What Can You Do With a Master’s in Marketing?

A master’s in marketing can prepare you for a range of advanced marketing roles by building deeper expertise in strategy, research, analytics and consumer behavior. If you’re considering the degree, you may be wondering what kinds of career opportunities it can open and what skills you can expect to gain.

This article explores the main reasons to get a master’s degree in marketing, including potential career paths, the skills you’ll gain and how graduate marketing education can support your professional growth.

Understanding the Modern Marketing Career Path

When you’re considering what you can do with a master’s in marketing, it’s helpful to think about the typical marketing career path. Marketing is a wide-ranging field that includes a variety of interesting and engaging jobs.¹ You might start out working in social media, market research or copywriting.

As marketing professionals advance in their careers, they may take on greater responsibility and move into more strategic leadership roles. Market research analysts may become market research managers. Social media managers might become communications directors. Department heads may become chief marketing officers (CMOs) or founders of their own agencies.

Marketing also continues to evolve alongside emerging technologies. If you entered the marketing field 30 years ago, the internet was in its infancy and social media was more concept than reality. Today, marketers need to be well-versed in data-driven decision-making and understand all the digital tools and platforms available to them.

A master’s in marketing has long been a way for marketers to gain strategic thinking and leadership skills while also developing insight into the latest marketing methods and techniques.

Top Master’s in Marketing Jobs and Opportunities

A master’s in marketing can prepare you for senior roles such as marketing director, brand manager and chief marketing officer. These positions combine deep marketing expertise with the ability to define strategy, manage teams and make high-level business decisions.

For example:

Marketing Director
A typical marketing director will have broad responsibility for building awareness of a brand or company. They will generally set the overall marketing strategy for a company or brand, informed by an understanding of the market and competitor activities. They will set budgets, engage with vendors and internal stakeholders and modify strategy based on customer feedback and market events.²

Brand Manager
A brand manager oversees the identity of a brand, which can represent a product, a company or a person. They will plan promotional activities, commission agencies and vendors as required and monitor market activity on behalf of the brand.³

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
A CMO is a company’s most senior marketing professional. They typically oversee marketing operations at large companies, potentially overseeing multiple brands and business streams. The CMO is responsible for driving revenue through marketing and maintaining coherent strategies across the various elements of the business.⁴

These jobs share several characteristics. As senior marketing roles, they require an understanding of marketing techniques and principles, strategic thinking, effective team management, collaboration with vendors and colleagues and the ability to respond quickly to market events.

Deciding What to Do With a Master’s in Marketing

Choosing what to do with a master’s in marketing often comes down to matching your strengths and interests with the many career paths available in the field. Skilled communicators who enjoy the challenge of winning positive publicity may find themselves drawn to public relations, for example. If you’re excited by social media and online activities, you might find a career in digital strategy rewarding. Someone who loves to ask questions and find answers might be a good fit for a market research career.

A master’s in marketing can expose you to a wide range of marketing activities while also giving you opportunities to focus and specialize. The experience offers opportunities to acquire new skills, explore career paths you may not have previously considered and focus on areas of expertise you want to develop.

Marketing master’s students may also benefit from networking opportunities. A master’s is a chance to meet and work alongside a cohort of fellow marketing professionals. These connections can include fellow students and faculty. A reputable program may also offer access to an active alumni network that provides mentoring and professional connections.

Skills You Can Build With a Master’s in Marketing

Marketing professionals benefit from a mix of technical expertise and broader leadership skills, including product strategy, digital content management, cross-functional team leadership and executive communication. A strong marketing master’s program should help you develop both sides of that skill set through coursework and practical experience.

For example, the Online Master of Science in Marketing from William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business includes core courses on essential marketing techniques, such as Product Management and New Product Development Strategies and Digital Content Management.

At the same time, it also features courses designed to develop and amplify soft skills—such as cross-functional team leadership and executive communication—through focused practical work in a capstone project and networking opportunities during a single-credit residency course.

Elevate Your Trajectory With a William & Mary Mason Master’s in Marketing 

A master’s in marketing can open doors to new career opportunities for graduates. It offers broad and thorough training in a variety of marketing techniques, along with the opportunity to develop and refine essential soft skills such as leadership and strategic thinking. Graduates can use these skills to pursue a variety of marketing career paths, including opportunities for greater seniority and responsibility.

The Online Master of Science in Marketing from the William & Mary Mason School of Business combines rigorous training in marketing principles with the opportunity to gain practical experience through group projects and coursework. The online program also includes a residency element to help students benefit from studying online with a school in Virginia—the second-oldest institution of higher learning in the country.

Visit our website for detailed course descriptions, admission requirements, an introduction to our career resources and our online application portal. Schedule a call with an admissions outreach advisor today to learn more about what earning the Online MS in Marketing can do for you.