If you are a passionate business professional who wants to help your organization find greater success, learning about marketing is often a key component. Businesses need skilled marketers to sell their products and services. The skills you’ll gain in a Master of Business Administration program with an emphasis on marketing will put you in high demand.

In-demand skills are just one way that an MBA in Marketing will help you in your career goals. You will also gain networking opportunities, increased pay potential and skills you can put into practice in your current job.

Why get an MBA in Marketing? The answer to this question is quite far-reaching. Here are several key advantages of pursuing this specialization as you focus on making your business career as effective and profitable as possible.

1. Broad Career Applications and Opportunities

One of the first reasons to consider an MBA program with a marketing focus is because of the broad career opportunities it can provide. Many businesses are looking for qualified professionals with master’s level training in a wide range of fields, and the addition of a marketing focus increases the potential job opportunities even further. Every business, no matter the size or industry, needs effective marketing. Having leadership with marketing training is essential.

Every industry needs marketers to succeed. While the need for marketers in retail is clear, you also need marketing managers in healthcare, service and hospitality industries, finance industries and more. Any industry that provides a product or service to consumers needs to market those products to potential buyers.

There are specific roles that lend themselves well to an MBA in Marketing. Some of these include:

  • Marketing director
  • Advertising director
  • Public relations manager
  • Marketing manager
  • Product management director
  • Director of branding or brand strategist
  • Creative director

These are just a handful of the many roles that an MBA in Marketing graduate can pursue. You will also find that your skills are in high demand in digital marketing, social media marketing and video marketing. As the world of marketing continues to grow and evolve, so will the need for marketing professionals to fill these gaps in various industries. If you lead any type of team that focuses on brand management or marketing, an MBA in Marketing will help you do your job well.

2. Use What You Learn, Immediately

As you work through your MBA degree, you will be able to put what you learn to good use immediately. Many marketing MBA students are already working in the business world, and they can apply what they learn to their day-to-day work.

For example, if you gain knowledge about how to study consumer behavior, you can go back to your workplace and put those analytics in practice with your customers. If you need to perform market research, you have a ready market to dig into to gather that information. The practical skills learned in an MBA in Marketing combined with your existing work experience mean you can create hands-on learning opportunities before you even graduate.

3. Hone Your Marketing Strategy Skills

Marketing is a highly strategic practice. You must understand consumer behavior, how to target that behavior and how to position your product or service as the solution to a consumer’s needs.

An MBA in Marketing will help you hone those strategic skills that create an effective marketer. You will learn how to better evaluate the needs of your target market and how to effectively present your product or service as a solution to those needs. Knowing how to do so will make you an in-demand professional.

4. Hone Your Analytical Skills

Strategy skills are important, but so are analytical skills. As a marketer, you will need to be able to analyze consumer behavior, both online and offline, and the data that comes from market research. Using data, you will need to be able to create a plan to reach those consumers, improve your brand’s image and increase revenue through improved sales. These are key skills to be effective in marketing, and they are a strong focus of an MBA in Marketing degree program.

5. Hone Your Communication Skills

Communication is one of the most important soft skills a marketer can have. You will need strong verbal and written communication skills so you can convey the benefit of a product or service to the people within your organization and your target market. The projects and papers completed in an MBA program will help you hone those skills, allowing you to convey concepts effectively to the people who will help you sell your product or service.

Communication skills move beyond just written and spoken words. You will also become a better listener through your MBA training. In a recent interview with Forbes, Jared Atchison of WPForms indicated being a good listener was a key component of communication. “I prefer to speak less and listen more to what others have to say,” he said. “This has had a huge impact.”

Among the benefits of an MBA program, better communication skills may be among the most important. Miscommunication in business leads to delays, and those delays can add expenses or reduce the effectiveness of marketing work. Learning to listen, provide feedback and communicate clearly will make you a more valuable professional.

