Help for Senior Marketers Looking for a Job

The economy was a little shaky at the turn of the year, with many traditional retailers hardly setting the world alight. Sadly the global pandemic accelerated a few casualties and highlighted issues in the business models of others.  As a result, there seems to be an unprecedented number of people looking for work, even those at a senior level that business previously turned to, in order to help navigate their way through various crisis.

Sadly, even businesses that haven’t fallen have removed amazingly talented people from senior marketing roles, taking a short-term view over medium and long-term. I set-up a WhatsApp group to help Senior Marketing professionals, either in this position or open to helping others. As a result, I am posting this article in the hope it can offer, help, hope and above all do some good for anybody searching for a role.

I won’t break it down to a top tips but I will break it in to sections. Each person that has contributed will be referenced and I will link to their profiles. After all if you like their wisdom or input, why not connect?

The sections I will break this in to are:

The hunt

The application

How to get noticed

The interview

Tackling bad news

Celebrating success

The hunt

Remember job hunting is not one way. If you have reached a senior marketing position, there is a good chance you have achieved over your career and delivered results. Very few people get so lucky that they reach the top.  Sometimes it can feel helpless. Sometimes the panic sets in and you want to be seen by as many people as possible and the temptation is there to up frequency and forget about quality. Don’t.

As Chris McPartlin says “be choosy”.  Chris highlights potential issues with your CV being on every platform, particularly the content aggregators. “Don’t take the shotgun approach when releasing your CV over the net. Retain some control”

“Remember, you’re C-level or a director. The more your CV pops up and the longer its available on the web, you will be perceived as an actively searching person. You will get noticed by the wrong people. Questions may also be raised, as your CV would have been out there for a long time”

Probably the most important thing to consider at the start of the hunt is what do you definitely want from your next role. What don’t you want. What are your compromise areas? Sometimes money is not the most important thing. You might need a better work/life balance, you may need a challenge or you may want to work in a sector that you are passionate about. Just be clear, this is really important for yourself, but also for any would-be recruiter.

As Rachael Pettit adds “Speak with your contacts and let them know you’re looking, it’s surprising how many senior roles are not posted on traditional job sites, rather word of mouth recommendations. I’ve also found that talking to contacts, be it founders, ex-colleagues, mentors has really helped to sharpen what is the right opportunity for me”

Andy Turba believes organisation is paramount “Create a daily schedule. Juggling randomly between job search, talking to connections on LinkedIn or answering emails will eventually go against you and your productivity will go down. Try to write down your schedule the night before. This will leave you with time to concentrate on specific tasks. Making you more efficient and stop your mind wandering from place to place or task to task”

So the message is clear, take control of the process and make it a job in its own right.

The application

Where applicable, the application can be one of the most significant stages. It could be what separates you from shortlist to scrap paper bin.  When applying for a role and written content is requested, make sure you understand the role, you understand the spec and you understand how your experience fits. All sounds obvious, but recruiters have to sift through tons of applicants. Look at LinkedIn jobs at the moment. Jobs get posted and within a couple of hours, hundreds of applications.

Nicola Vidal expands on this with the following 5 step approach

1 Read the spec thoroughly and highlight the skills you match

2 Take your time. Prepare a draft letter. But genuinely tailor it. Better to apply with 5 well crafted applications than 10 rushed ones

3 Use a friendly tone. Be professional but sell yourself. Buzz words are needed if they are relevant

4 Be concise and relevant.The application should cover off what is required. No literary prizes will be won

5 Speak their language. Tailor the application specifically to the job spec

How to Get Noticed

As most senior professionals will tell you, the power of your network is really important. This is not only true when you are looking for a role but also when you have landed one.  Network with people but in the right way. Simply being a LinkedIn connection isn’t networking.  Interact and offer some value to your network, otherwise, what is their motivation for helping somebody that is simply a LinkedIn connection, especially if they could be competitive and in a similar role.

Roger Binks was made redundant at the start of the pandemic and highlights some of the things he has done to get noticed on his LinkedIn profile

“authoring posts to demonstrate my back ground but [importantly] with an edge and writing short papers/articles [for the same reason].  I have taken care to research the right subject, hash tags and people to add to the posts – all designed to maximise reach and audience quality. ”

When I speak to anybody that has successfully found a role or is actively looking, the same advice comes up. Networking is key. Make sure are seen and are either known or become associated with the right things. Be an active member of people’s networks without becoming overly intrusive.

