Are you working yourself dizzy trying to build your mlm business, but feel like you?re getting nowhere with your prospects? Maybe it’s time to pause, take a breath and rethink your approach.
The ability to answer the following questions and to effectively put those answers into practice is essential to achieving the growth you desire for your home business.
1. Who is my target group, and what are their needs?
2. What am I marketing?
3. How am I marketing this?
The answer to Question 1 involves some simple psychology. Everyone wants to feel understood. Learn who your target market is, what they’ve been through, and what they’re looking for. Then you will be much more effective at marketing the solutions they need.
Put yourself in their shoes and imagine. Why do they need the product or opportunity you offer? What products or business opportunities have they tried before and found disappointing? What might these prospects be feeling? What are their concerns for the future? This is called empathy. It works in relationships, and it works in business, because, simply put, business is just a magnification of the human relationship.
Never undervalue the role that emotions play in buying and selling. Don’t worry that it is unethical to appeal to emotions in marketing. It is simply realistic. Actions almost always follow emotions.
In answer to Question 2, you probably said, “I’m marketing my company’s products and business opportunity.” That’s true, in a sense, but what you really need to focus on marketing is yourself. Some of my more scrupulous readers may be cringing at the though of “selling themselves”. However, we all market ourselves every day. You are your own priceless commodity, and your market yourself to friends, family and employers on a regular basis.
If you doubt that and still want to concentrate on products, consider this: There are 28.7-billion people* involved in direct selling, and that number is rapidly growing. A lot of them are offering products and opportunities similar to yours. So the important thing to consider in your marketing is, “Why should your target group join you?”
Give your prospects a reason to link themselves to you. Show yourself to be a leader in your field by providing authoritative content. Make yourself available by including your contact information on your site and on the advertising you put on the net. Be quick to return emails and phone calls. Isn’t that the kind of sponsor you’d like to work with?
The final thing to consider when setting up your marketing is, “How am I presenting this?” Well . . . that is a topic that would take many articles to write about! But I can give a few pointers here.
There are many free sources of advertising on the Internet. You can get your business, your ideas, even your face out on the web using YouTube, Squidoo, and many others. There are also paid forms of advertising like Google Adwords (a pay-per-click service) or banner ads.
Articles are a wonderful way to attract prospects who are already interested in what you offer. As you compose your articles, keep in mind the kinds of things your target audience might be typing into the search engine fields. Use those keywords or phrases strategically within your text.
If article writing reminds you too much of those college term papers, you can outsource your writing projects using a service like Elance that can connect you with thousands of freelancers.
You can spread your content throughout the Internet using article directories like ezinearticles.com or GoArticles.com. Keep your content fresh and updated to keep yourself in the search engines’ sights.
Reassess your marketing techniques often and use these tips to give your network marketing business the jumpstart it needs.
*Statistic from the Direct Selling Association.