The three most important parts of writing a resume are your experience, education, and skills. Any other points people include in their resumes are just detailed branches coming from these three roots. In this article, you will find an ultimate description of one of the three roots. Learn more about making a marketing skills resume and get ⅓ of your preparation for the job done!
Hard Skills and Soft Skills: Key Distinctions and Peculiarities in Marketing
The first thing to know about highlighting the right skills for marketing resume writing is that there are two types of them:
- Hard skills. These are specific, teachable abilities or knowledge sets. An employer can easily quantify, measure, and test the employee on these skills. For instance, in IT, the knowledge of C++ coding language is a hard skill. In marketing, there are five main hard skill sets you will need to succeed:
- Digital marketing proficiency
- Strong analytics abilities and market research skills
- Basic knowledge of SEO optimization
- Efficiency in graphic design
- Strong writing skills
- Soft skills. Soft skills are interpersonal and non-technical abilities. They relate to how you work with and relate to others. For instance, communication, teamwork, and emotional intelligence are all common and important soft skills. Here are five soft skill types you will need in marketing:
- Problem-solving and strategic thinking
- Negotiation
- Creativity
- Emotional intelligence
- Resilience
Without further ado, let’s dive right into the list of good skills for marketing resume.
“The most important advice I can give you for writing your marketing skills for resume is this: show the cases and particular examples! Do more than just list your skills. Make sure to demonstrate the truth behind your words!”
Victoria Brown, B.A. in Marketing, Head of Marketing Department at Customwritings.com
Retail AND Digital Marketing Proficiency
Why it’s important: From the beginning of human civilization and up to recent times, the term “marketing” referred to retail only. However, now your skill section must highlight your efficiency in both fields.
Strong template example: “Retail and marketing proficiency skill: I have a good track record in retail and digital marketing, having successfully increased online sales by 30% through strategic digital campaigns and in-store promotions. This strategy led to a 20% boost in overall sales within six months.”
“Some resumes just list the skills of prospective employees. Yes, you can do that to pass the APS (Applicant Tracking System). However, I recommend adding some type of footnote or additional file with more factual details on your skills if you can’t fit them on your resume page.”
Victoria Brown, B.A. in Marketing, Head of Marketing Department at Customwritings.com
Strong Analytics Abilities and Market Research Skills
Why it’s important: Marketing recruiters usually look for the do-it-all type of employee. In 9/10 cases, everything from the “it-all” list requires marketing analysis.
Strong template example: “Analytical abilities: I work with Google Analytics, SEMrush, and HubSpot software.”
Basic Knowledge of SEO Optimization
Why it’s important: We are sorry to break it to you, but marketing is quite a multitasking business. A pro specialist here has the ability to write, design, and then optimize the material for the promo campaign. It doesn’t mean you will do that; you may not. But you must be able to.
Strong template example: “My SEO optimization skills include working with keyword research and integration, on-page and mobile optimization, SEO audits, and backlink building.”
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Efficiency in Graphic Design
Why it’s important: Images and videos now get more of a user’s attention than text. In the digital era, you cannot impress anyone with bare facts and information. Examples of building positive customer experience are a much more important skill the recruiter looks for in your resume.
Strong template example: “My hard skills set in graphic design include experience in working with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Figma. I have also worked on brand identity development, user experience design, and print designs.”
“In most cases, employers search for specialists in narrow fields. However, the basic knowledge of different fields will help you understand why the sales strategies work.”
Victoria Brown, B.A. in Marketing, Head of Marketing Department at Customwritings.com
Strong Writing Skills
Why it’s important: The marketing skills list for resume must include writing efficiency, as it is the basis of your persuasion talent. You can be a good marketing specialist if you can convince new customers that they need your product via text.
Strong template example: “The texts on social media platforms I wrote for a small business led more than X organic sales in a few months.”
Problem-Solving and Strategic Thinking
As soft skill type examples in marketing require a more in-depth perspective, we asked Victoria Brown to write some tips for each one of the soft marketing skills to put on resume. So, let’s give her a word now and see how to present your soft skills in the best way possible.
