How to Write a CV for a Marketing Job That Gets Noticed
Here’s a confession that probably won’t surprise you.
We’ve seen a lot of marketing CVs in our time. And as a marketing recruitment specialist, you’d think they’d all be brilliant. After all, marketers spend their careers making brands stand out, so surely selling yourself should be an absolute doddle?
Unfortunately not quite.
Marketers are often surprisingly bad when it comes to marketing themselves. And when a single vacancy attracts well over 100 applications, a CV that blends into the pile won’t make the cut. Think of your CV as a marketing campaign. The product is you. The audience is a time-poor hiring manager. And the goal? Have them interested enough to keep reading and invite you to interview.
So, how do you make sure your CV gets the attention it deserves? Here’s how to make every application count. 👇
Ditch the generic profile
“Hard-working team player seeking a new challenge” tells us nothing. Every CV we receive says something similar, and it’s easy for a profile like this to become a section that gets skimmed straight past.
Instead, use three or four lines that say who you are, what you specialise in and what you’ve achieved. Something like “Digital Marketing Executive with three years’ experience in the B2B sector. Grew organic traffic by 65% in 12 months and managed a £40k PPC budget across Google and LinkedIn.”
Specific, measurable and, importantly, memorable.
Show results, not just responsibilities
This is the big one.
“Managed social media accounts” is a responsibility, not an achievement. Hiring managers want to know what happened because you were there. Did engagement increase? Did open rates go up? Did cost per lead come down? Did that campaign land a big client? Put a number on it wherever you can. For example, “Increased email open rates from 18% to 31% through effective segmentation and A/B testing.”
Don’t panic if you don’t have the exact figures. An honest estimate is still more useful than a long list of duties.
Tailor your marketing CV to every role
We know, we know. Firing off the same CV to 20 different jobs is tempting, especially on a Sunday night when the blues are hitting, and bed is calling. But we can’t stress enough: tailor your CV.
Marketing is a broad sector, and a content role needs a different CV from a paid media, CRM, or brand marketing role. Read the job description properly. Identify the skills, experience and tools they’re looking for, then make sure your relevant experience is easy to find.
And yes, the language matters. Many employers use applicant tracking systems to help shortlist candidates, so reflecting the terminology used in the job advert can genuinely help your CV get through the first sift.
Keep the design simple
Yes, you’re creative. And yes, we love to see it. But a CV with five columns, three fonts and a graph that looks like the inside of a cockpit is more likely to confuse than impress.
Stick to a clean, modern layout, use a readable font and keep the information easy to navigate. If you want to show off your creative flair, that’s what your portfolio is for. Your CV needs to make your experience easy to see, not make the reader work to find it.
Be honest about your tech skills
Employers want to know you can hit the ground running, so include a sensible shortlist of the platforms and tools you use, whether that’s GA4, CRM, paid social, email or design software.
Just make sure you can talk confidently about everything on there. Listing Salesforce because you’ve logged in once is a quick way to become unstuck at an interview.
Back it up with proof
Anyone can write “creative, results-driven marketer” on a CV (and plenty do). A portfolio is where you prove it. Include a campaign you’re proud of, a few examples of your work and, if the real thing is confidential, a short anonymised case study works well. Cover the challenge, your approach and the outcome, and you’re sorted.
In our experience, it can be the difference between a “maybe” and a “yes”, so don’t leave it out.
Anyone can write “creative, results-driven marketer” on a CV (and plenty do). A portfolio is where you prove it. Include a campaign you’re proud of, a few examples of your work and, if the real thing is confidential, a short anonymised case study. Cover the challenge, your approach and the outcome, and you’re sorted.
Proofread. Then proofread again.
A typo on most CVs will likely be forgiven, but a marketing CV is a different story, especially if the role involves copy, content or brand comms. One slip can undo a lot of good work.
Read it aloud, run a spell check, then hand it to someone else. After hours of staring at the same document, your brain sees what you meant to write, not what’s actually there. A fresh pair of eyes will catch it.
Ultimately, you want to make every line earn its place. If it doesn’t show what you’ve achieved or why you’re right for the role, cut it.
If you’d like a second opinion on your CV or want to know what we’re seeing in the marketing job market right now, give us a bell! 🔔