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This is always a tricky topic.  Everyone has their own ideas and philosophies about building a better resume.  Ask five people and you will get five different opinions on how your resume should look.  Here is one more opinion; follow these eight rules and you will spruce up your resume.

1.    Bullet points are your friends, not enemies

2.    Give a short description of your past employer

3.    Create organization, not chaos

4.    Spell check, spell check, spell check, and then proofread again.

5.    Use action words and quantify when applicable

i. Increased sales revenue 90%.
ii. Directed email marketing campaign with 50% open rate.
iii. Developed public relations campaign with 100 online newspaper hits.
iv. Conducted market research on effectiveness of distribution channels, ultimately saving company $500,000 annually.

6.    Do not leave unexplained gaps in your resume

7.    Tailor your resume for specific jobs

8.    Keep your resume to a maximum of two pages

What do you think?  Do you have any tips you would like to share with everyone?

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Following our last post, I got an idea which seemed like a stroke of genius. I’ll write a blog post that precisely explains how marketing consultants can help companies do “THINGS” better. Everybody will read it. Everybody will love it. Everybody will realize they need to complement their current efforts with a marketing consultant.

Wrong.

As I sat down to think of what those specific “THINGS” might be, I realized there was not one exact list of “THINGS” that every business needed. Different companies have different methods and different problems. It’s not logical to put everyone in the same box and say “you need this” or “you can’t possibly run a company without this.” I would suppose that the Mom and Pop shop down the street has very different issues than a large publicly traded company.

What I did discover is that, often times, identifying what those “THINGS” are can prove to be a challenge. Organizations are ever changing, and subsequently these “THINGS” may change as well. As mentioned previously in our “Who Needs Marketing Services? Everybody” post, many companies and organizations don’t take the time to regularly analyze their strengths and weaknesses, or at least give it a thorough look. The good news is that McKinley Marketing Partners is trying to make this an easier task to complete on a recurring basis.

At the end of this post you will find McKinley’s Marketing Checklist Form. We divided marketing specialties into five different categories, which makes looking at your overall marketing strategy seem a little less daunting. If you simply fill in the check list with either Excellent, Average, Needs Help, or Not Applicable, you should soon have a better handle on your company’s overall marketing landscape.

Having trouble figuring out what it all means? Need help filling in your company’s marketing gaps? Send your sheet to clientservices@mckinleyinc.com and we will help you with your marketing resources.

McKinley’s Marketing Checklist Form.

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This week, McKinley asked Ronan Keane to be our guest blogger.  On Wednesday, we posted the first half of his two-part blog post.  Here’s the second half:

The following two steps outline the types of content to publish and how to increase the number of prospects that contact you from your website or blog.

STEP 4
For you to increase the number of qualified prospects visiting your website, or other Web outposts like your blog, you need to develop content in the form of valuable information that aligns with your prospective customers’ “buy cycle”.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Use WordPress to create a blog and post answers to questions your prospects are asking. Tell your customers about your blog and promote it on Technorati.com. Unlike a website, publishing content like articles and videos on a blog is quick and easy.
2. Poll your blog visitors using an easy to install blog plug-in, then publish the results and write a press release.
3. Become a thought leader by summarizing your industry’s news and giving your opinion on your blog.
4. Interview a well-known person in your industry and put your interview on your blog.
5. Write a short PDF e-book and give it away for free on your website and promote it on social media websites like Digg.com and Technorati.com.
6. If you’re not camera-shy, post short, regular videos on your blog or website and upload them to YouTube.com and Vimeo.com.
7. Write a short report about your industry and post it on your blog. Give it away for free and collect email addresses for marketing efforts.
8. Write search engine optimized press releases pertaining to your business and put them on Digg.com.
9. Take photos of your product or your place of business, or screenshots of your software and put them on Flickr.com.
10. Repurpose all your content. Turn your report into a video using PowerPoint and Camtasia. Turn your e-book into a series of articles and distribute them on social media news websites.

Unless you’re creating new content frequently, the search engines won’t index you as much as you want them to. If you publish often, all your new content will get re-indexed on Google and Yahoo very quickly. But that’s not to say your content will be in the top results on Google or Yahoo. For that to happen, you’ll need to perform Search Engine Optimization (SEO). After you’ve performed SEO, your prospects will begin to see your website, your blog, report, or e-book in their search results.

