Marketing Manager Job Description Templates for Small Business
6 free templates for the companies hiring their first or only marketing manager: generalist, demand generation, ecommerce, multi-location, product marketing, and team lead. Download as DOCX.
The first marketing manager job description I ever wrote was for a job that did not exist. I listed brand strategy, demand generation, product marketing, events, and analytics, because those all sounded like marketing, and I had a budget that could cover roughly one of them. The candidates who applied were either wildly overqualified or had no idea what they would actually be doing on a Tuesday.
That is the core problem with almost every marketing manager posting online. The title covers at least six distinct jobs, and the generic template covers none of them well. A marketing manager at a company with a sales team builds pipeline. At a direct-to-consumer brand they own acquisition cost. At a business with eight locations they own local search and reviews. The word manager is the same and the work has almost nothing in common.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without an HR department, where the founder is also the hiring manager. The six below each pick one mandate and describe it concretely, with the pay band, the classification note, and the compliance duties that generic postings leave out entirely.
TL;DR
A marketing manager job description has to pick a mandate before it picks duties: generalist, demand generation, ecommerce, multi-location, product marketing, or team lead. Most are exempt on the FLSA administrative test, not the executive one. The national median is $166,790 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), but small businesses hire in the $90,260 to $123,020 band. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Marketing Manager Actually Owns
A marketing manager owns three things: the plan, the budget, and a number. Everything else on a job description is a detail of how those three get delivered. If a posting does not name all three, it is describing a coordinator role with an inflated title.
What changes between companies is how much of the plan the person executes personally. At a company of thirty people, the marketing manager writes the plan on Monday and builds the landing page on Tuesday. Candidates need to know that before they apply, not after.
The only marketer
Plan it, then do it
At most small companies the marketing manager is the whole marketing department. The job is 20 percent planning and 80 percent production, with agencies filling in the specialist gaps. Write the posting that way or the first strong candidate will leave in six months.
The first people manager
Leads two or three
A team of two or three changes the job entirely: hiring, one-on-ones, reviews, and quality standards replace half the production work. This is also the only version where the FLSA executive exemption is available to you.
The channel owner
Deep in one lane
Demand generation, ecommerce acquisition, or product marketing. Scope is narrow and the number is specific, which makes the role far easier to hire for and far easier to measure than a generalist mandate.
The title inflation trap
Manager in name only
A coordinator paid coordinator money and called a manager to close the offer. Candidates find out at the second interview, and the FLSA does not care what the title says either. Match the level to the actual scope.
Name the Number Before You Name the Channels
The single highest-leverage line in a marketing manager posting is the metric the person will own. Sourced pipeline of a specific dollar amount. Blended customer acquisition cost. Booked jobs per location. Launch adoption at ninety days. A candidate who reads that line knows immediately whether the job fits, and the ones who apply anyway have already thought about how they would move it. A list of channels tells them nothing, because every marketer has touched every channel.
What Belongs in the Posting
A marketing manager job description does four jobs: it explains the business, it filters people at the wrong level, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate you want. Most postings only attempt the first, which is why they generate volume and no fit.
The parts candidates read first
What the company sells and to whom, in two sentences
Who the role reports to and how many people it leads
The channels this role actually owns
The budget size, stated as a real number
The parts that filter applicants
The metric the person will be measured on
Tools they must be hands-on with, not just familiar with
Years of ownership, separated from years in marketing
Whether they execute or delegate, said plainly
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification and which exemption you rely on
Essential functions written concretely
Equal opportunity statement
Advertising and email compliance duties, assigned to a person
The parts that win the hire
A salary range in good faith, not on request
Bonus structure and what triggers it
Autonomy: what they decide without asking
A named person to apply to and a real timeline
The most common omission at small companies is the budget number. Candidates use it to infer scope faster than any other detail, because a $60,000 annual budget and a $2 million one describe different jobs entirely. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the broader marketing job description templates cover the roles around this one.
