What Is a Marketing Project Manager? And How to Become One

As the name suggests, a marketing project manager oversees marketing projects from start to finish. This can include establishing deadlines, ensuring a project stays within budget, and ensuring team members have the resources and tools they need to stay on task.

In this article, we'll discuss the responsibilities you'll face as a marketing project manager, the skills you'll need to succeed in this line of work, and how you can get started. Afterward, if you're interested in a marketing project management role, then consider building your project management knowledge and skills with the Google Project Manager Professional Certificate, where you'll learn how to create effective project documentation and artifacts throughout the various phases of a project.

What is a marketing project manager?

As with standard project management jobs, the marketing project manager handles multi-phase and cross-functional projects that focus on a company's marketing efforts. Marketing project managers often collaborate with the marketing team and may also work with other departments, like sales, product, or design.

Because of the type of projects they oversee, a marketing project manager needs to have a foundational understanding of marketing, including strategies, plans, and processes.

Marketing areas and types of marketing projects

A marketing project manager may oversee any kind of marketing-related project. Below, we've listed some of the common areas of marketing that require a marketing project manager and several project types they might be responsible for successfully managing.

Areas of marketing that need marketing project managers

• Content marketing

• Digital marketing

• Product marketing

• SEO marketing

• Social media marketing

Types of marketing projects a marketing project manager might oversee

• Refine the onboarding email customer journey

• Update the company website to be more customer-first

• Build a three-month social media content calendar

• Develop a content plan to support upcoming product launches

Marketing project manager responsibilities

The tasks and responsibilities you may need to perform in this position can include:

• Setting the project scope

• Assigning roles and building workflows to streamline processes

• Conducting daily task reviews

• Tracking budgets

• Assessing project status

• Attending client meetings and communicating progress

• Coordinating with vendors, if necessary

• Updating internal management on progress or issues

• Troubleshooting problems

A marketing project manager should have a firm understanding of common project management principles as well as marketing. Strengthen your understanding of digital marketing practices with the Google Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Professional Certificate. In this seven-course series, you'll learn how to attract and engage customers through digital marketing channels like search and email, among other skills.

Marketing project manager: salary and job outlook

According to Glassdoor, the estimated annual base salary for marketing project managers in the US is $74,569 [2]. But depending on where you work, you may also earn additional compensation through a bonus or profit-sharing.

Project management as a career and marketing as a field are both poised to grow. The number of project management positions will likely grow by 6 percent by 2032, which is three percent faster than average, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) [3]. 

What's the difference between a marketing project manager and a marketing manager? These two roles have much in common, and in fact, McKinley Marketing Partners states that marketing managers can often be "project managers in disguise" [1]. But there are some important differences.

Marketing managers are responsible for generating customer interest in a company's product or service through campaigns and other initiatives. Marketing project managers, on the other hand, define a marketing project's scope, set budgets and deadlines, and ensure a team is staying on task.

5 required skills for a marketing project manager

In addition to experience in marketing, certain workplace skills are helpful in this role. To be a successful marketing project manager, consider enhancing the following skills.

1. Time management

Completing a project in a timely fashion requires good time management skills. As a project manager, you'll assess the project and quantify the time needed to move the project through each stage. You'll identify areas where you might be able to expedite the project and others where slowdowns could occur. By doing so, you'll be able to allot a specific number of hours to each team member so they can complete their portion of the project. 

2. Organization

Marketing project managers are master organizers. To organize a project, you'll use various tools to help, such as calendars and planners, budget trackers, and task reminders. It's fairly common for project managers to use project management software, which can help you organize multiple projects simultaneously and keep everyone on task. Tools like CoSchedule, Monday, or Trello offer features that include calendars, workflows, automation, and data visualization tools that aid in organization.

3. Communication

Communication is at the center of this job, from checking in on teammates and giving approvals to freelance designers to updating the chief marketing director on a project. Having effective communication skills is essential.

4. Problem-solving

At some point, problems could arise, like incorrect perception of time and abilities, restrictive workflows, and factors beyond your control. As a project manager, you need to have strong problem-solving skills so you can effectively monitor projects, identify problems early, and reassign jobs if necessary to minimize delays and stay on budget.

5. Delegation

To complete projects, marketing project managers delegate tasks. When large teams are involved, a project manager could distribute jobs to dozens of people. For instance, a project manager might assign tasks like audience identification or content creation. Everyone must do their part quickly and efficiently to ensure the project stays on track. 

How to become a marketing project manager

To become a marketing project manager, employers will typically require a degree, experience in the marketing field, and workplace skills that can facilitate the daily duties of the role. More specifically, here are some steps to enter this career path:

1. Earn a bachelor's degree.

While you may not need a bachelor's degree to get started in a marketing or project management career, you may find it necessary to be competitive or advance. Sixty-seven percent of project managers have a bachelor's degree, according to Zippia [4]. Typically, a marketing project manager holds a bachelor's degree in business, marketing, or a related field.

2. Gain marketing experience.

Although there's no set requirement, many companies seek marketing project managers with around five years of combined marketing and project management experience. You can start acquiring experience in an entry-level marketing role, such as a marketing coordinator or social media specialist, and building experience overseeing projects. On the other hand, you can find an entry-level project management role and keep building your knowledge of marketing.

3. Build the necessary skills.

To be an effective marketing project manager, you'll need a combination of marketing skills and project management skills. The kind of technical marketing skills you need will depend on the area of marketing you're supporting, such as content, SEO, or CRM.

Marketing skills

• Communication

• Creativity

• Collaboration

• Data collection and analysis

• Technical marketing: Content writing, SEO, CRM

• GenAI

Project management skills

• Methodologies: Waterfall, Agile, or Scrum

• Project initiation

• Risk management

• Budgeting

• Organization

Develop your marketing analytics skills with the Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate. In this eight-course series, you'll learn how to collect, sort, evaluate, and visualize marketing data, among other skills.

Build project management and marketing skills with Coursera

Build or strengthen your project management and marketing skills on Coursera with Professional Certificates from industry leaders such as Google. Both now feature new AI skills to help you stay up-to-date with the latest industry demands.

• Project management: Gain foundational knowledge of project management processes and build your skill set with the Google Project Management Professional Certificate. Over six courses, you'll learn about the different project management methodologies as well as how to create risk management plans and budgets, understand process improvement techniques, manage team dynamics and stakeholders, and navigate procurement.

• Marketing: Or learn the fundamentals of digital marketing with the Google Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Professional Certificate. Over seven courses, you'll learn how to attract and engage customers through digital marketing channels like search and email, measure marketing analytics, share insights, and build customer loyalty.