It’s good to think about ways to market and sell yourself at any point in your career. To do this, it is helpful to understand the three marketing concepts of Reach, Message, and Frequency, and how they translate to a job search campaign. Like the marketing department in any company, you will want to determine how to reach, communicate with, impress and influence potential customers (employers).
Reaching as many contacts as possible, delivering a strategic message to each contact, and repeating this message are often all efforts, controllable by you, leading to interviews and job offers.
The Principle of Reach
Reach, the first principle, Directs a company or sales/marketing department to reach through numerous means, as many buyers (or those who influence buying) as possible.
One of your important marketing goals is to reach as many potential buyers (employers) of your product as you can. The first challenge we present to you is to make 8 to 14 brand new contacts every day.
Upon looking back on their campaigns, many successful job seekers have pointed to a direct relationship between the number of contacts they made and the number of interviews that were extended to them.
The Principle of Message
Companies spend millions of dollars creating and communicating just the right message to ensure that customers will recall, respond favorably, and buy their products. This is called branding.
Likewise, your branding message, continuously delivered to contacts and hiring managers, whether online or in person, should be consistent and precise. Your message can be broken down into two parts:
- A statement of your functional identity (I am a corporate trainer…), followed by several marketable core competencies that you are “selling” (…with substantial experience in leadership development, performance management, and team building)
- A clear statement that allows a contact to understand what you are requesting: “I’m seeking names of individuals who work in the corporate training field” or “I’m hoping to meet with you briefly to get your ideas on the key financial services companies in the Atlanta area…” or, “I’m looking for names of recruiters who specialize in manufacturing engineering…”
Your message will be delivered in three different ways:
- Verbal communication
- Written communication
- In-Person communication
The Principle of Frequency
This concept says that people need to be told something multiple times if they are expected to remember it. The best sales representatives stay in continuous contact with customers and potential customers. In fact, it has been estimated that only 20% of sales representatives make six sales calls on the same prospective customer, yet 80% of the sales are made on or after the sixth sales call. In essence, sales representatives who are the most successful are persistent. They know that people remember things they are told multiple times.
Top of Mind Awareness
Your goal is to have people remember you and your message. You want to establish top of mind awareness. This marketing phrase is used to describe the goal of having consumers of a particular product think of the company brand name first when confronted with a buying decision. For instance, when you think of toy batteries, what brand name comes to mind? Energizer? Duracell? Rayovac? How about tires? Michelin? Goodyear?
The bottom line is that you want and need to be remembered both now and in the future, and you need to establish top of mind awareness that relates your name to your career focus. For instance, job seeker Peter Dexter wants his network to remember three things:
- Peter Dexter
- Product Manager
- Medical Devices.
If you effectively create top of mind awareness, then your contacts will remember you and refer opportunities to you during your job search and possibly for years after.
What is the message that you want your contacts to remember?
