How to become a Marketing Manager
What is a Marketing Manager?
A Marketing Manager typically oversees marketing for a service or product, developing a marketing strategy that supports the business’s goals and objectives.
It’s a big jump in responsibility from a marketing executive role, but a totally achievable one if you build your experience, skill set and knowledge in the right way. It’s also a fantastic job, with great variety and excellent career prospects.
Here, we give you some tips on how to get a Marketing Manager role.
What are the requirements to become a Marketing Manager?
Becoming a Marketing Manager does not require a qualification and there are no set entry requirements. Instead, Marketing Managers are qualified by experience.
Employers tend to look for anything between three and 10 years of marketing experience, either in a marketing role or a mixture of a marketing role and relevant education.
What qualifications do you need to be a Marketing Manager?
Whilst you don’t need a qualification to become a Marketing Manager, there are a number of courses that will boost your employability.
These range from paid courses with professional bodies like the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) or the Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM), to free courses such as those run by HubSpot and Google (whose focus is on digital marketing). A degree in marketing or a humanities subject is often also helpful but by no means necessary.
It’s never a bad idea to take courses, either to gain knowledge or brush up on your existing skills – especially if they are free! And if you are a marketing executive looking to get promoted internally, you may also find that your employer will absorb the cost of one of these courses.
What skills do you need to become a Marketing Manager?
Being a Marketing Manager requires a broad range of skills.
Depending on the role, you may need to demonstrate strong copywriting, budgeting knowledge and possibly some execution skills in digital marketing. Depending on the size of the organisation, this may sit in your remit. A good understanding of all of the disciplines within marketing is important, including content marketing, SEO, email marketing and paid advertising.
Strategy
It’s crucial for a Marketing Manager to be strategic; that is the key jump from marketing executive to manager. Rather than focusing on execution, at manager level, you must plan activities strategically so that they support overall business goals.
Stakeholder management
Stakeholder management is another key skill. You’ll need to sell ideas to the business, ensure buy-in to and investment in marketing and ensure that the business contributes to marketing activity where needed. This will set up your marketing function for success.
Communication
As with most marketing roles, clear verbal and written communication is key. This is both in your external communication – with impactful and succinct copy – and in your internal communication with stakeholders.
Project management
As anyone working in marketing knows, it is a demanding role where you are always working on a number of projects and juggling multiple priorities. The skill is combining project and time management with stakeholder management so that you are focused on an achievable set of goals that will have the most impact on the business.
Don’t be afraid of pushing back on projects that fall outside of your strategic plan as these may just distract from what you are trying to achieve.
Tech stack
If you really want to measure the results of marketing, you need to get familiar with your company’s tech stack. Whilst it might sit with IT or another corporate function, getting close to it will help you monitor the utopia of any marketing function: return on investment.
Leadership
Finally, as a Marketing Manager, you will most likely be managing a team. You need to be a good leader who ensures that your team delivers on the marketing strategy smoothly and with success – whilst having some fun along the way!
What are the best ways to prepare for a Marketing Manager interview?
If you are interviewing through a marketing recruiter like Carter Murray, ask them plenty of questions about the role – what are the key responsibilities? What are the key expectations? What does the company feel is important for the person in the role? The more you can show that you have researched and understand both the company and role, the better.
You’ll need to show that you understand the business’s product or service. It’s crucial that you can do this, as you then need to market this out to the business’ audience. Of course, passion for the product or service will also go down very well.
Once you have a good feel for the role, make sure that you have examples prepared that demonstrate your ability to deliver on each of the requirements. Prepare your answers so that you can tell your interviewer succinctly and clearly what you did and what the results were.
Come prepared with questions for your prospective employer. These are important not just to demonstrate curiosity and start conversations, but also to ensure that the role is the right one for you. Listen closely to what your interviewers say during the interview and make mental notes to ask them about anything relevant at the end.
How do I find a Marketing Manager role?
If you’re looking to progress your career to Marketing Manager, have a look at our marketing jobs. You can also contact one of our consultants who can talk you through all of our roles, give you career advice and – ultimately – will do all they can to get you your dream role!
