With every passing year, the digital marketing job market is growing ever more competitive. In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of digital marketing roles is projected to grow 6% between 2022 and 2032—double the average of all occupations!
Breaking into this exciting world means having a digital marketing resume that stands out. It should highlight your skills and experience in a clear, concise way. But what skills and experience should you include? And what should you leave out?
This guide explores how to write a winning digital marketing resume, including examples of what to do and what not to do. When you’ve finished reading, you should have all the information you need to produce a resume that will land you the job you want.
We’ll cover the following topics:
- How do I write a digital marketing resume? (step by step)
- What skills do you need for digital marketing?
- Digital marketing resume examples
- Next steps
Ready to learn how to polish your digital marketing resume to perfection? Then read on!
1. How do I write a digital marketing resume? (step by step)
It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway!) that every resume is unique to the individual writing it. Still, some general tips will ensure yours stands out for all the right reasons. Before applying for a job, it’s worth being honest if it’s the right one for you. To help decide, check out these 10 signs you’re ready for a career in digital marketing.
Presuming you’re good to go, in this section, we’ll take you through the resume writing process, step by step. We’ll cover the digital marketing resume layout, what to include in each section, and tips for perfection.
First, let’s look at the basics: exploring your resume’s layout.
Digital marketing resume layout
What sections should your digital marketing resume include? As with any job application, your resume should have the following:
- Contact details (so employers can get in touch with you)
- Professional summary (a short outline of your professional situation and why you are suitable for the role)
- Work experience (listing your most recent and relevant jobs)
- Skills (what competencies you’ll bring to the position)
- Education (a history of formal education, including qualifications)
While it’s a good idea to keep your resume as short as possible, some people also choose to include additional sections, such as:
- Hobbies and interests
- Languages (if you speak more than one)
- Certifications (you can incorporate this into your education history if you prefer)
Although there are creative ways of presenting all this information, we’d advise you not to mess too much with the standard resume format. Resumes are functional documents designed to help recruiters quickly establish whether or not a candidate is a good fit for a role. Going too wild and making this difficult for them will do you no favors.
You can be creative, of course. Creativity is hugely important for any digital marketing position. And your application is a great place to express this. But there are other ways of showing creative flair. You can use your portfolio or personal website (both of which you can link to in your resume or send along with it).
Next, let’s take a closer look at what each section should include.
What to include in each section of your digital marketing resume
Think of your digital marketing resume as a layered cake—each section whets the reader’s appetite to continue, encouraging them to cut deeper into the cake. Subsequently, each section should provide a little more information than the last.
Contact details
Contact details are the cherry on your cake—always put them at the top of your resume and use as little space as possible; ideally, one line. They should include your name, email address, and phone number. You don’t need to put your postal address, but you can mention your location.
If relevant, it’s also a good idea to include your social media or a link to your portfolio/ website. Social media know-how is vital for most digital marketing roles—but vet your accounts first to ensure there’s nothing unprofessional going on! If in doubt, it’s always a safe bet to share your LinkedIn profile if you use it.
Professional summary
Your professional summary, or personal statement, is a brief overview of your skills and experience. Many consider it optional, but we think of it more like the top layer of frosting on your cake. It offers a tantalizing taste of what’s to come, encouraging recruiters to keep reading.
Your summary should be three or four sentences (if you can do it in less, even better). You should tailor it to each role you’re applying to. We’ve included an example of good and bad professional summaries in section 3.
Work experience
The work experience section should list your past jobs, starting with your most recent role. For each, include:
- The name and location of the company
- Your job title
- The dates you worked there
- A brief description of your role
- Key responsibilities and achievements
Bullet points are fine here and you don’t necessarily have to include every past job you’ve ever had. If you lack work experience, you can, of course, include all your past roles. This is also the place to include any digital marketing internships. If you’ve had numerous jobs, just include your current position and those most relevant to the job application.
When outlining job responsibilities and achievements for past roles, focus on things that are relevant to the current vacancy. You can do this by checking the job description. What skills are they seeking? Angle your achievements towards these. For example, if the job description asks for analytical skills and you’ve only worked in retail before, perhaps describe how you analyzed sales figures to determine which products to upsell. You get the idea.
