Tired of having your resume or CV thrown in the virtual pile along with hundreds (or thousands) of other applicants, never to see the light of day again!?
Dying to know the secret sauce required to get yours to stand out??
Well, here’s a hint: forget about it, and think outside the box instead.
Ok, ok…I mean sure, you can google “resume templates” and find all kinds of modern designs, like using simple icons, something like this for instance…
It’s not that I don’t recommend using a cool template, and there are absolutely tons of ways you can hone your resume / CV to improve your chances of it catching the HR managers eyeballs. In fact, I’ve helped a bunch of friends and budding digital nomads with this. (Feel free to shoot me an email at jordan at remotemuch . com if you’d like some help!)
But that’s not the point of this article…
Instead, I’d like to describe several insider methods you can use to land your dream job or attract more clients if you’re working freelance.
These are the *exact* strategies I’ve used to land myself many clients back in my freelance days, as well as a couple full time, salaried career gigs. All remote of course 😉
And I’m not the only one with kick-ass results, countless folks I’ve given remote coaching to also found jobs and clients from these strategies. I’ve charged $50 and up to $100/hour for this coaching, but guess what..it’s your lucky day, because I’m revealing these juicy job attracting tidbits for F-R-E-E.
Follow my advice, and you’ll be attracting high paying gigs and jobs like a bear to honey.
I’ll be revealing my top, insider secrets to getting hired and attracting clients over several different blog posts. Gotta drag out the suspense, hehe.
This post will cover the incredibly powerful case study.
If you have anything where you can document a project you accomplished from start to finish, with any supporting docs and analytics, including screenshots, of the process and/or results produced, potential clients LOVE to see these!
You can save it as a PDF and link to it to your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and your personal website (more about those in an upcoming post .
Now instead of going into incredible amounts of boring detail describing how to put this together, I’ll let you see my former case study. This is exactly what I used to reel in the jobs and clients.
All you’ve got to do is copy my structure and apply it to one of your own, past projects and voila! Instant case study.
True, it’ll take you some time to gather the details, you’ll probably have to dig through a bunch of old email threads, look up some old KPIs, results, or reports, but trust me…it’s worth it.
You’ll see below that I followed a pretty straightforward format. It’s as simple as telling a story. Think of it more like a fun-to-read kids book (include lots of images!) for your prospective clients / employers… just with a bit more detail and technical terms 😉
Pro Tip: you can include a bit of niche specific lingo, enough to position yourself as an expert, but keep it high-level. Don’t go overboard with technical explanations because the person in the position to hire you might not have the same background. (Though if you’re in a highly technical field like software development, you’ll probably need to use a bit more nerdspeak lol.)
Weeeelllll alrighty the. Without further ado, here’s the structure I used:
Section 1. Title and 1-3 sentence nutshell summary
Describe what you did and the precise results you achieved.
Section 2. Brainstorm
Summarize your goal and how you thought this crazy scheme up.
Section 3. Research
Be as specific as you possible to list all the sources you used to put your project together, including details like the names of sites, posts, apps, tools, and numbers/stats if relevant.
Section 4. Execution
Let’s go! What you did, and break this down into subcategories if possible. In my example below, this included social media marketing, making a blog post, and email marketing.
Section 5. Result
Show me the money! Here’s where you get to brag about all the sweet cash you brought in (if applicable), new signups, user base growth, and any other relevant KPIs. If at all possible include some a screenshot or two as proof (you can blur out any private info).
(Optional) Section 6. Improvements
This isn’t a “must” to include, but if you realized a couple ways you could improve it for next time, feel free to throw it in. This makes the entire case study more believable, and implies you’re sharpening your skills and learning from mistakes.
Pro Tip: Keep this section short! If it’s too long, it might suggest you made some huge boo-boos.
Enough talk now! Here’s the exact case study I used a few years back for you to use as a template.
Case Study: Flash Sale Promotion
I brainstormed, researched, and executed a successful flash sale. It brought in nearly $10,000 of revenue and almost 200 annual subscriptions.
Brainstorm
I wanted to create a campaign to bring in new customers, keep existing ones loyal, and increase revenue. After considering several ideas, I chose this campaign because it would be quick and effective.