The Interview

Interviews can be tricky at the best of times. With the current restrictions on ‘normal’ working practices, physically meeting for interviews is nigh on impossible. Video calls can often be difficult to judge. Sometimes peoples reactions are difficult to read. Not getting the signals when somebody is about to talk can cause awkward silences or even moments of overtalking.  Add to the fact that technology is not always our friend, so speed and connectivity can cause concerns.  But everybody is aware of this. We can all make allowances. My best advice for interviews from a personal perspective is based on two factors. Be yourself. If the people interviewing you don’t like your personality or there is no rapport, chances are you won’t fit in anyway. Second, always listen.  This is important in normal circumstances but even more so on video calls. Read signs when they are there and empathise with what is being said (if you feel empathy). Remember, you are being interviewed and were probably selected due to your experience or background. There is an interest in you and you have something that the business could use. Otherwise you wouldn’t be there.

The awkward questions

Regular ones include what do you think about our brand? How could we improve our site? What would you change about our marketing?  You do need to know answers to these and you need an understanding of the company. Equally you can’t know everything about them and thats fine. But when tackling these questions, be honest, you need to answer with what you would do. Again, you won’t succeed in the role once you land it if you have to adapt your ideology massively.

Chris McPartlin cements this view “… be yourself. Senior level professionals should demonstrate confidence and self-esteem. You know what you’re talking about and most likely have over a decade of experience under your belt. Act accordingly. It doesn’t mean being disrespectful or acting arrogantly. Show confidence. Show conviction.”

In my opinion you also need to show something above the the technical aspects. Show you can be a leader.

Tackling Bad News

Possibly the most difficult part of a recruitment process. When somebody gives you the bad news that you haven’t been successful, particularly if you have massively invested in a process or its a dream job.  This hurts, you wouldn’t be human if it didn’t

From my personal perspective, remember this isn’t personal. Most people in senior marketing roles will have had experience of turning down candidates that have been good.  It should never be personal.

Always push the person giving you the bad news for a constructive set of feedback. Just saying, “sorry you were great but the other person had more experience” or “we just decided to go with an internal candidate” doesn’t help you.  Ask for positives and negatives from the people you spoke to.  You can learn from the process and often learn more from being declined than the one you land.

Celebrating Success

Whilst the obvious time to celebrate success is when you land that role, remember to do it in the right way. Your network should and probably will wish you luck, but many are out of work at the moment, through no fault of their own. Do it humbly and offer support and encouragement to others in your network.

It is also important to celebrate those small wins along the way. Getting shortlisted. Really smashing that interview. Creating something that genuinely helps you and others.

Please remember that it is important to celebrate success. Landing that job is great, but thats just the start. Make sure you land well. Have a plan and make sure the role is a success.

The End

I do hope some of you found this useful and can apply some of the logic to your own search. We have tried not to include the obvious like be happy or keep your chin up. These are givens.

I would love to know what you think, so please let me know in the comments or by dropping me a line of my LinkedIn.  One thing I have learned, is that it is very rewarding to help others and support them.

Contributors

Please also take the time to look at the people that added comments and experience to this post

Roger Binks

Chris McPartlin

Rachael Pettit

Andy Turba

Nicola Vidal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Internet Impact on Music

The trend of music being owned via the traditional model of labels dictating play has been under threat for some time.  This has been moved when Napster was first formed as an illegal file (music) share service, all the way through to the massive business of digital music on the likes of iTunes and to a lesser degree the legal Napster.

The model for established artists doesn’t end there, with internet radio stations shooting up and the likes of Spotify meaning more channels are now open for signed artists, even if it is less traditional.  Some of the traditional artists have suffered but others have grown their fan base as a result.

The likes of YouTube have presented both opportunities and threats to artists and now the commercial models are more established, YouTube provide a huge reach for music videos, bigger than any TV station.  YouTube still needs to work on protecting copyright if it is to become a channel of choice and one where only official videos are rated and viewed.

MySpace is also a well established channel for music.  However many users have moved away from the platform due to its overtly commercial nature.  One of the most well-known early cases of a UK act making it via the Internet has to be the rise of the Arctic Monkeys. They were one of the first to make it big due their profile on MySpace and the active promotion they took off that base.  Culminating in hit albums, tours and awards, including being recognised by the coveted Mercury Music Award.

All of this is a lovely background, but what does this mean for the industry at large?

There are two main shifts, one being the major labels are losing some of the control over their artists.  Due to the higher number of avenues open to artists, they can also utilise more routes to market.  A number of newer acts are actually starting to push their music via social channels rather than performing all over the pubs and clubs hoping to get noticed.

For me the acts that embrace the channels in their true way, stand a great chance of getting out there.  If the acts engage with their fans, followers or friends then they will get a massive following. Facebook the acts should share pics, videos and updates.  They should also respond to comments.  On Twitter the acts should Retweet (just not too much) they should also message their followers when asked a question, Professor Green does this well.  This will provide a massively loyal following.

