One of the best ways to market yourself during the job search is on LinkedIn. And it needs to be said that even when you are working you always want to brand yourself as a professional in your industry. You never know when you will be laid off.
There are multiple articles available on how to use LinkedIn. The following tips are what I have done and found that works that weren’t mentioned in my last blog post.
1. Measure your success
Why do we need to measure how much our profile is viewed? Well, first off, we need to know if our profiles are optimized correctly. If you aren’t showing up in searches and people aren’t looking at your profile to learn more about you, there is something very wrong. Build it and they will come is nonsense and we all know it.
There is a statistics section called “Who viewed my profile?” and you can look up the trends of your profile for the past 90 days. It is interesting for me because I have been spending copious amounts of time targeting my profile for a marketing manager position and building my personal brand. My visits numbers fell in September but are on the rise again in October with the high being in August. The appearances in search numbers also fell in September to dramatically increase in October.
My stats currently say my profile has been viewed by 8 people in the past 15 days. Now, this number has been as high as 24 people in 15 days but I would say an average is one view every two days. I have also shown up in search 12 times in the past 7 days. And as exciting as these numbers are, the most important measurement for me is contact. I know I am being looked at and that is great! But what I really need is for prospective employers to contact me. And yes, my phone number and email are public.
All this information tells me that I am doing well on views and interest. What my job is, that LinkedIn can’t track for me is actual touch points. How many people have requested connections and how many calls have I received for interviews? I can tell you that I have had two calls for interviews in the past 2 months. Now that is what this is all about for me! Finding the right job!
2. Get recommendations
I have worked diligently on my recommendations. I have at least one for every position I have ever held and try to get supervisors to recommend me. This sometimes means you have to write the recommendation yourself. Yes, I said it! We all know it happens often and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Some people just don’t know where to start or what to say. I work with creative designers who aren’t super savvy with words and need help. They always edit to put their personal touch to the recommendation sometimes adding things and other times deleting things. It’s okay to do this! They want to recommend you, so give them a hand!
I was talking to a client about LinkedIn and how it can be used for new business and the job search. He was about to lose his job because they couldn’t get funding to complete a medical trial for FDA approval. I sent him a connection request and he wrote back that he had never seen a more complete profile with so many recommendations. Proud moment for me.
What good recommendations can do is show your ability to work with all levels in the organization and gives a prospective employer the ability to get a preview of your references.
3. Past Positions
When possible use numbers to demonstrate your success at each position. This can be difficult when you are not responsible for calculating or have access to the final results of a marketing campaign. I have held positions where we were tracking foot traffic into the sales offices but at the time did not know that I needed to keep track of our successes so I do not have that information to include.
Have a clear job title for each position. Sometimes we have very creative titles such as Strategy Consultant, and sometimes we list ourselves as Marketing Professional. Neither of these job titles tells a prospective employer what you are looking for or what your experience is. I have had both titles on my LinkedIn profile in the past and through all my research learned this is certainly not the way to go. Another tip for your job title is to change the ones in the past that really did not capture what you were doing. While at KPA my actual title was Account Executive but that did not capture my responsibility to manage budgets, staff and traffic. So, I changed it to Marketing Manager on my profile because that is actually a better fit. My resume has AE as my title only because that was what was on my business card at the time.
4. Connections
Everyone has an opinion on connections. Do you accept everyone who asks? Do you only accept people you know? I struggle with this because when you accept every person who requests the spam gets out of hand quickly. If you only accept people you know, then you are hurting yourself. LinkedIn is about connecting with other professionals and when you have 500+ you can reach out to many more people.
My solution has been to limit who I connect with but to join as many groups as I can that fit my goals, needs and interests. This allows me to connect with many more people and limit the amount of spam.
5. Websites
I have my blog link and my portfolio link posted in this section. It’s another way to stand out from the crowd and show a prospective employer what you have done.
I found a free website doyoubuzz.com where I was able to post a radio spot I had written and directed as well as post images of chochkies I had done for a client. It also includes my resume. I would love to have other work I have done but like the stats and results of campaigns, I didn’t know at the time I would need it. Lessons learned!
And of course I have my blog posted. This gives me an opportunity to show that I am an active user of marketing communications tools and gives a sample of my writing style. My blog’s main purpose is to discuss my experience as a marketing professional. Now, I will be the first to tell you, I am not a writer. I can write and when really inspired, I’m actually good. During college I had a PR professor actually tell me that I was not a good writer and that most people who think they can write, really can’t. Taking that with a grain of salt I continue to write and have done very well. I have written numerous TV and radio commercials, print ads, brochures, and newspaper copy.
And I have my Twitter username as well. I do not Tweet as much as I should but have found I can spend my entire day reading articles, re-tweeting, and DMing. Everything in moderation is healthy.
So those are the top 5 tips I have for using LinkedIn and my experience with it. I wish you the best of luck in adapting these tips into your profile and if you are in the job market, the best of luck finding the right position for you.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 8; Using LinkedIn as a networking and self promotional tool
I have watched as LinkedIn has added tools to help increase our connections and more and more ways for us to get and share knowledge. While LinkedIn was launched in 2003 I became a member in 2007 and started using LinkedIn regularly.
There are multiple articles and webinars on how best to use LinkedIn to get a job, increase your visibility, as a new business tool, and many others. LinkedIn itself has a blog on how to “make the most” out of the site. I have done my part in reading and watching in order to keep on top of all the latest and greatest ways to find the perfect job by using the best keywords to increase my rankings, getting recommendations on every position held, and making new connections.
I’m going to use Lindsey Pollaks LinkedIn blog article from October 18th, 2010 as a stepping stone to talk about how I am using LinkedIn as a way to market myself and promote my personal brand.
Lindsey says the first of her 5 steps is to use the status updates as a brief conversation piece but be sure to stay professional. I update my status almost everyday including weekends. Right now my main goal is to find my dream job, so that is my main focus when posting updates. I post my blog when a new article is available to read, talk about the job search process, post interesting articles that relate to my current industry job search, or mention the new positions I have applied for. Not only do I post but I also comment on other connection status updates. When they have an interesting comment or a question I try to respond in a timely manner. This is just one more way of actually staying connected to your network.
Her second step is to do “small goods” for other people by congratulating others on new jobs, promotions and participating in the question and answers section of the site. I regularly look over the Q&A section and respond to polls as they apply to my industry and experience. I have written questions on some of the groups I belong to, especially the Jobs groups.
During a recent webinar I was told that recruiters are more and more using a Google search to find prospective candidates. He is recommending that not only do we as job hunters need to pay attention to our rankings under our name, but under our job title and location as well. This was a new concept to me and I sent out the question to my HR group contacts to learn more. It was interesting to learn that none of them were using Google this way but that they had heard the same thing. When answering questions, I have found that I can be helpful to new members and recent grads on how to use LinkedIn as well as discussing the frustrations of the job search.
Step 3 can be slippery if you are not careful. Lindsey says to “look up everyone” as a way to connect with prospective employers. As a marketing manager I have been surprised by the number of professionals who are not registered on LinkedIn or who do not utilized it regularly. We are marketing and communications professionals after all and should be using the latest and most common forms of communication. It reminds me of a time when not all professionals used email preferring to stick with snail mail for personal communications. Snail mail still has an important roll in communication but that is a blog article for another day.
While working at KPA I was leading new business research by searching for prospective clients using LinkedIn. I was able to narrow the search down to industry, location and find who the contact person for the company would be. I set up the agency with an account on LinkedIn and encouraged the other person doing new business to update and optimize his LinkedIn profile. I set about adding our current clients as connections for KPA as well as for myself. There were a couple times when I found close connections with a prospective client that got us meetings we may not have otherwise been able to get.
During my job search I have looked up the professionals I will be interviewing with and the company to help prepare me for the meeting and provide me with questions to ask. One interview I went to I had noticed that only a very few of the team had been there more than a year and was able to ask about turn around. It’s important to me to work for a company that values its team and has some sort of retention plan.
One of the difficult things about researching and attempting connections is that you have to know the person or know someone who knows them and uses LinkedIn to refer you. I currently have 20 invitations out and some are to people I actually know well but they do not use LinkedIn the way I do. I have also been warned that you can appear stocker like if you are not careful. I make an attempt to connect with everyone I have interviewed with so I can keep in contact with them. Even if I wasn’t right for the position I interviewed for, you never know when a different position may come up that fits better or is in another department. As Lindsey says, you never know who may be connection with whom.
I always research a company before speaking to anyone about my skills and qualifications, unless the company was confidential. Step 4 “beef up your expertise on potential employers” is a no brainer and I find it ridiculous that professionals don’t know what a company does before the interview or even applying.
First, most job postings come with a description of the company and the position. I saw a posting just yesterday where my qualifications matched but it was for a company I would not be proud to work for. So, I didn’t apply.
I had an interview a few weeks ago with a telecommunications company here in Denver and because I had done research before my interview I was able to ask detailed questions. They happened to be blasted all over social media at the time and knowing that gave me a unique opportunity to discuss my experience with a similar situation. Now, I didn’t get the position but I did think the interview went well. I’d like to talk more about why we are never told what the reason for not getting an offer after an interview that you think went very well some other time.
