What are the Roles and Responsibilities of a Marketing Manager

You must have surely heard the term, but what is marketing? It is a set of activities that are undertaken to promote a product or a service to its target audience and attract them to buy the same. Generally, a marketing manager is responsible for marketing a product.

A marketing manager would undertake market research, understand the trends and customer preferences, create marketing strategy and budgets, oversee the creation of marketing materials and content, and perform all other relevant tasks essential for increasing the business’s sales.

Marketing Manager Job Description

As highlighted above, a marketing manager is a person who takes care of the entire marketing lifecycle. The marketing manager’s job description starts from planning and executing the campaign to analysing the ROI and tracking the budget.

Depending on the size of the enterprise, there could be one marketing manager for the entire department or one single segment such as social media marketing, outdoor marketing, email marketing and so on.

There are a number of marketing manager responsibilities which include:

• Strategy development and planning of campaigns that can promote the business and generate genuine traffic (both offline and online)
• Implementation of the marketing campaigns right from ideation to final analysis and refinement
• Creating engaging and informative content for the website, blog, social media, and any other content marketing channels that the business might leverage
• Building sustainable relationships and partnerships with other key players such as vendors, advertising agencies, and creative artists as per the need

Further, the marketing manager would also need to be well versed with different types of organic as well as paid marketing channels such as content marketing, PPC advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing, Outdoor Marketing, Social Media Advertising, email campaigns, lead generation initiatives, website design and landing page enhancement, copywriting, and comprehensive performance analytics of the marketing campaigns.

Among the various marketing manager roles in smaller organisations, there is also the responsibility of preparing and managing the budget, collaborating with HR in hiring marketing teams and training them etc. Depending on the type of business, the marketing manager’s responsibilities might also include planning and organising events and conferences etc. A marketing manager’s responsibilities don’t end with just planning, running and managing campaigns, but the person would also need to evaluate the performance of each campaign and prepare annual reports and budgets for the next year.

Traditionally there has been a stark difference between sales and marketing. Most companies maintain separate departments for both functions. However, in recent years, personalisation and owning customer experience have become a part of marketing manager roles. In such a scenario, there is a blurring of the line between what is marketing and what is sales. In some organisations, the difference between sales and marketing has been reduced to such an extent that they have added lead generation and sales conversions to marketing manager responsibilities.

How to Become a Marketing Manager

The diversity of marketing manager roles and responsibilities means that if you wish to become a successful marketing manager, you must display a high level of energy and self-drive. Marketing managers should be capable of critical thinking and an innovative approach to solving problems quickly. At the same time, the marketing manager has to maintain a positive outlook for the brand in the market and internally in the work environment. Marketing manager roles are considered part of mid-level management, and you must have a few years of marketing experience to apply for this role.

There are some steps that will help you prepare for marketing manager roles. These include:

Profile creation –Since a marketing manager’s responsibilities include taking care of multiple functions and leading teams, you must create a profile that showcases various skills and achievements such as content pieces created by you, SEO knowledge and other campaign results.

Certifications – As we mentioned, a marketing certification from a reputed institution can add tremendous value to your candidature. You can join an e-learning platform and get certified after completing marketing management courses online.

Gain marketing experience –There is nothing that prepares you better than experience. Before aiming for marketing manager roles, it is important to spend a few years as an intern or a marketing executive to understand better the various marketing manager roles and responsibilities that you would have to handle in future.

Interact with the leaders – You can discuss marketing trends and practices and get insights from such discussions, whether with the marketing leaders within your organisation, on social media, or in webinars. Even reading books by business and marketing leaders can help you prepare for marketing manager roles.

Marketing Manager Career Path

Once you thoroughly understand what is marketing in business, and how to handle the diverse marketing manager roles and responsibilities, you will be set to enter the field of marketing management. It is a highly rewarding career option for those willing to put in the effort. There are numerous growth opportunities in marketing management as there are several marketing manager roles that one can pursue. For instance:

• Marketing Manager
• Senior Manager Marketing
• Marketing Manager specialisations such as digital marketing manager, content marketing manager and so on
• Marketing group manager
• VP of Marketing
• Director Marketing
• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Marketing management courses online

Marketing is an essential function of every business. It has been around for as long as the concept of business itself. Therefore, you will always find plenty of marketing manager roles to apply for. If you can handle marketing manager roles and responsibilities you can grow tremendously.

Emeritus India offers you several short-term marketing courses, degree programs, marketing management certifications and diplomas, and various marketing programmes. These learning opportunities are available online as well as in an offline or hybrid manner. Emeritus has collaborated with various Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian School of Business (ISB), and various other reputed institutions to create a portfolio of sales and marketing, digital marketing, marketing analytics and other courses. For venturing into new media, you can explore the Executive Programme on Digital & Social Media Marketing Strategy by IIMC (Calcutta)

You would get to attend live online classes, engage with peers, review case studies and learn about the best trends, tools and marketing management techniques. Most learning opportunities are thoughtfully planned to ensure a great upskilling experience.

Marketing manager roles and responsibilities are primarily about identifying and satisfying customer needs. Therefore, one must be adept at various skills and technologies currently dominating the marketing landscape. You have to be a quick-thinker, problem solver and a people person.

Apart from the interpersonal skills, you also need to be capable of systematically planning, executing, managing and reviewing a diverse range of marketing campaigns across offline and online channels. You would also need to manage and coordinate with stakeholders such as product managers, finance, sales, operations, and customer service, and to motivate and mentor the marketing teams.

As you can see, performing a marketing manager’s role is a lot of responsibility. Taking marketing management courses online and upskilling to sharpen your skills can help you perform better and succeed.