It’s impossible to say exactly what someone’s specialty is when working in marketing management without knowing the specifics of their role. Everything depends on what they execute.
It’s possible to do marketing management by solely focusing on social media ads. Similarly, it’s also possible without ever stepping into Instagram.
Marketing management naturally requires a 360° professional. This is where many companies fail in hiring: marketing management experience is specific because the job entails a variety of specializations.
Today, our topic is just that. For those who want to do marketing management, for those who want to hire a marketing manager — now is the time to understand all the details.
Shall we begin right away?
What is marketing management?
In corporate terms, marketing management is the activity of coordinating processes, people, and tools to achieve general and specific marketing objectives.
In practice, we can say that marketing management is a constant juggling act. The manager needs to take care of specific points of their work, everyone else’s work in their department or sector, and deal with clients, directors, and stakeholders.
And of course: in many cases, it’s also their responsibility to develop, present, adjust, and follow the proposed budget.
All of this is what we call the marketing stack: the set of people, tools, and processes necessary for a marketing strategy to work.
The marketing manager is responsible for measuring, cooperating, and analyzing the work being done. But no rush: let’s talk about this professional right below. Check it out:
What is the role of a marketing manager?
The marketing manager is responsible for leveraging the brand’s positioning according to their specialization and their role in the company.
But generally, the term “marketing manager” is mainly related to digital marketing efforts, inbound marketing, performance marketing, and outbound marketing.
The specializations that will arise, and that we will discuss throughout the article, are complements to these methodologies, which help to better understand the team.
So, a marketing manager can even be a design specialist, as long as they are also experts in these methodologies and understand issues such as traffic generation, lead generation, application of a Marketing Funnel, etc.
This is both in theory and in practice. The role of a marketing manager in any company is to increase sales, generate more contracts, and become not only relevant in the segment but an authority in the field.
This may all sound very abstract, but it’s because that’s the only way to describe such a practical process.
If you are looking to hire a marketing manager, I recommend reading these links in the topic to understand more about what to expect from this professional.
And if you are looking to enter the market as a marketing manager, reading is practically mandatory.
And since we are talking about hiring and the market, let’s talk a little more about the types of marketing management, analyzing the types of business models?
So let’s get started:
Types of Marketing Management
Before we discuss the main specializations in marketing management, we need to talk a bit about the types of hiring that exist.
That is, the types of marketing managers you will encounter — or be — along your journey.
Marketing managers come in various forms. In many cases, marketing analysts become managers in companies after a long time working in their department.
In other cases, companies hire agencies, and the agency’s marketing manager aligns their role with that of the hiring company’s marketing manager.
And in less common cases, companies without very effective marketing management but with urgent needs hire freelance professionals with various specializations who end up fulfilling this role.
These are the most common types of marketing management. Let’s delve into each of them now. Shall we?
In-house Marketing Management
This is the most common type of marketing management. Here, the company hires or promotes a dedicated marketing manager, working full time to leverage the brand’s results.
In this case, it is very common for this hiring to focus mainly on general needs and specializations related to pure digital marketing.
The in-house marketing manager needs to have a great deal of people skills and an unconditional love for the operational side.
They need to be prepared not only to follow these processes but to optimize them and create new ones.
This person will work day-to-day on the ideation and approval of campaigns, listening to ideas from creatives and analysts, and measuring results according to established digital marketing KPIs.
KPIs that, by the way, they themselves will create through OKRs determined together with the board.
The marketing manager will work closely with the marketing director in a very close relationship. Both need to be absolutely aligned to convey priorities to the team and do the best possible while always spending less.
Agency Marketing Management
The work of a marketing manager in an agency is the same as anywhere else. The difference is the number of clients they handle and the great communicational skills this professional needs to have.
The marketing manager in an agency, however, does not determine the objectives of each account only with the agency’s board. They need to determine them directly with the in-house marketing manager of their client.
With these objectives determined, it is the job of agency marketing management to create the operational and creative processes that will successfully achieve them.
And all of this needs to be very well detailed and presented to the client. Without them, nothing works.
Thus, the marketing manager in an agency needs leadership skills to keep the team engaged and excellent communication skills to delight the client whenever possible.
Agency marketing management is almost like a post-sales job. The client enters into the partnership for various reasons — but they stay for the results achieved and the relationship with the marketing manager.
Freelance Marketing Management
This is the least common type of all three. And in many cases, they are not exactly seen as marketing managers.
