Occupation:

This occupation is found in every sector and industry including manufacturing, retail, IT, automotive, service industries (financial services, health care, professional services, etc), and across large, medium and small commercial, public sector and not-for-profit organisations. Roles can sit within a specific company/agency that provides marketing deliverables and advice to external clients, or within an internal marketing team, delivering marketing activities to drive that business.

Role Profile:

Role Profile: The broad purpose of the occupation is to support customer focussed marketing activities that drive the demand for a product or service through awareness-raising and/or perception-building to generate results to the bottom line. As part of the Marketing team, the Marketing Assistant will contribute to the implementation of the Marketing strategy and plans. They will be responsible for delivering day-to-day marketing activities across a multitude of platforms, channels and systems that are essential to the Marketing function and activities of the company.

It is typically the entry route for many Marketing professionals who progress their career into more senior marketing positions. In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a wide range of internal colleagues and external marketing suppliers. Depending on the size and structure of the organisation, this could include collaboration with colleagues from sales, operations, PR, IT, the customer insight team and finance as well as interaction externally with clients/customers and suppliers such as printers, digital agencies, PR and media agencies, event display companies, market research agencies, and media sales professionals.

The role is likely to be primarily office-based, although they may spend time away from the office attending exhibitions and events, meetings with external marketing suppliers, marketing research suppliers, visiting clients, trade shows, or supporting research activities. An employee in this occupation will be responsible for coordinating and delivering specific marketing activities which could include, but are not limited to, marketing content creation, background market and customer research, monitoring campaign analytic and collecting data, using relevant marketing software/systems, maintaining marketing administration activities such as managing the supply of marketing literature, tracking marketing expenditure, supporting the procurement of, and overseeing the delivery of work by external and internal marketing suppliers. The level of supervision is likely to vary for each employer, with the level of autonomy varying by size of organisation and marketing function. Typically, they would be the first point of contact for day-to-day activities in the marketing function and supervised by a member of staff with greater marketing skills, knowledge and experience.

Depending on the size of the organisation and its Marketing function, the Marketing Assistant may report into a Marketing Executive, a Marketing Manager, Marketing Director or (in small organisations) a Sales/Operational Manager or Managing Director.

Typical Job Titles:

• Brand Assistant
• Marketing Assistant
• Marketing Campaigns Assistant
• Marketing Communications Assistant
• Promotional Assistant

Duty 1

Create and edit content in collaboration with senior colleagues for offline and/or digital marketing channels, such as website, social media, sales materials or event displays, ensuring that brand guidelines are met in order to achieve marketing objectives.

K2 K3 K7 K10 K11 K16 K17 K18

S2 S3 S4 S7 S8 S9
B1 B2 B3 B7 B8 B9

Duty 2
Publish editorial, creative and video content via social media or video-sharing platforms, e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

K2 K3 K7 K10 K11 K17 K18

S2 S3 S4 S8 S9
B1 B2 B4 B7 B9

Duty 3

Specify, purchase and quality assure marketing goods and services from external suppliers e.g., place a brochure print order, book exhibition space, book media space.

K1 K3 K5 K9 K15
S6 S9 S10
B2 B4 B6 B7 B8

Duty 4

Manage the cataloguing of offline and digital marketing assets including permissions and compliance, in-line with marketing regulations and legislation, e.g., storage and organisation of marketing materials, administering creative asset management systems.

K2 K3 K8 K16

S5 S11
B4 B7 B8

Duty 5
Monitor and evaluate marketing delivery effectiveness by producing and interpreting reports from one or more marketing tools or systems, e.g., marketing automation report; social media monitoring report; analytics and metrics reports, budget tracker.

K2 K3 K4 K6 K12 K13 K14 K18

S1 S10 S11 S12 S13

B1 B3 B5 B7

Duty 6
Contribute to the planning, delivery or evaluation of marketing activity through creation of written planning and evaluation documents and presentations, e.g., marketing campaign results, market and customer intelligence research, update marketing plan.

K1 K3 K5 K6 K8 K14

S1 S10 S11 S12 S13

B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B9

Duty 7

Use content management software to publish and refresh effective online content to engage with different customer segments.

K2 K3 K4 K7 K10 K11 K17 K18

S2 S3 S7 S8 S9

Duty 8

Use appropriate primary and secondary research methods including survey tools and desktop research to gather marketing insight or evaluation, and inform marketing decisions, planning and delivery.

K2 K3 K4 K6 K7 K14

S1 S10 S11 S12 S13

B1 B2 B3 B5 B7

Duty 9

Monitor marketing expenditure and activities to a specified budget and plan, ensuring invoices are processed efficiently.