Skills
This section should list your skills, focusing on those most relevant to the role. The list might include digital marketing-specific skills like:
- Social media
- SEO
- PPC
- Copywriting
- Data analytics
It could also include some broader meta-skills such as:
- Strategic thinking
- Creativity
- Innovation
- Problem-solving
- Attention to detail
Finally, you may have to include your experience with marketing tools, platforms, and software. For example:
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Google Analytics
- Hootsuite
- CRM platforms
Whatever you do, don’t just cram this section with the skills you think the employer wants to see. Once again, it’s worth checking the job description to see what they have specified. Digital marketing is a broad term covering a lot of bases. Few employers expect you to tick off every skill on the list, so just play to your strengths.
For instance, if you’re new to digital marketing and haven’t yet perfected the job-specific skills, why not focus on the meta-skills instead? A can-do attitude and willingness to learn can take you a long way.
In section 3, we’ll look at how you might want to present this information.
Education
In this section, list your relevant education and qualifications. Like your work experience, you should start with your highest level of education first (for instance, a Bachelor’s or Master’s in digital marketing or content marketing). You should also mention any relevant coursework you carried out as part of these studies.
Types of qualifications you might include in this section include:
- A bachelor’s or master’s
- High school qualifications
- Any industry-specific professional qualifications or training programs you’ve completed. For example, the Google AdWords Certification or the CareerFoundry digital marketing certification.
Note: If your most recent educational achievement isn’t that relevant to the role (for example, if you studied something like geography or art history), consider creating a separate section for industry certifications. Employers will be more interested in seeing that you have a digital marketing-specific certificate than proving that you know which way round a Mondrian painting hangs.
Hobbies and interests
A hobbies and interests section isn’t strictly necessary; only include one if it tells the recruiter something new.
For instance, if you’re applying for a social media marketing role and recently volunteered to promote a local event on social media, that’s worth adding. Meanwhile, if you’re applying for an SEO or content marketing role, you might want to mention your interest in blogging or photography (for example). We offer an example of how to write about your hobbies and interests in section 3.
Tips for perfecting your digital marketing resume
Getting the content of your digital marketing resume is the most important thing. Once you have, here are some tips for fine-tuning your resume to increase your chances of making it to the next stage of the process:
- Use a professional font: Common safe bets include Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman—but make sure it is easy to read.
- Stick to a clean design: When it comes to resume, less is more—avoid unnecessary fluff. A splash of color can be okay, but don’t overdo it.
- Use clear headings: You don’t need to use the exact headings we’ve used here. For instance, you might decide ‘personal details’ is more appealing than ‘contact details’. But whatever headings you use, keep them short and break up the content so your digital marketing resume is easier to navigate.
- Use bullet points: Bullet points are a great way of keeping your resume punchy. Use short, concise sentences.
- Stick to two pages: If you can fit it comfortably on one page, even better.
- Incorporate keywords from the job description: Many recruiters use software to pre-assess resumes, weeding out the less suitable ones. Including as many keywords as possible (without impacting readability) can help ensure your resume gets picked up.
Unsure if this is the right resume approach for you? Then check out how to write a general marketing resume or create the best tech resume.
2. What skills do you need for digital marketing?
Since all roles have different requirements, evaluating your skills against the job description is crucial when writing your resume. While it means adapting your resume for every job you apply for, it’s necessary if you want to stand out.
As we touched on in section 1, there are three main types of skills that digital marketers may need to demonstrate:
Digital marketing skills
There are several digital marketing skills that you’ll need. These are typically skills you will learn on the job or through a digital marketing program or certification. They include
- Content creation
- Copywriting
- Digital marketing strategy
- Search engine optimization
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Inbound marketing
- Lead generation
- Data analytics
This list isn’t exhaustive, but it highlights some commonly sought-after skills.
Broader meta-skills
In addition to digital marketing skills, employers increasingly demand broader employability skills or meta-skills. These describe personal qualities that will help you succeed in any role. Some examples include:
- Creative problem solving
- Analytical thinking
- Communication
- Project management
- Being well organized
- Interpersonal skills
- Leadership skills
- Strong time management
If you have a strong portfolio of work to showcase your digital marketing skills and can supplement them with these broader skills, then you’re well-positioned to apply for a digital marketing job.
Technical skills
Finally, depending on the digital marketing role you’re applying for, your resume may need to demonstrate some technical skills, typically digital marketing software. If a job ad mentions a particular tool, familiarize yourself with it.
Some common examples of software used by digital marketers include:
- HubSpot
- MailChimp
- Salesforce
- Google Analytics
- SEOmoz
- KISSmetrics
- Buffer
In general, all digital marketers also require knowledge of basic office software (like Microsoft Word and Excel) and a working knowledge of computers.
