Would you make a great marketing manager?

At the beginning of the year, a report stated that the skills shortage is so critical in South Africa that companies were looking elsewhere for the skills that they need. In other words, they were preferring to import skills rather than invest locally in skills development. The industries that were the hardest hit were Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and engineering.

A marketing manager is a person who manages how to business or product is marketed. These people can be responsible for several services or products. Alternatively, they can be in charge of a single product. Are you toying with the idea of entering the exciting world of marketing management? Are you concerned about if you’d make a great marketing manager? Read this article to find out what a marketing manager does and what skills the ideal candidate needs to possess.

The Responsibilities of a Marketing Manager

Here are the day-to-day responsibilities of a marketing manager. Some companies may decide to give the marketing manager all of these responsibilities while others may decide to split these responsibilities among a team of people. It all depends on the size of the company as well as their budget:

• Developing a pricing strategy to maximise profit and market share and considers customer satisfaction.
• Identifying new customers as well as supporting sales and lead generation efforts.
• Creating promotions as well as understanding and developing budgets and developing marketing campaigns.
• Compiling lists that describe the organisation’s offerings.
• Arranging company conferences, trade shows as well as major events.
• Developing brand awareness and positioning.
• Assessing and preserving a marketing strategy.
• Supervising, preparing and managing marketing efforts.
• Sharing the marketing plan with relevant stakeholders.
• Creating each marketing campaign from start to finish.
• Researching demand for the company’s products and services.
• Performing a competitor analysis.
• Handling social media, public relations efforts and content marketing.

The Skills of a Marketing Manager

It is essential for a marketing manager to have an outgoing, gregarious and spontaneous nature. In addition to these traits, they need to be highly focused, detail-oriented, and very conscientious of meeting budget restraints and timelines.

Here are a few more skills that a marketing manager needs to have:

• Good teamwork skills

It is the marketing manager’s job to lead the marketing team. This means that they need to be able to work well among marketing team members in addition to with other members of the management team.

• Communication skills and networking ability

It is the responsibility of the marketing manager to make sure that the company is marketed correctly and that word about the business gets to the ears of the people who will buy the company’s products and/or services.

This means that the marketing manager must have excellent verbal and written communication skills. In addition, he or she must be able to network with others who will be a potential source of business for the company.

• Adaptability

The way in which we market our businesses is changing all the time – and very quickly. This means that a marketing manager needs to be able to adapt quickly to these changes and stay ahead of the curve.

• Strong attention to detail

The company’s brand is in the hands of the marketing manager. This means that they need to display strong attention to detail so that they don’t end up damaging the brand’s integrity.

• Good organisation and planning skills

The marketing manager is responsible for a number of various aspects in the company. This means that good organisation and planning skills are essential.

• Creativity and writing skills

Especially in a smaller company, a marketer will need to write the press releases, content marketing pieces, etc. This means that they need to have exceptional writing skills. In addition, marketing managers need to display a heightened sense of creativity so that they can come up with new and exciting ideas for the marketing of the company.

• Commercial awareness and numerical skills

Being a marketing manager is not all about coming up with great ideas. He or she must make sure that these ideas translate into tangible leads for the company. The marketing manager must also be able to read the company’s financials in order to interpret whether or not their marketing campaigns have made a tangible difference to the company’s profits.

• IT skills

Although the marketing manager doesn’t need to have the level of IT skills that the IT manager does, they still need to be able to know how to work the various software platforms that they need.

Become a Marketing Manager with the Digital School of Marketing

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Become a highly sought-after marketing manager with the Digital School of Marketing. With this course under your belt, people will snap you up in a heartbeat! For more information, please visit our website.