Every successful company has a qualified marketing manager responsible for developing effective and beneficial marketing strategies. As a marketing manager applying for a job, you need to be able to sell yourself and your abilities to the hiring manager effectively. That means you should include a resume in your application documents. A marketing managerโs resume is an official document that will allow you to highlight your skills, experiences, qualifications, and accomplishments as a professional.
With a resume, you can easily convince the hiring manager to hire you by focusing on what you intend to bring to the company and how the company will benefit from employing you. It highlights the professional and personal aspect that makes you the most qualified job candidate. In addition, a job-winning resume should be tailored to the position to make you stand out among other applicants.
As a marketing manager, your resume must show that you are knowledgeable and have the required experience to attract customersโ interest to the business, service, or product. With this article, you will learn more about how to write a resume for a marketing manager position and the essential tips to consider when writing it.
The article will focus on the following:
- What a marketing manager does
- Details to include on your resume
- How to tailor your resume to the job position to make it outstanding
- What to avoid when writing your resume
Free Templates of a Marketing Managerโs Resume
What are the Responsibilities of a Marketing Manager?
Here are some of the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager that you will be expected to perform once your potential employer hires:
- Develop marketing campaigns for the companyโs products or services
- Supervise and mentor the marketing team
- Work as a digital marketing manager, content marketing associate, brand marketing manager, marketing consultant, marketing associate, marketing research manager, business development manager, or social media manager in different industries
- Deal with your companyโs public relations through the marketing content you produce
- Create marketing content that attracts new customers and retains the already existing ones
- Implement an effective marketing strategy for the business or company
Which Sections are Included in a Marketing Managerโs Resume?
To ensure that you have a convincing and job-winning resume, ensure that you include the required details. Below are the specific sections that must be included in your marketing managerโs resume:
For your resume, you need to start with a professional header. Your header should contain your official name, your job title with relevant certifications, your contact information (phone number and email address), your address, and your website link. These details present you as a focused and professional individual. Ensure that your name is written in capital and with bigger font than the rest of the text.
EXAMPLE
COCO MILNER
Certified Marketing Manager
777-777-1111
milnercoco@gmail.com
Avalanche 34, CIR milnercocomarketing.com
A robust and compelling introduction
After your professional header, you must write a strong and compelling introduction for your resume. For this section, you can either write a resume summary statement or an objective statement. It shares details about your professional profile. Here is what you need to know about a resume summary and a resume objective:
Summary statement
A summary statement is a brief statement that provides details about your work experience by highlighting the specialized areas and your level of experience in years. It also includes metrics and statistics of your successes and accomplishments as a marketing manager.
When writing your summary statement:
- Be clear and straightforward about your skills, work experience, and accomplishments.
- Ensure you personalize your statement to show your personality and what you intend to offer the company if hired as a marketing manager.
A summary statement is the best option if you are a job candidate with years of experience.
EXAMPLE
A talented and skilled marketing manager with six years of experience in social media marketing. Responsible for managing promotions and brand positioning using the three main social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Used SEO, content creation, and social media skills to launch marketing campaigns to raise awareness about the company and attract potential customers. Collaborated with my six-person team to design effective CRM strategies, which increased customer engagement by 27%.
Objective statement
An objective statement is meant to show the hiring manager that you know what is required from a marketing manager while highlighting all the unique qualifications that make you the perfect candidate for the job. In addition, ensure that you are aware of the companyโs mission and the expected responsibilities of the marketing manager. That way, you can customize your resume to suit the requirements of your potential employer.
You should write a resume objective instead of a summary if you are an entry-level job candidate with little to no experience. Also, use a resume objective if this job you are applying for is a senior role compared to your previous job.ย ย
EXAMPLE
A talented marketer aiming for a marketing manager position at an acclaimed and established company. Able to use critical thinking, proper communication skills, and expertise in sales and marketing to lead a team of fellow marketers, attract customers, maintain existing customers and implement effective marketing strategies.
tip
Avoid the use of โI,โ as it is not advisable for resume summaries and objective statements.
