Direct marketing specialist vs marketing lead

The differences between direct marketing specialists and marketing leads can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a direct marketing specialist, becoming a marketing lead takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a marketing lead has an average salary of $104,664, which is higher than the $59,907 average annual salary of a direct marketing specialist.

The top three skills for a direct marketing specialist include marketing campaigns, customer service and data entry. The most important skills for a marketing lead are digital marketing, marketing campaigns, and project management.

Direct marketing specialist vs marketing lead overview

	Direct Marketing Specialist	Marketing Lead
Yearly salary	$59,907	$104,664
Hourly rate	$28.80	$50.32
Growth rate	19%	10%
Number of jobs	125,958	92,987
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age	37	39
Years of experience	6	10

What does a direct marketing specialist do?

A direct marketing specialist develops marketing strategies and promotes products or services directly to customers, aiming to secure sales and raise brand awareness. Their responsibilities usually include conducting market research and analyses, studying the consumer trends and competitors, identifying business and client opportunities, establishing objectives, and creating marketing materials for different programs and platforms. Moreover, there are times when a direct marketing specialist collaborates with external parties such as vendors and distributors, analyze client feedback, and assist clients by answering inquiries, processing sales, and solving issues and concerns.

What does a marketing lead do?

A marketing lead is an individual who is responsible for overseeing a team of marketing specialists to help a company achieve its marketing goals. Marketing leads are required to create and manage marketing plans so that they can deliver marketing campaigns on time and escalate issues that may prevent prompt delivery. They can incorporate a mix of different strategies in campaigns such as digital publishing, templates, and training. Marketing leads must work closely with account managers and sales engineers so that they can empower them to effectively position the company's products differently from their competitors.

Direct marketing specialist vs marketing lead salary

Direct marketing specialists and marketing leads have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Direct Marketing Specialist	Marketing Lead
Average salary	$59,907	$104,664
Salary range	Between $44,000 And $80,000	Between $74,000 And $146,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Meta
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between direct marketing specialist and marketing lead education

There are a few differences between a direct marketing specialist and a marketing lead in terms of educational background:

	Direct Marketing Specialist	Marketing Lead
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 66%	Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Direct marketing specialist vs marketing lead demographics

Here are the differences between direct marketing specialists' and marketing leads' demographics:

	Direct Marketing Specialist	Marketing Lead
Average age	37	39
Gender ratio	Male, 52.9% Female, 47.1%	Male, 50.8% Female, 49.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, 9.6% White, 67.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	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 specialist and marketing lead duties and responsibilities

Direct marketing specialist example responsibilities.

Execute worldwide eMarketing strategies to drive leads and revenue for assign products.
Manage relationships with print, mail, e-mail, creative and copywriting vendors.
Manage B2C direct marketing tactics including e-mail and direct mail to drive revenue for the remarketing efforts.
Manage the creation and deployment of mobile-optimize e-blast HTML templates to use for company's online marketing efforts.
Develop, manage and implement special events for MWR programs and facilities with to focus on the customer.
Manage all benefits and payroll administration, including analyzing plans and making recommendations for plan design changes.

Marketing lead example responsibilities.

Launch new cloud services and manage execution across functions to reach sellers, current customers, prospects and influencers.
Re-Brand and manage secondary Instagram account focuse on product across multiple store locations.
Develop and manage marketing programs and partner integration for industry marketing in government, healthcare and education markets.
Re-Design marketing materials, Facebook page, LinkedIn page and website.
Develop blog posts, Facebook updates and tweets to spread awareness of new product or services while tracking effectiveness and ROI.
Coordinate and responsible for MDF fund deployment.

Direct marketing specialist vs marketing lead skills

Common direct marketing specialist skills

Marketing Campaigns, 13%
Customer Service, 11%
Data Entry, 10%
Email Marketing, 7%
Print Production, 7%
Email Campaigns, 6%

Common marketing lead skills

Digital Marketing, 15%
Marketing Campaigns, 5%
Project Management, 5%
Integrated Marketing, 3%
Healthcare, 3%
Twitter, 3%

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Direct Marketing Specialist
Direct Marketing Specialist vs Marketing Lead

Updated January 8, 2025

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