Writing a digital marketing resume is tough. There are all kinds of marketers on the Internet, and hiring managers need to recruit only one.
But most resumes won’t even make it to the interview process. Why is that? Because they lack focus, impact, or both.
This guide will teach you how to write a job-winning resume and how to convince recruiters that yours is the last one they need to see.
Curiosity is the key skill I look for in digital talent. Google and Facebook change their ad buying platforms and products so quickly that a good digital marketer needs to be open to change and to be curious about what's next.
Digital marketing resume examples
Below you'll find two different Digital Marketing resume examples based on years of experience in the field. You can use them as a base for your resume easily by clicking the button.
Entry-level Digital Marketing resume
Any experience is good as long as it’s framed as relevant. Setting up a school website can be framed as creating a digital asset. Helping your uncle send a newsletter is an email campaign management. These days it's easier than ever to obtain some kind of digital marketing experience as all the major marketing platforms are free and accessible.
Show completed small projects with tangible results. If you want to gain an edge over other candidates, framing your experience is just the first step. Help a local business with online leads. Set up Google Analytics for a nonprofit. Start a gig on Fiverr. Having a real-world experience with relevant results will set you apart from thousands of marketers who "gained 10 followers on TikTok".
Senior digital marketing resume
Use a targeted digital marketing manager resume. Senior marketers are typically hired to address a specific company's need, not because the company wants someone to "manage" other marketers. But a bootstrapped web service, a rapidly growing startup that just got its first round of investments, and an established enterprise that plans to boost its digital presence will have very different needs. A targeted resume forces you to research more about the company and use this research to frame your experience. Even recruiters want more candidates to tailor their resumes to the job.
Prove your ability to scale results. You might be an excellent solo performer, but how well do you work in a digital marketing team? You can write a perfect SEO article, but can you establish a production pipeline to publish 100 articles like that per month? Reflect on your achievements and prove that you're not just a great performer, but also a great manager. Showcase your experience in implementing and sustaining the same level of quality when working on several marketing campaigns and projects at a time.
Pro tip
Digital marketing is a broad discipline. Your resume will be more effective if you specialize in several areas like social media, SEO, analytics, SEM, UX/web design, content writing, email marketing, etc. Also, consider whether you’ll be expected to create strategies or just execute them.
Looking for more related resumes?
- Social Media Specialist resume
- Content Marketing resume
- Ecommerce Marketing resume
- Brand Ambassador resume
- Copywriter resume
- Marketing Intern resume
- Public Relations Specialist resume
- Marketing Manager resumes
- SEO resume
- Marketing Director resume
- Marketing resume
What’s the trick to the perfect digital marketing resume?
The following tips will help you take the guesswork out of making an effective resume.
Some numbers have more impact than others
Most digital marketing resume advice encourages using metrics, and in the marketing world, it’s easy to find numbers. But recruiters are used to picking the results that matter.
Go through your resume and find what numbers paint you as a one-of-a-kind performer, and what numbers are generic and have no value.
- Bad example: scheduled 4 newsletters every month for a year;
- Good example: boosted email conversions by 25% using interactive VR campaigns among the first in the industry.
Target your resume to specific company goals
Although digital marketing is an abstract term and can mean anything from SMM to SEO, companies are looking to address specific needs.
Read about the company, study their most active marketing channels, check out other jobs they published, and find out what they want the most from digital marketing now.
- Bad example: I do all kinds of marketing: CPC, SMM, email, A/B tests, data-driven campaigns;
- Good example: established SEO content pipeline from scratch that led to 500-700 new paid subscriptions every month.
Use resume format and layout to guide the recruiter’s attention to your strengths
Combine headings, bullet points, and custom sections to make your resume easy to scan. Highlight your results with bold text. Control recruiters' attention with white space and color.
There are two resume layouts you should consider, depending on the amount of digital marketing expertise you have.
If you don’t have much experience, a hybrid layout is best. This type of resume begins with skills as a central point of your resume, but doesn't sideline your experience.
For those with more relevant experience, a classic reverse chronological format emphasizing your work experience is ideal. You may still want to include dedicated sections about your skills, but your real work experience should be the focus.
Digital marketing resume sections to consider:
- An objective or summary
- Digital marketing work experience
- Relevant skills with examples to back them up if possible
- Certifications
- Education
- Something to show personality, like “most proud of”
Digital marketing resume header: what recruiters want to see
When a hiring manager is quickly looking through a stack of resumes, the part that’s going to catch their eye is the header. Usually, it has just your name and contact information, but there are a few tricks that can make it far more effective.
First, include your most valuable certification next to your name to show that you’re qualified without needing to dive into your experience.
Next, add links to your social media accounts or forum profiles. This is particularly useful if you’re an active user of LinkedIn, Quora, Reddit, or anywhere where you discuss digital marketing.
Taken together, these two things turn a simple header into one which says “I’m confident, certified, and proud of my work.”
Have a look at these two examples to see what we mean.
If you want more ideas for a stand-out resume header, read through our guide Perfecting Your Resume Header so You Get Noticed.
Digital marketing resume summary: win recruiters over with two sentences
A short resume objective or summary is a great place to explain a bit more about who you are and where your digital marketing skills lay. It’s also a great place to show off your writing abilities.
Just be sure to make it concise and focused on explaining why you’re a good candidate for this specific role (and not a good digital marketer in general).
The big difference is specificity. The first example is vague to the point of being meaningless. It doesn’t tell the hiring manager anything valuable. Worse, it wastes their time. That is not likely to get you an interview.
Ultimately, when hiring a digital marketer, hiring managers want to see that you have experience in the right areas and can get results.
