Marketing Management: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Marketing management involves the strategic and planned creation and implementation of an organisation's marketing efforts. You’ll liaise between a company and its target consumer in this position. 

Marketing management is essential because it allows companies to create target marketing efforts and measure outcomes to gain new customers and retain loyal ones. You work closely with companies to align goals with marketing efforts and use metrics and other tools to adjust as needed. 

Discover more about marketing management, why it’s important, and how you can start in this career, including job roles that might interest you. 

What is marketing management?

In marketing management, you’ll use tools, strategies, processes, and analyses as part of your organisation's strategic approach to developing and implementing marketing efforts. 

The meaning of marketing management can vary based on an organisation's industry and marketing goals. As the name suggests, marketing management takes on managerial functions in marketing, which may entail oversight of marketing campaigns and outcomes and planning and decision-making before, during, and after executing marketing plans. 

Importance of marketing management to a business

Marketing management is vital to a business's ability to generate revenue, create a brand, and better understand its customer base. Marketing management ensures a company is profitable by gaining new customers, expanding a customer base, building a company’s reputation, and improving customer interactions. Some essential marketing functions of marketing management include managing, analysing, and aligning with a company’s goals. 

Marketing management aims to provide cohesion and direction for campaigns or other marketing efforts. It’s a data-driven, strategic system supervised by marketing management professionals. 

Common elements of marketing management

Common marketing management elements include aligning goal setting with marketing efforts, conducting research to understand target consumers, creating campaigns based on analysis and objectives, and maintaining a brand’s reputation and recognition by engaging with customers. 

As a marketing management professional, you’ll work with a company and its customer base, creating a bridge between them. To function as this liaison, you must be able to understand desires and needs, which requires extensive research and analysis. 

Goal setting

One of the foundational requirements for effective marketing is setting a goal.  Reasons why having a goal is vital for marketing management include:

• Helps with plotting and planning marketing campaigns

• Keeps a marketing team on track

• Easier to create and assign tasks to individuals 

• Helps with measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts

Marketing goals can range from increasing sales by expanding the customer base to finding a niche market to better engage customers. 

Market research

After you’ve set a goal that aligns with the company’s objectives, it’s time to understand the target market and the competitors. Market research involves analysing economic patterns and gathering customer information. Information like demographics and location can help you determine who is buying a product or service and why. 

Tools you may use to conduct market research include online surveys or web analytics using search engines like Google. Understanding the competition is sometimes more important than understanding the target consumers. If you find what makes a competitor successful or why customers purchase from them, you can replicate those efforts for your brand. 

Devising, launching, and coordinating campaigns

Marketing managers use research to devise targeted and effective marketing campaigns. In this role, you execute and manage the campaign and coordinate its elements. Having a concept, message, and call to action is important for gaining customers in marketing campaigns. 

After devising a campaign plan, it’s time to launch it. Using analytics and data, you gather during the research phase, you’ll find the precise day, even time, to launch the campaign. You'll base the timing on the type of campaign (i.e., social media campaign, print, event, etc.), the habits and behaviours of the target audience, and the channels you use to launch the campaign. 

Coordinating a campaign involves tracking metrics and analysing results so that you can make changes along the way and utilise them to inform future marketing efforts. Look for patterns, check in with the marketing team, and know when to make changes. 

Building relationships

Building relationships is critical in marketing management beyond closing sales and gaining new customers. A good relationship with customers can extend the life of a brand and build a reputation. 

Your marketing efforts must prioritise customer retention to create lifelong and loyal consumers. Create a buyer persona early in your marketing efforts, but understand that a person’s needs and desires may shift and change. Growing and shifting with your desired target consumers is essential for a business’s success.

Marketing managers use methods to build audience relationships, like storytelling, interactive emails, free content like blog posts or infographics, and social media polls. Engagement may lead to relationships in marketing, so as a marketing manager, always look for ways to engage and connect with target consumers. 

Careers in marketing management

Marketing management jobs aim to gain interest in a product or service by promoting and advertising it strategically and strategically. You can find marketing management jobs in most industries that require marketing efforts to generate revenue and build a brand. A marketing management salary can vary depending on job title, location, qualifications, and the industry you work in. 

