Ultimate Marketing Resume Guidance

As mentioned in the other guides, it’s always going to be easier to get hired by a company that is actively looking to hire for services that you provide rather than just reaching out to people that “COULD” use your services. So, an additional way for you to get some clients is to apply to jobs on job boards such as Linkedin and Indeed as these companies are actively looking to hire. However, a lot of these companies that place jobs on these particular websites are typically looking for a full-time person which might not be what you want as a freelancer (or maybe it is). If that’s what they are hiring for but you don’t necessarily want to work those hours, it is possible you can convince them to hire you on a freelancer basis but this can be more challenging than getting in front of companies that are searching for freelancers on UpWork as they are specifically looking to hire a freelancer as opposed to companies on Indeed/Linkedin that may be looking to hire a full-time person. If you do decide to apply directly to companies on Indeed and Linkedin that have put up job-postings, you can also search for part-time positions as this could be more in-line with what you’re seeking as a freelancer. Regardless of which option you choose, this is a common strategy that Freelancers will use to get clients so you can add this method as an additional way for you to get clients. Just remember, you should prioritize Upwork over this method as there you are getting in front of your perfect audience as they are companies specifically searching for freelancers where people posting jobs on Indeed and Linkedin are not.

Here’s the order I’d recommend in trying to get clients:

Breaking Down Your Resume Section By Section

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Let’s break down your resume to ensure that you give us marketing hiring managers what we want. Make the changes I’m stating below as this is going to help you start getting more interviews. Remember, this isn’t general resume advice like you received online. This is resume advice from marketing hiring managers so do these things so you’re giving us what we want.

Resume Formatting

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I recommend using the Marketing template I provide here (this is the same one in the first section of the Getting Started section): 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-wbN5qcOYnQIp1h0wXhfXF6l8zDzvJnm/edit

What matters most to us on your resume? Your work experience! So, a solid 75% of your resume should be highlighting all of your work experience that you have. I see a lot of marketing professionals split their resume into 2 columns to make it look pretty and they talk about their hobbies, skills, and have their contact info on the left hand side. More times than not, this is a bad use of space. We are hiring based on who has the right work experience, not who can make their resume the prettiest. Think of your resume as valuable real estate. There is only so much room on it. You want to maximize your worth and you only have 1 page to do it (unless you’re in the UK where it’s okay to have a resume of more than 1 page). So, get rid of the columns if this is preventing you from adding all the work experience that you now have as adding as much relevant marketing work experience as possible should be your #1 focus as this is what’s going to help you get interviews. 

Always use bullet points on your resume as this makes it much easier for us to read as well as it makes your work experience jump out more rather than using block text. I know you have a lot of work experience that you now want to add to your resume but that doesn’t mean that you should add everything. Add all of the work experience that’s most relevant to the job without having to go to a font size smaller than 10.5.

Like I said, I recommend using the above Marketing Resume template.

Summary/Objective Section 

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If you decide to have this section which is optional, keep it short. You don’t want this taking up more than 3 lines max. Remember, what are us hiring managers focusing on? Your work experience. You now (at least after our program) have more than enough work experience where you don’t need to expand this section so your resume looks full. If you do decide to add this section, a very common problem I see marketing professionals make is that they talk about their objectives and their wants. Don’t do this! Your resume is all about selling yourself on why you’d be the best fit for the job. So, instead of saying what you want out of this job, instead, rephrase this section to sell why you’d be a good fit for their company. For example (this is very general and you should be more specific to the job you’re applying for if you decide to have this section):

I’m determined to help maximize your marketing team’s ROI by implementing efficient and optimized strategies that I’ve acquired through my past work experience in Social Media, Email, PPC, and SEO Marketing.

Or

​​Highly driven full-stack digital marketing specialist with work experience in Social Media, Email, PPC, SEO, and Lead Generation strategies. Hyper focused on results and always looking to optimize all aspects of your marketing funnel to ensure all marketing campaigns are constantly improving their ROI. (This shows up as 3 lines on the resume template I provided)

Did you notice how I made this about what I’m going to do for them rather than just what I want to get out of this job? Also, notice how I tied in a bit about my work experience while doing this. This is what you want to strive for if you use a Summary/Objective section on your resume.

