A Comprehensive Guide to a Job-Winning Chief Marketing Officer Resume (Examples Included)

Volen Vulkov

8 minute read

Updated on 2020-03-25

How to Write the Best Chief Marketing Officer Resume

Chief marketing officers are engineers specializing in human needs.

You’re a business maestro.

You coordinate between customer expectations and the possibility of further development of products.

Your sharp analytical thinking helps you create the right products for the right consumers.

But unfortunately, not every hiring manager can see what you’re responsible for.

So when writing your chief marketing officer resume, you have to remind them of two things:

How vital you were to your former employers (to highlight your experience).
What hiring you would mean to the business (How will you help it grow?).

The secret to creating a stellar chief marketing officer resume is to:

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.

This Chief Marketing Officer Resume Will Teach You:

7 chief marketing officer resume examples
How to tailor your chief marketing officer resume to the position you’re applying to
How to talk about your value while showing how you can help the recruiter’s company
Ways to describe your duties as a chief marketing officer
20 Important skills that hiring managers look for when choosing the right candidate

Chief Marketing Officer Resume Examples

Check out our full guide on how to review your resume for additional tips.

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How to Write a Chief Marketing Officer Resume

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

Recruiters understand that very well. And they’re looking for the best chief marketing officer to help them achieve it.

Each section you write in your resume has to support the claim that you are a professional marketer.

Show how things changed for your former employers after they hired you. And also, dive into more details about how you helped identify a target audience and communicate with it.

The best chief marketing officers today are result-oriented. They continuously test out new marketing ideas and promotional activities.

They develop new strategies to meet end-users where they are and serve them top-notch customer experience.

Chief marketing officers lead marketing teams. And they guide them to test and improve strategies intended to increase revenue.

Here’s what a recruiter will look for in your resume:

Do you have a bachelor’s degree in related fields such as marketing and business?
Are you the creative type to lead new business development initiatives?
Do you have experience leading teams into translating strategy into solid tactics?
Can you handle brand voice and communication to deliver a brand-consistent message?

The most important sections of a chief marketing officer resume:

Resume header
Resume summary to briefly showcase your worth in the marketing field
Resume experience to feature your business marketing expertise
BI education and marketing-related certifications
Key chief marketing officer skills to reinforce your your resume

How to Write a Chief Marketing Officer Resume Header

Does the header section in your CMO resume look like this?

Christy Murray

Chief Marketing Officer

+359 88 888 8888

Chicago, IL

WRONG

It’s an okay version, but it only containts general information.

It lacks specificity to the job you’re applying to, and it doesn’t give the recruiter a chance to know more about you.

Instead, let’s try this:

Christy Murray

Suite Institute™ Certified Chief Marketing Officer

+359 88 888 8888

help@enhancv.com

linkedin.com/in/murraychristy/

Chicago, IL

RIGHT

In addition to all the necessary information, this header has a link to your LinkedIn profile.

That allows the hiring manager to know more about you in a very short time.

Also, it includes a brief reference to your qualifications in the field. And that hints that you are a qualified candidate for the job.

Here’s the information you should include in your chief marketing officer header:

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

How to Write a Chief Marketing Officer Resume Objective or Summary

In a few sentences, you can leave an outstanding first impression on your recruiter.

You’ll encourage them to read further while paying close attention to everything you say in the rest of your resume.

Make sure to avoid writing fluff or relying on filler words to make your point.

All that shows that you’re a qualified copywriter who can lead marketing teams to craft persuasive web copy, white papers, product descriptions, and blog posts.

You also have to rely on your previous winning campaigns and products to make your point.

Then you can back that up with concrete numbers such as ROI, sales revenue, website conversions rates, etc.

3 Chief Marketing Officer Resume Samples - Summary

Because there are a million things you can say in the summary, let’s begin first with what not to say in your resume summary.

Summary

I am a hard-working Chief Marketing Officer with over eight years of experience in marketing. Interested in all types of opportunities so I can help you improve.

WRONG

Starting your summary with an “I” gives an early negative impression. It makes it seem like the whole paragraph is going to be about you and what you want.

That’s not something your recruiter is going to be pleased with.

They want you to tell them why they should care:

How have you helped your former employer?
What change will you bring after you’re hired in the new company?

Most CMOs are more than willing to go the extra mile and work for long hours if that helps the company for thrive.

Therefore, hard-working they’ll expect from you.

On top of that, this summary lacks proof of your eight years of experience as a CMO.

What business and marketing aspects were you in charge of during that time?
Did you have any successful marketing campaigns?
Were you responsible for any successful products?
Did you receive any positive feedback from your customers?

Show some precise numbers and concrete results.

And while at it, briefly tell them how you did it.

Let’s try this again.

