Marketing Career Development
Learn more about how to develop your career path in marketing. On this page you’ll find plenty of resources about career options, courses, development opportunities and more. Don’t forget, your tutor is always available to support you when it comes to any questions you may have about your career journey.
Roles in Marketing Careers
Your career path isn’t as simple as climbing up a straight ladder; it can involve a lot of twists and turns. Even if you have an end goal in mind, it’s ok to try to develop your career down one route, and then decide later down the line that you’d like to change things up.
With that in mind, although the below information shows a typical and traditional route to take if you have a particular end goal in mind, remember that it’s never too late to redesign your career plan.
Typical Marketing Career Paths
General Marketing
There are plenty of businesses who seek marketing employees who have a general knowledge of all areas of marketing, rather than one specific specialism.
This can be a great route for those who get bored easily doing one very specific role, or those who thrive when given full autonomy over planning a strategy.
Typical Job Titles:
- Marketing Manager
- Marketing Operations
- Manager
- Campaign Manager
Levels Within Marketing Careers
Marketing Assistant
Marketing assistants will typically be designated tasks within an overall strategy, as designated by their manager. They may have responsibilities such as designing marketing graphics, managing social media posts and updating website content.
Marketing Executive
A Marketing Executive is usually designated tasks by a manager, but will be trusted with a lot more autonomy on their output. For example, one of their responsibilities may be to manage the social media account, but they may do their own research as to the most effective strategy, reporting back for sign off from a manager before starting production.
Marketing Coordinator
A Marketing Coordinator may be a team leadership role, that involves managing employees and designating tasks. Marketing Coordinators need to be highly organised, as they are responsible for overall strategic planning and campaign launches.
Marketing Manager
Marketing Managers take on a more senior role within a company, and may be responsible for setting overall strategy, coordinating various teams, liaising across departments and working closely with directors and high-level stakeholders to ensure the marketing strategy aligns with overall company goals.
Head of Marketing
The Head of Marketing, also sometimes titled as Director of Marketing or Chief Marketing Officer, is directly responsible for the entire company’s marketing strategy, so must coordinate through every level and department of the business to ensure marketing activity results in business growth. They will use their experience to set goals and communicate the benefits of aiming for those goals to shareholders or the company owners.
More Specific Marketing Career Paths
There are plenty of specialisms within the marketing industry – you may find you have a knack for a particular discipline, or a passion for one particular skill.
If you decide to focus in on one specialism, it’s important to note that some businesses simply will not have the budget or resources to hire specialist marketers, and these roles may be more readily available in larger companies.
Another important point to remember is that effective marketing strategies change over time – certain skills may become less relevant in the industry, and available roles may become more scarce. That’s why even if you choose a specialism, you should be aware of industry developments, or still ensure you have several flexible skills to fall back on.
Digital Marketing
SEO Specialist
SEO Specialists work on tasks to ensure that a company’s website appears in search engine results – ideally at the top! They may require skills in analytics, data, spreadsheets, reporting, Search Consoles, keywords and more.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Website Manager
Website managers build and maintain a company’s online website. Some focus on using a CMS system like WordPress, Shopify or Magento, others will have skills in coding and development, meaning they can create custom solutions.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
E-Commerce Manager
Ecommerce managers are similar to website managers, but they have specific skills in managing ecommerce systems. They are adept at uploading products, writing descriptions, running sales, managing inventories and more.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Email Marketing Manager
Those who work in email marketing are responsible for building company mailing lists, ensuring GDPR data rules are followed, creating campaigns and analysing results within marketing emails.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Content Marketing
Blogger
Bloggers are also sometimes known as Content Writers – although their main role is to product creative writing pieces for a company website, they also often need to have an awareness of SEO best practice.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Content Creator
The title ‘content creator’ can encompass many things, including taking photos, creating and editing videos, writing blogs and more. Often in modern times, a content creator will be focused on making video content for TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Graphic Designer
Graphic Designers create digital images for use across a company’s website, marketing materials, social media and more. They need to be precise and have a good eye for composition. They’ll also need to really understand branding.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Social Media / Community Manager
Social Media managers need to have a strong understanding of how to produce content that performs well within the parameters of an algorithm. They need to be good with people too, as networking on social platforms is a big part of this role.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Other Marketing Roles
Product Manager
A Product Manager’s primary role is to gain a strong understanding of a company’s customers, so they can guide the development and marketing of a successful product.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Brand Manager
Brand Managers focus on creating a brand strategy in terms of design, voice, colours, attitude and more. They use research to ensure a company’s branding is modern, and create resources to ensure consistency of brand output throughout the company.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Event Manager
Event Managers deal with the organisation, running and marketing of online and offline events. These may be fairs, networking meetups, promotional events, marketing and PR stunts or internal company events.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Data Analyst
Data Analysts take analytical information from sources such as a companies website in order identify opportunities for marketing growth, flag any potential problems and catch shopping patterns that may help the marketing team optimise the purchase process.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Pricing Analyst
If you’ve got a brain for numbers, then a Pricing Analyst role may be ideal for you. They keep up to date with customer feedback, economic changes, production costs and market rates to determine the best price point for a company’s products.
Hard Skills Required
Product Knowledge
IT Skills
Strategic Approach
Data Analysis
Marketing Knowledge
Marketing Qualification
Project Management
Soft Skills Required
Delegation
Time Management
Leadership
Management
Emotional Intelligence
Calm Under Pressure
Communication
Marketing Courses
Marketing is a career path that will always keep you interested and engaged – why? Because it’s dynamic and constantly changing! Thanks to trends, tech developments, new social media launches and new customers entering the economy every day, a marketer needs to stay on the ball when it comes to learning.
Here are a few courses you can take, that we personally recommend for your professional development:
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
Google Analytics Certification
Hubspot Academy
Multi-Channel Marketer L3 Apprenticeship
Content Creator L3 Apprenticeship
Careers Advice
Remember, when you study with NTG Training, your tutor will always be happy to answer any specific questions you may have about the next steps in your career. However, if you’d like to view our favourite online resources for careers advice, you can find them here.
