Digital Marketing Resume

Digital Marketing Resume Tips

Creating a digital marketing resume from scratch can be an arduous task. But it is essential to ensure your resume stands out in any competitive industry, especially digital marketing.

In order to capture the ever-shortening attention span of potential employers, you need to know what to prioritise and be prudent about it.

In this guide, we will cover the essentials to include in your digital marketing resume (CV) that will significantly boost how hireable you are. If you’re looking to embark on a digital marketing career and want to find out what it entails and how you can get started, you’ll get a clearer picture reading this article.

Equinet’s Digital Marketing Career Resources can be your stepping stone into the career of digital marketing. Don’t forget to visit the page and read in-depth information about a career in digital marketing.

What Should You Include In Your Digital Marketing CV?

A digital marketing CV or resume should include the following elements in the following order:

Name and Photo

This is a given. Include your full name (not only your first name) right at the top of your resume and a professional profile photo (headshot). This is the first impression of transparency you want to communicate and not ruin it here.

Contact Information

Include your phone number, email address, and residential address. Employers need this information to get back to you and also have a sense of how far you need to travel to work. Use a professional email address for example joycelimlk@gmail.com instead of something cringe worthy like cutiexyz1992@gmail.com.

Summary

Recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds scanning through one resume. Your professional summary is your one chance to hold their attention.

This section should not be mistaken as a cover letter. We will cover the cover letter (no pun intended) in a later part of this guide.

The summary should be focused on describing how your skills and experience can benefit the company. It should not be too long-winded or where you list down all your skills and experience. There are other sections below where you can elaborate a lot further.

This section should summarise all the key points of your resume into such a concise and convincing synopsis, that when recruiters read it, they will almost immediately get a sense that you are the right person for the job.

Here’s a good example:

Over 10 years of experience in senior management roles. Grew a digital marketing team from 1 to a headcount of 8 over a span of 3 years. Lead the digital marketing transformation for a global brand, reduced cost of customer acquisition by 30% and increased ROI by 250%. A well-rounded, team player, and T-shaped digital marketer with a creative background.

And… A not so good example:

I am a self-motivated, independent worker who also works well in a team environment. Through my years of marketing experience, I have developed the skills required to effectively execute digital marketing strategies that generate positive ROI. In my free time, I like staying abreast of marketing trends, emerging technologies in digital marketing, and creating side projects to practice my marketing skills.

The difference between the first and second example is that the former is straight to the point and focused on achievements, while the latter is long-winded and did not go into the details of the accomplishments.

If you are a fresh graduate or shifting career and have little to no experience in digital marketing, you may want to go for an objective summary instead. For example:

Passionate in the field of digital marketing. Successfully kicked off an experimental side project with a friend and generated over a hundred leads over the past 6 months. I believe my skill sets will be beneficial to the [industry of the company you are applying for]. Please see the attached digital marketing plan for [website of the company you are applying for].

Experience

This is the meat of your digital marketing resume and where recruiters will spend the most time going through.

The format starts from:

• • Company
  • Location
  • Designation/Position Title
  • Time period

Followed by point form including the following components across each point:

• • Subheadings to segment each specialisation (if applicable)
  • Action verb
  • Project details
  • Achievement/Results
  • Accomplishments

Repeat the above format for each company you have worked for.

Here’s a good example from a digital marketing resume sample:

ABC Industries | Singapore | Apr 2015 – Nov 2019 (4 years 7 months)

• • Lead the Performance Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Customer Experience teams to generate a digital revenue of $18M from Singapore, Taiwan, USA and Canada.

XYZ Corporation | Japan | Mar 2010 – Jan 2014 (3 years 10 months)

• • Restructured the Digital Marketing Analytics team to set up the P&L tracking system that accounts for every digital dollar spent. The company was able to break even within 6 months and achieve profitability by the 7th month.

Check out some great examples of how our team of digital marketing consultants and trainers describe their experiences.