Although I initially considered other models, such as “buy one month, get one free”, I decided on offering an annual subscription at a significant discount. This would keep customers much longer and give us a larger “lump sum” per signup.
Research
I read articles, white papers, solicited advice from digital marketing colleagues, and spoke with a Facebook representative as part of my research.
Specifics:
Research suggested a maximum duration of 72 hours. It’s best to induce a sense of immediacy – i.e., “if you don’t act now this offer will be gone forever”. We considered a length 1-3 days, deciding on 2 days as a nice middle ground.
I discovered that consumers only get enthusiastic about discounts of at least 20%. The ideal range is 20-50%. To stand out, we wanted to give a 50% discount. We ultimately chose 40% and threw in a t-shirt + stickers to make it more enticing.
Facebook Advertising:
We needed paid advertising on Facebook to reach a larger audience. According to Edgerank Checker, the average page post reaches just over 10% of its fans.
I analyzed the difference between 3 forms of Facebook advertising. I compiled my research on Google Drive and distilled it to the most important points.
I selected the promoted post because it didn’t appear like an ad and it focused on our fans and their friends – our main target.
Execution
I managed the promotion’s execution and gave each team member a role.
- Backend – I passed on the campaign specifics to our developers. They created a landing page and setup the backend mechanics.
- Blog post – My supervisor and I concisely explained the promotion, including several nice images and FAQs. We wrote using a tone that’s both playful and direct. We found this worked best for our bloggers and small business owners. See the following screenshot.
- Email Marketing – [Company name] already had an opt-in mailing list with tens of thousands of subscribers. Based on previous experience, I’ve learned it’s best to email folks twice. Once immediately upon launch, and another time several hours before ending. My supervisor composed emails based on the blog post copy:
- Social Media Marketing / Advertising – I utilized all of [Company name]’s social channels to spread the word and start conversations about the promotion.
- Facebook: Created the post image with Pixelmator (like Photoshop). Included less than 20% text to meet Facebook’s promoted post guidelines. Used the shirt + sticker image from the blog post for congruency, adding “$59/year”.
- Twitter: Tweeted about giveaway immediately upon launch, several times in between, and right before closing.
In addition, I encouraged blogging influencers and brand advocates to share the news with their followers.
- Instagram and Pinterest: Used the same image created for the Facebook post and added text. I also included a link in the post description.
Result:
The Flash Sale was beneficial in 3 ways:
- Immediately impacted the bottom line. Close to $10,000 of gross income in 48 hours was a new company record.
- Nearly 200 users subscribed, locking in existing and new customers to a full year. Would give users time to grow with the company and become reliant on the product.
- Built excitement for the brand. We received mentions and likes on social media during this time. See social share bar from blog post and several tweets below:
Improvements:
Although I consider this flash promotion a huge success, there are ways I would make it even better next time.
Advertising:
In addition to Facebook, I’d advertise on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Twitter offers “promoted tweets”, Pinterest just released “promoted pins”, and Instagram is developing sponsored photos and videos (available soon).
These paid forms of promotion increase the number of views and clicks. Advertising with social media is naturally less obtrusive and more engaging than other forms of online ads.
Measurement:
I would use Google analytics or KISSmetrics to view the percentage of visitors that came from each site, including the mailing list emails.
I’d take advantage of Facebook’s conversion measurement tool to see how many clicks led to purchases.
Whichever methods work best can be focused on in the future. Underperforming outlets would be studied and improved or eliminated.
Monitoring:
I already was watching brand related keywords and hashtags with Google alerts and Hootsuite lists. However, I’d also monitor campaign-specific keywords, such as “[Company name] flashsale”. I’d follow these with Hootsuite and Socialmention. This would catch any mentions of the flash sale, which I’d respond to or share appropriately.
Weeeeell…in the immortal words of Bugs Bunny….
Hope you liked it! Now get out there and case study away! Yep, it’s time consuming to put this together…but *well worth the effort*. Again, do this right and you’ll position yourself literally miles (or kilometers for you Europeans!) ahead of job seekers with nothing to offer but a boring old resume.
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