Throughout your career, marketing yourself as a professional is vital.

Landing your dream job in this day and age is difficult - the job market becomes seemingly more and more competitive with each passing day. Therefore, marketing yourself as a professional and giving yourself a career brand is important for a number of reasons. The primary reason is, of course, to stand out to potential employers.

Marketing yourself as a professional demands a lot of self-exploration, which plays a huge part in helping you to narrow down your job search to ensure that you make the best career choices tailored to you. After all, you need to be able to understand what you are selling in order to market yourself successfully.

Once you grasp a better understanding of your talents, skills and experiences, you’ll find it much easier to compete in today’s job market - not to mention feel much more confident doing so. You’ll find it much easier to sell yourself in job interviews, as well as network with other industry professionals.

So how exactly can you effectively market yourself as a professional, to stand out in an increasingly competitive job market?

Here are a few easy steps to help you get on the right track.

1. Know Yourself

As a professional, it’s absolutely essential to be aware of your own key strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, how can you expect to sell yourself to a potential employer? Where do you even begin?

Take a look at your past experiences to figure out where exactly your talents, skills and capabilities lie. Once you’ve identified your skillset, look at how it can relate to the career path you’re hoping to follow. This is the first essential step towards effectively selling yourself as the perfect candidate.

2. Set Yourself Career Goals

As well as understanding your key strengths, weaknesses and abilities, it’s important to set yourself career goals.

Setting goals in your career will keep you focused as well as provide direction and purpose. If you don’t set yourself any goals, you’ll find yourself running around, failing to achieve anything for yourself.

Setting goals gives you clarity on what you ultimately want out of your career: it ensures that you are investing your time, energy and effort into the career path that really matters to you.

3. The Elevator Speech

Once you’ve undergone a little bit of self-exploration, the next step in marketing yourself as a professional is crafting an elevator speech.

An elevator speech is a clear, brief message about you, communicating who you are, what you’re looking for, and how you can be an asset to a company or organisation - and it can all be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator from the top to the bottom of a building.

When crafting your elevator speech, focus on the most important points that you wish to convey about yourself. Think about your key strengths and what you have to offer.

Keep it short and focused.

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4. Network

Don’t be too quick to push the ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’ cliché out of the window.

Networking plays an important role in the professional world, so don’t hesitate to step out there and start making connections with key figures in your industry.

There is an endless list of professional organisations and networking events out there to attend, and many at no cost. Participating in such activities enables you to meet like-minded individuals and increases your chances of interacting with potential employers. Networking events are your perfect opportunity to sell yourself with your carefully crafted elevator speech.

5. Tailor Your CV to Your Industry

In the job hunting process, your CV is invaluable.

It should always include the most up-to-date information regarding your skills, educational background and qualifications, and past experiences. At the end of the day, your CV can make or break your job search success rate.

With increased competition in today’s job market, it is more important than ever to tailor your CV to your industry to be seriously considered for a role. By tailoring your CV to the specific industry to which you are applying, you can greatly increase your chances of impressing your potential employer and securing an interview.

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6. Revamp Your Digital Presence

It’s no secret that social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be powerful job searching tools - but they can also be incredibly damaging to your professional reputation if used the wrong way.

If you want to be taken seriously in the job market, it may be worthwhile spending some time giving your digital presence a revamp. Employers can and will do a digital search on you, so be sure not to post anything you wouldn’t want a potential or current employer to see.

7. Utilise LinkedIn

On the subject of social media, if you’re not already on LinkedIn, be sure to get yourself listed immediately.

LinkedIn is a goldmine for industry professionals. Use it to connect with them, with colleagues, with previous employers and with potential employers.

LinkedIn is a representative of your professional self, and is your best method of marketing yourself as a professional in the digital world. It’s your online CV that the world has access to, so build up your page and keep it consistent. Use it as a portfolio of your professional life - after all, LinkedIn is fast becoming one of the most popular sites for head-hunting.

8. Show Your Passion

One of the easiest, yet most effective ways to market yourself as a professional is to show some passion for your work.

This is particularly important for when you secure yourself a job interview for a coveted role. Employers are more inclined to be swayed towards those who show a passion for their industry, as they can trust you to put the time and effort in to provide quality. Sell yourself and your passion to show exactly why you are the perfect asset.