Your Personal Marketing Plan

By: Lydia Ritchie

Limàge Image is for Everyone

www.limage.co.za

083 642 7671

After creating an authentic personal brand, as discussed in part one of Corporate Ladder Vs. Corporate Elevator, your next step is how to market your personal brand. Your personal brand now requires a personal marketing plan.

A personal marketing strategy will clearly aid you in communicating the message of your personal brand and promote this to relevant and potential employers. As with any successful marketing campaign, a clear strategy and thought out plan needs to be defined and mapped out. A personal marketing plan is all about identifying the tools or resources that you have to make use of and how you wish to capitalise on them.

When preparing your personal marketing plan here are some workable tools that you have at your disposal and should include when preparing a successful personal marketing campaign.

Your Appearance

Imagine walking into a surgeon's consulting rooms, ahead of major surgery and notice that your highly acclaimed and very expensive specialist has filthy finger nails and is donning an overall as opposed to a white coat and conservative professional attire. Would you feel comfortable to have this doctor operate on you?

Part of your personal marketing plan is paying attention to even the smallest of details, such as your appearance, attire and grooming. Your appearance is your personal packaging and plays a key role in creating a professional perception when attempting to find a job. Always stick to dress code guidelines, be professional and remember that there is nothing casual about business.  When considering your appearance as a factor in your personal marketing plan consider this; does your appearance reflect your personal brand? When in doubt keep this guideline in mind; Dress for the position that you want to be in.

More appearance guidelines will be given in Part 3.

One on One Meetings

When a marketing manager is planning a campaign around a product, they will consider the best means or media in order to promote their product through.  When promoting your personal brand and putting together a personal marketing plan to do so remember that a one on one encounter is the most effective way to market yourself to a potential employer.

A marketing plan sets out to stimulate a target audience and engage all of their senses. Networking and meeting one on one with a company that you wish to join achieves much the same. When your appearance and conduct is professional and communicates your personal brand it sends a positive message about your capabilities and gives you a marketable advantage over your peers.

Your CV

A marketing plan should always include a means of further information that the 'consumer' can take home and read over at their leisure. Your CV is your brochure and plays a large part when planning a personal marketing campaign.  Your CV is a marketing tool which should set out to promote your unique 'market offering' in terms of your education, skills and achievements. When you want to be considered for a position at a company, your CV is potentially the first thing that gets you in the door to an interview and started on the career path you wish to follow.

Email Etiquette

When emailing potential employers essentially you are tapping into a form of direct marketing which too plays a vital role in any marketers plan. The way you present yourself in email communications, plays a significant role in the perceptions that your target audiences develop about you. Remember that when emailing anyone, you are portraying a direct reflection of your capabilities and should practice professionalism at all times.

Telephone Articulation

When planning your personal marketing campaign don't forget about the importance of the telephone. As with radio ads that engage us and stimulate out interest, talking to potential employers over the telephone is as important and can be as expensive. Consider any telephone call that you make to be a radio ad. You need to be polite and speak clearly. Your voice and the content of the conversation is all that the person on the other side of the line has to create a perception of your personal brand and be interested in this.

The Internet

On-line marketing is an evolving form of marketing to be included in a personal marketing plan. Job Seekers are able to further build and market their personal brand by means of the internet and automatically gain a competitive advantage over those failing to do so.

When preparing a personal marketing plan to market your brand there are several diverse tools available to make use of. When striking a balance between each of these tools and effectively capitalising on each of these will ensure a sound proof marketing plan that will be difficult for any employer to ignore. Make use of such tools when planning an effective campaign to market your personal brand and remember that each form of the above communication is a form of self-marketing.