6 free templates for the hybrid marketing and communications hire: core, senior, associate, B2B, consumer, and part-time. Each one names the FLSA classification, the pay benchmark, and the advertising rules the role carries. Download as DOCX.
The first marketing hire at a small company is almost never a marketing hire. It is a marketing communications hire, because the person has to run campaigns and also write the announcement when a shipment slips, and there is nobody else to do either. The title exists precisely because those two jobs land on one desk.
Most job descriptions for this role fail in the same way. They list campaign management, content, social, email, public relations, events, design, and website updates, then attach one salary. Anyone who has actually done the work reads that and assumes the employer has not thought about it, which is usually correct.
At FirstHR we build hiring templates for companies without an HR department, where the founder writes the posting personally. The six below cover the core hybrid role, a senior version, an associate version, B2B and consumer variants, and a part-time scope, each with the classification and accuracy notes the generic templates skip.
TL;DR
A marketing communications specialist owns both campaign work and reputation work: email, social, and launches on one side, positioning, press, and announcements on the other. There is no separate BLS occupation for the title, so benchmark between public relations specialists at a $74,750 median and marketing specialists at $78,760 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Marketing Communications Specialist Actually Does
A marketing communications specialist produces the messaging a company sends to its market, across two halves that most larger companies split into separate departments. One half drives demand. The other protects reputation. At a small company they sit on one desk because they run on the same raw material.
That combination is a real advantage when it is scoped honestly and a reliable source of turnover when it is not. The person who can write a launch email can usually write a press statement, but not in the same week as a trade show and a website migration.
The marketing half
Demand and campaigns
Campaign planning, email, paid and organic social, landing pages, launch support, and the reporting that ties activity to revenue. This half is measured in pipeline, sign-ups, or sales, and it fails visibly when it is neglected.
The communications half
Reputation and messaging
Positioning, brand voice, press and partner relationships, announcements, and the statements you make when something goes wrong. This half is measured in trust, and it fails quietly until the day it fails loudly.
The overlap that justifies one hire
Why the hybrid exists
Both halves run on the same raw material: a clear message, written well, delivered on a schedule. At a small company one person can hold both, and the result is more consistent than splitting them across an agency and a junior hire.
What gets dropped first
Plan for it
When the hybrid is overloaded, communications work goes first, because campaigns have deadlines and press relationships do not. Decide in the job description which half wins when the week is short, and say so out loud.
Decide Which Half Wins Before You Post
Every hybrid role has a tiebreaker, and if you do not set it the calendar will. Campaigns have deadlines, so campaign work always wins by default and the communications half erodes quietly: the press list goes stale, the messaging document goes unrevised, and nobody notices until you need a statement in an hour. Write the tiebreaker into the job description. If demand generation is the priority, say so and hire accordingly. If reputation work is the priority, protect time for it explicitly rather than hoping it survives.
Marcom, Marketing Specialist, or Communications Specialist?
The three titles overlap heavily and are used loosely, so the posting matters more than the label. The practical difference is what the person is trusted with: a marketing specialist runs your email calendar, and a marketing communications specialist runs the calendar and also drafts the statement customers receive when something goes wrong.
Title
Center of gravity
Use this posting when
Marketing communications specialist
Both campaigns and reputation
One person owns messaging end to end and there is no separate comms function
Marketing specialist
Demand and channels
The work is campaigns, channels, and conversion, with press handled elsewhere or not at all
Communications specialist
Reputation and internal messaging
Press, internal communications, and announcements outweigh campaign execution
Public relations specialist
Media relationships
Earned media and press coverage are the primary objective
Content marketing manager
Owned content programs
The role is built around a publishing engine rather than mixed channels
Marketing manager
Function ownership and budget
The hire manages people, owns the budget, and answers for the number
A marketing communications job description does four jobs: it sets expectations about scope, it filters people who want a narrower role, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most small-company postings do only the third badly and skip the first entirely.