Step 5
Performing SEO is critical for all websites that want new traffic. Without it, your website may as well be a small Tahitian island in the south Pacific to your prospects that are in the next town, county, city or your own industry. If they don’t ever see your website when they search on Google or Yahoo, then what’s the point?

SEO is the practice of identifying what search terms your prospects are using on Google and Yahoo to find products and services your company or business sells or offers. An SEO services company takes the most valuable keywords from the search terms and places them strategically on your website and in your content.

The last and most important part of step 5:

This step in many ways is the easiest because all you need to do is give your prospects an easy way to contact you. Put an 800 number in big type at the top of every web page. Put a short contact form at the bottom of every web page. Invite responses to your blog posts and tell people to bookmark your blog and website. Become more transparent in how you communicate online and engage your customers and prospects by inviting them to respond to your content.

Remember the old adage that content is king. It’s even more true on the Web. Think less about marketing and more about publishing when it comes to the Web and search engines. Publish relevant content often and you’re on your way to owning the top spot on Google and Yahoo, and your prospects’ clicks.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree or have something to add? If you’ve got a question or comment I’d love to hear from you.

About the author: Ronan Keane is president and founder of UpClick Marketing (www.upclickmarketing.com), a search engine marketing and social media company dedicated to its clients’ success on the Web.

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This week, McKinley asked Ronan Keane to be our guest blogger.  Here’s what he had to say:

Google loves published content. Text on blogs, videos on YouTube.com, pictures on Flickr.com, and audio on Odeo.com.  Google loves it all. They are in the business of indexing all the published content on the World Wide Web because companies and individuals are looking for information and content every minute of every day.

That’s why your company’s content (and lots of it) needs to be in the search results when your prospective customers look for information on the Web about a product or service you provide.  For example, your prospects may be in different phases of their purchasing decision.  They may be doing preliminary research or fact finding, but whatever information they’re looking for, you can be certain they’re using Google and Yahoo to find it.

In this two-part blog post I’m going to explain how you can use Google and Yahoo to drive qualified prospects to your website and fill your sales pipeline with qualified leads.

Here are 5 steps you can use to save money and beat the competition.

STEP 1
In 100 words or less, write down what you’re selling and why someone should buy from you. This is called your USP or unique selling proposition.  It can also be used as your elevator pitch.

I’ll use my own USP as an example:

I provide Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services to Fortune 1000 companies.  SEM is a combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC).  I’ve had 100% success using SEO to get my clients on page one of Google and Yahoo in organic results and increased my clients’ marketing ROI using PPC advertising.

You’ll use your USP for all the content you develop.  It is part of the positioning formula you should use as you develop and publish new content.

STEP 2
Identify your top three prospects and briefly describe why they need your product or service and how you’ll help them.  I’ll use my top three prospects as an example:

1. Marketing Managers
2. Vice President of Sales
3. Small Business Owners

What they need and how I help them:

Marketing Managers

• Marketing Managers need brand recognition and an increased sales lead pipeline.
• I will place their brand name with their product and services consistently on page one of Google and Yahoo.

Vice President of Sales

• VPs of Sales need more qualified prospects to close sales more quickly.
• I will drive qualified visitors to their website via specific keywords used on search engines thereby qualifying their prospects.

Small Business Owners

• Small business owners need more customers.
• I will get their website on page one of Google and Yahoo for their product or services name along with geographic coordinates and other Local Search techniques thereby driving more visitors to their website.

STEP 3
Each of your prospects move through what is called a “buy cycle”.  That’s a fancy name for how your prospects decide who to buy from and what product or solution they need.  For example, if you’re a company that sells point-of-sale software to national grocery stores you’ll know that often it’s a purchasing manager’s responsibility to identify software vendors.  Before making a buying decision, the purchasing manager will search for information and find different content in various formats.

The purchasing manager’s “buy cycle” would look like this:

1. Where do I get information?
   What point-of-sale software is on the market?

   Action:
   Search for information about point-of-sale software using Google and Yahoo.

2. What information is available?
   Where on the Web can I find the best information about point-of-sale software?

   Action:
   Find information on experts’ blogs, in free e-books, and reports using Google and/or Yahoo.

3. Who has the best information?
   Which point-of-sale software vendor has the best content to make the purchase easy for me?

   Action:
   Identify top point-of-sale software companies, read their content and contact the best one.

I italicized the action step within each part of the “buy cycle.”  As you can see, search engines play a significant role in the “buy cycle” as illustrated in steps 1 and 2. The purchasing manager relies on search engines to help them do their job more effectively.  Research shows that the purchasing manager will regard the results on page one to be the best results because they trust Google and Yahoo.  Research also shows that people don’t click to page two if they don’t see what they’re looking for, but instead change their search query.

