Cover letter sample for marketing professionals

Career Builder

You’ve already put so much work into your resume, so why do you have to write a cover letter, too? Do people even read these things anymore?

Well, yes, they do. And you should be glad that they do, because your cover letter is an opportunity. A good resume shows that a candidate has the right skills and experience for a job in the abstract. But a good cover letter shows an employer something more fleshed out, more concrete. It’s your chance to tell stories about your biggest professional wins, to demonstrate how you’ve used your professional skills, to express some personality and present yourself as the talented, complex human being that you are — something much deeper than a bulleted list on a resume. And if you’re applying for a marketing position, in particular, writing your cover letter is a way to prove you have the communication skills to excel in the field.

With a little help from CareerBuilder, writing your cover letter won’t be a chore. Let’s walk through the drafting process together. Then we’ll share an example cover letter that you can customize with your own information.

How to write a good cover letter

Address your letter to the right person

Don’t trip yourself before you even get to the actual letter — address it to the right person, by name. If the job description doesn’t mention the hiring manager’s name, do a little digging on the company’s website, LinkedIn, and social media accounts.

If you come up dry on specific hiring managers, try to find out who’s in charge of the department you’re applying to. A sales associate might address a cover letter to a branch manager. A human resources specialist might address one to the head of the HR department. A marketing expert should probably write to a marketing manager or chief marketing officer.

If the company is unusually tight-lipped about its employees, you should still avoid “To Whom It May Concern.” At the very least, use something that indicates you’ve given this a little thought. “Dear Marketing Hiring Manager” or “Dear Marketing Hiring Committee” is better than nothing.

Hook your reader

Most cover letters start something like this: “My name is Job Jobberson, and I’m writing to apply for the marketing manager position at Market, INC.” Which sounds fine, aside from the obviously fake name. It’s quick. It gets the job done.

But by the time a hiring manager reads the second letter beginning with some version of “I would like to apply for this job, which you already know, because you’re reading my application materials right now,” their eyes will start to glaze over.

In the analog past, when you applied to a job ad, it was important to lead off with an explanation for your correspondence: You’re reading this because I’m applying to a job. But these days, most companies hire online. They use digital processes to vet your application materials. Computers probably searched your resume for keywords and basic requirements before it reached human eyes. So if someone opens your cover letter, it’s because they know you’re applying. Don’t tell them what they already know. Instead, start with something more specific.

There’s no one right way to start a cover letter, but there is one goal: Show them you’re a good hire with something clear and specific. Tell a story about a major marketing win. Recount a problem you solved with all your amazing skills. Write about a marketing initiative you loved: what made it so great, and how you could accomplish such great things if you were hired. Keep it concise and professional, but shake your reader awake from their boring-cover-letter-induced slumber.

Prove you know something about the company

No one wants to hire a candidate who doesn’t seem to have bothered researching the company. Reference something about the company that makes you a good fit. Refer to the company's branding as specifically as possible to show off your familiarity with the tone and personality that they use in their marketing materials, whether this is chic and sophisticated, smart and professional, or quirky and kid-centered.

In the example below, Mary Marketing starts off with thoughts on one of the company’s marketing campaigns, “Shopping Cat.” She knows the company produces content with a direct, creative, quirky tone, so she feels comfortable rolling up her sleeves and starting with something casual and punchy: “I love Shopping Cat. I giggle every time I see those fuzzy little paws swiping the latest deals into the shopping cart on my phone.” This demonstrates her knowledge of the company’s work, her appreciation of good marketing campaigns, and something of her sensibilities as a professional.

Tailor your tone

Mary is applying to a creative company that makes fun, forward-thinking work. But this letter wouldn’t work so well if she were writing to a highly formal firm. Adjust your style to the type of company you’re applying to. Your resume shows you can walk like a duck. Your cover letter should show that you can talk like one.

One more word of advice: Creative companies might appreciate your creative voice, but rein it in on the humor. Too much makes you come across as overly familiar, even for a casual workplace. A light tough goes a long way.