When you do a company search you can see who is new, promoted and who used to work there and you used to know for how long. Again, because long term employment is one of my main goals for my next position, knowing how long people have worked at a company is important to me. LinkedIn had a stat of what the median term was and i could decide if it is somewhere I wanted to apply. They have removed this tool and I hate it! It is now up to me to figure out how long the median time of employment is.
Etiquette is extremely important when using social media. “Remember your manners” is step 5 in Lindsey’s blog and I know exactly why she puts it in. I have seen people bash others for typos and some misuse of the English language. One instance I remember is when one person was bashing another for a typo and had a typo themselves. I know spell check is vital and I also know that when I am in a hurry but want to leave a comment, I have sent misspelled words and incorrect numbers. I commented on a blog once about McDonalds and put $300 instead of $3.00. It continues to embarrass me as I can’t figure out how to fix it.
I think the main issue is people get comfortable saying rude or unnecessary things because they are basically faceless. What they don’t understand is that we can see them. Yes, we know who you are! You never need to correct people on spelling or grammar, you never need to call them names or demean them in anyway, and you really never need to attack anyone for any reason. You don’t like someone, don’t connect with them, ignore them or if you are so inclined, report their behavior.
On her recommendation to personalize invitations, that is very important. I have received requests that say nothing about where I know the person, how we are connected, or what the reason for the request is. My goal is to have quality connections that I can network with and communicate with.
One of my biggest pet peeves right now is the group connection request and all you get are spam emails. I am not a part of LinkedIn so you can sell me your product. I joined real estate groups because for 6 years I was in residential real estate marketing. That does not mean I want to buy your house, or see your MLS listings. I want to connect with other professionals in the industry to keep up to date on trends and opportunities. I understand using LinkedIn to find new business, I’ve done it. But I researched who I was contacting first to be sure they were the right contact. As a marketing manager I know that throwing something at a wall and hoping it sticks is a terrible way to market and sell yourself. Spend a little more time targeting your market and leave me alone. Thank you.
Okay, so those are 5 steps and you can find so many more on how to use LinkedIn to promote yourself. In my next blog article I will give a few additional tips I am using that help keep my profile ranking well. At least, this is what I believe is working.
There are multiple articles and webinars on how best to use LinkedIn to get a job, increase your visibility, as a new business tool, and many others. LinkedIn itself has a blog on how to “make the most” out of the site. I have done my part in reading and watching in order to keep on top of all the latest and greatest ways to find the perfect job by using the best keywords to increase my rankings, getting recommendations on every position held, and making new connections.
I’m going to use Lindsey Pollaks LinkedIn blog article from October 18th, 2010 as a stepping stone to talk about how I am using LinkedIn as a way to market myself and promote my personal brand.
Lindsey says the first of her 5 steps is to use the status updates as a brief conversation piece but be sure to stay professional. I update my status almost everyday including weekends. Right now my main goal is to find my dream job, so that is my main focus when posting updates. I post my blog when a new article is available to read, talk about the job search process, post interesting articles that relate to my current industry job search, or mention the new positions I have applied for. Not only do I post but I also comment on other connection status updates. When they have an interesting comment or a question I try to respond in a timely manner. This is just one more way of actually staying connected to your network.
Her second step is to do “small goods” for other people by congratulating others on new jobs, promotions and participating in the question and answers section of the site. I regularly look over the Q&A section and respond to polls as they apply to my industry and experience. I have written questions on some of the groups I belong to, especially the Jobs groups.
During a recent webinar I was told that recruiters are more and more using a Google search to find prospective candidates. He is recommending that not only do we as job hunters need to pay attention to our rankings under our name, but under our job title and location as well. This was a new concept to me and I sent out the question to my HR group contacts to learn more. It was interesting to learn that none of them were using Google this way but that they had heard the same thing. When answering questions, I have found that I can be helpful to new members and recent grads on how to use LinkedIn as well as discussing the frustrations of the job search.
Step 3 can be slippery if you are not careful. Lindsey says to “look up everyone” as a way to connect with prospective employers. As a marketing manager I have been surprised by the number of professionals who are not registered on LinkedIn or who do not utilized it regularly. We are marketing and communications professionals after all and should be using the latest and most common forms of communication. It reminds me of a time when not all professionals used email preferring to stick with snail mail for personal communications. Snail mail still has an important roll in communication but that is a blog article for another day.
While working at KPA I was leading new business research by searching for prospective clients using LinkedIn. I was able to narrow the search down to industry, location and find who the contact person for the company would be. I set up the agency with an account on LinkedIn and encouraged the other person doing new business to update and optimize his LinkedIn profile. I set about adding our current clients as connections for KPA as well as for myself. There were a couple times when I found close connections with a prospective client that got us meetings we may not have otherwise been able to get.
During my job search I have looked up the professionals I will be interviewing with and the company to help prepare me for the meeting and provide me with questions to ask. One interview I went to I had noticed that only a very few of the team had been there more than a year and was able to ask about turn around. It’s important to me to work for a company that values its team and has some sort of retention plan.
One of the difficult things about researching and attempting connections is that you have to know the person or know someone who knows them and uses LinkedIn to refer you. I currently have 20 invitations out and some are to people I actually know well but they do not use LinkedIn the way I do. I have also been warned that you can appear stocker like if you are not careful. I make an attempt to connect with everyone I have interviewed with so I can keep in contact with them. Even if I wasn’t right for the position I interviewed for, you never know when a different position may come up that fits better or is in another department. As Lindsey says, you never know who may be connection with whom.
I always research a company before speaking to anyone about my skills and qualifications, unless the company was confidential. Step 4 “beef up your expertise on potential employers” is a no brainer and I find it ridiculous that professionals don’t know what a company does before the interview or even applying.
First, most job postings come with a description of the company and the position. I saw a posting just yesterday where my qualifications matched but it was for a company I would not be proud to work for. So, I didn’t apply.
I had an interview a few weeks ago with a telecommunications company here in Denver and because I had done research before my interview I was able to ask detailed questions. They happened to be blasted all over social media at the time and knowing that gave me a unique opportunity to discuss my experience with a similar situation. Now, I didn’t get the position but I did think the interview went well. I’d like to talk more about why we are never told what the reason for not getting an offer after an interview that you think went very well some other time.
When you do a company search you can see who is new, promoted and who used to work there and you used to know for how long. Again, because long term employment is one of my main goals for my next position, knowing how long people have worked at a company is important to me. LinkedIn had a stat of what the median term was and i could decide if it is somewhere I wanted to apply. They have removed this tool and I hate it! It is now up to me to figure out how long the median time of employment is.
Etiquette is extremely important when using social media. “Remember your manners” is step 5 in Lindsey’s blog and I know exactly why she puts it in. I have seen people bash others for typos and some misuse of the English language. One instance I remember is when one person was bashing another for a typo and had a typo themselves. I know spell check is vital and I also know that when I am in a hurry but want to leave a comment, I have sent misspelled words and incorrect numbers. I commented on a blog once about McDonalds and put $300 instead of $3.00. It continues to embarrass me as I can’t figure out how to fix it.
I think the main issue is people get comfortable saying rude or unnecessary things because they are basically faceless. What they don’t understand is that we can see them. Yes, we know who you are! You never need to correct people on spelling or grammar, you never need to call them names or demean them in anyway, and you really never need to attack anyone for any reason. You don’t like someone, don’t connect with them, ignore them or if you are so inclined, report their behavior.
On her recommendation to personalize invitations, that is very important. I have received requests that say nothing about where I know the person, how we are connected, or what the reason for the request is. My goal is to have quality connections that I can network with and communicate with.
One of my biggest pet peeves right now is the group connection request and all you get are spam emails. I am not a part of LinkedIn so you can sell me your product. I joined real estate groups because for 6 years I was in residential real estate marketing. That does not mean I want to buy your house, or see your MLS listings. I want to connect with other professionals in the industry to keep up to date on trends and opportunities. I understand using LinkedIn to find new business, I’ve done it. But I researched who I was contacting first to be sure they were the right contact. As a marketing manager I know that throwing something at a wall and hoping it sticks is a terrible way to market and sell yourself. Spend a little more time targeting your market and leave me alone. Thank you.
Okay, so those are 5 steps and you can find so many more on how to use LinkedIn to promote yourself. In my next blog article I will give a few additional tips I am using that help keep my profile ranking well. At least, this is what I believe is working.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 7 Personal Brand
By September 2009 I had worked in advertising for 10 years in the healthcare, real estate, telecommunications and medical device industries . Most of this time was in the traditional advertising agency setting where I had given the opportunity to learn it all.
So, after being laid off and knowing that at the time that so many others in my field were also laid off or going to be laid off, I set out to differentiate myself from my competition. I emphasize my ability to do it all by calling myself a marketing generalist. This is truly what I am but after talking to friends in the industry it sounds too bland.
The term generalist is a person whose knowledge, aptitudes, and skills are applied to a field as a whole and does not speak directly to my skill as a marketing manager. It became clear not too long ago that what I needed to do was market myself using the title of the position that best fit.
