8 Methods for Identifying and Articulating Transferable Skills in Marketing Careers

Navigating the marketing landscape requires a keen ability to showcase versatile skills. We’ve gathered insights from content & marketing experts to CEOs, distilling their wisdom into eight key ways to identify and articulate transferable skills. From highlighting unconventional experience to using the STAR method to structure skills, discover how to shine in your next marketing role.

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Highlight Unconventional Experience

To find and describe transferable abilities for a marketing career, I look at odd positions I’ve held. For example, as a barista, I honed my listening and quick-thinking skills by modifying orders, which are directly applicable to understanding client wants and creating unique marketing messaging. This event demonstrated the value of empathy and adaptation in marketing.

Furthermore, volunteering for a local charity improved my storytelling skills by teaching me how to elicit emotions and attract varied audiences—essential for effective marketing campaigns. Sharing such unusual stories not only highlights my diversified skill set but also demonstrates how diverse experiences can enhance marketing efforts.

This method invites others to reconsider their experiences, emphasizing the unexpected abilities that make them important in marketing. It is about creating a picture of your potential through the lens of previous roles, no matter how irrelevant they appear.

Kal Dimitrov, Content & Marketing Expert, Enhancv

Showcase Creative Problem-Solving

Creativity will always be a transferable skill for marketing because it’s what helps to fuel your passion and ideas that can make you stand out as a potential candidate. Showcase examples of how you’ve approached challenges with innovative solutions, developed unique campaigns, or contributed creatively to projects. Even if you don’t have a multitude of skills directly related to marketing, showing ways in which you were creative in other areas can help you make those important connections.

Creative thinking enables marketers to approach challenges with unique and imaginative solutions. This is particularly valuable when faced with complex issues or when developing strategies to overcome obstacles. So, share examples of when you were creative in past employment or your education, and explain how that creativity can be transferable to the marketing position you are applying for.

Ray Wang, Principal, RW Digital

Quantify Achievements with Metrics

To identify and then tangibly present your marketing skills, start with a meticulous analysis of your achievements. List your accomplishments, successes, and victories, and consider what skills were vital to achieving them. 

Then, quantify these accomplishments with metrics, such as percentages or statistics, providing tangible and measurable proof of your effectiveness. Numbers bring credibility to your claims. For example, instead of saying that you enhanced marketing campaign performance, specify that you boosted click-through rates from 10% to 20% or improved social media engagement by 20%. 

When you present data and metrics, you also convey an important message—you prove that you possess analytical skills and the ability to use data.

Additionally, when describing your skills and success stories, employ the STAR approach (Situation, Task, Action, Result), structure your narrative, and emphasize the impact of your contributions.

Nina Paczka, Community Manager, MyPerfectResume

Emphasize Core Competencies

One key way to identify and articulate transferable skills for a marketing position is to focus on the core competencies and experiences that demonstrate adaptability, creativity, and strategic thinking. For instance, highlighting experiences in project management showcases organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, while emphasizing creative problem-solving abilities demonstrates a capacity to think outside the box and generate innovative solutions. Also, showcasing examples of successful campaigns or projects underscores one’s ability to develop and execute effective marketing strategies, regardless of the industry or specific products/services involved.

By emphasizing these transferable skills and experiences, candidates can effectively communicate their suitability for a marketing role and demonstrate their potential to contribute value to the organization.

Mike Womack, Digital Operations and Merchandising Manager, Premier Safety

Compare Job Similarities

Find the like-for-like aspects of both positions. Marketing is an incredibly broad field, and most jobs will have some relevance to it if you dig down deep enough. I once knew a teacher who made the jump to marketing, and she spent some time finding where those two fields had similarities before she started looking at her own skills. 

Both fields required you to break down complex ideas into simple and easily digestible chunks. They required you to be good at managing stakeholders who feel passionately about the subject but might not know what is best. They required you to manage a plan for a whole year in advance to make sure everything flowed together and made sense. 

Once you’ve done that, the rest becomes fairly straightforward because you can directly take the competencies gained from doing the first job into the second.

Dragos Badea, CEO, Yarooms

Demonstrate Digital Familiarity

Even if you haven’t held a specific digital marketing role, it helps to showcase your familiarity with digital platforms, social media, SEO, or email marketing in any way possible. Discuss any self-directed learning or personal projects related to digital marketing, even if it’s indirect. 

Digital marketing allows brands to reach a broader audience and engage with consumers on various online platforms. Highlighting your familiarity with digital marketing indicates your ability to leverage these channels to enhance brand visibility and engage with target audiences effectively. And even if you have limited experience, familiarity in general may indicate a proactive approach to self-learning and staying updated on industry trends. 

This demonstrates to employers that you take the initiative to acquire new skills and adapt to emerging technologies, and are always willing to take on new and exciting projects, even if you haven’t tackled them before.

Rick Nucci, CEO & Co-Founder, Guru

Narrate Your Skills Story

One key way to identify and articulate transferable skills for a marketing position is through the storytelling technique. This involves framing past experiences and achievements in a narrative that highlights the application of these skills in a marketing context. 

For instance, if you have a background in teaching, you can showcase skills in communication, presentation, and audience engagement by describing a scenario where you successfully captured and maintained students’ attention, making complex information accessible and engaging. This approach allows you to demonstrate how your abilities can be transferred to marketing tasks, such as creating compelling content or presentations that resonate with diverse audiences. 

Storytelling not only makes your skills more relatable and memorable to hiring managers but also showcases your ability to think creatively and strategically—key qualities in marketing.

Merry Fountain, Indiana Accident Lawyer, Fountain Law Firm

Use STAR to Structure Skills

To identify and articulate my transferable skills for a marketing position, I use the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. This technique helps me structure my responses to behavioral questions by describing the context, goal, actions, and outcome of a situation where I applied my skills. 

For example, to showcase my creativity skill, I can tell a story of how I came up with a catchy campaign theme and slogan for a nonprofit organization, and how it resulted in exceeding the fundraising goal and increasing brand awareness. The STAR method helps me demonstrate, provide, and show my skills in a clear and convincing way.

Trent Carter, Nurse Practitioner, Founder, Curednation

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