6 Marketing Manager Job Description Templates to Download
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 need to change.
Download All 6 Marketing Manager Job Description Templates
Small business generalist, B2B demand generation, ecommerce and DTC, multi-location, product marketing, and team lead. All in one download.
Small Business Generalist
Owns the whole function
The default for a company hiring its first or only marketing manager, with budget ownership, agency management, and hands-on execution written in.
B2B Demand Generation
Carries a pipeline number
For companies with a sales team: sourced pipeline targets, lead handoff rules in writing, and campaign economics measured per opportunity.
Ecommerce and DTC
Acquisition and retention
For direct-to-consumer brands: ad budget ownership, acquisition cost and return targets, lifecycle email and SMS, plus the advertising disclosure duties.
Multi-Location and Local
One system, many sites
For businesses with several locations: local search, reviews, per-location attribution, and the shared assets that stop every site improvising.
Product Marketing
Positioning and launches
For product companies: messaging, launch ownership, sales enablement, and win and loss research that changes what the company actually does.
Team Lead
Manages two or more
For a marketing team that has outgrown one person, with people management written as the primary duty and the executive exemption spelled out.
Template 1: Marketing Manager, Small Business Generalist
For the company hiring its first or only marketing manager: budget ownership, agency management, and hands-on execution written in rather than implied.
Marketing Manager Job Description (Small Business Generalist)
MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Founder / CEO / COO]
Direct reports: [None / 1 coordinator / contractors and agencies]
For companies with a sales team to feed: sourced pipeline targets, lead handoff rules agreed in writing, and campaign economics measured per opportunity rather than per click.
For direct-to-consumer brands: ad budget ownership, acquisition cost and return targets, lifecycle email and SMS, and the advertising disclosure duties that come with influencer and review programs.
Marketing Manager, Ecommerce and DTC Job Description
MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (ECOMMERCE / DIRECT TO CONSUMER)
FLSA status: Exempt, administrative (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] sells [product category] direct to consumers at [store URL], with
[revenue stage] in annual sales and [channel mix: own site, marketplaces, retail].
We are hiring a Marketing Manager to own paid acquisition, retention, and the
numbers that connect them.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Marketing Manager owns customer acquisition cost, return on ad spend, and
repeat purchase rate. You will run the paid channels, the email and SMS program,
and the site merchandising that turns traffic into orders.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own a monthly ad budget of $________ across [paid social, paid search,
marketplaces, affiliates]
•Hit blended [return on ad spend / customer acquisition cost] targets of ______
•Run the email and SMS program: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back
•Own site merchandising, promotions, and the seasonal calendar
•Brief creative production and maintain a tested library of ads and landing pages
•Manage [influencer / affiliate / review] programs and their disclosures
•Report weekly on revenue, margin after ad spend, and repeat purchase rate
•Coordinate with [operations] so promotions match real inventory
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years running paid acquisition for a direct-to-consumer brand
•Hands-on with [ad platforms], [ecommerce platform], and [email or SMS platform]
•Fluent in unit economics: contribution margin, acquisition cost, repeat rate
•Creative judgment: you can tell why one ad worked and another did not
•Familiar with advertising disclosure and consumer protection requirements
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
The role is generally exempt under the administrative exemption when the person
sets strategy and commits budget. Two compliance items belong in this job, not in
someone else's: commercial email must meet CAN-SPAM requirements for accurate
headers, honest subject lines, a valid postal address, and honored opt-outs
within ten business days, and any endorsement, review, or influencer post must
disclose a material connection under the Federal Trade Commission endorsement
guides. Text message marketing carries its own consent rules. Name the owner of
these obligations in the job description. 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: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus structure], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and the acquisition cost
and return on ad spend you managed to in your last role.
Template 4: Marketing Manager, Multi-Location and Local Services
For businesses running several sites: local search presence, review management, per-location attribution, and the shared asset library that stops every location improvising its own flyers.