This too is a struggle because even the term marketing manager is fairly general. Job titles to some are unimportant and to others a key in deciding what level you have achieved in your career. My last position was account executive and that did not come close to all of the tasks I was responsible for. I was also managing the traffic of jobs through the agency, billing clients, paying vendors and managing the creative team hours.
I did hope, in the beginning of my search, to find a director level position. I thought I had the years experience required and certainly the knowledge. For some positions listed I do have the skills and years experience but I am missing one key ingredient, an MBA and there for am under qualified.
Not having the ability to go back to school, I quickly realized that I set my sights too high and started looking for manager level positions. I began running in to the problem of being over qualified for some because I had too much experience. This has continued to be a difficult challenge in my job search.
A challenge that is continuous, is finding positions where industry experience is not required. As I have written about in my other articles, my experience is in residential real estate. We all know what happened to that market and those job postings are very few and far between. I have applied to positions such as online marketing manager but with no luck so far.
So, I have been working diligently building up my LinkedIn network, posting my blog articles to Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs and doing tons of research on the job hunt. I am open to learn as much as I can to get my next position. And there is an overload of information out there on how to do all the things I am doing to market myself.
Every once in a while I will run across a tip or two on how to do it better or different. Recently during a webinar I was told that recruiters are now using Google to search for resumes and portfolios online. This was the first I had heard of this tactic but it made sense to me. If you are looking for a marketing manager, don’t you want someone who can market themselves?
One of my tactics in marketing myself has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. In doing this I though I had been putting myself out there for Google to find me. Well, it was working if someone was doing a search for my name. Google Lucinda DeVries and check out what comes up. Then Google your name and see where you show up. Yes, it is called “ego surfing” but when you are marketing yourself, it is really called “doing it right”.
What my challenge is now, is to get my information to be listed when a search is done for “marketing manager, Denver, CO.” I am competing with all of the job search sites and need to find a way to overcome them in the rankings. Even with all the sites I am registered on it may become necessary to build a website where I can better use keywords and content with links to increase my ranking.
For now though, it is the free sites, and just getting my name out there as much as possible. I have wondered if any of this has helped get my foot in the door or give me a second glance. I went to an interview recently and was tempted to ask but thought that it may not be a good idea. After getting my “thanks but no thanks” standard email yesterday I realized I should have asked.
I do have Google analytics set up on my blog so I can see who is coming to my blog and I keep close watch on my LinkedIn stats as well. I did see during my last “ego surfing” adventure that other sites have picked up my blog. Measuring the success of my personal branding campaign has been a challenge.
I know one thing for certain; this has given me the opportunity to continually learn more about social media and fine tune some SEO skills.
So, I have some questions for you and I would appreciate if you could take a minute and add a comment with your response.
Where did you come from to find this blog?
Are you looking to hire a marketing manager?
Have you read any of my other posts?
Did you do your own “ego surf”? What did you find?
So, after being laid off and knowing that at the time that so many others in my field were also laid off or going to be laid off, I set out to differentiate myself from my competition. I emphasize my ability to do it all by calling myself a marketing generalist. This is truly what I am but after talking to friends in the industry it sounds too bland.
The term generalist is a person whose knowledge, aptitudes, and skills are applied to a field as a whole and does not speak directly to my skill as a marketing manager. It became clear not too long ago that what I needed to do was market myself using the title of the position that best fit.
This too is a struggle because even the term marketing manager is fairly general. Job titles to some are unimportant and to others a key in deciding what level you have achieved in your career. My last position was account executive and that did not come close to all of the tasks I was responsible for. I was also managing the traffic of jobs through the agency, billing clients, paying vendors and managing the creative team hours.
I did hope, in the beginning of my search, to find a director level position. I thought I had the years experience required and certainly the knowledge. For some positions listed I do have the skills and years experience but I am missing one key ingredient, an MBA and there for am under qualified.
Not having the ability to go back to school, I quickly realized that I set my sights too high and started looking for manager level positions. I began running in to the problem of being over qualified for some because I had too much experience. This has continued to be a difficult challenge in my job search.
A challenge that is continuous, is finding positions where industry experience is not required. As I have written about in my other articles, my experience is in residential real estate. We all know what happened to that market and those job postings are very few and far between. I have applied to positions such as online marketing manager but with no luck so far.
So, I have been working diligently building up my LinkedIn network, posting my blog articles to Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs and doing tons of research on the job hunt. I am open to learn as much as I can to get my next position. And there is an overload of information out there on how to do all the things I am doing to market myself.
Every once in a while I will run across a tip or two on how to do it better or different. Recently during a webinar I was told that recruiters are now using Google to search for resumes and portfolios online. This was the first I had heard of this tactic but it made sense to me. If you are looking for a marketing manager, don’t you want someone who can market themselves?
One of my tactics in marketing myself has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. In doing this I though I had been putting myself out there for Google to find me. Well, it was working if someone was doing a search for my name. Google Lucinda DeVries and check out what comes up. Then Google your name and see where you show up. Yes, it is called “ego surfing” but when you are marketing yourself, it is really called “doing it right”.
What my challenge is now, is to get my information to be listed when a search is done for “marketing manager, Denver, CO.” I am competing with all of the job search sites and need to find a way to overcome them in the rankings. Even with all the sites I am registered on it may become necessary to build a website where I can better use keywords and content with links to increase my ranking.
For now though, it is the free sites, and just getting my name out there as much as possible. I have wondered if any of this has helped get my foot in the door or give me a second glance. I went to an interview recently and was tempted to ask but thought that it may not be a good idea. After getting my “thanks but no thanks” standard email yesterday I realized I should have asked.
I do have Google analytics set up on my blog so I can see who is coming to my blog and I keep close watch on my LinkedIn stats as well. I did see during my last “ego surfing” adventure that other sites have picked up my blog. Measuring the success of my personal branding campaign has been a challenge.
I know one thing for certain; this has given me the opportunity to continually learn more about social media and fine tune some SEO skills.
So, I have some questions for you and I would appreciate if you could take a minute and add a comment with your response.
Where did you come from to find this blog?
Are you looking to hire a marketing manager?
Have you read any of my other posts?
Did you do your own “ego surf”? What did you find?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Marketing manager seeking position part 6 KPA
The Las Vegas real estate bust was taking down the entire economy. People were losing their jobs, losing their homes, and many were having to leave the valley. At the time we were moving it was difficult to find a moving truck because so many were being used for one way relocations, move out of state.
It took me a record 3 weeks to find a new job and I couldn’t have been happier. I thought we had justified our move and the new job was going to pay off. Shortly after starting this new job we rented a house and started flying our kids out to visit.
I was doing well at the new company. They needed someone who could come in and start working without much training. I was given 3 days of orientation with the person leaving and after that was on my own.
This was not an issue at all because I have a clear and solid understanding of the workings of an agency. They used the same systems I had been using for years. The real difference and learning curve for me was the client base. I had worked on hospital marketing at IDG and had worked in a hospital for 5 years as a unit secretary and had some basic medical terminology.
The clients at this new company, KPA Healthcare Advertising, were medical device companies. Some were start-ups and others were large internationally known. I was able to handle all of the agency coordination and worked with clients to get projects done.
The largest client was preparing to launch a new product and required multiple tactics. I was coordinating medical journal ads, interactive videos, tradeshow booth graphics, and a sales tool that included multiple elements.
At the same time I was learning about the client’s products which included atrial fibrillation ablation treatment, human stem cell technologies for cryopreservation and treatment, equine regenerative treatments, and degenerative disc disease treatments. I was being challenged in a whole new way and I was loving it. I was bringing home research on all the products and even with my current medical terminology was having to learn a new language.
A large part of my job was to manage the client budgets and make sure that the creative department team was not going over the time allotted on each project. I was fortunate to have experience with this and was able to talk to the team about what the client needed and what I needed from them. Nothing will get an account service person on the bad side of the creative department faster than unrealistic deadlines and unclear directions.
I was working well with the creative team managing budgets and trafficking the various jobs to make sure we were meeting timeline requirements. When I think back to this experience, I know that my impact for the agency and our clients was positive and immediate. Once again I was part of a team where my experience and abilities were having a positive impact and that is the most satisfying part of what I do.
Then about 4 or 5 months into the new job, our clients were cutting budgets, trimming expenses and all of that effected the amount of work we were doing for them. For the first time, I was going to be furloughed, which was much better than being laid off. And shortly after that, my supervisor, after working at the agency for over 16 years, decided to leave.
We had started doing some new business projects and I was helping by providing prospective client lists and information. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and handing this all over to a newly hired creative director.
We were also working on getting our company website up to date and changed from a flash only site to HTML so that we could optimize for better rankings. It is common for agencies to not do for themselves, what they do for clients. You get busy and stop paying attention to your own needs as a business. This is common and as we were experiencing, deadly.
It wasn’t long before we were ranking higher on Google, had accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn and were signed up on various registries. One of the first things I had done to the website was the addition of Google analytics so that I could measure the traffic I was driving to our website. In July 2009 our website traffic was up 36%.
I was working on a blog article as well to increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
After working for the agency 12 months almost to the day, I was again laid off. Even with all the work we were doing and new business presentations, medical device companies were struggling with getting the funding they needed to complete trials for FDA approvals.