It may happen that companies hire specialists in specific areas — such as a designer, SEO strategist, or traffic manager — and this person gradually masters the area they are in and has their own team, even as a freelancer.
This happens in longer-term hires but is not highly recommended. If you are hiring, know that this person has no ties to your company and can leave at any time for another opportunity, even though this is not so common.
Freelancers specialized in any area also need time and dedication in their specific area, without taking on other responsibilities that may delay their deliveries.
Always prefer either a dedicated professional who deals with freelancers, or look for an agency that makes its own separate hires.
But we are already getting into a slightly more advanced topic: the level of specialization that marketing managers can have.
Shall we talk more about it?
Specializations in Marketing Management
Let’s just make something clear before we start this topic: marketing management is its own specialization and needs to be treated as such.
This professional will mainly take care of the operational points that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, focusing above all on strategy, positioning, budget, people management, and results.
However, this professional will also have their own affinities. Depending on the company they are in, an extra specialization is very welcome.
On the other hand, our blog here at Leadster deals purely with digital marketing processes. So, our marketing manager needs to be an expert in this area above all.
The level of specialization of your company will define the specialization of your marketing management. But of course: without ever losing sight of their main concern with the results and performance of marketing as a whole.
Shall we learn a bit more about the levels of specialization that marketing management can have?
Content Management
A marketing manager with a specialization in content usually works in companies with a strategy focused on generating organic traffic.
Of course, always remembering that this does not exclude their main function, which is to master all marketing actions of the company in a 360 manner, including work in paid media and any other type of production.
This professional acquires this specialization after working for a long time producing or strategizing an approach focused on content for the company, with competencies in platforms such as:
Blogging to generate leads;
Production of rich material and Lead Magnets;
Video content;
Live streams;
Webinars;
Brand authority blogs (see the WeTransfer case);
Printed physical publications;
Among others.
It is also common to have the content manager working together with a marketing manager focusing on positioning, strategy, and performance.
This will be common in various other cases that we will show here now. It will become clearer in the next section:
Social Media Management
Companies with a strong presence on social media and, mainly, a large presence in Social Ads.
The social media manager needs to monitor the main organic and paid indicators of the preferred platform. And never lose sight of the main goals of the brand.
Engagement, likes, reach, and of course: sales. These are the main concerns on the performance side of the social media manager’s work.
But of course, it is also necessary to pay attention to some very important operational points. Production, idea generation, and conversion of these people on your website.
Social media is one of the most difficult points to manage in a company. They convert little organically and the constant maintenance of ads requires a quite specific specialization that cannot be ignored in any way.
If your focus is on social media, your marketing manager needs expertise in the field. If they don’t have it, it is important to hire an exclusive social media manager to work together.
Traffic Management
Traffic management is working with paid media. This is one of the highest levels of specialization for a marketing manager and is also one of the most requested for the role.
We’ve been talking a lot so far about how a marketing manager often needs to be a 360° professional and adapt their specialties according to the company they work for.
But at the same time, knowledge in paid media is essential for any marketing manager. It is quite rare to find professionals working in the field who do not know at least the basics of Google Ads or social media advertising.
Here, you will need a professional with a lot of experience in Google Analytics and CRO. And also one who can navigate through advertising platforms to make the necessary optimizations and maintenance.
Project Management
Another fundamental area in marketing management is project management.
Basically, project management can deal with some different points, depending on its market activity:
In companies: with specific campaigns and as a bridge between the board, stakeholders, and the team. It is the project manager who takes the lead in situations and specific projects and can strategize their beginning, middle, and end. They are usually certified specialists by the Project Management Institute with deep knowledge of PMBOK.
In agencies: it acts as the middle ground between clients and the creative team. They are also known as account executives because they have functions quite similar to those who work in these areas in companies that deal directly with clients.
You will need to work with project management specialists in marketing when you have various campaigns being carried out periodically.
Design and Brand Management
Finally, a very common specialization in design agencies and studios is the marketing manager with a focus on design and branding.
This professional is responsible for all design routines in the company. They develop design systems for those who work with user experience, UI, and front-end programming, with key arts for campaigns, etc.
This is a very important aspect in marketing management, and professionals with this specialization stand out for their ease in the fluidity of creative feedback.
Speaking of qualities that marketing management professionals need to have, I have a topic just about that.
It starts now:
The Qualities a Professional Should Have in Marketing Management
We’ve talked quite a bit so far about the specializations in marketing management, their relationship with the services offered by the company, and exactly what you are looking for in this professional.
But now we need to focus a bit more to zoom in on the personal and professional characteristics that are very important for marketing management to happen without hiccups.