Marketing manager

Average annual base salary (UK): £44,511 [1]

As a marketing manager, you develop company strategies and help identify target markets based on a product or service. You also oversee campaigns and other marketing efforts, use metrics to measure the effectiveness of marketing plans and coordinate and finance marketing campaigns with individuals from marketing departments, ad sales professionals, financial departments, and more. 

Social media manager

Average annual base salary (UK): £33,038 [2]

As a social media manager, you create content for social media networks according to a company’s marketing goals. You may use social media metrics to target efforts while monitoring and measuring the performance of posts. Social media managers are responsible for engaging with customers and maintaining a company's brand via social media networks.

Director of marketing

Average annual base salary (UK): £72,692 [3]

A director of marketing is an executive position responsible for making high-level decisions regarding a company's marketing efforts. In this position, you manage all ad campaigns and measure metrics like return on investments (ROI) to determine the effectiveness of marketing efforts and make changes as needed. The marketing director typically works above a marketing manager and other roles within a marketing department. 

Chief marketing officer 

Average annual base salary (UK): £96,842 [4]

The chief marketing officer, or CMO, is a corporate executive position in which you develop marketing plans and strategies to boost a company’s sales. Your role focuses on a company's future and how and where to place marketing efforts to benefit a company now and in the long term. A CMO typically reports to a CEO or COO. 

How to work in marketing management

To work in marketing management, you’ll need to earn a degree in marketing or a related field and gain professional experience in marketing, business, advertising, or similar. Since careers in marketing management are upper-level managerial positions, you may need to earn a master’s degree and gain extensive professional experience in marketing to move into some positions like CMO. It is also possible to reach this position through apprenticeships.

Earn a degree.

Many jobs in marketing management require a degree in marketing or a related business field. While earning your degree, consider taking modules focusing on consumer behaviour, public relations, computer science, and marketing research. Depending on your course, you can specialise in a particular marketing area. Some students may complete internships while earning a degree, which provides hands-on learning opportunities that enhance your CV. In some cases, companies may offer graduate marketing management schemes, so working with a company is a great opportunity to consider if your degree programme does not require it. 

Build relevant skills. 

Your degree programme or apprenticeship should equip you with the technical skills you’ll need to work in a managerial position in marketing. These skills will likely include using content management systems (CMS), digital ad management skills, search engine optimisation, and web analytics. 

Personal skills necessary for marketing management include communication, project management, creativity, organisational skills, and problem-solving. You can build these relevant marketing management skills in a few different ways:

• Attend networking events and seek networking opportunities online and in person.

• Find a mentor who works in marketing management.

• Join a professional organisation like the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). 

• Complete an internship in the marketing department of a local company 

• Enroll in online courses on building marketing skills like Introduction to Marketing or Marketing Strategy Specialisation, offered on Coursera. 

Gain experience.

Consider applying for an entry-level marketing job right after graduation. Employers want to see that you have first-hand experience handling all aspects of marketing, advertising, and managing people. Experience demonstrates proficiency in both technical and personal skills. Having professional references may also help you land a job in marketing management. 

Consider getting a certificate. 

Certificates can improve your chances of getting hired in marketing management by demonstrating proficiency in some key skills employers seek. Certificates are available for many different job titles within marketing management. You can find general marketing certificates or specific ones tailored to a particular industry or specialty in marketing. 

Optional: Join a marketing association.

If you’re getting certified in marketing management, you’re likely earning certification from a professional marketing organisation. Note that certifications differ from certificates and are typically standardised credentials that certify your work in a specific industry by an exam or education. Many of these organisations require membership if you’re earning certification from their programme, but even if you are not certified, joining a marketing association can have many benefits. 

You may get some help finding a job, as many associations hold events and conferences that connect eligible candidates with potential employers. You may also receive guidance for building skills with free resources like webinars and other training materials that cover the latest marketing trends and news. 

Next steps in marketing management

If you’re ready to start marketing management, take the next steps and build the relevant skills needed to succeed in marketing. Whether you’re just getting started or have been in marketing for years, marketing management is growing with many job opportunities and attractive salaries.

Start today by enrolling in an online course, specialisation, or degree, such as the BSc Marketing from the University of London or the Google Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Professional Certificate, both listed on Coursera.