Marketing Resume?

Are you serious?

Do we even need one?

We are marketers, one of the top paid actors on the big screen of the marketing ball game!

But...hold on to your horses!

Because where the entry barriers are low... competition becomes difficult. Too many applicants for every single job.

In that case, it is rather amazing to realize, the big role a Marketing Resume can play in a marketeer's career goals and development.

Of course, it ultimately boils down to how you perform in the subsequent series of Interviews, how well the employer is able to connect with you, whether your skill set matches the requirement, group discussions or Written tests.

But, what if, you never make it to that level?

What if you are that one person whose marketing resume has exactly the same skill set as required by the company but you are not able to show up just because the resume was never shortlisted. 

What if you are much better than others in terms of participating in a group discussion, but Alas, you have not even reached there to talk. 

The way a book is judged by its ‘cover for the small amount of time it is being picked and remains in the reader’s hands, the same way,

you are broadly noticed with your Resume as the cover page of your professional journey with only a few minutes (Oooops seconds in our case!) in the recruiter’s hands.

The marketing world is the most paying and gratifying job. In terms of money and glamour, this field always shows a bright future. Digital Marketing is another subfield of marketing with bright prospects. 

To kick start this ever promising journey, a candidate has to work hard on his marketing job resume & digital marketing resume for marketing & online marketing jobs.

So before your interesting professional journey gets rejected not because the journey is not right but rather it's cover page is not up to the mark, let us find out what makes a resume for marketing, RIGHT in the first place. Digital marketing resume

                        MARKETING RESUME GUIDE 2018

In this guide to make that perfect Marketing Resume, you will learn:-

1. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 1: Marketing Career Summary

2. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 2: Marketing Key Skills!

      2a. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 2a.: Technical Skills

3. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 3: Marketing Work Experience

4. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 4: Marketing Certifications

5. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 5: Marketing Educational Qualifications

6. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 6: Extra-Curricular Achievements & Awards

7. How to write a Marketing Resume: Section 7: Projects

8. How to write a Marketing Resume: Which section to be prepared first

9. How to write a Marketing Resume: Format & Aesthetics

10. How to write a Marketing Resume: Other Guidelines

1. How to write a Marketing Resume: Marketing Career Summary

Why you must even write a career summary, please visit our Guide On Resume Summary

Well, what exactly is this section all about?

A summary of work experiences….. or Education…. Or your soft skills or technical skills?

What exactly is the priority here?

Have you ever noticed the fact that whenever you must have picked up a resume for marketing or any generic resume to read….

What are the first 3 things you notice?

♦ Picture

♦ Name

♦ Objective/Summary

Yes, you very much got it right!

The marketing resume summary is the most important of all sections in our blog because you cannot afford to make a mistake here

Evidently, it appears to be the most simple one as well.

But it is tricky… because candidates often write career objectives in this section and not what they can deliver.

You will eventually discover in this article, you need to convey your problem-solving attitude and not really what your objective is unless you are a fresher.

Your marketing job objectives are hidden inside your marketing resume summary but not explicitly.

We understand that you are just blinking at the screen thinking what have you done with your resumes in the past.

It is just alright. We all go through this learning curve.

The marketing resume summary is a perfect balance of what you have done hinting at what all you can deliver. In a nutshell, it is the answer to what all problems can be solved.

So let us look at the summary section of marketing resumes ( sent to us in the most naïve form by candidates)

Example of an Email Marketing Resume

Summary also depends on how much experience in the relevant field you hold.

Let us look at another example of summary in the marketing job resume:

                                                                                                        Rewritten by Hiration as:-

Which one would the marketing recruiter prefer?

We are sure of the second one! The second one is like reinventing the wheel. Your capabilities as a marketer shall show in terms of outcome achieved.

Not by the words meant.

Because the recruiter is interested in what result was achieved.

Generally speaking, one of the basic rules of content writing is to put information in numerals. Like '4' in place of 'four'. The human mind registers facts more than the theory.

Numbers and numerals make more sense than words. This is the way we work.