The parts that set expectations
Which half of the hybrid is primary
The channels you actually run today
Who else touches marketing, including agencies
What the person inherits versus builds from nothing
The parts that filter applicants
Years of experience tied to a scope, not a number alone
Writing samples in the format you need
Tools they will be expected to use
Whether events or travel are part of the job
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Essential functions written plainly
Accuracy and disclosure duties named as duties
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that close the hire
A pay range, published in good faith
Who approves the work and how fast
The budget the person will control
A named contact and a real timeline
The single most valuable line you can add is what the person inherits versus what they build from nothing. A candidate hearing that there is an email list, a website they do not own, and no brand guidelines will price the job correctly. One who discovers it in week two will start looking in month three. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure in more depth.
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you rewrite. More roles are in our hiring template library.
Download All 6 Marketing Communications Job Description Templates
Core, senior, associate, B2B, consumer, and part-time. All in one download.
Core Specialist
The standard hybrid
The generalist version for a company with one marketing person: campaigns, content, email, social, and press in a single role.
Senior / Lead
Owns the function
For a hire who sets positioning, controls a budget, and directs freelancers or agencies. The clearest exempt case in this job family.
Associate / Junior
Production under direction
For a first marketing job, with the non-exempt classification and overtime expectation stated plainly rather than assumed away.
B2B / Technical
Sales enablement
For a considered purchase: product content, case studies, launch communications, and material an actual sales team will use.
Consumer / Retail
Campaigns and creators
For a direct-to-consumer brand, including creator partnerships, the review program, and the disclosure duties that come with both.
Part-Time / Fractional
Fixed hours, fixed scope
For companies not ready for a full-time hire, with a priority-ordered scope and the employee-versus-contractor line drawn explicitly.
The standard hybrid for a company with one marketing person: campaigns, content, email, social, and press in a single role, with the classification decision spelled out rather than assumed.
For a hire who owns the function rather than executing a plan: positioning, budget, vendor direction, and approval authority over what publishes. This is the clearest exempt case in the job family.
For a first or second marketing job, with the non-exempt classification, the hourly rate, and the overtime expectation stated plainly instead of quietly assumed away.
For a considered purchase: product and solution content, case studies, sales enablement, and launch communications. Pair it with the email marketing templates if nurture programs are the bigger half of the job.
For companies not ready for a full-time hire, with a priority-ordered scope and the employee-versus-contractor line drawn explicitly. When the role grows into people management, move to the marketing manager templates.
[Company Name] is not ready for a full-time marketing hire, but the messaging
work is real and it is not getting done. We are hiring a part-time Marketing
Communications Specialist for [number] hours per week on a set schedule, with
clearly defined deliverables rather than open-ended availability.
POSITION SUMMARY
The part-time Marketing Communications Specialist delivers an agreed set of
marketing and communications work each [week / month], on a fixed schedule, with
a named priority order so the limited hours go to what matters most.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Priority order, highest first:
1. [Weekly email to the customer list]
2. [Two social posts per week on the primary channel]
3. [One long-form piece per month]
4. [Campaign support for launches and seasonal pushes]
5. [Press and partner outreach as needed]
Anything below the line waits until the hours allow. We will not ask for work
beyond the scheduled hours without approving the additional time first.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[2+] years of marketing or communications experience
•A portfolio that shows you can work without supervision
•Reliable availability during [named days and hours]
•Comfort owning a narrow scope well rather than everything badly
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Part-time does not mean contractor. If you set the schedule, direct the work,
choose the tools, and the person works only for you on your terms, you have an
employee, and misclassifying that person as a 1099 contractor is one of the most
expensive mistakes a small business makes. A genuine independent marketing
consultant runs their own business, serves other clients, sets their own methods,
and invoices for a project outcome. Part-time employees are non-exempt in almost
every case, because the salary level test is applied to actual weekly salary, not
to a full-time equivalent. Track hours and pay overtime past forty in a week.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [number] hours per week, [benefits if any]
To apply, email __ with your resume, your availability, and
one piece of work you are proud of.
Exempt or Non-Exempt: Classify on Duties
There is no automatic answer for this role. Marketing communications is salaried, office-based, and professional-sounding, which is exactly why it gets classified exempt by default and exactly why that default is often wrong.