Marketing Manager, Multi-Location and Local Services Job Description
MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (MULTI-LOCATION / LOCAL SERVICES)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Owner / Director of Operations]
Direct reports: [None / marketing coordinator]
Employment type: Full-time, [on-site with travel to locations]
FLSA status: Exempt, administrative (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] operates [number] locations across [region], serving [customer
type] in [service category]. Each location currently markets itself differently.
We are hiring a Marketing Manager to build one system that every location runs,
while leaving room for local judgment.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Marketing Manager owns demand at the location level: local search presence,
reviews, local campaigns, and the shared brand assets that keep [number]
locations recognizable as one company.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own local search listings and profiles for all [number] locations
•Run the review program: request flow, response standards, escalation
•Build and run local campaigns: [paid search, local social, direct mail,
community sponsorships, seasonal promotions]
•Track calls, forms, and bookings by location and report cost per booked job
•Produce shared assets so locations stop making their own: [signage, flyers,
templates, photography, promotional kits]
•Train location managers on what they can and cannot change
•Support [new location openings / acquisitions] with a launch playbook
•Manage the marketing budget across locations and defend the allocation
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in local, retail, franchise, or multi-site marketing
•Hands-on with local search, listings management, and review platforms
•Comfortable with call tracking and attribution at the location level
•Willingness to travel to locations [frequency]
•Able to influence location managers who do not report to you
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Generally exempt under the administrative exemption, since the primary duty is
running a business function with real discretion over budget and strategy.
Two cautions specific to multi-site roles. Required travel between locations
during the business day is compensable working time for any non-exempt employee,
so apply that rule to a coordinator supporting this role. And if the person spends
most of the week on production tasks assigned by someone else, the title does not
carry the exemption. 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: $_ to $_ per year, [mileage or vehicle allowance],
[benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and an example of a
program you rolled out across multiple sites.
Template 5: Product Marketing Manager
For product companies: positioning, launch ownership, sales enablement, and win and loss research. Pair it with the brand manager templates if brand and product sit with different people.
Product Marketing Manager Job Description
PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Head of Marketing / Head of Product / Founder]
•Conduct win and loss interviews and turn them into changes people act on
•Own competitive and category research and keep it current
•Write the customer-facing pages, release notes, and campaign copy for launches
•Partner with product on pricing and packaging decisions
•Measure launch success against [adoption, pipeline, attach rate] targets
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in product marketing or a closely adjacent role
•Portfolio of launches you owned, with the outcome and what you would redo
•Strong interviewing skills: you can get a real answer out of a customer
•Writing that a buyer, an engineer, and a salesperson all find credible
•Comfortable being the person who says the message is not ready yet
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Exempt under the administrative exemption in nearly all cases: the primary duty
is analysis, judgment, and decisions that shape how the business goes to market.
Product marketing roles frequently have no direct reports, which does not affect
the administrative exemption. It does mean the executive exemption, which
requires supervising at least two full-time employees, is not the right basis.
Pick the exemption you are actually relying on and be able to explain it. 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: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus structure], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one positioning
document or launch plan you wrote.
Template 6: Marketing Manager with Direct Reports
For a marketing team that has outgrown one person, with people management written as the primary duty. If the team is bigger than three, look at the marketing director templates instead.
