Content marketing isn’t a static blueprint. It’s more like a puzzle, where the pieces (and the picture) keep changing.

That’s true now more than ever. Hubspot’s 2024 State of marketing report says that “marketing has transformed more in the past three years, than over the past 50.”

Our teams need to adapt with the pieces—but that doesn’t mean a revolving door of employees, or refusing to hire anyone but a unicorn. (You know what they say about a “jack of all trades.”)

Instead, we need a solid foundation of transferrable skills that can collaborate and build off of one another. Not to mention, leverage the behemoth of tools at our actual fingertips.

Teams today have countless ways to gather data, scale content creation, and connect with audiences. But what roles should wield those tools? Let’s walk through the fundamental aspects of a content team, and how to ensure our content roles are strategic, not supplementary.

TL;DR

• Content marketing’s evolution requires balancing AI with human skills to enhance efficiency without sacrificing quality or causing burnout
• Leadership roles like Chief Content Officer are essential for strategic direction and governance across content channels
• Effective content marketing relies on cross-functional collaboration and clear workflows between content, sales, and marketing teams
• To maximize business impact and maintain high standards, organizations must treat content roles as strategic functions rather than add-ons

What is content marketing, actually?

Ask ten marketers what content marketing is and you’ll likely get ten different answers — the “definition” of content marketing really depends on each organization’s unique goals and constraints.

But at its core, content marketing means strategically creating and distributing valuable content across multiple formats and channels to achieve specific business goals—think lead generation (or user acquisition), brand building, and customer education.

Don’t confuse content with its close relatives—public relations, advertising, and traditional marcom. While these focus mainly on promotion and messaging, content marketing is all about providing genuine value by speaking to our audiences about what they care about.

When content teams conduct solid research into customer needs, pain points, and consumption habits, they can develop truly relevant content that resonates.

Yet, surprisingly, research shows that nearly 65% of content marketers skip proper audience research, significantly limiting their potential impact.

This is a mistake we can’t afford to make. That’s why, before we build our team, we need to understand our landscape.

Know your audience first

Before you build your team, you should have a strategy. To have a strategy, you need to know your audience.

That audience isn’t just a vague group of “potential customers”—they’re real people with specific interests, habits, and preferred ways of consuming content. The better you understand them, the smarter your content (and your team structure) will be.

Knowing your audience tells you where to focus, what kind of expertise you need, and even how your team should communicate internally.

Will you be building deep-dive articles and SEO content? Or do you need to buy a ring-light and mini-microphone?

You can’t (and shouldn’t) guess your way through these answers.

Before you start hiring or assigning roles, take the time to dig into audience insights. Look at analytics, engage in conversations, and figure out what makes your people tick.

If you know who you’re talking to, you know what you need to say — and who should say it.

How to build an effective team

I’m not a fan of hot takes, but if I have one, it’s this: The most important skills are rarely found on a resume.

There’s a reason that Duolingo’s “unhinged” social media strategy took our feeds by storm. Who better to trust with your TikTok account than a 23-year old?

It really comes down to trust. Trusting your audience, and trusting the people you’ve hired to speak to them. The best way to trust your team? To hire people with a(n):

• Desire to learn new tools and experiment
• Collaborative, open mindset
• Willingness to be wrong, and learn from their mistakes
• Natural passion for what they do

Talent and creativity aren’t just lightning in a bottle. They’re fostered in an environment that reminds them why they love their jobs.

“You can’t plan virality. But you can plan mentality. Our openness to being scrappy and experimenting [is] what has set us apart” — Zaria Parvez, Duolingo

Now, hard-earned knowledge is non-negotiable, especially when it comes to collecting data, or tackling technical channels like SEO. But when we pair that industry knowledge with genuine enthusiasm, we get something irreplicable.

Key roles in a content marketing team

Now that we’ve talked mindset, let’s get people in seats. Teams will vary in size based on the size of your company (I’ve been part of a small-but-mighty team of two or even one before).

“Content marketing is a team game, not a solo effort.” — Georgia Austin, Wordbrew Founder and CEO

In general, here are the functions that you’ll see on any content team—regardless of title.

• Content Strategist
• Content Marketing Manager
• Channel Expert(s)
• Content Editor
• Content Creators (writers, videographers, designers, etc.)
• Data Analyst

Content Strategist

The Content Strategist shapes the direction of your content marketing efforts.

They’re responsible for defining the goals of content initiatives by understanding the needs of the target audience.

By conducting thorough research and analysis, the Content Strategist identifies key topics and themes that resonate with the audience and align with the company’s objectives.

They’ll then monitor content performance, using data-driven insights to refine strategies and improve outcomes. Their work ensures that all content efforts contribute to broader business goals, enhancing brand visibility and driving audience engagement.

Content Marketing Manager

The Content Marketing Manager orchestrates the team’s efforts, so you can execute against the Context Strategist’s vision.

This manager coordinates with the Content Strategist to align on goals and collaborates with the Content Editor to maintain high-quality standards across all content outputs.

They’re responsible for:

• Managing the content calendar
• Overseeing the production process
• Ensuring the timely delivery of content projects

They’ll also likely analyze performance metrics to optimize content distribution and engagement, working closely with the team to adapt strategies as needed to meet the company’s marketing objectives.

