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What Does it Take to be the Head of Marketing?

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What Does it Take to be the Head of Marketing?

Imagine this… you wake up one morning and are told that you’re running a marathon that day. You have not prepared for the marathon, but you need to head to the starting line within an hour.

Running this marathon was not your idea. You have considered running one in the past, but have never thought beyond the “conceptual” stage of the process. Before now you had no plan other than “I want to complete a marathon at some point in my life,” but now it has to happen today. 

The only thing you know, and are being told by everyone important to you, is that you must compete right now, and you need to do your best to win.

Is your heart racing yet? Can you feel the anxiety and anticipation prickling the back of your neck? How could you possibly succeed at a task that typically requires foresight, months or even years of planning and preparation, and would be a difficult, grueling affair even the BEST circumstances?

Congratulations! You’re a Head of Marketing. You are in charge of taking someone else’s idea and getting it across a finish line that is far off in the distance. You have been given a product to sell and an objective to meet, and the rest is up to you.

Once you are promoted to this position, whether it’s as a business owner, VP, marketing manager, or even a lowly intern whose new boss is blissfully unaware of the complexities of digital marketing (You can do facebook, right?), the task is similar to being told that you need to run a marathon right now.

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The good news is that if you’ve been doing any form of marketing for any amount of time, you’re more prepared for this position than you think (if you have absolutely no experience, get certified now).

In our marathon example, imagine that while you haven’t been planning on running a marathon today, you’ve at least been training consistently; what you need is a strategy, advice from people who ARE prepared, and a mindset to get the job done.

The Head of Marketing position may be both challenging and demanding, but it is equally vital, rewarding, and doable with the right plan. You have been granted the opportunity to steer the direction of an entire brand, and in many circumstances, entire companies. The future is in your hands, and this article will give you the basic information you need to excel.

What Does it Take to be the Head of Marketing

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What Does a Head of Marketing Do?

When people imagine executives, owners, and “bosses,” most don’t think about anyone actually doing anything. They picture strategy planning, meetings, and delegation to hordes of capable professionals who will do the grunt work.

That is NOT the Head of Marketing.

The Head of Marketing is a DOER. It all comes down to four core elements: Strategy, Execution, Measurement, and Optimization.

  • Define and articulate an effective strategy
  • Execute that strategy across departments
  • Accurately measure the effectiveness of that plan, and…
  • Optimize the strategy to achieve the defined goals 

A Head of Marketing could be a VP of Marketing, a Director of Marketing, or even a Marketing Manager in some companies. But unlike a Chief Marketing Officer (who focuses more on brand, communications, and budget allocations) Heads of Marketing focus on execution and results.

In other words, Heads of Marketing actually DO marketing, which is why Heads of Marketing are in such high demand.

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What are the Roles & Responsibilities of the Head of Marketing?

What are the Roles & Responsibilities of the Head of Marketing?

The roles and responsibilities of the Head of Marketing relate to creating a marketing strategy, executing that strategy, measuring how effective it was, and optimizing it to achieve your goals.

While the scope of the work may sound daunting, chances are you’ve been managing each of these aspects already, just in a narrower capacity.

If you’re a media buyer, you’ve probably created and executed a paid ad campaign, measured the results through a series of A/B testing, and adjusted your strategy to achieve your desired ROI. You’ll be using a similar process as the Head of Marketing, you’ll just be expanding it to include the other methods of marketing.

What are the methods of marketing you’ll be employing? While it will really depend on your industry, business, and objectives, it will include a mix of the following:

  • Paid Traffic Management
  • Analytics & Data Management
  • Optimization & Testing Management
  • E-Commerce Management (if applicable)
  • Email Marketing Management
  • Conversion Funnel Management
  • Search (SEO) Marketing Management
  • Community Management
  • Social Media Management
  • Content Marketing Management

In some cases, as the Head of Marketing you may be responsible for strategizing, executing, measuring, and optimizing all of the above yourself. Sounds unrealistic but we’ve trained people to do so before. More likely you’ll have a team of people to help, although managing people can be just as difficult, it’s the only way you’ll be able to scale in most situations.

Either way, you need an overarching strategy to coordinate and execute everything, and unlike your subordinates, you’ll need to communicate your strategy and results to the owners of the company and your fellow executives.

1649689727 580 What Does it Take to be the Head of Marketing

How Much Do Heads of Marketing Make?

You probably want me to say something like “$250k plus bonuses… MINIMUM,” but this role doesn’t work like that.

Technically, the average Head of Marketing annual salary in the US is $114,150 and there are 4,625 positions currently available with that title.

The problem is that the role “Head of Marketing” is not necessarily a position. Like I said before, a Head of Marketing could be a VP of Marketing, a Director of Marketing, or even a Marketing Manager. The important differentiator is that the Head of Marketing is responsible for both execution and results.

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1649689727 164 What Does it Take to be the Head of Marketing

“Heads of Marketing should get paid six figures because they generate seven figures. Hiring a Head of Marketing is not a cost, it’s an investment that you can absolutely ROI.”

Ryan Deiss, President of DigitalMarketer


What Kind of Experience Should a Head of Marketing Have?

What experience Heads of Marketing SHOULD have, and what they HAVE, are two wildly different things. Like I said, many small businesses will inadvertently assign this position to lowly receptionists when they put them in charge of their websites and social media presence.

Should you have as much experience as possible as a marketing professional? Yup. Should you build a company based on your ability to market goods and services? Sure. Should you work your way up through the ranks of marketers within a large corporation? That’d be great.

Is all of this experience completely necessary? Not if you you have a solid strategy, the will to execute, and ideally, some experienced Heads of Marketing to guide you.

The good news is that most of the methods you’ll use (see the Roles & Responsibilities answer above) have established best practices that can be followed. You just need an overarching strategy and management techniques to control the process.

Do You Need a Marketing Degree to Be a Head of Marketing?

Nope! Like most degrees, a marketing degree is only worth as much as you’re willing to get out of it. Can it give you some guidance in regards to basic strategy and the history of marketing in general? Yes! Is it going to show you exactly what is necessary to succeed as the Head of Marketing? Probably not.

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Marketing changes every day, week, month, and year. New platforms and methods constantly shift the marketing landscape, and when combined with economic, political, and societal changes, the chances that you’ll learn something today that will apply 10 years from now is slim.

That said, the one thing that doesn’t change is the journey you need to take your potential customers on… from being totally unaware of your brand to becoming a customer to becoming a raving, long time follower and advocate. We call that journey the Customer Value Journey.

Combine that with mentorship from experienced and successful heads of marketing, and you have an advantage over almost everyone on the market.

What Was My Journey as a Head of Marketing?

I’ve been working as the Head of Marketing in some capacity for the last two decades. My experience ranges from business owner to marketing executive to content manager then back to business owner and finally back to executive. I’ve managed teams, outsourced components overseas, and built entire campaigns from scratch including brand, website, photography, videography, graphic design, and execution.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the benefit of the courses, certifications, bootcamps, and communities that DigitalMarketer facilitates. Most of the time I was so “in the weeds” that I couldn’t stop to think about the overarching strategy I was executing at any given moment.

I was simply surviving, and each success lived independently of every other success, meaning that I wasn’t building on anything.

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You don’t need to work hard for 20 years to be a successful Head of Marketing. You just need some guidance… and that’s exactly what DigitalMarketer is here for.


What Does it Take to be the Head of Marketing


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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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