15 Essential Skills to Include On Your Resume for a Marketing Job
In this article, we delve into the essential skills to include on a resume for a marketing job, as advised by sixteen experts. From C-suite executives to HR Directors, these industry professionals share their insights. Starting with the importance of showcasing content marketing strategy to detailing experience with relevant tools, discover the top skills to make your marketing resume stand out.
- Showcase Content Marketing Strategy
- Emphasize Clear Communication
- Demonstrate AI Tools Proficiency
- Exhibit Technical Proficiency
- Feature Data Analytics Skills
- Illustrate Contributions to Sales Targets
- Specify Social Media Skills
- Promote Strong People Skills
- Underline Importance of Teamwork
- Include Copywriting Expertise
- Present Understanding of Branding
- Highlight Communication and Collaboration
- Spotlight SEO Skills
- Show Off UX Skills
- Detail Experience with Relevant Tools
Showcase Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing and strategy are indispensable skills to feature on a marketing resume. In today's digital ecosystem, where information is abundant and consumer attention spans are fleeting, the ability to craft, distribute, and optimize compelling content is vital to success.
A strong content strategy engages and educates your target audience, builds brand authority, fosters trust, and ultimately drives conversions. It's the cornerstone of effective online marketing, enabling businesses to establish a meaningful connection with their customers, address pain points, and showcase their expertise.
Including content marketing and strategy on your resume underscores your capacity to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape and deliver results that matter through increased brand visibility, customer loyalty, and revenue growth.
Kevin Miller, Founder, kevinmiller.com
Emphasize Clear Communication
No matter what your role in marketing, you'll want to make sure your resume demonstrates your ability to communicate clearly. Whether your stakeholders are inside the organization or external, if you're in marketing, you're going to be speaking and writing to others on every project. If you can't demonstrate that essential skill on your resume, you're going to have a tough time making it to the next stage of the interview process.
Logan Mallory, Vice President of Marketing, Motivosity
Demonstrate AI Tools Proficiency
One important skill for a marketing job resume is the ability to work with AI tools. Currently, employees who are not familiar with AI tool technologies might fall behind in the marketing field. This is because AI can be used in almost every aspect of marketing job roles. Some examples are:
- Generative AI for content ideation, research, and creation
- ChatGPT code interpreter for analyzing marketing reports, identifying ROI from marketing efforts, etc.
Any student wanting to make their marketing resume stand out must know how to use AI tools to save time and make their marketing efforts more efficient for the company.
While mentioning it in the resume, try to highlight a few examples of how you've used AI in marketing. This will show employers and recruiters that you've personally experimented with AI tools, which may leave a positive impression for your job.
Mrittika Sengupta, Tech Content Marketing Head and Editor, 10Pie
Exhibit Technical Proficiency
For marketing jobs, an essential skill to highlight on your resume is technical proficiency, specifically expertise in a marketing tool. It's important to note that different marketing roles may have their preferred platforms or tools. For most companies, it's definitely an advantage since a candidate will only need minimal training for the role if they are already well-versed with marketing tools. Showcasing your hands-on experience with these tools can illustrate your readiness to hit the ground running.
For instance, experience with Google Analytics or CRM systems like Salesforce can make candidates stand out. These tools are widely used in the industry for campaign tracking and customer relationship management, respectively, and familiarity with them is a major advantage. Even expertise in SEO tools like SEMrush can catch an employer's eye. It's all about demonstrating you have the technical skills to match up with the role's demands.
David Rubie-Todd, Co-Founder and Marketing Head, Sticker It
Feature Data Analytics Skills
One skill that can really set you apart from the competition when it comes to landing a marketing job is data analytics. If you're gunning for a marketing job, it's advisable to highlight your data analytics skills on your resume.
Showcasing your ability to dissect data and draw actionable conclusions using tools like Google Analytics, Excel, or more advanced tools like Tableau can be a game-changer. It demonstrates your capacity to make data-driven decisions, which is increasingly valuable in the marketing world where ROI is king. In interviews, be prepared to share stories that showcase how those skills have made a real impact in your past roles.
Travis Lindemoen, Founder, Enjoy Mondays
Illustrate Contributions to Sales Targets
One essential skill to include on a resume for a marketing job, especially in a B2B context, is showcasing how you've helped hit sales targets. Highlighting your ability to contribute to the company's bottom line demonstrates your effectiveness as a marketer.
