22 Marketing Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

Marketing professionals who are preparing a resume for a new position face some unique challenges that can impact their chances of making a good impression on recruiters and HR managers.

Oftentimes, they focus on the wrong information or forget to document their accomplishments in expanding market reach, increasing ROIs, and other key marketing metrics.

In this guide, we will discuss the common pitfalls and mistakes many marketing professionals make when creating a tailored marketing resume. We use real-world examples to cover necessary information, such as how to:

• Create a properly formatted resume that perfectly balances your creative and technical skills along with your business savvy.
• Quantify complex metrics, such as ROIs, conversion rates, click-through rates, and other marketing metrics, in a way that everyone can understand.
• Demonstrate your connection to the industry through memberships with national organizations and local networking groups.
• Highlight relevant advanced training through certifications in various marketing tools.

If this resume guide does not line up with your career plans, we have other relevant guides for you to check out:

• Event Marketing resume
• Fashion Marketing resume
• Sports Marketing resume
• Influencer Marketing resume
• Email Marketing resume

The first step in creating a marketing resume is to use the proper format, which includes specific sections that recruiters expect to find.

How to format a marketing resume

All resumes, regardless of position, follow a specific document format that everyone must adhere to, especially now that the popularity of applicant tracking systems is on the rise.

Fortunately, this format includes the standard document settings for most word-processing applications. If you are creating a new resume from scratch, you don’t have to worry about margins, line spacing, and font sizes. That being said, there are some choices that you can make in the formatting of your marketing resume.

Enhancv offers free resume templates to get you started. These templates come in a variety of styles, from modern to creative, and include modern fonts such as Exo 2, Lato, Montserrat, Raleway, Rubix, and Volkhov. You can choose a more classic font, like Arial or Times New Roman, but these are outdated and overused, and we are building a more modern resume.

Whatever font you go with, make sure it is a serif or sans-serif font. Using a script or decorative font is not the way to make your resume stand out.

Your resume is divided into small sections where you will detail your:

• Title and current contact information
• A professional resume statement
• Details of past marketing experience
• Post-secondary education and any advanced training
• A list of technical, business, and creative skills

All of this needs to be done in no more than two pages, which is more than enough, even for marketers with 15+ years of experience. With a little work, you’ll find there is plenty of space to list your experience, education, and marketing skills.

When you are ready to apply for a marketing position, save it as a PDF document (.pdf). This will preserve the look of your resume no matter what operating system or screen size they are using.

Already have a marketing resume ready to go? Run it through our resume checker to get an in-depth analysis.

Before we begin adding your career details, take a look at the must-have sections and what recruiters want to see from their pool of candidates:

When listing the details of your past accomplishments, be sure to include the following:

The first section we will work on is the resume experience section, which will include any past marketing or other jobs where you performed the duties of a marketer. Because you want to highlight your most recent experience, you will list all jobs in reverse chronological order.

How to write your marketing resume experience

The resume experience section is where you will list any marketing experience within a specified field. Marketing a popular child’s toy requires a unique marketing approach that is different than how you would market pharmaceuticals or climate change initiatives.

Many marketing experts fail to properly detail their work experience in a way that shows what they bring to the table. Instead of listing accomplishments with quantifiable data, they simply include the job duties and responsibilities. Recruiters are well aware of the requirements for the job. After all, they are the ones who wrote the job post.

Let’s take a look at a real-world marketing resume experience example to give you a visual of what we mean:

This resume example reads more like they simply pasted the job details and did nothing to show how well they performed on the job. Don’t do this.  

Each job entry should list how you used your skills and knowledge to produce actionable results. “Execute direct email…” should be “Executed direct email…” It is a task you have already performed and should be written in the past tense.

Another common mistake is not listing the industry type or a brief company description. Right now, we have no idea what they are marketing. This example leaves more questions than answers and does not make a good impression.

Let’s see if we can improve it by adding some more details about the company and their performance:

That’s much more like it. Notice how, instead of just listing the job duties, they include vital information about the scope of their work and the positive impact they had. This example does a great job of showing:

• The effect they had on adding new customers through developing new email marketing campaigns.
• Experience using a specific marketing tool (Salesforce) to demonstrate their knowledge of industry software.
• The amount of workload they are comfortable handling.
• Experience in improving workflow and reducing production errors.
• The ability to work with all levels of employees, from support staff to upper management.

Notice how this example includes the company’s industry, vacation rentals. This helps recruiters determine if the person has the right experience for their marketing field.

