Tips to Improve a Campaign Manager CV

Whether you already work in a Campaign Manager role or you’re looking to progress in your career, we‘ve broken down the key skills you need to show to be considered for an interview. Here’s exactly what you need to know to make your Campaign Manager CV tick all the right boxes.

What does a Campaign Manager do?

A Campaign Manager’s job is to find a voice for the charity in a crowded market. It’s a strategic role, where you’ll use information gathered from lots of internal and external agencies to work out the best way of getting the message in front of the target audience.

The job title ‘Campaign Manager’ could be confused with ‘Marketing Manager’ or ’Fundraising Manager,’ as the roles sometimes have overlapping functions. In its truest form, a Campaign Manager’s job is to create and deliver impactful campaigns to raise awareness of a charity’s cause.

What are the key skills you need to show on your Campaign Manager CV?

Communication skills

Firstly, the ability to communicate well is key in a Campaign Manager role. You also need interpersonal skills in order to inspire the target audience to take action. But how can you show these skills on your CV? Here are some examples that can be tailored to your own experiences:

• Wrote clear briefs for creative agencies to share our campaign vision.
• Developed campaign plans and produced progress reports to keep internal teams up to date.
• Analysed campaign success against key performance indicators including page views, clicks and response to call. Produced comprehensive reports for management.
• Presented campaign objectives to groups of 30+ people which resulted in increased awareness.
• Negotiated with high-net-worth individuals as well as small businesses to understand their charitable objectives and secure their donations.

Cross-organisational relationships

As a Campaign Manager, you’ll gather information from different parts of the organisation. These include market researchers, business strategists, the customer-facing team and the delivery team. You’ll then relay the key messages from these teams to external organisations such as creative and media agencies. They’ll produce content that’s engaging, conforms to overall brand values and has a clear call to action.

Your ability to quickly develop a relationship with both internal and external teams will be critical to successfully delivering to budget and on time. Here are some examples for your CV that demonstrate this skill:

• Collaborated with an external media agency to create an impactful campaign which resulted in a 30% increase in memberships.
• Cultivated relationships with key PR departments by attending and organising networking events to gain coverage for campaigns.
• Worked effectively with internal and external teams to gather and communicate a campaign brief. This resulted in the development of an effective campaign which increased donations by 30%.

Developing impactful campaigns

Finally, organisations will want to know whether the money they spent on developing each campaign was worth it, so being a good number-cruncher is key in a Campaign Manager role.

You’ll need to analyse each campaign’s performance against performance indicators. These can include social media hits, page views and response to marketing emails. Here are some examples of how you can show this in your CV.

• Led a social media campaign to secure participants for a charity walk raising awareness of diabetes. The Facebook element of the campaign resulted in 400 participants signing up for the walk.
• Analysed the impact of social media campaigns versus direct mail campaigns to secure donations for a heart failure charity. Found a 42% increase in donations following the direct marketing campaign.

What else to include in your Campaign Manager CV

Other skills that many of the job advertisements for a campaign manager ask for include experience in digital marketing and the ability to develop multi-channel strategies.

It’s worth bearing in mind that some organisations may use automated software to filter CV applications. This is why it’s important to tailor your CV to reflect the specific skills listed in the person specification of the role you’re applying for.

Want to get a feel for what’s out there? Take a peek at the campaigning jobs available today.

This post was originally published in 2018 and has been updated to ensure relevance and to reflect the current job seeker experience.