The position of a marketing automation manager and specialist is sought after as the martech industry continues to grow exponentially. Let’s look at the role of a marketing automation specialist, skillset, job description, and how you can get started in this lucrative role.
The ubiquity of marketing automation softwareOpens a new window across B2B and B2C organizations can be attributed to organizations adopting the inbound marketing methodology. This has led to an increase in demand for marketing automation specialists.
Marketing automation specialists work with copywriters, designers, managers, and other stakeholders in an organization to spearhead certain aspects of marketing through a marketing automation platform (MAP).
Let’s analyze the role of a marketing automation manager and specialist, the job description, and what it takes to be successful in the position.
The Role of a Marketing Automation Manager
Although the role of a marketing automation specialist varies depending on the team structure at different organizations, the work tends to be a combination of marketing and technology.
Depending on the marketing automation software, the marketing automation personnel looks after the ideation, execution, and measurement of different aspects of marketing. An essential part of the responsibilities includes email marketingOpens a new window , lead generation and nurturing, lead scoring, and analytics.
Furthermore, depending on the MAP and team size, the marketing automation manager may also have to work on landing pages, social media marketingOpens a new window , collaborating with the CRM software, and so on.
In short, the role entails you to have both – creative and analytical attributes, i.e., a marketing automation specialist is part artist and part scientist. These characteristics are accurately represented in the following infographic by Salesforce and Pardot.
Learn More: What Is Marketing Automation? Definition, Types, Objectives, Best Practices With ExamplesOpens a new window
Essential Skills to Succeed as a Marketing Automation SpecialistExceptional verbal and written communication skills are the prerequisites for this role. An effective marketing automation manager is masterful in ideating marketing strategies and tactics and ensures their flawless execution.
This role requires the following five skills to succeed:
1. Strong Business Acumen
The marketing automation manager should have a thorough understanding of the business, the industry, competitors, and business model. They should also be aware of the business goals and their corresponding marketing goals.
In-depth knowledge of marketing ensures that they know the target audience, how a prospect navigates through the funnel (the buyer’s journey), how various marketing channels work at each stage of the funnel to deliver an exceptional customer experience (CX).Opens a new window
This information will enable the specialist to devise email marketing campaigns, lead generation and nurturing activities, etc. accordingly.
2. Tech Savviness
It’s imperative to have expertise in a specific marketing automation platformOpens a new window to increase your chances of bagging the right opportunity. Most organizations look for candidates with experience in the MAP they’re using.
It helps to have hands-on experience on a widely used MAP such as HubSpot, Marketo, or Oracle Eloqua. If not, take proactive steps by pursuing certifications offered by these vendors.
Having elementary knowledge of other tools in the martech stack at your organization will enable you to experiment with different growth hacks along with routine marketing activities.
3. Project Management and Collaboration Skills
Marketing is not a solo effort. A marketing automation manager will often have plenty of things on their plate coming from different members from the marketing team. It could be multiple email marketing campaigns targeted at different segments or managing several ad campaigns requiring them to manage different landing pages while measuring all results.
Strong project management and collaboration skills will allow a marketing automation specialist to manage multiple tasks and projects while sticking to deadlines.
4. Setting Up Workflows
Workflows are a set of steps/activities governed by rules to complete a task. They are either event-based or trigger-based. Marketing automationOpens a new window workflows once set execute themselves without your active participation.
Knowing how to set up workflows such as welcome/onboarding sequence, cart abandonment, lead nurturing, re-engagement, upsell or cross-sell, feedback, etc. boost customer engagement and the overall CX.
5. Data-Driven Decision Making
Too often, marketers rely on vanity metrics to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. Knowing what to measure and how to infer insights from data is a skill that differentiates an expert from a rookie.
A data-driven marketer steers away from vanity metrics and measures data that shows progress on the organization’s goals. Knowing how to de-silo and activate data collected across various marketing channels allows you to get a clear picture of your prospects and customers.
Along with this, consistently keeping a tab on campaign performance can help you optimize campaigns on the go.
Learn More: Customer Experience (CX) Specialist: Key Role, Skill Set And Job DescriptionOpens a new window
Marketing Automation Manager/Specialist: Job Description
Here is a sample job description for the role of a marketing automation manager/specialist. This could differ depending on the organization’s requirements:
Responsibilities: What You’ll Do
- Build and grow your email list through organic efforts
- Ideate and execute various email marketing campaigns
- Collaborate with team members to work on the design and copy/content part
- Identify different segmentation criteria based on audience behavior, demographic, geographic, psychographic characteristics, etc.
- Run A/B tests for email campaigns and landing pages to optimize performance
- Track campaign performance and tweak workflows accordingly
- Ensure compliance while executing email marketing campaigns and collecting data
Requirements: What Companies are Looking for
- Bachelor of the Arts (BA), the Bachelor of Science (B.S.), or equivalent degree
- Proficiency in HubSpot, Marketo, or Oracle Eloqua or experience of working on email marketing campaigns, lead generation and nurturing, and Google Analytics
- Preliminary knowledge of relevant marketing areas including copywriting, social media, and user experience and user interface design
- Top-notch verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent project management and collaboration skills, i.e., a team player
- Should know how to use data as fuel to drive results
- Although not a mandatory requirement, fundamental knowledge of HTML/CSS is a huge plus as it can help while working on email templates and landing pages
How Should You Get Started?
While various aspects come into play, the salary for marketing automation specialists ranges between $50,000-$175,000. The role of marketing automation specialists is lucrative and in high demand as organizations are going omnichannel.
While giant corporations look for experienced specialists, if you are a complete beginner, you can start with MAP certifications and introduce a marketing automation tool at your current workplace. If that’s not possible, you can always start a side project and subscribe to a free plan of marketing automation tools to kick off your journey.
Do you have any questions related to the role of marketing automation specialist? Ask us on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window .