What To Do When You Get Laid Off

Getting laid off sucks.  OK, I said it.  I don’t care what the reason is…corporate acquisition, “right-sizing”, bad sales, scandal, or bankruptcy, you still end up in the same place – unemployed.  Now what do you do?

I look at layoffs as another life changing event that you have to work through.  You might be going through similar emotions like a death in the family.  At least it feels that way.  The routine that you have gotten used to including getting up every day, getting dressed, having your venti Starbucks and going to work just got majorly disrupted.  Your emotions are going crazy.  You might experience a brief feeling of joy (“I’m glad I’m out of there”), a feeling of loss and sadness (“I have worked with every day for 10 years with great people and I won’t be working with them anymore”), anger (“How could they do this to me and my family after all I have done for this company?”), or surprise (“I didn’t see that coming.  What do I do now?”).

If you have been out of the job searching mode for a while, you have to learn the new way of finding a job.  Finding jobs in classified ads in newspapers have been replaced by job boards and sites like Monster, Careerbuilder, SimplyHired, Indeed, Beyond, ZipRecruiter and Execunet to name a few.  You might be able to find a recruiter or career counselor who will help you find employment.   There are a few things that I suggest before you get started.

First of all, clear your head of all of the negative thoughts about the last job.  It’s done.  It’s over.  Bury it and learn from it.  One of the biggest struggles people face after a layoff is self-doubt.  Your life just got turned upside down by a layoff and either you want to blame the ex-employer or yourself.  If you caused the separation by poor performance or attitude, fix it.  If they caused the layoff, move on.  It happens.  I worked for a small industrial supply company that was a fun, great place to work.  The owner wanted to retire and sell off his companies.  He did everything he could to find a buyer who would keep things going status quo and that’s what he was told at the time of the acquisition.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t control the changes that occurred at the buyer’s executive level.  Their acquisition strategy changed and many people got laid off, including me.  It happens. Close that chapter.  Start a new chapter in your book of life.

Believe in yourself.  You have talent and experience.  Now you need to get others to see it.  I strongly recommend creating or updating your profile on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is the largest and most powerful business networking site on the internet.  You need to be there.  Your profile needs to be clean and to the point.  Who are you?  What do you do?  How can you help another company?  Although it’s important to tell future employers what you have done where you worked, it is also important to speak to their needs and let them know how your talent and experience will help them.

Network.  Talk to former suppliers, people you know, and join groups that have similar interests to you.  Get your name out there.  The more eyes looking for your next opportunity, the better.  LinkedIn is an excellent networking tool.  The bigger your network, the better the chance you will know someone who knows of a new employment opportunity.  LinkedIn does a really good job of connecting you with people who know people working at your target company that you want to work for.  Get them to introduce you.  It’s much easier when applying for an open position to have someone who knows you and works where you want to work to recommend you.

Update your resume and post it on several job boards.  Create alerts that email you daily jobs that match your profile.  This makes job searching easier. Answer the job posts that match your needs.

This is my 20^th blog post on LinkedIn.  I figure that a good way to let a future employer know who I am and how I approach my career of branding, synchronized marketing and ecommerce is to tell them through LinkedIn and my personal blog, www.gregpalmer7.wordpress.com.  I also have more information about me on my website, www.gregoryapalmer.com.  I suggest creating your own website and blog.  Self-publishing has never been easier.  Social media is an excellent way of getting the word out that you are looking for your next employment opportunity.

Remember, put the layoff behind you.  If you caused your layoff or dismissal, fix it so it doesn’t happen again.  If you didn’t, learn from the experience and move on.  Don’t linger in the past.  Look forward to your next employment opportunity. Stay positive. Attitude is key.  Know you are talented and have the skills for your next position.  Get the word out about who you are through LinkedIn, job boards, networking, your website and blog posts.  Your next adventure is just beginning.

Successful Branding Connects With Your Audience

I have had the pleasure of working side-by-side with some very creative people throughout my career including advertising agency professionals from some of the largest firms in the country.  As a branding, synchronized marketing and ecommerce professional for over 20 years, I have had the opportunity to observe some outstanding marketing and advertising, and other campaigns that were a total failure.

