The marketing manager: a strategist who listens to customers and trends
The marketing director, also known as the marketing manager in smaller companies, or CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), is a strategic position in the company that is constantly evolving.
According to an American study conducted in June 2019 by McKinsey, a management consulting firm, 83% of business leaders consider marketing to be a key driver of their growth.
We offer you the marketing manager's job description, missions, training and career opportunities, with a bonus toolbox for practice.
Job description :
The role of a marketing manager: definition, missions, responsibilities
The marketing director faces two major challenges:
- adopting a cross-channel strategy, particularly with digital marketing,
- working in cross-functional collaboration to ensure consistency between the brand and customer expectations.
But who is this marketing manager?
The Marketing Director works directly with General Management. They steer the company's marketing policy and teams.
He/she can work in any business sector, whether production or services, but may also specialize in a particular field (sports, luxury goods, automotive, cosmetics, IT, etc.).
Their missions are at the crossroads of the company's objectives, so they are at once creative, commercial, analytical and communicative.
☞ In small and medium-sized companies, the role is sometimes similar to, or even merged with, that of a communications manager. In this case, we speak of a communications and marketing director.
☞ In larger structures, several positions correspond to well-defined skills. For example, a digital marketing manager will be dedicated to implementing a web marketing strategy.
► This interview presents some aspects of the job of marketing and communications manager:
What are its responsibilities?
- Market analysis (trends, competitive intelligence or benchmarking, technological intelligence, customer needs and expectations),
- defining marketing strategy (targets, objectives, marketing mix, channels),
- budget management (acquisition, communication, etc.),
- marketing plan development (email campaigns, SEO, SEA, SMO traffic acquisition),
- developing, engaging and retaining communities on social networks;
- measuring and analyzing the impact of each action.
CMO objectives
- build brand awareness and support innovation,
- development of new products and communication channels,
- traffic acquisition (physical and digital),
- generation of qualified leads,
- customer loyalty,
- increasing sales.
Zoom: the CMO job description
Skills required
In addition to mastery of traditional marketing and e-marketing, digital prospecting and tracking KPIs ( Key Performance Indicators), the international context requires a good knowledge of English and global markets.
To understand the market and the customer, the CMO needs to be able to :
- listening skills,
- observation,
- analysis,
- anticipation,
- initiative,
- negotiation skills.
As a manager, he/she must know how to federate and lead a team.
Training
In most cases, a position in marketing management requires a 5-year degree (Master's, specialized Master's, MBA) from a business, management or marketing school.
Several specialties
- Marketing and Communication,
- Marketing and Brand Management,
- BtoB Marketing,
- Marketing Decision and Research,
- Marketing and Sales Practices,
- Marketing and Advertising.
In most cases, they integrate the digital dimension, which is now essential, with mobile marketing, viral marketing and social marketing.
Some renowned schools
- ESSEC Business School,
- ESCP Europe,
- ISEG,
- INSEEC,
- ESG, etc.
Career opportunities
After graduating, before managing a team, marketing managers start their careers in lower-level positions such as product manager, marketing research manager, advertising manager, marketing project manager, webmarketing manager, etc. After a few years' successful experience, they can aspire to a management position.
After a few years of successful experience, you may be eligible for a management position.
► Here's an example of a marketing director 's career development in video :
Compensation
Salaries vary according to employer, company size, experience, sector of activity and geographical location.
On average, based on sources and job offers, the salary of a junior marketing manager is around €3,000 gross per month. Salaries can rise to over €10,000 gross per month for a senior marketing manager in a large company.
The CMO's toolbox
To support the Chief Marketing Officer in the digital transition of his profession, there's nothing like scalable, modular and flexible cloud-based software to assist him on a daily basis.
Here are a few examples...
Project and task management software
- Asana
- Monday.com
- Redmine
Search Engine Marketing software (SEM, SEO, SEA)
- Ranxplorer
- Seiso
- SEMrush
Marketing automation software
- Koban
- Salesforce Marketing cloud
- Webmecanik
Data marketing and lead generation software
- lead
- Mapp Acquire
- Quintessence
Competitive intelligence and marketing software
- Agorapulse
- Mention
- Simple Feedback
An infinitely strategic role
There's no doubt about it: the marketing manager must constantly adapt to new uses, to the company and to the new tools at his or her disposal.
As well as being a key player in the adaptation of companies to the digital revolution, he or she contributes to the growth of the company and acts as a bridge between the sales, product and communication teams.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence, chatbots: technological solutions are now essential to stay one step ahead of the competition.
The marketing department is therefore given an IT budget, as well as targets in terms of sales and return on investment. A real challenge.