Marketing Manager with Direct Reports (Team Lead) Job Description
MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (TEAM LEAD WITH DIRECT REPORTS)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Head of Marketing / CEO]
Direct reports: [Number] ([coordinator, specialist, designer, content writer])
Employment type: Full-time, [on-site / hybrid]
FLSA status: Exempt, executive (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] has grown its marketing team to [number] people and needs someone
to lead it day to day. This role manages the team, owns the plan, and carries the
number. It is the step between an individual contributor and a director.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Marketing Manager leads a team of [number], sets the quarterly plan, manages
the budget, and is accountable for the marketing results the business is counting
on. Roughly [percentage] of the week is leading people, not producing work.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Lead, coach, and develop a team of [number] marketers
•Own hiring for the team: job descriptions, interviews, and selection
•Set individual goals, run one-on-ones, and complete performance reviews
•Approve the quarterly plan and allocate a budget of $________
•Assign work, unblock the team, and set quality standards
•Own the marketing number: [pipeline, revenue influenced, acquisition cost]
•Represent marketing in leadership planning and report results to [audience]
•Manage agency and contractor relationships and their contracts
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in marketing, including [number] managing people directly
•Experience hiring, onboarding, and where necessary exiting team members
•Command of [channel mix relevant to your business]
•Track record of a number you owned across a team, not just yourself
•Judgment about when to coach and when to escalate
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
This variant is where the FLSA executive exemption becomes available. It requires
a salary of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), a primary duty of managing
a recognized department or subdivision, customary and regular direction of at
least two full-time employees or their equivalent, and genuine authority over
hiring and firing or particular weight given to those recommendations. If the
person leads one part-time coordinator, the executive exemption does not apply
and you fall back to the administrative test. Do not write "manages the team"
into a posting that has no team. 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: $_ to $_ per year, [bonus structure], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a note on how you
have developed someone who reported to you.
Exempt Status and the Manager Title
A marketing manager is normally exempt from overtime, but on the administrative exemption rather than the executive one. The distinction matters because the executive exemption requires directing at least two full-time employees, and most small business marketing managers direct nobody.
The administrative test is set out in the federal regulation on administrative employees, and Department of Labor guidance in Fact Sheet 17C names advertising and marketing among the qualifying functional areas. The salary floor under the Fair Labor Standards Act is $684 per week, which a marketing manager salary clears easily, so the argument is never about pay.
The administrative exemption carries most of these roles
A marketing manager is usually exempt on the administrative test, not the executive one. That test has three parts: a salary of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), a primary duty of office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. Marketing is named in Department of Labor guidance as a qualifying functional area, so the category fits. What decides the case is the third element. Someone who chooses channels, commits budget, and can be overruled but is rarely second-guessed is exercising judgment. Someone who schedules posts and builds emails to a plan written by the founder is not, whatever the offer letter says. This is general information, not legal advice.
The executive exemption needs a real team
If you are relying on the executive exemption because the word manager is in the title, check the requirements first. The role must have a primary duty of managing a recognized department or subdivision, must customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees or their full-time equivalent, and must have authority to hire and fire or have particular weight given to those recommendations. One part-time coordinator does not clear the two-employee bar. Agencies and freelancers are not employees and do not count toward it. Most small business marketing managers have no direct reports at all, which is fine: fall back to the administrative test and rely on that instead. Know which exemption you are claiming before someone asks. This is general information, not legal advice.
State salary thresholds sit above the federal floor
The federal white-collar salary threshold is $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. A 2024 rule that would have raised it was vacated by a federal court in Texas in November 2024 and formally rescinded on May 15, 2026, so the older figure is the one in force. Several states set their own thresholds well above it, and a handful set additional duties requirements that are stricter than the federal test. Since a marketing manager salary is typically far above any of these floors, the salary test is almost never the problem. The duties test is. Still, check your state threshold before you post a range, because a junior-heavy version of this role at the bottom of your band can land closer to the line than you expect. This is general information, not legal advice.
Advertising compliance belongs in the job description
Marketing is one of the few functions where an ordinary week of work can create legal exposure, and at a small company nobody else is watching. Commercial email has to meet CAN-SPAM requirements: accurate header information, a subject line that matches the message, identification as an advertisement, a valid physical postal address, a working opt-out, and opt-outs honored within ten business days. Endorsements, testimonials, reviews, and influencer content have to disclose material connections under the Federal Trade Commission endorsement guides, and the advertiser is responsible for what its influencers post. Text message marketing carries separate consent requirements. Write these duties into the job description so the responsibility has a name attached to it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where the role turns out to be execution-only, classify it as non-exempt, track hours, and pay overtime past forty in a week. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through both duties tests in detail. The practical rule: if you would be uncomfortable explaining the discretion this person exercises to an investigator, the exemption is not safe.
