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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Marketing & Communications Specialist

💰 $ - $

MarketingCommunicationsContentDigital MarketingPR

🎯 Role Definition

A Marketing & Communications Specialist develops and executes strategic marketing and communications initiatives that increase brand awareness, generate leads, and support business objectives. This role blends content strategy, digital marketing, public relations, and internal communications to deliver consistent messaging across channels (owned, earned, and paid). The specialist works cross-functionally with product, sales, design, and executive teams to craft campaigns, measure performance, and refine tactics using analytics and audience insights.

Key SEO/LLM keywords: Marketing & Communications Specialist, content strategy, digital marketing, social media, PR, branding, email marketing, SEO, analytics, campaign management, stakeholder engagement.


📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Marketing Coordinator / Communications Coordinator
  • Social Media Specialist / Content Creator
  • Public Relations Assistant / Junior Copywriter

Advancement To:

  • Marketing Manager / Communications Manager
  • Brand Manager / Content Marketing Manager
  • Senior Marketing Strategist / Head of Communications

Lateral Moves:

  • Content Strategist
  • Public Relations Specialist
  • Digital Marketing Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, write, and execute integrated marketing and communications campaigns (digital, email, social, PR and events) that align with company objectives, target personas, and performance KPIs to drive brand awareness and demand generation.
  • Create compelling long-form and short-form content—blog posts, white papers, case studies, press releases, thought leadership pieces, web copy, and social posts—ensuring consistent brand voice, SEO optimization, and conversion-focused messaging.
  • Build and manage a content calendar that coordinates multi-channel campaigns, product launches, seasonal promotions, and executive communications while ensuring deadlines, approvals, and version control.
  • Plan and implement paid social and search campaigns in collaboration with digital ads specialists; optimize bids, creatives, and audiences to maximize ROI and lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA).
  • Own email marketing strategy and execution: audience segmentation, nurture flows, A/B testing, deliverability monitoring, and campaign analytics using platforms such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
  • Maintain and optimize website content through CMS (WordPress, Drupal) updates, on-page SEO (metadata, structured data), content audits, and UX copy improvements to improve organic search rankings and conversion rates.
  • Monitor, analyze, and report campaign performance using Google Analytics, marketing automation platforms, and social analytics; translate data into actionable insights and quarterly optimization plans.
  • Develop media relations programs, pitch storylines to targeted journalists, secure earned coverage, coordinate press interviews, and manage press kits and embargoed materials for product and corporate announcements.
  • Serve as brand steward: enforce brand guidelines, review creative assets, approve copy and design, and work with designers/creative agencies to maintain a cohesive visual and verbal brand identity.
  • Collaborate with product and sales teams to translate product features and customer insights into benefit-led messaging, sales enablement materials, product one-pagers, and case studies that shorten sales cycles.
  • Manage influencer and partner marketing programs: identify partners, negotiate terms, coordinate deliverables, monitor KPIs, and measure campaign lift and attribution.
  • Own internal communications for key initiatives, ensuring employee alignment on product launches, corporate milestones, and policy changes through newsletters, intranet updates, and town hall support.
  • Lead or support event marketing and experiential campaigns, including planning, promotional strategy, on-site logistics, booth design, collateral creation, and post-event lead follow-up and reporting.
  • Execute reputation management activities such as monitoring brand mentions, responding to reviews/comments, escalating issues, and developing crisis comms plans in collaboration with legal and leadership as needed.
  • Implement and maintain marketing automation and CRM integrations to ensure lead flow, scoring, and lifecycle automation between marketing and sales teams.
  • Conduct market research and competitive analysis to identify positioning opportunities, messaging gaps, and content topics that resonate with buyers across funnel stages.
  • Manage marketing budgets, agency relationships, and vendor contracts; track spend versus plan and report ROI by campaign to stakeholders.
  • Design and run lead generation programs (webinars, gated content, ABM outreach) and optimize landing pages, forms, and CTAs to increase MQLs and improve lead-to-opportunity conversion rates.
  • Train and enable cross-functional teams, internal subject-matter experts, and executives on media interview best practices, messaging frameworks, and how to contribute to content programs.
  • Develop accessibility- and compliance-aware communications by coordinating with legal and compliance teams to ensure messaging meets regulatory and brand standards (privacy, disclosures, trademarks).
  • Create and maintain comprehensive campaign documentation and post-mortem analyses to capture learnings, recommendations, and playbooks for repeatable marketing operations and faster time-to-market.
