Issue #9
May 17, 2006
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Use eBlasts to boost your profits
- Is there a book in your future?
- Help your clients explain away their employment gaps, part 2
PROFIT BOOSTER:
Easy, low-cost ways to reach out to your clients with email
One of the best ways to maintain visibility with potential clients – like recruiters, folks who have referred people to you in the past, and even past clients – is to send them regular emails. Sometimes referred to as “eBlasts,” these marketing-outreach efforts can prove very effective when they include a special offer or some newsworthy information.
Now, if you have ever tried to manually send out an email to a group of people, you know it can be an onerous and difficult process. Entering each email address into your email software program is a time-consuming and error-prone way to go about it. Also, doing it that way leaves you with little idea about how recipients reacted to your email. Did they get it, open it, read it, forward it? There’s no way of knowing.
Yet all that can be useful information. The good news is that a number of online services can provide just that – and, at the same time, greatly simplify the process by which you send your emails.
Once you go through the initial set-up with one of these providers, subsequent emails can be dispatched easily.
The first time, you must take the extra steps of uploading your contact database and designing your message. But once you’ve done that, you can send your communiqués with one click of the mouse!
By using a bulk emailer service like this, you gain all sorts of useful insights, like:
- How many people your message was delivered to
- How many opened it
- How many of the addresses bounced back to the sender – and which ones they were (You can then update your contact list.)
- How many forwarded your email to someone else (Always good to hear!) Some services even have a feature that will automatically prompt the new recipient to join your email list.
- Many providers have an automated follow-up feature that allows you to send out a “reminder message” several days after your initial message. (You can use these follow-ups to remind your clients of special offers that are about to expire.)
Connie Butler, a professional coach and public speaker (www.ConnieButler.biz), has had great success building her business through regular emails to clients and potential clients. (She keeps in touch with the more than 1,800 names on her list.) Here are a few resources she recommends:
1. Enflyer (www.enflyer.com). With this service, you can see who opens your email and how many times a person views it. (Connie says she uses this information to gauge interest in her service offerings – and to better tailor her marketing to what seems to interest people most.) This service also offers a feature that allows recipients to “opt-out” of receiving future mailings.
The price at Enflyer varies, depending on the number of emails and the number of recipients. For example, each message sent to her 1,800 clients costs Connie around $75.
2. IntelliContact (www.intellicontact.com). Depending on your needs, IntelliContact’s more varied pricing structure might suit you better. This company provides many of the same features Enflyer does, but you have more options when it comes to the “deal” you choose. For example, the one Connie opted for here costs her a flat fee of $29.99 a month. That allows her to send messages to up to 2,500 people, up to six times a month.
Both Enflyer and IntelliContact provide many stock “templates” you can choose from to give your emails a polished look. Or you can use HTML (Web coding language) to customize your messages with your own “brand.” And, if you desire, you can even have your Web designer make a stock template for you with your brand (colors, logo, tagline, etc.) that you can use for all of your messages.
3. StreamSend (www.streamsend.com/products.htm). If you want a less expensive option to test out your email blasts, consider StreamSend, a lower-priced service with scaled-back features.
Regardless of which service you choose, these marketing outreach efforts can prove to be a highly effective – and inexpensive – way to grow your business.
* * * * * * * * Highly Recommended * * * * * * * *
Is There a Book In Your Future?
Learn how to go from a "wannabe" to a published author by the end of this year
http://www.thewriterslife.com/publishing/
STRATEGIES FOR HANDLING A CLIENT’S EMPLOYMENT GAPS, PART 2
By Julien Sharp
As we discussed in the last issue of Resume Writer Success Strategies, there are many times when your services will be enlisted by a client with “gaps” in his or her resume. Remember, gaps are periods of time between jobs that can have a negative impact on the client if not addressed properly in the resume.
As promised, here are some tips for dealing with three very common reasons for an employee to be re-entering the workforce after a prolonged absence.
1. Returning to Work After Raising Children
Many parents find themselves facing the daunting task of returning to the workforce after taking time off to care for their children.
The unfortunate fact is that a mother (or father) returning to work with a three, six, or even 10-year gap in her employment history will find it much more difficult to get a job than it would have been without that gap. And this is true even if she completed a university degree and had years of work experience under her belt prior to starting a family.
Many resume experts recommend the use of a functional resume (one that highlights the “skills” learned through the client’s various experiences) rather than a chronological listing of the client’s places of employment. In fact, I feel that a well-written functional resume, with the right amount of key words relevant to the client’s experience and current career goals, can be a very effective job-search tool. But, unfortunately, many HR directors and recruiters cling to the idea that only a chronological listing of work experience is acceptable. So, as the resume writer, your job is to show relevant skills and experience, yet maintain at least a semblance of the chronological format.