And specifically, when you are in marketing, you can really really change the game by using more quantities!

 Marketing Summary Synopsis

2. How to write a Marketing Resume: Marketing Resume Skills

In this section we shall learn 2 kinds of skills:

1. Marketing Key Skills

2. Marketing Technical Skills

Let us take them one by one.

KEY SKILLS

To understand the importance of Key Skills in a Resume, please go through our guide on Resume Key Skills

You might be one of those candidates who have changed industries and profiles.

It is quite possible that you started your career with financial auditing but today you are the ace of marketing.

Then, the question arises whether the financial audits should form the part of Marketing Skills in your resume for marketing?

Well, after years of experience with clients, we safely define these 3 criteria:-

1. The skills which you are going to highlight should definitely match up to the requirements of the marketing job.

Example:

Now, based on this:-

 You can include marketing skills like  •  Strategy Formulation & Implementation • Customer Retention • Lead Generation 

So, the idea is to relate your marketing skills to what recruiter needs and make the grade!

2. You should go light on soft skills like communication skills and rather use industry jargons

  Wrong Marketing Skills: •  Team Handling  •  Good Spoken and Written English  •  Personal Charm  •  Confidence  •  Hardworking

     RightMarketing Skills: •  Team Leadership & Management  •  Sales & Business Development  •  Marketing & Promotions 

While there is nothing called as wrong skills but the idea is to showcase marketing oriented skills and not generic soft skills which everybody has.

 Pro Tip: To stand outright in the eyes of a marketing recruiter, put skills which a marketing recruiter would look for, taking hints from the Job Description and go really light on soft skills

3. Skills to face the machine recruiter, ATS: i.e. Phrase them Right or use exact keywords.

One of our clients applied for a job online to a company along with his friend for the same job. Both the friends found this as a response to their separate applications at the same time, i.e. 3 minutes:-

"Your candidature does not fit out requirement. All the Best for your job search"

Now, who would you blame?

A machine which ATS essentially is?

So given the fact that many of the companies are using ATS these days, why not let's crack it.

Best bet in cracking the ATS is to use keywords which exactly matches up to the numbers, abbreviations, and words in the job description mentioned.

Example 

What the heck is MQL, right?

Well, a very important jargon used in the Marketing industry which means Marketing Qualified Leads. This is used in place of potential leads.

A generic marketing resume summary:

Managing a team to strategize and implement marketing initiatives. Leading lead generation efforts to drive sales growth and revenue. Adept at strategizing price, product and promotions to managing the brand of the company

Correct Marketing Resume Summary:

Needless to say, do not overdo it just to clear the ATS test, because eventually, you have to justify what you are writing.

Our pick for the Top 10 Marketing Skills List for a marketing resume :

1. Marketing Strategy Formulation & Execution

2. Sales & Business Development

3. Product Launch

4. Pricing & Marketing Promotions

5. MQL & POS

6. Presentation & Communication Skills

7. Brand Management

8. Strategic Alliances

9. Key Account Management

10. B2B and B2C

Our pick for Top 10 Marketing Skills List for a Digital Marketing Resume

1. SEO & SMO 

2. LP & PR ( Landing page & page rank)

3. PPC Adwords

4. Social Media Marketing

5. Customer Experience & CXO

6. Content Marketing

7. Mobile Marketing

8. Client Relationship Management

9. E-Mail Marketing

10. Paid Social Media Advertising

TECHNICAL SKILLS

It is of paramount importance to let the recruiter know what technical skills you possess. 

Reason is:

► It takes a lot of research and practice to understand and implement a tool in your marketing practice

► It takes your investment on certification to learn a technical skill, it makes sense to showcase it

► It gives you an edge over the others to showcase these skills

► Dynamic industry results in a change of technical tools used. So it is important to highlight the recent upgradations you mastered.