Setting the Level Before the Title
Decide the level from scope, then attach the title, never the reverse. Title inflation to close a candidate costs twice: you pay above the work immediately, and you remove the promotion you would have used to keep them in year two.
The three levels that get confused most often are coordinator, manager, and director. They differ on who decides, who executes, and who is accountable for the outcome, and those three answers set both pay and overtime classification.
Dimension
Coordinator
Marketing Manager
Marketing Director
Who sets the plan
Someone else
The role, with approval
The role, and defends it to leadership
Budget authority
None, or requests only
Owns and allocates a defined budget
Owns the whole function budget
Execution share
Nearly all of the work
Most of it at a small company
Little to none
People management
None
None to three
The team and its managers
Accountable for
Tasks completed on time
A specific marketing number
Growth and the function overall
Typical FLSA status
Often non-exempt
Exempt, administrative
Exempt, administrative or executive
Hire this level when
A manager exists and is stretched
Marketing needs an owner
The team needs a leader who does not produce
The most expensive version of this mistake is hiring a director into a one-person function. You pay director compensation for someone who then has to build the landing pages personally, and they leave inside a year. Related roles worth comparing before you commit are the marketing coordinator and the content marketing manager.
What to Pay a Marketing Manager
The national median for marketing managers is high and heavily skewed by large corporations in expensive metros, so treat it as a ceiling reference rather than a target. A small business hiring its first marketing manager competes in the bottom quarter of that distribution.
National Wage Ladder for Marketing Managers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), marketing managers earned a national median annual wage of $166,790. The percentile ladder runs $90,260 at the 10th, $123,020 at the 25th, $216,410 at the 75th, and $293,610 at the 90th (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates). Small business offers cluster between the 10th and 25th percentiles.
That spread of more than $200,000 between the 10th and 90th percentile is the widest of any common marketing title, which is exactly why a posting without a range is a waste of everyone's time. Related classifications give better reference points depending on which mandate you are hiring.
Classification
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
When it is the better benchmark
Marketing managers
$166,790 per year
The direct match; use the 10th to 25th percentile band for small business
Advertising and promotions managers
$133,660 per year
Campaign and promotion mandates rather than full function ownership
Sales managers
$148,270 per year
Useful cross-check when the role carries a revenue number
Public relations managers
$146,910 per year
Communications-weighted roles at nonprofits and services firms
Market research analysts and marketing specialists
$78,760 per year
Specialist and analyst level work, not function ownership
Marketing managers, 10th percentile
$90,260 per year
A realistic floor for a first marketing hire outside a major metro
Marketing managers, 25th percentile
$123,020 per year
Where most small business manager offers actually land
Publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency laws apply, and check every state the role could be performed in, including fully remote arrangements. Where you cannot compete on base pay, compete on the things a small company genuinely has: budget autonomy, a decision made in a week rather than a quarter, and direct access to the person who runs the business.
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Screen on what the candidate was measured on and what they chose to stop doing. Both questions separate people who owned a function from people who supported one, and neither can be answered convincingly from a resume of tool names.
The best signal in the whole process is a working session. Give a shortlisted candidate your actual situation, an actual budget number, and ninety minutes, then ask for a plan and a first ninety days. You do not need marketing expertise to tell the difference between someone who asks about your margins and customer lifetime value and someone who presents a channel checklist.
Advertising Compliance Has to Have an Owner
At a small company, marketing is often the only function whose ordinary weekly output can create legal exposure, and there is no compliance team watching. Commercial email must meet CAN-SPAM requirements including a valid postal address and opt-outs honored within ten business days. Endorsements, testimonials, and influencer posts must disclose material connections under the Federal Trade Commission endorsement guides, and the advertiser is responsible for what its influencers say. Write these duties into the job description so they belong to someone by name.