The relevant test is the administrative exemption, which requires a primary duty of office work directly related to management or general business operations that includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, alongside the salary basis and salary level requirements. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through each test.
Signal in the actual job
Points toward exempt
Points toward non-exempt
Who sets the plan
The specialist builds the campaign plan
The specialist executes someone else's plan
Approval flow
Publishes without prior approval
Every piece is approved before it publishes
Budget
Controls a real budget line
Requests spend from someone else
Vendors
Selects and directs freelancers or agencies
Coordinates vendors chosen by others
Messaging authority
Owns positioning and can change it
Applies messaging written by someone else
Typical level
Senior or lead specialist
Associate or production-focused specialist
The safest habit is to write your answer on the posting and revisit it when the role grows. An associate hired non-exempt who takes over strategy two years later is a reclassification conversation, not a permanent status. Where a role is genuinely borderline, non-exempt with tracked hours is the cheaper mistake.
What to Pay a Marketing Communications Specialist
There is no separate federal occupation for this title, which is worth saying plainly rather than inventing a benchmark. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a marketing communications specialist classification, so the honest approach is to bracket the role between the two occupations it straddles.
The Two Occupations This Role Sits Between
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), public relations specialists had a national median annual wage of $74,750, with the 10th percentile at $44,110 and the 90th at $135,150. Market research analysts and marketing specialists had a median of $78,760, with the 10th percentile at $43,390 and the 90th at $155,480. Marketing managers, the usual step up, had a median of $166,790 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Benchmark occupation (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
25th percentile
Median
75th percentile
Public relations specialists
$56,260
$74,750
$100,370
Market research analysts and marketing specialists
$58,350
$78,760
$108,310
Writers and authors
Not shown
$76,910
Not shown
Editors
Not shown
$77,920
Not shown
Technical writers
Not shown
$90,390
Not shown
Marketing managers (the step up)
$123,020
$166,790
$216,410
Small businesses generally hire this role between the 25th and 50th percentile, and the associate version sits below that band on an hourly basis. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and remember that a hybrid role with no support is worth more than the same title inside a ten-person marketing department, not less.
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This role generates regulatory exposure that no other early hire does, because it is the one publishing claims to the public. Three areas matter for a small business: commercial email, endorsements and reviews, and claim substantiation. All three belong in the job description as duties.
Commercial email is regulated, including B2B
The CAN-SPAM Act covers all commercial email, and the Federal Trade Commission states plainly that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Every commercial message needs header and subject lines that are not misleading, clear identification as an advertisement where the content is promotional, a valid physical postal address, and a working opt-out mechanism that you honor promptly. The penalty is not theoretical: the FTC states that each separate email in violation is subject to penalties of up to $53,088. A marketing communications hire will build or inherit your email program in the first month, so put the compliance duty in the job description and confirm during onboarding that the person understands it applies to the list they just imported.
Endorsements need disclosed connections
If your new hire runs creator partnerships, sends free product to reviewers, or asks employees to post about a launch, the FTC's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising apply. Material connections between the brand and the endorser must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and that includes employees posting about their own employer. The FTC also maintains a rule addressing fake and false consumer reviews and testimonials. This is a duty, not a background risk, so write it into the responsibilities list. The person running the program is the person who has to know the rules, and a specialist who has never been told will assume a hashtag is enough.
Claims have to be substantiated before they publish
Advertising claims need a reasonable basis at the time they are made, which in practice means the person writing the copy needs a route to whoever can confirm the claim is true. At a small company that route is usually undefined, so a specialist under deadline writes the strongest version of the claim and nobody checks it. Fix it structurally rather than with a warning: name the approver in the job description, require substantiation for performance, health, environmental, and pricing claims, and keep the supporting evidence somewhere the next person can find it. The cost of a retraction is far higher than the cost of a review step.
