Be Great, Not Good: 3 Traits All Great Digital Marketers Possess

What do recruiters look for in leading digital marketers? Having a track record in brand strategy and execution will certainly give you options. However, with hundreds–sometimes thousands–competing for the same position in competitive markets, you need to go the extra mile. 

How do recruiters discern between good and great candidates when they’re looking for digital marketers? Read on and take note.

 #1 The Great Have Soft Skills

The good candidates are competent, professional, and reliable. They’ve worked at good companies and agencies and have met the expectations of previous employers. That’s no longer enough.

Great candidates must now have soft skills. As organizations change direction more quickly, and with newer start-ups pivoting on a dime, companies are demanding that recruiters supply candidates who are adaptable and collaborative.

Why adaptable? Fast-paced digital companies need employees who can be flexible and adapt quickly. These employees keep up-to-date on news and trends. Let’s say long-form blog posts are gaining more traction these days. As content directors, they immediately take action to bulk up their 250-word posts.

And why is being collaborative critical? Although you’re a digital marketing specialist in social media, to maximize your results you will need to work with the product, branding, content and search engine marketing (SEM) divisions to leverage your results and meet your campaign targets. Therefore, you must play nicely with others to establish yourself as a sought-after candidate in this space.

#2 The Great Include Media in Their Applications

The good candidates have workmanlike CVs as well as LinkedIn profiles with photos. As recruiters only spend 6.25 seconds looking at your CV, ensuring that it’s clean and uses bullet points will put you ahead of most. A LinkedIn profile that is well formatted, easy-to-read and complemented by a photo gets the job done.

Great candidates, however, stand out with their presentation. They amplify their LinkedIn profile with video clips, segments of speaking gigs, and media-rich highlights. A recent study showed that recruiters spend 19 percent of their time looking at the profile photo. Considering that we engage more with information that includes visuals, this isn’t totally surprising. Be sure your photo depicts you as a professional and shows you in the best possible light. Also, think to include your portfolio in order to give a fuller picture of the bigger, better you!

#3. The Great Market Themselves Like a Brand

The good candidates try to match most of the requirements in the job description that the recruiter sent over and write a friendly, generic cover letter.

The great candidates market themselves just as they would a brand.

The even greater candidates incorporate keywords into a custom resume. They create a persuasive cover letter that reflects the tone of the company and wows the recruiter.

The greatest candidates do all of the above plus they add numbers, percentages, and awards to their resume as well as rich media to their LinkedIn page.

These top tier candidates are socially connected. They tweet about industry events and trends. On LinkedIn, they are strategic about the groups and companies they follow and are active in online community discussions. They also share memorable articles on the site.

Recruiters who hire top talent in the e-commerce, B2B and B2C marketplace have no time to waste on serviceable professionals. A digital marketing headhunter such as AC Lion, which was listed in Ad Age as one of the top marketing recruiters, sends only exemplary prospects to their clients—clients including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Because an unbelievable 95 percent of their clients are repeat customers, they are even more on the hook to identify only dazzling prospects and put them forth as candidates.

For a better chance of being one of those candidates, take a note or two from us!  If you’re not already – be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for updated resources, news, and tips from our well of over 20 years experience in the Digital Ecosystem.