I learned a lot during my time with KPA and I miss my colleagues. We keep in touch and I wish them all the very best.
It took me a record 3 weeks to find a new job and I couldn’t have been happier. I thought we had justified our move and the new job was going to pay off. Shortly after starting this new job we rented a house and started flying our kids out to visit.
I was doing well at the new company. They needed someone who could come in and start working without much training. I was given 3 days of orientation with the person leaving and after that was on my own.
This was not an issue at all because I have a clear and solid understanding of the workings of an agency. They used the same systems I had been using for years. The real difference and learning curve for me was the client base. I had worked on hospital marketing at IDG and had worked in a hospital for 5 years as a unit secretary and had some basic medical terminology.
The clients at this new company, KPA Healthcare Advertising, were medical device companies. Some were start-ups and others were large internationally known. I was able to handle all of the agency coordination and worked with clients to get projects done.
The largest client was preparing to launch a new product and required multiple tactics. I was coordinating medical journal ads, interactive videos, tradeshow booth graphics, and a sales tool that included multiple elements.
At the same time I was learning about the client’s products which included atrial fibrillation ablation treatment, human stem cell technologies for cryopreservation and treatment, equine regenerative treatments, and degenerative disc disease treatments. I was being challenged in a whole new way and I was loving it. I was bringing home research on all the products and even with my current medical terminology was having to learn a new language.
A large part of my job was to manage the client budgets and make sure that the creative department team was not going over the time allotted on each project. I was fortunate to have experience with this and was able to talk to the team about what the client needed and what I needed from them. Nothing will get an account service person on the bad side of the creative department faster than unrealistic deadlines and unclear directions.
I was working well with the creative team managing budgets and trafficking the various jobs to make sure we were meeting timeline requirements. When I think back to this experience, I know that my impact for the agency and our clients was positive and immediate. Once again I was part of a team where my experience and abilities were having a positive impact and that is the most satisfying part of what I do.
Then about 4 or 5 months into the new job, our clients were cutting budgets, trimming expenses and all of that effected the amount of work we were doing for them. For the first time, I was going to be furloughed, which was much better than being laid off. And shortly after that, my supervisor, after working at the agency for over 16 years, decided to leave.
We had started doing some new business projects and I was helping by providing prospective client lists and information. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and handing this all over to a newly hired creative director.
We were also working on getting our company website up to date and changed from a flash only site to HTML so that we could optimize for better rankings. It is common for agencies to not do for themselves, what they do for clients. You get busy and stop paying attention to your own needs as a business. This is common and as we were experiencing, deadly.
It wasn’t long before we were ranking higher on Google, had accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn and were signed up on various registries. One of the first things I had done to the website was the addition of Google analytics so that I could measure the traffic I was driving to our website. In July 2009 our website traffic was up 36%.
I was working on a blog article as well to increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
After working for the agency 12 months almost to the day, I was again laid off. Even with all the work we were doing and new business presentations, medical device companies were struggling with getting the funding they needed to complete trials for FDA approvals.
I learned a lot during my time with KPA and I miss my colleagues. We keep in touch and I wish them all the very best.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 5 Marketing Partners
When I was laid off from Centex, while I knew it was coming, it was still a hard blow. For the first time I really loved my job and the people I worked with. Now, this is not to say I didn’t love the others but to say, I thought I found my home. I thought I found a company where I could work for at least 5 years and really develop my professional career.
Being a fighter and a driven person was what was keeping me going and to this day, is what keeps me from giving up on a career that I love. I am passionate about marketing and advertising. I had learned that I wanted to do something in this industry in Jr. High and once I figured out what that was, I have been going for it!
While looking for a position, I got a call from my friend Nikki telling me, someone she knew was looking for a marketing professional to help with a new condo conversion project and she thought of me. This was perfect for me! I could start up as a consultant and start a business based on my vision of what an advertising agency should be and what they should do for clients.
I knew I needed to provide my clients with measured success and be accountable for my recommendations. I often used a famous quote by John Wanamaker , “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is, I don’t know which half.”
Using foot traffic numbers provided by the sales team, Internet traffic provided by Google Analytics and using a phone tracking service, Who’s Calling, I was able to see exactly where people were seeing us and how many responded to those tactics I was recommending. Each month I provided my client with a detailed report calculating the cost per lead (CPL) by tactic. I planned all of our media on a monthly basis so that at any time I could change what was being done in order to drive more traffic and decrease our CPL.
Side note: My first client was Property Financial Group and the community was named Eleven11.
The method was effective and proved that if an advertising/marketing agency wanted to, they could tell you what half of your budget was being wasted. What I believe was the key to buying the right media and knowing what messages to send was the use of the Acxiom segmentation I had learned about while working at Centex. I was able to take the data gathered by them and use it in conjunction with demographic data provided by the various media outlets. I had a specific target buyer profile and was able to find the radio stations and publications they used.
The fun part of each month when I put all my results together, I was able to call up my media reps and discuss how well the media buy went and it gave me leverage to negotiate prices based not on what they said the numbers were but what I could prove were the real numbers for my client. I can appreciate that the radio stations base ad rates on listeners, but how many listeners doesn’t matter to me if none of them are interested in buying what I had to sell.
Sharing the CPL during media negotiations of the other stations and publications was never a problem. It was important for each of them to know that I was ready and able to stop my buys with them if they could not help me improve my CPL by reducing rates. The clients needs were most important and I was not about to report to them that we were buying media that was below par.
This is not a common practice for agencies because they mark up media 17.5% and the higher the buy, the more the commission they receive. My media buying fee was 6% and because I was paid either hourly or on retainer the 6% was not a factor for me. The way commissions are being done has been changing over the years. It used to be that all media fees automatically included the agency mark up. More often now the mark up is not included and it is up to the agency to bill for those fees.
During my time with this first client they referred me to others and the sales team referred me as well. They all saw that I could market their product and do it in a way that was most profitable to them. I was honest and straightforward and was a quality alternative to the larger agencies in town.
I was having a blast! Here I was again, doing what I loved, doing it well, and changing the way my clients viewed an advertising agency.
Then with some new laws on the books the already struggling real estate climate in Las Vegas came to a screeching halt. I was put to task at figuring out how to get our prospective buyers to not only fit the lifestyle profile but now to target the financially qualified buyer as well. So, how do you know if a person is a financially qualified buyer…you don’t. But the realtor does! They understand much better the financial stability of their clients and if compensated properly, will bring buyers in.
Realtor programs had been a big part of the Centex marketing plan and I was very familiar with how they worked. I had tried to get in buyers without realtors so we could avoid the commissions and extra fees associated with them. But, now we were in position where we needed to tap that resource. So, I began developing realtor programs and incentives to drive the financially qualified buyer into the sales office.
And during this process, my client was struggling not having expected this turn of events in the market. With that, my time with them was halted but we maintained a good relationship. I did a great job and they knew it. Their money was well spent but they could no longer afford me.
I still had other clients and was doing okay until banks stopped lending to developers. Land values were dropping at incredible rates and for most developers the land was collateral for the loans already taken out. Slowly, my client base fell apart and my attempts at finding new clients was unsuccessful.
Eventually I closed the business and with so many layoffs I was unable to find a job with another company. My husband and I made a decision to move back to California.
Being a fighter and a driven person was what was keeping me going and to this day, is what keeps me from giving up on a career that I love. I am passionate about marketing and advertising. I had learned that I wanted to do something in this industry in Jr. High and once I figured out what that was, I have been going for it!
While looking for a position, I got a call from my friend Nikki telling me, someone she knew was looking for a marketing professional to help with a new condo conversion project and she thought of me. This was perfect for me! I could start up as a consultant and start a business based on my vision of what an advertising agency should be and what they should do for clients.
I knew I needed to provide my clients with measured success and be accountable for my recommendations. I often used a famous quote by John Wanamaker , “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is, I don’t know which half.”
Using foot traffic numbers provided by the sales team, Internet traffic provided by Google Analytics and using a phone tracking service, Who’s Calling, I was able to see exactly where people were seeing us and how many responded to those tactics I was recommending. Each month I provided my client with a detailed report calculating the cost per lead (CPL) by tactic. I planned all of our media on a monthly basis so that at any time I could change what was being done in order to drive more traffic and decrease our CPL.
Side note: My first client was Property Financial Group and the community was named Eleven11.
The method was effective and proved that if an advertising/marketing agency wanted to, they could tell you what half of your budget was being wasted. What I believe was the key to buying the right media and knowing what messages to send was the use of the Acxiom segmentation I had learned about while working at Centex. I was able to take the data gathered by them and use it in conjunction with demographic data provided by the various media outlets. I had a specific target buyer profile and was able to find the radio stations and publications they used.
The fun part of each month when I put all my results together, I was able to call up my media reps and discuss how well the media buy went and it gave me leverage to negotiate prices based not on what they said the numbers were but what I could prove were the real numbers for my client. I can appreciate that the radio stations base ad rates on listeners, but how many listeners doesn’t matter to me if none of them are interested in buying what I had to sell.