Contracts, releases, and rights get handled by this role
A marketing communications specialist accumulates paperwork that nobody else tracks: creator and influencer agreements, photo and video releases from customers and employees, stock and font licenses, freelance contracts, and the permission behind every customer logo on your website. When the person leaves, that paperwork usually leaves with them, and the next hire republishes an image the company no longer has the right to use. Store these against the role rather than the person, in the same document system that holds your employment records, and make the handover of active agreements part of the offboarding checklist from the first day.
Email is the one that catches people first, because the new hire inherits a list nobody has audited. The Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM compliance guide is short, plain, and worth sending to the person in their first week rather than after the first complaint.
Disclosure Is Not the New Hire’s Judgment Call
The most common advertising mistake at a small company is treating creator and employee posts as informal. If you send free product, pay for a post, or ask staff to promote a launch, a material connection exists and it has to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. A specialist who has never been told this will assume a branded hashtag covers it. Write the disclosure standard into the responsibilities list, decide who approves creator agreements, and keep the signed agreements somewhere the next person can find them. The FTC's guidance on endorsements, influencers, and reviews is the reference to hand over on day one.
Hiring Marcom Without an HR Department
Marketing communications hiring fails at a small company in three predictable places: the scope is unrealistic, the classification is guessed, and the new hire arrives without access to anything. Each has a fix that costs nothing but attention.
The job description is three jobs wearing one title
The most common failure is not a bad hire, it is a posting that lists campaign management, content production, social media, email, public relations, event logistics, graphic design, and website updates, then attaches one salary to all of it. Strong candidates read that list and assume you have not thought about the role, because a person who has done the job knows it cannot fit in forty hours. The fix is a priority order. Name the two things that must happen every week, name the two that happen every month, and put the rest under a heading that says these are supported, not owned. You will get fewer applicants and better ones, and the person who accepts will still be there in a year because the job matched the description.
The classification decision gets made by the title instead of the duties
Marketing communications is exactly the job family where small employers guess wrong on exempt status. The role is salaried, sits at a desk, and sounds professional, so it gets classified exempt by default. The administrative exemption asks something narrower: whether the primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. A specialist who chooses the strategy and controls the budget can meet that. A specialist who produces work against a calendar that someone else approves generally cannot, and a misclassification here surfaces as a back-pay claim covering every campaign launch and event week the person worked past forty hours. Decide on duties, write the answer on the posting, and revisit it when the role grows.
The first marketing hire arrives with no accounts, no access, and no context
A marketing communications specialist needs more access on day one than almost any other early hire: the website, the email platform, the social accounts, the analytics, the brand assets, the customer list, and the history of what has already been tried. At most small companies those live in the founder's personal accounts, and the first two weeks disappear into recovering passwords. FirstHR was built for this part. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, e-signature handles the offer and the policy acknowledgments, document management keeps brand guidelines and vendor agreements against the employee profile, and training modules deliver the product and messaging context before the first campaign brief lands. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is accepted, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist, and the paperwork starts with a clear offer letter that states the title, the pay, the classification, and the start date in writing.
Key Takeaways
A marketing communications specialist owns both halves of the job: campaigns and demand on one side, positioning, press, and announcements on the other, which is why the hybrid title exists at small companies.
Write the duties in priority order and name what the person inherits versus builds from nothing, because a posting that lists eight functions under one salary reads as an employer who has not scoped the role.
Classify on duties, not title: a specialist who sets strategy and controls a budget may be exempt, while one producing against an approved calendar is generally non-exempt with overtime owed.
There is no BLS occupation for this title, so benchmark between public relations specialists at a $74,750 median and marketing specialists at $78,760 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), and hire in the 25th to 50th percentile band.
Name the accuracy duties in the job description: commercial email compliance, endorsement disclosure, and claim substantiation, with a specific person who approves claims before they publish.
Give the new hire real access on day one, including the website, email platform, social accounts, analytics, and brand assets, or the first two weeks disappear into password recovery.
A marketing hire needs more access and more context than almost anyone else you bring on. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and policy acknowledgments, document management for brand guidelines and vendor agreements, and training modules that deliver product context before the first campaign brief. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a marketing communications specialist do?