Establish who you are

Next, Mary deftly sums up her professional experience, referencing a marketing campaign she came up with called “Techno Bear,” hoping the hiring manager might recognize it, or at least click a link to Mary’s online portfolio, indicated below with an underline. Gesturing to a concrete example of your work will give the hiring manager a much stronger idea of who you are than words on a resume.

Be specific

The more specific the detail, the more powerful the impact on your reader. Mary writes that her Techno Bear idea earned her old company 10,000 new followers during a four-week promotion. That’s a demonstrable accomplishment a hiring manager can latch onto. It gives them a real sense of what Mary has done — and what she could do if hired.

Share past duties — but don’t recite your resume

Mary has the reader now. She’s given them a sense of who she is and what she can do. Now it’s time to talk about her work experience in more depth. This is where a lot of cover letters fail. You do not want to repeat all the information on your resume. That’s just telling the hiring manager something they’ve already read. Instead, include some details about specific responsibilities. Mary’s resume might say that she worked on media management, but her cover letter can elaborate. She writes about specific clients, cites backlinks that her marketing outreach earned, and mentions a style guide and marketing calendar she created for her last company.

Include a call to action

Rather than letting your letter peter out at the end, give your reader an action to take. “I’d love to discuss how I could make your team love deadlines as much as I do,” Mary writes. (Remember, though: treat humor like an extremely strong spice. Just a tad too much ruins the dish. Here, Mary knows that managing deadlines is important to the role, and can make a reasonable assumption that the company that created Shopping Cat will appreciate her cheekiness.) In the next paragraph, she also writes that she looks forward to discussing her ideas and strategies — something the hiring manager can do.

Say thank you, please

It’s important to be courteous and respectful of the hiring manager’s time. Thanking them for their consideration at the end of your letter is a small gesture, but an important one nonetheless.

Read it. Then read it again. Then read it aloud.

Comb all the errors out of your cover letter. Read the final draft multiple times. Ask a friend to proofread it for errors in spelling, grammar, or style. Read the letter out loud to make sure the language hits your ear right. If a certain phrase makes you tongue-tied, readjust the line until it sounds natural.

Brevity is the soul of getting hired

Keep your cover letter to one page or less. Your hiring manager has a lot of these to read. Show them you can accomplish a lot with a little bit of space.

Marketing manager sample cover letter

Now it’s time to knock out that cover letter and find your next marketing job. Upload your resume (here’s our resume guide, for reference) along with this cover letter and you'll be ready to apply to jobs with a simple click.

[Date]
Jane Job
Hiring Manager
Market, INC
[Optional: Physical Address of the Company]

Dear Ms. Job:

I love Shopping Cat. I giggle every time I see those fuzzy little paws swiping the latest deals into the shopping cart on my phone. That’s the true art of marketing: to create a real response in an audience, to make them feel something, to connect. I’ve spent eight years in the marketing industry doing just that — learning how people connect with products, ideas, and one another, and creating campaigns that speak to their needs. I even had some success in the animal-in-a-marketing-campaign arena, myself. Creators of Shopping Cat, meet the creator of Techno Bear. During my time as the social media coordinator for XYZ Incorporated, it gained the business 10,000 new followers over the course of a four-week promotion. Now, I’d like to offer my skills and experience to Market, INC.

In my current position as a marketing specialist, I work with product copy, print materials, and media management for many of XYZ Incorporated’s online accounts, including Real Business Name and Company That Exists. I’ve increased our client’s ROI by developing customer personas, secured dozens of back links to individual marketing campaigns, created a new style guide for product writing, and established a marketing calendar that kept operations running smoothly. I’d love to discuss how I could make your team love deadlines as much as I do.

I see marketing as an ever-evolving field with endless opportunities for innovation and customer engagement, and I’ve spent my career developing the leadership, communication, and creative skills necessary to manage talented professionals and produce effective campaigns. I look forward to discussing the ideas, strategies, and years of experience I could bring to your marketing manager role. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Mary Marketing
555-555-5555
[email protected]
[Optional: website or digital portfolio]