Complete Guide to Writing a Marketing Resume [Examples+ Pro Tips]

When hiring managers receive hundreds of resumes, yours is just another piece of paper for them – most resumes don’t even reach a human in the HR department. Yes, that’s true.

Only a handful of exceptional resumes get shortlisted for the interviews – to keep your resume among those successful ones, you should write your resume with the reader in mind – in fact, that’s what marketing is all about.

In this article, we guide you through the process of writing a resume that gets you better chances, but this also includes:

Don’t let your next marketing team wait with paused ads and stagnant sales – quickly create a stunning resume with one of our ready-to-fill resume templates. Our resume builder has helped thousands of marketers to get the best-paid jobs in many industries.

Marketing Resume Example

If you’re looking for a specific marketing resume, maybe we have it too👇

This article has examples for writing a social media marketing resume, marketing intern resume, digital marketing manager resume, marketing director resume, and marketing coordinator resume – it also will help you write any related resume in the marketing department.

How to Write a Resume to Get Top of the Class Marketing Jobs?

According to payscale, marketing managers’ salaries vary from $43,000 to $107,000 per annum, not forgetting the fact that some bluechip companies are paying above $200,000 for their marketers.

What makes this difference?

It all boils down to how much marketing budget the company has – the bigger the budget, the bigger the package.

Now, to get these jobs with better pay & benefits, you need to communicate clearly to the hiring manager that you’re capable of handling that budget efficiently and effectively to make more money for them.

How do you do it?

First, you need a resume that backs up the claims to get an interview. Your resume should convince the hiring manager that you have what it takes to be successful in the role.

Secondly, you need to convince them in the interview.

Here’s how you get an interview for a marketing position.

To get through the ATS test, your resume should be rich with the right keywords and with enough keyword density. Hence, it’s important to tailor your resume to every job you apply for.

Each marketing job is different – you can’t send one resume for all. Imagine running a Facebook advertisement for two different industries with the same audience.

Now, for the human inspection, there’ll still be about 50 applications on the hiring manager’s desk. At the end of the day, about 5 to 10 applications will remain on the table and the rest will be in the trash – sorry for the disappointment.

What makes a hiring manager pick a resume?

Here’re some of the factors they consider:

A perfect marketing resume is a one to two-page document that communicates the candidate’s relevant skills, experience, and achievements in an easily understandable structure.

Here’s what we do to create that resume:

Marketing Resume Layout

We start with defining the resume layout – it’s a plan for writing your resume. There you should outline the headings, subheadings, and the sections you’ll be including in your resume.

A resume layout saves you a lot of time and makes your life easy when it comes to the writing part. This way, you won’t miss any important information.

Also, a complete resume layout makes it easy for you to pick the right resume template. 

Here’s the resume layout we recommend for a marketing job:

The order of these sections can be changed based on their importance to the job and your strengths.

Professional resume format for marketers

Your experience section would be the most important section on your marketing resume. The format of your resume defines how you structure it.

You could either write your latest job experience first or your favorite job experience first. You could also try out stating skills you’ve gained throughout your career and give examples of work and projects to prove them.

As long as it’s in a standard resume format, your hiring manager will be able to understand it.

There’re basically three standard resume formats in use:

Functional (skill-based) resume format: In a skill-based resume format, you’ll first state the key marketing skills and provide working examples and relevant projects to validate them.

This format suites for marketers:

Reverse chronological resume format: This is the most common resume format. Most candidates in default use this format. Your most recent experience should be listed first in reverse chronological order.

We recommend using this format for your marketing resume as the hiring manager is most interested in your recent experience.

Hybrid resume format: This is a combination of the above two formats. If you carried out freelance work along with your full-time marketing job, you may consider writing your full-time jobs in reverse chronological order and your freelance experience in a functional format.

We have composed a complete guide to different resume formats if you want to read more about them.

Resume templates for marketers

Choosing a good resume template will make a positive first impression about your application, and it’s what gives your resume its overall appearance.

It will also communicate how organized you’re in real life. Don’t write “well-organized” under your skills and send a cluttered resume.

The good resume template:

You can even make your own resume template but, if you are someone who hesitates to list MS Office under your skills, try out our resume builder for free.

Start Your Marketing Resume with the Header

The header is a straightforward section of any resume – however, this is what your hiring manager sees first. Therefore, you should put extra attention to detail in your header.

It should include your name and contact information – a simple introduction to who you’re and how you could be contacted.

Not too much information – just enough for the hiring manager to contact you.

Here’re some examples:

A good & a bad header

The following tips will help you make a great resume first impression:

Resume Summary to Hook the Hiring Manager

The resume summary is your sales pitch for the hiring manager. As a marketer, you should use your copywriting skills to write a solid professional summary for your resume.

This is a statement of 2 to 3 lines that explains your motivation for applying for the position and why you think you’ll be a great match – you could also highlight your greatest achievements and accomplishments together with the key marketing skills you possess.

A great summary makes the recruiter hook into reading the rest of the resume.

Make them feel like they found THE ONE.

Check out these examples👇

The more you become specific in your summary, the more it becomes familiar to the hiring manager. Make it look like you’re directly talking to them.

Use numbers such as the years of experience, number of team members, size of the projects you are involved in, size of the marketing budget you handled, etc.

If you’re an entry-level candidate or an intern, write a marketing resume objective (objective summary) instead of a Professional Summary. There, you highlight your passion for the job and your key skills.

Demonstrate Your Marketing Experience

If you have a solid experience section, that’s all you need to get your next marketing position. Even if you have that experience, you’ll be judged based on how well you put them together on a piece of paper.

