Trainee Marketing Manager – Graduate Scheme 2026
Glasgow City Centre | Full-time | Competitive salary, dependent on experience
Are you a recent graduate looking for a career that combines marketing, customer behaviour, business development and management?
If you're keen to move beyond theory and gain practical experience in how marketing campaigns perform in the real world, this graduate opportunity offers a structured route into management.
Sage is looking for ambitious graduates to join its Glasgow team and develop an understanding of marketing from the customer-facing side through to campaign coordination and management.
You'll gain practical experience supporting campaigns for established brands including BT/EE, British Gas and E.ON, while developing the commercial and leadership skills required to progress within the business.
About the business
Ascenda Global is a Glasgow-based marketing company specialising in face-to-face customer acquisition, brand representation and promotional campaigns.
Working directly with customers provides the team with immediate insight into how people respond to different brands, messages and approaches. Customer questions, objections, engagement levels and campaign results can all provide valuable information when assessing performance.
As the business continues to grow its campaign portfolio, we're looking for future managers who understand both sides of the operation: the customer-facing activity and the commercial responsibilities involved in managing teams and client relationships.
The Graduate Scheme
The Trainee Marketing Manager programme is designed to develop your knowledge progressively.
You'll begin by gaining practical experience of campaign delivery and learning how Marketing Executives communicate with customers and represent client brands.
As you develop, you'll move into areas including:
- Campaign performance and reporting
- Customer behaviour analysis
- Team coaching and development
- Campaign coordination
- Performance management
- Client requirements and account management
- Leadership and business operations
The aim is to develop managers who understand the work their teams perform before taking responsibility for leading them.
Your responsibilities
Your role will develop as your experience increases. Initially, you can expect to:
- Represent client campaigns and engage directly with customers
- Develop an understanding of different customer groups and their responses to marketing messages
- Identify common questions, objections and purchasing motivations
- Record campaign results and communicate relevant findings to management
- Learn how Marketing Executives are trained, supported and assessed
- Assist with promotional activity across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands
- Review campaign performance alongside senior members of the team
- Develop an understanding of client objectives and campaign requirements
- Support the training and development of newer team members
- Progress towards managing Marketing Executives across live campaigns
- Build commercial knowledge around client relationships and campaign planning
Turning customer interactions into insight
An important part of the programme is understanding how real customer interactions can inform marketing decisions.
For example, you may identify that a particular message consistently generates stronger engagement, that customers in one location respond differently to another audience, or that the same objection repeatedly appears during conversations.
You'll learn how to recognise these patterns, communicate your findings and understand their wider implications for campaign performance and business development.
This combination of customer insight, performance analysis and people management forms a key part of the management development process.
Developing as a manager
As you progress, your focus will gradually move from delivering campaigns yourself towards developing and managing others.
You'll receive training and experience in areas such as:
- Leading campaign briefings
- Setting daily priorities
- Coaching team members on customer communication
- Reviewing individual and team performance
- Providing constructive feedback
- Identifying development opportunities
- Coordinating people and resources across campaign locations
- Analysing campaign information and reporting results
- Understanding client requirements and contractual objectives
- Building professional relationships with management and client representatives
Additional responsibility will be introduced as you demonstrate the ability to manage each stage effectively.
Who we're looking for
The scheme is aimed at graduates who want a commercially focused career involving marketing, business, customer engagement and leadership.
Your degree subject isn't the most important factor. We're more interested in your ability to communicate, learn quickly and take responsibility.
We're looking for candidates with:
- A completed or recently completed university degree
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
- An interest in marketing, consumer behaviour and business
- A willingness to learn from feedback
- A professional approach when representing established brands
- Good organisation and attention to detail
- An interest in leadership and people development
- The confidence to combine practical campaign work with structured development
Previous experience in retail, hospitality, customer service, events, sales, promotions, university societies or other customer-facing environments can be useful, but previous marketing experience is not required.
What Sage offers
- Structured graduate development across marketing, commercial awareness and management
- Practical experience working with campaigns for brands including BT/EE, E.ON and British Gas
- Direct exposure to customer behaviour and decision-making
- Training in campaign reporting and performance analysis
- Development in client and account management
- Opportunities to coach and eventually manage Marketing Executives
- Mentoring from experienced members of the management team
- Experience across both campaign delivery and wider business operations
- A Birmingham City Centre base with campaign activity across the West Midlands
- Progression opportunities based on demonstrated performance and capability
Location and working arrangement
Full-time, on-site position based in Glasgow City Centre.
The scheme combines office-based development with practical campaign experience, so candidates should be comfortable working in person and travelling to campaign locations across Scotland and the north of England when required.
Salary
Competitive salary, negotiable based on experience and suitability for the role.
Apply now
If you're looking for a graduate opportunity that combines marketing, customer insight, commercial development and management, this scheme provides the opportunity to build practical experience while developing towards greater responsibility.
Submit your CV today to be considered for the Trainee Marketing Manager – Graduate Scheme 2026.
Pay: £26,000.00-£60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Canteen
- Company events
- Financial planning services
- Flexitime
- On-site parking
- Profit sharing
Work Location: In person
