In short
A marketing manager's resume has a problem other fields don't: the reader has seen a thousand campaigns described as "successful". What they want to know is who you reached, what it did for the business, and what it cost to do it. A marketing manager's resume is also one of the few that can open with a short story, as long as the numbers follow straight after. Here is a senior Marketing Manager's resume with each part explained, along with her headline, cover letter opening and who she contacts.
Sophie doesn't exist, but her resume is shaped the way FutureDay shapes one: every result is something she actually did, and the numbers are tied to sales, not to how busy the team was. Read it once as a CEO would, then read the notes.
A marketing manager's resume, explained
SOPHIE NGUYEN
Marketing Manager | Retail Digital & Loyalty | Online from 14% to 31% of sales
Gold Coast QLD · sophie.nguyen@email.com · 0400 000 000 · linkedin.com/in/sophienguyen
Summary
Took over a loyalty program of 600,000 members who all received the same email every week. It now has 1.1 million members, sends each one something based on what they bought and what they do outdoors, and drives 38% of total sales.
Marketing manager for a national outdoor retailer with 42 stores: a team of eleven and a $9M budget across brand, digital and loyalty. Works on making the website and the stores feel like one business, so a customer who browses on Monday buys on Saturday, wherever they choose.
Career highlights
- Took online sales from 14% to 31% of revenue in three years by rebuilding site search and checkout, moving 40% of the paid media budget into retention, and launching click and collect in all 42 stores.
- Relaunched the loyalty program with tiers and member-only gear days, lifting active members from 210,000 to 480,000; members now spend 2.3 times what non-members do.
- Cut the cost of acquiring a new customer by 34% by retiring two paid channels that weren't converting and building a creator program with 60 outdoor guides and photographers.
Experience
Marketing Manager, Fernleigh Outdoor Co 2020 to now
42 stores and online. Team of eleven across brand, digital, CRM and content; $9M budget. Reports to the Chief Executive.
- Grew the contactable email and SMS audience from 410,000 to 860,000, with revenue per send up 45% after moving from weekly blasts to journeys triggered by what customers do.
- Launched "Out by Friday", a weekend trip guide series that is now the website's largest source of organic traffic at 180,000 visits a month.
- Ran the brand refresh across stores, website and packaging on a $1.2M budget; unprompted awareness in the target market rose from 19% to 27% at the next tracking survey.
- Lifted return on ad spend from 3.1 to 5.4 by building audiences from loyalty data instead of buying them.
Digital Marketing Lead, Larkspur Travel 2016 to 2020
Online travel agency, $60M in bookings a year, team of four.
- Lifted website conversion from 1.6% to 2.4% through a testing program of around 70 experiments a year.
- Built the abandoned booking journey, which recovered $1.9M in bookings in its first year.
- Moved search marketing in-house, saving $420K a year in agency fees with no drop in bookings.
Earlier career
Marketing and digital roles in tourism and retail, including Digital Coordinator at Seabright Resorts and Marketing Assistant at Hartwell Wine Merchants.
Education and training
Bachelor of Business (Marketing)
Graduate Certificate in Digital Marketing
Systems and skills
Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Shopify Plus, GA4, Meta and Google Ads · Loyalty and CRM · Brand management · Content and creator programs · Agency management · Testing and optimisation
- HeadlineThe number matches the specialism. Her specialism is digital and loyalty, so the number is an online sales figure. An awareness score in that slot would be the right kind of number for the wrong job.
- SummaryA short story, then the proof. Marketing is one of the few fields where a resume can open with a scene. It works here because three numbers land in the same paragraph. The second paragraph gives the scale: stores, team, budget.
- HighlightsTied to sales, not activity. Not "ran 200 campaigns". Each highlight says what moved in the business, how, and what it cost. A cheaper customer is a result a CEO understands straight away.
- Scope lineBudget sizes a marketing job. For a marketing reader the budget says as much as the team. Both are here, plus who she reports to.
- BulletsGive it a name. "Out by Friday" is something a reader can picture. A named piece of work with its number reads truer than "led content strategy", because it can be looked up.
- Earlier careerShort and undated. Tourism and retail, the two worlds her career grew out of, with no dates attached.
- SystemsPlatforms are searched for. Marketing job descriptions name their platforms, and screening software looks for them. She lists the ones she has actually run.
What does a CEO look for in a marketing manager?
Usually a CEO or a head of marketing, and they're asking: who did you reach, what did it do for sales, and was it worth what it cost? A resume that answers with a story and a number gets read. One that lists channels and campaigns reads like a job description, because it is one.
Before: "Managed the email marketing program and social media channels."
After: "Grew the contactable email and SMS audience from 410,000 to 860,000, with revenue per send up 45% after moving from weekly blasts to journeys triggered by what customers do."
What should a marketing manager's LinkedIn headline lead with?
Role, the kind of marketing, then the number that goes with it. Sophie's is:
"Marketing Manager | Retail Digital, CRM & Loyalty | Online from 14% to 31% of sales"
Not "Creative storyteller | Brand builder | Coffee lover". It might be true, but nobody hiring a marketing manager searches for it.
How should a marketing manager's cover letter open?
A little more story is fine here than in finance or law, as long as a number turns up early:
"Your stores are full on Saturday and your website is quiet on Monday. I spent the last three years closing that gap for an outdoor retailer, taking online from 14% to 31% of sales."
Then close on the result you'd go after first in their business.
Who should a marketing manager message first?
In marketing, the CEO often hires someone they already know, or someone a trusted agency recommends. Sophie's resume backs up a conversation already begun. Beginning it is the job.
For a Marketing Manager, start here:
- Your agencies and platform account managers. Media, creative and email platform people work across many brands at once. They're often the first to hear a marketing head is leaving, or that a brand is building a team.
- People who've moved on from your team or your agencies. Marketers move between brands constantly, and a former team member who rates you is a strong word in a new CEO's ear.
- The Chief Executive or Head of Marketing at retail and consumer brands you'd like to work for. In a mid-sized retailer, the CEO often hires the marketing manager directly.
A first message should be quick to read and easy to say yes to. To an agency account director she used to work with:
"Hi Jess, hope the move to Brisbane has been good. I'm starting to look around after six years at Fernleigh, mainly marketing manager roles at retail or consumer brands where online and stores need to work as one. You see inside more marketing teams than anyone, so if you hear of one, I'd love to know. And if the agency ever needs a client reference, just ask."
The people you know less well are often the ones who hear first. Here's why weak ties matter so much in a search.
How a marketing manager uses FutureDay
FutureDay shapes your resume from results you actually got, the way Sophie's is shaped, and tailors it to each job description without inventing any. It then shows you, every day, who to contact, what to say, and what to do next.
In summary
Match the headline number to your specialism.
A short story is allowed, if the numbers follow straight after.
Tie results to sales and cost, not to how busy you were.
Name the work so a reader can picture it.
A resume supports a conversation already under way. Put most of your effort into starting new ones.