If you’re completely new to digital marketing and don’t have any experience to showcase, there are a couple of ways to break this barrier such as:

• • Attending digital marketing certification courses
  • Working on a digital marketing capstone project as part of the certification course requirements
  • Working on side projects such as setting up a blog and optimising it for search engines
  • Getting a digital marketing internship at a digital agency or company

Education and Certifications

This section will include all your qualifications from primary to tertiary education (list the certification title, institution name, and dates):

• • PSLE
  • O-Levels
  • A-Levels
  • Diploma
  • Specialist Diploma
  • University Degree
  • Masters
  • PhD
  • etc.

It would be advantageous to include any vocational courses or additional digital marketing certification you have undertaken as well, since digital marketing has evolved very rapidly in recent years and school curricula have been slow to adapt to the changes. It will also show recruiters you are proactive in lifelong learning and upgrading yourself.

• Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing
• Google Ads Search Certification
• Facebook Ads Certification
• Google Analytics Certification
• Etc.

Don’t hesitate to expand on the specific modules for each certification course as well. This will give recruiters a clearer idea on what was covered and assess its relevance to the business.

After acquiring the necessary digital marketing skills, you need to put what you have learned to practice, and the only way is to put yourself out there.

You can list your services for hire on platforms such as The Hustle, a great platform for budding and professional local digital marketers who offer freelance digital marketing services. Digital marketers can list their services for hire under the “Be a Hustler” section to get more exposure in the Singapore market, and you can add this to your list of Experiences.

Language Proficiency

Indicate your language proficiency here. This is a sample format taken from JobStreet:

Language | Spoken | Written |

English     |     10     |      9      |

Proficiency level: 0 – Poor, 10 – Excellent

You may also want to attach articles or links to blog posts you have authored to back up your proficiency ratings.

Core Skills (Technical Skills)

Here, you will want to list all your competencies and technical skills you specialise in. Do not put generic skills or soft skills such as ‘self-motivated’ or ‘adaptability’. These skills should be related to digital marketing and marketing communications such as SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel Implementation, Social Media Strategy, Digital Marketing Analytics, Public Relations, etc.

Also, don’t forget to include industry-relevant keywords or words that are commonly used in the industry as some recruiters will enter these keywords into job portal resume search engines to crawl through dozens of CVs.

You can use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to generate keyword ideas and analyse the popularity or search volume of the keywords.

Interests

Include this section only if they are relevant to the industry you are applying for, which in this case is digital marketing, or if they are interesting enough to start a conversation e.g. virtual reality and augmented reality.

Interests that may benefit your role in digital marketing include creating websites, designing graphics, reading tech-related books and websites, watching marketing videos and video ads for inspiration, etc.

Mistakes to Avoid in a Digital Marketing Resume

If creating an impressive resume wasn’t already so difficult, making costly mistakes is relatively easy. It only takes a couple of grammatical errors and wrong choice of words for the recruiter to go “next please”.

Not Going into the Details

It is easy to list down all your roles and responsibilities. But going into detail will be what separates you from other applicants and gives you credibility.

For example, if you included Google Ads and Google Tag Manager in as part of your skills, be sure to elaborate on the campaigns you implemented, and the results achieved. For example:

Google Ads

• Set up a Google Ads account and managed a monthly budget of $20,000. Implemented everything from the keyword bids, creation of ad copies and dynamic display creatives, and landing pages. Achieved a 500% positive Return on Ad Spend and reduced CPA by 67%.

Google Tag Manager

• In charge of creating and managing all marketing tags from event tracking to pixel implementation. Integrated Google Tag Manager with Google Analytics and tracked user experience metrics such as scroll tracking and button clicks. As a result, the UX/UI team was able to conduct a series of A/B tests which successfully increased conversion rate by 3.5X.

Not Including a Professional Profile Photo

This is an obvious one, but there are job seekers who don’t include a profile photo due to personal reasons. And there are some who put up an outdated photo (like a portrait shot taken a decade ago) and those who don’t dress up professionally.

A good professional profile photo is one where you dress professionally e.g. in business attire and look sharp.

