How to Market Yourself — Promoting Yourself for Maximum Affect

How to Market Yourself Professionally!

Want to become an expert on How to Market Yourself?

You Can and Should! It’s not that difficult to market yourself and it is a skill you should study and master. Whether you are looking for a new job, want to develop your professional and personal branding through the use of social media, or need to promote your business, the essentials are the same, albeit through different venues and means.

With all that said, marketing yourself is a practice that you can learn and become good at, and is necessary for continued professional growth.

Personal Marketing

When deciding how to market yourself as an individual looking for a new position, you need to establish both an online and offline marketing campaign. Effectively promoting yourself requires both. Start with the basics. First prepare a strong professional resume and cover letter. Second, let everyone within your personal and professional circle know you are actively looking for new opportunities. Most opportunities come through networking and this is where it starts. If you are still employed and don’t want your current employer to find out you are looking, make sure you are discreet about your search and ensure those you tell understand the sensitivity of your search.

Third, network online through Linked In and the appropriate professional or industry organizations. Finally, send targeted resumes and cover letters to apply for open jobs and also to companies that are not actively searching for people. When I was climbing my way up in my career, on more than one occasion, positions were created for me because of my background and experience. Just because there is not an open job doesn’t mean they don’t need your expertise.

Social Media

Any discussion about how to market yourself must include Social Media. For those that are professionals seeking to expand your personal brand, marketing yourself may not seem straight forward – but it is. Once again you need to employ both an online and offline plan. Develop a robust social media strategy using and participating in Linked In, Facebook and Twitter and if you are inclined, develop and maintain your own website. Using these four primary online methods are excellent examples of marketing strategies that are easy to employ and maintain. In addition to the above, prepare business cards to hand them out during networking events – make sure you have your URLs on your cards. Local Meet Ups are great places to meet other professionals and help each other further your respective professional goals.

Business Marketing

If you are in the position of learning or expanding your knowledge on how to promote your business, you have come to the right place. There are subtle differences between promoting yourself as an individual and promoting your business. The steps are very similar, but the venues and strategies vary. Research and thought are mainstays of business marketing. Because you are probably on a tight advertising budget, you need to understand your audience so you know how and where to advertise your business.

In summary

There are no real marketing secrets – only common sense and straight forward ideas to implement. Whether you are figuring out how to employ your advertising ideas for your new business, figuring out how to market an idea you have or just flat out learning how to market yourself for a new position; work, consistency and patience are key to your success.

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Marketing Yourself to the Right Audience

Marketing yourself takes a bit of strategy, some courage and consistent effort.

Whether you are in the process of finding a new job, starting or expanding your business or want to get personal or professional exposure through social marketing, there are online and offline tactics you need to employ to get the most from your efforts. This article is about an off line marketing strategy I have used in the past with great success.

In my article entitled “How to Market Yourself”, I outlined 3 main reasons you may want to market yourself. The first is personal marketing when you are looking for a job, the second is business marketing and the third is social marketing using Facebook as the main platform for personal and business branding. The marketing ideas used for each of these are similar, but vary depending on the circumstance.

In this article I want to introduce you to a gem in marketing yourself. It is what I call finding the Hidden Job Market or in business speak, Hidden Business Opportunities. This is primarily for people that are actively searching for a new position, either within an existing company or outside. However, for those of you strong and committed entrepreneurs you can use this same idea for setting up a side business or even a primary business if you have the drive and resources.

The hidden job market is found by understanding what is needed within an organization and providing the solution to the right people that can make decisions. On a personal level when I was growing my Career, at least half of my offers over time were from companies that created new positions for me based on MY expertise, rather than a canned transactional job they had open. The Executives I contacted understood what they needed for their business and they saw in me a way to satisfy that business need.

Most people may believe or understand what a company needs but in order to accurately and effectively tap into the hidden job market, you must connect your expertise with company leadership. This means getting your expertise in front of the right people that make decisions. In many of my articles on personal marketing I stress bypassing Human Resources and sometimes even the operating heads of divisions and going directly to the CEO, President, COO, or SVP, depending on the company structure. I don’t detract here.

A powerful key to success is marketing yourself to the right person who can make the decision to bring you on. So use a good resume or business marketing plan, a good cover letter and send that information directly to the Executive you are targeting. Follow that resume or marketing plan and cover letter up with telephone calls until you are able to actually talk to the person. If you are not in personal and direct contact with that person, you will most likely not be in the position to command an audience to show that person your capabilities.

Now obviously you don’t want to become a pest in your efforts to talk with them, but show an appropriate commitment to talking directly to them. When you do talk to them, speak slow and appropriate. You will do great.

Good luck to you on marketing yourself for your next great opportunity.

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