SEOs put so much effort into earning page-one ranks for our employers and/or clients. Lucky for us, cornerstone content can help. Expert Insights As Mersudin Forbes, a portfolio SEO director and agency advisor with 15 years of SEO experience, says, “For me, as an SEO Consultant, this [cornerstone content] is always steering towards search engine visibility. But it really does go way beyond this.” He explains that the concept can extend to “any type of traffic or engagement you want to optimize on your web properties or other mediums such as newsletters.” Pro tip: Check out HubSpot’s SEO starter pack for more ways to boost your search engine visibility. Make your first impression count. According to Netcraft’s 2024 Web Server Survey, over 1.5 billion websites are online today. Even if you only count the active sites — around 200 million — the competition for online attention is fiercer than ever. Combine the above with ContentSquare data highlighting that the average time people spend on a website is dropping. Well, that fierce competition just got fiercer. The crux? When you get a reader’s attention in the SERPs and earn their click, you need to make it count. Expert Insights Ben Goodey, the founder of Spicy Margarita Content, and I agree that cornerstone content can be your best friend here. “I find cornerstone content really important because it’s often the first piece of content you create as a company,” says Goodey. “It sets the bar for your style and quality — and is therefore very likely to dictate how good content that follows is.” He adds: “Because cornerstone content is also more top-of-funnel ‘ultimate guide’ style content, it’s often your audience’s first big touchpoint with you. You have the

I love content monitoring! Well, not as much as chocolate, or cake, or chocolate cake … But when it comes to work-related processes, it’s one of my favorite things. Why? Because it helps me analyze what is and isn’t working. I can then use these actionable insights to create or improve upon any content strategy. Honestly, I love content monitoring so much that I want you to love it, too. And that‘s why I’ve included as much of my knowledge on the subject as possible in this article. I’ve also gathered more “must-know” insights from other content specialists. On the latter, I’d like to express my gratitude upfront to everyone who shared their insights below. Seriously, dear reader, please know that when it comes to content monitoring, you’re in incredible hands. That said, let’s get into it. Table of Contents What is content monitoring? The Benefits of Content Monitoring How to Monitor Content Best Practices for Content Monitoring. What is content monitoring? Content monitoring means benchmarking and tracking content performance over time to make sure it meets key performance indicators and objectives. You can apply a content monitoring process across digital platforms and content types. So, you might monitor how well your online content — i.e., blogs and landing pages — performs, for example. Equally, you might track your LinkedIn content’s success or how well your email campaigns perform. You can then use the performance data to improve your content marketing strategy. Full disclosure before we go further: My main specialism is SEO content. So, this article is very much from the perspective of monitoring online content performance. That‘s opposed to other content types like social media or email. That’s where my expertise and the expertise of my professional network — primarily SEOs — offer the most value to you. The Benefits of Content Monitoring Not quite sold on why content monitoring matters? No dramas. Below, some incredible SEO specialists and I share the key benefits of adding this process into your content marketing strategy. Content Performance Monitoring and Benchmarking Around 13% of marketing leaders cite content strategy as their top challenge. I highly recommend content monitoring if this is you. It will help you overcome common strategy issues like knowing what content to produce to move the needle or what content to prioritize for “maintenance.” As Ben Goodey, the founder of Spicy Margarita Content, says, the main benefit of content monitoring for SEOs “is to monitor the performance of content.” Goodey explains what this can look like in practice. “For example, closely tracking improvements/declines in keyword rankings gives a good indicator of whether you’re on the right path, need to rewrite the content, or take another path like building backlinks.” I‘d also add that doing an initial content analysis (aka identifying what’s already working and what isn’t) as part of your monitoring will give you a benchmark to refer back to throughout your strategy. Understanding content performance at the start and throughout can help you pivot and refine your roadmap as needed. Clarity on Where and How to Spend Your Time With 70% of marketers actively investing in content marketing, competition has never been fiercer. To stay competitive within your industry, you need to develop a strong content marketing strategy. That said, there are only so many hours in a day. This means you need to know how and where to allocate your time. Luckily, your friend and mine, Mersudin Forbes, a portfolio SEO director and agency advisor, reminds us that content monitoring can be an incredible asset here. “If you are dealing with more than 100 pages of content, it is important to know what parts of your website need regular maintenance from a content relevance point of view,” says Forbes. After working with large ecommerce sites, I can tell you from experience that without content monitoring in place, the overwhelming volume of data can be downright paralyzing. Before you know it, you’re looking at 10,000 product collections, a cornucopia of blog content, and a tonne of product categories, thinking, “Where do I even start this month?” Even if you‘re working on smaller sites, I recommend using content monitoring as part of your strategy. Long story short? You can spend your time optimizing what works and improving what doesn’t — if it makes sense to assign resources there. But you won’t know whether an activity is worth it without some data as a starting point. Control Over Change Frequency Having worked in ecommerce for much of my content career, I’ve seen first-hand how quickly search demand and results can change. With each coming season, the performance of your top pages can change drastically. One example comes to mind here: When I worked as a content manager for one site, our “Christmas rush” started in July. Call me naive, but had I not been monitoring our online content performance. I would never have thought to trigger content updates for Christmas product collections so early in the year, or initiate content production for Christmas-themed blogs to support product collection pages. (I know, what a sweet summer child I was!) Seasonality changes aside, you also have to factor in search volatility as dictated by the Google Gods. Algorithm updates and AI overviews alone have caused a lot of disruption (that’s putting it mildly) in 2024. Content monitoring allows you to identify and stay ahead of these changes. Mersudin Forbes agrees that content monitoring is vital to controlling change frequency. “By setting change frequency requirements up by areas of content types, assets, and priority, you can set up a system to monitor and update your content throughout the year and plan in advance of when the content could be out of date and require remedial updates.” Content Accuracy Updates From this control over change frequency comes another benefit: Content accuracy. Forbes explains, “Setting up rules for what you are monitoring, why, and in what order will mean that you do not suddenly find that your capital gains tax page is referencing