Differences: Digital Marketing & Growth Marketing Manager

In our last article, we did a summary of the different profiles that can be found in a marketing team. While smaller teams typically have only one person or two with broader functions and less-defined responsibilities, known as a generalist marketing profile, they can often develop the same tasks as a marketing director, especially if they manage external suppliers such as marketing agencies, copywriters, designers, or interns for research purposes (check here the Top skills every digital marketer should have!😏).

We have chosen two of the most common marketing positions in companies that focus on the online channel, Digital Marketing Manager and Growth Marketing Manager, and we compared the tasks and responsibilities each position would perform. As you’ll see, most of the functions are pretty similar, but a subtle difference distinguishes the two positions 🧐.

To help you understand this difference better, we’ll leave you this image.

The Digital Marketing Manager is responsible for coordinating all online acquisition and conversion channels, while the Growth Marketing Manager is also responsible for user retention and customer engagement. Additionally, the Growth Manager is typically more analytical, focused on testing and often hired by digital and technological companies that require faster growth and iterations.

Without further ado, here are the tasks and responsibilities of these positions! You can download a comparative PDF at the end for more visual comparisons.

Digital Marketing Manager (DMM)

Responsibilities: implement and develop the digital marketing strategy.

Tasks:

• Definition of digital marketing objectives.
• Initial sector and competitor analysis.
• Increasing brand visibility and reputation.
• Create and coordinate the brand's content strategy.
• Defining and coordinating the company's social media strategy.
• Coordinate the inbound marketing strategy.
• Development and implementation of digital marketing strategies.
• SEO and SEM positioning strategies.
• Analysis of results and data.
• Budget elaboration.
• Management of creative teams.
• Detection of new digital platforms.
  

Objectives: Design, implementation, and execution of digital marketing strategies to attract, retain and convert customers.

Level of responsibility: Medium-high. Management of budget, small and/or medium-sized teams, or suppliers.

Tools:

• Project Management: Trello, Monday.com, Jira, Drive, Notion, etc.
• Ads Management: AdStage, Everflow, Spyfu, Google Tag Manager, Outbrain, etc.
• Social media: Hootsuite, Buffer, Buzzsumo, Animoto, Metricool, Makezu, etc.
• Content Distribution: HARO, Listl.ly, Getlinko, Pixpa, Storify, Hunter.io, etc.
• SEO: Google Search Console, Ahrefs, GTMetrix, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, Sistrix, etc.
• Email marketing: Mailchimp, Lemlist, Omnisend, Sendinblue, Marketo, etc.
• Website: WordPress, CMS, HTML, Yoast SEO, HoneyPot Anti Spam, WP Rocket, etc.
• Data measurement: Google Analytics, Panintelligence, Outseta, Rows, etc.

Qualifications: Degree in business administration, marketing, advertising, IT, design, or journalism.

People in charge: 5-15 people.

Salary: 55.000-75.000€.

Knowledge of: Branding, social media, SEO, inbound marketing, digital advertising, email marketing, public relations, and analytics.

Skills:

• Proactive. Interested in learning new things, keeping up to date with industry news, competition, and new tools.
• Multitasking, cross-functional, able to adapt to new tasks: analyze, review, and guide a strategy.
• Leadership skills: ability to lead teams.
• Communication and interpersonal skills: good at communicating with other departments
• Problem solver: quick to find solutions.
• Creativity.
• Strategic thinker: understanding of business and marketing strategies.
• Analytical profile.

According to a recent study of the Top 25 Digital Professions prepared by UNESDI, up to 31% of the offers related to digital marketing are occupied by the Digital Marketing Manager profile.

Growth Marketing Manager

Responsibilities: Create and execute a growth plan to push a company's product or service, to a target audience through different digital channels.

Tasks:

• Finding key metrics, which represent long-term growth.
• Definition of marketing objectives in all funnel.
• Creating acquisition strategies on paid and organic channels: (SEO, SEM).
• Programmatic advertising.
• Identify growth opportunities, and test hypotheses to improve conversion rates.
• Create a sales funnel to retain traffic: activation, retention, revenue, and referral.
• Planning and execution of content campaigns.
• Alignment with product, service, and sales departments.
• Data analysis to improve performance.
• Analysis and detection of new digital platforms.
• Management of digital teams.

Objectives: Find the channels and strategies to increase revenue taking into account from awareness and acquisition to retention and referral programs.

Level of responsibility: Medium-High. Management of budget, small and/or medium-sized teams or suppliers.

Tools (with examples):

• Project Management: Trello, Monday.com, Jira, Drive, Notion, etc.
• Ads Management: AdStage, Everflow, Spyfu, Google Tag Manager, Outbrain, etc.
• Social media: Hootsuite, Metricool, Makezu, etc.
• Content Distribution: HARO, Listl.ly, Getlinko, Pixpa, Storify, Hunter.io, etc.
• SEO: Google Search Console, Ahrefs, GTMetrix, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, Sistrix, etc.
• Website: WordPress, CMS, HTML, Yoast SEO, HoneyPot Anti Spam, WP Rocket, etc.
• Data measurement: Google Analytics, Panintelligence, Outseta, Rows, etc.
• Customer analytics: Woopra, UserGuiding, Flourish, etc.
• Management Growth: TrueNorth, Drift, Userpilot, UsabilityHub, etc.

People in charge: 5-10

Qualification: They are usually profiles such as Digital Marketing Manager, Digital Planner, SEO Manager, and Social Media Manager.

Salary: 45.000€ - 60.000€.

Knowledge of: SEM/SEO, Social Ads, Social media, email marketing, Content Marketing, Creative Design, Web analytics, programmatic advertising, Funnel and phases, Big Data Technology, User Experience Principles, behavioral sciences, A/B testing.

Skills:

• Strategic thinker: understanding of business and marketing strategies.Ability to work in a team
• Adaptability and speed.
• Resilience.
• Communication and interpersonal skills: good at communicating with other departments.
• Commercial skills.
• Prioritize high-impact activities.
• Creativity.
• Organizational ability.

Digital Marketing Manager vs Growth Marketing Manager

Download the pdf with a visual comparision to check the tasks and responsabilities from a Digital Marketing Manager vs Growth Marketing Manager.

Download the pdf