Examples of Technical skills in a Digital Marketing Resume:-

► Hootsuite

► Facebook:- Facebook Insights & Power Editor & oCPM Bidding

► SEMrush

► Google Analytics

► Canva

► Buffer

► Mail Chimp & Aweber

► Viral Marketing: Upwothy & Buzzfeed

► Keyword Planner

► Moz

Examples of Technical skills in a Digital Marketing Resume

► Constant Contact

► ConvertKit

► AWeber

► MailChimp

► ActiveCampaign

 Section 2 Marketing Skills Synopsis

3. How to Write a Marketing Resume: Marketing Work Experience

 Pro Tip for writing a fantastic resume: Know your recruiters before they know you!

Well we know it is a bit common sense topic, but believe us, we often forget about this common knowledge. 

It is important to understand what skills the recruiting company is looking forward to the candidate. You can gauge this knowledge from the job description of the desired job and design your marketing resume accordingly.

Example 1: Let us look at what the common job descriptions pertaining to Digital Marketing look like

“
1.    Responsible for developing, implementing and executing strategic marketing plans for an entire organization (or lines of business and brands within an organization) in order to attract potential customers and retain existing ones.

2.    Day-to-day tasks include managing and coordinating marketing and creative staff, leading market research efforts to uncover the viability of current and existing products/services, and liaising with media organizations and advertising agencies.

3.    Have extraordinary communication skills.”
 

Now, In this case, the Digital Marketing Resume looks like”

Picture

Example 2

•    If the recruiter is a big MNC looking for a candidate with a multi-tasking leadership role in which he has to lead teams to drive results, handle big marketing budgets, take critical decisions then please have a look at Head-Digital Marketing Resume Sample:

•    If your desired recruiter is looking forward to hiring someone in the junior management role who could assist the senior management in marketing directives & execute marketing strategies designed by seniors, then, in that case, please have a look at Manager- Digital Marketing resume sample

Example 3: 

     Marketing Resume Examples

•    If the recruiter is a start-up then it might be hunting for multi-tasking and multi-dimensional marketing candidates. In that case, your Digital Marketing resume should look like:

Marketing Resume Examples

•    So you see, in both the cases your marketing resume highlights change as per the recruiter you are aiming at.

So do your homework on the recruiter to frame appropriate marketing resume skills.

Marketing Resume Examples:

Let us first talk about generalist statistics prevailing in the market around a recruiter. Readability of any document depends upon the time availability with the person who is targeted.

According to recent research, recruiters only spend an average of 5-7 seconds looking at a candidate’s résumé before deciding whether he or she is a fit for a job. Do you want to know why that is so? Following are the detailed statistics etc.:-

•    One spelling or grammar mistake and your CV will be chucked in the bin
•    88% job rejection rate if you have a photo of yourself on your CV
•    One in three employers rejected candidates based on something they found about them online
•    An average of 250 CVs are received for each job position
•    68% of employers will find you on Facebook
•    17% chance that your cover letter will be read
•    76% of CVs are ignored if your email address is unprofessional
•    First applications are received 200 seconds after a job is posted

Clearly, it is an amalgamation of a high number of applicants per job, too many CVs received, fewer jobs available and less time available for screening.

In our case, the volume of resume marketing received is higher than average because too many people are interested in this lucrative career.

For example, the volume of digital marketing resume received a few years ago is increased with the onset of digital marketing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, et cetera.

To be precise, the time availability per resume today is meager 6.25 seconds according to a recent study published on Forbes!

Now in this time, if your resume for marketing is not concise yet informative then your chances are rather lean in getting to the interview table.

Not only this, there are machine recruiters, i.e. companies which use ATS ( Applicant Tracking System) for first level screening before it reaches the eye of a human recruiter. This is nothing but software which looks for keyword matches with the respective job profile.

That does not mean that you can clear it up just by stuffing keywords. Because ATS can penalize you for overstuffing keywords just the way Google does it. So it is a fine game of keywords, crisp information, relevant details, clearly formatted, correct personal details, et cetera.

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Too much to be true, right ??

Relax. We are definitely not here to scare the candidate with statistics and realities.

We are here to help with exactly how a candidate has to build his resume for marketing in the righteous and easiest way possible.