Hiring a Marketing Manager Without an HR Department
Small company marketing hires fail in three predictable places: the founder cannot judge the candidate, the title gets inflated to close the offer, and the first ninety days go unmanaged. Each has a concrete fix.
You are hiring for a job you have never done yourself
Most founders hiring a first marketing manager have run marketing by instinct and have no way to judge whether a candidate is strong. The result is a posting full of channel names and a process that rewards whoever interviews best. Two changes fix most of it. First, write the number into the posting: the person will own acquisition cost, or sourced pipeline, or bookings per location. That single line filters harder than any list of tools. Second, replace one interview with a working session: give the candidate your real situation, a budget figure, and ninety minutes, and ask for a plan. You do not need marketing expertise to tell the difference between someone who asks about your margins and someone who recites a channel list.
The title you offer sets a salary you did not intend
Manager, senior manager, director, and head of marketing all carry different pay expectations, and at a small company the same actual job gets all four titles depending on who is writing the posting. Inflating the title to close a candidate is expensive twice: you pay above the work now, and you have nowhere to promote them later. Decide the level from scope, not from the candidate you happen to like. If the person will have no direct reports and will execute most of the work, that is a marketing manager or a specialist, and the honest version of that posting attracts people who want that job. Publish a range in good faith, because a growing number of states require it and candidates increasingly filter out postings without one.
The first ninety days decide whether the hire works, and nobody owns them
A marketing manager at a small company arrives with no documentation, no history of what was already tried, and no access to half the accounts they need. Two weeks disappear to password recovery and guesswork, the founder gets frustrated, and the honeymoon ends before the first campaign ships. Run onboarding as a sequence instead of a scramble. FirstHR handles that part: the onboarding wizard runs the same steps for every hire, built-in e-signature covers the offer letter and the confidentiality agreement, document management stores brand guidelines and account inventories against the employee profile, and task workflows assign the account handovers to the people who actually hold the credentials. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable onboarding checklist: accounts, brand assets, historical campaign data, and reporting access handed over on a schedule rather than discovered one locked login at a time.
On the hiring side, our guide to recruitment marketing covers how to make the posting itself do more of the work, and the full hiring template library covers the roles that sit around this one.
Key Takeaways
A marketing manager job description has to pick one mandate first: generalist, demand generation, ecommerce, multi-location, product marketing, or team lead, because the daily work barely overlaps between them.
Every version of the posting must name three things: the plan the person owns, the budget size in dollars, and the specific number they will be measured on.
Most marketing managers are exempt on the FLSA administrative test, which turns on discretion and independent judgment; the executive exemption requires directing at least two full-time employees.
The federal white-collar salary threshold remains $684 per week ($35,568 per year), so the salary test is rarely the issue for this role while the duties test frequently is.
The national median is $166,790 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), but the 10th to 25th percentile band of $90,260 to $123,020 is where small business offers realistically land.
Decide the level from scope before choosing between coordinator, manager, and director, because an inflated title costs you twice: above-market pay now and no promotion path later.
A marketing manager arrives needing access to a dozen accounts nobody has documented. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every hire, with e-signature for the offer letter and confidentiality agreement, document management for brand assets and account inventories, and task workflows that assign each handover to the person holding the credentials. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a marketing manager do?
A marketing manager owns the marketing plan, the budget behind it, and the result it is supposed to produce. At a large company that means directing specialists and agencies. At a small company it means writing the plan and then executing most of it: running campaigns across the website, email, paid search, and social, managing the freelancers and agencies that fill specialist gaps, owning the analytics and the monthly reporting, and keeping messaging consistent everywhere the company shows up. The specific mix depends on the business. A B2B marketing manager builds qualified pipeline for a sales team. An ecommerce marketing manager owns acquisition cost and repeat purchase rate. A multi-location marketing manager owns local search, reviews, and bookings per site. Decide which one you are hiring before you write the posting, because the day looks completely different in each.
