The retail market sector performs well even in the condition of coronavirus limitations. Many B2C businesses switched to Internet sales and got generous revenues for their good work. The critically important team member responsible for the retailer’s success is a retail marketing manager. His task is to balance the company’s online and offline performance in the market. But this is not all.
These experts are first-line supervisors, retail performance optimizers, manufacturing sales representatives, analysts, and social media & email marketers rolled into one specialist. Retail marketing managers are essential for both big-size and medium-size merchants. However, even small-box retailers can benefit from offline and online marketing campaigns developed and run by the professional RMM.
Who Is a Retail Marketing Manager?
The coordinator of the running online marketing campaigns, the developer of the digital marketing strategies, the analyst of the rich retail data, and the decision-maker in merchandising tactics and optimization approaches are all about a retail marketing manager. For such a massive workload, RMMs can pretend on the annual salary of $58,000-$60,000. The average specialist in this area gets up to $30 per hour.
The starting retail marketing salary is about $34,000-$40,000 per one calendar year. The top-ranking retail market players like Aeon Ltd., Woolworths Limited, Caremark, and Walgreen are ready to pay annual wages of $120,000 for purchasing experts.
The “mom & pop” (family) retail businesses are seldom searching for someone to provide the retail marketing manager job with. But the ever-growing competitiveness on the retail market establishes new rules – even small shops should run digital marketing campaigns (Instagram, Facebook, email newsletters, ads banners, etc.) not to go amiss among rivals.
That is why the vacancy of the retail marketing managers stay sought-after with logically explained:
- a rising number of job offers;
- a good pay increase;
- expanded career capabilities.
To sum up, the retail marketing manager job is a happy blend of marketing, management, analytics, and reporting mixed for a retailer’s sound online and offline performance. The best candidates should not be lacking in organizational and analytical skills, self-management, and strategic thinking. Aptitude for Math will come in handy for win-win decision-making.
What Does a Retail Marketing Manager Do?
As a one-a-army soldier, the retail marketing manager performs different tasks at once. First, this specialist analyzes buying trends and income data entries. Secondly, he reports on the marketing approaches, consumer statistics, and implemented tactics to the Chief Marketing Officer. Finally, the reporting routines can be directed to other team members like store operation managers, regional sales managers, etc.
The skillful RMM does daily:
- Overseeing advertising (organic and paid search, display ads, targeting and retargeting);
- Analysis of the value perceptions;
- Monitoring and reporting on the marketing budgets;
- Approval of the media and promotional materials, content plans.
As one more challenge the retail marketing manager solves is the network building (partners, promotional channels, bloggers, influencers), it is reasonable to state that branding and brand awareness strategies also fall on this specialist’s shoulders.
Retail Marketing Manager Skills
The best-matching candidate is always attentive to details. His strength is self-discipline and the ability to work proactively in the team. The true retail marketing manager is not afraid of challenging tasks and finds a common language with anyone (team leads, customers, colleagues, partners).
One more essential skill is to meet deadlines and work under tight timelines. Multi-tasking and simultaneous execution of several activities is a bold plus for those who pretend to be retail marketing managers jobs.
It is worth noting that a Bachelor’s diploma in the field of economics or marketing is a must. The great advantage for the candidate is the knowledge of foreign languages and SEO. Search engine optimization goes closely with promotions and advertising.
The ambitious retail marketing manager should be ready to learn every day. New software, programs, schedules, algorithms, and many more are waiting for the expert in this direction. Among other requirements to the RMM specialists are:
- +4 years (for Middles) or +7 years (for Seniors) of experience in merchandising, retail industry sector, marketing, business.
- Creativity, specific vision, leadership, the sense of time management, and critics perception.
- Striving for new approaches, innovations, and one-of-a-kind solutions.
- Awesome analytical background with the opportunity for immediate decision-making.
For example, the ideal retail marketing manager for Columbia is the person who also can lead and motivate the team, drive the retail traffic, and meet the corporate development objectives (KPIs, quarterly statistics).
Final Word
SEO, branding, UX, and relationship-building skills is not a full list to describe the in-depth expertise of the retail marketing manager in many directions at once. This job is about a good salary and unlimited career capabilities. But it requires titanic work, endless persisting, and an ever-ending desire to improve your knowledge, proficiency, and level of professionalism.