The best way to catch this short span glimpse of the recruiter with your resume marketing is:-

a. One-liner: Mention the marketing resume work experience via short lines and not paragraphs

Marketing Resume Examples

b. Power verbs: Use power verbs and not weak verbs in your marketing resume work experience

The Whole point is that power verbs have a better and powerful impact on the reader’s mind and that is why the name.

c.  Resume length: Even if your work experience extends to a good 25 years, then also your total resume should use a maximum of 2 pages. That is it.

Who would read a 4-page resume for marketing in a few seconds time frame? Even if time is more, a voluminous resume marketing looks messy and too much information to download.

d. Bullets and bucketing: Use bullets and sub-points to describe yourself best in the crispest manner

4. How to write a Marketing Resume: Marketing Certifications

TIP #5 TO WRITE A MARKETING RESUME: PUT THE APPROPRIATE JOB TITLE IN YOUR RESUME MARKETING

Let us understand how to HIT THE BULL’S, AAHHHH I MEAN RECRUITER’S EYE!

This is to understand that this proves to be the most critical part of you and your resume. The least we can say here is that you are first known by your name and then your job title. “Job Title”- are the words which catch Recruiter’s attention in the very first place and become exceedingly crucial in your quest of writing the right one!

And it is definitely not always what designation you are currently holding in your career. If it would have been that easy then this section would have never been constructed. 

So for example, if you are currently a marketing manager then your job title does not automatically become Marketing Manager! Of course, it can be the same given some research done on that. So what we are saying is that:

CURRENT JOB DESIGNATION ==/== JOB TITLE ON YOUR MARKETING RESUME

Read carefully, what all research goes into writing a JOB TITLE.

1.    Think about what position is aimed at in the new company (Taking the example of Marketing Manager, let us assume the position aimed is Marketing Head!)
2.    Match the position aimed at with appropriate keywords given in the Job description. So, maybe the recruiter is using terminology like Application for ‘Senior Manager- Marketing’. In this case, your job title in the Marketing resume would become ‘Senior Manager- Marketing’. But this is again a tricky game. You have to do it taking care of the number of years relevant to such a profile in the industry. You cannot just go ahead and write a job title which requires years of experience way bigger than yours. 

 
3.    Make sure that you do not look like making up things just to catch recruiter’s attention. It should look as genuine as possible.

TIP #7 TO WRITE A MARKETING RESUME: SAVE YOUR FILE IN THE APPROPRIATE FORMAT

In the growing digital world, it is imperative that you are most probably going to apply online for the job. Hard copies are history.

Here comes the importance of the correct file format. Usually, any file saved in word document format is just alright but look at the benefits with pdf format:-

1. Professional Feel: It does not look professional enough. Word document is the most casual document one can work with
2. No loss of Information: There is an ample risk of losing information given. Since word document is an editable document, its’ content has a high probability of losing or changing the information
3. No loss of Formatting.appearance: Word document is displayed in different formats in different systems and laptops. This makes it a very poor format for the risk of the realignment of points and information. Thus, Not only can you secure your PDF so that it can only be read and not altered, but you can also be sure that it will display correctly every time. PDF is ideal for document exchange between users. Not only is it a compact format, but it can also store metrics and information about its own appearance (layout, fonts, content, color, etc.) within the document itself. This means that it may not have to rely on the fonts and settings that may or may not be installed on a user’s computer to display properly.
4. High-Quality Print-out: If you are using an info-graphic marketing resume with the display of different numbers achieved through a pie-chart or even if you are just displaying your own image, you need a document which displays high-resolution images correctly. Here comes the importance of a pdf document. PDF file assures you that what you see on your screen is exactly what you’ll see in your print. PDF files are accepted by professional printers, whereas Word DOC files usually are not. In addition, PDF’s print-ready file transfer makes it easy to send a print-ready file to a printer in another department or even another country with little or no rework needed at the other end.
5. Safer: Your resume is a document which documents your entire career history. It is your real journey and will be later picked up to match it up with your work and education documents. Thus it is very vital that your resume must retain their integrity and security. With the PDF format, you can secure your documents so that no one can change the wording of an application or the terms of an agreement.

