Fast-Track Your Career: 5 Benefits of a Marketing Degree

Ever wonder why companies like Apple or Nike are so successful? The answer lies in marketing. These companies and many more have spent considerable time and resources studying buyer trends, launching advertising campaigns, and promoting their brands. Countless organizations can attribute much of their success to savvy marketing professionals who merge their creativity with the knowledge they gain from formal education.

You might wonder whether getting a marketing degree is worth the cost and effort. This article will explore five useful benefits of a marketing degree and how such a degree can help you advance your career.

Marketing covers a vast range of disciplines. From sales and brand management to advertising, marketing allows for a multitude of career paths. Earning a marketing degree can open doors to various job opportunities that a more specialized degree might not. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), nearly 800,000 people were employed in May 2022 as marketing specialists and market research analysts. During the same period, 328,570 Americans were employed as marketing managers. These are just a few of the myriad career opportunities in marketing.

With a degree in marketing, you may decide to work in one of many job roles, including the following:

• Content marketing manager
• Advertising copywriter or content writer
• Search engine optimization (SEO) specialist
• User experience designer
• Social media manager
• Market research analyst
• Brand manager
• Creative director

Whether your marketing degree program includes an emphasis on business, public relations, communications, or a similar subject, you can use your skill set to become an asset to the marketing team of any number of organizations. Or, with more specialized education or years of experience, you could potentially spearhead entire marketing campaigns in a senior-level manager role. Marketing degrees are as versatile as they are valuable.

Businesses need sharp marketers to help identify their brand and sell their products. Many other types of organizations rely on marketers to help target key consumer demographics and to persuade audiences to engage with what the organization offers. Because of the constant need for these marketing initiatives, many marketers enjoy a promising earning potential.

The average total annual salary for a marketing career in the U.S. is just under $90,000, according to Glassdoor.com. While most entry-level marketers earn less and some more experienced marketers earn more, holding a marketing degree could mean working a lucrative, financially-fulfilling job. Individuals who pursue a master’s in marketing may see their income increase to six figures, with access to the highest-paying roles in the industry. Those who study marketing can advance their careers in a number of ways, not the least of which is reaching a higher earning potential.

Most marketing programs expose students to a variety of useful skills that can be adapted to all kinds of marketing careers. Such students may become skilled in areas like:

• Data analysis
• Copywriting and content writing
• Editing
• Research
• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Oral and written communication
• General business knowledge
• Collaboration
• Creativity
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
• SEO
• Public relations
• Consumer psychology

But you can learn more than just the skills taught in a bachelor’s-level marketing curriculum. To acquire further specialized knowledge, you can earn professional certifications, enroll in a master’s degree in marketing, or do both. The skills bestowed by a marketing degree tend to be the very ones that are in high demand across many industries, including retail, finance, technology, education, and more.

While a marketing degree prepares you for promoting an organization’s products, services, and overall brand, it also helps you learn how to promote yourself. The skill of self-promotion often comes through consistent exercise of marketing principles, and it can serve you well over the course of a career in marketing.

Promoting your past education and work experience and current skill set can help you land bigger and better jobs. Articulating the value you bring to a particular team or department could help you qualify for a raise. You may even gain access to a higher-level position through persuasive self-marketing. As you become more experienced in promoting yourself to your coworkers and leaders through shrewd communication, you might earn more influence in or over important marketing projects and campaigns.

All in all, a marketing degree can be the foundation for learning how to effectively advance in your career. You’ll also likely discover a lot of new personal and professional enjoyment as you do so.

One of the more fascinating benefits of a marketing degree is the understanding of consumer behavior—why people buy the things they buy and what engages their interest. You can usually gain this understanding through taking specific program courses in social psychology, conducting user testing, or surveying certain portions of an organization’s target demographic. Insights into consumer behavior are especially important for customer-facing jobs like sales, where urging somebody to action is paramount.

A strong understanding of what interests consumers and why is also crucial for advertisers, copywriters, designers, and others in similar roles. Individuals won’t have any incentive to buy a product or use a service unless they feel they need to. Marketers who understand consumer behavior can help their audience identify and feel that need.

While you prepare for a marketing career, consider WGU for an online, accredited degree program that can grant you the industry skills you need to thrive. WGU offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing that let you study at your own pace, with no set log-in times for coursework.

Additionally, WGU’s competency-based education model allows you to progress through your marketing program as quickly as you master the material, potentially saving time and money. Get started today!