At least make sure their lengthy absence is not highlighted in the resume!
Remember that parents who “worked” at home have incredible job skills – budgeting, scheduling, managing, etc. And many of your clients in this situation will have a wealth of experience from volunteer work, particularly those who have been involved with their children’s PTAs, soccer leagues, scouting clubs, and so on. Don’t be afraid to be creative – particularly in the way you question them about their activities during their stay-at-home years.
In a lot of cases, in addition to the volunteer work experience, your client might have had part-time work that would provide achievements and credentials related to jobs or industries he or she is targeting. For some clients, you will need to highlight prior professional experience.
Key Strategies:
- In keeping with a more “functional” format, present the client’s skills and qualifications up front, while keeping the dates of work history minimized, in the background.
- If applicable, concentrate on your client’s certifications, education, and previous work experience.
- If your client has more diverse experience and a very broad skill set, put more emphasis on the “profile” of the resume – and pack in the related key words in the top third of the document.
- Don’t forget any community service or volunteer work.
- If your client completed a degree while caring for the children, make sure to emphasize the “work-life balance” capabilities he or she has, including time management!
- If the client is returning to the same field in which he or she already had extensive experience, use the “profile” to include related key words and highlights, and then strongly emphasize the work experience in a quantifiable way.
2. Returning to Work After Serving as a Caregiver
Clients in this situation will have taken extended absences from the workforce in order to care for an aging or ill relative, a disabled child, or any other person requiring full-time care. While many of the tips above are applicable, it’s less likely that these clients will have volunteer, community, or civic experience, as their time will have been devoted to nearly round-the-clock care.
Key Strategies:
- If your client is “flexible” – i.e. open to any job – it is a good idea to highlight transferable skills (those that would be applicable for most positions). In extreme cases, you can focus on personal attributes.
- Some clients will want to enter the workforce as professional caregivers, after having had so much “unpaid” experience doing it. In this case, highlight the work they did with the family member or loved one.
- If the client is seeking a low-stress job but has extensive qualifications and held high-level positions prior to the gap, make sure to minimize this information. If you don’t, the candidate will be excluded as “overqualified.”
- If the gap is small –under 24 months –it is acceptable to disregard it and use a traditional chronological format.
3. Returning to Work After Retirement
The number of workers rejoining the workforce after retirement is steadily increasing. (A great source of potential clients for a professional resume writer!) The reasons for coming out of retirement are varied. Some simply become bored with staying at home (having discovered that channel surfing isn’t all it was cracked up to be!). But in all too many cases these days, retirees simply cannot live on their savings and Social Security.
These resumes require special treatment, because you must deal with two issues: the period of unemployment and the fact that the client may be considered too old for a job. (And, yes, this does happen – even with age-discrimination laws in place.)
Key Strategies:
- One resume writer who specializes in this type of resume makes excellent use of a very strong “Relevant Skills and Experiences” section. The content of this section hones in on the skills the client will use in a chosen career.
- Functional formats work well for this group, assuming the client has at least 20 years of strong experience. The key is to get the person doing the hiring to focus on the experience, and not get sidetracked by the dates of employment.
- As with the resume for a highly qualified caregiver who wants to work in a low-stress position, the qualifications of a highly experienced retiree (perhaps a former executive) should be minimized appropriately.
- If the client has done volunteer or civic work during the retirement period, this can be invaluable for the resume.
The bottom line is, writing a blockbuster resume for a client with gaps such as those discussed today takes not only skill, but also a genuine empathy for the client and the hurdles he or she naturally faces when re-entering the job market.
The resume writer who can bring compassion, understanding, and a strong desire to be a true “partner” in the job-search process will be in great demand – and can command premium fees!
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Julien Sharp has been working with resumes for 20 years – writing, screening, and evaluating them. She's a member of the American Writers & Artists Inc. (AWAI) Board of Advisors and one of the creators of AWAI's Resume Program. For more information about this money-making blueprint or independence and financial freedom, click here: http://www.myresumebiz.com/rwss/]
LET US ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS
Please keep in touch – and allow us to help you succeed. Do you have a question about how to get your resume business started, how to grow your business, or how something “really works”? By all means – ask. In future issues of Resume Writer Success Strategies, we’ll address your biggest concerns and lay out answers to help you succeed – fast. Contact us at: resumewritingsuccess@awaionline.com.
COMING NEXT ISSUE
Time and again, we hear from our members “The resume market is saturated in my town!” In the next issue of Resume Writer Success Strategies, we’ll cover ways to set yourself apart from your competition.
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