Senior Content Marketing Manager Earning $155,000/year

Welcome to another post in the $100k Club series. You can see the full series here. This is "My Morning Routine" for content marketing folks making six figures. The goal is to shed light on the skills and habits that enable people to achieve lucrative jobs and help get more people in this club.

These will be anonymous and updated regularly. If you make more than $100k/year and want to contribute, fill out the form here.

For more info on content marketing salaries, check out our salary report.

If you'd like to see more info on salary by job title, check out these resources: Content Marketing Manager Salary, Content Strategist Salary, Head of Content Salary, and Content Director Salary.

What was your first full-time job in content? What was the salary?

I was a "Marketing Specialist" for a SaaS company that sold loyalty software for restaurants, making $67,000 per year. My title was later unofficially adjusted to "Content Lead" which was more accurate.

This job was sort of all over the place—I ran regular webinars, managed emails and our monthly newsletter, wrote all of our long-form content, and did lots of other ad hoc projects.

I should note that this was a pretty healthy salary for a first content role. I had worked as a journalist for several years and as a BDR for ~8 months prior to this, so I was coming into the role with 5 years of post-graduate experience.

List out your income by year for as long as you've been working in content marketing.

• Year 1: $67,000 --> $69,000 (annual company raises)
• Year 2: $69,000 --> $80,000 (performance-based raise) --> $90,000 (job change)
• Year 3: $90,000 --> $110,000 (job change)
• Year 4: $110,000 --> $125,000 (promotion)
• Year 5: $125,000 --> $155,000 (job change)

How much do you earn today? What's your job title?

Today I earn $155,000 plus equity and benefits. My title is Senior Content Marketing Manager.

What's single biggest salary jump you've made? (either from job-hopping or a promotion/raise)

Before I got into Marketing, I was coming from Sales, where the change in base salary (so excluding commission) was 48.8%. But since I've been in Marketing, the biggest jump was 24% between my last role and my current one.

What is your most valuable skill?

This might sound trite or contrived, but I honestly believe it's my willingness and eagerness to take on any project. I take deep pride in my work, and I approach all challenges with a mentality of "I'll figure it out." Most often that's related to content, but sometimes it's about taking on something outside my job description simply because it needs to be done to further the team's goals. Changing careers taught me that I'm capable of doing whatever I set out to do, and that "figure it out" mentality is something that previous managers have praised me for.

What's the best book you've ever read on writing, marketing, sales, business or productivity? (Feel free to suggest more than one!)

Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley — There wasn't much in this book that stood out as a completely new idea, but Ann's approach to content (and the way she wrote the book itself) got me fired up and gave me some new ideas for thinking outside the box in my own work.

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger — Similarly, this book was all about examining the human psychology and why some things are memorable to us and others aren't. It changed the way I think about Marketing as a whole.

Have you had a career mentor/coach? If so, how did you find them and what have you learned from them?

Yes and no—I've been fortunate to work for some really wonderful managers who helped me to refine my skills, but they weren't mentors or coaches per se. That said, they each taught me something through their own approaches to content. Honestly, I think the best thing each of them did for me was give me the space to bring new ideas to the table and try stuff out. For me, there's no better learning experience than *doing*, then stepping back to see why something worked (or didn't).

What skills or habits help you thrive at work?

I'm neurotically organized. I make tracking sheets for all of my work so I can see when I (or someone on my team) worked on something, how long it took, what we aimed to achieve, etc. It creates a great repository of ideas and content that I regularly go back to and use to inform future work.

I'd also add that being an ex-journo has been a huge help. I was a beat reporter for a newspaper, so my job was all about social listening, networking, making connections between events and people, and breaking complicated ideas into simple stories that people could understand. Those stories also had to answer "why should I care?" which is at the core of everything in content marketing. You can't just tell your audience what you want them to hear—you have to package it in a way that makes them want to listen.

Tell us about your current job. What does a week in your life look like? What are your primary responsibilities?

Currently, I lead Content efforts on a small Marketing team. I straddle both the hands-on work and the strategic, directional thinking. I'm responsible for all of our organic content efforts, which are primarily the blog/SEO, long-form assets, customer stories, and organic social.

What I like most about the role is that no two weeks are the same, but generally, each week consists of some writing, editing others' work, meeting with internal and external SMEs to understand our ICP and our product, planning content for the quarter, and reporting on KPIs.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to join the $100k club?

Be willing to take on every project that comes your way. Volunteering to take on new work is the best way to accomplish two things: A, to prove your value to your manager, and B, to learn new skills that will help you land a promotion or your next role.

That said, you have to be careful not to burn out, too, so clearly communicate your bandwidth. If a new project comes up and you don't have the time for it, don't just say "no"—explain that you'd love to take it on, but have X other things on your plate, and ask for help in prioritizing.

Where do you live?

Philadelphia, PA