Many entry-level digital marketing candidates struggle to illustrate the relevant experience and digital skills on their resumes due to a lack of substantial professional history. Our guide provides strategies for leveraging academic projects, internships, and personal online branding initiatives to craft a compelling narrative that showcases the candidate's potential in digital marketing roles.
- Which sections do you need to include in your resume to meet recruiters' requirements;
- How to write your entry-level digital marketing resume experience section - even if you have don't have little to no work experience;
- Real-life professional examples to guide you how to write the most important entry-level digital marketing resume sections;
- Adding even more sections so your entry-level digital marketing resume stands out with professionalism and your personality.
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The importance of format and layout in your entry-level digital marketing resume
Consider you're an HR professional at company X, evaluating two entry-level digital marketing candidate resumes. John Smith presents a simple, traditional, and easy-to-read resume. Edward Price, however, uses a non-conventional, often illegible format. Whose resume would you spend more time on to understand their experience? This scenario underscores the importance of your entry-level digital marketing resume’s design. It should be simply formatted and clearly communicate why you are the ideal candidate for the role.Achieve this balance by:
- Listing your experience, beginning with the most recent and relevant, in reverse chronological order;
- Ensuring your header contains essential information, such as contact details, a headline, and a portfolio link. Include a professional photo in the entry-level digital marketing resume header if you have one;
- Including only the most important and relevant resume sections to showcase your expertise and stand out from other candidates;
- Editing your entry-level digital marketing resume to be no longer than two pages if you have extensive relevant experience. Use your limited resume space judiciously.
Also, remember that your entry-level digital marketing resume might initially be scanned by an Applicant Tracker System (ATS).
To ensure ATS compatibility:
- Opt for simple and legible fonts like Raleway, Rubik, Lato, etc., making your experience easy for the ATS to scan;
- Use serif and sans-serif fonts, both of which are ATS-friendly;
- Avoid overused options like Arial and Times New Roman, which, while suitable, may lack personality.
Contrary to a common myth, our recent study shows that the ATS can effectively process both one-column and two-column resumes. Learn more about this in the ATS myths guide.
Finally, when submitting your entry-level digital marketing resume, always export it as a PDF to ensure all information remains intact, making the document easier to print, read, and scan.
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It's most often the case that your resume will be scanned over by the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) or the software companies use to automate their recruitment process. Ensure that within your resume header, summary, and / or objective, you've included skills that are must-haves for the role.
Fundamental sections for your entry-level digital marketing resume:
- The header with your name (if your degree or certification is impressive, you can add the title as a follow up to your name), contact details, portfolio link, and headline
- The summary or objective aligning your career and resume achievements with the role
- The experience section to curate neatly organized bullets with your tangible at-work-success
- Skills listed through various sections of your resume and within an exclusive sidebar
- The education and certifications for more credibility and industry-wide expertise
What recruiters want to see on your resume:
What recruiters want to see on your resume:
- Proficiency in digital marketing tools like Google Analytics, SEO/SEM, and social media advertising platforms.
- Evidence of creative campaigns or projects that demonstrate an understanding of digital marketing principles and the ability to engage an audience.
- Understanding of content management systems (CMS) and the ability to manage and produce content for various digital platforms.
- Data analysis skills showing you can measure, interpret, and make decisions based on marketing performance data.
- Knowledge of current digital marketing trends and the ability to adapt strategies to align with evolving best practices.
How to shift the focus from your entry-level digital marketing resume experience section to your professional profile
If you're at the start of your career journey or transitioning industries, you might be concerned about the lack of professional experience while crafting your entry-level digital marketing resume.
How can you effectively present your entry-level digital marketing resume experience section under these circumstances?