You can find more examples of stellar summary sections in our Resume Summary: How-To Guide with 30+ Examples You Need To See article.
If you’re looking to craft a compelling resume objective instead, read our writing tips at 10 Resume Objective Examples You Need to Steal (How-to-Guide).
Digital Marketing experience: a job-driven process
Your work experience needs to show one thing above all else: that you got results. Be specific about what you did and what the results were. Simply listing your responsibilities doesn’t really tell a hiring manager anything valuable.
Have a look at these two examples of digital marketing specialist resumes to get a feel for the difference.
Digital marketing job description for a resume
- Created and led an SEO strategy which increased traffic.
- Responsible for managing a small team
- Led email marketing.
- Implemented first SEO-driven organic strategy which boosted site visits by 200% in 8 months while increasing total sales by 65%.
- Led a 6 person team to write 10 articles a week and obtain an average of 8 quality backlinks per week.
- Created an email marketing strategy which increased repeat buying from 20% to 35%.
The same exact work experience phrased two different ways makes a world of difference.
How to get hired as a digital marketer with no experience
Okay, that experience example is great, but what if you don’t have any previous experience?
First, don’t be put off by job offers which require 2 years of experience. As one digital marketer put it:
No job history? Hone your skills on your own… A good signal that you have those skills is by showing that you’ve developed a website or a blog on your own with some specific focus (just using Facebook and “being online all the time” isn’t enough.)
So, there are many ways to show you have the skills without formal work experience. Show the hiring manager that you’re self-motivated through certifications, side projects, volunteering, etc.
We've got plenty of examples in our Experience Resume Section guide.
Does a digital marketing resume need an education section?
A bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, or business administration is always going to be a plus. If you have one, include it, but it’s not necessary to list many details unless you’re a fresh graduate.
But even without a degree, you can still show that you’re qualified. As one digital marketer put it:
Certifications are the new degree.
That’s because the purpose of that degree is to show you have certain relevant skills. If you can demonstrate that another way, all the better. Ultimately, digital marketing is such a fast-paced discipline that recent certifications and experience are going to be more valuable than a marketing degree from even 5 years ago.
Browse more essential tips on how to feature education on your resume, in our guide Perfecting the Education Section on Your Resume.
Digital marketing skills that make all the difference
With digital marketing strategies encompassing such a wide range of areas, you’re always going to have to choose what kinds of skills to emphasize.
Broadly speaking, these are the most in-demand skills in digital marketing.
15 digital marketing skills for your resume:
- Data analysis
- Paid ads & PPC campaigns
- Conversion rate optimization
- SEO
- Digital media campaigns
- Email marketing campaigns
- PPC
- CMS (content management systems)
- Social media
- Promotions
- Communication skills (written and spoken)
- Organization
- Mobile marketing
- Strategic planning
- Trends analysis
- User experience optimization
- Lead generation
- Creativity
- Crisis management
- Writing
- Curiosity
- Independence
- Design
16 technical skills for your digital marketing resume:
- HTML/CSS/JS
- SEMrush
- Buzzsumo
- Hotjar
- MOZ
- Hootsuite
- Google Analytics
- Facebook ads
- LinkedIn ads
- WordPress
- Email marketing tools like Mailchimp
- Photoshop
- Buffer
- Zapier
- Google Tag Manager
- Social media management (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.)
However, as mentioned, digital marketers will be expected to specialize in one or more areas. That’s why it’s more important that you identify what type of digital marketer the recruiter is looking for and emphasize the skills relevant for that position.
Also note that for hard skills and software, it’s enough to mention them on your resume. On the other hand, including your soft skills in a list with examples for each one will make them more impactful.
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).
Digital marketing certifications: Do you need these?
Reading advice from seasoned digital marketers, you’ll see certifications come up time and time again. They’re the easiest way to stand above the competition, show off skills, and become a better digital marketer without the need to get formal work experience.
Digital Marketers are also project managers, in a way, so if you have project management certifications, feel free to put them on your digital project manager resume as well.
Any Google certifications you can get will be a huge differentiator — Google Analytics individual qualification, in particular.
These are the certifications that make the most difference:
The top 10 digital marketing certifications to include on your resume.
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 for your digital marketing resume
Depending on the company, job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your digital marketer resume:
- Language skills
- Hobbies and interests
- Projects
- Volunteer work
- Highlights
- References
- LinkedIn on Resume
- GPA
- Resume Awards
- Publications
Cover letter for digital marketing jobs
In case the job description says you need to provide a cover letter, do include yours. Otherwise, you can always leave it out.
Nowadays, job application forms include questions like “why do you want to work here”, or “explain why you’re the best fit for us”, which makes you wonder are cover letters really necessary?
Still, they help you tell your story in a way that, if written right, it’s captivating and engaging.
In any case, you should pay close attention to the following tips when a cover letter is a must:
- Make sure you go over a cover letter checklist, not to forget what your cover letter should say;
- Match the cover letter design with your resume’s;
- Address your cover letter properly;
- Keep an eye on your cover letter length;
- Use a proper cover letter ending;
If you need more inspiration, check out this example Digital Marketing Cover letter.
Key takeaways
To sum up, these are the tactics that make for the best digital market research resumes:
- Specialize your ad content creator resume to focus on one or a few areas of digital marketing.
- Choose a functional or reverse-chronological layout depending on whether you’re an entry-level or more experienced digital marketer.
- Focus on showing what you achieved and not what you were responsible for.
- Use your resume header to show off certifications and profiles.
- Don't be discouraged by the "two-year work experience" requirement.
- Entry-level digital marketers should use certifications and non-work experience to show they’re ready to work in the field.
- Back up your skills with examples and certifications.