How To Become A Direct Marketing Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a direct marketing manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Tobias Sellier,

Richard Tate

Direct marketing managers are in charge of all direct marketing operations aimed at persuading consumers to buy from the company. This includes traditional mail, social media, email, texting campaigns, and other forms of direct advertising. They analyze a product using available data. Also, they maintain client databases and develop and implement multi-channel marketing plans. Aside from that, they partner with the brand creative team to evaluate campaign expenses and ensure maximum investment return. Additionally, they generate leads and promote the company's brand and products or services.

The minimum educational requirement for this job is a bachelor's degree in marketing or a related field. Applicants must have a minimum of five years of experience in a similar role. You must also possess leadership, analytical, decision-making, and communication skills, and you must be familiar with Agile processes. Direct marketing managers earn an average annual salary of $106,395. It falls between $64,000 and $177,000.

What general advice would you give to a direct marketing manager?

Tobias Sellier

Senior Director, American Public Power Association

There are exciting opportunities to work for community-owned, not-for-profit, hometown public power. From engineers and customer service representatives to lineworkers and administrative professionals, there are many opportunities. And utility employees, being essential workers, even during these challenging times, there are still many jobs that will need to be filled.

ScoreDirect Marketing ManagerUS Average

Salary

7.1

Avg. Salary $90,736

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 53.38%

male 46.62%

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 a direct marketing manager

Explore direct marketing manager education requirements

Most common direct marketing manager degrees

Bachelor's

80.3 %

Master's

11.1 %

Associate

5.8 %

Start to develop specific direct marketing manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Digital Marketing	12.83%
Marketing Campaigns	11.34%
Project Management	5.90%
Email Campaigns	5.41%
CRM	4.26%

Complete relevant direct marketing manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New direct 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 a direct marketing manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real direct marketing manager resumes.

Research direct marketing manager duties and responsibilities

Design and manage all web advertising components including email, SEM, affiliate and banner/tile ads.
Manage customer lifecycle workflow utilizing Aprimo project management tool.
Develop and manage marketing programs and partner integration for industry marketing in government, healthcare and education markets.
Develop SEO initiatives around same long tail keywords to increase organic traffic.

Prepare your direct marketing manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your direct marketing manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a direct marketing manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable direct marketing manager resume templates

Build a professional direct marketing manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your direct marketing manager resume.