This article is written by Stuart McClure, the co-founder of a fashion company called LovetheSales.com – a website that aggregates sale items from 100’s of retailers into one website, helping consumers to find the best deals on products they want.

He has 14 years’ experience in digital marketing and business management and, before starting his company, worked in a number of multi-million-pound businesses in senior positions.

As an employer, you look for candidates that stand out from the rest. Candidates that prove they are keen to learn and apply themselves in a role.

At Lovethesales.com, we received 100’s of CV’s from candidates applying for entry-level roles in fashion. My job is to figure out which of those candidates are most likely to succeed within our company.

To help me make the right decision, there are a few key things I look for in a Fashion Marketing CV. Here are 3 areas of a CV that I recommend you work on to stand out from other candidates.

 

Build up your practical work experience

Ideally, employers want candidates with work experience that relates to the role advertised.

Completing a work placement shows the employer you have initiative and drive. It emphasises a commitment you’ve made to better yourself.

Taking short internships in a variety of roles provides a great opportunity to see which areas you’re most interested in. Whether this is fashion marketing or merchandising, it’s a great snapshot into a future career.

Take advantage of summer breaks and free periods throughout the year to apply for work experience. Use any warm contacts, mums, dads and family friends that could help you get a foot in the door.

Tip: Every time you deliver something of value during your work experience, take note. You can then add statistical evidence of this on your CV, e.g. I increased ‘Fashion inc.’s’ Instagram following by 24%, adding over 2,000 followers in 1 month.

 

Create a fashion blog

Creating a blog is a great way to show you are interested in fashion. It highlights that you have a working knowledge of new trends and keep up to date with industry news.

A blog also demonstrates your writing skills and ability to follow through on projects. Both are important skills when applying for a role in fashion.

Creating a blog is easy and very simple, you can use tools like WordPress to get started. I would also suggest improving your writing skills through online seminars, such as this great free course from Udemy.

Another great way to impress an employer is by attending industry-wide events. This could be going to a fashion show, a talk from an industry expert or even a designers new collection launch.

Tip: Use Eventbrite to keep up to date with the latest fashion events in your local area.

 

Demonstrate you understand the core concepts of Fashion Marketing

Grasping the basic principles of Fashion Marketing will help you understand the role more. If you can demonstrate that in your CV, it will impress prospective employers.

Areas to consider are:

• Channels – The main ways of acquiring customers. This includes; Email Marketing, SEO, Paid Search and Social Media Marketing.
• Analytics – Data relating to a website and how customers are interacting with it. Read up on the most common tool businesses use – Google Analytics (GA).
• Key Performance Indicators – KPIs are core stats that track a businesses’ performance. Look up important KPIs such as, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), this is how much money it takes to acquire a customer.
• Bounce Rate (BR), the number of visitors that navigate away from a website, straight after viewing just one page.
• Lifetime Value (LTV) measures how valuable a customer is by predicting their spend on your site over a lifetime.