You're a recruiter, hiring manager or talent acquisition lead with a content marketing manager vacancy and a nagging suspicion that the last person you hired for something similar couldn't actually do the job. This guide is for you. Follow the seven steps and you'll have a defined role, a shortlist drawn from the right places, and a way to test strategic thinking before anyone gets an offer. The core of how to hire a content marketing manager is simple: decide what the role is for, screen for commercial judgement first and writing second, and make candidates show you how they measured their own work.
Step 1: Decide what the role is for
Most content marketing manager job descriptions are a wish list. Blog posts, newsletters, video, SEO, social, podcasts, events, PR, lead gen, brand voice. Nobody can do all of that well, and the candidates who claim they can are the ones to worry about.
Pick the one commercial outcome this person owns. Pipeline for a B2B software firm? Organic traffic for an ecommerce brand? Reputation and recruitment for a professional services business? Write that sentence first, then build the job description backwards from it.
How you'll know it's worked: a colleague outside marketing can read your job description and tell you what the hire is supposed to change in twelve months.
Is it a manager role or a doer role?
This trips up a lot of smaller firms. A manager with no team and no budget is a writer with a better title. If you've no freelancers, no agency spend and no one to direct, be upfront that it's hands-on, and price it accordingly. If you want strategy plus delegation, say who they'll manage and what budget they control.
Salary bands move with this. From what I see in the market, a hands-on role outside London sits noticeably lower than a strategic manager role in the capital with budget attached, and the gap between them is wide enough that mixing the two up costs you your shortlist. Check current pay for comparable roles on OHUB's marketing job listings before you set a figure.
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Step 2: Write a job description candidates actually read
Keep it short. Open with the outcome, then the three or four responsibilities that serve it, then the tools you genuinely use (HubSpot, GA4, Semrush, Sprout Social, whatever's true). Include the salary. Candidates skip roles without one, and the pay transparency expectation isn't going away.
Cut the cliches. "Passionate storyteller" tells a candidate nothing. "You'll own our editorial calendar and report on content-sourced pipeline monthly" tells them everything.
How you'll know it's worked: the applications you receive mention your actual priorities rather than recycled keywords.
Step 3: Search where content marketers actually are
Job boards will deliver volume. They won't always deliver judgement. Use them, but don't stop there.
If you're hiring a senior or strategic manager, look at who's publishing well in your sector on LinkedIn, and who's built a track record at in-house teams, agencies or publishers. Former journalists and editors turn into excellent content managers and get overlooked constantly. If you want video-first applications that show communication skills before the interview, OHUB's employer tools support that approach. For senior searches where the shortlist matters more than the volume, OHUB's Elevate service is built for exactly that.
If you're a smaller firm without an employer brand, lean on referrals and your own published content. A thoughtful company blog does more to attract this hire than a polished careers page.
I covered the wider landscape in our look at where to hire marketing communications experts, which is worth a read if your search is broad.
How you'll know it's worked: at least a third of your shortlist came from somewhere other than the first job board you posted on.
Step 4: Screen the portfolio for thinking, not polish
A beautiful portfolio is easy to fake with a good freelancer, a generous editor or a team that did the real work. Ask for the brief behind each piece.
Useful screening questions:
- Who was this written for, and how did you know?
- What did you choose not to make, and why?
- Which pieces did you kill after publishing?
That last one separates people who've run a content programme from people who've written for one. Anyone who can name a failure, explain why it failed and say what they changed has done the work.
How you'll know it's worked: candidates talk about audiences and decisions rather than word counts and awards.
Step 5: Ask the data questions, and listen for specifics
Content marketing is easy to hide behind vanity numbers. Ask what they tracked, and what they did when the numbers disagreed with their instincts.
Good answers sound like this: "We measured organic sessions from non-brand search, then content-assisted conversions in HubSpot, and I stopped reporting social impressions because they didn't connect to anything." Weak answers sound like "engagement went up" with nothing behind it.
Ask how they'd attribute pipeline to content when the sales cycle runs six months. There's no perfect answer, and anyone who offers one is selling you something. You want to hear they understand the problem.
Step 6: Test strategic thinking with a short, paid task
Don't set a four-day unpaid project. It's unfair, it filters out people with jobs and caring responsibilities, and the best candidates will simply decline.
Give a 60-minute exercise instead. Share a real, anonymised scenario, such as a content programme with falling traffic and no budget increase, and ask for a one-page plan. You're assessing prioritisation, not prose. What do they cut? What do they ask you before answering?
Then interview on the plan. Push back. See whether they defend it with reasoning or fold at the first challenge.
How you'll know it's worked: you can name two candidates' priorities from memory a day later, and they differed.
Step 7: Check references and make the offer
Phone referees and ask what the person owned, not whether they were nice to work with. "What would you give them more budget to do?" is a better question than "Would you rehire them?"
Follow the process your legal team expects for right-to-work checks, and keep your decision criteria written down and consistent across candidates, which protects you under the Equality Act 2010. Move quickly at offer stage. Strong content hires rarely stay on the market past a fortnight.
If a step goes wrong
If your shortlist is full of generalists, your job description in step 1 is probably too broad. Narrow the outcome and repost.
If you're seeing great portfolios but weak data answers, you've found writers. Decide whether you need a writer or a manager, and be honest with yourself about the budget.
If a strong candidate declines at offer, ask why. It's usually salary, scope or speed, and all three are fixable next time.
If nobody's applying, check the salary against comparable roles first, before blaming the market.
For the broader marketing hiring process in the UK, including campaign roles, see OHUB's guide to platforms for hiring campaign managers.
This week: open your current job description and rewrite the first paragraph so it names one commercial outcome the hire will own. If you can't do it in two sentences, you're not ready to advertise.
