Are Marketing Managers Happy? Marketing Manager Career Satisfaction and Salaries

Marketing has always been and will continue to be a critical factor in determining the success of a product or business. Therefore, if you are interested in marketing strategy, advertising, and business analytics, you may plan to pursue a career as a marketing manager. This article will help you determine whether a career as a marketing manager is a good profession for you.

We will discuss important marketing manager job satisfaction factors such as salary, work environment, and job satisfaction rates. We will also include marketing manager job stress and rewards factors to help you decide whether or not you will be happy in this career.

What Is a Marketing Manager?

A marketing manager is a business professional who oversees the product marketing team at a company. Their key responsibility is to develop marketing campaigns and pricing strategies that will increase the demand for products and services. Marketing managers use data analytics, marketing research, product design, technical services, and sales teams to carry out this duty. 

To be successful, you must have a strong understanding of business management, customer analytics, marketing trends, industry growth, social media marketing, and sales strategies. You will also need to learn about talent management, financial management, and product management. You can gain these skills with a marketing degree or work experience.

Is Marketing Management a Good Career?

Marketing management is a good career for professionals passionate about advertising, user experience, social media trends, market research, and data analytics. It is also a great career choice for those who enjoy working with a diverse group of business management and marketing professionals on a daily basis. 

Before you enter the marketing industry, you should consider whether a career that is constantly evolving in terms of content strategy, market research, customer communications, and advertising is right for you. If so, this thriving and lucrative business professional path is a good career choice with a healthy average growth rate and median salary. 

Marketing Manager Satisfaction Rates

Marketing manager satisfaction rates showcase a positive outlook on the profession across career search and job statistics websites. According to a PayScale report, the job satisfaction rate of marketing managers is almost four out of five stars. The report also mentions that full-time marketing managers have access to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.

This satisfaction rate is also reflected across other popular job search websites. According to Glassdoor reports on marketing managers, the professionals earn almost four out of five stars on work-life balance factors and on career opportunity factors. These high job satisfaction rates attest to marketing management positions leading to rewarding career paths. 

What Makes Marketing Manager Jobs Satisfying?

There are numerous professional and personal factors that contribute to the job satisfaction of a  marketing manager. These satisfaction factors will vary from person to person depending on their career trajectory goals, job designation, passions, educational backgrounds, and individual preferences.

Overall, a marketing management career can provide you with numerous career opportunities, lucrative annual salaries, and a high job outlook rate. Read on to discover the top factors that contribute to the job satisfaction of a marketing manager.

Freedom to Make Decisions 

Like all management roles, marketing management is a leadership position in which you are awarded the freedom to make decisions that will enhance the overall marketing strategy. Therefore, people with problem-solving skills, leadership skills, analytical skills, and marketing industry expertise will benefit from this management position.

Several common responsibilities of the position heavily rely on decision-making skills. You will need to make budgets, campaign strategies, content strategies, and sales tactics based on profit and loss projections, customer experience, and industry trends. If you enjoy being in charge, this can lead to a great deal of job satisfaction. 

Diversified Job Duties 

Marketing management is a critical factor in determining the success of a company’s product or service sales. Marketing managers must collaborate with a wide range of business and technical teams to achieve this success, making their jobs complex. Therefore, if you’re interested in pursuing a career that spans multiple fields, this management position is ideal.

Depending on your company and product, you may work with data analytics, user experience design, digital marketing, software development, content strategy, advertisement, sales, and business development teams. This means you’ll never get bored in your day-to-day responsibilities. 

Innovative and Dynamic Work Environment

Marketing management is a great choice if you want to work in an industry that allows for creativity and innovation. The marketing industry is constantly evolving and growing. This field is expanding, whether it’s digital marketing, SEO strategies, or social media marketing.

Thus, to succeed in this profession, you must be willing to adapt and grow with business and marketing trends. If this is you, you will have a truly rewarding career. You will never run out of new areas to grow your knowledge with further training and improve your performance. 

