Content marketing is a proven strategy for effectively acquiring, nurturing, converting and retaining customers. Companies such as Shopify, HubSpot, Glossier, and the trailblazer Michelin achieved remarkable growth by strategically leveraging this inbound marketing approach.
As companies gear up for 2025, LinkedIn Jobs shows that the demand for experts in content marketing is on an upward trajectory. However, one thing we have noticed across multiple job descriptions for different organizations is that many hiring managers don’t have a clear understanding of the distinctive roles across the content marketing department. For example, they tend to mix up the responsibilities of a content marketer with that of a content writer.
If you want to build or structure your content marketing team, this article will walk you through the key content roles and responsibilities, how to structure your team based on your industry or company size, and an effective approach to growing your content team.
Why you need a dedicated content marketing team for 2025
As AI content floods the internet at an alarming rate, content marketing success in 2025 will hinge on brand differentiation, authority building, and exploring new platforms to drive growth.
A content marketing team can help you achieve these goals. They’ll elevate your brand and amplify your other marketing strategies to cut through the online clutter and reach your target audience.
Here’s how you stand to win with a content marketing team:
- You’ll build brand recognition and trust through content initiatives that provide value to your customers.
- You’ll capture and nurture leads using content (webinars, white papers, guides) that directly address customer pain points.
- You will generate even more sales. 61% of technology marketers said content marketing helped them generate sales/revenue in the last 12 months, up from 48% the previous year.
- You will retain your competitive edge by building a strong content moat. As Joe Pulizzi, founder of CMI put it, “Marketing departments are transforming themselves into publishing organizations.” – and the only way to ramp up quality content production is with a content marketing team.
14 essential content marketing team roles & responsibilities
The effectiveness of your content marketing team is measured through a combination of clear strategic alignment with business goals, the right mix of skills across creative, strategic, and technical roles, efficient workflows and processes, strict quality control measures, and optimal resource allocation.
Your content team should be structured in a way that ensures all these aspects are collectively addressed. Here’s an outline of content marketing roles across six key categories:
- Leadership roles (VP of Content, Chief Content Officer, Head of Content)
- Strategic roles (Content Marketer, Content Strategist, Managing Editor)
- Technical roles (SEO Manager)
- Distribution roles (Social Media Manager, Email Marketing Manager, SEO Outreach Specialist)
- Creative roles (Content Writer, Content Editor, Graphic Designer, Video Content Creator)
VP of Content
The VP of Content is responsible for leading the development of content initiatives, securing executive buy-in for content programs, and establishing content governance frameworks. This role works closely with other leaders and strategists across the team to execute your strategic content vision and drive competitive differentiation through content marketing initiatives.
Chief Content Officer (CCO)
The CCO is responsible for providing executional oversight for the vision, coordinating content budget allocation, and collaborating with the leadership team to translate strategic goals to other members of the team.
In addition to overseeing the entire content ecosystem, Robert Rose, chief strategy officer of The Content Advisory, says, “the CCO guides the content that makes up every experience a customer, audience member, or prospect has with the brand”. They serve as the executive producer, and should be both tactically and technologically competent.
Head of Content
The Head of Content will be a hands-on creative and collaborative leader who will execute both brand and content marketing campaigns to drive awareness and growth. They will be responsible for overseeing content production, monitoring industry trends to implement in content strategy, and collaborating with other departments like product or sales.
This role has a major stake in user acquisition and retention. As a result, their expertise will shape your brand’s narrative and influence your product's success in the market.
Content Marketing Manager
In many companies, the role of the Content Marketer or Content Marketing Manager is multidisciplinary. The ideal candidate will be a thought leader, storyteller, strategist, talented writer, and editor.
They will be responsible for guiding content execution and enabling the steady production of demand-generation assets from blog posts to research reports while also exploring new content formats according to shifts in audience preferences and market trends. This person will also spearhead the full content lifecycle from ideation to distribution, define content performance metrics, and ensure that content marketing programs achieve their intended goals.
