As organizations continue to create an online presence, a job as a marketing manager will continue to be a great choice in 2023 and beyond.
The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects the marketing manager occupation to grow about 10% from 2020 to 2030 (source). Marketing managers also benefit from competitive salaries with an average base pay of $104,000 in the USA (source).
Marketing managers will play a significant role in navigating the ever-changing digital marketing landscape in 2023 and beyond and will be sought after by organizations to use critical thinking and strategic decision-making abilities to create competitive marketing programs.
Here are the 5 steps to become a marketing manager, which are further defined below with actionable advice:
- Learn marketing skills
- Get an entry-level marketing position
- Develop management skills
- Apply for a marketing manager position
- Continue to develop in your marketing manager career
What does a marketing manager do:
A marketing manager develops and executes marketing strategies, tactics, and campaigns to grow a brand’s awareness and revenue.
They work cross-functionally with other teams like product, developers, and finance to align on goals and targets and to create the necessary promotional marketing material (like landing pages, ad creatives, blog posts, leadership thought pieces, and much more.
Depending on the type of organization, a marketing manager may oversee and manage a team of marketing associates that help execute the plans that they create and develop.
What types of organizations do marketing managers work for?
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Large corporate level businesses
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Small businesses
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Agencies
In larger corporate-level businesses, marketing managers typically report to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or marketing director and oversee a team of marketing associates. They may focus on one or multiple marketing channels, like social media, content marketing, paid search, etc.
In small businesses, marketing managers typically report to the Chief Operating Officer (CEO) and oversee multiple marketing channels. They are responsible for executing social media plans, running remarketing campaigns, and more. They may manage a few team members or work independently by themselves.
In an agency setting, marketing managers oversee the agency’s clients’ marketing performance and strategy and manage multiple team members to help execute the marketing strategies and tactics for those clients. In addition, they typically work closely with the CEO of the agency.
What are the different types of marketing managers?
Depending on the organization level, a marketing manager may oversee one or multiple marketing channels. Here are the different types of marketing managers
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Digital marketing managers
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Social media marketing managers
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Content marketing managers
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Paid search marketing managers
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing managers
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Affiliate marketing managers
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E-commerce marketing managers
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Brand marketing managers
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Email marketing managers
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Events marketing managers
What are the requirements to become a marketing manager?
The requirements for becoming a marketing manager are to have some level of education or certificates and to have on-the-job experience in some type of marketing role.
A formal education is not required, though recommended if you work for larger corporations that typically require a bachelor’s degree or higher.
In place of a formal degree, one can obtain certificates that can be much cheaper and faster to obtain. But, first, check the requirements on the job postings to get a sense of what is required as they vary from organization to organization.
How to become a marketing manager in 5 steps:
Start your journey to becoming a marketing manager in just 5 steps. As a marketing manager, you can enjoy a great income, and remote working opportunities as more brands rely on marketing managers to navigate their online marketing performance in the post-pandemic world.
The best marketing managers are continual learners with a growth mindset. They continue to develop their skills over time and help mentor their team members to become the best versions of themselves.
Source: FS.blog Carol S. Dweck, Ph D.
Listed below are the steps you can take to become a marketing manager:
1. Learn Marketing Skills
In 2022 and beyond, there are several ways to gain marketing skills. Many organizations will require a bachelor’s degree in a related field, like business administration, business management, or marketing.
Some smaller level organizations, like small businesses or agencies, won’t require a formal education if the candidate has sufficient professional experience and is a subject matter expert in a particular marketing discipline, like social media marketing.
A. Earn a degree or a certificate
There are multiple degrees and certificate options that one can pursue to help land a marketing manager position. Make sure you choose a degree that will help you become a great communicator and problem solver. You can tackle just about any situation you will come across as a marketing manager with those skills.
Here are the best bachelor level degrees to consider:
- Any Liberal arts bachelors degree
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Business administration
- Business management
- Business management information systems
Here are the best certificates to consider:
Many universities and colleges offer marketing certificates. When searching for a certificate program, look for a curriculum that will focus on marketing strategy and decision making in addition to digital marketing fundamentals.