K5 K8 K9 K15

S11

B2 B4 B7

Duty 10
Efficiently and effectively source creative assets (photographs, graphically designed creative, video content) for the production of marketing communication collateral in-line with regulations and legislation.

TK2 K3 K7 K9 K16

S5 S6 S8 S10

B1 B2 B4 B7 B8 B9

Duty 11

Establish and maintain effective day to day relationships and communication between the marketing function and internal and external stakeholders to support marketing activities.

K5 K8 K9 K12

S9 S10 S12

B1 B4 B5 B6 B8

Duty 12
Implement marketing activities through marketing administration, e.g., organise an exhibition display, arrange a marketing meeting, organising an event.

K1 K5 K7 K8 K9 K10 K15

S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S11 S12 S13

B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8

KSBs

Knowledge

K1

Marketing theory, concepts and basic principles e.g., what marketing is, the marketing mix (7Ps: product, price, place, promotion, physical environment, process, people), the promotional mix and the difference between its elements (advertising, sales, public relations etc), what a marketing plan is.

K2

MCurrent technologies such as systems and software, that can help deliver effective marketing planning (research), delivery and evaluation.

K3

Legislation and regulatory frameworks affecting marketing operations, e.g., General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)/e-privacy, trading laws, copyright law, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

K4

Principles of Marketing ethics such as targeting vulnerable adults and children; principles of conducting marketing communications in a legal, decent and honest manner, advertising being clearly differentiated from news/entertainment, ensuring consumer data is never compromised and marketing strategies avoid stereotyping.

K5

The Internal dependencies that positively and negatively influence the success of marketing, e.g., IT, finance, sales, operations.

K6

Primary and secondary research and the different sources of primary and secondary research data.

K7

Brand theory (positioning/value/identity/guidelines) to a basic level.

K8

How marketing fits within organisational structures and processes.

K9

How to brief and manage external marketing suppliers, and an understanding of the risks to ineffective briefing/management.

K10

Copywriting and proofreading techniques.

K11

Search engine optimisation techniques and effective video production and publishing practice.

K12

The benefits of a customer relationship management system.

K13

The benefits of marketing automation processes and systems.

K14

The metrics relevant to the delivery and evaluation of marketing activity, and an understanding of which are most relevant to that activity.

K15

Budgeting principles and good procurement practice.

K16

Importance of planning and maintaining offline and digital assets..

K17

Awareness of social media platforms appropriate to customer and business segments.

K18

The customer journey and the customer segments relevant to their market.

Skills

S1

Use research/survey software to gather audience insight and/or evaluation.

S2

Applying creativity to use a website content management system to publish text, images and video/animated content.

S3

Use a social media platform to publish text, images and video content.

S4

Use high volume email delivery software to acquire and/or retain one or more market segments and understand the response.

S5

Organise offline and digital assets in a coordinated and legally compliant way (there may be several pieces of legislation that a Marketing Assistant may need to comply with, these should be relevant to the sector they work in and the type of activity. Examples include GDPR; Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008; Consumer Credit Act; Copyright, Designs and Patents Act).

S6

Able to compile briefs for an external marketing supplier (e.g., printer/display stand producer/graphic designer etc) and oversee successful delivery in-line with specification.

S7

Write persuasive text to meet a marketing communications objective, using common copywriting techniques such as adapting writing style to ensure it is appropriate to different channels in-line with organisational brand guidelines.

S8

Proofread marketing copy to ensure that it is accurate, persuasive and legally compliant and is on-brand.

S9

Able to plan and coordinate a marketing activity (external and/or internal) comprising several different marketing tactics to acquire or retain one or more customer segments. Carries out the tasks within known resources.

S10

Analyse and present defined external and internal marketing data to inform discussions about planning, delivery and/or evaluation of marketing activities/brand performance.

S11

Spreadsheets - create and maintain spreadsheets using common business software, e.g., Excel, Numbers, in support of marketing activities (such as project/budget planning and monitoring, and to support organisation of marketing assets)

S12

Presentations - compile and present marketing information (e.g., to inform internal stakeholders of the results of a marketing tactic or present ideas for future marketing tactics) using common business software, e.g., PowerPoint. Basic presentation skills to deliver these findings.

S13

Compile a report from marketing systems/software, e.g., CRM, Google Analytics, Dotmailer.

Behaviours

Duration

Typically, 12 to 14 months.

Qualifications

English and Maths

Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.