Victoria: “The situation with your hard and soft skills may differ from case to case, so I will not give you the exact examples of marketing skills to list on resume and their phrasing. However, I will help you find a vector of thinking about your soft skills for your dream marketing role. So, here are a few points to ask yourself about your problem-solving skills:
- Do you have any cases of when you solved other people’s conflicts?
- Is it hard for you to think a few steps ahead of the situation?
- Did any hard skill listed previously remind you of some complicated cases in your experience?
- Do you usually know how to use data to your advantage?
Use these questions to come up with your personal experience with problem-solving and strategic thinking skills.”
Negotiation
Victoria: “Communication skills are the basis of the marketing business. You must have it mentioned in your resume to show that you can perform a few crucial roles for the company:
- Resolving B&B conflict situations.
- Persuade the customers who have fears about the product of its complete safety and benefits (just to note: it has to be true, though).
- Advocate for your professional ideas and explain why the team has to do something the way you see it and what results you can grant.”
Creativity
Victoria: “Marketing manager skills for resume do not have to be creative; they have to be practical, applicable, and true for you. However, you must have creativity for projects, so I will give you just one tip on how to present your creativity in a resume. Creativity is not a measurable skill. You can hardly quantify the input of your creativity into the final result. However, you can showcase “before” and “after.” Leave the judgments about your creativity to the recruiter, but describe in detail why you consider some of your previous strategies and ideas creative. Support it with some examples of a competitor’s strategies and contrast them to your creative steps.”
Emotional Intelligence
Victoria: “Although emotional intelligence may seem unrelated to marketing, it is not the case. In fact, your emotional intelligence skills are pivotal for advertising, selling, and negotiating in business. To highlight your proficiency in those skills in your resume, you can write a short one-sentence definition of what each skill means for you and how you see applying it.”
Resilience
Victoria: “Finally, I can also give one little yet important tip for highlighting resilience in your resume. Make sure you understand that this quality is not about constantly dealing with stress. It’s about trial and error until you succeed.”
Skills Examples and Templates to Use in Your Resume and CV
If you still struggle to understand how to present all these skills in your resume, here are a few more useful templates:
Stand Out Through Your Resume Skills Section
Now you know what skills are the most important for your marketing resume, and how to correctly highlight them. But if anyone else does the same, how can you make your resume stand out? Here is how you do it:
- Split your resume into a brief version and add-ons. Your application must be readable, brief, and APS-friendly (Applicant Tracking System). Yet, you would also want to make your claims proven and fact-based, so place all extended data in additional files, CVs, or portfolios.
- Keep your skill sets relevant to your job. For example, the recruiter does not need to know how good you are with kids unless you are applying for a teaching position.
- Feel free to mention industry-related software as much as possible. Unless you provide examples of your skills application, they remain hollow words for the recruiters. Specifying the tools you can work with is a good way to fix this problem.
Let’s Sum Up the Best Tips for Your Resume!
To spice up your resume skill set, treat it like a list of accomplishments and superpowers for a game character. To make it easier for you, here is a checklist of tips for getting job offers fast:
Prove your skill set through real cases
Do not be abstract. Find a way to provide all needed details in any add-on form you deem sufficient.
Be honest in your skill description
Lying or exaggerating your skills will not benefit you in any way. You will have the job interview anyway, so instead, think about what real qualities may be interesting to recruiters.
Get technical with your hard skills
When describing your hard skills, use the terminology specific to your field and name all tools you can work with.
What skills are relevant to what the role you are aiming for?
Make your skill set description resonate with the job description. You do not have to randomly come up with skills you don’t have. Instead, make a careful inventory of your abilities and discard the irrelevant ones.
Choose good fonts for your resume in 2024 and be wise about the formatting
Your resume must be suitable both for machine and human reading. Hence, don’t use fancy, unreadable fonts, design choices, and templates. Keep it simple, formal, informative, and readable.
Make connections between sections
The common mistake applicants make is to write all the sections separately. Think of it as book chapters rather than separate books. Your skills must be somehow “visible” in your experience section, and vice versa.
Be specific
Unless you explain why you think you have a particular skill, your words are just words. Your claims about skill sets hold no value until you prove them with facts.
Include a portfolio link or communicate it with the potential employer
When applying for jobs, you will find that many employers have a special blank field in the application form for your comments. Use it to explain the structure of your resume and any add-ons included.