Cultural attraction marketing and communications manager job description
A marketing and communications manager sells visits to a zoo, aquarium, museum or garden and speaks for the site in the press. They plan campaigns around new exhibits and the summer rush, keep hours and closures right online, and help the CEO explain bad news fast.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, museums, zoos and gardens · BLS, May 2025
Cultural Attractions - Marketing and Communications Manager
Company Name:
[INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE]
Department:
Marketing
Reports to:
Chief Executive Officer
Location:
[INSERT LOCATION HERE]
1. Position Summary
Our Marketing and Communications Manager sells tickets, memberships and events, and handles the press. You plan campaigns for new exhibits, events, and the busy season; run the website, email, and social channels; and work with the media. When something goes wrong, such as a closure or [an animal death or damaged object], you help the CEO explain it quickly and plainly.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Plan the yearly marketing calendar around exhibit openings, seasons, school breaks, and major events.
Run paid ads, email, social media, and the website, and track which channels sell tickets and memberships.
Write press releases, pitch stories, and set up media visits for [animal births, new acquisitions, or seasonal blooms].
Keep hours, prices, closures, and event details correct on the website, ticketing pages, and online listings.
Lead crisis communications with the CEO for closures, incidents, or public concerns.
Manage brand standards, photography, signs, and outside agencies or freelancers.
Work with the Membership Coordinator on renewal campaigns and with development on donor materials.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Post and reply on social media, and pass guest complaints to guest services.
Check online ticket sales and website traffic against the attendance forecast.
Write or approve copy for emails, ads, signs, and web pages.
Set up photo and video shoots with staff, following animal and collection rules.
Update the website and listings as soon as a weather closure or schedule change is called.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Online ticket sales: [your target].
Website visits that end in a ticket purchase: [your target].
Earned media stories: [your target].
Email list growth: [your target].
Paid media cost per ticket sold: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor's degree in [marketing, communications, journalism, or a related field], or equivalent experience.
[4+] years in marketing or communications, including paid digital ads and email.
Strong writing and editing for the web, press, and print.
Experience with a website content system, an email platform, and ad accounts.
Has answered media questions or handled a public issue under pressure.
6. Preferred Experience
Marketing experience at an attraction, venue, or tourism business.
Experience with timed-ticket campaigns or dynamic pricing.
Photography or video skills.
Working relationships with local media and the tourism bureau.
7. Physical Requirements
Computer work for much of the day.
Walk the site for photo shoots, media visits, and events.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Full-time, on site, with some evening and weekend events.
On call for urgent messages such as weather closures and incidents.
Busiest before exhibit openings, school breaks, and summer.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new marketing and communications manager gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
What makes selling visits to a zoo or museum different
Most marketing managers sell a product. Here you sell a day out, protect a nonprofit's good name, and work around animals, art and the weather.
The calendar is the campaign plan
Visits rise and fall with school breaks, summer and the forecast. So the year is built around exhibit openings, holiday lights, spring blooms and member previews. A rainy Saturday in July costs more visits than a quiet Tuesday in February. The manager shifts ad money toward dates that still have room and away from days that will sell out on their own.
Bad news needs a fast, plain answer
An animal death, a damaged painting, a storm closure or a guest's video can reach reporters within hours, often before staff have the facts. The manager keeps a holding statement ready, checks details with the curator, the vet or the COO, and posts the update on every channel at once. Staff and volunteers hear it first, so they aren't guessing online.
Free search ads depend on who owns the site
Google Ad Grants is switched on through a Google for Nonprofits account. In the U.S., that program is open to charities registered under section 501(c)(3) and closed to government entities. If a city or county owns your zoo or garden, find out whether a nonprofit partner, such as a zoo society or friends group, holds that status and should be the one to apply. Source: Google for Nonprofits: eligibility guidelines, United States.
Free passes for creators come with a disclosure
Local bloggers and creators often ask for family passes or a behind-the-scenes visit. The FTC's Endorsement Guides treat free products and perks given to promote you as a connection the creator should disclose. Ask them to say the visit was free and to tag your account, then check the posts they tag. Source: FTC: FTC's Endorsement Guides, what people are asking.
Photos follow animal and collection rules
A shoot near animals is planned with the keepers, and one in the galleries with the curator or registrar. A loan agreement can limit photos of a borrowed object, and flash or hot lights may be banned near fragile works. A media visit for a new baby animal or a rare bloom is booked around the animal's care or the plant's timing, not the TV schedule.