On Friday, in part two of my post, I’ll take you through the final two most important steps to getting more qualified leads on the Web.

About the author: Ronan Keane is president and founder of UpClick Marketing (www.upclickmarketing.com), a search engine marketing and social media company dedicated to its clients’ success on the Web.

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Last year as the inauguration grew close, one of McKinley’s Interim Marketing Managers^sm (IMM^®), Greg Nelson, campaigned for President Barack Obama to pick a Labradoodle as the official White House dog.

He founded Labradoodles For Obama to help promote his cause.   His website gives visitors the chance to vote for which dog they think President Obama should pick.

The campaign has received a lot of media attention and just recently, CBS News picked up the story on April 8.

Click here to read the article.

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It happens to even the most successful people, companies, and organizations.  The skilled and knowledgeable commonly neglect their own needs to focus on providing their expertise for others.

Working in the marketing consulting industry, consultants, by default, are always on my mind.  So I got to thinking about how marketing trends today are ever changing, can be complicated, and very specialized.  Keeping up with these trends is a daunting task for any marketing department.  Sometimes you might not have the marketing resources or simply the time to keep up with the latest and greatest.

So, what does any good marketer do?  They look for help. Throughout my career, it seems that the best marketers are the ones who step back, take an objective look at their department, and find ways to make improvements, taking it the next level.

You can hire a consultant to come in and actually do the work or hire someone to teach you.  In my opinion, companies that look outside to marketing consultants for help on the inside, are the ones able to keep up with trends and continue to see growth year after year.  McKinley lives by this motto, as we recently entered into marketing partnerships with two Interim Marketing Managers^sm(IMMs^®), Ronan Keane of UpClick Marketing and Colleen Sutton of Red Jacket Communications.  Ronan is teaching us about search engine marketing and Colleen is helping us with our public relations efforts.

While this isn’t universally applicable, try to stop and think: “Am I practicing what I preach?” You may be surprised what you find out.

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Wow – Has it really been 14 years since McKinley Marketing Partners first got started? What an incredible ride it has been!  As the premier provider of marketing resources, there are so many people to thank for our success, our dedicated Interim Marketing Managers^sm, McKinley’s loyal clients, and of course Team McKinley.

To celebrate, I asked the team to all contribute some ideas to help with this post. Below is a list of 14 fun and informative things we think you should know about McKinley, one for each year of meeting the unique marketing, communications, and PR needs of our clients.

1. McKinley first opened for business on April 1, 1995 (you probably already figured that out though).
2. Our company is named after Mount McKinley in Alaska, also known as “Denali” or “the Great One”.  Mount McKinley is the highest mountain peak in North America.
3. In 1997, McKinley developed a proprietary, business process management system called the McKinley Information Management System (MIMS), a real-time applicant tracking system and database comprising the individual skills of each professional resource, activity-specific experience, project status, activity reporting, billing capabilities and client information. MIMS enables McKinley to respond to client needs as quickly as the same day of the request.
4. In 2000, our office in Dallas was opened for business.
5. McKinley moved to its corporate headquarters in 2001, to a renovated historic warehouse located in Alexandria, VA that was previously used by an arms dealer. During the process of receiving permission from the City of Alexandria, many versions of what was going on in this building emerged.  One City official walked into a meeting while the plans were being reviewed and was quoted as saying, “Oh, that’s the old Ollie North safe house”.
6. From 2003 to 2006, McKinley doubled in size, earning a place on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5000 fastest growing companies.
7. 83% of McKinley’s employees are female; not that we discriminate, just a little fact.
8. McKinley is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.
9. McKinley’s longest tenured employee is Carmen Zawodny. She has been here 10 years.
10. Many of our employees have some background in marketing. We’re a marketing company run by marketers.
11. On any given day, McKinley can have two or three dogs roaming the office.
12. Our award-winning corporate video is narrated by renowned CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz.
13. We have Wii parties in the conference room where you can find members of Team McKinley boxing each other or playing tennis or golf.
14. Earning the ranking No. 13 in 2009, makes it McKinley’s fifth ranking in the past six years on the Washington Business Journal’s Top Temporary Staffing Companies list.

Here’s to 14 more years of providing experienced marketing resources in Washington, DC, Dallas, TX, and New York!

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