What does a content manager do?

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Content manager is one of many English-language names of professions that appeared with the development of content marketing. At some point, it was realized that in the coming years, providing customers with high-quality content would be an important (sometimes key) element of marketing strategy and a specialist who would be able to control content was needed.

I admit that content manager sounds much better in English than in Polish – very serious and professional. Unfortunately, it is not always used in the right context. A quick look at job offers with the heading “content manager” made me realize that many business owners looking for a “content manager” still do not realize who they really want to hire and why. It is hard to blame them, because it is very easy to get lost in the flood of English-language professions with the addition of “content”. In addition to content manager, we also have content creator , content writer , content editor and content specialist. It is worth adding that there is also a content supervisor (less often used), which we translate as… “content supervisor”.
As you can see, there are quite a few professions related to content. Each of them (at least in theory) should require slightly different skills and qualifications from the candidate. The scope of a content manager’s responsibilities is nothing like what a content writer does, and a content editor does not do the same thing as a content creator. That is probably obvious. Unfortunately, in practice, the scope of requirements and expectations towards candidates often overlap significantly and is quite fluid.

How much “content” in the manager?
The word content appears in the job title of content manager. What does it mean?
The English word content is translated as "content". The English "content" is often replaced in Polish by the word "treść". "Treść" is a rather unfortunate term for one simple reason - most of us associate content with "text", which in turn connects content with written content. Meanwhile, "content" in content marketing does not come down to just blocks of text.


"Content" is a very broad term that includes all written, visual and audiovisual forms that are placed by the company's brand in various online channels and media - websites and social media. Content also includes offline (printed) materials, e.g. company newsletters, brochures, etc.

In general, content is any form of “content” that is directly or indirectly used in a company’s marketing activities.


The scope of functions and tasks performed by a content manager will vary depending on the types of content they will “manage”. And here we have many variations and combinations. In some cases, content management will come down to just running a company blog or an e-shop. Sometimes, a content manager will focus only on content in social media channels – Tik Tok, Twitter or Instagram. The responsibilities of a content manager will look different when the company focuses on video content and publishing guides on YouTube. By far the largest scope of responsibilities will belong to a content manager, who must handle many distribution channels from classic written content to video.

You can read more about what content is and creating unique content in another article: What is and how to create unique content?

Who is a manager?
Now let's deal with the second part of the content manager, the "manager". This one is definitely easier. In English, a manager is a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or a group of employees. A manager manages processes, and their main task is planning, making important decisions for the department, monitoring and coordinating work, and even motivating employees.

What does a content manager do?
Now that we know what content is and who a manager is, we can define the scope of a content manager's responsibilities.


A Content Manager (or Content Supervisor) is a person whose main task is to supervise the creation of content in various formats, including text, video, photos, animations, graphics, etc. for use in social media, websites, mobile applications, emails, etc.

In light of this definition, the tasks of a content manager should focus primarily on the issues of planning, managing, organizing and monitoring the processes related to the creation and publication of content . A content any uk phone number manager usually does not create content on his own , but commissions others to develop it. He must know the process of creating various types of content, have the skills to verify it and supervise its quality. This is what content management is all about.


Does a content manager write texts?
As I wrote above (contrary to what we can read in the content of recruitment ads), a content manager is not involved in creating content. Or more precisely – they can create content, but they don’t have to. Their responsibilities include planning, supervising and monitoring content creation. And that’s a big difference. In a model company focused on acquiring leads through content marketing, content is “produced” by copywriters, SEO copywriters , content creators or content writers. In this arrangement, a Content Manager is a superior position. This is a manager whose main task is to coordinate and supervise the work of the content team.

This is how it looks in theory, but as we know, life writes its own scenarios. In the "real world", a content manager is a "content master" who deals with everything from A to Z - from content planning to writing, publishing and updating (e.g. on a company blog) .

Which doesn't change the fact that this is not what a content manager should do.

What are the tasks of a content manager?

Below is a list of the most important responsibilities that, in my opinion, should be included in the competences of a content marketer. Of course, this does not mean that when hiring a content manager, we should check off all the items on the list. Our requirements should be consistent with the marketing strategy.

monitoring competitor content and market trends and looking for new opportunities to use content to promote the company;
preparing a multi-platform content strategy aimed at strengthening the brand and distinguishing products and services from the competition;
managing a content team consisting of copywriters, content creators, SEO specialists and graphic designers, including cooperation with marketing, technical and product teams;
preparing detailed briefs for copywriters and content creators;
control of the work and effects of individual content teams;
preparing long-term and short-term publishing schedules and social media calendars;
support in creating visualizations and other graphic materials;
creating (optional) and editing content for publication on various channels such as blogs, websites, social media, etc.;
monitoring and analysing the effectiveness of publications (e.g. assessing what content is working or how it can be improved);
reporting based on online tools such as Google Analytics, Senuto and Google Search Console to determine, among other things, the visibility of publications in search engines and levels of engagement with content.

What competencies should a content manager have?
As you can see, the scope of a content manager's duties can be very broad and cover various fields and issues. For this reason, this position requires someone with experience working with both content and people.

A content manager doesn't have to be a specialist in everything. It's rather unlikely that they'll be an excellent graphic designer, copywriter, analyst, and SEO specialist at the same time. However, they must have sufficient knowledge and skills that would allow them to effectively manage, monitor, and verify the work of others on many levels.

For this reason, the range of requirements and skills that are usually expected from a content manager are very diverse: from the ability to write good and engaging content to competencies related to analytics and SEO.
In addition to typical technical and technical things, "soft" skills required for a managerial position also play a very important role, including the ability to think strategically, the ability to work in a team, manage people or good work organization. What should an employer expect from a person in the position of content manager?