Sharing the CPL during media negotiations of the other stations and publications was never a problem. It was important for each of them to know that I was ready and able to stop my buys with them if they could not help me improve my CPL by reducing rates. The clients needs were most important and I was not about to report to them that we were buying media that was below par.
This is not a common practice for agencies because they mark up media 17.5% and the higher the buy, the more the commission they receive. My media buying fee was 6% and because I was paid either hourly or on retainer the 6% was not a factor for me. The way commissions are being done has been changing over the years. It used to be that all media fees automatically included the agency mark up. More often now the mark up is not included and it is up to the agency to bill for those fees.
During my time with this first client they referred me to others and the sales team referred me as well. They all saw that I could market their product and do it in a way that was most profitable to them. I was honest and straightforward and was a quality alternative to the larger agencies in town.
I was having a blast! Here I was again, doing what I loved, doing it well, and changing the way my clients viewed an advertising agency.
Then with some new laws on the books the already struggling real estate climate in Las Vegas came to a screeching halt. I was put to task at figuring out how to get our prospective buyers to not only fit the lifestyle profile but now to target the financially qualified buyer as well. So, how do you know if a person is a financially qualified buyer…you don’t. But the realtor does! They understand much better the financial stability of their clients and if compensated properly, will bring buyers in.
Realtor programs had been a big part of the Centex marketing plan and I was very familiar with how they worked. I had tried to get in buyers without realtors so we could avoid the commissions and extra fees associated with them. But, now we were in position where we needed to tap that resource. So, I began developing realtor programs and incentives to drive the financially qualified buyer into the sales office.
And during this process, my client was struggling not having expected this turn of events in the market. With that, my time with them was halted but we maintained a good relationship. I did a great job and they knew it. Their money was well spent but they could no longer afford me.
I still had other clients and was doing okay until banks stopped lending to developers. Land values were dropping at incredible rates and for most developers the land was collateral for the loans already taken out. Slowly, my client base fell apart and my attempts at finding new clients was unsuccessful.
Eventually I closed the business and with so many layoffs I was unable to find a job with another company. My husband and I made a decision to move back to California.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 4 Centex Homes
Everyone has a dream job. Mine is where I can use all of my knowledge and experience and have an impact on a business’ bottom line. I excel in an environment where I am allowed to learn and grow and strive for greatness.
This is my personality! I take my work personally and believe that how I perform at the office directly reflects who I am as a person. I have no tolerance for laziness, stupidity, or backstabbing meanness. I do expect people to work hard but not necessarily as hard as I do. That is because my feelings about what work is, is not always the way others feel.
It’s okay to not want to work 10-14 hours a day or even feel the need to. The lessons I have learned during my career up to this point dictate that I arrive at work an hour early to prepare for my day, stay usually an hour late to finish up what I had started. How people leave the office with papers all over and no organization baffles me. Organization is the key to my time management and when you work in an agency or even corporate setting, knowing what you accomplished during the day and knowing what you need to accomplish the next day is vital.
When I resigned my position at BMA it wasn’t until later that I realized/learned, not everyone has the same feelings about work. Not everyone appreciates that kind of work ethic and shouldn’t be expected to be grateful that you come to work and do all that you do everyday. It is something that you do for yourself and your clients/employer because you want to.
Hard lesson to learn! My very first job was working at a restaurant in Fullerton for a man who I can not say enough about. Big Al, IHOP owner and major influence on my life. He is the one that taught me the “do for me, I do for you” ethics. He was always there for his staff and always appreciated when you did your job well. He rewarded you with his friendship and when possible a job when you needed one, for the rest of your life.
The lesson I learned didn’t mean he was wrong, it only meant that this was his belief on how the world went. And I love him still to this day for teaching me that when you work hard, good things will come to you. Maybe not right now and maybe not even soon, but they will. I was 15 years old when I started working at IHOP and I worked there on holidays and weekends and whenever he needed me, up until I moved to Las Vegas at 30.
After resigning my position at BMA there was an opportunity for me to work with one of our clients, Centex Homes. I had worked with Nikki and her team for over a year, understood her needs and after talking to her in depth understood where she saw her department and her career going.
This was an opportunity for me to do what I love, in an environment that would allow me to work my butt off and recognize it and give me opportunity to continue up that ladder. So, I went about taking my assessment tests and interviewing with the VP's to join this team. I was looking for a place to call home for at least 5 years and thought I had found my home.
It was about a month into the job where Carissa and I designed and produced the companies annual homeowner gift. Together we saved the company well over $12,000 by taking the project in-house. Carissa knew how to design and I was able to get printing costs without the typical agency mark-up. This was the first step in creating an in-house marketing department. My goal was to push Nikki up by her butt into the Director of Marketing position and to take her seat.
One of the great things about Centex Homes was they pushed continuing education. They offered classes for free and if you took 6 or more you would receive a large bonus at the end of the year. So, yes, they paid you to take these classes.
I took classes on new home construction, the Centex way of doing business, Power Point, HR classes, and many others. In the first 6 months of working there I had learned so much valuable information and had quickly become an invaluable member of the team and loved every single minute of it.
We had events all the time during weekends and I never minded going. One of my favorites was the Dragon Boat races at Lake Las Vegas. Along with one of the radio stations we bought media from we built a team and had a boat in the race to raise money for the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. I was the team mascot and drummer.
It is a rare to find a job where you love everyone you work with, love what you do everyday and get to be successful. I was given my own group of neighborhoods to manage as well as was working closely with Nikki to learn her job and help her as much as I could.
I was writing the marketing portion of land acquisition packages for the traditional family portion of the business. This was so much fun because I was doing research about who the buyers were going to be, how we would market to them and what our goals were for the new neighborhood as far as traffic numbers were concerned.
Working with the land development team, I learned about setbacks, how to properly name streets, what we had to do to tear down older homes to build new ones and what our scheduling was going to be on this new property we were going to be building.
All of this while also being sure our annual marketing budget was complete and included all of the tactics we needed to drive traffic to the already existing 14 traditional family neighborhoods. I loved this job! I loved the challenge of learning and immediately implementing those lesions into my daily work.
Our division in Las Vegas was struggling with sales and a new president was brought in to help the review company land purchases and budgets. It was then that we all learned that the company was not doing well and layoffs were imminent. It was just a matter of when and exactly who.
So we were cutting budgets like mad and we had to let our first team member go. And over the next few months the changes came fast and if you weren’t paying close attention, without notice. I was working hard to figure out ways to measure the impact of our marketing campaigns and along with one member of the strategic marketing team surveying and researching the Realtor base we had to see what we could do to get them to sell more of our homes.
During all of this madness, Nikki decided she had to leave the company and pursue another avenue for her career path. We both knew that our visions of an in-house marketing department had died and she would not be promoted to the director position. I did eventually get her title once she was gone and they hired a director from out of state.
Nick Metcalfe, the new director, and I set out to build a relationship and learn each others work style. I was very lucky to have a new boss who taught me even more than I had hoped. Who knew there was so much more to learn? He understood that I wanted to develop and complete entire projects and allowed me to do that. It was great!
But all good things must come to an end I guess. I was laid off and eventually Centex Homes was sold to Pulte Homes. The Las Vegas division no longer exists and as we all know, the housing market collapsed with a loud thud that reverberated across the country.
Once again, I found myself out of work and on the job market. So much for my 5 year plan! I was looking around for a position but soon realized that my expertise was not marketing but real estate marketing.
This is my personality! I take my work personally and believe that how I perform at the office directly reflects who I am as a person. I have no tolerance for laziness, stupidity, or backstabbing meanness. I do expect people to work hard but not necessarily as hard as I do. That is because my feelings about what work is, is not always the way others feel.
It’s okay to not want to work 10-14 hours a day or even feel the need to. The lessons I have learned during my career up to this point dictate that I arrive at work an hour early to prepare for my day, stay usually an hour late to finish up what I had started. How people leave the office with papers all over and no organization baffles me. Organization is the key to my time management and when you work in an agency or even corporate setting, knowing what you accomplished during the day and knowing what you need to accomplish the next day is vital.
When I resigned my position at BMA it wasn’t until later that I realized/learned, not everyone has the same feelings about work. Not everyone appreciates that kind of work ethic and shouldn’t be expected to be grateful that you come to work and do all that you do everyday. It is something that you do for yourself and your clients/employer because you want to.
Hard lesson to learn! My very first job was working at a restaurant in Fullerton for a man who I can not say enough about. Big Al, IHOP owner and major influence on my life. He is the one that taught me the “do for me, I do for you” ethics. He was always there for his staff and always appreciated when you did your job well. He rewarded you with his friendship and when possible a job when you needed one, for the rest of your life.
The lesson I learned didn’t mean he was wrong, it only meant that this was his belief on how the world went. And I love him still to this day for teaching me that when you work hard, good things will come to you. Maybe not right now and maybe not even soon, but they will. I was 15 years old when I started working at IHOP and I worked there on holidays and weekends and whenever he needed me, up until I moved to Las Vegas at 30.
After resigning my position at BMA there was an opportunity for me to work with one of our clients, Centex Homes. I had worked with Nikki and her team for over a year, understood her needs and after talking to her in depth understood where she saw her department and her career going.