Detailed employment history
Once you have a strong introduction, proceed to write a detailed employment history. Remember that your work experience is the most critical section and will be highly considered by the hiring manager. Your bullet points should use strong action verbs to make your resume enticing to read. It is about narrating your employment journey to the hiring manager by highlighting your most significant accomplishments as a marketing manager. Finally, list your job entries in reverse-chronological order, from the most current to the oldest.
It should include the following:
- Your job title at your previous job
- The name of the company or workplace
- The location of the company
- The period when you were employed there
- A list of your work experience (achievements and responsibilities) using bullet points.
EXAMPLE
Marketing Manager
Quilt Company- Avenue Road, IN 07/2019-Current
- Analyzing and evaluating marketing trends to prepare better company forecasts
- Supervising the marketing department staff while managing branding, advertising, and promotional campaigns
- Developing and implementing effective marketing strategies, which increased sales by 45%
tip
When crafting your work experience section, you can use the CAR method, that is, discuss a Challenge you had, mention the Action you used to handle it, and then highlight the Result you achieved. You must include some data and hard numbers to support your claims.
Education background
Apart from your work experience, you should also include your educational background. For this section, you must mention the following:
- Your degree
- The institutionโs name
- Your graduation year
EXAMPLE
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Ocean View University
River Side, WE 63290
Graduated in 2016
It would be best if you had a bachelorโs degree in business marketing, advertising, or communication for a marketing manager position. However, some employers will need an MBA (Master of Business Administration) with a primary focus on marketing. If you have a masterโs degree, do not include your high school diploma details or your GPA. At the masterโs level, your experience and accomplishments will likely be the focus of your resume.
Eye-catching skills section
The following section you should focus on is the skills section. You must include the relevant hard and soft skills you have as a marketing manager. For this section, you should highlight 5 to 10 primary skills contributing to your accomplishments.
Since you likely have many skills, observe the following steps to ensure a proper and effective skills section:
- Start by creating a master list that includes all your hard and soft skills.
- Proceed to categorize these skills to determine which skills are relevant to the job.
- Narrow down your list so you can remain with skills that will help you handle all the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager.
- While listing your skills, ensure you include both hard skills and soft skills, as these soft skills complement your technical abilities.
With that in mind, you should know that hard skills are learned at school, while soft skills are interpersonal and organizational abilities that make you a good employee and colleague.
Some examples of the hard skills you should possess for the marketing manager position include the following:
- Data analysis
- Marketing Strategy
- Digital Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Product launches
- Marketing Management
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content Marketing
For soft skills, below are some examples:
- Leadership
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Adaptability
- Supporting skills
tip
To ensure that you have selected only the best skills for your skills section, select the ones that portray you as a great marketing manager. Also, choose skills mentioned in the job description by your potential employer so that your resume can beat the ATS.
Certifications
The final section of your resume is the certifications, awards, and honors section. This section is meant to share more details about your experience. It boosts your skill section since it shows how excellent you are in certain areas where you earned your certifications.
Here are some top marketing manager certifications you can include in your resume:
- Mozโs Free Beginners Guide to Content Marketing
- Hootsuite Social Media Certification
- Google Ads
- Facebook Advertising
- YouTube Certification
- Hubspot Content Marketing Certification
- Googleโs Digital Garage: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certification
- Bing Ads Accredited Professional Certification
- Google Analytics
- Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification
tip
As you highlight your certifications, you must mention all your projects and the creative people you worked with on those projects. These projects will act as evidence that you earned these certifications and that you are a creative marketer.
How to Make Your Resume Stand on Top of Others?
Apart from just using the right structure and including the proper content, there are other essential tips you should observe to ensure that your resume stands out among the others. You must remember that the marketing manager position is highly coveted and competitive.
To land that interview, you should observe the following essential tips:
Show you are a team player
A marketing manager is a senior position that requires team management. Therefore, your resume must show that you are a team player. This is because; bringing different marketers with various opinions and experiences to work together and achieve the desired goal is not easy. That is why; a hiring manager will likely be looking for an individual who can manage their marketing team.
