From running social media accounts and writing branded copy to creating SEO advertising campaigns and brainstorming promotion ideas, marketing managers wear a lot of hats. That’s why an impressive marketing manager cover letter is your secret weapon when applying for such a position with so many varied demands.
This document is the perfect “convincer” to show an employer that you have the right skills and ideas to make its marketing goals a reality. In a field like marketing, a resume can explain what you’ve achieved in the past, but it leaves little room for an employer to imagine how you can help their business grow in the future. For job seekers, a great cover letter is essential for bridging the gap and highlighting your strengths.
Today’s companies are demanding professional managers with inside knowledge of how to market a specific industry in the digital age. To land your dream position, you’ll not only need to prove your track-record of success, but show that you’ve got the right personality and vision for the brand. For that, an exceptional cover letter is a must.
Resume.io is a leading provider of expert advice and support for every cover letter preparation step. Our job-winning resources include a wide selection of occupation-specific writing guides and free cover letter examples. In addition, we offer formatting advice, plus field-tested templates and builder tools to help you create both resumes and cover letters.
This writing guide, along with an effective marketing manager cover letter example will:
- Explain the importance of a cover letter tailored to each job posting
- Describe the best format for structuring a marketing manager cover letter
- Explore persuasive writing strategies for optimizing the impact of each cover letter part: header, greeting, introduction, body and conclusion
- Discuss writing psychology as it applies to your marketing manager cover letter
- Help you avoid the most common cover letter mistakes
Why you need a marketing manager cover letter
Primary purpose
Hiring for a marketing manager position is one of the biggest investments a company can make to increase profits and ensure future success. To get a sense of your personality and achievements, potential employers will likely ask for a cover letter with your resume. This document is your chance to make a great first impression without ever setting foot in the door for an interview.
While on the job search, the goal of your cover letter is to create a personal connection, and to show off your most relevant skills and potential contributions to the prospective employer.
To maximize the effectiveness of your cover letter, keep the length between 200 and 400 words, or roughly one page. Instead of covering every aspect of your career, keep your document concise and focused on a few relevant points. You can also answer any natural questions that might arise from your resume, like gaps in work history.
A critical trait
According to a survey of professionals in a variety of industries, personality actually matters more than skills when it comes to hiring. Almost 80 percent of respondents rated personality as the most desirable quality in a potential employee.
Your cover letter is the best place to show off why you’d make a great fit for a company’s workplace culture so don’t be afraid to be your (professional) self!
When it comes to making a great impression, your visual presentation is just as important as your writing. It’s best to stick to trusted san-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica and Georgia with a size between 10 and 12 points. For even more formatting tips, check out our overall guide on cover letters.
Secondary purpose
Sometimes an application doesn’t call for a cover letter, so should you include one? Unless specifically instructed NOT to write a cover letter, it’s always a good idea to submit one with your resume.
That’s because a cover letter is all about maximizing your chances of landing your dream job. There may be many candidates with a similar number of years of experience, but there’s only one YOU, with your unique perspectives and ideas to help a company grow.
Why throw away your best chance to make a case for yourself? A cover letter allows you to level the playing field and highlight your strengths and skills, especially in a field like marketing where fresh approaches and creativity count.
The importance of tailoring your cover letter
One of the best things you can do to make sure your cover letter is poised for success is to tailor it to each position and company you apply to. Sure, a generic cover letter may seem easier, but it’s much less likely to land you a position. By showing a company that you understand their needs and have the skills to make their goals a reality, you have a better chance of standing out in a crowded application pool.
To tailor your letter, start by researching the company’s public image, branding and recent marketing campaigns. You can use any knowledge of their target audience and preferred approaches to your advantage by highlighting times when you accomplished similar goals.
Your formatting can also help in creating a personal image that’s consistent with the brand you hope to work with. By choosing a cover letter template that matches the look and feel of the company, you can show you understand the mission and message – critical for any marketing manager.
For additional inspiration, you can check out our related cover letter examples in the Marketing category listed here below.
