As one of the most versatile and popular sectors within the UK, marketing is growing at an exponential rate. With the creative sector contributing £84.1bn to the British economy – and with marketing experiencing a year-on-year growth of 11%- it’s clear that demand for skilled marketers is rife among businesses. After all, a successful marketing team can make all the difference between selling your product, and your brand, and relative anonymity.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that competition for the best marketing talent is fierce- and in an industry that is currently experiencing somewhat of a skills shortage, the candidate is king. Therefore, you need to make sure that your jobs stand out if you want to attract and engage them- and attraction starts with writing a great marketing job description.

Here’s how to craft a marketing job description that really stands out.

Focus on marketing skills

It sounds obvious, but when people are reading a marketing job description they want to know what exactly they’ll be doing as part of their role. If you fail to mention specific skills, or don’t include detail about the responsibilities they’ll be tackling as part of their day-to-day job, then prospective applicants will think that you don’t have a genuine interest in marketing within your business.

It’s also important when it comes to engagement. A recent study by Microsoft revealed that the average human attention span has dropped to eight seconds, so if you’re vague or unclear about the details that you include it’s very likely that your reader will become disinterested and move onto the next job. If you want to engage people and spark their imagination, include as much information as you can. If you’re offering them the opportunity to mould the role, or take charge of your company’s marketing strategy, tell them: it’ll go a long way towards selling them the job.

Who will they be working with?

Everybody likes to know who they’ll be working with in a new role, whether it’s the departments that they’ll be liaising with or certain colleagues that they’ll be reporting to. Given that 90% of jobseekers say that it’s important to work for a company that embraces transparency, you should give your prospective applicants the information they need to make an informed decision. Include internal audiences, such as sales teams, product people and senior leaders, and external audiences, from marketing suppliers to associations and other organisations.

Sell the company culture

67% of employers believe that retention rates would be higher if candidates had a clearer idea about what to expect from working at the company before taking the job. Similarly, workers are placing a greater value on things like wellbeing, working conditions, flexible working and a great working environment. Company culture matters when it comes to engaging employees, so you need to get across what it’s like to work with you by describing the office atmosphere and working ethos. Do you have a Christmas party or team nights out? Let them know, along with the company mission, visions and values: that way, prospective applicants can get a better idea of how good a fit they’ll be for your firm, and can tailor their decision about whether or not to apply accordingly.

What are they going to learn?

Career development is becoming a hot topic amongst many employees, and marketers in particular are always thirsty for new skills and knowledge that will enable them to make the most of the changing market. Millennials are ambitious: 46% of them say that improving skills and qualifications are essential to progressing in their job, and given that they’re likely to make up 35% of the global workforce by 2020, it’s well worth having a good employee development programme in place if you want to retain talented staff.

Whether it’s tackling the latest tech, going to conferences, learning about new campaigns or training people in the use of an exciting channel that they think will be the next big thing, sell them your training and development schemes, and stress how important upskilling is to the company.

Include salary and benefits

How are you going to convince potential candidates that your company is the one place they’ll feel happy and fulfilled? Show them the perks of the job. Having a competitive salary is, of course, vital when it comes to this, but these days many candidates are just as interested in other benefits like flexible working, discounted gym memberships and health insurance.

Indeed, striking the right balance can give you a real selling point in the competition for marketing talent. 59% of employees have said that a personalised benefits package would encourage them to stay at their company: including these in your job description could therefore have a real impact on the number of engaged candidates who apply for your role.

Attract the best with BMS Performance

Whether you’re looking for a job in marketing or looking for the perfect candidate to fill your job vacancy, we can help. Talk to our team of experts here – or, if you’re looking for more insights into the world of recruitment, why not take a look at our Performance Blog?