3. Digital marketing resume examples
In this section, we explore examples of how to complete some different sections of your digital marketing resume (and how not to!). To give these a focus, we’ll pretend you’re an applicant applying for a digital marketing manager role at a fictional SEO agency called MadeUp Marketing.
Digital marketing resume professional summary example
Bad example:
I am a digital marketing professional with experience in SEO, social media, and email marketing. I am looking for a challenging role that will utilize my skills and experience.
Although this professional summary is short (which is good) it doesn’t tell the reader anything about the candidate’s skills, experience, or suitability for the role. As a result, it reads blandly and only describes the bare minimum requirement for applying. It’d be better not to have a summary at all.
Good example:
A results-driven digital marketing professional with 3 years of experience in SEO, social media, and email marketing at the renowned SEO agency, Green Potato. On average, over my two years at Green Potato, I’ve increased traffic and conversion rates for my clients by 38%. I am eager for a new challenge and trust that Madeup Marketing will be able to utilize and further develop these skills.
This professional summary is much better. While it’s a little longer, it’s still short and immediately provides information about the candidate. We know they have three years of experience, where they currently work, and that they are results-driven (backed up with evidence).
Finally, it provides insight into the candidate’s character and motivations. Although not strictly necessary, namedropping the company shows they’ve tailored their application to the job rather than simply sending a generic resume.
Digital marketing resume skills section example
Bad example:
Skills:
Content writing
Google Analytics
Creative thinking
Ahrefs
SEO
Communication
Project management
Pay-per-click advertising
MS Excel
This candidate has included a skills section, bullet-pointing their skills. While there’s nothing wrong with this, the candidate has presented the skills as if they’ve just popped into their head, mixing up meta-skills, technical skills, and role-specific digital marketing skills in one list.
Even if these tick off job description requirements, the section is cluttered and hard to read. In addition, they haven’t provided specific details or evidence of their abilities.
Good example:
Digital skills
Content writing – Excellent *****
SEO – Advanced ****
Pay-per-click advertising – Intermediate ***
Meta skills
Communication – Excellent *****
Creative Thinking – Advanced ****
Project management – Intermediate ***
Tools
Google Analytics – Excellent *****
MS Excel – Excellent *****
Ahrefs – Intermediate ***
This candidate has also included a skills section, but it’s much better structured. They’ve used clear subheadings to categorize their skills, making them much easier to read.
Although not strictly necessary, they’ve also included a skills bar. This allows employers to see the candidate’s proficiency in each skill. While this might not be the best approach if you have many skills to include on your resume, it’s much more beneficial than a generic, disordered list.
If you include a skills bar, you can also sort your skills by proficiency, highlighting your developed skills first, if you prefer.
Digital marketing resume hobbies and interests section
As we mentioned in section 2, hobbies and interests sections are not always necessary but can be a great way of highlighting achievements or interests that don’t fit comfortably elsewhere on your resume. If you have limited work experience, they can also help to flesh your resume out.
Bad example
Hobbies
I like playing tennis, hiking, going to bars with friends and having fun.
This candidate has included a hobbies and interests section that is very brief and adds nothing valuable. At best, it’s irrelevant to the role; at worst, their mention of ‘going to bars’ might even damage their chances. We all socialize, but it isn’t necessary to list it as a hobby.
Good example:
Hobbies and interests
I’m a keen tennis player and have been a member of my local club for 10 years. Last year I voluntarily supported the club in building its new Squarespace website. This included starting a blog to boost their SEO. In addition, my hiking group recently did a long-distance charity hike for charity, which I promoted on social media. We ultimately raising $2,000 in funds for children in need.
This candidate’s hobbies and interests section are much more detailed and informative. By including specific details and examples, they’ve given the reader a much clearer sense of their interests. Helping boost their local tennis club’s SEO is right on topic. It shows community spirit, too. We also know they’ve carried out social media marketing campaigns—bonus!
While you might not put your highest achievement in your hobbies and interests section, it’s a great way of ‘sweetening’ your resume, providing a well-rounded image of yourself with a bit of a humble brag!
4. Next steps
So there we have it! Now you should know how to write a digital marketing resume that will land you the job you want. Next up, to accompany your resume, you’ll also need to consider a cover letter or portfolio website. But one step at a time. The most important thing is to get your digital marketing resume right first, and the above tips will help you do that. Then you can progress into other areas that can support your application.
If you liked this post and want to find out more about a potential career in digital marketing, check out this free, 5-day intro to digital marketing course. You might also be interested in the following guides: