Career ladder template

Marketing career ladder template

Five levels from Marketing Associate to VP of Marketing, across six competencies from shipping campaigns to owning growth.

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This career ladder is written for marketing teams in companies of roughly 20 to 200 people, where a few marketers cover content, campaigns, events and analytics between them, and the whole team sits close to sales and product. It describes five levels, from someone in their first marketing role to the person who leads marketing for the company. Its top level, VP of Marketing, is the head of the marketing function rather than an individual-contributor level.

Levels are defined by what a person does and how far their work reaches, not by their channel or their years of experience. Read a row of the competency matrix from left to right to see one expectation grow from running a task to setting the direction. Use it to compare specialists who work in very different channels, to structure check-ins, and to make promotion cases that rest on outcomes rather than activity.

Treat it as a starting point. Match the levels to your titles, drop the ones your team does not need yet, and rewrite the expectations so that they describe your market and your channels before you share the ladder with the team.

The levels at a glance

Marketing Associate
Executes defined marketing tasks — posts, emails, event logistics, reports — and learns the company's audience and tools.
Scope
Individual tasks inside campaigns planned by someone more experienced.
Marketing Manager
Owns one channel or programme end to end, from plan to results, and runs campaigns independently.
Scope
One channel or programme, such as email, content, paid search, webinars or partner marketing.
Senior Marketing Manager
Leads multi-channel campaigns and launches, and shapes how the company talks about its product.
Scope
Several channels, major product launches and the messaging behind them, often with freelancers or junior colleagues.
Head of Marketing
Runs the marketing team and owns its plan, budget and contribution to the company's pipeline and brand.
Scope
The whole marketing team, its budget and its targets, shared with sales and leadership.
VP of Marketing
Sets the company's go-to-market direction with the leadership team and builds a marketing organisation that delivers it.
Scope
Marketing across every segment and market, its leaders, and its role in company strategy.

Competency matrix

Each row is a competency and each column a level. Read a row from left to right to see how the expectation grows.

What each competency means

Positioning and messaging: Knowing the audience and explaining why the product matters to them better than the alternatives do.
Campaign execution: Planning and shipping campaigns on time, with the right quality and a clear goal.
Content and creative: Producing content, copy and creative work that people actually read, watch and act on.
Measurement and analytics: Knowing what marketing work produces and using the numbers to decide what to do next.
Sales and product partnership: Working with sales, product and customer teams so that marketing serves the whole funnel.
Planning, budget and team: Turning goals into plans and budgets, and growing the people who carry them out.

Marketing Manager: expectations by competency and level
Competency	Marketing Associate	Marketing Manager	Senior Marketing Manager	Head of Marketing	VP of Marketing
Positioning and messaging	Uses the agreed messaging correctly in everything they produce, knows the main customer segments, and collects examples of how customers describe the product.	Adapts the core messaging to their channel and audience, tests variants of headlines and offers, and keeps notes on what resonates with which segment.	Writes the messaging for launches and new segments, grounded in customer interviews, sales calls and competitor analysis, and gets product and sales to use it.	Owns the company's positioning: decides which segments to focus on, keeps the story consistent across website, sales materials and campaigns, and revisits it when the market changes.	Sets positioning and category strategy with the leadership team, and makes sure the product, pricing and sales approach tell the same story.
Campaign execution	Delivers assigned campaign tasks on schedule, follows checklists for launches and sends, and catches errors such as broken links or wrong audiences before they go out.	Plans and runs campaigns in their channel from brief to results, sets a measurable goal for each one, and coordinates design, content and tools without being chased.	Leads campaigns and launches that span several channels and teams, sequences the work so that the important parts ship first, and adjusts the plan as early results arrive.	Builds the team's quarterly campaign calendar around company goals, balances quick wins with long-term programmes, and holds the team accountable for results.	Decides the major programmes and bets for the year, and makes sure marketing can execute them at the scale the company's growth plan requires.
Content and creative	Writes clear first drafts of posts, emails and landing-page copy, applies the brand guidelines, and takes editing feedback into the next draft.	Produces finished content for their channel with little editing, briefs designers and freelancers clearly, and reuses strong pieces across formats.	Owns flagship content — guides, reports, launch pages, webinars — and edits others' work to a consistent standard.	Sets the content strategy and the brand standards, decides what the team produces in-house and what it outsources, and keeps quality high as volume grows.	Owns the brand as a company asset, and makes sure creative and content investment supports the company's market position over several years.
Measurement and analytics	Pulls standard reports from the marketing tools, sets up tracking links and tags correctly, and notices when numbers look wrong.	Reports the results of their channel against its goals, explains what changed and why, and runs simple tests to improve conversion.	Connects campaign results to pipeline and revenue, designs experiments with a clear hypothesis, and stops work that does not pay off.	Defines the team's metrics and attribution approach with sales, reports marketing's contribution to leadership every month, and moves budget based on results.	Answers for marketing's return on investment to the executive team and the board, and builds the data and tools the organisation needs to plan reliably.
Sales and product partnership	Answers requests from sales and product quickly, shares campaign schedules with the teams they affect, and asks customer-facing colleagues what they hear.	Agrees lead handoff and follow-up with sales for their programmes, creates the materials sales asks for, and joins sales or support calls to learn from customers.	Plans launches with product from the start, builds sales enablement for new features and segments, and resolves disagreements about leads and priorities with data.	Shares pipeline targets with the head of sales, agrees definitions of a qualified lead, and is product's main partner on pricing, packaging and launches.	Builds the go-to-market model with sales, product and customer success leaders, so that the company acquires, converts and keeps customers as one system.
Planning, budget and team	Keeps their own tasks and deadlines visible, flags conflicts early, and asks for feedback on their work.	Plans and tracks the budget for their channel, manages agencies or freelancers within it, and helps onboard new colleagues.	Plans the resources for large campaigns, mentors one or two marketers, and gives specific feedback on their work.	Writes the yearly marketing plan and budget, hires and develops the team, holds regular 1:1s, and decides which roles to fill in-house and which to outsource.	Designs the marketing organisation as the company grows, develops the leaders who run its teams, and sets the marketing budget as part of company planning.

Scroll the table sideways to see every level.

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Marketing Associate: what is expected

Executes defined marketing tasks — posts, emails, event logistics, reports — and learns the company's audience and tools. Individual tasks inside campaigns planned by someone more experienced.

Positioning and messaging: Uses the agreed messaging correctly in everything they produce, knows the main customer segments, and collects examples of how customers describe the product.
Campaign execution: Delivers assigned campaign tasks on schedule, follows checklists for launches and sends, and catches errors such as broken links or wrong audiences before they go out.
Content and creative: Writes clear first drafts of posts, emails and landing-page copy, applies the brand guidelines, and takes editing feedback into the next draft.
Measurement and analytics: Pulls standard reports from the marketing tools, sets up tracking links and tags correctly, and notices when numbers look wrong.
Sales and product partnership: Answers requests from sales and product quickly, shares campaign schedules with the teams they affect, and asks customer-facing colleagues what they hear.
Planning, budget and team: Keeps their own tasks and deadlines visible, flags conflicts early, and asks for feedback on their work.

Marketing Manager: what is expected

Owns one channel or programme end to end, from plan to results, and runs campaigns independently. One channel or programme, such as email, content, paid search, webinars or partner marketing.

Positioning and messaging: Adapts the core messaging to their channel and audience, tests variants of headlines and offers, and keeps notes on what resonates with which segment.
Campaign execution: Plans and runs campaigns in their channel from brief to results, sets a measurable goal for each one, and coordinates design, content and tools without being chased.
Content and creative: Produces finished content for their channel with little editing, briefs designers and freelancers clearly, and reuses strong pieces across formats.
Measurement and analytics: Reports the results of their channel against its goals, explains what changed and why, and runs simple tests to improve conversion.
Sales and product partnership: Agrees lead handoff and follow-up with sales for their programmes, creates the materials sales asks for, and joins sales or support calls to learn from customers.
Planning, budget and team: Plans and tracks the budget for their channel, manages agencies or freelancers within it, and helps onboard new colleagues.

Senior Marketing Manager: what is expected

Leads multi-channel campaigns and launches, and shapes how the company talks about its product. Several channels, major product launches and the messaging behind them, often with freelancers or junior colleagues.

Positioning and messaging: Writes the messaging for launches and new segments, grounded in customer interviews, sales calls and competitor analysis, and gets product and sales to use it.
Campaign execution: Leads campaigns and launches that span several channels and teams, sequences the work so that the important parts ship first, and adjusts the plan as early results arrive.
Content and creative: Owns flagship content — guides, reports, launch pages, webinars — and edits others' work to a consistent standard.
Measurement and analytics: Connects campaign results to pipeline and revenue, designs experiments with a clear hypothesis, and stops work that does not pay off.
Sales and product partnership: Plans launches with product from the start, builds sales enablement for new features and segments, and resolves disagreements about leads and priorities with data.
Planning, budget and team: Plans the resources for large campaigns, mentors one or two marketers, and gives specific feedback on their work.

Head of Marketing: what is expected

Runs the marketing team and owns its plan, budget and contribution to the company's pipeline and brand. The whole marketing team, its budget and its targets, shared with sales and leadership.

Positioning and messaging: Owns the company's positioning: decides which segments to focus on, keeps the story consistent across website, sales materials and campaigns, and revisits it when the market changes.
Campaign execution: Builds the team's quarterly campaign calendar around company goals, balances quick wins with long-term programmes, and holds the team accountable for results.
Content and creative: Sets the content strategy and the brand standards, decides what the team produces in-house and what it outsources, and keeps quality high as volume grows.
Measurement and analytics: Defines the team's metrics and attribution approach with sales, reports marketing's contribution to leadership every month, and moves budget based on results.
Sales and product partnership: Shares pipeline targets with the head of sales, agrees definitions of a qualified lead, and is product's main partner on pricing, packaging and launches.
Planning, budget and team: Writes the yearly marketing plan and budget, hires and develops the team, holds regular 1:1s, and decides which roles to fill in-house and which to outsource.

VP of Marketing: what is expected

Sets the company's go-to-market direction with the leadership team and builds a marketing organisation that delivers it. Marketing across every segment and market, its leaders, and its role in company strategy.

Positioning and messaging: Sets positioning and category strategy with the leadership team, and makes sure the product, pricing and sales approach tell the same story.
Campaign execution: Decides the major programmes and bets for the year, and makes sure marketing can execute them at the scale the company's growth plan requires.
Content and creative: Owns the brand as a company asset, and makes sure creative and content investment supports the company's market position over several years.
Measurement and analytics: Answers for marketing's return on investment to the executive team and the board, and builds the data and tools the organisation needs to plan reliably.
Sales and product partnership: Builds the go-to-market model with sales, product and customer success leaders, so that the company acquires, converts and keeps customers as one system.
Planning, budget and team: Designs the marketing organisation as the company grows, develops the leaders who run its teams, and sets the marketing budget as part of company planning.

How to adapt this ladder

Start with the levels you have
A company with two or three marketers usually needs Associate, Manager and Senior Manager. Add a Head of Marketing when someone owns the plan and the budget, and a VP only when marketing has several teams and its own leaders. Senior Marketing Manager can be a long-term level for specialists who do not want a team; add a Principal or Lead Marketer level only when someone sets direction across channels without managing.
Keep channel titles, share the levels
Content marketer, performance marketer and product marketer can all sit on these levels. Keep the specialist titles if you like them, but judge everyone against the same expectations of scope and independence.
Rewrite the Partnership row for your sales motion
With a sales team, marketing is judged partly on pipeline and lead quality; with self-serve sign-ups, it is judged on activation and revenue. Rewrite that row so the expectations match how your customers actually buy.
Ask for results, not activity
When a manager places someone on the ladder, ask for a campaign and its results rather than a list of things shipped. If a cell cannot be backed by an example from the last six months, the wording needs to be more concrete.

FAQ

Questions about this ladder

How many levels does a marketing career ladder need at a small company?

Three or four are usually enough for a company of 20 to 200 people: an entry level, an owner of one channel, a senior level that leads cross-channel work, and a head of marketing. Add a VP only when marketing has several teams with their own leads.

Is a marketing manager expected to manage people?

Not necessarily. At many small companies Marketing Manager means someone who owns a channel or programme, without direct reports. Say it explicitly in your ladder, and keep a senior individual path so that strong specialists do not have to take on a team to grow.

How do we compare content, performance and product marketers on one ladder?

Compare scope, independence and impact rather than channel skills. A senior content marketer and a senior performance marketer both lead work across several channels, set their own goals and connect their results to pipeline — the channels they use to get there are different.

Should marketing promotions depend on hitting pipeline or revenue targets?

Targets are good evidence, but only part of the case. Results depend on the product, the market and sales follow-up. Use targets alongside the competencies in this ladder: a marketer who misses a target but learns quickly and changes course may be ready, and one who hits it by luck may not.

When should a startup hire its first head of marketing?

Usually when the founders can no longer own positioning and the marketing plan themselves, or when two or three marketers need someone to set priorities and budget. Hiring a head of marketing before there is a team or a repeatable channel often means paying a leader to do hands-on work. Founders sometimes look for a CMO at this stage, but a company this size usually needs a head of marketing first; the CMO title fits once marketing has several teams and a seat in company strategy.

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