Marketing outside of the box

How best to market your services is one of the most important factors that a professional genealogical researcher or lecturer must consider. After all, in order to conduct research professionally, someone must hire you to do so. In order for someone to hire you, they must know that you offer your services. This all comes down to how you market yourself.

Marketing has definitely changed in the past couple of years with the growth of the social Internet. How do you make yourself stand out from among other professionals? Obviously, research skill and experience are still essential. But they are no longer enough.

Here are two interesting and unique marketing ideas that I use:

The Visual Resume 

A picture speaks a thousand words. We have heard this a million times, and it is as true today as it was the first time we heard it.

Why not apply this principle to your resume?

I created the following “visual resume” using Microsoft PowerPoint, and have posted it on SlideShare, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

These slides provide all of the most important information about my services, including testimonials from past clients, in an interesting and unique way. The dry format of a resume has been replaced with much more palatable ilustrations.

Trading cards

I have to thank Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers for discovering this company.

Meet-Meme allows you to create your own trading cards. The trading cards contain a QR code (as well a short link for those of us that are i-challenged) that will take people to a profile page that you create at the same time that you create the card. This profile page can contain several links, with special attention to social networking sites. My profile page, for example, contains links to my Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook pages, as well as custom links to my Lulu bookstore, this blog, and the African American Genealogy Examiner column.

At the Institute of Genealogical & Historical Research (IGHR) last week, I ordered and gave out 20 of these fun trading cards to fellow genealogists. They were a hit! Everyone that had a smart phone immediately wanted to run the QR code and go to my profile page.

Your Ideas?

Have you tried either of these ideas? What did you think about them?

Have you tried any other interesting marketing ideas?

I’d love to hear about them!