How many jobs should you include in this section? Because of the limited space, include no more than three jobs. Any more than that, and you risk going over the two-page limit and most recruiters will stop reading at that point.

Now it’s time to focus on one area where over 80% of job seekers fail to take full advantage of the potential of their resume.  

How to quantify impact on your resume

We saw in the resume experience section how much of an impact using numbers and percentages can make on your resume. Marketing pros are at a unique disadvantage when it comes to quantifying their actions. It’s not so easy to quantify customer aquisitions, conversion rates, and cost-per-lead reductions of targeted ad campaigns.

Here are some examples of marketing metrics that will help you make a big impact:

• Total revenue generated: “Directed the launch of a campaign for a new educational product, resulting in revenue of $5.4M in the first year.”
• Customer/Client acquisition: “Planned client relationship cultivation events to promote growth, resulting in expansion of clientele base by 53%”
• Number of marketing campaigns: “Created 35+ content marketing initiatives to drive traffic, increasing revenue by 12% with a 6% boost in donor retention.”
• Conversion rate increases: “Analyzed sales funnels while measuring online campaign performance, resulting in a 17% improvement in customer conversion rates.”
• Budgetary savings: “Worked with local shelters to build a paid advertising campaign on Facebook and Instagram, resulting in a 55% cost reduction per lead.”
• Increases in social media engagement: “Worked with local restaurants to grow their online search presence, leading to an increase in organic search traffic from 100 to 1,000 users per month on average.”
• SEO Ranking improvements: “Achieved 1st position on the Google Search Page for selected keywords (5000+ set).”
• Email marketing metrics: “Developed and executed a targeted email campaign resulting in a 25% increase in open rates and a 15% increase in click-through rates.”

Apps like Google Analytics and Hubspot can help you find these and other marketing metrics.

How do I write a marketing resume with no experience

If you are looking for your first marketing job, have no fear. You don’t need formal marketing experience to qualify, but you will need to show you have the relevant skills and experience to be an effective marketer.

For first-time marketers, recruiters like to see past work experience in:

• Content creation
• Sales or general retail experience
• Social media management
• Freelance design work
• Marketing internships

If you manage several personal social media accounts that have the same type of content, you can use that as an example of your marketing experience. If you volunteered your time to help an organization expand its market reach, you want to include that on your resume.

Ideally, you want to list those jobs that show a steady progression toward a marketing career. Take a look at this real-world resume example from someone who is interested in a marketing career:

Each job uses the skills and tools that a marketer would need and does not include similar jobs. There’s no need to list other sales jobs where you did the same duties as the one listed, especially if you are applying for your first marketing job.

How to list your hard skills and soft skills on your resume

Marketers need a wide range of creative, technical, and business skills to generate effective ad campaigns, increase ROIs, and attract new customers to their brand or product. Your job is to list only those skills that are necessary to the specific job you are applying to.

You would only include “First aid/CPR training” as a skill set if you are marketing life-saving products or working in an environment that requires First Aid and CPR training.

Your hard skills are those skills that you learn through coursework at a university or trade school, internships, and real-world experience through part and full-time jobs and personal projects. They include essential skills such as data analysis, budget management, and experience with Adobe Creative Suites.

Some of the most-requested hard skills from employers include:

Soft skills define more personal skills, such as emotional intelligence and being able to work with all types of people (interpersonal skills). You generally pick these up through everyday life experiences and spending time with your friends, family, and peers.

Without these skills, marketers would have difficulty relating to their customers, creating creative ad campaigns, and leading a team of diverse employees.

These are the top soft skills that are crucial to be a successful marketer:

Before we move on to the education section, let’s talk about tailoring your resume to the job post. This will help you make a better first impression and score higher with applicant tracking systems.

When creating a job post, HR staff will add specific keywords and phrases to narrow their pool of candidates. If they use an applicant tracking system, the software will score each resume on the number of matching keywords.

If the job duties say: “Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, including a high level of emotional intelligence and empathy.”

Your resume must include “empathy,” “communication skills,” and “interpersonal” in either the resume experience section, professional summary, or skills sections. It is OK to list them in multiple sections, like the resume summary and work experience or technical skills sections.

While you don’t necessarily have to add the exact words, a 100% match may score higher than a partial match.

How to list your certifications and education on your resume

Listing your education is required for all resumes, no matter how long ago you graduated. It shows employers that you have a solid educational foundation and are willing to put in the work necessary to learn the skills you need to succeed.

