Top-Wanted Marketing Manager Skills That Win Jobs

When you apply for a marketing manager job, how do you make your job application stand out?

To impress a hiring manager, you need to tell about your work experience, accomplishments, and also your strongest marketing manager skills. And we’ll tell you how to become a marketing manager with ease!

In this article you'll learn:

What skills do you need to be a marketing manager?

What are marketing manager skills?

What are the qualities of a good marketing manager?

So if you're ready to go "all in" let me walk you through top-wanted marketing manager skills.

But before you go all-in what marketing manager skills are, the first step might be to read about jobs of the future 2025-2035.

What Are Marketing Manager Skills?

Later, in this guide, we will define the core skills needed for marketing manager profession, but, before we get to the main point, let’s start with the basics.

So, what's a marketing manager? In a nutshell, a marketing manager is a managerial position in the marketing department. Basically, this person is responsible for organizing and managing the work of the marketing team. 

They are in charge of handling all marketing and promotional activities of the business. Marketing manager resume sample will help you to better understand a structure. However, in some cases, a marketing manager can be responsible not for the entire department but for a separate brand or product.

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Hard Skills for Marketing Manager

The “hard” skills are the skills that are tangible, specific, and quantifiable. The main distinctive feature between soft and hard skills is that the latter ones are teachable. So, no one is born having those skills, they are acquired through learning and practice.

Here is a list of the key hard skills for marketing that hiring managers and employers are looking for:

• research and analytics;
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO);
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM);
• writing and content creation;
• content strategy and content management;
• social media;
• data analysis;
• e-commerce;
• technological proficiency;
• UX design;
• responsive design and responsive marketing skills.

Soft Skills for Marketing Manager

Unlike hard skills, the soft ones are harder to quantify because they express personal traits and attributes rather than actual hands-on abilities. Recruiters typically look at soft skills to determine how a particular employee will perform the work.

Some of the most sought-after soft marketing manager skills include:

• Leadership - indicates that you can successfully lead and inspire a team.
• Creativity - highlights the ability to think outside the box and generate ideas.
• Teamwork - demonstrates an ability to work with other specialists and teams to reach set goals.
• Adaptability - indicates your ability to adapt to new circumstances to overcome challenges that arise.

Top Marketing Manager Skills

To succeed in the role of a marketing manager, one needs to possess multiple skill sets. In addition, it is vital to have expertise in a wide range of tools and software.

The job requirements may vary depending on the needs and goals of the employer. However, if we were to outline the top marketing manager skills that most employers are looking for, these would include:

• leadership skills;
• creative skills;
• technical skills;
• communication skills;
• organizational skills.

Now, let’s look at each of these skill sets in detail.

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Leadership Skills

First and foremost, no manager can do without strong leadership skills. In order to spearhead the operation of the entire team, it is vital to establish yourself as a true leader. So, be sure that this will be one of the core skills that recruiters and potential employers will be looking at.

Leadership goes far beyond just leading a team. This skill set also involves:

• Setting clear and measurable strategic goals that align with the company’s objectives.
• Monitoring the workflow and assessing the team’s performance.
• Motivating all team members to be productive and show excellent performance.
• Mentoring new team members.

Creative Skills

Marketing can be called a truly creative endeavor. Most marketing challenges you and your team may face in the future will require finding a creative solution. That is why creative skills are also among the most sought-after abilities of a marketing manager.

Some of the core creative skills you will need in a marketing manager’s position include:

• Assessing marketing materials and finding ways to improve them.
• Brainstorming ideas for future marketing campaigns (often together with graphic designers).
• Finding new, creative ways to spread awareness about the company and its products/services.
• Generating ideas for special promotional activities and events.

Technical Skills

The importance of technical skills deserves a special emphasis. As a marketing manager, you’ll be in charge of many different duties and tasks. Often, it takes a great knowledge of tech tools and software to handle certain tasks or automate the workflow. Therefore, technical skills are vital for this role.

Here are a few examples of how technical skills will help in a marketing manager’s position:

• Automating email delivery for sending mass emails.
• Optimizing marketing content with the help of keywords.
• Editing social media profiles and corporate websites.
• Using digital schedules and spreadsheets.

Communication Skills

It may not be obvious to someone, but marketing managers rely on communication skills in their job a lot. Apart from managing the work of an entire team, setting tasks, monitoring performance, and mentoring, marketing managers also have to collaborate with other specialists and departments. Therefore, having outstanding communication skills is a must.

