What You Can Do With a Marketing Degree
Posted on 26th Aug 2021
Convincing somebody to spend money is often difficult, but it can be done
That is what marketing professionals do every day. Their goal is to maximize demand for a product or service and figure out how to attract and retain business. Part of their mission is to understand what customers want and need to ensure that the company they represent offers something that customers are willing to pay for.
One advantage of a marketing degree is that it offers many career options.
"You can be anything, from a sales representative all the way up to a marketing manager," says Kelsey Chan, a growth marketer and co-founder with the Singapore-based technology company CocoSign. "Some popular options are sales manager, media planner, and PR specialist."
Another occupation available to someone with a marketing degree is a position as a market research analyst, whose job is to identify what customers are interested in buying and what price they are willing to pay. Analyst jobs for U.S. employers usually require a bachelor's degree, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, which reports that the median U.S. salary in this profession as of May 2019 was $63,790.
Marketing professionals who excel in their careers can advance to management jobs with six-figure annual salaries. According to the BLS, the median salary among U.S. marketing managers was $136,850 in May 2019. Compensation is also generous in related occupations, with median salaries of $126,640 for sales managers, $125,510 among advertising and promotions managers, and $116,180 for public relations and fundraising managers.
Marketing Jobs and Careers
Because every industry requires marketing, there are many types of marketing jobs.
"A marketing degree is a universal degree because every business needs help generating awareness and revenue," Tracie Hitz, the founder and president of Hitz & Branding, LLC – a Nashville-based personal and professional branding company – wrote in an email. "The core principles are the same whether you're working in the healthcare industry or the music industry."
Hitz, who earned a master's degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University in Illinois, defines marketing as "telling the story of your brand," and says that she spent two decades of her career focusing on sports marketing.
Marketers can pivot from one industry to another, Hitz notes, so long as they have a track record of creating and implementing successful marketing plans. "If you can show that you moved a company forward through your marketing campaigns, it doesn't really matter where you had that success."
By: lana Kowarski