A marketing communications specialist produces the messaging a company sends to its market, across both marketing and communications work. The marketing half covers campaign planning, email, social, landing pages, launch support, and performance reporting. The communications half covers positioning, brand voice, press and partner relationships, announcements, and the statements a company makes when something goes wrong. The role exists as a hybrid because both halves run on the same raw material: a clear message, written well, delivered on schedule. At a small company one capable person can hold both, which is usually more consistent than splitting the work between an agency and a junior hire. The job description should name which half is primary, because when the week runs short the communications work is what quietly gets dropped.
What is the difference between a marketing communications specialist and a marketing specialist?
A marketing specialist is measured on demand: campaigns, channels, conversions, and the numbers those produce. A marketing communications specialist carries that plus the reputation side, which means positioning, brand voice, press and partner relationships, and the announcements a company makes to the outside world. In practice the difference shows in what the person is trusted with. A marketing specialist runs your email calendar. A marketing communications specialist runs the email calendar and also drafts the statement you send customers when a shipment is late. Both titles are used loosely, so the posting matters more than the label. Write the actual duty list and the actual reporting line, and let candidates self-select. Applicants who want pure demand generation will filter themselves out of a hybrid role, which saves everyone time.
Is a marketing communications specialist exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
It depends on duties, and this job family is where small employers guess wrong most often. The role is salaried and sounds professional, so it gets classified exempt by default. The administrative exemption asks something narrower: whether the employee’s primary duty is office work directly related to management or general business operations and includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, with the salary tests also met. A senior specialist who sets messaging strategy, controls a budget, and directs vendors can meet that standard. An associate producing work against a calendar someone else approves generally cannot and should be non-exempt, with hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week. Campaign launches and event weeks generate real overtime, so budget for it. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a marketing communications specialist make?
There is no separate Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation for marketing communications specialist, so the honest approach is to benchmark against the two classifications the role straddles. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), public relations specialists had a national median annual wage of $74,750, with the 25th percentile at $56,260 and the 75th at $100,370. Market research analysts and marketing specialists had a median of $78,760, with the 25th percentile at $58,350 and the 75th at $108,310. A hybrid marcom role sits between them in practice, and small businesses typically hire in the 25th to 50th percentile band. Marketing managers, the usual step up, had a median of $166,790, which is the number to know before you promote.
What qualifications should a marketing communications job description require?
Require the fewest things that actually predict success, because every extra requirement narrows the pool without improving the hire. In practice that means a portfolio of published work in the formats you need, a stated number of years tied to a scope rather than a number alone, and working familiarity with the specific tools the person will use. A degree in marketing, communications, or journalism is common but not predictive on its own, so mark it as preferred or accept equivalent experience unless you have a real reason not to. What does predict success is writing that survives a cold read and evidence the candidate has worked without daily supervision. Ask for two samples the applicant personally produced, and read them before the first interview rather than after.
Should a small business hire a marketing communications specialist or use an agency?
Hire in-house when the work needs company context and runs continuously, and use an agency for specialist bursts. A marketing communications specialist accumulates knowledge that an agency never will: how customers actually describe the problem, which claims your product can support, what happened the last time you ran that promotion. That knowledge compounds and it is why the hybrid role justifies a salary. Agencies are better at things you need occasionally and cannot staff, such as a rebrand, a video production, or a paid media specialty. The common mistake is hiring an agency to do daily content because it feels cheaper than a salary, then paying twice while someone internally briefs, reviews, and rewrites the output. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
What compliance risks come with a marketing communications hire?
Three, and all three are worth naming in the job description. First, commercial email: the CAN-SPAM Act covers all commercial email including business-to-business, requires accurate headers, a valid physical postal address, and a working opt-out, and the Federal Trade Commission states each separate violating email is subject to penalties of up to $53,088. Second, endorsements: material connections between your brand and any creator, reviewer, or employee posting about you must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously under the FTC’s Endorsement Guides. Third, claim substantiation: advertising claims need a reasonable basis when they are made, which requires a named approver rather than a warning. Write all three in as duties, then confirm during onboarding that the person understands they apply to the programs being inherited.
