It’s no news that branded content has gained popularity, but did you know that as many as 84% of people expect brands to create content? With content marketing gaining such an impetus, it is almost a given that the demand for a content marketer is at an all-time high. However, the question most marketers struggle with is: how much can they earn?

Although the pay scale for a content marketer depends on myriad factors – such as experience, skill, location, and job category – there are three major factors that largely determine how much a content marketer is likely to earn.*

1. Experience of a Content Marketer

Every industry pays better with time and content marketing is no different. As multiple job categories come under content marketing, the salary for each also varies. Apart from the inherent skills required for a particular category, experience too plays a significant role in determining the rise in income.

Consider the job of a content writer, for example. According to PayScale, the entry level salary ranges from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 4.2 lakh per annum, given the city one is working in and all the other factors remain general. Other conditions remaining the same, the mid-level salary ranges from Rs 2.1 lakh to Rs 7 lakh. It gets more lucrative with increasing experience; the salary for the same could range from Rs 2.3 lakh to Rs 9.2 lakh.

An entry-level candidate should have an experience of 0-2 years, a mid-level candidate should have spent 2-5 years working, and an experienced candidate should be able to boast of 5-9 years on the job. However, the salary expected in each job category is also influenced by the growth in your quality of work as well as your negotiating skills.

2. Category of the Content Marketer

Content marketing is all-pervasive, and therefore has different job categories. Right from a brand journalist who specialises in moulding the brand image to an influencer who helps in winning the trust of customers, there exist different types of content marketers, each suited for a specific need.

So, while experience counts, the pay might vary depending on the field of expertise of the content marketer. Here are a few important categories:

• SEO copywriters: These people are experienced in framing content in a way that increases the chances of it being discovered organically through a Google search. They manage this by using keywords and are thus preferred for writing content for websites. The mid-level salary for them ranges from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 7 lakh.
• Technical writers: Technical writers specialise in providing content for instruction manuals, operating and maintenance instructions Their purpose is to make the technical language consumable and straightforward for the target audience. The salary for them ranges from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 9.9 lakh.
• Influencers: This term refers to people who have a loyal audience base and are in a position to market a product or service on their respective social media channels. Their earnings depend on their followers on the social media platform. For instance, an Instagram influencer with 1 lakh followers can earn up to Rs 60,000 per post. Generally, the higher the number of followers, the better the earnings.
• Digital marketing managers: Social media has become one of the most important channels of establishing an online presence. Digital marketing managers are the experts who create and manage brands on social media. Their salary ranges from Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 8.2 lakh, depending on experience.

3.  Skill Set a Content Marketer possesses

The skills a candidate possesses determine the pay to a great extent. For instance, knowledge of content marketing-related subject matter combined with SEO experience can be more lucrative than the two individually could. So the more skills a marketer is equipped with, the higher the pay.

Content marketing is often compared to fields that employ a similar process but are different in functioning, such as advertising and journalism. The pay for an advertising copywriter could be anywhere between Rs 2.64 lakh and Rs 36 lakh. Similarly, a journalist’s salary could range from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 8.8 lakh. Advertising, as well as journalism, are very distinct from content marketing in other ways as well.

Apart from the skill set variation, content marketing also differs from these two in its essence. It is informative at its core, while advertising gets straight to the point. Due to this direct approach a lot of people prefer to make an informed decision rather than believe traditional ads. As per the 2015 McCarthy Group study, 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional ads; they make their purchase decisions based on branded content.

Journalism, on the other hand, is more focused on unbiased writing. Moreover, the journalism industry is also known to pay less.

The bottom line

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It is clear from the chart that the growth in content marketing salaries is moving in tandem with the growth of the industry. Content marketing jobs have seen a 350% growth since 2011. It’s time you invested in the field too!

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*All salaries mentioned are per annum unless stated otherwise.