You need to highlight your team player abilities by showing your potential employer that you can bring people together to share their unique and creative ideas and manage to make something beneficial in the end.
Use your SEO knowledge to beat ATS
With many applicants sending in their resumes, most companies have resorted to using ATS (Applicant Tracking System). This software scans resumes for relevant keywords and selects only qualified resumes, which the hiring manager will review. To beat the ATS, you must use your SEO knowledge when writing your resume.
You must use the keywords provided in the job listing when writing the skill section of your resume. Also, it is essential to use a well-structured resume format to enable easy scanning by the ATS software.
Tailor your resume to the specific job you are applying for
It is essential to tailor your resume to suit the specific job you want, in this case, the market manager position. For this resume, focus on your experience in marketing, advertising, social media, web analytics, CRM systems, and other relevant areas. Also, mention your leadership and management abilities. Again, it highlights those experiences, abilities, and skills that make you a great marketing manager. Moreover, you should use marketing related-keywords and keywords from the job listings to tailor your resume effectively.
Use bullet points to sell yourself
To quickly sell yourself to your potential employer, use strong bullet points. Bullet points are brief details of your accomplishments at past jobs. Using bullet points is the most effective way for employers to spot your qualifications as a job candidate. When writing these bullet points, ensure you use complex numbers and statistics for marketing yourself effectively. Also, focus on specific results you achieved based on your marketing skills.
Use action verbs
Finally, ensure that you use action verbs when listing your past achievements and successes. It is all about narrating a story of your journey as a marketer appealingly and convincingly. Using action verbs will make your achievements more compelling to interest the hiring manager to read your entire resume. Also, remember that while writing bullet points is beneficial, including these action verbs makes them stand out even more.
Below are some of the action verbs you can use in your resume to make your accomplishments look better:
- Launched
- Achieved
- Analyzed
- Assessed
- Conceptualized
- Redesigned
- Streamlined
- Illustrated
- Directed
- Designed
- Researched
- Customized
- Established
- Examined
- Collaborated
Some Pitfalls to Avoid
While writing your resume, there are some things that you should avoid if you wish to have a job-wining resume. Some of the pitfalls that you should be aware of include the following:
Avoid using generic objectives
Avoid using generic objectives that will make your resume bland. Instead, prepare a summary highlighting your experience and skills, focusing on how you will benefit the company if hired. Also, make your resume a bit creative yet professional to grab and maintain the recruiterโs attention.
Avoid using fancy fonts
Even though creativity is required in marketing, using fancy fonts in your resume is not advisable. Funny colors and fancy fonts will make your resume hard to read, so the hiring manager will likely discard your resume. Instead, use professional fonts required in official and business documents such as Arial and Times New Roman at 10 to 12 points.
Do not go over one page
No matter how much you have to stay, you must maintain one page when writing your resume. An exciting and eye-catching resume should not go over one page. It should be brief to entice the recruiter to read it but detailed enough to provide complete details about all that makes you a great marketing manager.
Do not send without proofreading
Finally, sending your resume without proofreading might cost you that job. You need to maintain professionalism by editing and proofreading your work. Ensure that you proofread your work to correct any spelling, grammar, and punctuation work to make your resume a job-winning one.
Key Points
- When writing your marketing manager resume, remember that the content and format determine if the readerโs first impression will be good or bad.
- When listing your accomplishments, brag a little about those successes and make sure they stand out by adding numbers such as percentages, decimals, etc.
- For your work experience and education sections, it is best to list the information in reverse chronological order, from current to oldest.
- If you are a professional, ensure that you have a more extended experience than the education section. However, make your education section longer and more detailed for an entry-level job candidate than the experience section.
- When listing your responsibilities and accomplishments, try and incorporate the skills that helped you achieve them. This will make you look more skilled and knowledgeable.
- Finally, although it is beneficial to incorporate the skill set mentioned in the job description in your resume, do not highlight a skill that you do not have.