The following article was suggested by one of our readers—if theres an idea you would like us to cover, please submit it here. A marketing resume is intended to attract a hiring agent by indicating an applicant’s value as a marketing professional. Choosing the competent skills to attribute is essential while creating a powerful resume. You want to make sure that your resume has the right skills that are actually in demand and will be much more appealing to employers and clients. Some of these could be; Data-driven marketing According to research, data-driven marketing is urgently needed, but there is a huge skills gap in the workplace. Companies need workers with marketing skills like data analysis and reporting, and data and database management. As companies are able to collect increasing amounts of data from customers, especially through artificial intelligence, they will need people to analyze and decide what to do with it. Creative thinking Salim Hakizimana, a sales and marketing personnel in Kigali notes that the ability to think creatively is one of the most important skills for a marketing professional. According to him, creative thinking enables you to develop unique marketing ideas that deliver positive results for clients. Communication skills He says that communication is a soft skill that covers writing, speaking, presenting, listening, negotiating, team building, providing or accepting feedback, motivation, honesty and empathy and they all take considerable amount of time and practice to master. Curiosity “If you are a marketing person, you ought to possess curiosity skills as they assist to attract customers to yearn to find out more about your business and make them engage with your content. Curiosity is a tool marketers can use to help them build relationships with customers and ensure they keep coming back for more services or products,” Hakizimana states. Adaptability Hakizimana adds that adaptability (the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions) is one of the most important qualities to look for when you are selecting a marketing firm. You need a company that can adapt to changing customer behaviors and market circumstances. With time, you will need a company that reacts well when the restrictions of a project change. Stress Management He points out that marketing is full of stress and those that can manage that stress result in great productivity and happiness. You could wonder how to manage that stress, it could be through many ways, for example; by conforming to deadlines, problem solving, organisational skills, processing criticism about campaigns, resilience, responding to threats to brands and time management. Negotiation The Balance Careers, a platform of career experts, states that negotiation is an undervalued skill in marketing. From negotiating with clients on budgets, timelines, and expectations, to working with designers and vendors, the ability to drive a hard bargain is a big part of success as a professional marketer. “For instance, this can be cutting costs, evaluating advertising proposals, evaluating the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, evaluating the performance of agencies and contractors, influencing others, managing budgets, negotiating rates and terms, results-oriented and setting prices to maximize profit and sales volume.” Email marketing Hakizimana highlights that with email marketing, marketers have the opportunity to build one-on-one connections with their subscribers and long-lasting relationships that will continue to transform. He says that email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using emails. It involves using emails to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales. Hakizimana states that the beauty about email marketing is that it’s of lower cost as compared to mainstream marketing channels.This is a platform that only sends messages to those who have signed up to receive them. Studies have shown that marketers who use this tactic often boast improved engagement rates as a result.