Managing Up and Down: How Marketing Managers Can Master Communication in Their Roles

If you’re a marketer who manages from the middle, you know the struggle.

Not only do you have to manage your direct reports effectively to nurture them in their roles, but you must navigate communicating with upper management above you. In other words, you must manage up and down.

With all these crucial relationships to manage, it’s no surprise that communication is the biggest challenge marketers in the middle face.

And as our March 4 event’s speaker, Edessa Polzin, PCM, Director of Strategic Partnership, American Marketing Association, shared:

In the American Marketing Association’s Top 4 Skills Marketers Need in 2025 and Beyond report, the skill that got #1 was, you guessed it, communication.

So, how can marketers who manage from the middle hone their communications skills to excel in this particular niche? Let’s review the top tips that Edessa had for attendees of this month’s event-they are sure to inspire, whether you’re a current marketing manager or a marketing manager hopeful.

Managing Up: How to Communicate Effectively with Your Higher-Ups

First, Edessa explained that higher-ups really care about outcomes, not metrics alone. As a result, telling them that “social media engagement is up 25% this quarter” isn’t enough. You need to tie that win into a bigger-picture outcome.

To get there, Edessa presented the executive elevator pitch framework, which requires managers to address 3 key components:

1. Results
2. Impact
3. Strategic Alignment

In our social media engagement example, the answers could be:

1. Results: Social media engagement is up 25% this quarter.
2. Impact: This led to X more followers.
3. Strategic Alignment: This supports X broader marketing initiative.

To make your communication with higher-ups even more effective, Edessa presented the strategic translation checklist:

• is it tied to business revenue goals?
• Can it be quantified?
• Does it address executive priorities? If not, how can we tie it?
• Is it forward-looking?
• Can it be communicated in under 2 minutes?

Managing Down: How to Communicate Effectively with Your Direct Reports

When it comes to managing your direct reports, one of the most important things to remember is to be specific and constructive in your communications, particularly when making requests.

For instance, simply telling them, “You need to get better at content creation,” is too vague. It will leave them confused and frustrated, and the likelihood of real improvement will be low.

To avoid this, Edessa highlighted the growth conversation framework, which requires managers to address 5 key components:

1. Current State
2. Future State
3. Development Gap
4. Support Plan
5. Specific Outcome

To follow our example, this could look like:

1. Current State: The content you’ve been creating this quarter has underperformed given X data.
2. Future State: We need you to improve your content creation skills in X ways to reach X results.
3. Development Gap: You will need to take X content creation course.
4. Support Plan: You will need to meet weekly with a content expert on our team, as well as myself.
5. Specific Outcome: You will become a stronger content creator and next quarter, your content will achieve X results, which will be measured in X way.

Walking your direct report through this detailed report won’t just help them improve their skills far more effectively, but it shows them that you are invested in their success and want them to thrive in the future whether at your company or elsewhere. Having such a multifaceted approach to their improvement also effectively includes them in the process, which helps them take ownership and feel more positive about the prospect of building their skills.

To make your communication with your direct report even more effective, Edessa suggests consulting the growth support checklist:

• Is the feedback specific and actionable?
• Have you acknowledged existing strengths?
• Is there a clear connection to business goals?
• Are you providing concrete resources and support?
• Have you set measurable success metrics?
• Did you establish a reasonable timeline?
• Are there opportunities for feedback and adjustments?

Let’s keep sharing ideas

Building our communication skills as managers is a never-ending pursuit, so it’s worth keeping the conversation going by sharing new ideas and strategies with your peers.

Liked these tips? Follow Edessa on LinkedIn to hear more from her, and be sure to follow AMA-Madison to stay updated on more exciting events soon.

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