While some entry-level marketing jobs may not require a bachelor’s degree, earning one will allow you to advance to higher positions and earn more money. The best degrees for marketing include:

• Marketing/Digital marketing
• Business administration
• Communications
• Advertising
• Graphic design
• Market research
• Psychology

When adding your post-secondary education, you want to include:

• Name of the degree
• School name and location
• Dates of attendance/graduation date
• Course description

First-time marketers with only an internship or summer job under their belt can add college coursework in a short bullet list as well as any school volunteering projects, achievements, or recognitions. Take a look at this example of a resume education section for someone who wants a career in marketing:

In addition to a 4-year degree, marketers can further hone their skills by earning certifications for various marketing tools and software. All you need to list in this section is the name of the certificate and the company that provided the training.

If you need to boost your knowledge and earning potential, consider applying for one of these certificates:

How to write your marketing resume summary or objective

This next section is one more area that you can to tailor to the job you are applying for. Which one is right for you, a summary or objective? That depends on how much marketing experience you have.

A resume summary is a summarization of your marketing career and includes accomplishments in various marketing metrics, such as increased revenue generation and year-over-year expansion of market reach. It is for those marketers with 5-10+ years of experience within the same marketing field (e.g, content marketing, email marketing, or product marketing ).

A resume objective is for marketers that are in the beginning of their careers and still need to gain some real-world experience. It includes their career objectives and how they plan to reach those goals.

For this guide, we will focus on showing you how to create an effective resume objective using a real-world example from a young marketing professional’s resume.

In this example, we see what many marketers do when writing about their career. It’s a good start, but can bo so much better.

We get a clear picture of this person’s experience as an e-commerce and social media strategist and how they used their skills to improve their client’s online presence. There are some key details that are missing that can be easily added:

Now we have a more targeting resume objective that does an impressive job of stating:

• The years of experience
• Specific platforms where they have experience in
• The number of accounts they managed
• Their interest in finding a company that allows them to gain valuable experience in specified areas

This is a great example of how you can write a powerful statement in only 4 sentences.

Now that we’ve gone over the main sections of your resume, let’s talk about some additional resume sections that are important for marketers to have on their resumes.

Additional sections for a marketing resume

There are just a few more sections that we need to discuss before you can submit your polished resume.

Networking is very important for marketers in all fields, and recruiters like to see memberships in national or local marketing groups. There is a Professional Association section where you can list your affiliation to one or more groups:

Including this information shows that you are building new industry connections and staying informed of new marketing trends, tools, and technologies.  

On top of your education and marketing certifications, you can also list additional training through workshops, conferences, and other professional development courses or programs:

Here are some other special Enhancv resume sections that you should consider adding to your resume:

• Achievements: Highlighting awards and recognitions related to marketing gives proof of your expertise in the field and can help you get noticed.
• Spoken languages: This section is essential if the job requires mastery of a second language.
• Publications: Another great way to show off your expertise in marketing is by listing any blog posts, articles, or books you wrote and published.
• Volunteering: Recruiters love to see their employees donate their time and marketing experience to a charity or local community group.
• Technical skills: Marketers need experience in a wide range of equipment and software, from video cameras and editing software to Microsoft Office, Google Analytics, and MailChimp.

Adding an online portfolio to your resume

Having a portfolio is not just for painters, photographers, and fashion designers. Thanks to the internet, we can now create a website portfolio for any type of industry.

Marketers can take full advantage of this and showcase their past accomplishments and projects on a single website instead of giving them multiple links.

Here are some of the most common types of content that you can include in your marketing resume:

• Samples of content creation
• Social media strategy statistics
• Managed social media accounts
• Design work
• Email marketing campaigns
• Website projects
• SEO and SEM projects
• Press releases
• Publications

Where can you add a portfolio link? The header is the best place for this:

Notice how the title includes their certification and the industry type. This section is often overlooked as a way to further highlight your marketing experience.

Should you add a photo to your marketing resume? There are a few positions where adding a resume photo is appropriate, and this is one of them. When adding a photo, make sure to use a professional headshot where you are professionally dressed and is well lit.

Key takeaways

Our journey toward building an attention-grabbing marketing resume is complete. Congratulations!

Now that you are aware of the common mistakes and pitfalls marketers face, you will have a resume that:

• Effectively uses numbers and percentages to quantify complex marketing metrics in the summary/objective and work experience sections.
• Highlights industry-related technical and business skills, creative abilities, and interpersonal skills in a way that demonstrates all necessary marketing skill sets.
• List professional associations and networking groups that show you stay current with new trends and technologies.
• The value of adding a digital portfolio and other resume sections to detail past marketing accomplishments and your passion for marketing.