Not Making it Easy Enough to Scan Through

A recruiter scanning through dozens of resumes may put the long-winded ones at the back of the queue. If you don’t want to be among the last few, apply these best practices:

• • Keep it to 2 pages at most. 1 page if you have less than 10 years of experience and 2 pages for more than 10 years.
  • Include more subheadings and bucket your lists. For example, in your work experience section, you can segment your project details and accomplishments by subheadings e.g. “SEO”, “Social Media Marketing”, and “Email Marketing”.
  • Use bold text, italicizing, and underlines/border lines when defining sections
  • Use appropriate font-size (10-12pt) and readable font families (e.g. Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, Times). Avoid overly cursive fonts such as Zapfino.

Not Proofreading Several Times Through

A CV full of grammatical errors gives off all the wrong signals. It makes the recruiter question whether the applicant bothered to have it proofread or whether literacy will be an issue at work. As a digital marketer, attention to detail and a high level of literacy are key assets.

It would be a good idea to get a third party to check through (preferably a subject matter expert in digital marketing) and validate your resume.

Not Keeping Records of Your Achievements Throughout Your Career

Imagine going through 5 years of work and trying to sit down and recall the details in a 5-hour resume writing session. A lot of the details will probably have gotten lost in a sea of forgotten memories.

A viable solution would be to keep a master resume. One where you record all the details of your project history, campaign performance, and other details that you can reference when it is time to update your resume.

Trying Too Hard to Be Funny

Unless your job requires you to entertain clients and make people laugh, avoid injecting humor into your digital marketing resume. There’s a thin line between creativity and “trying too hard”.

Being creative is well accepted, like the following example:

If you are not going for creativity, it would be best to avoid an entertaining resume.

Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/14086841/Infographic-Resume

Additional Attachments to Submit Together with your Digital Marketing  Resume

To re-emphasize, you want your job application to stand out. Attaching these additional documents to submit together with your digital marketing resume will increase your chances of getting your dream digital marketing job:

• • Cover letter
  • Portfolio
  • LinkedIn Profile
  • Articles Authored

Cover Letter

A cover letter is a short document, usually one page, that expresses your interest in the job position you are applying for and why you are a good fit for the company. Unlike a templated resume, you need to customize a cover letter to the company and specific job position you are applying for. The response rate with a cover letter beats sending only your resume to a hundred job listings and shows potential employers how serious you are in getting the job.

Check out an example of a cover letter here.

Portfolio

A digital marketing portfolio is a collection of work that epitomizes your skill sets and knowledge in digital marketing. It may include one or more of the following materials:

• • Websites and landing pages you have created or facilitated the creation of
  • Content you have created or oversaw the creation of
  • Screenshots of digital advertising campaigns you have ran and the proven results
  • Marketing automation workflows you have designed or have participated in the formulation of
  • And many more

If you have never worked in a digital marketing role and don’t have a portfolio to show, a capstone project works especially well for entry-level positions such as Digital Marketing Interns and Digital Marketing Executives.

Tiffany Lim, who completed the Certified Digital Marketing Strategist Programme (Discontinued) at Equinet Academy, submitted her CV along with her capstone project (a digital marketing strategic plan based on an actual company located in Singapore) attached. She received numerous scheduled interviews and was hired within a span of three weeks. “Every recruiter who interviewed me inquired about the capstone project. It was evident the capstone was a key component that stood out in my job application.”

LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and houses over 660 million professional online resumes. It isn’t only an awesome platform to search for digital marketing jobs in Singapore via LinkedIn Jobs, but also for employers to find and recruit talent.

If you aren’t already on LinkedIn, head over there and start creating your professional online resume.

Articles Authored

These could be included within your portfolio or published across various platforms including:

• • Free blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and Wix
  • LinkedIn Pulse
  • Any publication websites that accept guest posts such as Singapore Business Review
  • Your company’s blog

A final tip. Maintain a clear focus on your objectives when drafting your resume and put yourself in the perspective of the potential interviewer and employer. Are you looking to get hired for a generalist or specialist role (e.g. SEO Specialist, Social Media Manager, Digital Marketing Analyst)? If it is the latter, be sure to include more examples and focus on accomplishments in that specific specialization.

Put yourself in the perspective of the recruiter. If you were to interview yourself, what interview questions would you ask yourself to determine your credibility and give you the confidence to hire yourself?

We wish you the best of luck for your upcoming digital marketing interviews!