Marketing yourself perfectly determines how successful you will be at job hunting. In our era of increased connectivity and exposure to technology on the go, you have more options for self-promotion available to you than ever existed, though it does give you its pitfalls!

Smart jobseekers understand the value of personal brand building and raising their profile. It’s what attracts the attention of recruitment professionals like us.

See yourself as the product

In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need.  Having an effective marketing strategy in place, job seekers (seen as the product) can benefit greatly from. In your job hunt, you need to do your research and work out what your niche is and who your target audience is going to be. What opportunities are available to you and what challenges you might encounter? What you are good at and what you could improve on?

Get yourself to market shelf

On establishing where you are headed, determine how you will get there. This involves refining your product (that is you, the jobseeker) and also your strategy of promoting the product (how you will get the attention of employers and recruiters). Here, we can make use of a popular marketing tool, the Four P’s (Product, Place, Price and Promotion).

Product

You are the product in this, what is your unique selling point? Ensure you have got all the necessary skills that help you stand out of your peers. Refining your product is not just assessing and upgrading your set skills but also refining your interview style and making sure that your social media profiles and your resume/CV (extensions of you, the product) are closely aligned and tailored to the skills and competencies you’re offering.

A good view of this is: What are the problems that you think your target employers may need solving, and how can you help them? Make sure your messaging is clear online and offline.  Make sure that you always tailor your resume to the job that you are applying for and that you answer the job specifications advertised.

Price

What are you worth monetarily and is this estimation reflective of your experience and ability? Research probable employment offers in similar field as this will help you apply for the jobs that are most relevant and realistic to your expertise. It is also good practice to keep up to date with market trends.

Place

In marketing terms, ‘place’ refers to the prime location for the product to be sold i.e. the middle shelf at a supermarket or on the front page of an online store. You too can promote your skills and your experience on multiple platforms, including MaNexthr databases, job boards, and professional social networks and in person (e.g. networking events). Be visible across all relevant online and offline platforms. The easier you are to be found, the larger your audience will be. Ask yourself do you want to risk not being found for that dream opportunity?

Promotion

How you promote yourself is the most important element of your marketing mix. You might have all the credentials required to excel in your dream job but if you’re not getting your message out there, you will be chucked up in storage somewhere peeking out of a carton. Work on your messaging, what you want employers to perceive of you and then put this into action across the various channels available to you; ‘Place’ deals with where you promote yourself, online and offline platforms are aligned, you don’t want to say one thing on Facebook, Linkedin and your resume says another.

Coin a plan of action which involves networking on LinkedIn and shouting about your expertise, keeping your social profiles fresh and relevant, updating your CV regularly and attending networking events where pertinent.

In a bid to secure your dream job, you are going to have to do more than just scatter a few emails and submit a few recycled applications. It’s no longer trendy to stumble across job boards looking for openings; you need to be strategic and proactive in your job hunt.  Build your brand and market it, your success in job hunting largely depends on how well you market and differentiate yourself from your competition.