Nearly every brand has a product, service or message to promote. Often, if not all of the time, this duty falls to skilled marketing professionals.
For this reason, marketing has become a key component of running a successful business. Marketing also takes on varies activities and continues to evolve.
South Africa has some of the most talented marketers in the world and our professionals are sought after the world over. As such a career in marketing can provide you with several benefits. One of which is a high-paying job.
Marketing today has two main career routes one can follow, sometimes even overlapping with one another.
These are the ever more popular digital marketing route, and the older traditional marketing route.
Your renumeration is directly correlated with your education level and experience.
The nice thing about marketing is that entry-level courses are not as expensive as degrees and can still land you the same position in many cases as someone who does have a marketing-related degree.
This is especially true for digital marketing, where most resources are even free from platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Being able to showcase your proficiency in understanding key marketing concepts and the most used tools and software paired with demonstratable experience such as your own blog or social media account can set you apart in the industry.
We took a look at some of the most popular jobs portals including Indeed, LinkedIn, and Payscale, to put together realist data on income and what to expect in your role for these high paying marketing jobs.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of jobs many of which overlap. A digital marketer may be responsible for all the areas mentioned below but many marketers choose a specialty below.
Digital marketing interns starting out can expect to earn around R4,500 – R12,500, and R180,000+ during their first year post-internship.
The average digital marketer in South Africa according Indeed to earns R360,889 per year.
Search engine optimisation
The first high paying marketing job is search engine optimisation, or SEO. SEOs are are responsible for optimising a website to perform the best it can on search engine result pages like Google, Bing or even YouTube.
SEOs need to be skilled at understanding content and the ins and out of user experience. More advanced technical skills and a knowledge of web design and programming basics will put you in demand in South Africa and internationally.
The average digital marketer in South Africa according Indeed to earns R267,465 per year.
Paid media
Paid media managers manage paid advertising on platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and LinkedIn for example.
Also known as media buyers or Pay Per Click (PPC) specialists, these digital marketing professionals need to understand the platforms they advertise on and how to effectively manage and optimise campaigns.
The average paid media manager in South Africa according Indeed to earns R174,242 per year.
Data and analytics
With thousands of users interacting with web pages every single day, businesses require skilled analytics analysts to implement tracking across their digital footprint and track and report user activity across all digital touchpoints.
Data and information are used to for key decision making, and for this reason analytics and data professionals are some of the highest paid digital marketing professionals.
The average analytics specialist in South Africa according Indeed to earns R419,479 per year.
Social media marketing
Billions of people use social media, making it the ideal place for brands to connect and build communities to foster loyal relationships with their customers and acquire new prospective customers.
Social media marketers are generally responsible for developing and implementing social media marketing strategies and plans, developing and overseeing the rollout of social media content calendars community management which can involve setting up chat bots or manually responding to users on social media platforms.
The average social media marketer in South Africa according Indeed to earns R267,360 per year.
Copywriting
While, artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT is becoming increasingly popular to use for content development, skilled copywriters help brands develop and maintain a specific tone of voice paired with high-level ad copy to effectively communicate messages and ideas with the brand’s customers.
The average copywriter in South Africa according Indeed to earns R324,859 per year.
Traditional marketing
Traditional marketing is still very much alive today and involves real world marketing strategies which fuel word of mouth and is heavily focused on the consumer.
Take billboards or any outdoor advertisements for example which are strategically placed for the right audience to see it.
Another example is product placement and packaging design which is evidently showcased every time you step inside a store. Traditional marketing revolves primarily around product, price, place, and promotion.
Sales
Sales is a great marketing job opportunity as you learn to interact and persuade people to purchase products and services. Sales representatives or sales managers can earn high commissions on their sales in addition to their base sales, making it a popular career choice for many marketers.
The average sales manager in South Africa according Indeed to earns R178,650 per year.
Marketing management
Marketing managers oversee the operations and delivery of a marketing team so ensure that deliverables are completed on time and that marketing workflows are optimised and KPIs are achieved, while also being the main channel for communication between consultants and the implementation team.
The average marketing manager in South Africa according Indeed to earns R430,078 per year.
Consumer behavior
Last, but not limited to, consumer behaviour specialists research consumer buying patterns and the psychology behind their purchasing decisions as well as their actions after in order to tailor a brand or its products and services to better align with research gained, which helps the brand better position itself to new prospective customers.
The average consumer behaviour specialist in South Africa according Indeed to earns R190,835 per year.
Remember these are averages and are generally a good point for a starting salary reference. One needs to factor in experience and any additional benefits that you may receive.