Content strategist
The Content Strategist is responsible for conducting in-depth research to develop data-driven content plans that help your business engage with customers, resolve audience pain points, and drive engagement across products. They have a deep understanding of customer journeys, conduct content audits, and collaborate with user researchers, data analysts, and product teams to enhance engagement through insightful strategies and compelling storytelling.
Managing Editor
The ideal Managing Editor for a content team will be an expert in messaging, media and editorial operations. They are responsible for developing guidelines to ensure consistency in content quality as well as finding the right writers and editors for content projects. Aka the Editor-in-Chief, this role is essential for scaling content production, managing editorial workflows, and overseeing content production schedules while preserving high standards in brand messaging and integrity.
SEO Manager
The SEO Manager is responsible for owning the search optimization strategy and developing the roadmap to ensure maximum growth in organic traffic. They are also responsible for KPIs tied to search ranking, traffic, and technical SEO performance. As the team’s content library expands, the SEO Manager will highlight new opportunities for improvements and advocate for implementing best practices.
Social Media Manager
The Social Media Manager plays a crucial role in extending the reach of content marketing assets by leveraging social platforms as distribution channels that drive traffic back to your owned media. They are responsible for developing social content calendars, collaborating with influencers, and overseeing paid social campaigns. A good social media manager must also stay ahead of social media trends and best practices to ensure optimal content performance.
Email Marketing Manager
The Email Marketing Manager takes the lead in executing personalized email marketing campaigns and nurture programs. They are responsible for scaling email as a channel, managing segmented email lists, and optimizing email performance.
SEO Outreach Specialist
The SEO Outreach Specialist is responsible for increasing content visibility and positioning your brand within influential circles that drive referral traffic. They partner with high-authority brands, build high-quality backlinks, and manage guest posting programs to support our growth and authority.
Content Writer
The Content Writer is the chief creative in the content team. Their work fuels the content marketing strategy and contributes to SEO, thought leadership, and lead generation efforts. They are responsible for developing in-depth informative content that engages your target audience and is optimized for search visibility.
Content Editor
The Content Editor upholds and enforces high- quality standards across all published content. They work closely with content writers to maintain a cohesive brand voice and style across various touch points from long-form articles to e-books, newsletters, and guest posts.
Video Content Creator
The Video Content Creator is an emerging but essential role within the content marketing team. They are responsible for developing, producing, and editing high-quality videos that promote services, products, and success stories. Their role is to elevate your brand’s visual storytelling to drive brand awareness and connect better with your audience.
Graphic designer
The Graphic Designer plays a crucial role in translating digital content into eye-catching designs for blog infographics, social and paid media, landing pages, and presentations. They are responsible for maintaining consistency in design and content across all platforms while collaborating with the team to ensure visuals complement the message in each piece of content.
Content marketing team structure: by industry
Different industries have unique customer journeys and content requirements. A B2B company, for example, will prioritize whitepapers or case studies while an ecommerce brand will focus more on social media content, SMS campaigns or buying guides.
Ecommerce content marketing team structure
Successful ecommerce content teams are structured to support product sales for high-volume inventories. Your team will focus heavily on conversion optimization through three core pillars: product storytelling, purchase enablement, and retention marketing.
Recommended roles
- Content Marketing Manager: Develops content calendars, oversees content distribution, and manages content partnerships
- Product Content Strategist: Aligns every piece of content with buying cycles and product launches
- Email Marketing Manager: Manages promotional emails and delivers abandoned cart sequences
- SEO Manager: Maximizes organic visibility to attract ready-to-buy customers
- Content Writer: Produces blogs, product detail pages, and buying guides.
- Copywriter: Writes promotional email content, landing pages, and SMS or social media copy
- Social Media Manager
- Graphic Designer
Why this structure works for ecommerce
Focusing on this combination of roles ensures your team can align content production with commerce objectives and quickly adapt to changes in seasonality, inventory updates or consumer trends.
B2B content marketing team structure
B2B content marketing strategy caters to long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders and complex decision making processes. Your team will be responsible for planning and producing lead gen and nurturing content to build trust and authority.
