The Ultimate Marketing Career Guide for 2022
From TheMarketingHelp.co
Marketing is one of the most exciting and fastest growing fields in business. A recent study from Monster* stated that Marketing is expected to grow 8% in the 10 years leading to 2028 — a faster rate than all other fields.
But what once was a fairly straightforward career path, from Marketing Associate to Marketing Manager to Marketing Executive, has become a complex web of sub-functions and disciplines.
This is thanks to the evolution of the modern web, search engines, social media, email & CRM, and more, and how these new technologies have impacted more traditional Marketing disciplines like Corporate Communications, Market Research, and Customer Support.
We’ve also seen the business strategy of marketing agencies swing back and forth between consolidated ‘full-service’ models and distributed ‘point-solution’ models, as well as the preferences of brand marketers to leverage agencies for some work, while ‘in-housing’ other capabilities (e.g. the rise in media buying, traditionally managed by agencies, brought in-house).
Not only that, but we’ve also witnessed an enormous rise in freelancing & consulting over the last 10 years thanks to lowered barriers to marketing skillbuilding & self-teaching, and paired with the appearance of matchmaking marketplaces like LinkedIn, Upwork, and others.
These factors combine to create an ebb and flow in marketing hiring patterns throughout the past 20 years, as well as ever-changing and brand new marketing career paths.
Now let’s add one more ingredient to the mix: marketing technology itself.
Marketing technology has exploded over the last 10 years, and now accounts for a whopping 30% of the average total marketing budget, according to Statista*. But wait, “isn’t that IT’s job??”
Yes, the IT team has been slowly growing, cross-skilling, and supporting the Marketing function with martech guidance. However, it’s ultimately the Marketing team’s responsibility to identify & select the martech that is best-fit for the organization’s needs, their customers’ expectations, Security & Privacy teams’ data compliance requirements, and has ‘future-proof’ integrations.
From 2011 to 2021, the martech landscape has grown from about 150 companies to over 8,000. This explosion of martech has led to the average organization using upwards of 120 different pieces of martech, all of which need to be run, managed, & optimized by a new breed of marketing technologists...in many cases, roles that truly did not exist only a few years ago.
All this flux in our field means that if you want to grow your career in marketing, now is the time!
That’s why we created the most comprehensive list of marketing positions - 101 in all - and profiled each and every one of them so that you can make data-driven decisions about your marketing career path, just as you would a marketing campaign.
All the marketing roles we profile are divided into four levels: Leaders, Managers, Associates and Interns or temporary staff. Behold, TheMarketingHelp 101 Marketing Roles Map:
Top 10 Cities For Marketing Jobs in 2021
Recently, Accenture published a talent report for CMOs* looking at the 10 best major cities around the world for marketing careers. New York snagged top honors, followed by London, San Francisco, and Chicago. Here is the full list of best cities to work in for marketers:
New York
London
San Francisco
Chicago
Amsterdam
Singapore
Sydney
Hong Kong
Tokyo
Shanghai
3 Types Of Companies For Marketers
It’s great to be a marketer in any industry - you’re relied upon for designing business strategy, analyzing market opportunity & voice of customer, and increasing revenue.
Aside from the industry you work in - like technology, manufacturing, CPG, or finance - there are really only 3 different types of companies that hire marketers:
Brand/In-House/Client-Side
Agencies
Startups/SMB
Bonus: Freelancing/Consulting
Brand/In-House/Client-Side:
Large businesses that sell products or services that are not marketing, but that require marketing to “go to market.” Being part of the Marketing department at Coca-Cola, Netflix, or Boeing would mean you are “in-house” or “brand-side,” and if you were formerly at a marketing agency, or you were speaking with someone who works at an agency, then you would also say you are “client-side.”
Agencies:
Businesses that sell marketing services, like customer research, strategy, creative, media buying, or campaign activation. There are also two types of agencies: ‘network’ agencies (those who are owned by one of the major agency holding companies like WPP or Omnicom) and ‘independent’ agencies (those that are owned by their founders & principals).
Startups/SMBs:
In truth, startups are different from small- and medium-sized businesses (‘SMBs’) in many ways, but there’s a large overlap in that Venn diagram, so we’ve combined them for these purposes. Startups are younger companies (<10 years), usually founder-run, and usually are technology-based (although you will bump into “non-tech” startups). SMBs may be older, are also founder-run in many cases, and share a lot of the Startup DNA with respect to dynamism, urgency, passion, and family-like office atmosphere.
Bonus - Freelancing/Consulting:
Yes, freelancers and consultants have been around forever, but over the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of solo marketers acting as for-hire strategists, designers, analysts, ad managers and more. While freelancing or consulting isn’t a company type in the traditional ‘career path’ sense, it is certainly a viable option for marketers both new and established, and it can both be a bridge between one of the three primary company types above, or be a marketing career in and of itself!
All 101 marketing roles
Marketing Intern/Co-Op
Marketing Associate
Marketing Manager
Marketing Director
Marketing VP/CMO
Communications Associate
Communications Manager
Communications Director
Communications VP
Account Associate
Account Manager
Account Director
Account VP
Content Marketing Associate
Content Marketing Manager
Content Marketing Director
Content Marketing VP
Creative Associate
Creative Manager
Creative Director
Creative VP
Customer Analytics Associate
Customer Analytics Manager
Customer Analytics Director
Customer Analytics VP
Customer Acquisition Associate
Customer Acquisition Manager
Customer Acquisition Director
Customer Acquisition VP
Customer Care Associate
Customer Care Manager
Customer Care Director
Customer Care VP
Customer Engagement Associate
Customer Engagement Manager
Customer Engagement Director
Customer Engagement VP
Customer Experience Associate
Customer Experience Manager
Customer Experience Director
Customer Experience VP
Demand Generation Associate
Demand Generation Manager
Demand Generation Director
Demand Generation VP
Digital Marketing Associate
Digital Marketing Manager
Digital Marketing Director
Digital Marketing VP
Ecommerce Associate
Ecommerce Manager
Ecommerce Director
Ecommerce VP
Email Marketing Associate
Email Marketing Manager
Email Marketing Director
Email Marketing VP
Field Marketing Associate
Field Marketing Manager
Field Marketing Director
Field Marketing VP
Inside Sales Associate
Inside Sales Manager
Inside Sales Director
Inside Sales VP
Loyalty Marketing Associate
Loyalty Marketing Manager
Loyalty Marketing Director
Loyalty Marketing VP
Market Research Associate
Market Research Manager
Market Research Director
Market Research VP
Marketing Technology Associate
Marketing Technology Manager
Marketing Technology Director
Marketing Technology VP
Media Planning Associate
Media Planning Manager
Media Planning Director
Media Planning VP
Paid Search Associate
Paid Search Manager
Paid Search Director
Paid Search VP
Paid Social Associate
Paid Social Manager
Paid Social Director
Paid Social VP
Product Marketing Associate
Product Marketing Manager
Product Marketing Director
Product Marketing VP
SEO Associate
SEO Manager
SEO Director
SEO VP
Social Marketing Associate
Social Marketing Manager
Social Marketing Director
Social Marketing VP