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Content & Communications Manager

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Do you pride yourself on your creativity? Are you fantastic at getting your point across? If you’re looking for a job with writing and content creation at the heart of it, a career as a content & communications manager could be ideal for you.

Are you interested in a career as a content & communications manager? Explore current graduate opportunities in Marketing & PR.

What does a content & communications manager do?

As a content and communications manager, you’re responsible for the messages that an organisation sends out. This is both inside the organisation to your colleagues and externally to customers or interested parties. Your daily tasks as a content and communications manager can be found here:

  • You design the content that an organisation releases. You might be writing blog posts or website content or even newsletters sent out by email or post. 
  • You work with other departments like marketing to produce marketing campaigns that fit with the products that the organisation is selling or the service it provides.
  • You take the time to analyse the success of marketing campaigns that you’ve been involved with so you understand what went well, what went wrong and how you can improve your work in the future.
  • You write press releases. This could be for anything from publicising events in the organisation to announcing the release of a new product or service.
  • You look over any written work that your colleagues have produced and make edits when necessary.

Content and communications manager career path

The career path for a content and communications manager can be seen below from the entry-level positions that you start in to the executive jobs that you could get further down the line:

Entry-level

In the content and communications career path, you can begin in either a communications assistant or content executive position. Both of these positions have the same objective of creating engaging content which is published on many platforms. As a communications assistant, your job may include working with press releases and internal communications where a content executive primarily focuses on producing content. Similarly, a content executive may discuss marketing campaigns, providing ideas for new content which matches the tone and draws in the audience. 

Career progression

As a mid-level job, communications officers have more responsibility than communications assistants. This means being given larger projects and having greater say in the organisation's output.

With several years of experience, you can move up to a content and communications manager role. You’re responsible for overseeing the content which is released on all media platforms. You train new employees, giving them specific advice about the content they create and setting them assignments to complete. 

Future career

Once you’ve gained the skills and experience, you could progress to a marketing manager. This is a senior position in any organisation. You are responsible for making sure the content and marketing campaigns that an organisation produces are of great quality and attract positive attention for the organisation.

With lots of experience and a positive track record, you could move up to head of marketing. As the head of marketing, you manage all the marketing for the entire organisation. This includes any marketing, advertising, website and social media content. Your job includes producing reports on campaigns and being responsible for how the work goes. 

Content & communications manager salaries

The content and communications manager career can see you progress well within a company. Here are the salaries that you could earn at every level:

  • Entry-level jobs like content executives earn an average of £26,000 per year while communications assistants earn an average of £23,000 per year.
  • Mid-level content and communications jobs like communications officers earn an average of £30,000 per year and communications managers earn £40,000 per year on average.
  • Senior and executive jobs in content and communications like marketing managers earn around £40,000 per year on average while head of marketing roles earn an average of £60,000 per year. 

Qualifications and training

If you’re interested in a career in content and communications, having the right education and qualifications helps you spark the interest of any hiring manager.

Education

You can begin your path to a content and communications role by having a relevant degree. Degrees in marketing, advertising and business help you with the marketing aspect of a content and communications job. However, having a degree in an essay-based subject like literature, English language or history gives you experience in long-form writing and advice on what you do well and don’t do well when writing essays so you can improve. 

An alternative to a degree in marketing or essay-based subjects is a diploma. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Cambridge Marketing College both provide diplomas in digital marketing. Diplomas typically take less time to complete than a degree, are cheaper and give you the specific skills that you need to do the job. 

Another option is an apprenticeship in digital communications or marketing. You can learn more about apprenticeships in marketing with UCAS and explore the apprenticeships available with this government apprenticeship search tool.

Work experience

Having relevant work experience increases your chances of securing a job in content and communications. To get work experience, you could do an internship in a marketing department. You can explore the internships in communications available right now or learn more about networking so you can get the unpublished opportunities with this Bright Network Academy module on how to network effectively.

You could also volunteer to write blog posts and set up a social media presence for a local business or charity in your area. With this experience, you can create a portfolio of your work which you include with your job applications so prospective employers can see your skills and potential.

Content & communications manager skills

Having the right skills which you can demonstrate in your CV helps you impress any hiring manager. Here are the skills you need to succeed in content and communications:

Hard skills

  • Brand awareness. Your job as a content and communications manager requires you to understand the organisation’s brand so you can match your tone and style of writing to the brand. Having a great awareness and understanding of the brand helps you to create a cohesive and well-rounded brand image.

Soft skills

  • Writing skills. Any job in content and communications stems around writing and creating content so having exceptional writing skills is a big requirement. 
  • Editing skills. In a content and communications role, you need to edit your own work. Having some experience in editing and perfecting your and your colleagues’ writing helps you make your work ready for publication without grammatical or spelling mistakes.
  • Adaptability. Not only do you need great writing skills, but you also need to be able to adapt your work to the audience. You might write social media content, internal reports and press releases in a week. Adapting your writing style to match the audience is a necessary skill to have for content and communications managers.

Pros and cons of being a content and communications manager

Working in content and communications might be the ideal area for you. Whilst there are some great aspects of the work, there are some things to think carefully about. Here is what you should consider before committing to a job in content and communications:

Pros

  • It’s highly creative. You get to spend your working day writing and creating new content which can be very enjoyable and rewarding when you see a completed project.
  • The working hours are generally quite good and you won’t often have to do overtime work.
  • It’s a social job. Not only do you discuss strategies with many different departments throughout the day, but you also have the chance to interact with followers online.

Cons

  • Any creative job which requires you to come up with new content ideas on a regular basis can lead to burning out which affects your performance and overall well being.
  • For management positions, content and communications managers have a relatively low pay rate. Only when you start reaching senior and executive roles do you reach high pay brackets.
  • Part of your job is with social media which means being exposed to the negativity that social media sometimes encompasses as a part of your working life.
  • Since the content and communications that you produce are public, many people are likely to see it. If there is any backlash for what you have written online, the blame could fall on you.

Content & communications manager work-life balance

Your job in content and communications is predominantly based in an office. You may make occasional trips to meet with stakeholders or sponsors and you may go to conventions or conferences, but your daily work is in an office. 

Jobs in communications often have standard office hours of 9am to 5pm on Monday to Friday. This depends on the organisation you work for as it may have different operating hours or give you the option of working flexible hours. You may work overtime around large deadlines like the launch of a marketing campaign or product launch. 

Content & communications manager employers

Many organisations have an online presence, whether this is through a website or social media. Having someone to manage the content and communications which the organisation releases is important, making this a job that many organisations need. Here are some of the top companies that you could work for in content and communications:

Related jobs to content and communications manager

More information

If you’re interested in a job in content and communications, learn the digital and online lingo. Do you want to find out more? Learn about Bright Network member Kim and her work as a content creator.

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