Potential for Specialization 

If user experience, customer analytics, or customer service tasks interest you, this career will allow you to specialize in those areas. To create an optimal marketing campaign strategy, it is essential to meet the customer’s needs and desires. As a marketing manager, you must devise a marketing strategy that appeals to your target audience.

This necessitates combining human psychology components with user experience research and customer analytics results. Before approving an advertisement or social media post, you must also consider the societal and cultural impact of your advertisements.

Emphasis on Data Science and Analytics 

It is a well-known fact that data science and data analyst skills are in high demand across a wide range of industries. A career in marketing management allows you to hone those skills. This profession will assist you in acquiring valuable data skills as you work. If you enjoy solving problems and developing solutions, you will definitely like this aspect of the job. 

As a marketing manager, you will collaborate with marketing, customer, and data analytics professionals to develop effective, audience-friendly product marketing strategies. These skills will also help you advance your career into senior positions in business tech, fintech, and business intelligence.

Marketing Manager Stress and Rewards

As a marketing manager, you will face numerous professional and personal moments of stress and reward. The top five pros and cons of working in this field are listed below. Deep in mind that the impact of these challenges and rewards will differ from person to person depending on their career goals, job responsibilities, educational background, and place of employment. 

Marketing Manager Stress

• Extensive work pressure. Since this marketing position is a management position, it comes with a lot of work pressures and workloads. You are responsible for overseeing several teams, including digital marketing, sales, content strategy, and marketing research. You will be in charge of marketing campaign strategies and talent management.
• Uncertain results. Data analytics, marketing analytics, and customer analytics can help a product succeed, but they cannot guarantee it. It would be your job to devise optimal strategies that will produce positive results. Since the success of marketing campaigns is dependent on audience perception and interaction, the success of your job is uncertain.
• High-stress levels in workplace conflict. Marketing management can be a stressful job due to various job responsibilities and heavy workloads. As a manager, you will have to deal with recruitment, workplace conflict resolution, and task delegation, all of which can lead to workplace disagreement.
• Budget constrictions. This management position requires you to launch a successful marketing campaign within an allocated budget, which can be difficult. To be successful in this position, you will need to master finance and budget management skills in addition to marketing skills.
• High-risk position. Your job as a marketing manager can be stressful depending on your competency and campaign success. Advertising and marketing departments consume a significant amount of company funds. If the product fails to achieve the desired sales and success, you may bear a large portion of the blame.

Marketing Manager Rewards

• Diverse professional portfolio. Working as a marketing manager provides the opportunity to build an impressive and diverse portfolio. You can work in data analytics, user experience, digital marketing, and business development.
• Lucrative career growth opportunities. A marketing manager position is a business leadership position that can lead to various senior career opportunities. Depending on your career objectives, you can work as the head of brand management, the director of marketing, or the head of sales.
• Job opportunities across a wide range of industries. The marketing management position is a vital profession across various industries. So, depending on your career interests, you can work in the software, healthcare, business, or pharmaceutical industries. 
• In-demand profession. Marketing management is a significant field that’s growing in popularity across various industries. Marketing is critical to the success of a product or service, which has increased the demand for marketing professionals.
• Wide range of marketing avenues. Working as a marketing manager allows you to create campaigns for various channels. You’ll promote social media platforms, mobile apps, web pages, email marketing, and blogs. These various marketing avenues allow you to broaden your marketing skills and position yourself as a desirable candidate.

Life as a Marketing Manager

As a marketing manager, you will face both high rewards and high stress. The management position combines creative talent, business sales, marketing, and leadership responsibilities. Continue reading to learn about the work environment, employee benefits, career growth, and average salary of five high-paying jobs available to those with a marketing management background.

Marketing Manager Work Environment

Marketing managers work in an environment that encompasses many settings. You will be required to travel to various locations for product launches and marketing campaigns. Like most managers, you will have your own office space.

