(Photo | Courtesy of zö agency)
Much of the success of a company’s products or services relies heavily on marketing. The commander in chief of the department holds the title of Marketing Director. This professional is tasked with the development and implementation of marketing strategies and with overseeing the team who carries them out.
Think of a director of marketing as a super-human, like your very own ‘Clark Kent.’ They save the world in the company, daily. It’s no exaggeration to say that a great marketing director matches the workload of about ten people and finding one who will fulfill the role with efficiency and grace might closely compare to that of spotting Superman himself. Don’t let them go once you’ve secured them!
Hiring a marketing director should come with the expectation that they’ll take on the responsibility of interacting with the different departments, leaders and partners of your organization. That means effective communication and problem-solving skills are critical. Ideally, they will have a Masters in Marketing and five to ten years of experience in one or both digital marketing and marketing management.
Marketing directors carry a lot on their shoulders. They must deeply understand their offering and their target audience. They need to make sure that projects are completed on time and remain on budget. They’re in charge of creating weekly, monthly and annual reports as well as budget management. Not to mention they also oversee content creation and implementation.
Due to the constantly changing nature of the many initiatives they’ll be handling, you’ll want a marketing director who will be calm under pressure, do well with change and thrive with situations that require critical thinking. This will be a well-organized individual that can roll with change and be able to handle overseeing all the varying aspects of marketing management.
Those who hold this position always have to be on the lookout for the company’s image and reputation and regularly be assessing its marketplace standing. This tells us that the art of reputation management is yet another highly developed skill you’ll want to be sure your marketing director understands inside and out.
While the list of responsibilities is vast, it’s safe to say that the top-most important responsibilities of a marketing director are those that revolve around translating a company’s short- and long-term goals into actionable marketing activities, while creating a clear vision for the company’s marketing strategy.
Marketing directors aren’t just creatives, they’re in command. When you have a dedicated leader in this role they can add focus to your overall marketing strategy and help to strengthen collaboration between creative partners.
The short list of responsibilities of your marketing director:
- Oversees the marketing department
- Demonstrates excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Requires and utilizes strategic thinking
- Must have analytical, technical and project management skills
- Competent in using complex software and quickly learning new ones in a pinch
- Evaluates, develops and implements the marketing strategy for an organization
- Supervises the marketing team, including hiring, training, workloads, schedules, meetings and deadlines
- Coordinates marketing projects from start to finish
- Oversees campaigns and branding techniques
- Stays up to date on the latest marketing trends
- Researches demand for similar products and services being offered
- Facilitates reputation management
- Regularly runs through competitor research
- Researches the marketplace to identify potential customers
- Creates marketing reports to update executives
- Builds brand awareness and positioning
- Oversees all content going out for online marketing
- Evaluates social media strategy and implementation
- Manages and refines social media presence
- Supervises the operation of the company’s website and provides analytics review
- Oversees email marketing program
- Holds regular meetings with account managers to review pipeline, uncover any issues and present possible solutions
- Offers ongoing training to ensure team consistently performs above standard
- Works with sales department to develop pricing strategies to maximize profits while balancing customer satisfaction
- Provides tools and materials to enable the sales team to function effectively
- Supports sales and lead generation efforts
- Organizes company conferences, trade shows and major events
- Takes courses and attends conferences to further marketing knowledge
- Negotiates with media agencies to secure agreements on the production of promotional materials
- Develops promotions, plans new product introductions and other marketing projects
- Understands and develops budgets and finance, including expenditures, research and development appropriations, ROI and profit-loss projections
- Sets and administers an annual marketing budget
A marketing agency sometimes does all that and more and lets you take home the prize!
An organization that hires a Marketing Director often finds themselves in a vulnerable position, relying so heavily on one individual. With such a demanding role, burnout is common and finding a replacement for this highly skilled individual in a pinch is nearly impossible. This is one common reason why many companies find that hiring a marketing agency is a smarter choice.
zö agency, consists of a team of artsy creatives, charming writers, techy digital marketing pros, sharp project managers and is run by a nimble leader who enjoys nothing more than to finish the day by looking back at the magic the team conjured. Many times there is a spontaneous end of the day team hoorah, where everyone joins together with their comrades to go over the day’s successes and anything pressing that may need priority of attention.
We have several departments here at zö agency and each get nerdily into their specialized skill. Nothing goes out unless it’s been combed through a few times by themselves and then passed to a project manager to have a look with fresh eyes before the finishing product lands in the happy client’s lap.
Diving into things, the project managers keep everything on task. They are in charge of making sure that everything is staying on time and remaining on budget. They communicate everything between the client and the creatives, scheduling client meetings and projecting the timeline of each project.
Our creatives will take a deep look into the vision and branding of a client, go into their chamber for a while and emerge with a flawless and unique-to-the-branding marketing strategy that speaks volumes to the client about just how much they love their jobs — they’re paying attention and they care very much about helping each client make a huge impact on their annual return.
No matter what the goals and needs are in a company’s marketing department, zö agency has it covered. We can help supplement current strategies or bring to light an entirely new plan. We are a Clark Kent. Besides, no company can be expected to do it all in-house. We work closely with our clients to drive the results they want!
“Marketing is not an event, but a process… It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely.” ~Jay Conrad Levinson, Author of Guerrilla Marketing.
A Marketing Director median salary is between $95,000-$185,000 per year.
Or… You can put that money into your projects (the marketing!) and use zö instead. Wow, imagine how much you can accomplish with that extra money going straight into the actual work you need.
