What is marketing management? That’s a great question! Most people associate the term “marketing manager” with someone who oversees the advertising, media relations, and promotional strategies for an organization. But what if we took that one step further?

What if we asked not just whether there are individuals in your organization that handle these three areas of marketing, but also whether they have formal education or certification in any of them? And what if we added it as a requirement for promotion to higher positions within the company?

That would be quite the challenge!

Luckily for you, we already done some research and compiled a list of the most important things needed to function as a marketer at this level. With our checklist, you will know exactly what needs to be learned before advancing up the ladder.

Keep reading to learn all about it!

Marketing management – definition and role profile

To begin, let us define what exactly constitutes as a professional in the field of marketing. According to Merriam-Webster, a marketer is defined as follows:

A person who engages in promoting products by creating publicity for them through various means (like TV advertisements)

That sounds pretty close to what we just mentioned! As you can see, being a professional marketer has more than just talking about brands and getting exposure for them.

The other part is knowing how to promote those brands.

Organization of marketing management

As mentioned before, not all departments within a company manage or oversee marketing. Some companies have their own internal marketing teams that handle social media, advertising, website design, etc. for the products and services they promote.

However, most large corporations don’t have this luxury. Instead, different areas in the organization that deal with the product or service you just described are involved in marketing. These individuals include: marketers, brand managers, sales promotion people, account executives, business development professionals, and more.

All these individuals play important roles in promoting your product or service. While some may be assigned additional tasks beyond what our organizational diagram above indicates, none should feel like they aren’t playing an integral part in bringing in new customers and keeping current ones.

That being said, it is very difficult to identify who does what without having clear job descriptions and position titles. What someone calls themselves isn’t necessarily defined elsewhere, so make sure to check out both!

General tips: remember that your colleagues’ jobs can easily change from one year to the next, even if they use the same title. If you notice them doing something that seems off, ask how things went last time when you could compare notes.

Marketing strategy

A marketing strategy is defining yourself as an organization’s marketer or leader of its marketing efforts. This includes all areas such as advertising, social media marketing, website design, promotional giveaways, etc. Your marketing strategies will depend on your company’s goals and what products you are trying to sell.

For example, if your goal is to increase sales, then targeted advertisements on search engines and social media sites are well-planned strategies. If your goal is to promote a product or service, creating buzz about it is a good tactic. If your goal is to create word-of-mouth marketing, having fun while promoting your product is important.

Your marketing strategies will shift and evolve over time because your business can go bankrupt before it even starts! You need to be prepared for this by having different plans in place.

As mentioned above, keeping up with trends is part of staying competitive as a marketer. Testing out new techniques is essential to ensuring that your business stays ahead of the competition.

Marketing processes

A lot of people use the term marketing, but they do not know what it means. This is very common as most people are not formally trained in marketing. Many believe that being involved in ‘marketing’ means creating a great advertisement or brochure.

This is only half of the definition though! The other part of the definition is determining how well you market products or services. This includes things such as developing promotional material, finding new customers for your product, producing advertising campaigns, managing supply and demand, and more.

These parts of the definition go beyond just making advertisements. They include all aspects of selling merchandise and/or providing service-based products. This includes supporting online sales, responding to inquiries, etc.

There are several reasons why this distinction matter. First, some companies seem to think that their marketing staff does not have much power because they are only limited to making advertisements.

However, these individuals still play an important role in defining the company’s overall strategy. If someone at the top level does not trust the employees under them, then this can be demotivating for those lower levels.

Second, some marketers feel that their department is not getting enough attention or resources. This may cause burn out or even quitting if there is no improvement seen.

Held accountable for the success or failure of the brand, marketing professionals risk becoming too focused on proving themselves rather than helping the rest of the team achieve its goals.

Marketing campaigns

As we have seen, marketing is defined as creating awareness of your product or service through various channels, integrating that message with a sales strategy, and moving forward with a plan to buy or take action on what you advertised.

But there are two other important components of the term “marketing” that most people forget about when using the word in relation to their job. These are the words “management” and “of.”

Your job as a marketer isn’t just to create advertisements and see how many sales you can make, it is to oversee the entire process from A to Z. This includes everything form developing the campaign to producing the advertisement, distributing the ad, gathering feedback, adjusting and re-doing until you get the right result, etc.

It also means making sure all of the parts work together seamlessly for the overall success of the company you work for.

Marketing programs

What is marketing management? That is one of the most asked questions about marketing, at least in terms of what people consider to be the field. Many feel that generalization is easy – it’s just managing advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and so on!

But trying to define those individual parts can be tricky. For example, what does “managing” mean? Does that include creating the advertisements, producing the commercials, deciding when to run an advertisement, finding the appropriate medium for the advertisement, designing the ad, writing the copy for the ad, filming the commercial, editing the film, and distributing or airing the ads? All of these things are part of the role of marketing manager, but how do you classify them as such?

And what about the term “advertising”? Some would only include printed materials like brochures and flyers, while others also include TV advertisements, billboards, and direct mail pieces. Others may not include media like social media sites or YouTube videos, whereas other professionals will. It all depends on who you ask and what their definition of marketing advertising is.

So what is considered to be part of the job of marketing manager? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it is defined as follows:

Marketing managers oversee the implementation and evaluation of overall marketing strategies and activities.

Marketing metrics

A few important marketing metric concepts that are often confused with each other include KPIs, targets, and goals. It is very common to confuse these three terms in fact.

KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are measurable results or outcomes that determine success of a business campaign. For example, if you ran a sale during the summer season, your sales would be the key performance indicator for your department. The sales team would look at this number to see how successful your efforts were!

Targets are like milestones to achieve. A target can be anything from having a certain amount of monthly revenue to achieving profitability within a year.

Goals are just like targets but they have a time frame attached to them. Having a goal such as earning $10,000 per month means sticking to it for one whole month, not just saying you will earn that much money someday.

The term “goal” can sometimes be mixed up with the word “target.” A target does not need a set period of time to meet its mark, only a deadline. If someone sets a dollar price target on a house, they want it to sell so they put up a sign announcing the property and its price.

If there is no deadline, then it becomes a goal instead. Setting a deadline adds importance to the item, making it more likely to be achieved.

Understanding your audience

A defining feature of marketing management is understanding who your audience is. Who you are targeting, and what messages will appeal to them. You can’t promote something if you don’t know who you are promoting it for!

As we discussed in our article about why marketers need to understand psychology, people have emotional needs that influence their buying decisions.

When they feel these needs aren’t being met, they won’t buy your product or service. They’ll go somewhere else to meet those needs.

Marketers must be aware of this so they can create products and services that satisfy psychological needs. That way, people will keep coming back, which is key to business success.

In order to do this, you firstly need to identify your target market. This means figuring out who your potential customers are and what qualities they possess.

Secondly, determine how much like yourself they are- things such as gender, age, income, location, etc. This helps you formulate more targeted campaigns and advertisements.

Third, find ways to include these characteristics in what you say and do. This includes creating content, conducting social media activities, and talking with other professionals in the field.

Creating a website or blog

Developing your marketing skills does not end with creating a web presence, it is also about promoting that site by various means. You will need to actively market your site for engagement and interest.

That includes engaging in social media, sending emails, distributing flyers and posters, etc. There are many ways to promote your business online, so do not feel that this is a waste of time!

Some experts suggest doing one type of promotion every day, which helps give you coverage while developing your skill set.