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The phrase Marketing Communications is a wide cover-all title for a whole range of roles. Essentially, this can cover the more traditional activities such as trade and consumer PR and client relations, advertising, internal communications (within a company, such as a newsletter) or the whole business of managing a social media campaign using Twitter and LinkedIn.
If it helps, unlike a traditional marketing manager, you’re more likely to specialise in making sure the marketing ‘message’ is heard and seen by the target audience.
As a result, you’re very much concerned with the ‘media’ and the ways to convey your messages. |
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Marketing Communication Jobs
Is it for you?
The jargon for marketing communications is "Marcoms", so you’ll be operating in a trendy media-savvy role. It goes without saying that not all marketing communications is glamorous, it purely depends on which industry you operate in. You could be a Marcoms manager for an engineering company or a famous drinks brand where you’re going to launches and parties as part of your job.
Your workload will vary in creating marketing communications strategies, liaising with PR departments and media professionals, and working closely with individual sales and marketing people to help them publicise and sell their products and services. It goes without saying that you’ll be good with words and ideas and may have cut your teeth as a copywriter or PR person – or still be one. As we have said, the term covers a wide range of skills.
Qualifications and Skills
Within any marketing position, you’ll soon develop an all-round knowledge of advertising, PR and media. The skills you’ll need are good consumer and product awareness and excellent written and verbal communication. Added to this you’ll need the ability to work under pressure and also be imaginative.
As with all Marketing roles, there is no one basic qualification but as a graduate, a degree in Marketing, Media Studies or Communications would be advantageous. This is a job in which you can go a long way simply by understanding your own product or industry inside out – for example, many top entrepreneurs have a flair for marketing without formal qualifications.
However, competition is strong - demonstrating an interest in marketing through your work experience or placements will count strongly for you. On the formal side, a qualification from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Training will get you started. There's also the Communication, Advertising & Marketing Foundation (CAM), which covers marketing, advertising, public relations, media, research and behavioral studies, sales promotion and direct marketing. A mix of experience and qualifications, many of which can be taken part time, will often be the way forward in your career.
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Opportunities and salaries
The world of marketing more or less covers everything, from charities to the world of big business, from public sector to private. So, perhaps more than any other profession, it’s more about which sector you want to work in. Plenty of top marketing communications people have started as marketing assistants, or as PR juniors, and worked their way up.
Freelance consultancy is also an option, but you’ll most certainly have acquired some knowledge and experience within a full time role. What you can expect as an assistant will vary according to the nature of the company you join but £17k to £19k at the outset should rise quickly to £25k. With 5 years under your belt you’ll be looking at 35K to 50k+.
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