Rather than a traditional, extensive experience section, demonstrate your expertise through:
- Emphasizing your education. Your academic background might impress recruiters, especially if it includes recent, industry-relevant knowledge;
- Creating a compelling objective statement. The first few sentences of your resume should map out your motivations and career aspirations, offering insight into your goals;
- Highlighting your transferable skills. For example, if you've honed communication skills through volunteering, illustrate on your entry-level digital marketing resume how these can benefit a potential employer;
- Detailing your technical background in certifications and skills sections. As a recent graduate, your technological foundations might be particularly attractive to employers looking to develop these skills further.
It's important to remember that employers sometimes prefer candidates with less experience but who are a better cultural fit for their organization.
Quantifying impact on your resume
- Include the percentage by which you increased social media engagement or followers for previous brands or campaigns.
- Detail the specific number of leads generated through digital marketing initiatives you've implemented or contributed to.
- Mention the conversion rate improvement from your email marketing campaigns or A/B testing efforts.
- Highlight the amount of revenue attributed to the digital marketing funnels or channels you managed.
- Document the budget you've managed for digital ad spends and how efficiently you allocated the funds.
- Specify the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) reduction achieved in your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
- Report the number of content pieces you created or managed and their subsequent impact on traffic or leads.
- Reveal the growth in website traffic or search engine rankings due to your SEO strategies.
Action verbs for your entry-level digital marketing resume
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Keep your entry-level digital marketing resume layout simple with short and concise sentences. The best industry professionals present their career narratives, while placing their strengths in the spotlight.
Entry-level digital marketing resume skills: the essential hard skills and soft skills checklist
Ultimately, your entry-level digital marketing resume should hint to recruiters that you possess an array of talents that are indispensable to the role.
For example, listing the technologies and software you're apt at using (or your hard skills) and how you apply them in your day-to-day responsibilities would ensure you meet the technical requirements of the role.
But is this enough to ensure that you make a good impression on recruiters?
Go a step further by detailing the soft skills or personality traits you've attained thanks to your work and life experience.
The best way to balance hard skills and soft skills on your entry-level digital marketing resume is by:
- Highlighting up to three of your most noteworthy career accomplishments in a separate section.
- Listing at least one hard skill and one soft skill you've used to solve a particular challenge or problem.
- Feature niche skills and technologies that would help you stand out amongst candidates.
- Think back on the social impact your efforts have had towards improving the work environment - were you able to always maintain a professional ethic, while enhancing the team culture? Write about your contribution to the role, department, or organization itself as a metric of success.
The skills section of your resume provides you with plenty of opportunities to detail your technical and personal traits.
All you have to do is select the talents that best fit your application and expertise. Make note of some of the most prominent hard and soft skills across the industry from our list:
Top skills for your entry-level digital marketing resume:
Google Analytics
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Social Media Marketing
Email Marketing
Content Management Systems (CMS)
PPC Advertising (Pay-Per-Click)
Basic HTML/CSS
Google Ads
Facebook Ads Manager
Marketing Automation Tools
Communication
Creativity
Analytical Thinking
Time Management
Team Collaboration
Adaptability
Problem Solving
Attention to Detail
Customer Focus
Critical Thinking
The top 5 certifications for your entry-level digital marketing resume:
- Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) - Google
- HubSpot Content Marketing Certification (HubSpot CM) - HubSpot Academy
- Facebook Blueprint Certification (FBC) - Facebook
- Hootsuite Social Marketing Certification (HSMC) - Hootsuite Academy
- Digital Marketing Specialist (DMS) - Simplilearn
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Keep your entry-level digital marketing resume layout simple with short and concise sentences. The best industry professionals present their career narratives, while placing their strengths in the spotlight.
The entry-level digital marketing resume sections you may underestimate: certifications and education
Your education and certifications provide insight into both your technical capabilities and personal attributes, such as perseverance. When crafting your entry-level digital marketing resume, consider how you present these elements:
- For your higher education degrees, prioritize listing those most relevant to the job or indicative of your academic dedication;
- Include applicable coursework as a stand-in for relevant experience or if it might impress recruiters;
- Include incomplete higher education only if it's pertinent to meeting job requirements;
- If your degree is from a renowned university, mention how often you made the Dean's list to underline academic excellence.
