How to Hire a Content Marketer
Content marketers create the educational, entertaining, and trust-building content that attracts and converts your target audience. The best ones combine excellent writing with strategic thinking — understanding that content exists to drive business outcomes, not just traffic.
What to Look For
- Strong writing: clear, engaging, and adapted to your audience — not just grammatically correct
- SEO fluency: keyword research, on-page optimization, and content strategy for search
- Strategic thinking: ability to connect content topics to buyer journey stages and business goals
- Content distribution instincts: great content that no one sees has no value
- Analytical skills: tracks what content actually drives pipeline, not just pageviews
- Versatility: long-form, short-form, social, email, video scripts — not a one-format specialist
The Hiring Process
- 1
Portfolio review
Read 3–5 pieces they've written in a professional context. Evaluate for clarity, depth, originality, and fit with your brand voice.
- 2
Content brief exercise
Give a topic and ask them to write a content brief (outline, angle, target keywords, CTA). Reveals strategic thinking before the writing begins.
- 3
Short writing sample
Ask for a 300-word intro to a blog post on a topic relevant to your industry. Look for hook, clarity, and voice.
- 4
SEO and distribution interview
Ask how they'd build an organic content strategy from scratch for your product. Look for keyword research process and distribution thinking.
Interview Tips
- Ask 'Show me a piece you're most proud of and explain why it worked' — tests self-awareness and strategic thinking
- Ask how they measure whether content is actually driving business outcomes
- Probe on repurposing: 'How do you get maximum distribution from a single piece of content?'
- Ask them to critique a piece of your existing content — look for constructive, specific feedback
Red Flags
- Portfolio is generic blog posts with no evidence of SEO intent or audience targeting
- Can't explain what made a piece successful beyond pageviews
- Treats content as a publishing exercise rather than a business development channel
- Weak on distribution — publishes and hopes, rather than actively promoting
- Unfamiliar with basic SEO concepts like search intent or internal linking
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