On any channel, You Tube included, the acts should supply something unique, maybe snippets of forthcoming tracks or accoustic versions.  One of the acts that has done this successfully at present is Duchess, an up and coming girl band.

For the marketeers in this area there are great options. Targeting is very easy. With Facebook for instance you can target fans or potential fans on geo-demographic factors but more interestingly on what they like.  This is a great option in terms of picking people with interests in your genre or looking at people who like similar or rival acts.  Twitter is moving along these lines as well with the introduction of sponsored trends, tweets and profiles.

Sites such as LinkedIn allow people in the industry to connect to others, bringing managers, agents together with record industry people.  It also allows bands to secure contacts with corporates and gain input in to areas such as styling, image and coverage.

How Does Viral Marketing Work?

Viral – How does it work?

I have been in the online Marketing game now for a number of years.  I have seen successful and unsuccessful viral campaigns.  I have probably been involved with a few (I won’t say which end of the spectrum mine were).  But how does it work?  The whole point of viral marketing is that it spreads.  People either reference your material by sending e-mail to their mate or just telling others about it.

How it used to Work

When I first started in online advertising there were no social networks.  No social bookmarking.  Very few blogs.  So how did it work?  Well creativity was absolutely crucial (remember people didn’t have broadband then and they were in the main still paying by the minute), what you had produced wither had to be thoroughly entertaining or have an ultimate payoff (generally simple games or competitions).  Very few were visually arresting as the connection speeds were too slow for video or extended sound files.

Your material would then get sent via your e-mail base, if you had the budget you would support with a display advertising campaign and if you were particularly clever you would do some seeding in forums or chat. rooms (the early social networks).  Some worked some didn’t. 

The distribution was still with the end game to get your message out to as many people as possible.  However it was potentially more difficult to do it in a cost effective manner.  Later came areas such as FHM and Lycos where you could get your viral listed in their Viral Charts.  If you made either of the Top 10 you normally had a relative success on your hands.  There are many more routes nowadays which I will expand on later in this post.

Six Degrees of Separation 

There have been many articles written on this subject (so I won’t try to explain the concept in detail) and it has even inspired numerous plays, books and films.  The concept basically centres around the notion that everybody is connected to everybody else in the world by a maximum of six degrees of separation. So what?  Whether you believe the theory or not the concept links intrinsicly with social media.  You often see on sites such as LinkedIn – you are connected to this persons network by x level.  Social sites such as Friendster also play on this concept.  The social sites use it as a way to help you expand your direct network, i.e. if Serena Privett knows James Booth, Serena is shown in my network even though I don’t know her myself.  I may never have come across Serena if James wasn’t in my network and now I can make contact if I wish.

This was an example on a professional site.  Imagine this same scenario on Facebook.  You know Joe Bloggs, Joe Bloggs is friends with …. and so on and so forth.    That is the whole premise of social networking.  You know Person A, they know Person B that has similar interests, you see this and conenct to Person B, you have now made a connection.  In theory you can connect to any other person in the world through only six steps.  Obviously the Facebook and LinkedIn scenarios are limited to the fact that people need to be members of those sites for the theory to be applied. 

Taking this into consideration, I am connected to anybody who reads this blog within a maximum of six degrees of separation.  Taking it to the extreme, I am linked to anybody in the world within six degrees of separation, whether that is former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman or US President Barack Obama.  A social networking site call SixDegrees.org has been launched by Actor Kevin Bacon with this theory in mind.  This started with celebrities showcasing their charities and now anybody can showcase their good cause.

Just to add further credence to the theory, over 4m people have downloaded the 6degrees app in Facebook and at present the average degree of separation is 6.12. 

OK but what relevance does this have?

 

Distributing your message

Well we have all heard the phrase “Its a small world”.  The 6 Degrees theory is an illustration of that saying.  So social media hasn’t told us that it has merely highlighted it in a visual and practical way.

What it also allows marketers to do, is to track those relationships.  While in the good old days we relied on pure creativity, contact lists and good fortune.  We can now target much more precisely the type of people we want to get our message across.  Social networking presents these opportunities because of the depth of data on people’s interests, hobbies, relationships and most importantly networks.  We can target people if our message is broad e.g. we’re Coca Cola or if the message is niche, e.g. replacement parts for Mitsubishi Evo cars.  If one person engages, then their entire network picks up on it.  If one of them engages, their network picks up on it.  You then in theory can reach mass audiences extremely quickly.

Social networking sites are just a component of distribution though.  Social bookmarking can be a great tool, use sites tools such as Del.icio.us and Digg, make sure you load your bookmarks with tags people will associate with your message.  The same theory of six degrees could come into play.