  • Manage photography, videography, and multimedia production workflows from brief to final edit—storyboarding, scripting, shoot coordination, and working with contractors to produce engaging visual content.
  • Translate qualitative customer feedback and quantitative analytics into persona updates, content hypotheses, and UX copy iterations that increase engagement and retention.
  • Lead continuous improvement initiatives for marketing processes, tooling, and cross-team collaboration — standardize briefs, SLAs, and reporting dashboards to scale marketing operations.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc market and competitor data requests; synthesize findings into executive-ready summaries that inform strategic planning.
  • Assist in the development of sales enablement collateral (presentations, battlecards, ROI calculators) and support the sales team during high-priority deals or RFPs.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies with product and growth teams to integrate marketing priorities into product roadmaps and release plans.
  • Coordinate vendor onboarding and performance reviews for creative agencies, PR firms, photographers, and digital vendors to ensure SLAs and quality standards.
  • Maintain and update marketing asset repositories and brand libraries to streamline creative reuse and reduce production time.
  • Provide support for corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications, community outreach, and employee engagement initiatives.
  • Help develop and deliver training materials for customer success and support teams to ensure consistent customer-facing messaging.
  • Monitor industry trends and emerging channels to recommend pilot programs and innovative tactics for audience growth.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Content Strategy & Copywriting: ability to craft SEO-friendly, conversion-oriented content across formats (blogs, whitepapers, emails, landing pages).
  • SEO & Organic Growth: experience with keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO basics, and content gap analysis.
  • Digital Advertising & Paid Media: hands-on with paid social, Google Ads, retargeting, and campaign optimization techniques.
  • Email Marketing & Marketing Automation: proficiency with platforms such as HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Mailchimp; segmentation, workflows, and A/B testing.
  • Analytics & Reporting: fluency in Google Analytics (GA4), data visualization tools (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio), and setting up tracking/events.
  • CMS & Web Management: practical experience with WordPress, Drupal, or similar platforms and basic HTML/CSS editing.
  • Social Media Management: planning, scheduling, community moderation, and analytics across LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.
  • PR & Media Relations: experience drafting press releases, pitching media, managing press lists, and tracking coverage impact.
  • Multimedia Production: knowledge of video and photo production workflows and familiarity with tools like Adobe Creative Cloud (Premiere, Photoshop, InDesign).
  • CRM & Lead Management: experience integrating marketing automation with CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot CRM) and understanding lead scoring models.
  • Project Management & Collaboration Tools: comfortable using Asana, Trello, Jira, or Monday.com to manage cross-functional workstreams.
  • Basic HTML, CSS & Landing Page Tools: ability to edit templates and troubleshoot small front-end issues; familiarity with Unbounce, Leadpages, or similar.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent written and verbal communication with strong editorial judgment and storytelling ability.
  • Strategic thinking with a data-driven mindset to prioritize initiatives that deliver measurable impact.
  • Cross-functional collaboration: ability to influence stakeholders across product, sales, design, and leadership.
  • Time management and prioritization: capable of managing multiple campaigns and deadlines simultaneously.
  • Attention to detail and strong editing/proofreading skills.
  • Creativity and ideation: capable of developing original campaign concepts and content themes.
  • Adaptability and resilience in fast-paced or ambiguous environments.
  • Problem-solving orientation with capacity to propose solutions and iterate quickly.
  • Stakeholder management and diplomacy: able to gain buy-in and manage differing expectations.
  • Project ownership and accountability for results and continuous improvement.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, Business, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's in Marketing/Communications, MBA with marketing concentration, or marketing certifications (e.g., Google Analytics, HubSpot, Content Marketing Institute).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Communications / Public Relations
  • Journalism / English
  • Business Administration
  • Digital Media / Multimedia Production

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–5 years of progressive experience in marketing, communications, digital marketing, or public relations; 3+ years preferred for mid-level specialist.

Preferred:

  • 3–6 years of experience executing end-to-end integrated marketing campaigns across digital and traditional channels.
  • Demonstrated experience with SEO-driven content, email marketing automation, social media strategy, PR outreach, and analytics-driven optimization.
  • Experience working in SaaS, B2B, or B2C environments and collaborating with sales/product teams is highly desirable.
  • Prior agency experience, campaign portfolio, or measurable case studies showing improved KPIs (traffic, leads, engagement, conversions).