Summary

An experienced chief marketing officer with an eight years background in marketing. Executed comprehensive marketing plans from start to finish. I’m looking for a new position in the B2C marketing sector to help you grow revenue.

WRONG

This is a bit better, but it’s still ineffective.

Due to two reasons reasons:

It’s vague, generalized, and provides very little context.
It doesn’t reflect your years of marketing expertise.

We can do better:

Summary

Mission-oriented chief marketing officer with an eight years background in the animal health sector. Executed comprehensive marketing plans from start to finish that resulted in a 8% boost in annual growth . Provided support in the production of visual marketing tools on three projects that helped generate more than $3.6m in annual revenue. Seeking chief marketing officer position to improve effeciency and revenue at Zoetis.

RIGHT

This summary has everything an amazing summary needs because it:

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 you’re applying to.

PRO TIPSum up your value proposition around what the new role requires you to do. Then feature your marketing and sales skills to emphasize the goals they helped you accomplish.

How Should You Frame Your Chief Marketing Officer Resume Experience?

Marketing is a creative field. It requires tons of different skills working together to produce the desired results.

This is often where chief marketing officers get lost when creating their resumes.

Sure!

You may have launched dozens of successful campaigns. Or sold millions worth of online products in your career.

But not every task you accomplished is relevant to a chief marketing officer’s 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.

2 Chief Marketing Officer Resume Experience Samples

Experience

Chief Marketing OfficerH&C Animal Health

02/2013 - 08/2017

Parker, CO

Company Description

Responsible for consumer acquisition and retention marketing

Rebuilt company sales by developing a new customer acquisition strategy

Led and executed comprehensive communication and brand strategy.

WRONG

The vagueness in this example makes you feel like the applicant doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

It gives the impression that you’ve copy-pasted those responsibilities from the web.

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

Experience

Chief Marketing OfficerH&C Animal Health

02/2013 - 08/2017

Parker, CO

Company Description

Led and supervised a global marketing team of colleagues and senior marketing professionals.

Implemented 3 new marketing campaigns each year that resulted in an annual growth of 6% on average.

Built new digital ad spending strategies that improved ROIs by 27% within 24 months.

Established a new pet care customer base that brought in an additional $7M in sales to revenue stream.

RIGHT

This is detailed enough to make the hiring manager trust you more and have a positive feeling about hiring you.

How to Describe the Duties of a chief marketing officer on a Resume

Set new branding and marketing strategies that increased brand awareness and lead generation.
Participated in research to come up with new product ideas and growth strategies.
Managed and supervised the in-house marketing team on several projects.
Controlled the marketing budget and conducted sales forecasts.
Planned and implemented new marketing strategies and advertising campaigns.

Does your chief marketing officer resume need an education section?

Let's be honest.

You're applying for executive level positions, that enable you to sit alongside the C-Suite".

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

So, whether you want to Havard or Cambridge doesn't really matter - but it does present an interesting talking point.

Here’s some information you can include on your most recent degree:

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

Education

MBA in Sales & MarketingDuke University

07/2007 - 05/2009

RIGHT

20 Skills to showcase in your 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.

And your recruiter knows that.

“To be a successful CMO requires thewillingness to be a good partner with the rest of the organization… They have to beadaptable to changeandalways keep learning new things… And most importantly, a successful CMO has tobe business leader first and then a marketing leader.”

- Tariq Shaukat, EVP and CMO, Caesars

Let’s face it.

Even if you could list hundreds of skills in your resume, unless they're carefully picked, you’d still not be chosen for the job.

Only include major skills that gain you a competitive advantage against other candidates.

For example, every CMO applying to this job knows how to use Microsoft Office. So, it would be counterintuitive to include that in your resume.

Instead, focus on these skills:

9 soft skills to include on a chief marketing officer Resume

Communication
Leadership
Creativity
Teamwork
Flexibility
Work Ethic
Problem Solving
Assertiveness

11 Technical skills to include in a chief marketing officer resume

Data analysis
Sales funnel management
Keyword research tools (e.g. Keyword Planner, KWFinder)
A/B testing
Email marketing tools (e.g. MailChimp, ConvertKit)
Graphic Design (e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator)
Project Management
Social media management
SEO
Coding languages (e.g. HTML, CSS, JS)
Marketing automation tools (e.g. Hubspot, Marketo)

How to include certifications in your chief marketing officer resume?

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.

Top 11 Chief Marketing Officer certifications to include in your resume

What are the tricks for 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

* Data reflects analysis made on over 1M resume profiles and examples over the last 2 years from Enhancv.com. Use this Chief Marketing Officer resume sample as a base to create a unique resume for yourself.

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Volen Vulkov

Volen Vulkov is a resume expert and the co-founder of Enhancv. He applies his deep knowledge and experience to write about career change, development, and how to stand out in the job application process.