What does a marketing manager do? Although this seems like a fairly simple question that begs an easy answer, marketing managers can do a variety of different things. And what they do, depends on the size and needs of the company. Small businesses tend to hire marketing managers to perform high level strategy, as well as implement marketing initiatives. Larger companies tend to hire marketing managers to drive and create strategy while overseeing the execution of the marketing plan.

Regardless of how large or small the company, marketing managers use similar tools across the board. If you’re looking to move into a marketing manager role, here are a few tools we recommend learning and using.

Google Analytics

Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is a requirement to becoming a marketing manager in 2022. Google Analytics is a powerful tool that measures campaign success, website traffic and other important KPIs. 

 

It gives you crystal ball-like powers so you can see the future. You can identify trends and predict future outcomes and customer behaviors. You can make informed strategic decisions while taking away the personal bias and introducing meaning behind your ideas. Companies look to marketing managers to accurately drive performance based on data. 

Getting certified is free and will set your resume apart from other candidates. According to Neil Patel, approximately 40 million websites use Google Analytics. Odds are, the company you applied for does too!

Google Ads

Continuing with Google’s services, Google Ads is another tool you should get familiar with. According to Semrush, “Google has 4.3 billion users worldwide.” What better way to advertise your company than with Google Ads. 

 

Marketing managers should have familiarity with this platform to build out advertising strategies and better represent their company to targeted audiences. These targeted ad campaigns can boost your business and performance.

 

You can easily link your Google Ads account with your Google Analytics account. This allows you to track ad performance and make key improvements to your future campaigns. The Google Ads certification is free and accessible through Google Skillshop.

CMS

A CMS or content management system is used widely across marketing departments. It allows you to build websites without heavy coding or technical knowledge. It also makes it easier to edit and add content. As a marketing manager, we recommend gaining experience within a content management system. Most marketing manager positions will require you to update website content or build out new landing pages. 

 

Linking your CMS to Google Analytics further increases your ability to create and drive marketing strategy. You can perform A/B testing, for instance, and have data to influence your decisions. 

 

Whether or not you’re actively building these things out in your next position, experience working in them will improve your marketing strategy. You’ll also find that you can speak to and lead cross functional teams when it comes time to execute your strategy.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation sounds like a robotic and futuristic tool. These tools control all things automated- whether that be email marketing, your CRM and many more. There are lots of different marketing automation tools like Pardot, Marketo and Hubspot just to name a few. These systems are great for managing different marketing and sales campaigns and processes in one place.

 

These tools allow you to heavily customize your campaigns and plan them out in advance. You can choose to send emails out to all users who have a specific characteristic (i.e. they have downloaded a piece of gated content in the past, they like purple shoes, they live in Columbus, Ohio, etc.). This tool is really important to marketing managers as it greatly reduces the manual labor of sending out individual emails and other forms of contact. This frees up more of your time to focus on building out the next strategy or marketing campaign. 

Social Media Management Systems

Individually posting to different social media platforms can take a lot of unnecessary time and effort. Why not post them from one place? That’s what social media management systems are for. Systems like Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to schedule social media posts on several different platforms.

 

As a marketing manager, it is important to find ways to be more efficient in your day-to-day operations. Scheduling posts in advance is another way to free up your time. Additionally, these systems can offer analytics and insights for post performance.

If you’re looking to step into a marketing manager role or simply want to upskill, we recommend checking out these 5 tools. Gaining familiarity with them and implementing them into your marketing plans will take your performance (and resume) to the next level. Hiring managers  look for quality candidates who have the experience and drive to effectively lead their organization’s marketing efforts.

If you want to learn more about marketing manager roles or what skills are desired in the job market, contact us today. We would be happy to connect with you and help plan your next career move.