Professional Recognition

This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:

• Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) for this apprenticeship is designed to meet the requirements for registration as an Affiliate Member with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Occupational Level

3

Duration

18 Months

Review

This apprenticeship standard will be reviewed after 3 years.

Typical Job Titles:

• Marketing Executive
• Marketing Officer
• Marketing and Communications Officer
• Marketing Specialist
• Communications Executive
• Communications Specialist

• The fundamentals of marketing theory that support the marketing process e.g., the extended marketing mix (7P’S: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Physical environment, Process, People), product development, and segmentation
• The concepts of brand positioning and management and implementing process to support corporate reputation
• The principles of stakeholder management and customer relationship management (CRM), both internal and external, to facilitate effective cross-functional relationships internally, and channel and customer relationships externally.

Business Understanding and Commercial Awareness

• The characteristics and plans of the business and sector they work within, including their vision and values
• How marketing contributes to achieving wider business objectives
• The target audience’s decision-making process and how that can influence marketing activities
• The sector-specific legal, regulatory and compliance frameworks within which they must work, including current Data Protection regulations.

Market Research

• The principles of effective market research and how this can influence marketing activity e.g., valid data collection sources and methodologies and usage, including digital sources, and when to use quantitative and qualitative methods.

Products and Channels

• Basic principles of product development and product/service portfolios
• The marketing landscape and how routes to market interplay most efficiently, e.g., franchise model, distribution
• The features and benefits of different marketing communications channels and media, both digital and offline, and when and how to apply these.

Marketing Campaigns

• Coordinate and maintain key marketing channels (both digital and offline)
• Plan and deliver tactical campaigns against SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) objectives
• Manage the production and distribution of marketing materials, e.g., digital, print and video content as appropriate.

Interpersonal and Communications Skills

•  Produce a wide range of creative and effective communications, including ability to write and proofread clear and innovative copy, project briefs, and give confident presentations
• Able to engage and collaborate with a wide range of clients/stakeholders, across departments internally and with clients/suppliers externally to support marketing outcomes as required.

Service Delivery

• Use good project and time management to deliver projects/tasks/events as appropriate, effectively. Including the ability to divide time effectively between reporting, planning and delivery
• Coordinate several marketing campaigns/projects/events to agreed deadlines
• Effectively liaise with, and manage, internal and external stakeholders including suppliers to deliver required outcomes.

Budget Management

• Monitor project budgets within their scope of work using appropriate systems and controls.

Evaluation and Analysis

• Evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by choosing the appropriate digital and offline data sources.
• Assimilate and analyse data and information from a range of sources to support marketing activities
• Evaluate data and research findings to derive insights to support improvements to future campaigns.

Systems and Processes

• Use appropriate technologies to deliver marketing outcomes e.g., digital/web analytics, social media, CRM.

Behaviour

The Marketing Executive is able to demonstrate:

Agility and Flexibility

• A tenacious and driven approach to see projects through to completion
• Being a proven ‘self-starter’ and have an adaptable approach to meet changing work priorities.

Creative Thinking

• A creative and analytical mind, with a willingness to think of new ways of doing things
• They come up with ideas and solutions to support the delivery of their work.

Resilience and Continuous Improvement

• A willingness to learn from mistakes, as not all activities go to plan, and improve their own performance as a result.

Professionalism and Emotional Intelligence

• A high level of professionalism, reliability and dependability with a passion for the customer
• A collaborative approach is central to how they work, showing empathy and being mindful of the needs/views of others
• Ethical behaviour in the way they approach marketing activities and their work, valuing equality & diversity.

Duration

The typical duration of this apprenticeship is 15 – 21 months.

Entry Requirements

Entry requirements will be determined by individual employers

Qualifications

Apprentices without Level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the end-point assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeships English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3, and British Sign Language qualifications are an alternative to English qualifications for those whom this is their primary language.

Link to Professional Registration and Progression

This apprenticeship is designed to meet the requirements for registration as an Affiliate Member with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Level

This is a Level 4 apprenticeship..

Review Date

This qualification will be reviewed after 3 years.

Typical Job Titles

• Marketing Manager
• Marketing and Communications Manager
• Corporate Communications Manager
• Product/Proposition Manager
• Insight/Innovations Manager

Marketing Concepts and Theories

• The principles and theories of marketing that support the strategic marketing process, e.g., the extended marketing mix (7P’S: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Physical environment, Process, People), marketing management processes, product development and how to apply and align these to the business plan and strategic objectives.
• Brand development and safeguarding, including the analysis and planning of how a brand is perceived in the market, value propositions and delivery of tangible elements such as product pricing, packaging etc.
• Consumer and organisational behaviour theories and concepts, including the customer (business 2 business/consumer) decision-making process and how that influences marketing strategy
• Advanced stakeholder management and the application of customer relationship management (CRM), both internal and external, to facilitate the delivery of marketing plans.
• Marketing communication planning models and budgetary methodologies.