6. Develop Leadership and Management Skills

A main focus of any MBA program is leadership and management skills. You are training to be a leader in business, and your classwork will teach you how to do this as effectively as possible.

There are several ways an MBA program can make you a better leader. First, these programs can teach you how to work well with others through team-oriented classroom projects.

Second, these programs will look in-depth at leadership theories and styles. From transformational leadership to servant leadership, you will learn what works and what does not for challenges in business. You will learn your strengths as a leader and how to adapt those to the needs of the people you lead. If you have areas of weakness in your leadership skills, you will be able to develop those more fully.

Finally, you will gain insight into the organizational systems that skilled managers need to use to push their employees toward success. These systems translate well into real-world business settings, giving you the ability to create a workplace where everyone can attain their goals under your leadership.

7. Higher Salary Package Potential

The potential pay range is higher for someone with an MBA in Marketing than someone with just a bachelor’s degree. The BLS indicates that a master’s degree in business has the potential to almost double salary estimates. Coursera indicates the median starting salary for MBA graduates in 2021 was $115,000, which is $40,000 higher than direct-from-industry hires and $50,000 higher than bachelor’s degree candidates. If you see yourself leading a team that handles marketing needs, then earning an MBA in Marketing is a wise choice.

This higher salary package potential adds up over the course of your business career. According to Poets and Quants, a student with an MBA can earn nearly $1 million more in their lifetime than a student with just a bachelor’s degree. That is a significant increase in earning potential.

8. Expand Your Professional Network

When you participate in an MBA program, you build a professional network. Not only do you meet classmates in your program, but you can also add alumni of the program and your professors to your professional network.

Building and maintaining those professional connections can help you further develop your network. Alumni and fellow students may know people in their professional networks that could help you meet your goals. Expanding your professional network in this way can help you find new job possibilities in the future.

9. Gain Insight into the Global Market

When you work in business, you become part of a global market. The connections you build within your professional network will be from many different parts of the global economy. This, in turn, can help you learn about consumer behavior and needs worldwide.

Similarly, an MBA in Marketing is among the most globally recognized degrees. If your future work takes you away from the United States, you will find that your professional qualifications will make you competitive in the job market, no matter where your work takes you. The versatility and leadership skills you develop in an MBA program will translate well into a wide range of cultures.

10. Stimulating Daily Challenges

The world of marketing is highly complex. You must be able to problem solve and change direction quickly when the demands of the market change. The stimulating daily challenges you work through in your MBA program will help you handle these daily challenges in the workplace.

For example, on any given day, you may be asked to perform or analyze market research, have your hand in content marketing or work on your brand communication goals. All of these are challenges that you will learn how to tackle well when you have an MBA.

11. Gain a Competitive Edge Over Other Applicants

Earning an MBA also makes you a more competitive job applicant if you are looking for advancement opportunities or career shifts. Your resume and skills will stand out from your peers, giving you greater appeal to potential employers. Many roles now require graduate-level training as an entry-level requirement, so this is a wise career move for many.

This competitive edge is true of all types of MBAs, but an MBA in Marketing may be even more advantageous. Businesses need to market effectively if they are going to succeed. If you focus your graduate training on marketing, you bring valuable skills to your future employer that could translate into higher earning potential. This, in turn, makes you a more appealing candidate when there is a sea of potential hires.

Get the Benefits of a Marketing MBA at Keiser

With so many potential benefits, the skills gained in a marketing MBA program make sense. From learning how to be an effective manager to understanding market research and analytics, these are skills that translate well into real-world business challenges.

At Keiser University, we are ready to help you achieve your career goals with robust graduate programs. Our programs include master’s, doctoral and certificate programs in a wide range of fields, including an MBA in Marketing. We also have online options for your convenience.

Our team is fully committed to your success, and we put our students first. With small class sizes and personalized instruction, we can help you achieve your goals, build your network and potentially increase your earning potential. Request info today to find the program that best fits your goals and needs.