Recommended roles
- VP of Content
- Chief Content Officer
- Head of Content (Martech, SaaS, etc)
- Content Strategist: Develops content for capturing leads and conversions at different stages of the funnel
- Email Marketing Manager
- SEO Marketing Expert: Conducts competitive analysis, keyword research, schema implementation, and manages internal linking strategy
- Senior Content Writer: Creates long-form technical and thought leadership content including blog posts, whitepapers, research reports, and LinkedIn content
- Content Editor
- SEO Outreach Specialist
- External/freelance network: For added support during peak periods or when ramping up content production, you will need to hire content creators, specialized writers, or fractional content marketers
Why this structure works for B2B
Considering that B2B content needs to showcase deep industry expertise through educational and solution-focused content, this team structure supports long-term relationship nurturing and sales enablement. It includes thought leaders, subject matter experts, and people with technical knowledge and strong analytical skills.
Agency content marketing team structure
A typical content agency structure will focus on versatility and specialized expertise that can be deployed across different industries and projects. The “perfect agency dynamic”, according to Ross Hudgens, CEO of Siege Media is to hire an SEO Manager and Content Marketing Manager, then outsource content creation roles.
Recommended roles
- SEO Manager: Leads sitewide SEO strategy
- Content Marketing Manager: Develops thought leadership content that strongly aligns with brand voice
- SEO Content Strategist: Executes SEO content strategy
- Content Editor
- Content Marketer: Creates SEO content
- Graphic Designer
Why this structure works for an Agency
This is a flexible team structure that supports diverse client accounts with the ability to scale while maintaining operational efficiency. The structure is also built to prevent duplication of work and overlapping strategy.
Local or small business content marketing team
For a local or small business, your content marketing team should be lean but efficient. Ideally you will attract audiences through local SEO and engage them at community events or on-site experiences.
Recommended roles
- Content Marketing Manager
- Social Media Manager
- Local SEO Specialist
- Content Writer
- Freelance Photographer and Videographer
Why this structure works for a local business
A lean team will prioritize hyper-localized and community-centered strategies. This structure ensures your team can focus on SEO and social media to establish an authentic relationship with audiences and customers who are in close proximity to your business. It also supports a frugal budget by keeping core roles in-house and outsourcing ad hoc specialized skills.
Content marketing team structure: by company size
Content team structure for startups (1-50 employees)
At this early stage, you’re likely running on a tight budget and may be unable to hire multiple positions. Start with an in-house generalist and then outsource other roles. Emily Kramer, who previously led the marketing teams at Asana says, “The first marketer for a startup should be a "pie shape marketer". This means, “they’re an expert in at least one marketing area—content marketing, product marketing, or growth marketing—and proficient in another.”
Recommended roles
- Content Marketing Manager: Executes content strategy, editorial calendar, social media, email, and SEO. Also manages content workflows and your freelance network.
- SEO Specialist (if your budget allows)
- Freelance Content Writers
- Freelance Graphic Designer
Why this structure works for startups
A startup content marketing team needs to be lean, versatile, and able to handle a wide range of tasks. Your content marketing manager can wear multiple hats; writer, social media manager, email marketer, and SEO specialist to support initial brand awareness and lead generation efforts. Then collaborate with freelancers or contractors to scale content production as needed.
Content team structure for growth-stage (50-200 employees)
As your company reaches the growth stage, your content marketing team can support more specialized roles to drive rapid experimentation and scale content production. Your content team can be organized around key growth divisions such as product content, social, demand generation, and SEO.
Recommended roles
- Chief Content Officer
- Content Marketing Manager
- SEO Manager
- Email Marketing Manager
- Social Media Manager
- Content Writer (x 2)
- Outreach Specialist
- Graphic Designer
Why this structure works for growth stage companies
With this team structure, implement content processes to support content production volume, establish clear ownership for high-impact channels, and scale up or scale down your team using freelancers and agencies.
Content team structure for enterprise (200+ employees)
An enterprise content marketing team is highly specialized, spread across multiple product lines, and often targets a wide range of customer segments. Your team will be built around distinctive content functions with experts dedicated to handling specific content types and channels.
