WVU Online | Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Marketing communications is a large field full of different industries, roles, and specializations. With a field so vast, the job potential is exponential. From sports to healthcare and consultancy to agency, there is a role for everyone in the marketing communications field.
With so many options available, it can be hard to find your niche in the industry and grasp where you really want your career development to head. The jobs in this article highlight only some of the paths you can take in the world of marketing communications.
Marketing communications (referred to as marcom by the industry) are the messages and media channels that marketers use to communicate with their target market.
Marketing communications often encompasses different practices like public relations, traditional and digital advertising, marketing and even sales. It’s built on the idea that the way a product or service is positioned is consistent across all of the touchpoints a consumer experiences as they move down the funnel.
In a marketing communications degree, students will learn about the different methods and media of communicating and how to create a strategy to connect all of the different pieces to make an integrated campaign. At the graduate level, students will learn more about the strategy behind these decisions and how to apply strategic thinking to creativity.
At WVU Online, the marketing communications programs use a "learn it today, apply it tomorrow" approach so that aspiring marketers and communicators can apply what they learn in the classroom to their day-to-day lives.
Marketing managers are responsible for developing, implementing and executing strategic marketing plans for an entire organization or brand in order to attract potential customers and retain existing ones.
They are responsible for working with executives to determine budgets and targets, and they are often charged with developing pricing strategies for products and services.
Marketing managers generally work as part of a larger marketing, creative, communications or digital team, but for smaller businesses, the marketing manager can serve as a one-person marketing team.
Marketing managers are good roles for entry- to mid-level marketers as the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager can vary broadly from company to company. Marketing managers need to be well-versed in many aspects of marketing communications as they are not a highly specialized role.
In the U.S., marketing manager salaries range from $47,924 to $114,412. Almost all companies of any size hire marketing managers as internal team members.
Public affairs specialists act as spokespeople and develop and maintain relationships with beat reporters and other media members.
They provide content and write articles for internal and external communications, including email marketing, social media and outreach to relevant past and present connections. Public affairs specialists typically work in the field of media relations by leveraging connections with other media members, and they often work in government agencies.
Public affairs specialists are typically a mid-level position as the specialist role denotes expertise in a particular subject area. They can be in the military, typically referred to as public affairs officers or in civilian positions within government agencies. The salary ranges from $30,082 to $112,729.
Examples of where you can work as a public affairs specialist are:
An account director serves as a liaison between clients and a company that provides services, manages the accounts team and supervises creatives and other staff to ensure projects meet client expectations and are delivered on time and within budget.
The account director pitches ideas to clients, develops strategies for new products and coordinates events. They often work in agencies or firms and typically have multiple accounts at one time.
As an account director, your work can vary depending on where you are located and whether you work in a large agency or a boutique firm. The salary range for an account director is $60,543 to $184,182.
Some of the places you can work as an account director are:
A creative director establishes the creative vision for a brand or a campaign and manifests that vision through strategic and deliberate design.
Creative Director is a big-picture position that maintains a cohesive look and feel of a project, supervises the entire creative process, and guides the creative team that works under them. They often establish budgets and timelines and manage client relationships and expectations.
Creative directors can be in an agency setting or on an in-house team for a single company and are typically more senior-level positions. The salary range is $63,006 to $198,126.
Some of the places you can work as a creative director are:
An SEO content writer’s primary responsibility is to create informative and engaging articles that provide high value to a brand's target audience to consistently achieve high SERP rankings.
An individual in this role also needs to be able to conduct in-depth research on a variety of different topics to ensure their articles are factually correct and aligned with an audience’s search intent.
The salary range for SEO content writers is $47,755 and $58,039. SEO content writers can work directly for a company as part of an internal team or with another firm or agency that serves a list of clients.
Influencer marketing managers are responsible for managing the end-to-end operations of a brand’s influencer marketing campaigns. They build a team of influencer partners for the brand, manage communications, and coordinate with the rest of the marketing team to get maximum impact for their influencer campaigns. Typically, this role is responsible for campaign management, relationship building, influencer communications and market and trend research in the influencer space.
Influencer marketing managers are part of a growing field in the world of influencer marketing. The salary range for this role is $70,000 to $125,000.
Some of the places you can work as an influencer marketing manager are:
A social media manager is typically responsible for setting the content strategy and driving engagement on a company’s social platforms. To be successful in that role, social media managers often need to possess a knack for storytelling, a keen eye for design, and an ability to analyze what does well with an audience.
Social media managers are ordinarily responsible for developing strategies to increase followers, creating and overseeing social campaigns, producing content, reviewing analytics, and communicating with key stakeholders in a company.
A social media manager is typically an in-house role, so you’re working directly for a company or business. The salary range for this role is $38,197 to $88,784.
A UI/UX designer is a professional who identifies new opportunities to create better user experiences. Aesthetically pleasing branding strategies help them effectively reach more customers.
They also ensure that the end-to-end journey with their products or services meets desired outcomes.
UI/UX Designer responsibilities include gathering user requirements, designing graphic elements and building navigation components.
The average salary range for this role is $68,086 to $161,149. Most designers are consultants, freelance or work for a firm as contractors.
A Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is an executive responsible for enhancing the overall customer experience.
Chief Experience Officers are all about how to create the best experience to retain existing customers and attract new ones. They’re also responsible for giving employees the tools needed to make sure the strategy can be executed.
CXOs are responsible for things like audience and customer research, journey mapping, data collection and analysis, and building a consumer-centric culture within a company. The senior-level position has a salary range of $181,783 to $236,353.
Some places you can work as a chief experience officer are:
Public relations managers create and maintain a favorable public image for their employer or client by communicating programs, accomplishments and/or points of view.
These professionals are tasked with fielding media questions and pitching stories to the media, preparing media kits and organizing press conferences. They also release information to handle crisis and emergency communications.
Public relations managers can be part of an internal team or work at an agency. They have a salary range of $41,456 to $114,346.
Chief strategy officers are responsible for creating a company’s vision, communicating the plan with all those involved, executing the business initiatives and sustaining implementation efforts.
In this role, the individual is also responsible for analyzing market shares, finding market and partnership opportunities, ensuring all performance markers are in place and identifying strategic risks before starting a campaign.
Chief strategy officers are a senior-level position with an average salary range of $96,730 to $229,190. This is typically an in-house role.
An acquisition marketing manager is an expert in identifying, qualifying, and ultimately securing new customers for a business.
They are often responsible for creating and implementing marketing strategies that focus on acquiring new customers and ensuring their engagement and retention. These strategies can involve various marketing channels, including search engine optimization, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and display advertising.
An acquisition marketing manager is typically an in-house role as part of an internal team with a salary range of $100,000 to $165,000.
Now that you’ve got an idea of where you can go as a marketing communication professional, take the leap you want for your career with WVU Online.
Learn the skills all marketers need, plus skills and certifications that fit your specific interests so you can land your dream job. If you’re ready to take the plunge, don’t hesitate to explore everything WVU Online has to offer and how they can help you reach your career goals.
Call us, write us, or fill out the request information form. Whichever communication style you prefer, there will be someone from WVU Online on the other end waiting to help.