Marketing CV Example

An effective marketing CV helps you stand out from other candidates and convince employers you’ll help sell their product or services. Here are 4 tips to help you write your CV to teach you how to make a successful CV for a marketing job.

1. List your marketing skills

A marketer helps their company attract more clients and boost profits, so display some of the key skills necessary to achieve these goals on your marketing CV.

Marketing-related hard skills are perhaps the most useful to employers because they’re specific to the job you’re applying for. These skills are technical and relate to the tools you use to advertise your product or service. Whether you write copy for adverts or create blog content, marketing hard skills are primarily software related.

Here are some of the most common hard skills for marketing professionals:

• Content creation tools: Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Grammarly
• Technical skills: email campaigning, data analysis, visual design
• Collaboration tools: Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
• Content management systems: Joomla, Shopify, WordPress
• Keyword research tools: SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Moz, SECockpit, Keyword Sheeter
• Analytics tools: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, SEOptimer

Soft skills, by contrast, relate to how you interact with people and manage your workload.

Soft skills are related to your personality and are honed naturally through your lifetime or by you taking the time to practise them.

Here are some of the best soft skills to show employers you’ll work well in a team:

• Written and verbal communication skills
• Organisational skills — for managing your workload
• Management skills — if you supervise junior marketing assistants
• People skills — for interacting with your colleagues
• Creativity — for coming up with new ideas
• Innovativeness
• Calm under pressure — if you think the job you’re applying for has many deadlines

List all of your marketing skills on your CV in your skills summary section, and then provide examples of when you applied them in your work history.

If you’re getting started in the marketing industry or want to hone your skills, consider using some of these resources to get up to speed with the latest industry trends:

• News sites: Search Engine Journal, Marketing Week, Moz
• Reddit: r/marketing, r/askmarketing, r/seo
• Twitter: @neilpatel, Harry’s Marketing Examples, @jaybaer
• YouTube channels: Brian Dean, Ahrefs, Harry Vaynerchuck, Social Media Examiner

If you learn something relevant to the position, you could bring it up as you write your marketing cover letter or during the job interview.

2. Write a compelling marketing personal statement

Many candidates for marketing roles don’t write a compelling personal statement on their CV, but this mistake could cost them a job.

A good personal statement summarises your key marketing skills, experience, and qualifications. Your statement takes up the top quarter or third of your CV so it immediately catches employers’ attention, and — if they like what they see — they’ll read the rest of your CV.

Here’s a CV personal statement example for a marketing role:

Accomplished Marketing Specialist with 6+ years of experience creating compelling written and visual content. Designed 47 adverts featured in national campaigns for major national brands including Halifax, Wetherspoons, and London Heathrow Airport. Can market to diverse audiences with my BA in English with Creative Writing and experience matching tone and content requirements. Looking to bring established writing and marketing talents to your company as Senior Marketer.

As you can see, the applicant includes hard numbers in their personal statement. Numbers provide context for employers — by seeing what you’ve achieved at previous companies, employers can see the kind of achievements you can attain for their marketing firm.

3. Include your educational achievement and relevant certifications

Most marketing roles require a university degree, so include your degree title and the classification you were awarded.

You also need to include your A-Levels and grades, particularly relevant ones like Creative Writing, English Literature, or English Language that show you have good writing skills — vital in marketing.

If you have a university degree or A-Levels, you don’t need to provide all of your GCSEs. Employers just want to know you gained a Grade C (Grade 4 since 2017) or above in English, Maths, and ICT so they can see you have the basic literacy, numeracy, and computer skills all employers demand.

If your university course included marketing-relevant modules, list them on your CV too.

Here’s what a good education section looks like on a CV for a marketing job:

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL (2017–2020)

BSc (Hons) Marketing (upper second-class honours; 2.1)

Relevant modules: Consumption and Consumer Behaviour, Digital Marketing, The Digital Economy, Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Business, Brands and Cultural Strategy

A-Levels: English (A*), Politics and Government (A), ICT (B)

GCSEs: 11 Grades 9–4, including English, Maths, and ICT

You can also include relevant qualifications in your education section, such as marketing courses outside of university.

4. Apply professional CV formatting to your marketing CV

The content of your CV may be great and include many marketing skills and examples of relevant experience. However, if its presentation is lacking, the employer may choose another candidate to interview whose CV caught their eye.

Follow these tips to format your CV properly:

• Use a professional CV font such as Arial, Times New Roman, or Calibri between 10.5 and 12 points in size
• Set your margins to 2.5 cm (narrowing them down to 1.25 cm is okay if you have a lot of experience to showcase)
• Keep your CV to 2 pages unless you have a substantial amount of experience or many technical skills to highlight
• Use single- or 1.5-line spacing

A standard CV includes these sections:

1. name & contact details (you can also add a link to your LinkedIn or writing samples)
2. personal statement
3. work experience — listing your previous jobs and achievements
4. education
5. skills
6. optional sections — like hobbies and free-time interests or professional affiliations