Skills to put on a marketing resume

Marketing hiring managers read a resume looking for two things: the channels you have run yourself, and what they produced. A list of platforms tells them you know the landscape; a campaign described with its audience, budget, channel mix and outcome tells them you can deliver. The more specialized the role (SEO, paid search, lifecycle), the more precise they expect you to be about tools and metrics.

Write each tool and discipline the way job ads write it ("Google Analytics", "Email marketing", "Content marketing"): that is how recruiters, the applicant tracking system and Trakrio's score connect your resume to the role. Choose your angle too: a generalist marketing executive shows breadth across channels, a specialist depth in one, a marketing manager planning, budgets and the people or agencies they steered.

Technical skills

Search and paid media

• SEO Technical, on-page or link building: say which part you handled and on what kind of site.
• PPC (search engine advertising) Paid search, often called PPC in the US and UK and SEA in Europe: name the platform and the budget scale.
• Google Ads The main paid search platform: mention campaign types (Search, Shopping, Performance Max) you ran.
• Meta Ads Facebook and Instagram advertising: describe the audiences and creative tests behind your results.
• LinkedIn Ads B2B paid social: useful for lead generation roles alongside sales teams.
• Google Search Console Indexing, queries, page performance: the everyday tool of anyone doing SEO.
• Semrush Keyword research, site audits, competitor tracking: one of the SEO suites job ads name.
• Ahrefs Another SEO suite, well known for backlink analysis: list the one you actually used.

Analytics and measurement

• Google Analytics GA4 is the current version: say what you set up (events, conversions, reports), not just that you read it.
• Google Tag Manager Setting up tracking without waiting for developers: a strong plus for digital marketing roles.
• Excel Budget tracking, campaign exports, quick analyses: still part of the daily work.
• A/B testing Testing a landing page, subject line or ad against another: describe the test and what you kept.
• Marketing attribution Knowing which channels really drive conversions: expected of senior and performance marketers.

Content, social media and brand

• Content marketing Articles, guides, videos, case studies: say who they were for and what they brought in.
• Copywriting Ads, landing pages, emails: link to a portfolio if you can, it convinces faster than a description.
• Social media management Planning, publishing, moderating and reporting across networks: name the platforms you ran.
• Hootsuite A scheduling and monitoring tool common in social media teams.
• Canva Quick visuals for social posts and presentations: expected for many generalist roles.
• Photoshop For roles that produce their own visuals: say what you created with it.
• InDesign Brochures, reports, print layouts: still asked for in brand and communications roles.
• WordPress Publishing and updating pages without a developer: list it for content and SEO roles.
• Brand management Positioning, guidelines, consistency across channels: the core of brand manager roles.

CRM, email and automation

• Email marketing Newsletters, nurture flows, promotional campaigns: say what list size and what kind of journey you ran.
• Marketing automation Triggered journeys, lead scoring, nurturing: name the platform and the flows you built.
• HubSpot Marketing automation and CRM in one, common in B2B startups and scale-ups.
• Mailchimp An email platform widely used by small businesses and non-profits.
• Marketo Marketing automation found in larger B2B companies, often with Salesforce.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email and journeys at scale, frequent in retail, travel and financial services.
• Audience segmentation Splitting a database by behavior or value to send the right message: show a segment that outperformed.

Strategy and product marketing

• Market research Surveys, interviews, competitor reviews: say what decision the research informed.
• Go-to-market strategy Planning a launch from positioning to channels: the heart of product marketing roles.
• Product positioning Defining who a product is for and why it is different: show messaging you wrote and how it was used.
• Growth marketing Fast experiments across the funnel: describe the experiment loop rather than the label.
• Inbound marketing Attracting leads with content and search rather than outreach: common wording in B2B job ads.
• Marketing budget management Allocating and tracking spend across channels and agencies: expected from marketing managers.

Soft skills

Soft skills are proven with facts: each one below with how to show it.

