What is a good way to manage multiple characters?

Use the Skyrim Character Manager.

It modifies your ini file upon startup and lets you choose between characters.

You could also use the Profile Manager it works the same way as the Skyrim Character manager, but has more features and works on more games.

Wrye Bash have a profile feature, that not only manage the saves, but also the mods activated with them.

To use it, got to the save tab, right click on a column header, then profile->manage profile. This allows you to create new profiles. You can then move or copy saves to a profile, and it will remember the activated mods when switching.