How To Become An Area Marketing Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is an area marketing manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Annemarie Franczyk,

Richard Tate

An area marketing manager is an individual who supervises the day-to-day operations of marketing teams to generate revenues for a company or an organization. These individuals develop marketing plans to improve profitability, coordinate with team members to resolve customer issues, and provide marketing support to various units in a company. Area marketing managers handle the marketing of a product in a particular area, such as sporting goods or kitchenware, and are often responsible for promoting these products in specific markets or geographical areas.

Area marketing managers often work in an office environment and are responsible for traveling to marketing areas and meeting with clients, potential customers, and sales teams. These individuals possess strong interpersonal, communication, sales, and marketing skills and should be comfortable meeting with a variety of clients. Area marketing managers should be detail-oriented and very knowledgeable of the products and services that they are promoting. They should also be able to meet budget constraints and timelines.

Most area marketing managers have an associate's or bachelor's degree in sales, marketing, business, or a comparable field. However, an advanced degree is not necessarily a requirement provided the individual has comparable knowledge and skills. Many area marketing managers can make up to $136,000 per year in the US, and the career field is expected to grow 6% by 2028.

What general advice would you give to an area marketing manager?

Annemarie Franczyk

Associate Professor, Buffalo State College

Never settle and never settle down. Both notions suggest dropping where you are and staying put and being hopelessly stuck. When you're hopelessly stuck, you're not learning, growing and advancing. Always look for the next opportunity to do something interesting. Take chances. If you do, you will have a lifetime of no regrets.

ScoreArea Marketing ManagerUS Average

Salary

5.7

Avg. Salary $72,588

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 44.08%

male 55.92%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an area marketing manager

Explore area marketing manager education requirements

Most common area marketing manager degrees

Bachelor's

79.1 %

Master's

11.0 %

Associate

5.7 %

Start to develop specific area marketing manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Event Planning	11.98%
Marketing Campaigns	7.99%
Digital Marketing	7.98%
Business Development	6.93%
Business Relationships	6.70%

Complete relevant area marketing manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New area marketing managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an area marketing manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real area marketing manager resumes.

Research area marketing manager duties and responsibilities

Manage online and social media efforts for regional locations including Facebook, website announcements and updates.
Initiate ROI tracking program through leveraging customer relationship management (CRM) database.
Standardize communications between stores and marketing department during company restructure, which ensure ROI on all marketing initiatives.
Develop orientation and training program for marketing coordinators which increase efficiently and productivity and reduce overlapping of duties.

Apply for area marketing manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an area marketing manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do area marketing managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Area marketing manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020

Cons

Not enough time in each day to get everything accomplished.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Pros

Coming in contact with people, motivating staff, making the numbers, profitability for everyone

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2019