Archive for May, 2009

Effective Job Hunting!

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Today when a colleague asked if anyone knew an experienced fraud and charge back manager  looking for a new position for one of his clients it made me ask do  people find their dream job by searching internet job sites and message boards.

Most companies do not have the resources to dedicate to a major web focused effort to find employees and do not devote the time or the effort. Therefore, Google-ing for opportunities with Companies you would like to work for will rarely pay dividends.

It is more proactive and you will obtain better results by finding jobs for yourself, instead of waiting for them to pop up on the job sites.  Start by finding the companies you would like to work for or the positions you want then start networking yourself to get connected to them.

Once you know who you would like to work for find out if they have any vacancies or not. Who knows you may have exactly the skill sets they need but just did not realise they were looking for them

OK, so your employer of choice needs someone, who should you approach.  
A common tactic is to approach department heads or managers one that can pay off completely or fail miserably and historically has a lower rate of success as they have busy schedules and if you do not impress immediately your are most likely to be forgotten.

Get in touch with your chosen employers human resource department. After all, in most companies it is HR who handles the hiring and firing and knows about existing and future vacancies.

Having determined there is suitable position send a friendlier variation on the sort of cover letter you would send with your CV.  Make it clear, that you are interested in a job, introduce yourself, your experience, qualifications and why you want to work for that company. 

Try that often enough and you are bound to find somebody that did not even know they needed you, and land a much better position than you could have found searching xyz_jobs.com for the umpteenth.

Hiring a Consultant

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Hiring outside consultants to undertake short-term projects is common in business. More and more frequently, as in-house resources become scarcer and where impartiality is required, organisations and government departments are turning to consultants to get the job done.

Hiring a consultant for the first time can be a little intimidating and a search on Google will show there are thousands to choose from.

 Professional consultants specialise in a particular area and the one you want may be good at problem solving, research, marketing, engineering or business management.  As an independent professional they can make recommendations or help you implement new ideas and provide unbiased advice as they have no axe to grind or position to defend.

How Do Consultants Work?

Consultants usually work on a contract basis and sell their knowledge or services for a fee so do not start by expecting lot’s of free advice.

 The two general approaches used by consultants are the knowledge approach and the people approach.

It is important to choose a consultant whose approach fits how you want the job done as if you are expecting them to roll up their sleeves and work with your team appointing a report writer or researcher could lead to problems

If a previous consulting job did not work out for you, as a client, the problem could be that the wrong consultant was chosen whose approach may not have been suited to the job.

Do We Really Need A Consultant?

Before you hire a consultant, ask yourself, do we have the expertise or resources available in-house?

Can We Do It Ourselves?

Once you’ve answered the first question, you must decide if the people in your organisation can execute the job. Here is a checklist to help you determine if it might be possible to use in-house talent.

  • » Have you had a look at the job to determine if your organisation has the skills and resources it will require available?
  • Do your management team think they would be able to do the job?
  • Could you re-assign staff to work on the job?

If you answered yes to all these questions, your organisation could probably handle the job in-house.

If you feel your organisation cannot do the job on its own, the next step is to look at outlining your job for the consultants you are interested in working with.

Terms of Reference (Project Description)

The terms of reference is a short description of the project and what you want produced.

The terms help explain your project to the consultant and keep things on target. They also help the consultant estimate the cost of doing the work.

The terms of reference should:

  • Outline your understanding of the problem to be solved or the job to be done 
  •  Specify your objectives – what you expect or want to achieve from the consultant’s work 
  •  State the product you expect the consultant to produce (e.g., a marketing strategy, business plan, system, procedure, loyalty programme health check, report or other document) and what it will be used for 
  • Set a schedule for carrying out and completing the work

Your Contract with the Consultant

A properly written contract clearly states who is responsible for what and helps prevent unpleasant surprises for both the client and the consultant.

At OVC Marketing our consultants pride themselves on providing affordable expert advice and being prepared to roll their sleeves up and work alongside their clients at board level or with the team on the shop floor.

Social Networking, Welcome Guest or Insufferable Bore?

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

To remain a welcome guest treat social-networking sites like cocktail parties. In other words, interact with others in the same way you would at a face-to-face gathering.

 

Ask yourself:

 

Do you walk into a party where you have a few acquaintances and loads of people you do not know and shout ‘BUY MY PRODUCTS’?

Do you go to a party and ask every person you meet for a business card before you agree to speak with them?

Do you listen more than you speak?

 

Yes, you can go to any function and hit on everyone as a sales lead while you rabbit on about what your company does. However, that approach is unlikely to make you many friends or help you close many sales.

 

So ask yourself, before you post on Facebook, LinkedIn  or any social net working site, would you say the same to a person standing beside you?

 

If the answer is ‘YES’ then unless you are an insufferable character it probably means it is ok!

Advance Search Options

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Google are always working to help users refine their search results and weed out irrelevant results to help them find what they are looking for and to this end have announced Web Options.

With Web Options when you perform a search on Google, you will see a link under the search box that says show options. Clicking this will bring up a left-side navigation menu allowing you to check out results for video, forums, and reviews, and select to view your chosen search topic by: any time – recent results – the past 24 hours – the past week and the past year.

Do these changes represent a completely new set of guidelines from Google and will they affect web marketers or are they the same guidelines focused more towards the user?

Web Options has the potential to impact on web marketing by offering a much wider range of ways to find information and to demonstrate SEO is not just about optimising a website and getting links it is about getting your site in front of real people.

Is the search giant is saying they want websites optimised for people, with relevant content for their searchers and this advance seach option will become part of every Google search?  Will it these advanced search options make an impact on your site?

As a website owner or marketer, you should be thinking about how your site will show up for each option and then decide if you can afford to adopt a wait and see approach or devote the time and effort to try and feature in the advance search options.

Do you think these changes will affect your search results and how do you intend to manage your SEO efforts to benefit from these changes?

Building a House of Cards!

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

Have you ever tried to build a house of cards? As the house grew so your strategy became more complicated but none of it mattered without a solid foundation.

Watching and listening to our SEO experts dissect a random selection of websites made me realise many companies are sold on the appearance of their website not about the foundations or meeting their customers needs and are building their own house of cards.

They all agreed that what website visitors care about is solving their problems.

Most people visit a web site to solve one or more of these four problems:

  • They want or need information
  • They want or need to make a purchase
  • They want or need to be entertained
  • They want or need to be part of a community.

The solid foundation of a website requires: 

  •  Clean code that is error free
  • Java script that is in an external .js file and not on-page
  • CSS. In an external file and not on-page
  • Easy navigation. Pages that are well connected to each other
  • Topics clearly defined on  each page
  • Meaningful content on each page
  • URLs that the engines can follow
  • Sitemap.  
  • Robots.txt file
  • No frames
  • No Flash or java script navigation
  • Text on the actual page. Not contained within Flash or an image

Do not over look the foundation of your SEO campaign. Only once these foundations are laid you can you start to look towards increasing your position on the search engines.

Remember your website, once a customer has found you, if you want them to buy or come back,  is about solving  their problems not opening a new marketing channel, promoting a brand or  increasing company sales by 20%.

The Best Job in the World

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Congratulations Ben S! After a worldwide search, Tourism Queensland have appointed their new Islands Caretaker.

The campaign to fill “The Best Job in the World” was one of the most innovative marketing ideas in a long time and the successful applicant was not the only winner.

Tourism organisations and their advertising agencies constantly struggle to find ways to get their messages heard in a relevant way by their target market at a price that will not break the bank.

Queensland Tourism Board delivered a well executed global campaign that cost less than a million dollars and their worldwide coverage, particularly in key target markets of Asia, Europe and the US, saw a much more interesting message than the usual “please visit our country” that has become the norm.

The campaign, based on the job interview process had several key elements, could you apply these concepts to your next campaign?

  • Can you create newsworthiness around your product or service?
  • Can you tie your product into an event the media would be interested in?
  • Can you create an aspirational marketing element?
  • Can you add value with your product
  • Can you make your poduct cool to have, use, enjoy?

Remember, timing is critical and this campaign saw job interviews in the northern hemisphere, when people were shivering through winter and thinking about warmer places.  Get out a calendar and see if there are different holidays or festivals you can leverage rather than being one of many in the standard Christmas or Mother’s Day campaigns.

Be prepared to think outside the box!

What elements of “The Best Job in the World” struck you? How could others create a similar result? We will open a thread on this topic on the OVC Forum

OVC  Marketing

Hard Weeks Work!

Friday, May 8th, 2009

The wonders of a global economy and clients worldwide!
Friday 1st May. May Day Holiday
Saturday / Sunday. Weekend
Monday 4th May. Bank Holiday, Australia, UK
Tuesday 5th May.  Public Holiday Thailand Celebrate Kings Coronation.
Wednesday 6th May. Public Holiday ThailandChakri Day
Thursday 6th May. Oh no everyone is working so I had better get started

 Never mind tomorrow is Friday and the ME is shut!

Survive the Financial Crisis

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Business is and always has been cyclical so think of this financial crisis as temporary. When every dollar counts, the right attitude can help your business move forward, even in these challenging times.

Tell yourself the good times will come again and look at how despite having to do some belt tightening during a recession you can come out the other end fitter stronger and better prepared for the good times.

Keep in touch. Double your efforts to better serve existing customers. Stay in touch with past customers. Use this constant contact to show you care and the customers who are having a tough time will be more likely to come back to you as business picks up.
 
Be transparent. Your workers feel more insecure during a recession than you do. Give your subordinates an honest assessment of the situation. If there is no alternative but to reduce the workforce have a meeting and tell everyone. Your transparency gives everyone more of a stake in the business, and builds trust for your employees.

Do not be a control freak. Do not fall into the trap of believing in hard times you are the best person for every job and start trying to micro manage. Trust your team to do what they were hired to do, lean on your management and staff, recognise and dump ineffective practises 

Be in a position to take advantage when the sun comes back out.

Social media, friend or thief of time?

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Sitting down this morning I suppose like bloggers round the world I was stuck for ideas. So decided to check out my facebook account and look for inspiration from what people I know have been doing.

As the time ticked by I realised that despite  today’s economy going to the pits, there would be millions of man hours being spent checking facebook, linked in and the myriad of social networking sites.

With consumers’ grip on their money  getting excruciatingly tight can business afford these man hours, do these sites really generate business or are we all getting caught up in the hype that surrounds social networking?

The roof is leaking!

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Listening to the radio and watching TV in Thailand has always been like stepping back time and  today listening to the news I realised one of the fundamental difference between working in Dubai and Thailand.

Most Dubai media offerings put a rosy glow on business and financial happenings, in the UAE.

Thailand seems to have a much more factual  style (aka 1950’s)of reporting with the focus on how business and financial issues will impact the Thai people. 

Today with the rainy season approaching and the office roof leaking you realise there is still a long road ahead for Thailand to get back to the position they enjoyed before the 1997 financial crash and to restore the confidence of foreign investors and tourists in the current uneasy political situation.

OVC Marketing . Com