- Digital Marketing cover letter sample
- Marketing cover letter sample
- Social Media Manager cover letter sample
- Writer cover letter sample
- Marketing Coordinator cover letter sample
- Event Coordinator cover letter sample
- Public Relations cover letter sample
- Event Manager cover letter sample
- Marketing Assistant cover letter sample
- Brand Ambassador cover letter sample
- Copywriter cover letter sample
Best format for a marketing manager cover letter
Some applicants choose not to submit a cover letter because they simply don’t understand the cover letter writing process. Luckily, it’s not unstructured as it might seem.
While it’s true that cover letters have a more freeform style than resumes, the framework below will help break your document into manageable sections so that you can write quickly and efficiently.
Here are the key components:
- Header
- Greeting
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusion and signature.
The great news is that these sections remain relatively unchanged even across industries and job titles. Learning to write a great cover letter is a skill that will benefit you for the rest of your career! Let’s get started.
The cover letter header
In medium and large organizations, hiring decisions are often made by a team of people. Your marketing manager cover letter is likely to float from desk to desk while it’s being evaluated by a few different hiring managers. That's why the header's primary role is to keep your name and personal data front and center. When your document is clearly labeled, an interested employer will have a much easier time getting in touch with you.
The header’s second purpose is to add a bit of attractive formatting to an otherwise plain sheet of paper. A larger font size along with color or other stylish touches can catch a recruiter’s attention and make your letter stand out.
The goal of the cover letter header: Identify the document as belonging to you, and create a stylish presentation that captures the reader’s attention
Align document styles!
As a marketing manager, branding is your area of expertise. So why not apply some of those principles to your job application? By aligning the header styles of your cover letter and resume, you can create a consistent look and feel that offers an additional level of professionalism.
Since your header is likely the only place you’ll be able to add color or other style touches to your document, it pays to reflect on what you want your formatting to say about you.
It’s a good idea to check out the company’s website and marketing materials to get a sense of their formality, public image and tone. Use this knowledge to create a layout that shows the hiring manager you understand the needs of their brand.
The cover letter greeting
Your cover letter greeting is the best place to establish a personal connection with the hiring manager. In today’s business world, some companies pride themselves on a casual workplace culture, while others base their image on formality and prestige. Choosing an appropriate greeting for the company is essential to showing why you’d make a great fit.
The goal of the cover letter greeting: Establish the right tone for the position and employer through a friendly, professional greeting
The importance of names in your cover letter greeting
People love the sight and sound of their own names – just think of the monogrammed keychains and faux license plate souvenirs sold at every tourist destination around the world. If you need more proof than that, there’s even scientific evidence that our brains release a positive chemical response upon hearing our own names.
You can use these facts to your advantage when it comes time to write your cover letter greeting. If at all possible, try to address your letter to the name of the hiring manager who will be reading it. This serves to establish a personal connection and give the sense that you’re an invested applicant.
However, in larger companies, it may be nearly impossible to pinpoint exactly who is responsible for the hiring. In that case, a collective noun such as “Team” can still serve to create a friendly greeting. For companies with warm branding, you may even try a more creative approach by using the word “Family.”
The cover letter introduction
A great introduction is one of the strongest advantages you can give your cover letter. The opening sentence is critical to hook the reader’s attention with encouragement to continue reading. There are multiple ways to approach the introduction, but a relevant anecdote, surprising fact or interesting personal statement all make for good lead-ins to describing your impressive skills and abilities. Just make sure to keep any stories concise so that the reader can quickly understand the point you’re trying to make.
The goal of this section: Catch and hold the reader’s attention with relevant information that leads into the body of the letter
The cover letter body
The body section is where you can finally dive into your achievements and milestones and show why you’d make a great addition to the company. To give the largest section a bit more structure, you can divide it into two subsections. In the first, you may want to use the STAR method to describe a situation, the task it required, your action and the positive result it caused. This is a great place to use data and facts to illustrate your impact on the company’s sales or success.
In the second paragraph, you can discuss your most relevant skills and how they make you the right candidate for the position. The marketing manager job description can give you a good idea of what areas to focus on.
