As the economy slowly improves, compensation for marketers is increasing— with 69% of marketers expecting a pay raise this year, according to a survey from the American Marketing Association and marketing staffing agency Aquent.

This is up from only 53% of marketers who expected a pay raise in 2010, when the survey was last conducted. This year's mean salary for marketers is $75,000, unchanged from 2010.

“Marketing Salaries: Strategies and Trends for 2013” was based on an online survey of 2,620 U.S. marketers, conducted in October and November.

“We found dramatic differences between one market and another,” said Nelson Rodriguez, VP-marketing at Aquent. “New York, L.A. and Silicon Valley seem like they would be great places to be marketers, but they don't give you as big a bang for the buck.”

This year for the first time, the ANA and Aquent applied a cost-of-living adjustment to the salary analysis and found that Dallas ranked No. 1 in marketing salaries, with an adjusted mean salary of approximately $90,000 when taking into account the lower cost of living. By comparison, the adjusted mean salary for marketers in San Diego is approximately $48,000 when adjusted for cost of living.

St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston and Chartotte, N.C., also ranked above the mean salary when adjusted for cost of living.

The survey also found that while 56% of marketers are satisfied with their current job, 32% are dissatisfied, and 12% are neither.

The greatest challenges facing marketers have to do with being equipped to succeed: 56% said they do not have people on their teams to meet the organization's marketing objectives, and 54% said their marketing teams are not well equipped to handle new trends and technology.

“People are really focused on improving their digital skills, particularly in mobile and social,” Rodriguez said.

This year, 80% of marketing organizations plan to increase their focus on mobile marketing strategies, 76% will boost social media efforts, and 75% will increase their focus on marketing automation, the survey found.

The top marketing hires will be in social media marketing (25%), online content (21%), brand/product management (17%) and communications project management (17%).

“Companies expect to increase their focus on mobile and social, but they will hire for social at a higher rate than for mobile,” Rodriguez said. “Mobile is still being figured out, and it's more likely companies will use contractors or agencies for technologies they haven't figured out how to apply in their business model.”