What Does a Marketing Assistant Do? (With Skills and Salary)

Updated 25 January 2023

Marketing is the process by which businesses promote and sell their goods and services to customers. The role of a marketing assistant is an entry-level one, but you can advance to higher-level marketing positions as you gain relevant experience. Understanding what these professionals do can help you decide if you want to pursue a career in marketing. In this article, we discuss what marketing assistants do, provide information about their qualifications, skills and salary and highlight a sample job description for this role.

What does a marketing assistant do?

Learning about the responsibilities of a marketing assistant may help you decide if your skills and interests align with this job. To understand what potential employers may expect of you in this position, view the list of job responsibilities outlined below:

conducting market research to identify competitors, trends and the needs of the target audience
writing reports of insights, findings and statistics
creating visually appealing graphs and delivering presentations to the marketing team or management
helping senior marketing staff create marketing strategies and plans
compiling data on campaign success through the collection and analysis of audience feedback
creating and updating content on the company website, blogs and social media platforms
providing support in the setting up and facilitation of marketing events, such as conferences and trade shows
doing administrative tasks, such as replying to emails, answering phone calls and coordinating appointments

Marketing assistant qualifications

As this is an entry-level position, the qualifications required for this role are lower than mid or senior-level positions. Here's a list of qualifications that may help you secure this role:

Education

The minimum educational requirement to secure this role would be the completion of your pre-tertiary education, such as a GCE O-Level certificate. To improve your chances of getting this role, you may pursue a diploma or bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications or statistics. In the course of your studies, you learn how to collect and analyse data, develop effective marketing strategies according to the target audience and communicate with different people. Your course may also cover topics such as branding, digital marketing, e-commerce and retail marketing, equipping you with the essential skills to work in a digitally-driven economy.

Experience

Employers may prefer candidates who have relevant experience in the marketing field over others who have no experience at all. To strengthen your resume, you can pursue paid or unpaid internships in this field during your school vacations. Alternatively, you may also complete a longer internship of three to six months as part of your diploma or degree programme. By doing an internship, you can gain firsthand insight into your preferred industry and learn from your colleagues and superiors about the latest marketing strategies and tactics.

You may also gain knowledge about the challenges that marketers face and how to overcome them, such as generating traffic and leads. This may be highly useful, as the interviewer may present you with an imaginary scenario and ask you to elaborate on how you would resolve the issue. They may also ask you about your work experience, so being able to illustrate the knowledge and practical skills you've acquired may give you an advantage over other candidates.

Certifications

Earning certifications demonstrates your commitment to the marketing field to potential employers. Undertaking certifications equips you with the most up-to-date knowledge and technical skills that would help you excel in your marketing career. You may consider doing a course on digital marketing, content creation or web analytics. By acquiring certifications, you may also increase your earning potential and the likelihood of securing promotions as you advance in your career.

Required skills

Marketing assistants possess a variety of hard and soft skills to excel in their job. It's important to know what these skills are so that you can demonstrate and highlight them in your resume. Outlined below are some key skills required of a marketing assistant:

Organisational skills

Organisation skills are essential for marketing assistants to keep track of various assignments, which may each be in a different stage of development. As they collect and work with a lot of data, it's important for them to keep everything organised and ensure that the relevant data is easily accessible when required. They also employ their organisation skills when planning, setting up and facilitating events so that there's a smooth flow of events.

Communication skills

As marketing assistants prepare reports and give presentations of their findings, excellent verbal and written communication skills are vital to this role. Their ability to write clearly and concisely helps the members of their marketing team to understand their insights and implement the necessary strategies. These professionals work closely with other team members when analysing data and planning events, so their ability to express their thoughts and ideas effectively is essential.

Creativity skills

These professionals require creativity to think of innovative marketing campaigns and strategies to perform better than their competitors. By implementing original ideas, they can successfully gain the attention of their target audience. With this skill, marketing assistants can bring about an increase in sales of products and services and prove to be valuable to the company. They also employ their creativity to create visually appealing graphs for presentations and captivating and unique images for marketing materials.

Analytical skills

Marketing professionals know how to interpret data to gain insight into the needs and preferences of their target audience. With technical knowledge of online tools, they gather valuable information from data, such as the results of marketing campaigns. Analytical skills are essential, as the findings may help the team implement more effective campaigns in the future. Employers may value candidates who possess and demonstrate the ability to collect and analyse data.

Interpersonal skills

People skills are essential for marketing professionals as their work entails interacting with customers. They may conduct research by speaking directly to customers or people who are a part of their target audience to gain feedback on their products and services. They speak in a friendly and pleasant way to obtain honest and detailed opinions so that they can plan more effective campaigns. Since they conduct verbal presentations, they're comfortable speaking in front of others and engaging in amicable discussions with their colleagues.

Teamwork skills

With their strong ability to work as a team, marketing assistants devise new marketing tactics to achieve their team goals. By knowing how to collaborate and work towards a common goal, they increase their productivity and efficiency. Good teamwork skills may result in the sending of effective and convincing messages to consumers, which may translate to an increase in sales.

Salary information

The average salary of a marketing assistant is $2,542 per month. The salary varies on your level of education, experience and other relevant qualifications. It also depends on the industry and type and size of the company you choose to work for.

Sample job description

Here's an example of a job description for the position of marketing assistant to help you understand what employers are looking for:

Advance Enterprise is looking for a marketing assistant to join our vibrant and dynamic team. The ideal candidate will provide essential support to the work of the marketing manager and other senior-level marketing executives. This professional will undertake marketing and administrative tasks to promote high functionality and effective coordination of the department's activities.

Requirements:

a diploma or bachelor's degree in marketing, business or a related field
one year of experience in marketing, sales or administration
familiarity with online tools and web analytics
a keen eye for detail
strong analytical skills
ability to work both independently and in a team
excellent verbal and written skills
high level of interpersonal skills

Responsibilities:

help create content for marketing materials, such as newsletters, social media posts and brochures
assist in producing and editing proposals and presentations
provide support to maintain the company website, social media accounts and database systems
collect and analyse market research
brainstorm innovative marketing tactics with the team
analyse product feedback from customers to understand their preferences
assist in the execution of company events, such as product launches

Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.

What Does a Marketing Assistant Do? (With Skills and Salary)