Choosing a career path in marketing

A marketer’s job is to choose the best ways to reach their target audiences to promote and sell their company’s products or services. However, there are many roles within marketing which all comprise different day-to-day tasks and utilise different skill sets. 

Today’s world of work is increasingly more digitised than ever before, so having digital skills is a requirement for most marketing roles. Being a creative and innovative person would also make you a good match for marketing, and as technology continues to evolve, marketing is an evolving industry, too. 

If you’re looking for a career where there’s always something new to learn and continuously adapting to the latest industry developments is something which sounds exciting, marketing is for you.

As all companies across all sectors implement marketing activities into their core function, your role in marketing could be in a space which matches your passion – whether that’s fashion or finance, the nonprofit sector or the booming tech industry – marketing skills are applicable and transferable to all.

Why work in marketing?

There are a number of different career paths you could take in marketing and you could choose to be a marketing generalist or a specialist in one particular field. You also have the choice of working in-house within a company’s existing marketing team, or at a marketing agency which works across multiple companies.

Alongside the number of options, marketing is also a growing industry, with almost all companies now recognising it as an essential function of their business. Due to this, choosing a career path in marketing will set you up for a stable future with plenty of progression opportunities and in some cases it’s possible to work your way up from an entry-level position to a marketing manager within years.

Now more than ever the creative output of marketing is backed by data. By using data, marketing professionals are able to see where their customers are and target them more effectively, so it is an ideal industry if you like finding results in numbers and like the thought of creating a campaign around facts and figures. Interpreting data also allows you to see in real time what you’re doing right, whilst allowing you to tweak what you’re doing wrong. By using modern marketing tools like Google Analytics, you can see the results of your work almost instantly.

As marketing teams tend to be made up of a mix of specialists and generalists, it’s also a good career if you like collaborating with a team all aiming towards the same goals. In many cases, good communication skills are essential to marketing, but by working with stakeholders both within your team and across the company you will learn how to work alongside all different kinds of people – a valuable skill to have.

Marketing careers paths you can take

Most specialist career paths in marketing lie within digital marketing, and as the world continues to spend more and more time online, specialising and building a career in a digital marketing position could future-proof your career.

There are many different careers within marketing, and while this list isn’t exhaustive of the job titles you may have seen when searching job boards or LinkedIn for a marketing role, it could give you an idea of a route you’d like to take.

Content marketing and copywriting

As competition for business in most sectors is high, companies need to find a way to cut through the noise online and both reach and resonate with their target audience in order to convince them to convert into paying customers. Skilled writers, or copywriters, are able to tell a story and hook interest through words – an essential skill for all marketing teams. Copywriters work closely with many other members of a marketing department to bring their words to life, including graphic designers and web teams, as well as marketing analysts who can review data and spot content gaps whilst identifying what works well and what doesn’t. 

Content marketers will also manage a content strategy. This could be across all digital marketing tools from the website, social media, emails, landing pages, and pay per click (PPC) adverts. When implemented on a website, a content strategy can improve search engine optimisation (SEO), helping the site to rank higher in the organic search results and thus making it more likely for new customers to discover the company.

Social media marketing

Many brands now use social media marketing to reach customers, and if you’re an active social media user yourself it’s likely you follow some of your favourite brands on one of the popular platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. 

Behind these brand accounts is often a social media manager, or a whole social media team, who are creating and following a strategy of what to post and when, using analytics to figure out what performs well, and engaging with its audience in real time.

Email marketing

It’s likely your inbox contains emails from companies you’ve bought from before, and these emails are used as part of their marketing strategies. Email marketing professionals use data analysis and an editorial strategy to create and curate emails to customers, linking to interesting blog posts on their company website and positioning eye-catching promotions in a place that makes the receiver likely to purchase.

As well as writing snappy subject lines to increase the chances of the email being opened, or working with a copywriter to do so, an email marketer will use tools which show how many people opened, clicked through, and bought a product following an email they received. This data then informs what needs to be tweaked, whether that be the time of day an email is sent or the positioning of content within the email, and can adapt their ongoing efforts to improve results.

Public relations and corporate communications

A marketing specialist focusing on public relations (PR) or corporate communications is responsible for promoting a brand and company as a whole, as well as promoting any content created by the team’s copywriters. 

These roles involve drafting press releases and fostering relationships with journalists who may find any company updates newsworthy. Marketing professionals who specialise in PR spend a large amount of their time on the phone with or sending emails to stakeholders and journalists, and attend many corporate events.

Brand management

Brand management is both creative and project management, and requires good organisational skills and the ability to think up initiatives to motivate co-workers in different departments. 

A brand manager oversees all internal and external communication of a business, and is responsible for bringing the brand of a company or a company’s product line to life. These roles often require prior marketing experience, and may be a career progression move to consider after working in the marketing industry for a number of years.

Market research

As the use of data continues to grow in the marketing field, so too does the inclusion of market research managers and marketing analysts within company’s marketing teams.

Market research specialists are tasked with understanding consumer needs and purchasing habits by carrying out surveys and focus groups alongside reviewing studies and existing data. Requirements for these roles include communication skills to be able to extract information from people, and the ability to analyse data and interpret the results effectively.

Take your marketing career to the next level

If you already have some work experience in marketing and are looking to progress your career, or if you’re looking to change your career direction into this fast-paced field, a master’s degree will give you the skills and knowledge you need to improve your prospects.

The 100% online MBA Marketing with North Wales Management School will give you a thorough grounding in strategic marketing, innovation and creativity, and will teach you vital communication and stakeholder management skills. Upon graduating, you will understand how to create and implement successful marketing campaigns, and have up-to-date knowledge on online marketing trends.

Study this marketing degree part-time and apply your learning to your current role, whilst fitting your studies around your current commitments.