How To Write A Great Resume For A Marketing Position

Last Updated on Thu, 10 Nov 2022 | Content Marketing

Isn’t it ironic that there are people who aspire for a marketing career; a job that entails promoting a product’s selling points, cannot even promote their selling points? Maybe it’s a case of having biases, fears and self- limiting beliefs. But if the proof of the pie is in the eating, then marketers need to learn how to write a great resume to land that key marketing position.

Here are 4 valuable tips to write a great resume that will capture the attention of the recruiter for the perfect marketing job.

1. Identify Your Target Market

In marketing, one of the key principles of designing a strategy is to identify your target market. Knowing who will read and appreciate your content makes it easier to outline courses of action targeted for specific demographics.

In the same manner, you should identify the type of job and employer you are interested in working for. Once you have done that, you can go into deeper detail and find out the best companies to work for so you can conduct proper research.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Do I want to work for an inbound marketing agency?
Would I be interested in working for an agency that does both traditional and online marketing?
Would I prefer a smaller agency that offers closer collaboration or a larger agency that is more decentralized?
Would I be more interested working with an established in- house marketing team or become a pioneer in a startup?
Would I prefer to be part of a remote marketing team?

By knowing the companies you want to potentially work for, you can customize your resume and tailor its message accordingly. You will know which skills and experiences to highlight.

Always go the extra mile when you do research. Find out the following information:

History of the company
The Founders and current management team
The Head Recruiter
Latest developments
Notable accomplishments

Visit their websites and social media accounts. Follow them on LinkedIn. Go to GlassDoor.com and read up on their salary scale, benefits and company culture.

You should not hesitate to do research because that is a required skill for marketers!

2. Establish Your Unique Value Proposition

Even if every single candidate for the key marketing position graduated from the same college and attained the same Grade Point Average or GPA, they remain unique individuals.

Every person has their own set of talents, skills and competencies because we’re all shaped by different experiences and individualized genetic material. You should identify your unique value offerings and summarize it as a proposition that will convince the recruiter to give you serious consideration.

What then is your Unique Value Proposition? Another way to frame this question is:

“What makes you different from others?”

Review your qualifications, special skills and trainings and pick out the ones that you believe will fit the job requirements and place you ahead of everyone else. Identify your strong points; the ones that you can comfortably and confidently propose to the prospective employer.

Have you conducted Project Management work for digital marketing agency?
Are you certified and experienced in SEO?
Have you designed and programmed websites?
Are you creative in graphic design?
Do you know how to conduct keyword research?
Have you managed the social media accounts of clients? What were the results and returns?
Are you an effective content writer?
Have worked with a digital marketing team before?

Remember marketing is a field that utilizes different techniques and processes. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who is highly proficient in all disciplines.

3. Develop Your Message

The key component in every successful marketing campaign is the messaging strategy. Before you even begin to write down your resume, the first thing you have to do is figure out how to best present your message. You can approach your messaging strategy in the same way you would for a marketing campaign and that is by asking questions:

Recruiters are sensitive to keywords; which keywords will the recruiter be keeping an eye on?

Which real life incidents or episodes should I use to validate my unique value proposition?

What is the best format to use to ensure clear visibility, easy navigation and immediate attention to my unique value proposition?

How should I layout my resume so that it would align best with my messaging strategy?

The answers to these questions must be made and identified before you proceed with writing your resume. You may have to do additional research on the best keywords to use and ideal resume formats and structures to consider.

Recruiters see hundreds of resumes every day. Not only do they have the experience to spot usable, default templates but the best recruiters have developed an intuition on which ones best represent the overall message or value proposition.

4. Enhance the Visibility of Your Resume

In the previous section, we touched on keywords. The smart and strategic use of keywords is important for writing a great resume for 2 reasons:

Recruiters Use Keywords

As discussed earlier, recruiters are sensitive to the use of keywords. These are words or phrases that are most often used to launch a search query. But recruiters use them to scan a resume.

Depending on the job post and the requirements of the position, a recruiter would have a list of keywords in mind that he or she would be looking for in a resume. Having them in your resume shows experience and expertise in marketing plus proof of being strategic in thought and purpose.

HR uses Software Tracking Programs

In order to speed up the qualifying process, many HR companies utilize software programs that scan and track high ranking keywords in a resume.

If your resume was not e-mailed in the correct PDF format, you are already in trouble. Most tracking programs cannot scan non- PDF format resumes accurately.

Second, if your resume does not feature the high ranking keywords with the right density, it will be ignored.

The best keywords to use are the software programs in marketing that you are familiar with, social media networks, types of analytics and CRM tools you know.

If you want to land that marketing position, take yourself in as a client and apply the same marketing principles you would for a new campaign. Have confidence in your ability to sell your unique value proposition to the recruiter. If you can convince the recruiter to move you to the interview stage, it will prove that you are an effective marketer.

Continue reading here: 5 Social Media Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid Making

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