Regarding certifications, it's not necessary to list all of them. Instead, match up to three of your most recent or significant certificates with the technical skills required in the job description.
Below, we've selected some of the top industry certifications that could be vital additions to your entry-level digital marketing resume.
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Align dates in a clear, consistent manner to create a readable timeline
Recommended reads:
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At the end of the day, what matters most to recruiters about your resume layout is how easy it is to scan and read. Unless you're applying for a role in a more creative field, you may opt to stick with a simple layout and formatting, and instead - focus on presenting your experience.
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The summary or objective: focusing on the top one-third of your resume
It's a well-known fact that the top one-third of your entry-level digital marketing resume is the make-it-or-break-it moment of your application. The resume summary and objective could help you further build up your professional profile.
- If you have plenty of career highlights behind your back, use the resume summary . The entry-level digital marketing summary immediately focuses recruiters' attention on what matters most within your experience.
- The resume objective is the perfect choice for balancing your career achievements with your vision. Use it to state precisely how you see yourself in a couple of years' time - as part of the company you're applying for.
Both the resume summary and resume objective can be your value pitch to potential employers: answering what makes your application unique and the top choice for the entry-level digital marketing role. They both have to be specific and tailored - as there's no one-size-fits-all approach to writing your entry-level digital marketing summary or objective. Use the entry-level digital marketing examples below as a starting point:
Resume summaries for a entry-level digital marketing job
- To leverage my proficiency in SEO, PPC, and social media advertising to drive brand awareness and customer engagement for a cutting-edge tech startup in Silicon Valley, while growing my skills in analytics and content marketing.
- Eager to apply my digital marketing certificate from ABC Institute by executing impactful email marketing campaigns and refining social media strategies for a health and wellness brand in New York, focused on measurable growth in audience reach.
- To contribute to a dynamic marketing team at a fast-growing e-commerce company in Chicago, utilizing my creative content creation skills and knowledge of Google Ads and Facebook Ad Manager to enhance online presence and boost sales.
- Aiming to employ my passion for digital storytelling and my recent Google Analytics certification to help a forward-thinking environmental organization in Seattle amplify their message and foster a strong online community.
- Seeking to join an ambitious marketing agency in Los Angeles as a digital strategist, bringing together my proficiency in marketing automation tools and a keen eye for emerging trends to execute data-driven campaigns that resonate with diverse audiences.
- Aspiring to bring my dedication to crafting compelling narratives and a strong foundation in Adobe Creative Suite to a cultural institution in Boston, aiming to broaden public engagement and increase event attendance through strategic digital promotions.
Other relevant sections for your entry-level digital marketing resume
Apart from the standard entry-level digital marketing resume sections listed in this guide, you have the opportunity to get creative with building your profile. Select additional resume sections that you deem align with the role, department, or company culture. Good choices for your entry-level digital marketing resume include:
- Language skills - always ensure that you have qualified each language you speak according to relevant frameworks;
- Hobbies - you could share more about your favorite books, how you spend your time, etc. ;
- Volunteering - to highlight the causes you care about;
- Awards - for your most prominent entry-level digital marketing professional accolades and achievements.
Make sure that these sections don't take too much away from your experience, but instead build up your entry-level digital marketing professional profile.
Key takeaways
Writing your entry-level digital marketing resume can be a structured and simple experience, once you better understand the organization's requirements for the role you're applying to. To sum up, we'd like to remind you to:
- Always select which experiences, skills, and achievements to feature on your resume based on relevancy to the role;
- In your resume summary, ensure you've cherry-picked your top achievements and matched them with the job ad's skills;
- Submit your entry-level digital marketing resume as a one or two-page long document at the most, in a PDF format;
- Select industry leading certifications and list your higher education to highlight you have the basis for technical know-how;
- Quantify your people's skills through various resume sections (e.g. Strengths, Hobbies and interests, etc.) to show recruiters how your profile aligns with the organizational culture.
