The top 12 marketing career paths you can take
A career in marketing offers something for everyone, whether you’re the creative type or a more analytical person. But the massive variety of roles available for you makes it hard to get an overview of your options. That’s why we’ve prepared this quick guide to the most in-demand marketing roles and what they entail.
First question: would you rather work for an agency or in-house in the marketing department of a large company?
Working for a big company will give you a clear career ladder from intern to director, with each role being pretty much like the previous one, only with more responsibility. You’ll basically be overseeing and/or executing all your company’s marketing projects, which can be quite diverse. If you’re working for an agency, you’ll probably take on a more specialised role and receive training to become an expert in a particular subject.
Whichever route you take, you’ll find most of these 12 roles are available for you to choose from in both agencies and large companies.
Brand manager
A brand manager focuses on making a lasting impression on customers and increasing sales and market share. You’ll be in charge of making sure your organisation’s marketing and advertising send the right message, creating brand guidelines, and ensuring employees follow them.
Product manager
Product managers do a similar job, but focused on a specific product instead of a whole brand. You’ll oversee everything from the initial market research and vision for the product to creating an action plan to make that vision reality.
Account manager
This role is specific to agencies. An account manager manages the relationship between the agency and the clients, making sure clients are satisfied, resolving issues, answering questions, and identifying how customer relationships could be improved.
Digital marketer
A digital marketer boosts the online visibility of a brand through SEO, mobile marketing, PPC, affiliate marketing and more. They also often offer advice and project management for web design projects.
Inbound marketer
This hot new term refers to a new form of marketing that combines creative marketing, digital marketing and copywriting. You’ll mainly find this sought-after role in inbound marketing agencies or innovative businesses.
Social media manager
These days, most companies have a lot of social media channels to manage. That’s why they’re hiring experts in communicating with customers and prospects online and creating the right kind of social conversation around brands.
Marketing copywriter
Copywriters traditionally provide marketing content for websites, emails and press releases, but with the rise of inbound marketing, there’s also a growing demand for journalists and bloggers.
Media planner
Media planners work in advertising or media planning agencies. They identify which media platform would best advertise a client's brand or product in order to maximise the impact of the campaign. It brings together analysis and creative thinking skills.
Public relations officer
A PR officer uses all forms of media to announce marketing activity and campaigns to the world, and manages brand reputation to maintain a good image with the public.
Events manager
This job is usually agency-based, but you might also find it in a large corporation. You’ll be responsible for planning and organising events such as product launches, shows, festivals and conferences.
Graphic designer
Graphic designers create logos, advertising material, brand identity, exhibition stands and all the marketing material for a campaign.
Market researcher
In this role, you’ll be able to influence big business decisions by doing research, analysing data and presenting it to decision-makers. Big data is huge right now – as a market researcher, you’ll be central to this.