In your resume, provide specific examples of successful marketing campaigns or strategies you've implemented that directly contributed to increased sales and revenue in a B2B setting. This could include data on revenue growth, lead generation, conversion rates, or any other relevant KPIs that demonstrate your impact on the company's sales success.
Joe Kevens, Founder and Director of Demand Gen, B2B SaaS Reviews
Specify Social Media Skills
Every marketer needs to know something about social media, whether it's ad buying, analytics, organic content marketing, filming videos, or otherwise.
Be specific about what your social media skills are—don't just list the platforms you use. If you have any major achievements, list them as well, but be aware that simply gaining impressions or likes over time means little to many business owners. They want to see bottom-line results—if you can show that, you're much more likely to get hired.
Michael Power, CMO, DTF Transfers
Promote Strong People Skills
Having strong people skills is a vital skill for a marketer. These skills encompass the ability to connect with and understand consumers, build relationships with clients and colleagues, and effectively communicate ideas and marketing messages.
It's a skill that influences a marketer's success in areas such as customer engagement, teamwork, and negotiations. Therefore, highlighting "strong people skills" on a resume for a marketing job is an excellent choice to showcase one's ability to excel in this field.
Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP of Strategy and Growth, Resume Worded
Underline Importance of Teamwork
In the dynamic world of marketing, teamwork is a top-choice skill to have on a resume. It's the engine that drives both internal and external success. Internally, teamwork fosters creativity. Collaborating with colleagues brings fresh ideas and diverse perspectives to the table. It fuels innovation, helping teams stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing industry.
Externally, teamwork is equally vital. Marketing professionals must collaborate with clients, agencies, and partners. Strong teamwork ensures clear communication, efficient project management, and a seamless customer experience. In sum, whether inside or outside the organization, teamwork is the linchpin of marketing success. It's the key to unlocking creativity, innovation, and effective collaboration. In the competitive marketing landscape, it's the skill that makes resumes stand out.
Bryor Mosley, Talent Acquisition Partner, Bryor Mosley
Include Copywriting Expertise
Always include your copywriting skill because, in the world of marketing, words matter! A great copywriter has the power to captivate an audience, evoke emotions, and ultimately drive sales. Yet, many job seekers overlook this skill or underestimate its importance.
So, if you have copywriting experience, make sure to highlight it on your resume and showcase how your persuasive writing can contribute to the success of any marketing campaign.
Johannes Larsson, Founder and CEO, JohannesLarsson.com
Present Understanding of Branding
At the core of marketing lies the power of branding. Branding isn't just about designing a memorable logo or choosing company colors. It's the emotional and psychological relationship a customer has with a company. When done right, it sets a business apart from its competitors, tells its story, and communicates its values, making it instantly recognizable to its audience.
For a marketer, understanding branding means you can shape perceptions, drive loyalty, and create strong, lasting connections between consumers and businesses. When a company's brand is strong, its message is clear. So, for anyone diving into the marketing world, mastering the art and science of branding is essential.
Irina Poddubnaia, CEO, Founder, TrackMage
Highlight Communication and Collaboration
When applying for a marketing position, it's important that your resume demonstrates your excellence in communication and collaboration. These skills are absolutely essential for marketing positions, as marketers often need to converse and work with multiple different departments.
Individuals who work in marketing are expected to communicate effectively with salespeople, accountants, data scientists, and product engineers to meet deadlines. Therefore, it's important that you provide examples or descriptions on your resume that exhibit how you've successfully collaborated and worked with multiple stakeholders in your previous positions.
Janelle Owens, Human Resources Director, Guide2Fluency
Spotlight SEO Skills
If you've got SEO training or experience, that's important to highlight on your resume. So much of today's digital marketing revolves around how well you can promote your website. Knowing what needs to be done to optimize a company's website for search engines is an essential skill for any digital marketer to have.
Kelsey Bishop, CEO and Founder, Candor
Show Off UX Skills
UX provides the foundation for all marketing efforts, so show off your UX skills throughout your resume, and you'll create a real drive for a recruiter to want to learn more. User experience, or UX, focuses on how your marketing makes users feel. Rather than tossing out strategies and hoping they work, UX looks at how users interact with your brand to measure how well your efforts serve them. If you have metrics to prove you've boosted UX in your previous work, you become invaluable to any business or agency.
Robert Kaskel, Chief People Officer, Checkr
Detail Experience with Relevant Tools
I think that one core skill to include has to be your experience with tools or software related to the role that you're applying for. Hiring managers will want to see that you already have an understanding of the tool or software requirements, and the fact that you will have listed them and outlined your experience is only going to be a good thing!
Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks
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