Guideline 8, Your MLM Marketing Plan: Who Will Buy?Guideline 8 is your MLM Marketing Plan. Also called your marketing strategy. Sadly, few network marketers ever evaluate this. Pay close attention to this item; it will make or break your success. You need to think about how to find people to sell to, to recruit. A Marketing MistakeIn the first 7, I told you about pizza places near my house. Here’s another. Near my house, a home decorating shop opened. We already had one a block away from the new one. Oh, and we have a big box superstore-type place with some decorations as well.Within a several months, maybe 8, the new little shop closed. Sad, right? But they made two mistakes. First, the field for their market was already crowded. Second, I never saw any marketing except the signs at the store. They had no one to sell to. The Familiar ListWhat about you? You will probably hear the old saw, make a list of your relatives, neighbors, parishioners, high school friends, or something similar - just fill in the blank. Why? Because it’s an easy strategy. Anyone can make a list of people they know. It’s duplicatable. It gets you started, and you can teach it to the people you sign up. That's not much of an MLM marketing plan. It's more of an afterthought.But does it work? Not in most cases. In fact, you may find that, like me, it only took a few of the negative people in the world to get you to give up your dreams the first time you tried calling people on your list. Don’t worry, that’s normal. You just need a more efficient way of growing your business, which is why we are talking about an MLM marketing plan. The biggest names I’ve studied and known personally all bought or created more leads by other methods, and I do, too. More MethodsMethods like:Newspaper/Magazine ads Billboards Ads on their car windows Flyers Ads online/Pay per click Fishbowls at restaurants Card deck mailers Website leads Trade shows Buying MLM genealogy leads Mailing lists Bump into sessions I’m sure you can think of a few more, and really that’s my point. Spend the time to think about how you will advertise or search out more people. You may want to form a group and pool resources so you can take out a better or larger ad. Your Marketing ProgramRecognize that you need more than a list of friends to be successful. Creating a good flow on targeted incoming leads will make or break your business.A few quick notes on this process: - An MLM marketing plan needs to have some continuity. One ad in one magazine probably won’t inundate you with leads. - You can easily go completely broke without generating any ads if you aren’t careful. You may need to pay for serious advice before you start. - Plan on losing money the first few times you place ads. Practice makes perfect, or at least profitable. - Good copywriting will make or break your ad - Buying lead lists can almost be considered an art. Get serious advice before you buy any list, and always ask for a testing sample. - Pay per click, while very effective and targeted, can be very costly and haphazard. Get training first. - National vs local. If you are going to advertise, will it be national or local? How will you handle leads outside your area? Very important question. You might just circle a few of the items above and then see how hard it is to do them. That way, you have a focus and an idea of what it will take you succeed. By the way, if the above notes look like serious business, you’re right. I don’t know your goal, but to be a professional in anything takes time, and real effort. If your are like me and want to upgrade your situation, plan on serious commitment and effort. Survive the ProcessMarketing is the hardest part of network marketing. Companies try to make it easy on your by using the old list method. In the long run it doesn't serve anyone if it causes more failures. Take the time to build a real MLM marketing plan.Look at another industry famous for the small number of people who make it big - acting. I heard recently that Sharon Stone took 10 years and was in 29 B-movies before her hit in Basic Instinct. That’s commitment, and that’s real effort. Jay Leno said he spent 9 hours in line sometimes to wait to perform at open audition nights. That's commitment to survive the process. What's NextNext, I'll go into the most forgotten element in any network marketing business plan. It's crucial you understand this. Without it, you may never actually be in business.
To Guideline #9: The Most Forgotten Element
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