Successful branding campaigns come in all shapes and sizes.  In all good branding campaigns, the brand connects with the audience using visual imagery, great special effects, humor and emotion.  Here are some examples of effective branding.

 

Some advertisers use visual ads that allow the picture to speak louder than words.

Nestle – KitKat bench

http://www.101qs.com/606-kit-kat-bench

Mars – Truck Size

http://littlefun.org/posts/Mars_bar_truck_size

 

Others use great special effects.

Jeep Liberty – Andy Kim’s Rock Me Gently

http://youtu.be/mXUjSgWBhy8?list=RDmXUjSgWBhy8 

Evian Roller Babies

http://youtu.be/XQcVllWpwGs

 

Others use humor.

Nissan Heisman House – Backyard Football

http://youtu.be/z1f2U2HpGDQ

Reebok – Terry Tate Office Linebacker

http://youtu.be/RzToNo7A-94

 

And others use emotion with visuals and music.

Budweiser – The Cydesdales

http://youtu.be/uiJqzdOr4Ok

Volkswagen – The Force

http://youtu.be/R55e-uHQna0

 

In each of these examples, the brand of the product appears throughout the ads in very clever ways.  The Nestle Kit Kat logo on the bench or the MARS bar as a truck bed.  The Jeep commercial with the singing animals was filmed inside the Jeep.  The roller babies skate around the Evian bottles and logo reinforcement at the beginning, middle and end of the commercial.  The Nissan Heisman commercial introduces the brand on the opening title and has the football game lit by several Nissan vehicles.  Terry Tate office linebacker is wearing jerseys with several Reebok logos and a gold bling necklace with a large Reebok logo.   Budweiser has done an excellent job over the years branding the Clydesdales and using the Budweiser logo throughout the commercial on the trainers ball cap, beer on the table and the Budweiser Clydesdales truck.   Volkswagen used the recognizable Star Wars icon Darth Vader and theme song to instantly connect with the audience.  The connection of the Star Wars icon and the VW product with the help of the father’s keyless remote was very effective.

All of these ads are effective because the advertiser leverages imagery, music, scripting, humor and emotion to reinforce the brand in creative ways.  If you remember the brand when you see ads or watch commercials, then the advertising agency has effectively done their job.

Customer Segmentation – Leveraging Your Data For Success

In my post “Clean Customer and Product Data – Your Pot of Gold”, I talked about the importance of customer and product data hygiene and maintenance.  In this post, I would like to take you through the next steps with your clean customer database… customer segmentation. 

The first step in customer segmentation is to analyze your customer data.  Any marketer will tell you that you need to collect as much information about your customers as possible.  The more data you have, the more segmentation you can do.  One of the key things you look for are patterns – similarities and differences in the data that you collect.  Here are some things to look for.

• Geography
• Lead, prospect or customer
• Gender
• Age
• Method of entry to your company (email, print, banner ads, Adwords, social media, call center, fax, walk-in)
• Method that your customers purchase (phone, web, walk-in)
• Products purchased
• Frequency of purchases
• Products viewed but not purchased (You might detect a pricing or product content issue)

 The next step is to group and flag this information into your database.  You can create and name categories that your customers fall into.  For example, if you segment your database by “XYZ widget buyers”, then you can target market to that group only and upsell certain accessories to those customers.

The next step is to segment your customer database.  Be careful here.  You don’t necessarily want to pigeon-hole customers into one group.  You will find customers overlap into multiple categories.  Make sure that you don’t hit the same customers that fall in different groups at the same time.  Verify that the simultaneous marketing campaigns you are launching include different customers.  Over-marketing is easy to do if you aren’t careful.

Once you have flagged your database with the appropriate segments, do some A/B testing of your marketing campaigns.  See what works for those segments and what does not.

Measure everything you do and make adjustments to continuously improve your campaigns.  Implement the programs that work and stop the ones that don’t.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.