THE ULTIMATE MARKETING SIN

The ultimate marketing sin is to be boring and ordinary.

The above statement appeared as an introduciton to a "Quick Tip 'O the Week" that arrived in my Inbox today from someone named Rich Webb, who bills himself as a Marketing Consultant, Writer and Speaker and President of Winning Edge Marketing and Tele-Help. I am not sure how I ended up on his e-mail distribution list, but he certainly caught my attention with that statement.

"The ultimate marketing sin is to be boring and ordinary.' What great information for job seekers to keep in mind as they develop and design their resume and job search marketing letters!

Mr. Webb built on this statement with the following observations and advice:

" It has always been a terrible act of marketing tragedy but in today's cacophonic world, when all things seem to be constantly shouting for out attention throughout the day - it is especially critical.

You must find a way to add drama to your marketing message and ignite interest. Your ads should be like a fuse that fires up and leads to an eruption of your prospect's attention.

Think: What benefits, phrases, solutions, and offers can you use to create an explosion of your client's interest?"

With thousands of job seekers competing for an employer's attention on any given day, this is certainly not the time to come across as boring or ordinary. If resumes and cover letters are akin to "ads" and employers are "prospects," than the question is this: Are your "ads" featuring benefits, phrases, solutions, and offers that "ignite interest?". If not, it's time for a change!

Comments

[Michael Holley Smith]

You are right on target but there's more to it than benefits and phrases and solutions, which must all be conveyed via words, and it's the words that make the resumes (and ads) all seem to be cut from the same cloth, and thus boring. As in unappealing, uninviting, so what resumes need -- just like all ads -- is the captivating visual, the enticing graphic, that image your eye cannot help but wander to momentarily; and in a resume, that image should reflect something subliminal about your creative character at work, about the person behind all the words of the E & E (Experience & Education) and the O (the Other, the personal and interesting part). Those new resumes are known as BIOBLOGS and they make individuals stand out. They are not boring. Trust me. It will take a long time for them to get as bland as 95% of word-based, sentence-driven traditional functional or chronological resumes already are. (All 40,000,000 of them sitting in monster.com's database, e.g.)

[Paul Copcutt]

Norine

Could not agree more with the sentiment and with the direction that Michael is heading with the bioblog concept.

Perhaps somewhere in between is where most forward thinking job seekers will end up. They know the resume is becoming yesterdays communication piece in todays technology world but perhaps not quite ready for the advertising look and feel of a bioblog.

I have been working with clients of creating branded bio's (which can be used on the likes of LinkedIn etc as well) and 'brag' sheets for sometime now and the reponse from both hiring managers and those trawling the job boards has been positive.

Clients themselves like the idea of standing out with a communication piece that talks to what both you and Michael support.

Just my toonies worth