The goal of the cover letter body: Use the STAR method to describe your past successes and highlight your skills and potential contributions to the new company
The conclusion and signature
Now that you’ve made a convincing case for your skills and potential, it’s time to close your letter in a respectful and positive way. To express your interest in the position without sounding presumptive, try a call to action.
This sentence conveys your enthusiasm and invites a hiring manager to contact you. You may also want to leave your phone number or email address here depending on how much space you have left. Then use a sign-off like “Best regards,” “Sincerely,” or even “Thank you” for less-formal positions.
The goal of the cover letter conclusion and signature: Create an effective call to action that encourages a hiring manager to contact you, sign off in a respectful way
Writing psychology – cover letter tools and strategies
You'll want your marketing manager cover letter should convey these key ideas.
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A track record of success: A company is hiring you because they want to see results. Examples of times when you’ve helped other businesses achieve their goals are crucial to presenting yourself as the right candidate for the role.
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Industry knowledge: A company’s marketing strategy depends on their clientele. Use your cover letter to show why you have the right marketing skills and experience for that specific type of product or industry.
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Communication skills: Marketing managers should be fluent in the languages of business, social media and branded content. They should also be adept at working with a marketing team and across multiple sections of an organization.
- Creativity: A great marketing manager has fresh ideas and creative approaches to keep a company relevant. Use your cover letter to show off what makes you unique.
The power of belief matching
One marketing principle with great relevance for your cover letter is that of belief matching: the idea that people are much more receptive to our message if they first believe we understand their problem.
As a marketing manager, your job is all about solving a company’s problems, whether in terms of sales, public perception or brand awareness. By aligning yourself with the employer’s needs in your cover letter, you can show how you’d make a great asset without ever having to step foot in the door for a job interview. There’s more than one way to incorporate belief matching into your marketing cover letter, but it all starts with understanding the employer. Take a few minutes to Google its target customer, public image, logos and color scheme.
What does this say about the organization's goals and workplace culture? What new initiatives have been taken on in the past few months?
Once you’ve gathered this type of information, start to take a look at how you might fit in. Have you developed any similar projects, worked with any related brands, accomplished any goals in line with this potential employer’s? Your aim should be to illustrate the ways in which you can add value.
The case for formatting that looks the part
A multiyear research project at Yale has shown that not only do people evaluate a message based on its content, they also evaluate the way in which it’s presented to them. This can include everything from a speaker’s clothing and speech pattern to a written document’s formatting.
That’s why it’s so important that your formatting conveys the right message. A hiring manager wants to know that you’ve correctly evaluated the company’s tone and can create an image to match. If you’re short on time or want to make sure your application looks professional, Resume.io’s expertly-designed cover letter templates and straightforward builder tool can help.
Common mistakes to avoid
Avoid these common pitfalls made by candidates for similar positions.
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Generic letters: As a marketing manager, you should be full of creativity and fresh ideas. How can a company trust your commitment to their brand if you’re not dedicated enough to tailor the letter to their specific opening?
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Spelling and grammar mistakes: Typos give the impression that you didn’t spend enough time on your application to catch the mistakes. Make sure you use spell check and have a friend proofread before you submit.
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Poor formatting: Visual presentation counts for a lot, especially when you are a marketing manager. Make your life easier with Resume.io’s collection of professional and attractive templates perfect for a variety of industries.
- Overly complex or mismatched tone: As a marketing manager, your job is to understand the image a company wants to present. An overly formal or excessively casual tone shows that you didn’t take the time to research your potential employer.
Key takeaways for a marketing manager cover letter
- A cover letter is an essential part of a job-winning application. Unless an employer asks you NOT to submit one, make sure to include this document in your application.
- Follow the tried-and-true cover letter structure to simplify the writing process and keep your letter focused on relevant information.
- Use a matching layout for your resume and cover letter to create an even more polished image.
- Show a company you understand its unique needs and present the ways in which you are prepared to rise to the challenge.
- Make sure your cover letter conveys the key skill set needed for the position including great communication and industry knowledge.
With resume.io, you can create a perfect cover letter in just a few minutes. No uncertainty, no hassle. Go out there and win!