This was an opportunity for me to do what I love, in an environment that would allow me to work my butt off and recognize it and give me opportunity to continue up that ladder. So, I went about taking my assessment tests and interviewing with the VP's to join this team. I was looking for a place to call home for at least 5 years and thought I had found my home.
It was about a month into the job where Carissa and I designed and produced the companies annual homeowner gift. Together we saved the company well over $12,000 by taking the project in-house. Carissa knew how to design and I was able to get printing costs without the typical agency mark-up. This was the first step in creating an in-house marketing department. My goal was to push Nikki up by her butt into the Director of Marketing position and to take her seat.
One of the great things about Centex Homes was they pushed continuing education. They offered classes for free and if you took 6 or more you would receive a large bonus at the end of the year. So, yes, they paid you to take these classes.
I took classes on new home construction, the Centex way of doing business, Power Point, HR classes, and many others. In the first 6 months of working there I had learned so much valuable information and had quickly become an invaluable member of the team and loved every single minute of it.
We had events all the time during weekends and I never minded going. One of my favorites was the Dragon Boat races at Lake Las Vegas. Along with one of the radio stations we bought media from we built a team and had a boat in the race to raise money for the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. I was the team mascot and drummer.
It is a rare to find a job where you love everyone you work with, love what you do everyday and get to be successful. I was given my own group of neighborhoods to manage as well as was working closely with Nikki to learn her job and help her as much as I could.
I was writing the marketing portion of land acquisition packages for the traditional family portion of the business. This was so much fun because I was doing research about who the buyers were going to be, how we would market to them and what our goals were for the new neighborhood as far as traffic numbers were concerned.
Working with the land development team, I learned about setbacks, how to properly name streets, what we had to do to tear down older homes to build new ones and what our scheduling was going to be on this new property we were going to be building.
All of this while also being sure our annual marketing budget was complete and included all of the tactics we needed to drive traffic to the already existing 14 traditional family neighborhoods. I loved this job! I loved the challenge of learning and immediately implementing those lesions into my daily work.
Our division in Las Vegas was struggling with sales and a new president was brought in to help the review company land purchases and budgets. It was then that we all learned that the company was not doing well and layoffs were imminent. It was just a matter of when and exactly who.
So we were cutting budgets like mad and we had to let our first team member go. And over the next few months the changes came fast and if you weren’t paying close attention, without notice. I was working hard to figure out ways to measure the impact of our marketing campaigns and along with one member of the strategic marketing team surveying and researching the Realtor base we had to see what we could do to get them to sell more of our homes.
During all of this madness, Nikki decided she had to leave the company and pursue another avenue for her career path. We both knew that our visions of an in-house marketing department had died and she would not be promoted to the director position. I did eventually get her title once she was gone and they hired a director from out of state.
Nick Metcalfe, the new director, and I set out to build a relationship and learn each others work style. I was very lucky to have a new boss who taught me even more than I had hoped. Who knew there was so much more to learn? He understood that I wanted to develop and complete entire projects and allowed me to do that. It was great!
But all good things must come to an end I guess. I was laid off and eventually Centex Homes was sold to Pulte Homes. The Las Vegas division no longer exists and as we all know, the housing market collapsed with a loud thud that reverberated across the country.
Once again, I found myself out of work and on the job market. So much for my 5 year plan! I was looking around for a position but soon realized that my expertise was not marketing but real estate marketing.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 3 BMA
In part one of my story I talked about how my network wasn’t working well for me after 9/11. Well, in Las Vegas, your network is your best hope for finding a job. It is more of a “who you know, not what you know” town. I’m sure that is a fall back from the good old mobster days.
I want to get a bit into what I was capable of providing at this point in my career. When I was hired on at BlueMoon Advertising I was very capable of running a complex and very busy schedule for clients. Which was great for my newest client, a residential builder who based each weeks advertising on the sales numbers from the week before.
This may sound crazy to anyone in marketing cause the hope is to have a marketing plan that was establish months earlier. But when you are dealing with a client that has immediate needs for particular parts of their business, you need to be ready to pull the trigger at a moments notice.
My work at Merica had prepared me for this exact work load. I was used to taking sales numbers and translating those into an action plan for the next sales cycle. Granted at Merica the sales cycle was one month and now at BMA it was less than one week.
Nikki Liesse was my main client contact and I couldn’t believe how smart and on the ball she was. I quickly became her go to person at the agency and we worked together to meet marketing goals and be sure that all materials were up to date and accurate.
I became a master of floor plans, local area maps, and sales office design and production. Some of my fondest memories are being out in the field with Nikki taking about where displays would go, measuring walls, windows and plotting out a blueprint. After all, I am not an engineer and the blueprints looked more like a child’s drawing. But, in the end, the numbers were correct and the sales offices always looked great. Especially after the corporate standards were approved.
For those of you who don’t know what that means: Think Pepsi or Allstate, you always see the same design, colors, logo, trademarks, etc in everything they do.
Those corporate standards were developed by our team at BMA along with Nikki’s team, Allison Brearley, Brooke Polk, and Carissa Marquez. The marketing message was “We’re there for you”. It isn’t as fresh and new now, but then it was great. I’m sure I feel emotionally attached to it because I worked so hard to insure its success.
The concept was that this builder had all the services a buyer needed to purchase a home and the products in place to keep that home in tip top shape for years to come. We hired models to use for the branding and they worked out wonderfully. We had billboards, print ads, direct mail, brochures, and an especially wonderful TV spot.
The creative team came up with the concept for the TV spot and with our vendors, Goodwyn Production Group, the film production company, and the sound production company Mind Theatre Audio we created an amazing commercial. To see a portion of what we did go to the Goodwyn website and on the main page is a video montage. Use the timeline scroll to watch what we did from 1:50 to 2:00 or you can watch all of Norm Nusbaum’s work!
And a special thank you to Norm, the man behind the camera! He allowed me to sit and participate in every aspect of making that spot from filming to editing. I have been lucky to have this man become a dear friend. So much so, that when he came to my wedding, he shot it for me on his special HD camera! Amazing talent and an amazing man!
Anyway, we also did multiple radio spots using a branded music track, thanks to Mike Lattimore at Mind Theatre. I unfortunately don’t have an MP3 of the spot or access to it. Mike and I worked together many times after this because I could always trust him to do great work.
Working at BlueMoon was hard and very rewarding because the agency was so small, I got to learn it all. At a larger agency I would have been kicked out of the production studio and told to get back to my desk. When Frank was out or after he eventually left the agency, I knew enough to help with traffic of jobs. He taught me about paper choices, production timelines, and how to keep the creative team on schedule. And so did the rest of the team and eventually Hugh Roper took over traffic, production and was still doing design work.
I haven’t mentioned yet the design team but have to say that Nuria Sanchez and Hugh Roper were a shining example of easy to work with, open minded creative types. Always being on such a tight schedule each week, I was always able to go and ask them to turn something around very quickly, sometimes in hours, and never be yelled at! You all would be surprised how testy creatives can be when it comes to doing something in a ridiculous time frame.
The thing about being on such tight deadlines is that not only did I have to keep my agency team on time and budget, but I also had to manage Nikki and her team. It was my job to be sure she knew what was due and when and if they didn’t meet the deadline, what it would do to the overall timeline and cost. One thing I did that they all responded to was in my weekly status reports. If they were late on something I needed or almost out of time, I would call out those items by adding blinking lights.
Yes, you can have blinking lights around copy points in MS Word and I used it to my advantage. It not only called out to them what I needed but also to Nikki so she could help them complete the project or change her expectations appropriately.
Now, after about 6 months, not only was I on this account but I also was managing the account service team (1-2 people). I was responsible for making sure they were on time and on budget with their clients, and were following agency SOP that I had set up when I first started at the agency. A lesson I learned the hard way, you can not have a working SOP if you do not have management to back you up.
I have to say that this was the stepping off point for me. My knowledge of the inner workings of a small ad agency, my experience managing teams and vendors as well as setting expectations with clients was developed here at BMA. This I am thankful for because it helped me in my transition to my next position with ease.
I want to get a bit into what I was capable of providing at this point in my career. When I was hired on at BlueMoon Advertising I was very capable of running a complex and very busy schedule for clients. Which was great for my newest client, a residential builder who based each weeks advertising on the sales numbers from the week before.
This may sound crazy to anyone in marketing cause the hope is to have a marketing plan that was establish months earlier. But when you are dealing with a client that has immediate needs for particular parts of their business, you need to be ready to pull the trigger at a moments notice.
My work at Merica had prepared me for this exact work load. I was used to taking sales numbers and translating those into an action plan for the next sales cycle. Granted at Merica the sales cycle was one month and now at BMA it was less than one week.
Nikki Liesse was my main client contact and I couldn’t believe how smart and on the ball she was. I quickly became her go to person at the agency and we worked together to meet marketing goals and be sure that all materials were up to date and accurate.
I became a master of floor plans, local area maps, and sales office design and production. Some of my fondest memories are being out in the field with Nikki taking about where displays would go, measuring walls, windows and plotting out a blueprint. After all, I am not an engineer and the blueprints looked more like a child’s drawing. But, in the end, the numbers were correct and the sales offices always looked great. Especially after the corporate standards were approved.
