Marketing Management: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Marketing is a key business area dedicated to attracting customers and promoting a company's products, services, and brand. Marketing management involves managing a company's various marketing efforts. That may mean overseeing an entire marketing department or a team dedicated to an area of marketing, such as digital marketing or product marketing. Either way, working in marketing management tends to be high-paying with strong growth opportunities [1].  

Discover more about marketing management and the possible career paths you can explore when you're interested in this type of work.

What is marketing management?

Marketing management often sets a company's marketing plan and ensures that the various marketing strategies which emerge from that plan are implemented effectively. As the name suggests, marketing management takes on managerial functions in marketing, which may entail oversight of planning and decision-making before, during, and after marketing campaigns are executed.

Working in marketing management typically requires a deep understanding of marketing processes, tools, trends, and channels, as well as strong leadership skills.

Why is marketing management important?

Marketing management is vital to a business's ability to establish a brand, better understand its customer base, and generate revenue.

Marketing management works to ensure a company is profitable by gaining new customers, expanding a customer base, building a company’s reputation, and improving customer interactions. Some essential marketing functions of marketing management include managing, analyzing, and aligning with a company’s larger business goals. 

Marketing management is important because it enables companies to:

• Focus their marketing efforts on achieving priority goals, such as increasing brand awareness or boosting revenue.

• Optimize marketing campaigns to gain new customers and retain loyal ones.

• Track results of marketing efforts, using software and automation.

4 common marketing management responsibilities

Marketing managers are responsible for ensuring that a company's marketing campaigns and initiatives are successful. While each marketing manager role may have specific tasks not covered below, let's review some of the more common responsibilities:

1. Setting goals

One of the foundational requirements for effective marketing is setting a goal. Marketing managers will establish marketing goals based on key business needs or goals, such as increasing sales by expanding the customer base to finding a niche market to better engage customers. 

Learn about key performance indicators (KPIs), reports, and dashboards in this video from the Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate:

2. Conducting market research

After marketing managers have set a goal that aligns with the company’s objectives, it’s time to understand the target market and the competitors. Market research involves analyzing economic patterns and gathering customer information. Information like demographics and location can help determine who is buying a product or service and why. 

Some tools to conduct market research may be online surveys or web analytics using search engines like Google. Understanding the competition is sometimes more important than understanding the target consumers. If you find what makes a competitor successful or why customers purchase from them, you may be able to replicate those efforts for your brand. 

Read more: What Is a Market Research Analyst? 2023 Guide

3. Devising, launching, and coordinating campaigns

Marketing managers use research to devise targeted and effective marketing campaigns, and then oversee teams dedicated to executing and coordinating them.

Given the rise in marketing technology (or MarTech), marketing managers will likely rely on a range of tools to track the success of each campaign to understand what works and what may need to be adjusted.

4. Building successful customer relationships

Building successful customer relationships is important in marketing management. A good relationship with customers can extend the life of a brand and build a valued reputation. 

Customer retention should be woven into marketing efforts to create lifelong and loyal consumers. Marketing managers use methods to build audience relationships, like storytelling, interactive emails, free content like blog posts or infographics, and social media polls. Engagement may lead to relationships in marketing, so marketing managers are always looking for ways to engage and connect with target consumers. 

Careers in marketing management

You can find marketing management roles in most industries that use marketing to generate revenue and build a brand. A marketing management salary can vary based on job title, location, qualifications, and industry. 

Review the job titles below to begin your research into career possibilities. Please note, beyond the average annual salaries we've outlined, many marketing manager roles feature additional compensation, such as bonuses and stocks.

Marketing manager

Marketing managers develop strategies for companies and help identify target markets based on a product or service. They oversee campaigns and other marketing efforts, use metrics to measure the effectiveness of marketing plans, and work with individuals from a marketing department, ad sales professionals, financial department, and more to coordinate and finance marketing campaigns. 

Average annual salary (US): $80,945*

Social media manager

Social media managers create campaigns for social media platforms based on a company’s marketing goals. They may oversee a team that executes each campaign or they may develop that content themselves. They also use social media metrics to target efforts while monitoring and measuring the performance of posts.

Average annual salary (US): $55,020*

Brand manager

Brand managers develop and execute brand strategies for the companies they work for and implement tactics to achieve brand business objectives. Tasks include staying current on marketing trends and competitive activity, developing the brand narrative and assets, and helping to manage marketing campaigns.

Average annual salary (US): $109,549*

Product marketing manager

Product marketing managers often work at the intersection of product development, marketing, and sales. They focus on planning and promoting campaigns to build awareness for a company's different products. As such, they need a strong understanding of product development and market research to fully understand customers' needs.

Average annual salary (US): 112,721*

Director of marketing

A director of marketing is an executive position tasked with making high-level decisions regarding marketing efforts for a company. This position manages all ad campaigns and measures metrics like return on investments (ROI) to determine the effectiveness of marketing efforts and make changes as needed. The marketing director typically works above a marketing manager and other roles within a marketing department. 

Average annual salary (US): $111,437*

Chief marketing officer 

Chief marketing officers, or CMOs, are corporate executives who develop marketing plans and strategies that will boost a company’s sales. This role focuses on a company's future and how and where to place marketing efforts to benefit a company now and in the long term. A CMO typically reports to a CEO or COO. 

Average annual salary (US): $147,831*

*Note: All salary data is sourced from Glassdoor as of August 2024

How to build a career in marketing management

Becoming a marketing manager often requires at least a bachelor’s degree and professional experience in marketing, business, advertising, or sales.

Since careers in marketing management are upper-level managerial positions, you may need to earn a master’s degree and gain extensive professional experience in marketing to move into some positions like CMO. Follow the steps below to pursue a marketing management career.

1. Earn a bachelor’s degree.

Most jobs in marketing management require a bachelor’s degree in marketing or a related business field. Depending on your school, you may be able to specialize in a particular marketing area.

Some students may complete internships while earning a degree, which provides hands-on learning opportunities that enhance your resume. In some cases, companies may hire interns after graduation, so it’s a great opportunity to consider if your degree program does not require it. 

2. Build in-demand marketing skills. 

Your degree program should equip you with many key marketing skills. Be sure to research the skills that employers are looking for in a marketing leader. For example, ZipRecruiter's data collected from thousands of real marketing manager job descriptions shows that the 10 skills that appear the most include [7]:

1. Collaboration

2. Digital skills

3. Innovation

4. Marketing strategy

5. Social media

6. Communication

7. Marketing campaigns

8. Digital marketing

9. Project management

10. Marketing planning

Additional skills to prioritize include: content management systems (CMS), digital ad management skills, search engine optimization, customer relationship management (CRM), A/B testing, web analytics, creativity, organizational skills, and problem-solving.

To supplement your degree coursework and build in-demand skills, consider enrolling in online courses like the Marketing Strategy Specialization offered on Coursera. 

3. Gain marketing experience.

Gaining experience in marketing can be a great way to apply the skills and knowledge you've acquired through degree coursework and additional courses you've taken. Employers want to see that you have first-hand experience handling all aspects of marketing, advertising, and leading a team. Experience demonstrates proficiency in both technical and personal skills. Having professional references may also help you land a job in marketing management. 

Here are four strategies for gaining marketing experience:

• Getting an entry-level marketing job

• Attending networking events online and in person.

• Finding a mentor who works in marketing management.

• Completing an internship in the marketing department of a local company

Advance your marketing career with Coursera

If you’re ready to get started in marketing management, take the next steps and build the relevant skills you will need to succeed in marketing. Get started today by enrolling in an online course like those offered on Coursera: