Marketing has changed.  Companies are recognizing that cold calls, broadcast commercials, direct mail and other similar methods aren’t terribly effective.  With the advent of the internet, the tables have turned.  Instead of trying to find you, companies instead encourage you to find them when you are interested in a specific topic.  Because you’re going to the company instead of them finding you, this is considered “inbound marketing.”

These are the techniques a high-performing professional uses to attract opportunity.

Inbound marketing techniques:

• Having your own blog,
• Search-engine optimization (SEO) of the website,
• Conducting content marketing using free items including blog posts, ebooks, videos, podcasts, etc.,
• Social media marketing where you interact with people interested in your specialty.
• Offline marketing: Participating and leading organizations appropriate to your specialty.

These are all components of a Job Lure.  It turns out that one of the secrets to attracting opportunity is simply ensuring that when people want to learn more about your topic, your online or offline presence is there to provide that expertise and establish you as the expert.  And if not present, one of that person’s contacts has you top-of-mind to refer.  That’s inbound marketing!

Of course, there’s a lot more to personal branding than that.  As this blog develops, I’ll be digging into the unique selling proposition (USP), positioning, competitive analysis, skill gaps, and the rest of the front-end work that goes into creating a compelling brand.  But once you have that brand, and you have the skills to back it up, the second half of the equation is applying inbound marketing techniques for personal branding.

What’s in this for me?

By engaging in inbound marketing, you’re making yourself more visible in the field, which benefits your company.  This is particularly true if you’re in a customer facing role like sales, lead generation, customer service, technical support, etc.  (Naturally, if you’re talking at all about your job, you should consult your employer and be careful!)

You’re also more visible for potential employers looking for skills in your area of expertise.  Brian Halligan, founder and CEO of HubSpot, explains his process for finding talent in this short but insightful video:

This is not limited to sales and marketing roles.  If your knowledge is in timber management, you can be found by people looking for timber management expertise!  Same goes for restaurant management, shipping, logistics, travel, and any other industry you can think of.

TL;DR Apply basic inbound marketing techniques to your career, and create your Job Lure in 2013!

 

Image from Stock Xchng.