How to hire a Marketing Director

How to hire a marketing director, step by step

Here's a step-by-step marketing director hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a marketing director job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new marketing director
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a Marketing Director do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the marketing director you need to hire. Certain marketing director roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine Employee vs Contractor Status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a marketing director to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a marketing director that fits the bill.

   This list shows salaries for various types of marketing directors.

   Type Of Marketing Director	Description	Hourly Rate
   Marketing Director	Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.	$32-92
   Director Of Communications And Marketing	A director of communications and marketing spearheads a company's marketing and communication projects in adherence with the company's vision and mission. Being the director, they have the authority to make decisions, delegate responsibilities among managers and teams, and direct the project and program cycle from planning to execution, solving issues and concerns if any would arise... Show More	$27-63
   Business Development And Marketing Manager	The business development and marketing manager is in charge of overseeing a company's marketing programs and projects. They primarily manage and coordinate teams, set goals and guidelines, organize budgets and timelines, conceptualize plans, and develop strategies to optimize operations... Show More	$24-53

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common Skills:

   • Digital Marketing
   • Marketing Campaigns
   • Market Research
   • Sales Strategies
   • Integrated Marketing
   • CRM
   • Email Marketing
   • Email Campaigns
   • Project Management
   • ROI
   • Press Releases
   • Facebook
   • Business Development
   • Content Marketing

   Check All Skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage staging of NCAA athletics events.
   • Manage RFP, RFI & SOQ process; track, analyze and report on sales pipeline.
   • Train, manage, and develop customer service / sales team strategies and oversight of day-to-day operations.
   • Manage the portal website build, including PPC and search engine optimization, email broadcasts and affiliate marketing efforts.
   • Manage all marketing operations - recruiting, hiring, training, retaining, payroll, and continual staff education.
   • Utilize marketing/sales automation tools (salesforce.com, pardot.com) to help track, manage and properly distribute each individual lead.

   More Marketing Director duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your marketing director job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A marketing director can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, marketing directors' average salary in alabama is 46% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level marketing directors 65% less than senior-level marketing directors.
   • Certifications. A marketing director with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a marketing director's salary.

   Average marketing director salary

   $114,906yearly

   $55.24 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level marketing director salary

   $68,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 14, 2025

   Average marketing director salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
   1	California	$141,145	$68
   2	Massachusetts	$121,614	$58
   3	Connecticut	$121,513	$58
   4	New Jersey	$121,167	$58
   5	New York	$120,706	$58
   6	Washington	$115,646	$56
   7	Pennsylvania	$109,294	$53
   8	Oregon	$107,727	$52
   9	Wisconsin	$106,604	$51
   10	Maine	$105,695	$51
   11	Arizona	$104,942	$50
   12	District of Columbia	$104,808	$50
   13	Maryland	$103,836	$50
   14	Nevada	$103,435	$50
   15	Virginia	$100,500	$48
   16	Illinois	$95,994	$46
   17	Ohio	$95,420	$46
   18	Texas	$94,818	$46
   19	North Carolina	$92,558	$45
   20	Colorado	$86,804	$42

   Average marketing director salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
   1	Brookfield Properties	$230,888	$111.00	11
   2	Airbnb	$203,707	$97.94	3
   3	NVIDIA	$202,919	$97.56	18
   4	Pure Storage	$202,259	$97.24	14
   5	Genentech	$200,651	$96.47	2
   6	ZS	$196,884	$94.66	13
   7	Meta	$195,328	$93.91	198
   8	Biogen	$192,976	$92.78	6
   9	Google	$190,988	$91.82	11
   10	Coty	$187,200	$90.00	17
   11	DoorDash	$185,776	$89.32	119
   12	Getaround	$185,688	$89.27
   13	Washington Prime Group	$181,919	$87.46
   14	Crunchbase	$179,820	$86.45
   15	Squarespace	$179,737	$86.41	2
   16	AstraZeneca	$179,556	$86.33	36
   17	Okta	$178,238	$85.69	7
   18	ViacomCBS	$176,748	$84.97
   19	Pattern Energy Group	$176,174	$84.70	3
   20	Starz	$174,546	$83.92

4. Writing a Marketing Director Job Description

   A good marketing director job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a marketing director job description:

   Marketing Director job description example

   About Us
   Frontier Communications is committed to our growing customer base - connected to what matters most! We offer innovative Fiber solutions that keep our customers ahead of the curve and Frontier on the cutting edge. We are moving faster than ever to transform our organization, launch new cutting-edge capabilities and build Gigabit America across our 25-state footprint. We're looking for energetic people who are eager to be a part of our incredible transformation journey, our diverse, engaged workforce, and our purpose - to build Gigabit America. Candidates looking to join our rapidly expanding technology company should be ready to jump right in to help us build on our momentum and success. You would be joining a team that is empowered to reshape our organization and our industry. Frontier offers competitive compensation, amazing benefits, as well as professional growth and development resources.
   
   Key Job Responsibilities:
   
   Serve as the senior marketing strategist and point person for ongoing long-term and short-term planning, execution, evaluation, optimization, and reporting of marketing performance across funnel stages and audiences to meet and exceed annual targets.
   Lead the marketing team in developing consumer-insight-driven brand and marketing strategies, including identification of growth opportunities, audience acquisition strategies, claims & messaging development.
   Work across departments (MarCom, Digital, Media, Analytics, Consumer Insights, External Vendors) to test and roll out new, innovative strategies and tactics to improve conversion.
   Develop cohesive presentations that clearly communicate strategic initiatives and the expected outcomes for leadership.
   Provide insights regarding regional or audience nuances that enable local tactical plan.
   Articulate and present complex information in easy-to-understand ways.
   
   Qualifications:
   
   Experience identifying target insights, developing positioning, and creating traditional and digital campaigns that engage, inform and motivate
   7+ years of experience in marketing and strategy
   Demonstrated ability to create, launch and evolve a measurable marketing program that drives growth and acquisition
   Proven track record of creating campaigns, communication, and programs that drive thought leadership and customer engagement
   Experience and success in cultivating programs that translate customer insights into campaigns that generate revenue and increase market share
   Creative problem solver with the ability to think outside the box flexibility and ability to shift focus when needed.
   Growth orientation with the ability to work with resources at hand
   Excellent communication skills: visual, written, and verbal
   People management with the ability to attract, grow and retain talent

   Copy This Example

   

5. Post your job

   To find marketing directors for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any marketing directors they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level marketing directors with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find marketing director candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting marketing directors requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new marketing director

   Once you've found the marketing director candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new marketing director first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a marketing director?