Best way to have the best of both worlds is to start writing your resume on a word document to enable spelling check, grammatical errors, sentence formation, spacing et cetera. And once you are done save it in the pdf format and check the view once before hitting it off.

TIP #8 FOR WRITING A MARKETING RESUME: THIS ONE SHALL BE PRETTY BASIC: COMMAND OVER THE LANGUAGE

Do you remember applying for a marketing job last time and what was the most common thing amongst the skill set required:-

The first and foremost requirement for any Marketing profile is that of EXCELLENT SPOKEN AND WRITTEN ENGLISH/ EXCELLENT WRITTEN & SPOKEN COMMUNICATION SKILL

Your writing skills will convey a lot of information about how would be your verbal communication.

For that matter, we are right now talking about a stage where the recruiter does not know you. Recruiter has never talked to you. You might be just great in your spoken English, but right now your only voice is your resume. Your resume will authenticate how much you would be able to accomplish if you are given the job.

Agreed, you must be a great orator. But does it even matter at this time? At this stage, what matters is your written English.

You are going to do a lot of coordination and liaising in your role as a marketing manager/executive/associate etc.

You are certainly going to make a lot of presentations for the stakeholders, isn’t it?

If not this, maybe your role consists of supervising the content development on the marketing collaterals and online platforms like website, social media…

Well well well, if your resume consists of silly errors pertaining to verbs, syntax, tenses, spellings, framing of sentences, et cetera then how under the sun could you think of getting shortlisted for a marketing profile which requires you to be meticulous?

Though this rule sounds valid for all the profiles, we are specifically mentioning this here because marketing is all about marketing your product. It is all about a lot of writing and talking. It is very much about communicating what you think is correct and what you think is apt. It is all about a great strategy and great communication skills to convey that strategy.

When you are dealing with the development of collaterals or updating a status on social media channels like Twitter, or involved in a press release, your writing quality and the command over the language becomes extremely important.

So your mistakes in the resume would cost you a shortlisting because it might make the recruiter feel that your work and final drafts would have to be given too much quality checks!

6. How to write a Marketing Resume: Educational Qualifications

It is imperative that you have taken a degree in the field of marketing if you are entering this industry. We are not here to guide you towards what course you should study. But rather what should be highlighted in the resume.

So for example, if you have pursued an MBA course with dual specialization in finance and marketing then it becomes crystal clear that you do not have to really mention Finance in your resume.

Yet again, if this is unavoidable then mention any skill/certification or a degree in Marketing

Also, it is generally said that recruiters are impressed with brand names mentioned on the resume pertaining to schools/ college you attended. But this is also absolutely true that a C grader from top school/college ranks lower than an A grader from an average school/college. So in this case, just flaunt what you have and better if you have both!

Usually, if you already have 4-5 years of work experience, your education section shall be pushed downwards and your achievements at the workplace become more relevant.

But still, if your degree is not aligned with marketing field, then be ready for the question… why did you study finance and pursued a career in marketing instead of finance?

TIP #10 FOR WRITING A MARKETING RESUME: RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE

TIP #11 FOR WRITING A MARKETING RESUME: QUANTIFY YOUR WORK

Very luckily, it is easier for a marketing person to give information in terms of numbers or ratios or percentage as compared to somebody in HR.

You could mention the number of vendors you dealt with to get the printing job done. You could mention how many likes you generated as a digital marketer on the facebook platform. You could indeed mention the number of customers secured with your marketing efforts.

The whole idea is to give as much information as possible in numbers. Numbers are the easiest form of conveying information. The information is easily comprehended and processed by the recruiter. Numbers are identified with your achievements and confidence.

Long paragraphs as we said before is a total no-no. Numbers included in one-liner is what is ruling! 

The best way is to write information in line with what is being mentioned in the job description. If the job description says: “Managing social media platform: Facebook to grow likes and build a community”

Then your resume shall highlight:

Managed company’s Facebook page to grow likes from 1000 to 5000 in this much time span.