Your work environment can be stressful and challenging because you manage large sales, marketing, and business development teams. However, a successful marketing campaign can make the job quite gratifying and elevate your candidacy. 

Marketing Manager Benefits

The employment benefits of marketing managers include a high coverage for health, medicine, dental, and vision insurance. The employment benefits are similar to those of other management positions and include a retirement plan, a 401k savings plan, and paid vacation days. 

However, you may be eligible for additional employee benefits such as a company stock discount, gym membership, additional resources for furthering your education, and other employee discounts depending on your company.

Marketing Manager Career Growth

Marketing managers have numerous opportunities for advancement, including department heads, senior, and directorial positions. Depending on your educational background and professional expertise, you can advance your career as a senior sales manager, advertising manager, or head of marketing research.

Marketing managers can also advance their careers into technical services, such as senior management positions in data analytics, marketing analytics, and customer analytics. However, keep in mind that these jobs necessitate a strong background in data analysis.

Marketing Manager Job Outlook, Salaries, and Career Growth 

The job outlook rate, average salaries, and career growth elements of marketing managers reflect positive statistics from popular job search websites. This senior position opens up lucrative career opportunities in positions ranging from director to department head. Read on to learn about the average job growth rate and the average salary for a marketing manager.

Is Marketing Management In Demand?

Marketing management is in demand across several industries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the projected job outlook rate for marketing managers is ten percent between 2020 to 2030. 

Marketing Manager Salaries

Marketing managers earn a lucrative compensation package. According to the same report by BLS, the average salary for marketing managers in 2020 was $141,490. BLS further reports New York, New Jersey, California, and Virginia as the top paying states for marketing managers.

However, note that the salary ranges will vary depending on your job designation, state, and company. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for an entry-level marketing manager is $43,221.  

High-Paying Marketing Management Jobs

Job Title	Average Salary
Chief Marketing Officer	$175,466
Vice President of Marketing	$149,899
Senior Product Marketing Manager	$127,712
Senior Marketing Manager	$100,478
Global Marketing Manager	$96,528

Chief Marketing Officer

• Chief Marketing Officer Average Salary: $175,466

The chief marketing officer position is an executive position in which professionals are in charge of supervising and executing the entire marketing strategy and budget allocation. You will collaborate with the head of the sales, marketing, product development, and finance departments to plan the overall marketing campaign execution.

Vice President of Marketing

• Vice President of Marketing Average Salary: $149,890

Another leadership position that reports to the president, or chief executive officer, is the vice president of marketing. You collaborate with senior marketing managers and product development managers to establish market research objectives, brand management strategies, and advertising budgets.

Senior Product Marketing Manager

• Senior Product Marketing Manager Average Salary: $127,712

Senior product marketing managers supervise product marketing managers and develop marketing strategies using customer analytics and market trends. They report to the vice president of marketing to establish marketing goals and budgets. 

Senior Marketing Manager

• Senior Marketing Manager Average Salary: $100,478

A senior marketing manager is responsible for overseeing and managing marketing managers and their teams. They can work to establish marketing guidelines for both business services and products. To be a successful senior marketing manager, you must be skilled in management, leadership, digital marketing, and market research skills. 

Global Marketing Manager

• Global Marketing Manager Average Salary: $96,528

A global marketing manager is responsible for the company’s international brand management and advertisements. You need to be knowledgeable about industry trends, marketing tactics, and marketing research strategies relevant to the global market. 

Should I Become a Marketing Manager?

You should become a marketing manager if a career combining digital marketing, data analytics, talent management, and business development interests you. A marketing manager career requires you to collaborate with technical, design, marketing, and finance teams to launch successful marketing campaigns.

Therefore, if you possess excellent leadership, market research, digital marketing, and budget management skills, then this management career is worth it for you. You will have access to advanced job opportunities and high salaries with this career path.  

Marketing Manager Career Change FAQ