Online certificate programs:
- UC Berkley Extension – Certificate Program in Marketing
- Digital Marketing Institute – Certified Marketing Expert
- Northwestern Kellog School of Management – Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing
- General Assembly – Digital Marketing Immersive
Source: digitalmarketinginstitute.com
B. Learn the fundamentals of digital marketing
In 2022, digital marketing fundamentals can be learned for free or cheaply on platforms like YouTube and Udemy. The advantage of taking a formal certificate program will be a structured approach that you can follow. However, one can still self-educate with a bit of planning effort and learn the core marketing concepts.
Digital marketing fundaments include understanding different marketing channels, ad platforms, and marketing strategies.
Audience targeting fundamentals:
The goal here is to understand your target audience and how you can help them. For example, what are their online behaviors, and what offer would help them solve their problem?
You’ll want to define a user persona to understand the interests, demographics, behaviors of your target audience, which you can then use to craft compelling content, ads, and other marketing material to reach and serve that audience.
The most common marketing channels:
- Paid Search – Advertising on Google and Bing using text-based ads that show on Google’s search results.
- Paid Social – Advertising on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Creating written content and website optimizations with the aim to rank the content on the first page of Google’s search results.
- Email – Creating email outreach and nurturing campaigns using email.
- Content marketing – Creating and distributing content online like, videos, blog posts, social posts, etc.
The most common ad platforms in digital marketing:
- Google Ads (includes YouTube ads)
- Microsoft Ads
- Facebook Ads
- LinkedIn Ads
The most common marketing strategies and tactics:
- Top of funnel brand awareness- Advertising to a target audience to increase a brand’s awareness and eventually move users to the bottom of the funnel to purchase a product or service.
- Prospecting- Using paid channels to advertise an offer to your target audience with the goal of them taking action like buying a product. Example: REI bidding on terms to show ads on Google when a user searches for best-hiking tents.
- Remarketing- Reengaging with users who have already interacted with your website or content.
Here are courses you can use to learn digital marketing fundamentals (free and paid)
- Google Ads certificates (Google Skillshop) – Free
- The complete digital marketing course – Udemy – About $20 depending on Udemy offers
- Ahrefs SEO course – Youtube – Free
- Simplilearn Google Ads course – Youtube – Free
- Andrew Ethan Zeng – Facebook Ads course – Youtube – Free
- Simplilearn email marketing course – Youtube – Fee
Also, here is a list of marketing tools that marketing professionals commonly use.
C. Learn how to analyze data
In 2022 and beyond, it’s critical that marketing managers have excellent analytical skills. Marketing managers oversee the performance of different marketing initiatives, so it’s crucial they can review data and communicate the results to senior leadership like the Chief Marketing Officer.
Data and marketing performance courses (free and paid)
- Data-driven marketing – Udemy – About $20 depending on Udemy offers
- University of Virginia – Marketing analytics course – Coursera – Paid
- Google Analytics course – Google – Free
2. Get an Entry-Level Marketing Position
After gaining some skills and understanding the fundamentals of marketing, it’s time to put your learning into practice by finding an entry-level marketing position. First, update your resume to highlight your skills and education, and then apply to jobs.
A. Update your resume
Hiring managers love to see relevant experience at the top of resumes, so highlight your newly learned skills and relevant experience first.
You can use this template for your resume.
Make sure your LinkedIn profile reflects your resume.
I also highly recommend creating a professional website using your name or a variation of your name as the domain. Showing that you can create a website, even if it’s basic, and using a website builder platform like Squarespace will make you stand out among candidates without a website.
B. Apply for a position relative to your experience
To find jobs relative to your experience, you can begin reviewing job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn.
Here are some positions you can search for on job finding platforms:
- Digital marketing manager
- Marketing Intern
- Entry-level marketing jobs
- Social media manager
- Paid search manager
- Google Ads specialist
- Marketing associate
- Marketing specialists
- Paid media marketing manager
- Associate marketing manager
- Advertising managers
- Marketing assistants
3. Learn Management and Strategic Skills
A significant role of a marketing manager is to provide strategic direction and guidance to team members. Therefore, as you gain more on-the-job experience, you should nurture team management and strategic decision-making skills.