TIP #12 FOR WRITING A MARKETING RESUME: BUCKETING IN ALIGNMENT WITH MARKETING JOB DESCRIPTION & YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE

Bucketing is nothing but the way you group the information under the relevant headings.

Sometimes candidates are thoroughly confused around what skill set they should write which demonstrate the best of their capability and present what they have to offer.

For example, This is the desired profile of a Marketing candidate:

Digital Marketing Manager to develop, implement, track and optimize
our digital marketing campaigns across all digital channels.
Develop and execute consumer & B2B marketing strategy.
Prepare regular performance reports on marketing campaign metrics.
Generate leads through cold calling which should lead to Conversion
(should have knowledge of how to sell Web Services and Digital Marketing
Services) Identify new areas for business growth and execute it through team management

Now, your resume shall essentially show buckets like:-

Strategy Formulation & Execution

1.

2

3…..

Reports Creation & MIS Management

1.

2,

3…

Lead Generation & Business Acquisition

1.

2.

3…..

Team Management

1.

2.

3…

So as we just noticed, the buckets are essentially what the company has asked for and of course, has to incorporate relevant bullet points for particular work experience.

Buckets make it extremely easy for the recruiter to notice your resume and are usually impressed with the exact information you have provided them with which they are looking for in a candidate.

A marketing specialist wears many hats in his role to drive the marketing of a product/service. The candidate might be struggling with what skills to showcase. By bucketing the work experience, many things come out to be crystal clear in terms of what exactly are the skills being offered.

So for example, through the bucket of Team Management, the underlying skills which come out are Leadership and Mentoring. This skill is highly required in any position of marketing which you might be applying for.

Similarly, through the bucket of Lead Generation & Business Acquisition, the skill which comes up is assertiveness and communication.  Very importantly this is one skill which would be definitely required by any recruiter looking for marketing candidates

So a lot of skills come up from the buckets used like meticulous detailing, leadership, soft skills, assertiveness, problem-solving, troubleshooting et cetera. So if you want to be promoted to a position of that of a marketing head from marketing manager, put emphasis on big-picture thinking and leadership as a way to solve problems.

7. How to write a Marketing Resume: Extra-Curricular Activities & Achievements

Shall we ask that the first and foremost goal of any resume is to solve a problem which recruiter is trying to solve?

The answer is yes.

And the fact is that each problem requires a corresponding skill to solve!

Like for example, they need to revive a dull sales team. This needs the skill of leadership.

Or maybe they want to streamline processes to bring efficiency. This requires a skill of meticulous analysis and organizing.

Now how to highlight these skills in the marketing specialist resume?

Here comes the importance of extra-curricular achievements

You might be a great guitarist or say a singer, which is good to be mentioned in a resume … But if specifically, we talk about marketing specialist resume, your extracurricular achievements which display the skills needed in a marketing job would always be better and appreciated.

So, if you are a theatre artist then your capability of working in teams is highly exciting and admirable in for marketing recruiters.

Similarly, if you are in debates then your capability to convince on your ideas and opinions and your general awareness would come forth in the marketing specialist resume.

Quoting HubSpot's VP of Training and Development Andrew Quinn, “A candidate’s resume is their ad to me. How are they structuring this and so I get a clear picture of what they’re capable of?”

Well, here is the key. When we talk about layouts, we often refer to the color codes and fonts, bolding and other aesthetics used to present the final document.

The formatting of your marketing resume talks volumes about you, your personality, the way you think and feel and other things. We have seen people using the really gaudy color palette on an otherwise decent resume.

If you are a marketing person, then you must understand the importance of presentation. Your marketing resume should not look like that of somebody who has handled kindergarten with flowers and petals displayed over the document. 

The final formatting of the resume represents the person you are. And the way you think. Specifically, since it is a marketing resume, you have to be extra careful around how your resume uses colors and fonts. Maybe the recruiter thinks that this is the way you are going to do the presentations of the company or this is the way you are going to present the product of the company!