What Exactly Does a Marketing Associate Do?

Marketing is an essential function for all businesses. Marketers are in charge of increasing brand awareness, generating sales and leads, assisting the sales staff, and managing a variety of operations that will assist the company in meeting its revenue targets.

A marketing associate is an entry-level position that conducts market research, collects and analyzes data, and documents marketing efforts, among other things. If you want to learn everything there is to know about being a marketing associate, you've come to the perfect spot.

1. What is a marketing associate, and what does a marketing associate do?

Because marketing associate is usually an entry-level role, their priority is to help their colleagues in the marketing department any way they can. That means they’re often tasked with more mundane (but still essential) marketing activities like data collection and analysis, administrative duties, preparing sales reports, assisting with event planning, and so on.

While this may sound unappealing at first, performing these activities provides an incredible opportunity to learn the ins and outs of marketing before tackling larger projects and moving forward in your career. Understanding how to collect and analyze campaign results, for example, is a foundational skill that every successful marketer must master. Furthermore, competently performing these tasks proves to managers that you’re ready for more complex duties.

That being said, every company defines the role of marketing associate slightly differently to suit its needs. In some companies—especially those with tiny marketing departments—a marketing associate may perform duties usually more in line with a more experienced marketing manager.  

Marketing associates may work in-house as part of a marketing department—usually under the supervision of a marketing manager or director—or in an agency setting.

2. The marketing associate job description: tasks and responsibilities

A great marketing associate enables their colleagues to tackle more elaborate marketing initiatives. For example, marketing managers are responsible for running campaigns, planning events, conducting market research, staying on top of marketing trends, and more. They are better equipped to do their job well if they have assistance from a marketing associate who can carry out supporting marketing functions, including:

• Collecting data on campaign results
• Researching new marketing trends
• Gathering competitive intelligence (i.e., documenting what competitors are doing to promote their products on various channels)
• Helping run social media accounts by creating content or responding to users’ comments and messages
• Assisting with event planning
• Preparing sales reports
• Contributing to the design and content creation for marketing assets, including case studies, blog posts, videos, PowerPoint decks, etc.
• Carrying out administrative duties as needed

3. The most critical skills for a marketing associate

The skills needed to be a successful marketing associate include what are known as “soft” and “hard” skills. Soft skills are skills that are not necessarily learned, or specifically applicable to any job. This may appear as “being a good communicator” or “paying close attention to detail.” Hard skills are skills that are learned and are easily measurable. These will be job-specific. Both can be learned, so don’t fret if you haven’t mastered them all at this point in your career!

Examples of soft skills from real marketing associate job postings

• Comfortable working both independently and collaboratively
• Ability to problem-solve and self-manage
• Experience with successfully handling multiple projects with varied timelines

Curious about a career in Digital Marketing?

Examples of hard skills from real marketing associate job postings

• Excellent communication, organizational, presentation, and writing skills
• Solid working knowledge of traditional and digital marketing tools (Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Facebook Business Ad management, etc.)
• Fluent in business computer skills (Microsoft Office products, G Suite apps, etc.)
• Experience with SEO campaigns
• Formalized schooling, experience, and/or training in marketing

Pro tip: don’t avoid applying for a job just because you don’t possess all the qualifications listed. Regardless of your current skill set, you can most likely put transferable skills to use from previous experiences and pick up new knowledge on the job.  

4. What is the average marketing associate salary?

As with most jobs, many factors influence the compensation marketing associates. Experience level, industry, geographic location, company size, and more all play into your final comp. However, you can use aggregate data to get an idea of what you can reasonably expect to earn in different areas worldwide.

Here are some average marketing associate salaries from around the world:

•    United States: $65,869 (including average bonus)
•    Canada: C$47,711
•    Peru: S/37,163 (PEN)
•    Japan: ¥1,900,000
•    Philippines: ₱255,525
•    Germany: €39,548

5. How to become a marketing associate

The best way to land a job as a marketing associate depends on your particular situation. If you don’t have any marketing experience or education, you could find an internship, or enroll in a marketing bootcamp or program to give you the skills you’ll need to perform the job competently.

Even if you already have marketing experience, taking a few courses as a refresher is always a good idea.

Honestly evaluate your skills and determine what you need to learn to be able to perform all the duties that will be expected of you as a marketing associate. This is not intended to be an exercise to intimidate you or prevent you from realizing your goal; rather, it’s to help you figure out what you need to work on to become a stronger candidate. Once you’ve identified gaps in your knowledge or skill set, establish a plan to improve and close those gaps.

Another key step in your journey to becoming a marketing associate is speaking with people who either currently hold or have held the job. You’ll be able to get real insight into what to expect in the role and what separates a so-so marketing associate from a rockstar. Try going on LinkedIn or mine your current real-life network for people to talk to. If you find a mentor that you get along with, you can also ask for their feedback on your current level of skills and experience and provide advice on how best to move forward.

6. Key takeaways

A marketing associate is a challenging, rewarding job that can lead to a variety of career paths. Marketing associates often get promoted to marketing specialists or marketing managers; if they enjoy a particular marketing channel, they can become SEO, social media, or paid search managers.