A. Learn team management and delegation skills
Identify high priority and low priority items and delegate tasks to team members. You can use a 2×2 matrix to help you identify the top priority items you should be working on and the lower priority items you can delegate to team members.
When delegating tasks, listen to your team members to make sure they understand the tasks and guide them if they have any questions or concerns about the task.
B. Interpersonal communication with teams and clients
It’s essential to focus on being a great listener and to focus on credibility.
Whenever you are working with a team member or client, be clear in what you are going to do, do the thing you said you were going to do, and follow up by letting the person know when it is done.
If any issues arise during that process, follow up with them and let them know.
C. Team collaboration skills
A good team collaborator listens well, provides suggestions, and receives and gives productive feedback. When working with teams across departments, make sure to bring a positive attitude and look for ways to add value to the project or team.
D. Learn strategic decision-making skills
As a marketing manager, you will be responsible for making decisions and communicating those to critical stakeholders of the business. It’s essential to understand data and trends to help guide your choices and their short and longe term impacts.
You can develop these skills over time through your professional experience, and you can also supplement your on-the-job experience with a course like LinkedIn’s Decision Making Strategies.
E. Budget management skills
It’s important to understand how to manage a budget against the goals and strategies set.
If you focus on generating the most revenue, you will want to focus on the channels that provide the best return. On the other hand, if you are focused on introducing your brand to more users, you will focus on channels that offer high-quality impressions to your audience.
Here are a few formulas that can be helpful to assess budget performance.
- Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) = Revenue / Ad Spend
- Percentage Change = Value 1 / Value 2 – 1.
ROAS Example: This month, there is $150,000 in revenue with $60,000 in expenses for social media ads on Facebook and Instagram. The ROAS would be 150,000/60,000= 2.5. So for every $1 on ad spend, you generated $2.5 in revenue. Depending on the business’s goals and other operating expenses, this can be an acceptable or unacceptable ROAS.
Percentage Change Example: This month’s spend is $10,000, and your budget target is $15,000. You can use this formula to see how far ahead or below you are pacing to the target. 10,000/15,000 – 1 = -.3333 so you are pacing 33.33 % below the $15,000 target.
4. Apply for a Marketing Manager Position
Now that you have some professional experience, an understanding of digital marketing fundamentals, and some subject matter expertise in a particular digital marketing area, it’s time to start searching and applying to marketing manager jobs.
Update your resume with your most relevant experience towards the top and highlight some key projects you have worked on. Make sure to include the results you have accomplished with numeric figures.
For example, Increased revenue by 10% from implementing a multi-channel remarketing campaign.
Then start applying to marketing manager positions across job-finding platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed or reach out internally to your network.
5. Continue to develop in your marketing manager career
To be a successful marketing manager, you need to continually improve and learn. Marketing is rapidly changing with tactics, strategies, and ethical decisions to consider regarding privacy and security. Make sure to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and self-educate.
Those are the 5 steps on how to become a marketing manager. I hope you found that useful and I wish you great success in your marketing and career endeavors.
Frequently asked questions about marketing managers:
How much does a marketing manager make?
Marketing managers typically make about $82,00 to $146,000 per year (source: salary.com). However, this range can vary depending on location, level of experience, education, additional skills, and more.
Here’s an example from 2022 when searching for marketing manager roles in Seattle, WA.
Marketing manager interview questions?
Marketing managers’ most common interview questions are behavioral-based interview questions that can be answered in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). In addition, be prepared to provide specific performance-based accomplishments.
Which degree is best for a marketing manager?
The best degree for a marketing manager is a liberal arts degree that will provide you with critical thinking and problem-solving skills and allow you to make strategic decisions and solve problems.
How long does it take to become a marketing manager?
The timeline will vary depending on where you are starting from. There is no exact timeframe, but a reasonable estimate is about 2-5 years if you start with some foundational skills and experience. If you have more experience or team management knowledge, you can become a marketing manager quicker, and if you are starting with no skills or job experience, it may take longer than that.