These characteristics are very relevant in daily life. They make all the difference in deliveries and results due to motivation and communication.
But no spoilers: keep reading to learn more.
Senior Experience +
This is the most fundamental point when hiring a marketing manager. The person you are considering needs to have at least senior-level experience.
There is a wide variation in what is considered junior, mid-level, and senior. These names indicate how many years of proven experience the person has in the field.
Even with variations, in marketing, there is generally a separation like this:
Junior: recent graduates and/or with less than 2 years of professional experience;
Mid-level: people who have been working in the field for more than 3 years;
Senior: people who have been working in the field for more than 5 years;
It is important to note that this experience does not need to be consecutive, but it needs to be in marketing management, or at least in management roles in specialized areas.
For example: if you need a content-focused marketing manager, it is better to hire a senior writer with content management experience than a marketing manager who has never worked in the area.
Experience is very important, but it should be accompanied by good communication skills. More on that now:
Good Communication Skills
Good communication has the potential to make a marketing department very successful or a colossal failure.
Marketing is, above all, communication. If it doesn’t work within the company, it is very likely that it won’t work in your outward efforts either.
Marketing management needs to communicate because the demands are very varied. Simple issues can become absolutely complicated without guidance, and complex issues become practically impossible.
The biggest problem with lack of communication is that the results may come, but they will not be the best. With a motivated team, you can achieve much more in much less time, and ideas flow more easily.
Marketing managers need to know how to give feedback, praise good initiatives, listen to ideas, and discuss them. And always respect the team and convey that everyone there is, above all, working towards the same results.
Interaction with Different Departments
Marketing management is a very plural job. The manager needs to talk to many people in various different departments to get the best stories for the creative team.
A quick example: here at Leadster, it is the marketing manager’s responsibility to coordinate schedules with people from various teams for the production and release of studies and research.
The last material we released, about the Future of B2B Consumer, involved people from the sales department, our founder, writers, and designers. Everything needs to be coordinated by marketing management.
Not to mention issues like presenting reports to the board, setting budgets, and more operational and strategic points.
Proven Specialization with Cases
Never, ever, leave successful cases aside. They are probably the most important point to analyze when hiring a marketing manager.
More important even than the level of seniority. Having proven experience is good, but having real results to show is much better.
For specialists, you will need to work with specific cases and proven results. Here are some examples:
For SEO and writing specialists: successful blogs with traffic, engagement, and preferably Google Analytics screenshots;
For social media specialists: successful profiles that have generated many sales, likes, and engagement, as well as ads with good conversion rates;
For branding specialists: successful campaigns and specific projects;
Among other specializations. Always seek cases. Someone with less experience but many cases can be molded more easily than the other way around.
Review and Editing Skills
There are people specialized in this work, but the marketing manager will always need to take a look here and there, as well as have the final say in approving content, campaigns, or projects.
Text review, ad review, social media post reviews: it is very rare for a marketing professional not to need to deal with this at all.
It is interesting to ask the person you are hiring what their level of experience is in this aspect. This will make a big difference in your routines and the results you intend to achieve.
General Management Skills
We couldn’t fail to mention the general skills that everyone in marketing management needs to have.
Organization, firmness, fairness, and a focus on staff development are practically mandatory qualities for everyone who does any kind of management.
In marketing, this is even more necessary. Nerves are always on edge, the pressure for results is constant, and the work is creative. This requires a flexibility that cannot be ignored.
And since we are getting into this subject, we need to talk about one last point.
Hiring or Promoting a Marketing Manager?
Before we wrap up the article, we need to have this conversation, which is one of the most serious ones so far.
Hiring a new marketing manager is a daunting task. You’ll need to review many resumes, conduct numerous interviews, and evaluate many cases before deciding on the best person.
And then that person will need to undergo a lengthy integration process — getting to know the people, the company, the processes, the results, the tools, etc.
When you promote someone from within your company, these concerns are reduced. The worst-case scenario might be that things don’t work out, and then you’ll need to spend on severance pay.
So, both situations have their pros and cons. A good idea is always to have someone within your workforce learning more about management in case of a promotion.
One of the most important qualities in a marketing manager is their ability with marketing tools.
And it’s clear today that you just can’t ignore chatbots on digital marketing.
Be it for costumer service or lead generation, chatbots are the futures of brand interaction.
Everybody is talking about it. It seems so simple that it’s a little weird to ask how to use ChatGPT. But trust me: these examples will help you a lot.
