Direct marketing manager vs marketing program manager

The differences between direct marketing managers and marketing program managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a direct marketing manager and a marketing program manager. Additionally, a direct marketing manager has an average salary of $90,736, which is higher than the $86,807 average annual salary of a marketing program manager.

The top three skills for a direct marketing manager include digital marketing, marketing campaigns and project management. The most important skills for a marketing program manager are digital marketing, project management, and marketing campaigns.

Direct marketing manager vs marketing program manager overview

	Direct Marketing Manager	Marketing Program Manager
Yearly salary	$90,736	$86,807
Hourly rate	$43.62	$41.73
Growth rate	10%	10%
Number of jobs	143,183	173,228
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Average age	39	39
Years of experience	10	10

What does a direct marketing manager do?

Direct marketing managers are executive professionals who manage all the direct marketing activities of a company by using delivery systems such as traditional mail, social media, email, and texting campaigns. These managers are required to manage the marketing team so that they can generate leads and promote the company's brand and products or services. They must evaluate campaign expenditure so that they can ensure the maximum return of investment (ROI) of products or services. Direct marketing managers must also record all the results from the marketing campaign as well as produce reports for the management.

What does a marketing program manager do?

The job of marketing program managers is to create marketing campaigns for a company's programs and products. They often work closely with the sales and advertising managers and assist in developing pricing strategy and monitoring marketing trends. As a marketing program manager, you are responsible for implementing programs that aim to maximize business revenue. Other duties may include maintaining the segmentation of marketing database, participating in the evaluation of marketing technology, and analyzing the performance of webinars, emails, and campaigns.

Direct marketing manager vs marketing program manager salary

Direct marketing managers and marketing program managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Direct Marketing Manager	Marketing Program Manager
Average salary	$90,736	$86,807
Salary range	Between $63,000 And $129,000	Between $64,000 And $116,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New Jersey	California
Best paying company	Neighborly	Meta
Best paying industry	Technology	Transportation

Differences between direct marketing manager and marketing program manager education

There are a few differences between a direct marketing manager and a marketing program manager in terms of educational background:

	Direct Marketing Manager	Marketing Program Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Direct marketing manager vs marketing program manager demographics

Here are the differences between direct marketing managers' and marketing program managers' demographics:

	Direct Marketing Manager	Marketing Program Manager
Average age	39	39
Gender ratio	Male, 46.6% Female, 53.4%	Male, 38.7% Female, 61.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between direct marketing manager and marketing program manager duties and responsibilities

Direct marketing manager example 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.
Direct all employees on company SEO efforts including blogs, forums, and social networks.
Contribute to the visual design, interaction, and usability of CRM and other sales application interfaces.

Marketing program manager example responsibilities.

Achieve designation as a center of excellence with manage care organizations, Medicare and Medicaid.
Manage RFP solicitation and response process.
Manage multiple initiatives using digital media, SEM, social media, inbound marketing and content distribution channels.
Manage MarCom programs with $250K annual budget for Philips HeartStart automate external defibrillator (a) business unit.
Manage major CRM implementation project for global aerospace company.
Lead marketing operations include integrating and administering Salesforce, HubSpot, InsideSales.com, and RainKing processes and mechanics.

Direct marketing manager vs marketing program manager skills

Common direct marketing manager skills

Digital Marketing, 13%
Marketing Campaigns, 11%
Project Management, 6%
Email Campaigns, 5%
CRM, 4%
ROI, 4%

Common marketing program manager skills

Digital Marketing, 14%
Project Management, 7%
Marketing Campaigns, 6%
B2B Marketing, 5%
Integrated Marketing, 5%
Salesforce, 3%

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Executive Management Industry
Direct Marketing Manager
Direct Marketing Manager vs Marketing Program Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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