Business Understanding and Commercial Awareness

• Their organisation’s vision, mission, values, strategy, plans, stakeholders, customers and competitors to support the decision and planning process
• The wider business perspective in which marketing operates nationally and internationally, including the influences of the internal and external market/sector, the opportunities, challenges and issues it faces, and how marketing can address these
• How to measure and deliver Return on Investment in relation to marketing activities and plans
• The relevant industry/sector-specific legal, regulatory and compliance frameworks within which they must work, including current Data Protection regulations.

• Effective market research and evaluation techniques and methods and how to use the results to inform marketing planning and activities
• Reliable information sources and how to use these to deliver measurable improvements to marketing activities, including how metrics are used to measure these
• New and emerging trends and themes in marketing.

Products and Service Development

• The principles of product and service design and implementation and portfolio management
• The features and benefits of different marketing communications, and routes to market, and how to leverage these to maximum effect, including the use of appropriate digital channels and systems.

Marketing Strategy

• Lead and implement a clear marketing plan and strategy, linked to business requirements to sustain a marketing advantage
• Develop effective marketing campaigns and channels, assessing their features and benefits to best meet business requirements and customer needs
• Develop detailed integrated marketing plans for all products/ services using offline and digital media tools - works with marketing team/ specialist agencies to do this.

Advanced Interpersonal and Communications Skills

• Influence, negotiate and persuade at senior level collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders internally and externally to gain support/backing for marketing delivery
• Act as a consultant, providing professional marketing advice to stakeholders around the business or to external clients as relevant
• Present complex information in an understandable and stimulating way whether through effective verbal presentation or creative written copy.

Service Delivery and Improvement

• Oversee, manage and approve key marketing activities/projects
• Deliver measurable marketing outcomes against key performance indicators and identify and drive continuous improvement, challenging existing processes and procedures where needed.

Planning and Analysis

• Effectively evaluate marketing activities using measurement data and analytics to identify relevant key performance indicators (KPI) and return on marketing investment (ROI) in order to meet business objectives
• Assimilate and analyse complex data and information from a range of sources to evolve, lead and plan marketing activities.

Commercial Approach

• Seek out opportunities to increase income generation and gain new business e.g., new products, markets and services as relevant
• Construct a robust business case in support of marketing activities/plans
• Effectively manage and develop stakeholder relationships at senior level
• Assess business risks and reputational impacts of marketing activities.

Leadership

• Inspire and motivate internally and externally to deliver marketing plans effectively, acting as a role-model for marketing best practice and taking responsibility for improving their own and the team’s and/or stakeholder performance, as relevant.

Systems and Processes

• Actively interrogate systems and information sources to make judgements on when to introduce new ways of working/identify new systems/processes to improve marketing activities or address those new requirements and /or marketing trends.

Behaviour – The Marketing Executive is able to demonstrate:

Agility and Flexibility

• An ability to anticipate and adapt to change
• A highly motivated and driven approach acting with courage to drive through necessary changes and deliver difficult or long-term projects.

Creative and Commercial Thinking

• A creative and innovative approach
• An analytical mind, with an insight and ideas-driven approach to meet business benefits and inspire action in others.

Resilience and Continuous Improvement

• A willingness to learn from mistakes, as not all activities go to plan, and improve future delivery/campaigns as a result
• They act as a role model for marketing activities and business changes within the team and organisation, taking others with them.

Professionalism and Emotional Intelligence

• A collaborative approach is central to how they work, showing empathy and being mindful of the needs/views of others
• Ethical behaviour in the way they approach marketing activities and their work, valuing equality & diversity, they act as a role model for that behaviour.

Duration

The typical duration of this apprenticeship is 24 – 30 months.

Entry Requirements

Entry requirements will be determined by individual employers

Qualifications

Apprentices without Level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the end-point assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeships English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3, and British Sign Language qualifications are an alternative to English qualifications for those whom this is their primary language.

Link to Professional Registration and Progression

This apprenticeship is designed to meet the requirements for registration as an Affiliate Member with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Level

This is a Level 6 apprenticeship.

Review Date

This qualification will be reviewed after 3 years.