Marketing You 101

Does any product really succeed in the marketplace without a marketing plan? Is there any successful widget or gadget or service that gets by under the "if we build it, they will come" theory? No! Just look around you and observe what sells. How do you hear about it? What is the pitch? The truth is, whether it is subtle or loud, every successful product in the modern American marketplace has a marketing plan built around it.

What is the one product you know better than anyone else? What product can you most persuasively describe the benefits leading to a "buy" decision? That product, of course, is YOU and the valuable service that you bring to an organization lucky enough to hire you. Think of your career search efforts not simply as "looking for a job" but rather as an integrated marketing campaign using multiple synergistic channels to get the word out about you and how you will bring value to an organization. This article will describe some practical steps you can take as a job seeker to plan and launch a marketing campaign with YOU as the product.

Any successful marketing campaign will have four phases which you should incorporate into your larger job search campaign: Research, strategic planning, implementation, and assessment. I will describe the crucial elements to each phase.

Research. The first part of any marketing campaign is to understand the various marketing channels that are available. What is a "marketing channel"? It is simply the path you will use to communicate your message to those who should hear it. Some important channels for the job seeker are:
-- Your extended network. Arguably the most important channel because it is estimated that 60% of all positions are landed through one’s network. Your task here is to discover and marshal the people in your network so that they can help you land a position that you want. My book, "Get the Job You Want: Practical Strategies for Your Job Search Campaign" (Signalman, 2008) discusses in much greater detail a successful approach to do this.
-- Social networking. This has really come to the forefront in the last two years as being an effective channel to get your message out. Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are the most well known but there are others out there as well.
-- Traditional internet job search sites. It is important to have a presence on Monster and CareerBuilder and others that may tailor to your specific targeted industry(ies).
-- Recruiters. There are a lot of them who would love to place you with a happy client and collect a nice fat fee. Find out which recruiting firms may specialize in your area of expertise and then approach them first.
-- Organizations, associations, and networking groups. Are you a Rotarian or a member of another community organization? Or perhaps you get your college alumni association newsletter and indeed can claim membership? These groups will typically have some career help available. My college alumni association actually holds a career fair twice a year. Leverage these organizations to help you get the word out about what you can offer a prospective employer.

Strategic Planning. Now that you have identified targeted marketing channels, the next step is to develop a strategic plan that will tailor your message in an appropriate way for each marketing channel. And by the way, it is not effective to only employ one channel or one way to communicate your message. It is critical that you use every tool at your disposal while at the same time ensuring you have a consistent message. In strategic planning, you should actually write down your plan so that you can refer back to it often and also note which aspect was successful and which was not (which you will be doing in the assessment phase).

Implementation. Often, it is not what you do but how you do it that is a key determinant in success. In this phase you need to be disciplined about carrying out the plan that you developed with enthusiasm. As you get down into the details of implementation, you may find that you need to make some adjustments to your message along the way. That is perfectly fine. That means you are observant and open to feedback. Just ensure that you have a consistent message across the different channels. For example, I have seen a case where a candidate’s resume came across my desk as a Business Analyst looking for the same type of position and have also seen this same person looking for a Quality Assurance position. This may not be inconsistent if this person has the relevant experience in each field, but one needs to be careful if the various messages are not consistent because it may cause “confusion in the marketplace”.

Assessment. In this phase you want to take some time to assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts within each channel. One way to do this is to measure the number of inquiries that you are getting and their source. If you are getting some great inquiries through one of your channels, you may want to consider putting more of your time into working that channel since it apparently is reaching the right folks. Part of this phase is to see what works and what doesn’t and to go back to your plan and make adjustments accordingly.

Remember, you are your own best advocate. You, more than anyone else, knows how to articulate your own value proposition. Approach your job search like you are developing a marketing campaign using the phased approach I have outlined and you will clearly stand out from your competition.