Send it to your e-mail base and ask them to refer it on to their contacts.  There is nothing more powerful than a direct referal from somebody you trust.  Seed on forums, chat rooms and on specialist sites, the old tactics are still as relevant today as they were back in the beginning.   Remember, just because people are used to engaging with brands online through social than perhaps they were in the past.  Do not, start mass seeding your material everywhere.  Be open and transparent.  If you find a relevant forum, ask the forum administrator for permission to post a link.  Obviously if it is a forum you are active on already, you will know if its right or wrong.

However, I would recommend you don’t just rely on, build it, they will come and they will forward it.  You need to put some money into it as well.  Support with some advertising spend, maybe a PPC campaign or reward affiliates on new sign-ups.  Work out who the influential bloggers are in your areas and try to get them to blog about your activity.

Making it work

So it sounds easy.  Create something.  Put it on some social sites. Chat in a forum about it and do some PPC.  Bang, it is viral.  No!  If it were that simple every single marketer in the land would be doing it.  The magic of viral is still in what you are actually saying.

Your viral has to be entertaining or informative but above all engaging.  No matter how successful your distribution strategy, there is no guarantee people will look at it or respond favourably.  Don’t seed in out of context environments, and make sure your viral has something to offer the recipient.

Remember if your viral is good they will recommend and refer it to friends.  If it is bad, at best they won’t do anything with it, at worse they will tell everybody how hopeless it was an tarnish all your efforts.  The best chance of referral is to offer them something they probably haven’t seen before or something with a money can’t (generally) buy reward.

Super surfers

If you examine any SEO texts or read any social networking commentary you will know that they are always referencing influencers and super-users.  I call these people super surfers.  They are the ones that engage with numerous tools and in theory are as important as traditional media sources such as ITV or The Sun.  They are the active people on YouTube, regular forum posters and bloggers.  They may only have a direct influence over 100-300 people, but those people are normally engaged.  They can be talking about very niche subjects such as Ex-Battery Hens, but if you are marketing a range of hen food, this is a perfect audience.  There may be only a few hundred on that forum, however they are bound to know others, who know others etc etc

That was a specific example, but there are many others, if you want to attract teenage girls to a new line of make-up you may target a forum for girl band The Saturdays.  If you were trying to promote a traditional corporate venue to professional people you may want to influence a Freemason forum.  Just remember there are sources there for every walk of life, with these super surfers who have the acorn of influence over a wide array of people.

Key Steps

• Identify super surfers
• Get your distribution strategy right
• Create an engaging viral that offers the audience something they haven’t seen before

Has it worked?

Something a number of people neglect when creating viral campaigns is the review of has it been a success.  At the brief stage, be very clear about what you want to achieve.  Don’t forget that objective throughout the process.  Is it mentions in the press, e-mail sign-ups, increase in brand consideration or just views?  Whatever it is make that guide the process and don’t get carried away by the creativity.  Make the creative process support your end objectives.

Above all, ensure you have the correct mechanisms on place to track behaviour and performance against your KPIs.  Otherwise you may be able to provide anecdotal evidence to say it has work, but there are no hard facts.  Otherwise you may have to wait a while until you can do another viral campaign.

Top 10 Worse Jobs in the World

There are times when we all feel the pressure in our jobs.  There are probably times when you have heard people say, “I hate my Job”, or “I probably have the worse job in the world”.  If you are reading this blog you probably dont find yourself in a job within the top 10.

I found a great article when I was looking around LinkedIn.  Whilst it may be somewhat subjective (I can’t see a strong quantitative base for the list), I find it quite amusing, especially as I know people that have been in more than one of the jobs in the top 10.

So what is your worse job?

I had the misfortune of working in a sports shop as a teenager.  I loved sports and thought it would be a good outlet during the summer holidays.  The job itself was OK.  I got on well with most the customers, enjoyed talking to them and actually sold a good level of product in my 2 days there.  Unfortunately the manager/owner was a bit of a Richard Branson wannabee, but was just a little too much like Gordon Ramsey.  Not being one to tolerate that attitude, I left after the 2nd day.

Sausage stuffer?

OK, so sausage stuffer isn’t on the lift, but what is?  (Before you say anything, I think they left one out, maybe that was the writers real job)

Dishwasher, Slimline Workers, Barnyard Masturbator, Medical Waste Biohazard Cooker, Sewage Treatment Worker, Poultry Kill Room Attendant, Hazmat Diver, Hospital Laundry and Meat Plant Carcass Splitters.

For me a couple of surprises.  However radiation/toxic waste and dealing with animal carcasses as expected are up there.

Anyway, here is the Top 10(9) List of the World’s Most Horrible Jobs