Skills/Certifications/School Projects

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For the most part, you don’t want these taking up much space on your resume. Remember, we are focused on your work experience. If you have something that you feel really matches exactly what the job is asking for, go ahead and put this section in but you don’t want this taking up more than 2-3 lines max on your resume. If you have work experience that shows off the same thing as this skill or certification, it will look much better as work experience than just listing it as a skill or via a certification. Remember, your resume is valuable space and you want to make sure that you aren’t repeating yourself by listing it in your work experience section and then again in another section unless you really feel as though the hiring manager wants to see this particular certification or school project.

Education

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If you went to an amazing school, put it at the top. If your school was just so-so, then you can put it at the top or the bottom. The most important thing to note here is that you don’t want your school to take up half of your resume as I sometimes see. Remember, 75% of your resume should be your work experience. If you’re going to list relevant coursework, please keep it on 1 line rather than using a bunch of bullet points which takes up more room on your resume.

Interests

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If you have this section, this should be at the very bottom of your resume and don’t let it take up more than a couple of lines maximum. This is a great place where you can also subtly talk about interests that would make you a more attractive candidate. But I do mean subtly. Don’t say, Marketing is my life and I eat, drink and breathe marketing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Instead, if you want to subtly plug another way you’re a good fit and if you’re applying for a social media marketing job, you might write something along the lines of:

I’m passionate about design and I love spending my free time working on my travel photos and videos in Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

Software Knowledge 

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This is not a required section to have in your resume but if you decide to put it in, once again, don’t have this take up too much space. Here’s the top software that I’d recommend inputting if you decide to add this to your resume: Ahrefs, Canva, Hootsuite, SproutSocial, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Google Ads Manager, and Linked Helper 2.

Work Experience

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This is by far the most important part of your resume and it should take up roughly 75% of your resume. So, we need to make sure we get this right. Remember, every resume you send out needs to be tailored for that job posting especially the work experience section. Think about it. The company is flat out telling you what work experience they want and if you’re able to give them exactly what they are asking for, then you’re a lot more likely to get an interview. So, once again, you need to make sure that you’re adjusting your resume for each job you apply for because the closer you are to giving them the exact work experience they are asking for, the better the chances are of you landing the interview where you’ll then have the opportunity to show why you’d be a great hire. So, make sure you apply the below guidance for every resume you send out.

When deciding what work experience to put down, here’s what I suggest:

1. First, copy and paste the work experience they have listed in the job listing onto your resume in the order they have it listed. Then, slightly alter these bullet points by inputting your work experience (assuming you have this particular work experience which you most likely will by the end of the program). You’ll notice in the job listing they’ll use certain keywords like “social media”, “PPC”, “ROI”, “funnels” and marketing terms of that nature. You want to keep these on your resume as it will make your resume stand out more to hiring managers and help it get through the ATS (Applicant Tracking System – an applicant scanning software that helps weed out unqualified applications). In essence, you’re putting the most important work experience they are asking for for that particular job at the top to ensure it clearly shows you have the work experience they want.
2. After you’ve put in work experience for all of the areas they are asking for, if there is still room on your resume, you want to then select additional work experience bullet points that you’ve gained from our program (all listed down below) or from your previous jobs (whichever matches the job role best). For instance, if it’s a Social Media Manager position, you’ll want to add additional Social Media work experience bullet points that you’ve gained from our program or from your past jobs to strengthen your case that you have what they want and more in social media. 
3. I also suggest that you always try to have at least 1-2 bullet points in each of the 4 digital marketing areas (Social Media, Email, PPC, and SEO) so that they can see that you’re well-rounded and can do a lot of different things for the company rather than just stick solely to 1 area of digital marketing. This is something that’s highly highly impressive to us so you definitely want to make sure you do this. 
4. If you have the same work experience for 1 or more jobs, don’t restate it for both jobs. After this program, you’re going to have more than enough work experience where you should never have to restate things to fill up space on your resume. Remember, your resume is valuable real estate. You want to show as much work experience as you can so don’t ever repeat yourself. If you already have some of the below work experience that JobPrepped gives you, state that under your other job as you’ll have plenty of things to already state under JobPrepped.

For your convenience, here is all of the work experience that you’ll get from JobPrepped.

Work Experience

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