Chief Marketing Officer Resume: Examples & Writing Tips for 2023

As a CMO, you understand the value in a clear objective and strong marketing strategy. You’ve applied these principles and achieved financial and branding goals.

Now you’ve got a new product to market - your CMO resume!

It’s time to apply that entrepreneurial spirit to writing a great chief marketing officer resume and make yourself irresistible to recruiters

How to write a CMO resume that stands out

When marketing is at its best, it benefits the whole organization.

Hiring managers know that a great CMO will take their company to the next level with a good advertising strategy. Recruiters have this in mind as they sift through a stack of resumes.

A recruiter will likely only look at your resume for a few seconds, so your CMO resume has to grab their attention and keep them engaged right away.

When reading your CMO resume, recruiters want to know two things:

• How vital you were to your former employers
• How would hiring you grow the business

Every section of your CMO resume needs to convey that you are a marketing professional and a good leader. To achieve this, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Think of yourself as the product, your resume as the marketing channel, and the hiring manager as your target audience.
• Find your unique value proposition as a CMO. Then promote it throughout different sections in your resume.
• Not sell yourself as a generalist. Instead, combine what you want to achieve with what the job requires to find a unique voice to communicate in.

Do some reflecting on your previous roles. Think about how your expertise has helped former employers. What goals did the company achieve because of your input? How did you identify and engage a target audience?

All of this important information has to be presented in a way that is clear, concise, and engaging. Each section of your resume should follow these guidelines with no wasted space.

Depending on your experience and the role you’re applying for, there are other resume formats that you might want to consider. Browse our other resume formats to see which one is right for you.

How to write an eye-catching CMO resume header

The header is the first section of your CMO resume that recruiters will see. You want to convey as much important information as you can in just a matter of seconds.

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

The above example has two main errors:

• It includes a very basic title
• It is lacking important information

Remember, recruiters are going to be looking through hundreds of resumes that all say “Chief Marketing Officer.” You need to set yourself apart from the crowd.

This example is a big improvement. The title includes a job-specific certification. At first glance the recruiter is already learning about your qualifications in the field.

The above example also includes a link to the candidate’s LinkedIn profile. While recruiters may not take the time to follow up on every candidate’s profile, your target company will want to learn more about you before extending an offer.

These small changes are simple but make a big impact.

A strong CMO resume header should include:

• Name
• Job Title
• Email Address
• Location
• Phone Number
• (Professional/Personal) Website or LinkedIn profile

If you’re still unsure about your header and want a bit more guidance, read through our guide Perfecting Your Resume Header so You Get Noticed.

Chief marketing officer resume summary: tips and recommendations

Now that you’ve grabbed a recruiter’s attention with your fantastic header, you need to keep pulling them in with your summary.

The goal of the summary is to convey your value in the industry and show potential employers what you will bring to the company. A concise and engaging summary will encourage them to keep reading.

A key skill of great CMOs is quality copywriting. Your summary is an opportunity to show employers how you would craft persuasive web copy, white papers, product descriptions, and blog posts.

The best chief marketing officers today are results-oriented. Make your point by showcasing previous winning campaigns and products.

Be mindful of avoiding filler words and use action verbs supported by concrete numbers such as ROI, sales revenue, website conversion rates, etc.

As a CMO, you have spent years in the industry and likely have a collection of stats to choose from. Look into your target job and find their biggest company challenge. Your summary should show how you will solve it.

Let’s take a look at a few CMO resume summary examples.

This example provides a bit more information, but it’s really not any better than the first.

There are no specific statistics or data points mentioned. The generalized statements make it difficult to gauge this person’s level of expertise. They are still using “I” in the summary.

Let’s look at a summary that gets it right.

This summary has everything an amazing CMO summary needs.

Let’s look at what it achieves:

• States some of your most important past accomplishments
• Features your long years of experience working as a chief marketing officer
• Provides concrete results with precise numbers
• Shows that you’re not mass-sending your resume by mentioning the name of the organization to which you’re applying.

Frame your value proposition around what the new role requires you to do. Feature your marketing and sales skills to emphasize the goals they helped you accomplish.

For more tips and guidance on crafting a great CMO resume summary, check out our guide Resume Summary: How-To Guide (30+ Examples You Need To See).

How should you frame your chief marketing officer resume experience?

The complexity of a CMO’s career can be a gift and a curse when it comes to resumes. From developing strategies for an excellent customer experience to selling millions of products, it can be hard to choose what bullets to include.

Don’t make the mistake of cramming as many accomplishments as you can into your resume. This is what candidates who mass-send their resumes do and its obvious to recruiters.

Include the achievements that show your strongest skills that are the most relevant to your target job.

Not every task you’ve accomplished is relevant to every chief marketing officer role.

