Marketing Executive careers guide and job profile

Who helps spread the word about a fantastic product or service? From viral social media campaigns to enormous digital displays at Trafalgar Square?

It’s a Marketing Executive’s job to display endless creativity in coming up with ways to drive sales and create positive buzz.

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• Great written and verbal communication skills – you’ll need to get your point across and influence the way people think through your words and visual designs.
• A creative approach to help you think of new and effective marketing campaigns
• Teamwork skills – you’ll likely be working with a marketing team who’ll all have a part to play in your campaigns

Top Skills-boosting Tip

Keep up with marketing trends!

New features, apps and trends are appearing all the time and you don’t want to be late to the party.

Look at how big TikTok is and how jumping onto a viral trend can boost your brand awareness and visibility!

You could keep up to date by joining webinars about social media trends.

• Self-management skills – you could be scheduling tweets or writing content and creating media promotions for clients on a daily basis
• Digital skills – to be able to use a computer and the main software packages confidently
• Problem solving skills and an curious mind – what can you do to make campaigns successful and get your message across through all the noise?

How Do You Get These Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

Build Your Skills With the FREE Young Professional Programme

School, College and Training

You could take a course to help you get into trainee marketing executive roles. These include:

• Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Marketing
• Level 3 Certificate in Digital Marketing and Analytics

You could do qualifications through professional bodies like the Institute of Data and Marketing and The Chartered Institute of Marketing to build your skills, knowledge and experience in marketing.

BTECs

As an alternative to A-Levels, you can do BTECs from the age of 16. There are a number of BTEC subjects you might want to consider if you are interested in becoming a Marketing Executive. Courses available could include:

• Marketing and Social Media Level 3 BTEC
• BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Marketing
• BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Business (Marketing)

Courses available can vary across schools, colleges and sixth forms and across training providers.

You’ll normally need 2 or more GCSEs at grades 9-3 (A*-D) or equivalent for a Level 2 or 3 course. If your qualifications are lower than this, you’ll most likely start on a Level 1 course.

University degrees and graduates

Marketing and digital marketing roles are open to graduates of all subjects. You could choose a specialist foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree in subjects like:

• marketing communications
• digital marketing
• advertising
• business and management

A degree with a work placement will help you gain valuable experience and may be an advantage when you look for work.

Other relevant courses that could give you important skills include: psychology, humanities, media, art, design, English literature or language, modern languages, or IT.

With a degree you could join a company marketing graduate scheme.

UCAS has more information on degree courses and entry requirements.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship is a scheme where you train while earning a starting salary. With an apprenticeship (or advanced apprenticeship) you’ll have a paid job with an employer that includes structured training and learning. This training leads to an official qualification that’s recognised by employers as an industry standard.

You could do:

• marketing assistant advanced apprenticeship
• digital marketer advanced apprenticeship
• marketing executive higher apprenticeship
• digital marketer degree apprenticeship

Anyone over 16 can study for an apprenticeship. You will normally need at least 5 GCSEs at grades 4-9 (A*-C) to study for an apprenticeship, including English and Maths.

A-Levels

A Levels are academic qualifications that come after GCSEs. A Levels can be an ideal stepping stone to an advanced apprenticeship, a degree, a job, or going straight into a freelance career.

Any A Levels relating to Business, English, or Media and Journalism will be useful.

You’ll normally need GCSEs at grade 4 (C) or above in English and Maths. 2 to 3 relevant A levels, or equivalent, are usually required to complete a degree.

T-Levels

T-Levels are a choice for learners after GCSEs alongside apprenticeships and A-levels.

T Levels, an alternative to A-Levels, are qualifications in vocational, technical and hands-on subjects that you can choose to do after GCSEs instead of traditional academic qualifications.

They include a mixture of classroom-based learning and industry placements where you can put your new skills into practice in real-world scenarios.

A T Level in Digital Production, Design and Development could be a good choice for an aspiring Marketing Executive.

You may need 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths for T Levels.

With time and experience you could become a marketing manager or head of marketing. Once you have enough time and experience to build a strong CV and network of contacts, you can become freelance and work as a marketing consultant.

Gaining marketing experience will help you to move into related business areas like advertising, PR or sales. You could also specialise in digital marketing.

Work Experience Tips

It can help you decide if this is the right career for you if you have previously done work experience in marketing, especially working with social media. Work experience in a marketing environment can help you build useful skills.

Examples of relevant work experience include:

• Work shadowing (even if it’s just for a day)
• Work placements in a company
• Work experience placements on a college or university course

You could start work with a social media or marketing company as an assistant or digital content writer. As you get more experience, you could work your way up into a management position.

Work experience tips

Volunteering Tips

You could get experience by volunteering to manage a charity’s social media channels. To get a role as a Marketing Executive, you’ll most likely need to show you know how to use social media. You can do this by:

• managing your own social media profiles
• setting up and writing your own blog, and tracking its use and popularity
• getting involved in social media for the company you already work for

Volunteering tips

Some example daily responsibilities include:

• Tracking the effectiveness of campaigns and reporting on those results to the marketing manager or the client
• Researching potential profit drivers in the form of target markets and possible sponsors
• Helping to create and plan out marketing campaigns
• Using software systems to track customer engagement and email campaigns

 

• Writing copy for promotion, whether it’s for online features, print brochures, snappy tweets or anything else where words can help your client or business sell
• Providing content for social media and online presences like websites
• Researching customer and market trends

To find jobs for young people in this role, search on jobs boards for early career roles and opportunities with keywords such as:

• Marketing apprentice
• Digital marketing apprentice
• Social media apprentice
• Junior marketing executive
• Graduate marketing executive
• Graduate marketing trainee

You can take a look at our database of local opportunities to see if there are any relevant jobs, work placements, or careers events and workshops to help you get started. Create Your Future!

Local Opportunities

All these types of job can be a good match for your skills.

When applying for these jobs, it may be useful to have examples of your successful work.

You may even be required to create a marketing campaign strategy as part of your interview.

Researching how to do this, or learning by gaining experience in your current role will help you.

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.