How much cultural attraction marketing and communications managers make
The closest BLS group for cultural attraction marketing and communications managers is marketing managers. Marketing managers who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $103,840 a year ($49.93 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $166,790 median for marketing managers in all industries. About 1,000 of the 395,240 marketing managers in that survey work for museums, zoos and gardens.
Pay is a salary. Any bonus works best tied to the whole site's attendance or budget results rather than to ads alone, since weather and exhibits drive both. A site run by a city or county may set this salary from its government job grades.
Museums, zoos and gardens
$103,840$103,840 median Middle half $80,130–$142,460 10th–90th $65,520–$184,370
All industries
$166,790$166,790 median Middle half $123,020–$216,410 10th–90th $90,260–$293,610
$0k$50k$100k$150k$200k$250k$300k$350k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Museums, zoos and gardens
$65,520
$80,130
$103,840
$142,460
$184,370
All industries
$90,260
$123,020
$166,790
$216,410
$293,610
BLS groups museums, zoos, botanical gardens and historic sites together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Clean, quick writing for press releases, web pages, signs and social posts
Has run paid search and social ads and can show the ticket sales they produced
Steady judgment when a closure, an incident or an angry post needs a reply in minutes
A feel for the visit calendar: school breaks, holidays, weather and exhibit openings
Trust with keepers, curators and the CEO on what can be said and shown
Teach these on the job
Your ticketing system, timed entry and member reservations
Animal and collection rules for shoots and media visits
Your brand standards and sign templates
Who approves a statement in a crisis, and in what order
Your membership levels and renewal calendar
The local press list and the tourism bureau's partner programs
The work lives in a ticketing system's online store, such as Tessitura, Altru or ACME, along with the website's content system, an email platform and Google and Meta ad accounts. Ask finalists to bring one campaign and the ticket sales report it produced.
Cultural attraction marketing and communications manager interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Cultural attraction marketing and communications manager KPIs
Fill in each target from last year's sales. Exhibit openings and rainy weekends move these numbers more than any ad does, so mark both on every monthly report.
Online ticket sales
Tickets sold on the website and app each week, from the ticketing system, split into day tickets, timed entry and events. Flag weeks with a weather closure or a new exhibit so they aren't misread.
Website visits that end in a ticket purchase
Online orders divided by website sessions, from your analytics tool with ticket purchases tagged as conversions. After any price or page change, look for the checkout step where phone buyers give up.
Earned media stories
Log each story, segment or article you didn't pay for, with the outlet and the pitch behind it. Count local TV and newspapers apart from blogs and podcasts.
Email list growth
New subscribers minus unsubscribes and bounces each month, from the email platform. Note where sign-ups came from: ticket checkout, the website, events or the membership desk.
Paid media cost per ticket sold
Ad spend for a campaign divided by the tickets your ad platforms and ticketing system credit to it. Run it campaign by campaign so one cheap push doesn't hide a costly one.
Cultural attraction marketing and communications manager FAQ
What does a museum marketing and communications manager do in a typical week?
The week splits between selling and speaking. Selling means ads, email, the website and online listings for tickets, memberships and events. Speaking means press releases, media visits, social replies and talking points for the CEO. At a site this size the manager often has one coordinator and leans on an agency or freelancers for design, video or ad buying.
How much does a cultural attraction marketing and communications manager make?
Marketing managers who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $103,840 a year ($49.93 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $80,130 and $142,460 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Is marketing and communications one job or two?
Many mid-size attractions combine them, which is why the title joins them. A split makes sense when press work is heavy, such as at a zoo with frequent animal births or a museum that hosts large touring shows. If you keep one role, set a short sign-off chain so a statement isn't stuck waiting for a meeting.
Do our ticket and membership emails need an unsubscribe link?
Treat any email that sells tickets, events or memberships as commercial email under the CAN-SPAM Act. That means a working opt-out, honored within 10 business days, and a valid postal address. The FTC says the law reads the exceptions for transactional and relationship messages narrowly, and members keep the right to opt out of marketing. So a renewal pitch or member-night promotion should follow the full rules.
Can we use a guest's photo or video in our ads?
Ask first. A photo is under copyright from the moment it's taken, and the right generally belongs to the person who took it, not to the place it shows. Get written permission before you use it in an ad, on a sign or on the website. If faces show, especially children's, get a signed release as well, as your policy requires.
What experience matters most when hiring for an attraction?
Look for someone who has sold a dated product, such as timed tickets, concerts, events or travel. Ask about a campaign where they moved ad money mid-season and what happened to sales. Then test the writing: hand them the facts of a weather closure and ask for a web notice and a social post on a short deadline.
