Job Marketing: Are you pulling them to you?

In your Job Marketing, the way job candidates and employers connect has changed. Employers now primarily source candidates by using online methods. I’ve found that many job seekers are missing the boat, by overusing the push method of marketing during their search. Here are some tips on integrating the pull approach to better access the hidden job market.

Job Marketing: Push and pull defined

In marketing, there are two primary ways of reaching a target market or audience. In push marketing, you push your content or product (as a job candidate, you are the product) towards the audience—which may or may not be aware of it. Pull marketing entails the active development of a highly visible brand. This encourages employers to actively seek you out, because they believe you can meet their needs.

Job Marketing: How pull worked for my client

My client, Trish recently found out firsthand about the power of pull marketing. Trish is an educational administrator, who has been quite visible throughout her state. Last week, she was contacted by a large school district’s HR director through LinkedIn. Trish had never met, marketed to or spoken to this HR director. Here’s the LinkedIn message:

Jane had read Trish’s LinkedIn profile, which also linked to her career-related activities. Through her research, she discovered that Trish was her “purple squirrel”  of job candidates. Trish responded via LinkedIn. A phone conversation with Jane, and a face-to-face interview with the Search Committee followed. She was hired. She had never reached out to them; she had never pushed out to them.

Job Marketing: Integrate your approach

The best job marketing is versatile. Your best success will come from integrating the pull and push methods. Here are a few of each:

Push

• Resume mailing, blasting or emailing. This can work but with a caveat: Make sure your resume is focused and contains a compelling ROI value proposition, authentic brand and relevant metrics-driven successes.

• Job boards. The major job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder while still job-search vehicles, statistically only produce returns of about 7%. Don’t spend more than 20% of your time on boards. When using job boards, try using aggregate or niche boards; or go directly through the company website.

• Vizibility. This is a free tool that lets you establish your own customized Search Me button; it allows for more efficient Google searches about you. You can use the Search Me button in email signatures.

• Intelligent and personal networking. Personal networking still ranks as one of the best ways to find a job. Tell everyone you know what you want and why you deserve it. Similar to personal networking but executed in an accelerated and targeted manner, intelligent networking is applying a best-fit-targeted search campaign of 25 or so companies you would like to work for. Then, leverage the business intelligence of the Internet: Job listings (search engines), company news (web spiders or Google news feeds) and degrees of relationship separation (LinkedIn connection data).

Pull

• Profile YOU. Creating and maintaining a branded profile on social networking sites is becoming more essential for job seekers. LinkedIn is perhaps the number one place internal recruiters look for job candidates. Zoominfo is another favorite database for recruiters. A Google profile is a great place to control your Online Identity Management challenges. You can present your job marketing “pitches” on  Facebook. Twitter is an emerging force in job search.

• Blog or personal website. This is a great way to centralize personal content and improve online identity; it’s also a wonderful platform to describe and define your personal brand. You can keep it simple; do pay attention to keywords and search engine optimization. If you write well and are a Subject Matter Expert, a blog might serve you well.

• Have online conversations. Demonstrate your credibility by posting relevant comments on LinkedIn or other social media site discussions. Comment on blogs. Set up Google alerts on topics of interest to you. You’ll then be notified of anything you feel you’d like to comment on.

• Talk in public. If there is community-based education that offers a class in your area of expertise, consider teaching a class. If that doesn’t fit your schedule or comfort level, perhaps you could give a speech at a local service or Chamber group. Talks frequently cover only about 20-30 minutes. Focus on speaking about a subject that demonstrates your professional expertise. Then let the audience know that you are “available” for the right job opportunity.

By combining the methods of reaching out (push) and becoming visible to help employers reach you (pull), you will have a multi-faceted job campaign.

Do you have ideas to share about pull methods you’ve used successfully in your job search? I’d love to hear from you!

Photo: RumpleTeaser