Becoming a marketing manager

How to become a marketing manager: the guide

The marketing director occupies a central position in a company's hierarchy. A position of responsibility, the marketing director is an executive specializing in three areas of expertise: marketing, communications and sales. His or her core business is to understand the company's persona, from expectations to anticipating needs, as well as how to reach them with a range of goods or services.
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Updated September 20, 2023
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What are the roles and missions of a marketing manager? 

The role of a marketing director is to maximize the company's profits by offering the products and services of the company that employs him/her to the right prospects, while being able to turn cold leads into buyers, and then into fans of the company. 

To achieve this, its activity is based on 7 missions: 

  • Plan the company's marketing development,
  • Promote your brand image
  • Advertising campaigns to sell products and services, 
  • Measure the return on investment of these campaigns, 
  • Know the prospects for each product or service, ,
  • Understanding expectations
  • Create the need
 

How do you become a marketing manager? 

  • Master's degree in marketing,
  • Master of Commerce, 
  • Master's degree in communications. 

The marketing manager is trained in one of these three areas, before developing professional experience that will give him or her cross-disciplinary skills in these three specialties. 

Marketing managers often start their careers as group managers, sales representatives, product managers or public relations managers in medium-sized or large companies. 

What skills does a marketing manager need? 

  • Perfect understanding of the sales process
  • Creativity
  • Ability to work as part of a team
  • Understanding customer needs
  • Work organization
  • Ability to question andlearn

The marketing manager operates in a changing environment. In other words, the company's position in the market, the evolution of customer needs and the technologies used to analyze prospects are constantly changing. 

From the development of profitable advertising campaigns to the management of Big Data software capable of analyzing and producing information that he or she knows how to exploit, the marketing director must be a jack-of-all-trades. 

From the development of profitable advertising campaigns to the management of Big Data software capable of analyzing and producing information that he knows how to exploit, the marketing director must be a jack-of-all-trades. In the face of such impressive knowledge, the marketing director must not simply be interested in his work, he must be passionate about it. Customer satisfaction must be his or her top priority. 

What career opportunities are there?

The Marketing Director may aspire to the position of Managing Director of a company. As a senior executive, his or her professional experience enables him or her to acquire the analytical skills needed to understand the economic issues underlying strategic decisions.

Michele Kessler, former Marketing Director at Procter & Gamble, before becoming Managing Director of Rebbl Inc. is one of these examples of successful upward mobility.  

How much does a marketing manager earn? 

On taking up their new position, marketing managers can expect to earn around €3,500 gross per month. With experience, and by joining large groups, their salary can rise to values in excess of €11,000 gross per month. 

However, the median salary for a marketing director is no more than €8,000 gross per month. In addition to his or her professional experience : 

  • The size of the group he works for, 
  • To the territory for which it is responsible,
  • Level of training (prestige of university attended).

How can a marketing manager's career evolve? 

Traditionally, a marketing director may head the company's communications department. In this role, he or she manages the company's events, may become its spokesperson, and may even lead the team responsible for the brand's e-commerce development

However, to be a marketing manager, you need to understand your customers, get to know them and be able to do three things: 

  • Know their needs, 
  • Anticipating them, 
  • Create them. 

To achieve this, marketing managers are increasingly relying on big data software, which collects large amounts of data through data mining. It's not impossible that tomorrow's marketing director will be more of an IT engineer than a marketing, communications or business graduate. 

Written by our expert Cyril SCHWASTIAK
october 31, 2022

What skills does a good marketing manager need?

  • Perfect understanding of the sales process:

    1. Perfect understanding of the sales process :

    It manages the company's marketing orientations and is an integral part of the decision-making process.

  • Creativity

    2. Creativity

    The marketing manager is a driving force.

  • Teamwork skills :

    3. Teamwork skills :

    He is a manager, and never works alone.

  • Understanding customer needs:

    4. Understanding customer needs :

    This is probably the most important element, and the one that determines whether or not sales of goods or services are realized.

  • Work organization :

    5. Work organization :

    He must know how to organize his work and that of his colleagues.

  • Ability to question and learn :

    6. Ability to question and learn :

    Many advertising campaigns are failures from which lessons must be learned. The marketing manager is always learning, and progressing from his failures and those of his team.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does a marketing manager get paid?
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Marketing managers are salaried employees. He/she earns between €3,500 and €11,500 gross per month, depending on the capacity of the company employing him/her and various other criteria (seniority, level of education, etc.).
What kind of training do you need to become a marketing manager?
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A university Master's degree in one of the following specialties: communications, marketing, sales.
Why become a marketing manager?
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To lead a company's entire marketing process, with the ambition of aligning customer needs with the company's ambitions and production capabilities. He is also the company's sales representative, and therefore one of its key figures.