Your Job Search is a Marketing Campaign

Posted in Marketing Strategy | 2 Comments 11/18/08

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I’d say that only 10% of job seekers understand that looking for a job is not all that different from strategizing, creating and executing a marketing campaign. What are some simple aspects that drive the success of a marketing campaign?

  • Choose a target audience carefully.
  • Customize your offering and content for that target audience.
  • Make sure the target audience can quickly and easily view your offering.
  • Allow the target audience to interact with you in a variety of ways.

Translated into a job search, those bullets become:

  • Pick a few audiences of companies and decision makers that are realistic targets.
  • Don’t send the same thing to everyone; customize the content for the audience, company, and decision maker.
  • Make sure the recipient of your materials can view resumes, cover letters and other credentials in whatever way they prefer.
  • For godssakes, provide a number of options for getting in touch – email, phone, IM, blog, etc.

90% of the job inquiries I receive break at least one of these rules.  Guess where those inquiries go?  From the inbox to the trash – immediately.

About the Author: Mike Sweeney is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Don’t hesitate to drop Mike a comment on this post. Follow Mike on Twitter for more marketing commentary.

  • http://www.marketing-consigliere.com Joe “Giuseppe” Zuccaro

    Mark, I have to agree with you. Today I had blogged about what to do to hold on to a job or look for a job and in a lot of respects you need to be a marketer. When I recommended tools, I forgot to mention something that you mentioned – don’t “shotgun” a campaign.

    Each communication to a hiring manager is its own campaign that needs to be personalized – you’re right.

    Thanks for pointing that out.

  • http://www.sweeneymarketingsolutions.com Mike Sweeney

    Especially in today’s environment with hundreds of thousands of people looking for employment, I can’t imagine the “machine gun” approach (seems more appropriate than “shotgun”) working very well. The sniper approach, while perhaps more time-consuming, will likely end up the more efficient approach.