For those of you who don’t know what that means: Think Pepsi or Allstate, you always see the same design, colors, logo, trademarks, etc in everything they do.
Those corporate standards were developed by our team at BMA along with Nikki’s team, Allison Brearley, Brooke Polk, and Carissa Marquez. The marketing message was “We’re there for you”. It isn’t as fresh and new now, but then it was great. I’m sure I feel emotionally attached to it because I worked so hard to insure its success.
The concept was that this builder had all the services a buyer needed to purchase a home and the products in place to keep that home in tip top shape for years to come. We hired models to use for the branding and they worked out wonderfully. We had billboards, print ads, direct mail, brochures, and an especially wonderful TV spot.
The creative team came up with the concept for the TV spot and with our vendors, Goodwyn Production Group, the film production company, and the sound production company Mind Theatre Audio we created an amazing commercial. To see a portion of what we did go to the Goodwyn website and on the main page is a video montage. Use the timeline scroll to watch what we did from 1:50 to 2:00 or you can watch all of Norm Nusbaum’s work!
And a special thank you to Norm, the man behind the camera! He allowed me to sit and participate in every aspect of making that spot from filming to editing. I have been lucky to have this man become a dear friend. So much so, that when he came to my wedding, he shot it for me on his special HD camera! Amazing talent and an amazing man!
Anyway, we also did multiple radio spots using a branded music track, thanks to Mike Lattimore at Mind Theatre. I unfortunately don’t have an MP3 of the spot or access to it. Mike and I worked together many times after this because I could always trust him to do great work.
Working at BlueMoon was hard and very rewarding because the agency was so small, I got to learn it all. At a larger agency I would have been kicked out of the production studio and told to get back to my desk. When Frank was out or after he eventually left the agency, I knew enough to help with traffic of jobs. He taught me about paper choices, production timelines, and how to keep the creative team on schedule. And so did the rest of the team and eventually Hugh Roper took over traffic, production and was still doing design work.
I haven’t mentioned yet the design team but have to say that Nuria Sanchez and Hugh Roper were a shining example of easy to work with, open minded creative types. Always being on such a tight schedule each week, I was always able to go and ask them to turn something around very quickly, sometimes in hours, and never be yelled at! You all would be surprised how testy creatives can be when it comes to doing something in a ridiculous time frame.
The thing about being on such tight deadlines is that not only did I have to keep my agency team on time and budget, but I also had to manage Nikki and her team. It was my job to be sure she knew what was due and when and if they didn’t meet the deadline, what it would do to the overall timeline and cost. One thing I did that they all responded to was in my weekly status reports. If they were late on something I needed or almost out of time, I would call out those items by adding blinking lights.
Yes, you can have blinking lights around copy points in MS Word and I used it to my advantage. It not only called out to them what I needed but also to Nikki so she could help them complete the project or change her expectations appropriately.
Now, after about 6 months, not only was I on this account but I also was managing the account service team (1-2 people). I was responsible for making sure they were on time and on budget with their clients, and were following agency SOP that I had set up when I first started at the agency. A lesson I learned the hard way, you can not have a working SOP if you do not have management to back you up.
I have to say that this was the stepping off point for me. My knowledge of the inner workings of a small ad agency, my experience managing teams and vendors as well as setting expectations with clients was developed here at BMA. This I am thankful for because it helped me in my transition to my next position with ease.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 2 Merica
I had never lived outside Orange County and even then I always lived within 20 miles of Fullerton where I was born and raised. I had no idea what to expect but was 30 years old and ready to start living my own adult life. My dreams of the fast track career were still burning strong and I had something to prove to myself and the world.
Finding the right job in Las Vegas was not easy. When I got there and started looking for work I ended up doing the same old thing as I had been doing for years before my advertising career, waiting tables! I am really good at it and have always done well. I found a new restaurant called The Honey Tree Café, a Greek restaurant, and was part of the opening team. I was also working at a local “taven” called the Inn Zone. I’d work one shift during the day then go to my second job.
There came a point where I knew that I wanted to get back to what I went to school for. I went to the library, pulled a magazine called the Book of Lists, and sent a cover letter and resume to every single advertising agency and marketing department in Las Vegas. If my memory serves me correctly, I got about 5 calls from the 75 or so resumes I sent.
One of the calls I received was from The Merica Agency. I interviewed and was hired as a Project Manager. The account supervisor I would be working with needed help with one of the agencies largest clients. What I loved about this position was the ability to really hone my skills I had learned at The ID Group. My proudest accomplishment was putting in place a system where billing was streamlined so that the agency was being paid within 30 days of the completion of projects.
I did learn quite a bit as well about how the creative and account service teams work together. Frank Ricci was the agency production and traffic manager and he was instrumental in my learning the process of how projects were put through an agency system and the vital importance of not skipping steps to get projects completed. He would play an important role in my Las Vegas career and I’ll talk more about him later.
And of course, this is where I met Suzanne Vara, who shared an “office” with me. During my second interview I was taken in to meet her and Cindy Jennings. Football was the topic of discussion and we bonded immediately when I mentioned Jim Rome. She is also the one who taught me about using color coded folders to organize and track all projects, the rules of CYA and why they were to be followed.
My job quickly changed from helping the account sup. to really managing the entire account. I was being challenged and I loved it. I did have to work 50 hours a week and Saturdays to get all the tasks done, but I thought I was doing well. I loved the client and developed a strong relationship with them. They trusted me to get done what they needed on time and on budget.
I learned so much about respect for your clients, coworkers and what it means to be an ethical business person.
I don’t remember the exact time line now, but I think 6 month or so into the position, there was talk of the agency being bought by some of the higher level staff and eventually it did happen. And at the same time transitions were being made for my client. The VP of Marketing, my contact, was let go and there was restructuring.
So, the clients work slowed, and eventually I was laid off, given severance pay and was back on the job market. This had never happened to me before and I was personally shaken. I knew something was happening and was expecting the layoff but still, was sad and hurt. I know now that this happens often and to not take it personally.
I struggled to find a new marketing position and had started working again at The Honey Tree to pay rent. Feeling the need to go out on my own, my friend Megan Murphy and I decided to start our own company together. We opened Reliable Housekeeping Services and started to build a client list. We utilized our friends, customers at the restaurant and Megan’s family to get going. When we first started we did the homes together but after 3 months we had a full client list and were working individually.
I loved the satisfaction of going in and making a difference in someone’s life. I didn’t realize it until one client told me I saved her marriage. The arguments over the house were no longer an issue and she was now free to spend time with her family and not be consumed with house work on her days off. I did work for an elderly couple who no longer could do the work themselves. After awhile though, my body could not take the 8 hours of scrubbing 6 days a week. How some people do this work for years I will never understand.
Then one day Frank Ricci called me and asked it I was interested in coming to work with him at his new job. He had left The Merica Agency and was now working for BlueMoon Advertising. He was upbeat and excited for the opportunities that were there waiting.
I jumped at the chance to work back in advertising and signed over the business to Megan and only worked weekends to keep up the client list and make extra money. So once again I was working 7 days a week and long hours and loving every minute of it.
Finding the right job in Las Vegas was not easy. When I got there and started looking for work I ended up doing the same old thing as I had been doing for years before my advertising career, waiting tables! I am really good at it and have always done well. I found a new restaurant called The Honey Tree Café, a Greek restaurant, and was part of the opening team. I was also working at a local “taven” called the Inn Zone. I’d work one shift during the day then go to my second job.
There came a point where I knew that I wanted to get back to what I went to school for. I went to the library, pulled a magazine called the Book of Lists, and sent a cover letter and resume to every single advertising agency and marketing department in Las Vegas. If my memory serves me correctly, I got about 5 calls from the 75 or so resumes I sent.
One of the calls I received was from The Merica Agency. I interviewed and was hired as a Project Manager. The account supervisor I would be working with needed help with one of the agencies largest clients. What I loved about this position was the ability to really hone my skills I had learned at The ID Group. My proudest accomplishment was putting in place a system where billing was streamlined so that the agency was being paid within 30 days of the completion of projects.
I did learn quite a bit as well about how the creative and account service teams work together. Frank Ricci was the agency production and traffic manager and he was instrumental in my learning the process of how projects were put through an agency system and the vital importance of not skipping steps to get projects completed. He would play an important role in my Las Vegas career and I’ll talk more about him later.
And of course, this is where I met Suzanne Vara, who shared an “office” with me. During my second interview I was taken in to meet her and Cindy Jennings. Football was the topic of discussion and we bonded immediately when I mentioned Jim Rome. She is also the one who taught me about using color coded folders to organize and track all projects, the rules of CYA and why they were to be followed.
My job quickly changed from helping the account sup. to really managing the entire account. I was being challenged and I loved it. I did have to work 50 hours a week and Saturdays to get all the tasks done, but I thought I was doing well. I loved the client and developed a strong relationship with them. They trusted me to get done what they needed on time and on budget.
I learned so much about respect for your clients, coworkers and what it means to be an ethical business person.
