What Is a Marketing Associate? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Marketing associates are entry-level professionals who support marketing teams, usually by handling administrative duties and performing operational tasks. Here’s what to know about a marketing associate’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.

What Is a Marketing Associate?

Marketing associates support marketing teams and assist marketing managers through administrative, operational and data-entry tasks.

What Do Marketing Associates Do?

Marketing associates help marketing teams in a variety of ways, such as producing materials for marketing campaigns, helping plan events and gathering data for reports.

Marketing Associate Responsibilities

• Support marketing campaigns with data collection, content production and other tasks.  
• Keep marketing managers updated on the progress and results of marketing campaigns. 
• Serve as a point of contact for customers and clients when needed. 
• Help plan events promoting company products and services.  
• Review competitor strategies, market happenings and other trends.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of a Marketing Associate

• Conduct market research on consumer behavior, competitive intelligence, marketing trends and other factors.  
• Assist with creating blog posts, infographics, press releases and other materials for marketing campaigns. 
• Compile marketing campaign data and report findings on campaign progress, success and sales projections to marketing manager.  
• Help run social media accounts, responding to customer messages and inquiries.
• Meet with marketing team members and other personnel to brainstorm ideas for company promotional events.

Marketing Associates Within a Company

Marketing associates are entry-level professionals who fulfill a variety of roles for the marketing department. While they often assist marketing managers and personnel, they may work with account executives and complete sales-related tasks. In most cases, marketing associates report to marketing managers.

Importance of Marketing Associates

Because marketing associates handle a range of administrative and operational duties, marketing teams can complete larger initiatives on schedule. Marketing managers and higher-ranking marketers can also focus on broader strategies since marketing associates cover more tactical tasks. 

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Marketing Associate?

Qualifications to Be a Marketing Associate

• Background that covers marketing, writing, customer service and sales. 
• Prior success working in a marketing-related position. 
• Ability to produce written content for different formats. 
• Familiarity with user research, advertising campaigns, SEO techniques and other marketing areas. 

Marketing Associate Prerequisites

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, English or a related field. 
• Marketing courses and certifications (not required, but helpful for standing out and accelerating career growth).

Marketing Associate Hard Skills

• Experience collecting and analyzing data from marketing campaigns, consumer behaviors and other data sources. 
• Skilled in writing copy for infographics, articles, blog posts, press releases and other marketing materials.
• Knowledgeable of customer service etiquette for responding to social media posts and interacting with customers in other ways. 
• Ability to plan and organize promotional events for marketing campaigns.

Marketing Associate Soft Skills

• Strong project and time management skills for balancing multiple tasks. 
• Team-player attitude and willingness to perform a variety of roles. 
• Emotional intelligence for navigating interactions with customers. 
• Excellent communication skills for coordinating marketing activities and engaging with customers. 
• Analytical and data-oriented approach to tasks.

Tools and Programs Marketing Associates Use

• Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot and monday.com. 
• Content management systems like Drupal, WordPress and Magnolia. 
• Spreadsheet tools like Microsoft Excel, Google Workspace and Quip. 
• Marketing analysis tools like SemRush, Whatagraph and Improvado. 
• Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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How to Become a Marketing Associate

Marketing Associate Education and Experience

Marketing associates often get a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, English or a related field. While many marketing associate roles are entry-level, marketing associates may gain experience in previous entry-level roles like customer service rep and marketing assistant.

Marketing Associate Certificates and Courses

• Courses in content marketing and other marketing specializations. 
• Marketing courses through platforms like edX. 
• Courses on Agile and other project management approaches. 
• American Marketing Association certifications like this digital marketing certification. 

Marketing Associate Career Path

Marketing associate, along with marketing coordinator, is a common entry-level position in which marketers begin their careers. Working in this position for one to three years can provide marketers with the experience needed to move into a specialist position and, eventually, mid-level positions like marketing manager or brand manager.

Marketing Associate Salary and Job Outlook

Projected job growth for marketing-related positions may hint at more opportunities for marketing associates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the number of advertising, promotions and marketing managers to increase by 10 percent between 2021 and 2031.

The full compensation package for a marketing associate depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average marketing associate salary.