If you don’t have such experience to write about, don’t worry – we will show you how to write an exceptional work experience section with the little experience you have.

In the beginning, it’s all about how you write your experience section, then it’s about how you present it in an interview.

This is the section you should spend most of your resume writing time. If you’re spending more time on putting the sections together on a Word Document, try our resume builder to save a lot of time – put that time into optimizing your experience section.

Example experience section for a senior marketer

If you’re in a senior marketing position, you should focus on demonstrating your leadership skills, people skills, and the ability to take responsibility when writing your experience section.

Most senior marketers are hired to lead a team or to create one.

There’re FOUR key factors to consider when writing an excellent experience section:

Example experience section for an entry-level marketer

In simple words, you should write a list of your achievements and accomplishments in the marketing experience section instead of roles & responsibilities. Here’s our complete guide to writing achievements and accomplishments on resumes.

Get Recruiters’ Attention with Your Freelance Experience

You should have been involved in some form of freelance, project-based, or contract-based work in your career as a marketer. Consider listing them if they add value to your profile or are relevant to the job you’re applying for.

In fact, it’s a great way to showcase that your marketing skills are transferable to different industries. This will help you if you’re in a transition to a totally different industry.

Example:

Is Your Marketing Education Important?

Modern marketing is considered a set of self-learning skills – the hiring managers’ biggest concern is the experience.

However, it doesn’t mean your education is void. An impressive education section is always attractive to hiring managers.

Some companies may emphasize the requirement of a Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s in marketing or a relevant field.

In your education section, write your most relevant academic qualifications.

If the education is relevant, state the key learning outcomes – achievements – GPA – and minors.

Education

If you have completed the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) or similar industry-recognized marketing certification, you may list it here.

The Most In-Demand Skills for Marketers

As a marketer, you should have developed a range of skills. A marketer’s job role goes beyond handling social media platforms – it’s a leadership role in any organization that directly affect the company’s top line and the bottom line.

Your marketing resume should include a mix of soft skills and hard skills.

The soft skills are personality traits of the candidate – difficult to measure – but, it’s important to put them on your resume.

The hard skills are technical skills – these you could acquire by taking up an online course or through formal education.

The important task here is to identify what skills you should put on your resume. Read the job description to identify what your hiring manager think is important for the job. They list the skills they expect from a perfect candidate. More importantly, they use the same job description to shortlist candidates using the ATS.

Try to limit your skills section to 4 to 7 lines with more priority given to technical marketing skills.

Soft skills for marketers

Hard skills for marketers

Depending on your field of specialization, there could be hundreds of hard skills – pick the right ones for your resume to stand out.

Additional Sections to Make a Pleasant Surprise

Give your hiring manager a pleasant surprise with a few additional sections – reaffirming your value.

An additional section is as effective as the main sections on your resume – these small sections often attract the eyeballs by highlighting important information.

Nevertheless, the basic rule of resume writing applies – whatever you put on your resume should either add value to your profile or be relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Here’re some of the suggestions for marketing resumes:

Computing skills

A modern marketer needs a lot more than basic computer literacy – you’ll realize if you look at a couple of job advertisements. Everything you do in marketing is now closely tied with computer software or a tool.

Find out the most important computer software and systems your employer wants you to know. Here’s a list of typical IT skills they look for in marketers:

There’re a hundred more tools and software you could easily list on your resume – unfortunately, your resume space is limited. Therefore, find the most relevant computer skills and list them in 4 to 5 lines.

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities distinguish a candidate from the rest when everyone meets the basic requirements for the job.

Make sure your extracurricular activities are worth sharing with the hiring manager.

Your social media footprint

As a marketer, your social media footprint is as important as your education or experience. If you have built an audience on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter, it’s time to monetize it for your next job.

The content you created for social media, the number of followers you have on Instagram, number of subscribers to your LinkedIn newsletter, would add tremendous value to your career.

Certifications and courses

Today, you could learn anything online – in fact, you can become one of the best marketers in the world without setting your foot in a college. That’s the beauty of the internet.

The certifications and online courses you completed would be your asset. Some job ads would specify the importance of completing certain certifications.

Here’s a list of related online certifications and courses that would spotlight your application.

This article from HubSpot academy highlights over 50 highly demanded certifications and online courses for marketers – if you don’t have these, you better get a couple of them under your profile.

Tips to Improve Your Marketing Resume

If you get an interview call, you should be proud because your resume is among the top 5% of resumes they received. Increase your chances with these tips:

Key Takeaways: Writing a Winning Resume

Complement Your Marketing Resume with A Cover Letter

They may not ask you for a cover letter – but, if you’re serious about the job, you better include one.

A cover letter is a one-page tailored document that expresses your interest and key skills to the hiring manager. This is especially important if you do not have something they have listed in the job ad.

If you’re struggling to create a cover letter that goes with the design of your resume, we got you covered. Check out our cover letter examples and templates.

FAQ

How to become a marketer?

Focus on a niche first. For example, become a Google ads expert and find a job in the same field. While having experience for a couple of years, acquire other technical skills such as Facebook advertising, content marketing, and SEO. Also, consider the soft skills such as leadership, team building, and communication. You can start becoming a marketer for free – there’re hundreds of well-recognized marketing certifications available online.

How to get my first marketing job?

Finding your first marketing job would be tough. Every hiring manager is looking for candidates with experience, but the reality is, to get experience as a marketer, you need a job. Start your career as a freelance marketer, you can find entry-level jobs on Upwork, Fiverr, or similar platforms. Also, develop your social media exposure on Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, and LinkedIn – build an audience – talk about the type of marketing you’re interested in – develop a network and share your expertise.