• Creativity An idea that changed a campaign's results, explained in one line, says more than the word.
• Data-driven mindset Deciding from what the numbers show, then testing again: tell how a result made you change course.
• Storytelling Turning product features into a message people remember, in ads, decks or launch plans.
• Project management Campaigns with deadlines, agencies, designers and legal reviews: show one you delivered on time.
• Cross-functional collaboration Working with sales, product and design: the daily reality of product and B2B marketing.
• Adaptability Platforms and algorithms change often: show how you adjusted a channel when it stopped working.

Add these skills to my resume

Click the ones you really have: they join the resume kept in this browser by the resume builder, with no AI and nothing sent. Without a resume, the first click creates it.

Recognized certifications and qualifications

Put them in the Education or Certifications section of your resume, with the year, only if you hold them.

• CIM Level 6 Diploma in Professional & Digital Marketing A qualification from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) for marketers moving into a marketing manager role: a mandatory strategy module plus electives. Holders of the earlier Diploma in Professional Marketing can keep its title.
• DMI Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing An online qualification from the Digital Marketing Institute covering search, social, email and analytics.
• Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) in Digital Marketing A certification from the American Marketing Association (AMA) in the US.
• Google Ads Search Certification A free Google Skillshop certification on Search campaigns: useful for PPC roles.
• Google Analytics Certification Google Skillshop certification on GA4 measurement and reporting.
• HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification A free HubSpot Academy course on inbound methodology, content and lead nurturing.
• Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate Meta's entry-level certification on Facebook and Instagram advertising.
• Marketing Executive Level 4 Apprenticeship An apprenticeship standard in England: list it in your education with the provider's name.

Where to put them on your resume

Open with a short summary that states your specialty (generalist, SEO, paid media, content, lifecycle, product marketing) and your context (B2B or B2C, in-house or agency). Then a Skills section grouped by area, so the reader sees which channels and tools you cover without hunting through every job.

In each job, describe campaigns rather than duties: the goal, the audience, the channels, the budget scale if you can share it, and the outcome. Add a portfolio link (articles, ads, a landing page, a public report) when you have one: in marketing, it is often the first thing clicked. For a first role, a student society's social accounts, a personal blog or a small business you helped count as experience: see the guide to a resume with no experience.

If the role sits close to sales (demand generation, account-based marketing), the sales skills page can help you word the shared part. For each application, put first what the job asks for and you master, in the ad's words: see the guide to tailoring your resume to a job, and check what is missing with the resume / job match checker.

Example bullet points for your experience

Fictitious examples, built with the XYZ formula: replace them with your own results, and never make up the measure.

• Before Managed the company blog and SEO.

  After Grew organic traffic from 20,000 to 55,000 monthly visits in a year by rebuilding the topic structure with Semrush and refreshing 60 underperforming articles.

• Before Ran Google Ads campaigns.

  After Cut cost per lead by 30% on a $15k monthly Google Ads budget by restructuring campaigns around intent and adding negative keywords from weekly search term reviews.

• Before Sent the newsletter.

  After Lifted repeat purchases by 12% in six months by replacing a single weekly newsletter with four behavior-based email flows in Klaviyo.

• Before Worked on product launches.

  After Generated 1,200 sign-ups in the first month of a feature launch by writing the positioning, briefing sales and running a LinkedIn Ads and webinar campaign.

Common mistakes

• Vanity metrics. Likes, impressions or followers alone rarely convince. Link them to what the business cares about: leads, sign-ups, sales, retention.
• Every tool you have opened once. A long list of platforms hides the ones you master. Keep those you used for real and could demo in an interview.
• No portfolio. Marketing work can be shown: a few links to campaigns, articles or reports make your claims concrete, as long as they are public.
• Agency or team work presented as solo work. Say what you owned and what the agency or colleagues did: interviewers ask, and honesty here builds trust.
• One resume for generalist and specialist roles. An SEO specialist role and a marketing manager role look for different depth: reorder your skills and bullets for each.

Frequently asked questions