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Market Your MAGIC 5 SelfMarketing Strategies for Success

Guest post by: Marjorie Brody

Article Overview: The ability to market yourself internally within an organization or within your industry can boost your career and personal fulfillment. It can make the difference between people remembering you as a brilliant leader and contributor, or barely remembering you. I created a “MAGIC” formula for success, based on 5 aspects of effective self-marketing: improve your Manner (the way you walk, talk, meet people, and treat people) create Advocates (people who create “buzz” about you and your company or services.), Grow (grow in craft, market and self), get Involved (in internal and external groups, etc.), and create Commentary (speak up at meetings, write articles, etc.). MAGIC reinforces P.T. Barnum’s principle: “Without promotion, something terrible happens … nothing.” You can use my MAGIC formula to unleash your potential and achieve goals.

Market Your MAGIC 5 SelfMarketing Strategies for Success

How to move from college professor to business owner to successful entrepreneur? That was the question facing me when I made my first tentative entrepreneurial steps in the early ’80s.

It was initially quite a daunting task. My first course of action was to observe, interview and read about people who were successful.

What was their magic? What were they doing to personally build a brand?

Of course, all business owners/entrepreneurs need to have something to sell -- a service or tangible product that has value. The next step is to identify the market for that service or item.

Then, it’s all about finding customers and creating visibility. With low visibility there is NO visibility. People like to do business with professionals they know, like and trust. Are you that person? Are others aware of what you have to offer?

Remember, it’s not just what you know, or who you know, it’s who knows you and what you’re capable of doing that will build your business and create a brand.

I built my company -- BRODY Professional Development – by creating and constantly fine tuning my product and my MAGIC. MAGIC is an acronym I developed after noting what successful entrepreneurs and business executives did both knowingly and intuitively.

My book, "Market Your MAGIC: A Guide to Reward & Recognition," provides a self-marketing formula based on this acronym that will streamline your efforts to gain visibility and help build your personal and company brand.

M: Manner

The first aspect of marketing your MAGIC relates to your manner, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you meet people, the way you treat people.

Do you project the body language of a winner? Do you walk with purpose? Do you look people in the eye and smile? Do you attract others to you?

Does your grooming project attention to detail? Are your clothes appropriate for the occasion? Do you project the image of success?

Are you the type of person people want to do business with? Can they count on you? Can they trust you? Do you treat them respectfully? Are you the consummate professional?

No one wants to do business with – or work with -- people who treat them poorly. Your manner can open or shut doors. What does your manner say about you?

A: Advocates

Creating an advocate system is another great way to market your MAGIC. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, an advocate is “a person who pleads another’s cause ... a person who speaks or writes in support of something.”

These are the people who create “buzz” about you and your company or services. Consider them your unpaid salesforce.

Advocates don’t just happen. You need to meet as many people in as many places as possible -- at work, within professional associations and groups, and in your daily life. Being a good networker helps with the first step in creating advocates.

There are four things you need in order to make the most of your networking opportunities: a good self-introduction, business cards (carry them with you at all times), an effective handshake (firm, not bone crushing or wimpy), and, of course, an interest in helping others.

Advocate relationships in your life often evolve and grow over time as you get to know each other better. It’s all about creating, building and maintaining the relationship.

Here are three pointers to nurture the relationship you develop with advocates:

1. Ask for their advice. They will probably appreciate and remember the fact that you respect their opinion.

2. Focus on ways you can help your advocates, not just on how they can help you. Be willing to listen, offer insight, help with projects, and share your best practices.

3. Stay in touch – call, send articles, “do lunch.”

Remember, if people don’t know who you are and what you do, how can they benefit from what you offer?

G: Grow

The third part of my MAGIC formula for success is to grow. Strive to grow in knowledge in three areas:

•Craft: What you do. The skills/information to do your job.
•Market: Your field. What are the trends? What do you need to know so you don’t become obsolete?
•Self: Take risks; try new things.

How do you grow? Continue your education and get advanced degrees or certifications in your industry. Training programs, mentoring, and mastermind groups also provide opportunities for growth.

Taking risks is necessary for growth. Whenever you evaluate a risk, ask yourself the following two questions:

1. What’s the worst that can happen?
2. Then what?

Once you’ve identified the worst possible outcome of taking a risk, think about how you would cope with potential failure. Do you have a good backup plan? Would you have opportunities or resources to fall back on? If so, then what do you have to lose?

When you look at risk and how you would handle the possible outcomes, it’s no longer frightening or overwhelming. Besides, growth occurs even when things don’t turn out the way you hoped they would. We learn not only through our successes, but through our failures, as well.

One of my favorite quotes about growth is, “If you’re not green and growing, you’re ripe and rotten.”

I: Involvement

The “I” in the MAGIC formula relates to getting involved. Get involved in the things that winners you are involved with are involved with, and winners you would like to be involved with are involved with.

Where to get involved:

•Mastermind Groups (aka “think tanks” or “dream teams”) – trusted advisors with whom business ideas can be shared, dissected and fine-tuned – all in a noncompetitive, nurturing environment
•Associations and other professional/community groups
•Life (country clubs, synagogues, churches, your childrens’ activities, etc.)

Involvement means take leadership roles, get involved training others, become a mentor, serve on a board, do something! Pick and choose strategically. Where will you learn the most? How can you contribute? Who will you meet? Weigh your personal satisfaction against potential payback and visibility. A majority of referral business comes from people we are involved with outside of our immediate work environment.

C: Commentary

The last part of the MAGIC mix is to be perceived as an expert. You need to give commentary in order to do this. Get your name out there. Become an expert resource.

And, if you’ve already achieved some level of media exposure, aim higher for national and international exposure. Unless you’re talking about the sun, too much exposure never hurt anyone!

There are two aspects to creating commentary:

•Write
-articles
-newsletters
-books
-letters to the editor

Get your name in print. Once you are published, send articles to your advocates and to others in your network and industry. Or, send out news releases in order to secure media interviews – radio, TV, print (magazines and newspapers), and Internet sites.

•Speak
-at meetings, conferences and conventions
-teach a course
-do radio and television interviews
-present papers
-introduce speakers

Both writing and speaking skills can be developed through coaching.

All of these techniques -- paying attention to your manner, creating advocates, constantly growing, involving yourself in the things that winners are involved with and delivering commentary through speaking and writing -- will help you create greater visibility.

You may think that just because you’re already successful, there’s no need to invest time or energies into self-marketing strategies. Wrong! There’s always room for further growth, greater accolades and the resulting increase to your bottom line.

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Article Tags: 80s, acronym, attention to detail, body language, business executives, business owner, business owners, clothes, college professor, daunting task, magic magic, professional development, self marketing, smile, successful entrepreneur, successful entrepreneurs, tangible product, visibility



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