Personal Marketing Plan

Executive Summary – 1-2 paragraphs that provides an overview that focuses on the strategy more than the situation analysis.

Situation Analysis [about 60% of the length of the plan]

· Customers. These would be potential employers, the companies or industries you might target with your employment services. Briefly describe the market with facts and data – information you might gather online or from the College’s Career Services professionals.

· Focus the section on the primary industries or companies that you will be targeting for your services.

· This section should also highlight what types of jobs they offer and possibly estimates of how many openings are likely to occur.

· Some recognition of the different types of firms in this market.

· Note, if you are interested in multiple industries or different types of jobs – focus THIS plan on one of those (on your own you should develop plans for other firms).

· Who in these companies do you think (or know) would influence or make hiring decisions?

· What are the customer needs? What skills do they need? What will be keys to success among these customers?

· Top grades would show some effort to research the job market using tools Melissa Luna suggested.

· Company. This is you. What do you want from a job? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

· What are your passions?

· What are your strengths and weaknesses?

· Are there any constraints on your search (for example, family matters require me to stay in Colorado)?

· Competitors. Who else is trying to get those same jobs?

· Identify competitors who might also be seeking the same jobs.

· What are strengths and weaknesses of each type of competitor?

· This might be easy to present in a simple table – create a competitor matrix (see example in the Marketing Plan Coach)

· Context - External market environment. Elements and issues that may be important.

· There should be some discussion of each aspect of the external market environment from chapter 3 – even if only a brief mention of an aspect that it is not relevant.

· S.W.O.T.

· Include a S.W.O.T. (strengths & weaknesses are internal to you – and opportunities & threats that are external)

· You probably want to list from 3-6 of each of these – choose the most important factors.

Strategic Direction [about 10% of the length of the plan]

· Segmentation and targeting. From all these potential employers, which one industry or few related companies will you target? Why?

· This section should include a brief rationale for your decision. The rationale for your choice should come by directly referencing things you have already written in the Situation Analysis.

· Differentiation and positioning. How are you going to differentiate yourself from the competition? How do you want employers to view you? [Note: because you have time to make changes to your product, you can note things you plan to do between now and graduation or job hunt time to enhance your marketability.]

· This section should also have rationale that clearly describes the competitive advantage you can offer to a prospective employer. And how you would position yourself vis a vis competition. Logic should come from all four of the C’s in the first section]

· Summarize this with a clear positioning statement in the form:

· “Among all potential (job type) hires, (your name) is the most (list 1-3 unique qualities you bring to a company) because (proof that you actually have those qualities)

· The qualities you can bring to an employer (in the positioning statement) should be demonstrable – hopefully with evidence or perhaps stories you can tell that show you have that quality. Develop and refine those stories – then look for ways to bring them into your Promotion efforts in the strategy section (e.g., cover letter, resume, and interview.)

Marketing Strategy [about 30% of the length] [Note that Product and Promotion P’s should get the most attention]

· Target Market. Simply re-state the target market identified in the previous section.

· Product. What do you have to offer? What will you do to enhance your offering?

· Here you should include what services you can currently offer – and what additional services you expect to be able to offer prospective employers in the future.

· Price. What is the salary or benefits an employer will have to offer for your services? [You could include any type of training needs, future opportunities, etc.]

· Place. Where would you want to work? Geography? Type of work (indoor, outdoor, on the road, from home).

· Promotion. This is probably the longest section of the strategy. How will you communicate your benefits to potential employers? This includes your resume, personal selling (interviews), networking, etc.

· This section should include promotion objectives and have them tied to specific promotion media, and the message you would try to use with each.

· Consider developing proof statements that support your positioning and strategy

References Section (provide a bibliography that might include online and offline sources you have used – include people you have talked to about the job search process).

MKT310 1 Spring 2008

Personal Marketing Plan, Updated 8-11-11

Personal Marketing Plan – Grading Rubric Name _____________________