Your experience section needs to be tailored specifically to show that you can:

• Handle high-level metrics such as branding and lead generation
• Work with individuals from different departments with different positions in the company
• Lead teams of different sizes and efficiently delegate responsibility for execution
• Conduct in-depth analysis and measure ROI and marketing spending.

Let’s take a look at a few CMO resume experience section examples.

What's wrong in this example:

• Vague and general descriptions
• Uses filler words instead of action verbs

The bullets above give the impression that the candidate copied and pasted them directly from a chief marketing officer job description.

They are not personalized at all and show no specific achievements.

Let’s tweak it a little bit by adding specific details on past roles and accomplishments.

What works in this example:

• Specific stats and achievements are used
• Shows job-specific skills and industry knowledge

This is detailed enough for recruiters to get a good impression of you and for hiring managers to imagine you helping their company

Let’s take a look at one more that shows the other duties of a chief marketing officer.

This example includes specific achievements and statistics just like the one above.

Look at your target job description and decide what CMO duties hiring managers want to see. Select your own accomplishments with that in mind.

For more ideas on how to create an actionable resume experience section, check out our guide How to Describe Your Resume Work Experience.

Does your chief marketing officer resume need an education section?

Odds are that by the time you’ve reached CMO status in your career, your college degree isn’t what’s getting you in the door.

You've already proven to be an excellent marketer capable of driving and saving millions of dollars.

However, depending on the industry, most CMOs have a bachelor’s level degree in marketing and an MBA. For some C-Suite level positions, your degree isn’t what companies look at first but it is a requirement for the role.

A basic education section with your school and degree info is sufficient.

Don’t include your GPA. Your experience on the job is far more valuable at this point.

You may want to consider leaving out your years of study depending on how long ago you graduated. Some workers have reported feeling as though their age has actually hindered them from getting a job after turning 40.

On the other hand, some companies want a marketing veteran who has been in the industry for decades. It’s best to do some research on the company and use your discretion.

Here is some information to include in your education section:

• University/College name
• Location
• Study years or year of graduation
• Degree type

Browse more essential tips on how to feature education on your resume, in our guide Perfecting the Education Section on Your Resume.

20 skills to showcase on a chief marketing officer resume

A lot of what you do as a chief marketing officer is data, strategy, and people-oriented.

Your role requires you to work with lots of different teams within the company. Therefore, you have to be both a leader and a team player at the same time.

This requires a strong foundation of soft skills.

Having spent the beginning of your career in marketing, you’re probably confident in naming your technical skills.

At C-Suite level positions, your soft skills are what you really want to make shine.

Again, it’s best to be selective when choosing what soft skills to include on you CMO resume. You may feel confident in dozens, but recruiters will be looking for the ones most specific to the job.

Be sure to back them up with supporting evidence in your experience section. Recruiters won’t just take your word for it.

For example, “Led marketing strategy on a product launch that won ‘2020 Most Creative Launch’ award” is much more impactful than simply listing “Creative thinker” in your list of skills.

Here are a few more soft skills to consider adding to your CMO resume.

As for the technical skills, adding them to your CMO resume is a bit more straightforward.

Tailor your list to your target job. You might have experience with dozens of automation tools and design software, but you should focus on the ones most relevant to the company

Save space and leave out technical skills that are expected. For example, every CMO applying to this job knows how to use Microsoft Office. No need to include it on your resume.

Here are a few technical skills to consider for your CMO resume.

Are you still not sure what skills will win recruiters over? Check out our guide on How to Create A Resume Skills Section To Impress Recruiters (+10 Examples You Need to See).

Chief marketing officer resume certificates - should you include them?

Struggling to highlight certain aspects of your experience throughout your resume?

This section is your savior.

Most job applications state clearly what the job requires you to do.

Getting a certification is a genuine way to show your interest in the job and draw attention to your high ambitions for the position.

It’s also a great way to stay on top of industry trends and explore areas you may not have as much experience.

For more information on how to properly list resume certifications, we recommend reading our guide How To List Certifications On A Resume (Examples Included).

Other sections to include on your resume

Depending on the company, there may be additional skills and experiences that separate you from other candidates. Sometimes the standard sections just aren’t enough to show why you’re the perfect CMO for the job.

If your target company has international offices or markets to an international audience, including language skills can be a big advantage.

Things like projects, volunteer work, and hobbies and interests are a great way to show you are passionate about things that are relevant to the job. For example, applying for a position at an animal health agency and including your volunteer experience at your local animal shelter.

Other sections you might want to add include highlights and references.

Key takeaways for creating the best chief marketing officer resume:

• Create a resume specifically tailored to the chief marketing officer role

• Use your summary as a brief introduction to showcase your sales and marketing skills

• Highlight your successful campaigns and brilliant marketing ideas throughout your resume

• Use precise numbers to prove your competence in understanding customers and creating winning products

• Use certifications to authentically turn your career shortcomings into strong selling points