About the function of Marketing Director
What does the Marketing Director do?
The Marketing Director is leading the marketing efforts of the organization. It is not per-se a creative function but instead a very business-driven and management oriented function.
At a strategic level, the role of the Marketing Directors is to enhance the understanding of the organization of its market and product positioning. The Marketing Director is able to navigate complex business environment and analyse opportunities through intelligence gathering, using internal data or external market intelligence sources. The Managing Director excels at presentation and will be able to influence the general company’s direction by presenting its finding to the board of directors.
At a more operational level, the role of the Marketing Director is before all management. A Marketing Manager typically has several mid-level marketing or communication professionals reporting directly, as well as vendors such as creative or digital agencies. Therefore his/her role is to control that projects or campaigns planned are well executed and within budget. The marketing director often acts as an influencer within the company, promoting the marketing function and establishing a marketing culture. As marketing is a fast-changing discipline, part of his/her role is to ensure the marketing department skills are kept up-to-date through training, coaching and empowerment of the team. This will ensure that the organization always keep a modern approach when facing business challenges.
What does the future hold for Marketing Directors?
In the past the role of the Marketing Director, depending on company expectation and personality of the leader, usually gravitated around either Business Intelligence or Communication roles.
As digitalisation is now increasingly blurring the lines with the Sales function (Lead generation, E-commerce, Virtual Selling), Marketing Directors are expected to take on a more result-driven operational approach and be able to generate sales and report on the effectiveness of the Marketing function and budget. This requires the Marketing Director to have good knowledge of digital platforms available on the market, and make sure both tools and teams ready to tackle facing challenges with a digital-first approach.
Another development around the role of the Marketing Director is the importance of data intelligence. In the past, Marketing Directors could rely on external consultant agencies to provide insight about market segmentation, market shares and outsource the data collection. However, as the amount of data now accessible internally is also increasing, it makes sense that the Marketing Director builds a team of Data Analysts able to comprehend, segment customers and drive campaign based on customers behaviours.
Overall the function of Marketing Director is evolving towards a role of Customer Engagement. The function is then to understand the customer, maximize revenue generated by the customers all-along their customer lifecycle, and making sure every touchpoint is optimised to provide the best customer experience.
Competencies of the Marketing Director
How to read the competency table and chart?
The percentage score (%) represents the expertise level required for this position, click on score for more details. Future skills, which are important to your organization's competitivity in the long run, are highlighted with a .
Competencies of the Marketing Director
Development plan for Marketing Director
Remember that all Learning & Development (L&D) activities and trainings should be balanced to achieve maximum results. For all Active Learning you perform, remember to balance with
Social Learning and several
Stretch assignments for the Marketing Director to put in practice newly learned skills.
Competency | Type | Category | Activity | |
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Budget management |
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E-learning course | Budgeting essentials and development | >> Learn more |
Budget management |
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Communities / Practice group | Discuss marketing peers outside your organization how they segment their budget | |
Budget management |
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Individual assignment | Analyse past year actual marketing expense and check vs. industry average | >> Get started |
Budget management |
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Individual assignment | Create an in-depth digital marketing plan and budget | >> Get started |
Budget management |
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Group project (in department) | Budgeting essentials for marketers and digital marketers | >> Get started |
Budget management |
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Group project (inter-department) | Collect Sales objectives for coming year and compare growth VS marketing budget | |
Business strategy |
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E-learning course | Advanced curriculum on business growth strategy (1 month, 6 hours a week) | >> Learn more |
Business strategy |
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Group project (in department) | Organize an internal communication plan to spread the business strategy | |
Business strategy |
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Group project (in department) | Summarise how marketing plan fits the business strategy on a 1-page document | |
Content marketing |
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Group project (in department) | Intermediate course on content marketing strategy | >> Learn more |
Content marketing |
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Individual assignment | List 10 new ideas of content using a topic research tool | >> Get started |
Content marketing |
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Group project (in department) | Brainstorm content strategy and plan the next 6 months | >> Get started |
Content marketing |
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Individual assignment | Explore new technologies to help you create content more efficiently | >> Get started |
Content marketing |
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Communities / Practice group | Create a recurring content group in your company to source updated content | |
Content marketing |
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Shadowing | Identify 3 new Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and start co-creating content | >> Get started |
Customer experience |
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E-learning course | Intermediate course in Customer Experience (12-hour course) | >> Learn more |
Customer experience |
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E-learning course | Explore interactions between branding and customer experience (13-hour course) | >> Learn more |
Customer experience |
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Networking events | Join a User Experience online community | >> Get started |
Customer experience |
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Group project (inter-department) | Organize a cross-department workshop to brainstorm Customer Experience | >> Get started |
Influential communication |
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E-learning course | Lead with emotional intelligence (1 hour, inc. certificate) | >> Learn more |
Influential communication |
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Individual assignment | Apply top 3 tactics to influence clients during your next customer meeting | >> Get started |
Influential communication |
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Feedback from peer | Organize a pitching workshop and gather comments on good practices | |
Leadership |
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Book/article reading | Understand the different types of leadership style | >> Learn more |
Leadership |
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E-learning course | Inclusive leadership curriculum (3 months, 2 hours a week) | >> Learn more |
Leadership |
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Workshop | Coordinate a Leadership workshop with your top management team | >> Get started |
Leadership |
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Feedback from subordinates | Become a better leader by setting up a reverse mentoring program | >> Get started |
Managing vision and purpose |
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E-learning course | Study the Sustainable Development Goals to align your organization's vision | >> Learn more |
Managing vision and purpose |
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Book/article reading | Purpose incorporated: turning cause into your competitive advantage | >> Learn more |
Managing vision and purpose |
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Coaching (group) | Coordinate a Vision, Mission, Value, Purpose workshop with external facilitator | |
Managing vision and purpose |
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Group project (in department) | Create a communication plan to strengthen employee adherence to company\'s values | >> Get started |
Marketing strategy |
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Feedback from peer | Run an ideation workshop and identify market gaps for new products | >> Get started |
Marketing strategy |
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Feedback from peer | Join a marketing strategy meet up and brainstorm with peers in other industries | >> Get started |
Marketing strategy |
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Group project (in department) | Advanced course on pricing strategy (4 months, 3 hours a week) | >> Get started |
Marketing strategy |
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E-learning curriculum | Marketing in a digital world advanced curriculum (1 year, 9 hours a week) | >> Learn more |
People management |
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Group project (in department) | Conflict resolution skills (6 hours course) | >> Check Out |
People management |
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E-Learning course | Mentoring with impact course (1.5 hours) | >> Learn more |
People management |
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E-learning curriculum | People management skills for line managers (5 weeks, incl. certification) | >> Learn more |
People management |
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Book/article reading | Boosting people confidence and ability by giving feedback | >> Learn more |
People management |
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E-learning curriculum | Elevate your Managerial Approach (8 weeks, incl. certificate) | >> Learn more |
People management |
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Participative workshop, seminar, events | Fundamentals online workshop : How to manage remote teams (12 hours) | >> Get started |
People management |
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Individual assignment | Implement an employee job rotation program within or across your department | >> Get started |
People management |
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Mentoring from subordinate (reverse mentoring) | Apply reverse mentoring with one subordinate | >> Get started |
People management |
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Mentoring from subordinate (reverse mentoring) | Run a kick-off mentorship workshop within your team | >> Get started |
Project management |
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E-learning course | Website project management & resources (1 hour) | >> Learn more |
Project management |
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Academic curriculum | Project Management Specialisation (5 months, incl. certification) | >> Learn more |
Project management |
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Group project (in department) | Set up a collaborative platform to improve marketing project management | >> Get started |