Senior Content Marketing Manager with a $130,000 salary

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, email me.

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.

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

I worked at a small marketing agency in a suburb outside of San Francisco. We had eight employees total. I was responsible for blogging and writing social posts on behalf of clients, who were mostly B2C brands. I was paid $48k/year.

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

Today, I earn $130,000 as a Senior Content Marketing Manager.

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

My transition from project-based contract work to a full-time job at IBM increased my salary by $60,000. The other biggest salary jump I made was from having two full-time jobs at once: $104,000 at the first job and $125,000 at the second job. I did that for six months before quitting my first job.

What is your most valuable skill?

Writing. More specifically, synthesizing complex information into either coherent, long-form content or punchy messaging with clarity and concision.

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

Brian Dean's Backlinko blog is second to none.

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

I consider my manager as a bit of a mentor. She offered many valuable lessons into office politics and led by example with a tireless work ethic. My other career mentor is a VP at a tech PR firm in San Francisco. I was introduced to her through a former coworker. I've learned the importance of relationships and how to position myself more competitively.

What skills or habits help you thrive at work?

I am proactive about getting things done, asking questions, scheduling meetings, and overall pursuing internal alignment and clarity around projects, objectives, and timelines. My lack of ego is immensely helpful for collaborating with others on content that they will author. I've been told that I'm an excellent researcher, enhancing content with data-driven insights and I know how to ruthlessly prioritize to get a lot of work done very fast.

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

Have a polished website that showcases campaign work, along with measurable results, nail down your career narrative in your online profiles and cover letter, identify how you add value to where you work and your role, and seek out a B2B company.

What is your gender and ethnicity? (this is an optional question)

Female/Woman/She/Her and Caucasian

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