Is a marketing manager exempt from overtime?
Usually yes, on the administrative exemption rather than the executive one. The FLSA administrative test requires a salary of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), a primary duty of office work directly related to management or general business operations, and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. Department of Labor guidance names marketing as a qualifying functional area, so the category fits. The deciding factor is whether the person makes real decisions. Someone who selects channels, commits budget, and sets campaign strategy is exercising judgment. Someone who executes a plan written entirely by the founder is not, and calling them a manager does not change that. The executive exemption is a separate path that requires directing at least two full-time employees, which most small business marketing managers do not. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a marketing manager make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), marketing managers earned a national median annual wage of $166,790, with the 10th percentile at $90,260, the 25th at $123,020, the 75th at $216,410, and the 90th at $293,610. That median is heavily weighted toward large corporations in expensive metro areas and is a poor benchmark for a small business. A small company hiring its first marketing manager is realistically competing in the $90,260 to $123,020 band, which is the bottom quarter of the national distribution. Related classifications give useful reference points: advertising and promotions managers had a median of $133,660 and market research analysts and marketing specialists $78,760. Benchmark against companies your size in your metro, publish a good-faith range, and be honest that you are competing on scope and autonomy rather than on base pay.
What is the difference between a marketing manager and a marketing coordinator?
The difference is ownership. A marketing coordinator executes: scheduling posts, building emails, updating pages, coordinating events, and supporting campaigns someone else designed. A marketing manager decides: what the plan is, where the budget goes, which channels get cut, and what number the function is accountable for. That distinction drives pay, seniority, and FLSA classification all at once. A coordinator role is frequently non-exempt and overtime-eligible because the work follows instructions rather than exercising independent judgment on matters of significance. A manager role usually clears the administrative exemption because it does. The common small business mistake is writing coordinator duties, attaching a manager title to make the offer more attractive, and paying somewhere between the two. Candidates spot it in the interview and the classification does not survive scrutiny either.
What is the difference between a marketing manager and a marketing director?
Scope and altitude. A marketing director sets the overall strategy, owns the entire function budget, builds and leads the team, and sits in leadership planning conversations about growth. A marketing manager owns execution and strategy at a narrower scope, is usually hands-on with campaigns, and may have a small team or none at all. At a small business you almost always hire a manager first and add a director only when the team and the budget have grown enough to need a dedicated leader who does not produce work. Hiring a director into a one-person function is a common and expensive mismatch: you pay director money for someone who then has to build the landing pages themselves. Match the title to the scope you genuinely have, not to the scope you hope to have in two years.
Should the job description include a salary range?
Yes, and in a growing number of states you have no choice. Pay transparency laws now require employers in several states and cities to publish a good-faith salary range in job postings, with varying coverage thresholds and rules about which employers and which roles are captured. Even where it is optional, publishing the range is usually the right call for a small business. Marketing manager is a title with an enormous pay spread, from roughly $90,000 to well past $290,000 depending on company size and market, so a posting without a range attracts applications from every point on that curve and wastes everyone's time. A published range also signals seriousness to candidates who have learned that a vague posting often means an undecided employer. Check the specific requirements in every state where the role could be performed, including remote.
How do I hire a marketing manager without an HR department?
Run a short fixed sequence and decide the level before you write anything. Start by naming the number the person will own: acquisition cost, sourced pipeline, or bookings per location. Write the posting from the template variant that matches your business, with the budget size, the channels, the reporting line, and a good-faith salary range stated. Screen for ownership rather than tool familiarity by asking what the candidate was measured on and what they cut. Replace one interview with a ninety-minute working session using your real situation and a real budget figure. Check references with a former manager who saw the results, not a peer. Then onboard properly: account access, brand assets, historical campaign data, and the reporting stack handed over on a schedule. FirstHR runs that sequence with e-signature, document management, and task workflows. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