Here are a few examples of how communication skills are used by marketing managers:

• Communicating with team members to discuss goals, tasks, make decisions, or generate ideas.
• Writing quarterly summaries and press releases.
• Communicating with the company’s customers to build stronger relationships.
• Listening to the team’s feedback.

Organizational Skills

As a leader, it will be you who is responsible for the organization of the team and its workflow. Marketing managers monitor the work of the entire department or team, which means that they often have to keep track of multiple projects and tasks at the same time. And in order to handle this, one needs to have exceptional organizational skills.

Some of the most important organizational skills of marketing managers involve:

• Filing and maintaining documents.
• Planning, organizing, and coordinating team meetings, events, and other activities.
• Helping employees complete their tasks on time.
• Developing strategic schedules for all major projects.

How to Improve Marketing Manager Skills

Now that we’ve discussed the most sought-after skills needed for marketing manager, you might be wondering how to acquire or improve them.

In case you don’t have some of the key skills discussed earlier or feel like yours need to be improved, here are a few tips on how to hone your skills and grow as a professional:

• identify your skill gaps and set goals;
• get focused;
• find a mentor;
• get on a course; 
• seek out opportunities to practice your skills;
• be open to constructive criticism.

These tips will help you get the needed marketing job skills quickly and easily!

Marketing Manager in the Workplace

All good marketing managers know that the key goal of their job is to motivate their team and ensure productivity.

Here are a few tips on how marketing manager qualifications and skills are used in the workplace:

• Company representation. As a marketing manager, your primary task is to represent your company accurately and positively throughout all marketing materials.
• Boost the team’s motivation. One more task of marketing managers in the workplace is to ensure that all team members are motivated and have all the tools to realize their potential.
• Keep customers at the core. Finally, if you occupy this position, you need to ensure that customers’ needs are met.

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How to Showcase Your Marketing Manager Skills

Even if you have the right level of qualification, possess all the necessary skills, and can boast of lots of relevant experience, that might be still not enough to get employed. In order to land a job, you need to make the right impression on the recruiter and prove that you are a perfect fit for the job.

To do this, you need to know how to use your past experiences, as well as the specific marketing management knowledge and skill sets you acquired so far, to jump-start your career. 

Below are a few tips on how to use your skills right during a job search.

Marketing Manager Skills for Resume

To craft a winning resume, you need to identify the key skills required for marketing jobs and list the ones you have in a separate skills section on your resume. To identify what skills should be included, be sure to read the job description thoroughly. Most often, the job description will hold all the answers you need.

Apart from the skills section, it’s also good to highlight your skills in the work experience section. In this part of your resume, you can use real cases and rough numbers to show how you used your skills to help your past employers.

Marketing Manager Skills for the Job Interview

When you finally land an interview, it is one more opportunity to showcase your best marketing manager skills and convince a potential employer to recruit you.

How to do this? Typically, during the interview, recruiters expect an applicant to provide a more in-depth explanation of their past work experiences, achievements, and skills. That’s exactly what you will have to focus on.

During the interview, share some background info on how you’ve acquired the skills needed for the job. Emphasize events when your skills helped you achieve certain goals or solve an issue. This will show recruiters why you are a good fit.

Sample Marketing Manager Resume Skills Section

When it comes to writing a resume, the section that lists the skills of marketing manager drives most of the recruiter’s attention. That’s why it has to be done right.

Marketing Manager Skills in a Resume Skills Section

Here’s a full list of marketing manager skills to put in bullet points on your resume’s skills section:

• sales;
• HTML;
• SEO;
• communication;
• SEM;
• CPC;
• analytical thinking;
• PPC;
• writing;
• MS Office;
• email marketing;
• negotiation;
• WordPress;
• CRO;
• creative thinking;
• business acumen;
• strong work ethic;
• A/B testing;
• sales funnel management;
• collaboration;
• paid advertising.

Marketing Manager Skills in a Resume Work Experience Section

Digital Marketing Manager

Ad Labs

April 2012–July 2019

• Spearheaded all marketing functions across multiple platforms for a large, high-profile e-commerce marketing agency.
• Managed a team of 20+ marketers and actively collaborated with sales and development departments to achieve the company’s goals.
• Increased the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns by 35% and achieved 2x higher ROIs.

From this article you should now be able to master your marketing manager skills. A next step might be to read what skills a graphic designer need.

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