What is a digital marketing manager?
Reporting to their company's communications and marketing department, their role is to put in place a digital strategy consistent with the brand's identity. They oversee the various digital projects under way: managing social media, the website, search engine optimisation as well as the organisation's online visibility and affiliate marketing, whether it is a club, a federation, a kit manufacturer or an association... The aim is to use the web to build awareness, grow the business, promote activities or products, convey the organisation's values, bring visitors to the site and communicate on social media. The French Tennis Federation, for instance, redesigned its logo to reflect the institutional side of the Federation while echoing the symbols of its brand image, such as the brown colour characteristic of clay courts, giving it a more striking identity online.
What does a digital marketing manager do?
Monitoring these digital activities effectively calls for a strategy defined in advance. Their first task is therefore to draw up an annual action plan made up of the communication activities to be implemented, the external providers to be called upon and the people who need to be involved in order to meet the various objectives for the year ahead. A sports complex such as the Stade de France, for example, will need to set a revenue target to be achieved through its online sales or online advertising. Its management then allocates a fixed budget to this financial goal. Once these foundations are agreed, the web marketing manager will need to identify the various needs created by the digital strategy, which is essential to meeting the revenue target, while staying within the funding allocated.
This is where their role as lead expert begins. At the same time, they manage everyone involved in the projects and oversee the market monitoring that feeds innovative ideas. This monitoring is strategic, since analysing the trends of the moment allows them to check their impact on existing products and services or those under development. At the same time, managing social media is another of their core responsibilities. There they keep track of every commercial activity taking place in order to raise their organisation's profile. However, the nature and number of responsibilities falling to the digital marketing manager vary according to various criteria such as the size or the specialisation of the organisation. In a small business, they will need to get hands-on, whereas in a larger organisation they will simply supervise. Likewise, the number of products or services under their remit will vary depending on the company's sector.
The essential qualities and skills of a digital marketing manager
A true all-rounder in the digital sector, they have a thorough command of the various digital tools such as Photoshop, HTML and tracking. A grasp of sociology is another of their strengths, as they have to analyse the behaviour of internet users. The role also calls for being comfortable with figures: they analyse performance and spot every error to prevent any impact on the company's business. It is therefore a highly versatile role that demands a broad range of skills. The digital marketing manager is therefore:
- A confident English speaker
- A born creative
- An excellent manager
- A digital native
Salary and career progression
As is often the case in these senior roles, the salary is proportional to the number of years of experience. A junior manager can expect to earn a gross monthly salary of around €3,500 while an experienced manager can count on a gross monthly salary of around €4,200. This pay can also rise depending on the level of responsibility involved.
Once they have gained a certain amount of experience, the digital marketing manager can move up to the role of digital marketing director or that of digital strategy director.
Which programme should you take to become a digital marketing manager?
Before reaching this position, three to five years' experience is required. Roles such as web product manager, media manager or digital product manager are all ways of gaining it. However, before applying in this field, a theoretical grounding is essential in order to master the full range of skills. Recruiters therefore look for candidates trained at a business school or on a web marketing master's and holding a bac +5 (Master's level) qualification. These programmes allow students to choose the right specialisations to master e-commerce, e-business, development, community management and website content management.
Students who want to work in the sports industry as a web marketing manager can follow programmes such as a Sport Management Grande École Programme over five years after the baccalaureate (or equivalent) offered by schools specialising in the sports sector. It can also be worth following a programme with an international focus, so as to be trained in the varied demands of this versatile profession through several periods spent abroad. A Master's specialising in Sport Business also provides all the knowledge needed to work in this profession in a highly competitive sector that combines the web and sport
