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As someone who coined the tagline “so introverted I don’t even talk to Alexa”, marketing myself can feel haaaard. I’m a video editor turned marketing strategist so it’s not that I don’t know what to do (I do it for my clients every day), but actually putting myself in the spotlight makes me feel like I wanna puke 🤮 and I can’t be the only one.
It wasn’t until I came up with the idea to create a resume GIF, that I thought “hey I can do this my way.” You’re probably asking what the heck is a resume GIF? It’s a branded GIF designed to grab attention and quickly tell people how you can help them. You can see mine below:
Discovering this was the key to coming up with my Stand Out and Fit In formula. What does it mean to Stand Out and Fit In? It means you disrupt the pattern and stand out from the crowd and then use language and visuals that your ideal client understands to fit into their world. The key here is to put yourself in their shoes and think about what they actually want to hear rather than what you think they need. The resume GIF works really well to generate leads for me because my people want videos that are fun and creative.
From there it would spark a conversation and I’d point them to a video on my Vimeo account which had a larger sampling of my work. I booked lots of clients using just Vimeo and no website. Enough that I finally felt like this was going to work and I was never going back to corporate again!
My Doc Brown flux capacitor moment didn’t come to me all at once, but developed over a year or so. It started back in 2019 when I was attending Social Media Marketing World. If you’re not familiar it’s a fairly large in-person conference held in San Diego that covers all things marketing.
At this point in my business journey I didn’t know much about marketing and I was going to this conference by myself and was freaking out about it. I couldn’t even convince myself to walk into the convention hall until after lunch on the first day. My anxiety was through the roof.
Then something interesting happened within the first hour I was there. People started commenting on my hair. Did I mention I have purple hair?
I’ve been dying my hair since I was 16 so I hadn’t really thought much of it, but it turned out to be an amazing conversation starter. I’m absolutely terrible at walking up to someone to start a conversation but my hair was bringing people to me! And once they started talking it was much easier for me to open up.
I remember coming home from that conference and thinking introverts need to know this! I was so excited that I had figured out something to help people like me be more social. I had all these ideas for making t-shirts and bags with marketing jokes that would serve as conversation starters.
I didn’t end up following through on that idea (not yet anyway, but it’s still on my idea list) because client work took over and then, well you know the story of 2020. But as more virtual events popped up I came back to the concept and thought how can I apply this digitally?
I was still struggling to find clients because I was afraid to put myself out there. Even worse, I would get completely discouraged about even applying to many jobs because the job posts would have 327 replies before I even could read the bleepin post. No way someone was going to notice the 328th comment.
That’s when the resume GIF was born! Being one of the few, if not only, images let alone GIFs on those job threads it immediately stood out. In fact, it would get other people commenting asking about how I made it or telling me how much they loved it. Those replies only highlighted my GIF even further. At the same time, it also immediately showcased my skills as a video editor without making someone click off the platform.
And you’re not limited to just job posts, I have successfully used this method on intro threads in programs and groups and it always gets a positive reaction. Just be careful to read the rules and make sure you aren’t breaking any. I did get a slap on the wrist in the Clickfunnels group, of all places, for using my GIF to reply to a job post 😂
So how can you use this in your own business?
Step 1: Stand Out
You need to find a way to stand out to your ideal client. What will grab the attention of your ideal clients? A GIF worked really well for me, and even if you’re not a video editor it could definitely work for you. In my experience, anytime something is animated, people go bananas. But feel free to go a different route and make it your own. It could be an image or text like the tagline I came up with about being introverted. That line always gets comments because it is relatable. It makes people feel seen. If you can make people yell “get outta my head!” that’s a good thing 😉
Now, this isn’t about being overly salesy or in your face in a way that feels gross. Don’t abuse the power of the GIF! I spent many years working in retail and I hated it when a district manager would come in and make a big deal about being over the top about greeting customers and pushing help on them. It just wasn’t my style and I hated it when it was done to me.
My style was a friendly smile and nod to acknowledge their presence but to give them the space they needed to shop. When they did have questions I was there ready to help and that’s how I approach my sales style now.
My GIF gives them that friendly hello without being all up in their face 🙂 What’s your sales style?
If you do decide to go with a GIF, it’s super simple to make one in Canva.
- Create a new design and add your text and a picture.
- Add some animation to your design using the Animate button
OR
Add an animated sticker
- Download your design as a .gif file and start sharing!
Pro tip: Upload your GIF to Tenor.com and use your name as a keyword. Within roughly 12-24 hours it becomes searchable so you can share your GIF on the go just by searching your name in the GIFs on Facebook.
Step 2: Fit In
Now it’s time to fit into your ideal client’s world. You’ve got their attention, but now what? You want to make it very easy for them to understand what you can do for them and what the next step is.
This was an issue I saw all the time on those giant job post threads. Either people don’t follow directions or they put the work on the OP (original poster) by replying “DM me.” Stop making people jump through hurdles. You want to make it as simple as possible for someone to hire you.
First, if there are instructions, read them twice… and then read them again. Make sure you follow every single step and only follow up by the method requested. If you can do this then you’ve probably already outshined most of the people on the thread, just trust me on this 🙂
As I mentioned earlier, what worked really well for me was to create a video that acted as a commercial for my brand. This doesn’t have to be fancy, you can even do it completely in Canva. The video can contain a quick intro about who you are, some examples of your work, and a few testimonials sprinkled in. If you upload the video to Vimeo you can even include a call to action button at the end that directs them to the next step and collect analytics about who is watching your video.
Fun tip: Anytime I create a video to apply for a job I use Vimeo for this exact reason. I may have embarrassed one manager just a tad because after I was hired, I told her about doing this and she had no idea that I saw just how many times she watched my video 😂
What’s great about this type of video is that it’s so versatile. You can often include it in a job application, use it as a reply in a conversation when someone wants more info, and you can even link to it in your profile. When you grab someone’s attention they might not always reach out right away but it might be enough to get them to click over to your personal profile to learn more about you. That video can be saved, bookmarked, and pinned so when they’re ready they know exactly how to find you!
If you would like to learn more about creating a simple sales video that gets you hired, grab my free training on how to do this all right in Canva (yes you can actually edit video in Canva now!)
And I wanna see all those beautiful GIFs!!! Slide into my Insta DMs (@jessicasantise) and drop those resume GIFs. Let me know what I can refer you for!
Jessica Santise (she/her), Video Marketing Strategist
Jessica Santise (she/her), Video Marketing StrategistHi! I’m Jessica, video editor and Halloween queen turned marketing strategist. I teach VAs and content creators how to use video and GIFs to stand out in the sea of service providers. It’s time to put the FUN in funnel and make your content, and your client’s content, look professional without sacrificing personality. No more boring content!