I don’t remember the exact time line now, but I think 6 month or so into the position, there was talk of the agency being bought by some of the higher level staff and eventually it did happen. And at the same time transitions were being made for my client. The VP of Marketing, my contact, was let go and there was restructuring.
So, the clients work slowed, and eventually I was laid off, given severance pay and was back on the job market. This had never happened to me before and I was personally shaken. I knew something was happening and was expecting the layoff but still, was sad and hurt. I know now that this happens often and to not take it personally.
I struggled to find a new marketing position and had started working again at The Honey Tree to pay rent. Feeling the need to go out on my own, my friend Megan Murphy and I decided to start our own company together. We opened Reliable Housekeeping Services and started to build a client list. We utilized our friends, customers at the restaurant and Megan’s family to get going. When we first started we did the homes together but after 3 months we had a full client list and were working individually.
I loved the satisfaction of going in and making a difference in someone’s life. I didn’t realize it until one client told me I saved her marriage. The arguments over the house were no longer an issue and she was now free to spend time with her family and not be consumed with house work on her days off. I did work for an elderly couple who no longer could do the work themselves. After awhile though, my body could not take the 8 hours of scrubbing 6 days a week. How some people do this work for years I will never understand.
Then one day Frank Ricci called me and asked it I was interested in coming to work with him at his new job. He had left The Merica Agency and was now working for BlueMoon Advertising. He was upbeat and excited for the opportunities that were there waiting.
I jumped at the chance to work back in advertising and signed over the business to Megan and only worked weekends to keep up the client list and make extra money. So once again I was working 7 days a week and long hours and loving every minute of it.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 1 IDG
This blog is inspired by Suzanne Vara and her blog post for today called Unleashing The Rudy Within Us. She is an avid blogger and a very dear friend. She inspires me in so many ways! We have talked endlessly about blogging and the need to keep your various social media profiles up to date and top ranked. I know these things but seem to get lax in my efforts. Her article today once again reminded me that only the strong and very persistent will survive in this economy.
So, as I sit here, unemployed, looking for the right job, watching the news, tinkering on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google all at the same time, I realized that I need to get down to business. So, thank you Suz, again, for inspiring me, cheering me on, and being a constant reminder that true friends are always there, pushing you to do better and celebrating your every effort!
I had a whole outline of what I was going to write about. The “plan” was to discuss unemployment nationally and personally. The problem has been, every time I sit down to start writing, I get frustrated. Why? Because there are so many different versions of what I was going to write that it just seems like I’ll be regurgitating what is already out there. You don’t need stats and advice. You certainly don’t need to hear any more about how to use LinkedIn to market yourself. It has been done, repeatedly!
During my quest to narrow down what I should write about, the same theme kept coming up; my journey being unemployed (more specifically laid off), finding a new job (some better fits than others including running my own businesses), and relocating multiple times to better my life and opportunities.
Update: My main goal will be to emphasize what I am capable of doing and what I can bring to a company as a marketing manager using my past positions to give examples.
Let’s start at the beginning of my career. I was a student at Cal State Fullerton in the School of Communications majoring in PR with a minor in sociology. During my “senior year” I was loving it and was looking for my first job. Not only did I have an internship I needed to fulfill but I also wanted to get rolling on my career. I was on a self imposed fast track and was super eager to learn as much as I could and to get going, NOW. Part of this was because I was an older student, 29 and was graduating at 30. The journey to this point is a whole other story I may tell later. Anyway, I found an opportunity at The Identity Group, a boutique healthcare agency in Tustin, California.
What a great job! Linda Kaplan, who now runs her own agency, Kaplan Communications Group, was the Account Manager and turned into my mentor. She allowed me to actually learn! She taught me management of budgets, schedules, and client expectations. To this day, she was the best thing that happened for my career. Jeff Merkow, the president, showed me what it means to be a positive leader. After a little over a year, graduating and being a bit cocky, I resigned my position there and tried something new.
I started working in a sales/marketing position with Stuart Schwab at Justmovedin.com. Again, I was learning and doing because of the great support I had. One thing I learned there, beside the fact that Stewart is amazing at what he does, is that I can not stand sales. I can go into a meeting and tell you exactly why a particular program is great for you. But the second I am told, no thank you, I’m done. Get me in the right situation with a prospective client that understands what I have to offer and I am good to go. I learned how to get meetings with bribery (mostly homemade cookies), and persistence. I did well and was proud of myself even though I knew it wasn't my dream job.
Then, the United States was shocked and stunned when we were attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. I remember being woken up by a call from my friend Erin Fors, who called from San Francisco, to tell me to turn on the TV. I was shocked and stunned and have never been so scared in my life. My security had been shattered. The loss of life devastated me. I am one of those people that feel so deeply for the loss of another person, if I knew them or not.
The recovery for me took some time. I did go back to work but found that the bribery of the past few months no longer worked. The economy was falling into the unknown and not one company wanted to discuss marketing.
I was hit for the first time with the reality that, my job was not safe, my career not all that stable, and held onto the hope that it would all get better soon. I started looking for a regular account service position again. I had easily soured on sales and knew my best bet was a regular position with another agency. I lived in Orange County, near Irvine, the newest hub of marketing and communications. Things were going to be fine. I had a degree and work experience. I had been a member of OC/IABC for years, started the CSUF/IABC chapter, had great connections in my industry and a reputation for being a ambitious young professional.
Then it all started, my friends and connections built over years through hardcore networking, started losing their jobs. Not only could they not help me find a position, but they themselves were now my competition.
What is a new grad with only 2 years work experience in a down economy supposed to do?
Hmmmm…move to Las Vegas!
That part of my story next!
So, as I sit here, unemployed, looking for the right job, watching the news, tinkering on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google all at the same time, I realized that I need to get down to business. So, thank you Suz, again, for inspiring me, cheering me on, and being a constant reminder that true friends are always there, pushing you to do better and celebrating your every effort!
I had a whole outline of what I was going to write about. The “plan” was to discuss unemployment nationally and personally. The problem has been, every time I sit down to start writing, I get frustrated. Why? Because there are so many different versions of what I was going to write that it just seems like I’ll be regurgitating what is already out there. You don’t need stats and advice. You certainly don’t need to hear any more about how to use LinkedIn to market yourself. It has been done, repeatedly!
During my quest to narrow down what I should write about, the same theme kept coming up; my journey being unemployed (more specifically laid off), finding a new job (some better fits than others including running my own businesses), and relocating multiple times to better my life and opportunities.
Update: My main goal will be to emphasize what I am capable of doing and what I can bring to a company as a marketing manager using my past positions to give examples.
Let’s start at the beginning of my career. I was a student at Cal State Fullerton in the School of Communications majoring in PR with a minor in sociology. During my “senior year” I was loving it and was looking for my first job. Not only did I have an internship I needed to fulfill but I also wanted to get rolling on my career. I was on a self imposed fast track and was super eager to learn as much as I could and to get going, NOW. Part of this was because I was an older student, 29 and was graduating at 30. The journey to this point is a whole other story I may tell later. Anyway, I found an opportunity at The Identity Group, a boutique healthcare agency in Tustin, California.
What a great job! Linda Kaplan, who now runs her own agency, Kaplan Communications Group, was the Account Manager and turned into my mentor. She allowed me to actually learn! She taught me management of budgets, schedules, and client expectations. To this day, she was the best thing that happened for my career. Jeff Merkow, the president, showed me what it means to be a positive leader. After a little over a year, graduating and being a bit cocky, I resigned my position there and tried something new.
I started working in a sales/marketing position with Stuart Schwab at Justmovedin.com. Again, I was learning and doing because of the great support I had. One thing I learned there, beside the fact that Stewart is amazing at what he does, is that I can not stand sales. I can go into a meeting and tell you exactly why a particular program is great for you. But the second I am told, no thank you, I’m done. Get me in the right situation with a prospective client that understands what I have to offer and I am good to go. I learned how to get meetings with bribery (mostly homemade cookies), and persistence. I did well and was proud of myself even though I knew it wasn't my dream job.
Then, the United States was shocked and stunned when we were attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. I remember being woken up by a call from my friend Erin Fors, who called from San Francisco, to tell me to turn on the TV. I was shocked and stunned and have never been so scared in my life. My security had been shattered. The loss of life devastated me. I am one of those people that feel so deeply for the loss of another person, if I knew them or not.
The recovery for me took some time. I did go back to work but found that the bribery of the past few months no longer worked. The economy was falling into the unknown and not one company wanted to discuss marketing.
I was hit for the first time with the reality that, my job was not safe, my career not all that stable, and held onto the hope that it would all get better soon. I started looking for a regular account service position again. I had easily soured on sales and knew my best bet was a regular position with another agency. I lived in Orange County, near Irvine, the newest hub of marketing and communications. Things were going to be fine. I had a degree and work experience. I had been a member of OC/IABC for years, started the CSUF/IABC chapter, had great connections in my industry and a reputation for being a ambitious young professional.
Then it all started, my friends and connections built over years through hardcore networking, started losing their jobs. Not only could they not help me find a position, but they themselves were now my competition.
What is a new grad with only 2 years work experience in a down economy supposed to do?
Hmmmm…move to Las Vegas!
That part of my story next!
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