Recommended roles
- VP of Content
- Director of Content Marketing/CCO
- Head of Content
- Managing Editor
- Content Strategist (by region or brand)
- SEO Manager
- Email Marketing Manager
- Social Media Manager
- Senior Content Writers
- Content Editors (by region/brand)
- Digital PR Specialist (manage and coordinate global partnerships or outreach)
- Graphic Designers
- Video Content Producers (in-house/outsourced)
Why this structure works for enterprise
This distinctive structure supports multi-brand, global content initiatives with a combination of centralized control and specialized execution. The presence of specialized roles that focus on content distribution, analytics, automation, and optimization helps ensure that enterprise-level content programs deliver maximum impact.
Content marketing team structure: by product vs. by function
Structuring your content marketing team either by product or by function helps you align content strategies to your core offerings or specific function within the content marketing process.
Product-based content marketing team
This structure allows your team to focus on the messaging, audience, and USP of a specific product, service, or business brand. For example, Google has its workspace, web browser, advertising platform, hardware, etc.
Recommended roles
- Content Marketing Manager, [Product]
- Content Strategist, [Product]
- Content Writer, [Product]
Why this structure works
A product-based structure is ideal for SaaS and ecommerce industries within a company that owns a diverse product portfolio or serves multiple consumer segments.It works because it encourages deep product expertise as opposed to spreading your team thin.
Function-based content marketing team
A function-based team is organized around specific content functions such as SEO, analytics, content operations, strategy, production, or distribution.
Recommended roles
- Head of content
- Content Strategy team (i.e audience research, editorial strategy)
- SEO team (i.e keyword research, competitor analysis, site map management)
- Content Production team (i.e writers, editors, designers, videographers)
- Content Analytics team (i.e performance analysis, reporting)
Why this structure works
This structure divides responsibilities based on expertise and is ideal if your company is looking to scale a specific format or channel.
How to grow your content marketing team
Here are different ways to scale your content marketing team effectively:
Start with core roles and expand as needed
The core positions for a productive content team typically include a Content Strategist, Content Writer, and SEO Specialist. These roles are essential for data-driven content planning, content production, and optimization. With the core team in place, you can strategically expand based on new platforms or growth pathways you choose to explore.
Benefit: Gradual expansion helps you build a strong foundation with a focus on the most effective channels. It also saves you the cost of investing in channels that could end up being a time suck.
Explore fractional and freelanced talents
Working with fractional talent can be a great way to access top-tier professionals and add specialized roles to your team without committing to full-time hires. Freelancers also give you the flexibility to outsource short-term projects on an ad-hoc basis.
Benefit: It’s cost-effective and allows you to scale up or down according to project needs.
Optimize the hiring process
Hiring can be a challenging and time-consuming process. If you’re not a content marketing expert, it's difficult to assess candidates effectively. You could spend a lot of resources, only to realize a few months later the hire isn’t the right fit.
What’s a better approach? Go directly to a platform that connects you with fractional content marketing talents. This lets you hire marketers and executives on a part-time, flexible basis with skills across specific marketing verticals.
Benefit: You can skip the frustrating hiring cycle and take advantage of a dedicated concierge that matches you with quality talent in record time.
Why MarketerHire is the best place to find expert content marketer
Finding a skilled content marketer ho balances strategy, creativity, and data-driven insights isn’t easy—but that’s where MarketerHire steps in. The platform connects you with fractional content marketing professionals who can plan, execute, and optimize content strategies.
With MarketerHire, you get a marketing partner who understands your goals and knows how to deliver measurable results. Every marketer in its network is pre-vetted for expertise, ensuring you get top-tier talent. And thanks to their flexible on-demand model, you can adjust your team as your needs change.
Here’s how MarketerHire works:
- Describe your project: Share your goals and needs with a dedicated marketing manager.
- Meet your marketer: Get matched with an expert within 48 hours.
- Start fast: Your new marketer can join your team and deliver results in just three days.
From a Head of Content Marketing to a Social Media Manager, MarketerHire’s network has specialists for every marketing need. You can even hire Expert Assistants for those time-consuming tasks, so your team can focus on bigger priorities.
Ready to level up your marketing? Start hiring with MarketerHire and build the content marketing team of your dreams.
Other Content-Related Articles to Explore
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