The Most Important Thing in Your Digital Marketing Resume
Specialization. Companies don’t hire generic digital marketers who go around talking about how great they are at everything. Companies lookout for experts who can deliver excellent work and tangible results in a particular area– be it content writing, social media, copywriting, email marketing, SEO-optimized content, etc.
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Here are a few,
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Hence, you’re better off focusing on a niche area and expounding on your expertise there rather than spreading the net too wide and hoping a company will catch bait and hire you.
Sections to include
- The introduction- summary/ objective
- Work experience
- Key skills
- Education and certifications (if any)
- A section that shows your personality (quirky hobbies, ‘most proud of’)
- General contact information
There is no rule that you should always include these sections. But, they are found in maximum resumes and are also relevant to the recruiter’s decision.
Before beginning…
If you are applying to different organizations at once (which is mostly the case), then your resume needs to be tailored to reach one of them. You cannot be lazy and copy-paste the same matter in each one because different organizations would have different styles, missions, and goals. You’ll need to demonstrate through your resume that you are meeting these needs presently and can do so in the future, too.
Thus, for every resume you ever create, you’ll need to be 200% clear about the following things:
- The role you are applying for- SEO specialist, affiliate marketer, social media manager, content writer, etc.
- The type of company you are applying to- is it an agency or an enterprise?
- What the employer is looking for- focus on hard skills like list building, headline writing, community management, email automation, etc. Soft skills like teamwork and sincerity are generic and are not actively sought out by employers.
Crafting a Stellar Digital Marketing Resume
Let’s see how to make the most of each section. Bring your purpose in the resume summary/ objective.
This is arguably one of the most important sections in the resume. It’s crucial for getting your foot in the door and getting the recruiter to read your resume further. Recruiters leaf through hundreds of resumes every day. If the introduction is not attention-grabbing, they won’t read further.
If you do not have significant work experience, then you can write a resume objective. If you do, then a summary will work better.
Here are examples of both
Resume objective
Recent graduate from XYZ University who has completed three social media marketing internships. Used strategic and creative skills to craft compelling campaigns and generate profitable leads. Looking to work with <the name of the agency> as a social media marketer to scale up and produce results from lead generation and campaign creation efforts.
How not to write a resume objective
Recent graduate with a bachelor in economics. Looking to learn and become a digital marketer at <agency name>.
Get a certification first on your own maybe?
Next, here’s how to write a resume summary when you have some experience under your belt
HubSpot and Adwords certified Digital Marketing Specialist. Worked for 5+ years in an international corporation as a Digital Marketing Manager. Carried out an extensive competitor and customer analysis and converted the results into a 15% increase in sales for each quarter.
Hard facts always. No fluffy or vague introduction like the following
An ambitious and sincere digital marketing expert with knowledge of SEO, content marketing, and email marketing.
Lots of digital marketers know this. But can you produce results? The recruiter is most interested in knowing this.
Also, write the summary/ objective at the end when you’ve written your entire resume. Or if you’ve written it first, then go back and edit it once. Your thought process will be clearer.
Write about your work experience
This is probably the most important after the introduction. So, how do you structure it for maximum impact, clarity, and ease of reading? Use the following template:
Name of designation :
Worked from ____- _____
Company name, location
Key responsibilities
<Use words like collaborated, implemented, identified, provided, executed, coordinated. Basically, action verbs that evoke a picture of you doing something>
Key achievements
<Include tangible, factual examples and provide numbers wherever possible>
Here’s an example that will make it clearer:
Email marketing manager
Jan 2017 – October 2019
Sprout Social, NY, USA
Key responsibilities
- Carry out an extensive competitor and customer analysis
- Strategize end-to-end email marketing campaigns and focus areas for the upcoming quarter
- Track and analyze results and responses to change certain campaign aspects
Key achievements
- Generated 200+ relevant leads from cold email marketing campaign
- Increased the CTR by 105% in a single quarter
Keep the number of points between 3-5.
Mention key skills
These are the skills you have amassed during the course of your entire career. Do not include any random skills. It should pertain to what the hiring manager is looking for, the position you are applying for, and the areas where you’ve worked and produced skills.
These are digital marketing hard skills
- Keyword research
- Content creation
- Link building
- PR
- Guest posting
- Competitor analysis
- Traffic analysis and reporting
- Google Adwords
- Facebook ads
- Instagram ads
- Email strategy planning
- Email campaign creation
- Email copywriting
- Email A/B testing
- Email automation
- Social media campaign management
- Viral marketing
- Headline writing
- Copywriting
- List building
- Conversion optimization
Pick 3-5 of these and add them to the skills section. You can also mention soft skills like teamwork, attention to detail, accountability, time management skills, etc.