Channel Expert

A Usually your “Channel” expert will double as your Strategist or Content manager. Really, this describes a specialist that “owns” a specific marketing channel, so you can optimize your content to perform well. Remember, the channels you choose will depend on entirely on where your audience is and what they care about.

Popular channel experts are:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEOs): Enhancing the company’s visibility on search engines through keyword optimization and content structuring
• Social Media: Crafting strategies to engage audiences across social platforms
• Email marketing: Designing campaigns to nurture leads with valuable, interesting blogs or videos

With a deep understanding of their chosen channel, Channel Experts play a crucial role in driving the success of marketing initiatives and ensuring cohesive brand messaging across all platforms.

Content Editor

I once worked with an Editor that was called “The Voice of the Company.” And that about sums it up.

The Content Editor plays a crucial role in ensures the quality and consistency of all content produced by the team. They’re the gateway for every article, video, or design before it goes live.

They’ll meticulously review and refine the work of content creators to:

• Maintain the brand voice and tone
• Meet content objectives
• Resonate with the target audience

Content Creators

Now, let’s start our (creative) engines.

Content creators are the writers, videographers, designers and other creative professionals that bring the content strategist’s vision to life.

Working closely with the content manager, they ensure that their work aligns with the strategic goals and timelines set for various campaigns.

The content editor then refines their output to maintain quality and consistency, ensuring that every piece of content not only meets the brand’s standards but also resonates with the target audience.

Together, content creators play a pivotal role in executing the marketing strategy, driving brand engagement, and enhancing the overall impact of the marketing efforts.

Data Analyst

While their expertise may overlap with that of the strategist or manager, or even belong to another team, the Data Analyst is the go-to expert for understanding and managing data tracking systems.

They ensure that the team can accurately monitor content performance against prioritized metrics—be it MQLs, user acquisition, or some powerful third thing.

By analyzing data trends and patterns, the Data Analyst provides actionable insights that inform strategic decisions, helping to refine content strategies and optimize marketing efforts. This is crucial in ensuring that content not only reaches but also resonates with the target audience, ultimately driving engagement and achieving business objectives.

Integrating your content team

Let’s be clear: Content marketing is just one piece of the shifting puzzle.

To really succeed, our team needs to work hand-in-hand with other marketing efforts, sharing goals and metrics.

This teamwork kicks off by making sure everyone gets why content marketing is important and spotting where they can naturally work together.

For B2B companies, content marketing is tied with sales. When content teams sync up with sales processes, they can create materials that help with prospect chats and speed up deals. Things like customer stories, product guides, and trend reports become key tools throughout the buying journey, which also informs what content to create based on what resonates with MQLs.

Regularly checking how things are performing helps teams tweak their strategy based on what the audience is doing.

To get executives on board, you need to clearly show how content impacts the business. Why? Because the Chief Content Officer has to turn content metrics into results that make sense to the leadership. Keeping them updated on how content is performing and its effect on revenue helps keep their support strong.

Adapting to the age of AI

We can’t talk about content without bringing up AI.

New AI tools are changing where our teams spend their time and energy. (And no, they’re not replacing our content creators.)

Here’s how artificial intelligence has impacted content teams:

Shifting how we spend our time

AI tools work best when they partner with human minds to help us move more quickly, cut through clutter, and scale our production.

A great example of how AI helps content teams is in the brainstorming and ideation phase.

Hiba Amin, marketing professional at Sandia Consulting, puts it perfectly:

“A content marketer might have spent hours to days reviewing data from a wide range of sources like customer calls, surveys, etc., and then spend time trying to brainstorm content ideas from there. Now, they can get a lot of that time back by having AI consolidate and summarize a large amount of data into bite-sized chunks.” — Hiba Amin, Marketing Expert, Sandia Consulting

This change doesn’t just make things more efficient; it also gives teams the power to come up with fresh, high-quality content. So, while AI takes care of the boring, data-heavy stuff, content teams can focus on crafting messages that really hit home with their audience. It’s all about being more agile and letting the human touch shine through.

Making teams leaner

Like I said, it’s easy for one marketing role to support several different functions.

With AI, our teams can operate differently. By automating routine tasks like data analysis, customer segmentation, and even content generation (to a degree), AI partners with us to help us move more quickly and at scale.

Of course, that doesn’t mean AI can replace our teams. This is where there’s a bit of trouble. As Hiba says, “I don’t believe that AI is in a place where we can say outright that it can replace roles like writers, etc. I don’t think we’re remotely close. But, I think that when leaders see claims like ’10x productivity’ it can feel like we can rely more on AI to replace roles.”

At its heart, AI is a tool to support our teams, not a team member itself.

“It should be treated as an add-on to teams to give content people more capabilities and help them be more efficient.” – Hiba Amin

Start building

Whether it’s two or twelve people, top-notch content marketing team is all about how you strategize and collaborate.

The real magic happens when we’re content marketing is seamlessly woven into the bigger marketing picture with clear OKRs and metrics to back them up.

Instead of just adding more people, focus should on strategic activities that truly make an impact.

By treating these roles as essential parts of the mission, your team can stay flexible and succeed no matter what comes their way.

This article was written with the help of Wordbrew. Give it a try to amplify your experts with the power of AI. Thank you to our experts for sharing their insights:

• Georgia Austin
• Hiba Amin