Laura: I’m a new résumé writer. I’m going into my third year. And many of my clients are getting jobs and getting hired and I’m so excited. But my biggest goal is just getting more business. That’s the key for me. I can do the work. It’s just getting the business and that’s, I guess, my biggest dilemma, my biggest goal.
Me: I talked earlier in the presentation today about CJ Hayden’s program, “Get Clients Now.”
She has a book that you can work your way through, or I’ve actually been through her coaching program for it that’s a four-week class. And you put together a 28-day action plan that’s oriented around marketing activities like speaking and writing and referrals and those sorts of things. And like I said, her emphasis is on taking specific actions and doing them repeatedly because they’ll lead you to results. And that’s probably one of the biggest challenges we have as resume writers is that it’s kind of “feast and famine.”
So you’re like “Okay, right now it’s December and I need clients. I’m going to start working on these marketing things.” And then all of a sudden, we’ll get calls on Thursday, January 2nd, and your phone is going to ring off the hook for about 35 days with people who have New Year's Resolutions to get a new job, and you’re just going to be writing and consulting with clients and doing drafts and all this stuff. And then you’re going to get to the middle of February and there is a drought. And then you’re like “Okay, I’m going to get back on track with my marketing here” and then all of a sudden all the new grads come in April, wanting their resume. So C.J. talks about really creating the systems in place so that you’re just doing even 10 minutes of marketing a day to help even out that feast and famine cycle.
Laura: In other words, instead of waiting for the drought, market as you go.
Me: Exactly. She talks about creating a pipeline of prospects. And one of the big programs that I want to put together for 2014 from my side of things is list building because I’ve talked about this on a couple of previous calls and it’s one of my staples that I really emphasize to resume writers — building an email list of your clients and prospects so that you can turn on that pipeline when you need more business and then you can kind of turn down the volume of the flow. You always want to keep your pipeline flowing so that you constantly have existing clients coming back for updates and making referrals of new clients, but you want to have a steady flow of leads and prospects that are coming your way, and one of the easiest ways to manage that is to get them into your email system and provide them with information.
Obviously one of the biggest benefits of the BeAResumeWriter.com Bronze membership is the content that I give you that you can use with these clients. And I have a lot of the Bronze subscribers who don’t put this stuff out publicly to the world. They’re not putting the content on their blog or their website. What they’re doing is packaging it and sending it to their existing email list. It might be excerpting it or it might just be putting a cover on it and sending it out as an e-book, but using that content to keep in contact with your prospects and your existing clients and the people that they have referred.
And again, C.J. talks about this a lot. You’re more likely to get business from people who know, like and trust you. And one of the biggest ways to do that is through content marketing because it establishes your expertise and it gives you a reason to be contacting you via email. I know that it’s hard to think, when you’re looking at your email box, “Oh my gosh. There is so much stuff in here.” But aren’t there some people that you really look forward to seeing what they have to say? And so, being that kind of person is going to help solidify that pipeline so that you’re keeping in contact with the existing clients and the past clients, you’re encouraging them to make referrals, and if somebody contacts you but they’re not ready to start working with you right away or maybe price is a barrier initially, putting them on that email contact list helps you develop that reputation as a credible expert and a trusted authority so that when it’s time for them to pull the trigger and actually have somebody work with them on their resume and LinkedIn profile and all that…
Laura: They’ll remember you.
Me: They remember you — "top of mind marketing." So I think you really might benefit from CJ’s book. And like I said, if you need a little bit more hands-on instruction, then you go through the course with a trained facilitator and a group of accountability buddies. I didn’t really talk a lot about accountability buddies today, but that’s a big part of it too is just having somebody on your team who is going to keep you accountable. That might be a colleague or it might be a friend or a family member — somebody who you can put this stuff out there to and have them make sure that you’re on track for your goals.
Laura: Thank you very much. And I do use the Pass-Along Materials. I put them in a binder when I send [the finished] resume out to them, but I’m thinking now maybe that should be an email marketing project.
Bridget: I would say digital use of it is probably more cost-effective. I love the value that you get when you send it out hard copy because it really has a high perceived value, but just from the standpoint of making them accessible to more people since you’re only sending them out to folks who are getting the finished documents, you might consider putting them in digital format too so that you can just either give them access to a special page on your website where they can look at [them] or excerpting them in the emails or just having a special folder on your computer where you’re like “Okay, I’m going to send people a link to this Pass-Along Material this month.”
Laura: In other words, instead of waiting for the drought, market as you go.
Me: Exactly. She talks about creating a pipeline of prospects. And one of the big programs that I want to put together for 2014 from my side of things is list building because I’ve talked about this on a couple of previous calls and it’s one of my staples that I really emphasize to resume writers — building an email list of your clients and prospects so that you can turn on that pipeline when you need more business and then you can kind of turn down the volume of the flow. You always want to keep your pipeline flowing so that you constantly have existing clients coming back for updates and making referrals of new clients, but you want to have a steady flow of leads and prospects that are coming your way, and one of the easiest ways to manage that is to get them into your email system and provide them with information.
Obviously one of the biggest benefits of the BeAResumeWriter.com Bronze membership is the content that I give you that you can use with these clients. And I have a lot of the Bronze subscribers who don’t put this stuff out publicly to the world. They’re not putting the content on their blog or their website. What they’re doing is packaging it and sending it to their existing email list. It might be excerpting it or it might just be putting a cover on it and sending it out as an e-book, but using that content to keep in contact with your prospects and your existing clients and the people that they have referred.
And again, C.J. talks about this a lot. You’re more likely to get business from people who know, like and trust you. And one of the biggest ways to do that is through content marketing because it establishes your expertise and it gives you a reason to be contacting you via email. I know that it’s hard to think, when you’re looking at your email box, “Oh my gosh. There is so much stuff in here.” But aren’t there some people that you really look forward to seeing what they have to say? And so, being that kind of person is going to help solidify that pipeline so that you’re keeping in contact with the existing clients and the past clients, you’re encouraging them to make referrals, and if somebody contacts you but they’re not ready to start working with you right away or maybe price is a barrier initially, putting them on that email contact list helps you develop that reputation as a credible expert and a trusted authority so that when it’s time for them to pull the trigger and actually have somebody work with them on their resume and LinkedIn profile and all that…
Laura: They’ll remember you.
Me: They remember you — "top of mind marketing." So I think you really might benefit from CJ’s book. And like I said, if you need a little bit more hands-on instruction, then you go through the course with a trained facilitator and a group of accountability buddies. I didn’t really talk a lot about accountability buddies today, but that’s a big part of it too is just having somebody on your team who is going to keep you accountable. That might be a colleague or it might be a friend or a family member — somebody who you can put this stuff out there to and have them make sure that you’re on track for your goals.
Laura: Thank you very much. And I do use the Pass-Along Materials. I put them in a binder when I send [the finished] resume out to them, but I’m thinking now maybe that should be an email marketing project.
Bridget: I would say digital use of it is probably more cost-effective. I love the value that you get when you send it out hard copy because it really has a high perceived value, but just from the standpoint of making them accessible to more people since you’re only sending them out to folks who are getting the finished documents, you might consider putting them in digital format too so that you can just either give them access to a special page on your website where they can look at [them] or excerpting them in the emails or just having a special folder on your computer where you’re like “Okay, I’m going to send people a link to this Pass-Along Material this month.”
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