Archive for the 'MLM Leads' Category
By Brian Bianca
Marketing your business. It’s such a broad, complicated, scary phrase to most work-from-homers in a digital age, isn’t it? New media opportunities have opened up so many marketing possibilities that the average home-business owner doesn’t know where to start. Or worse, doesn’t know how to separate himself from the static.
Relax. New media avenues are a positive development. It allows you to reach more people than you could five years ago, and it lets you reach them faster. If you know how to take advantage of these tools, the sky is the limit for your business.
Part 1: Get Noticed
Ads stare you in the face every time you pull up a webpage or open a magazine. Chances are, though, you’re so desensitized to advertising that their presence barely registers in your mind. Our brains, through years of training, are conditioned to focus only on the content we’re there for and ignore the rest.
So your promotional tactics, whatever they may be, need to stand out. And this is where new media comes in.
First off, keep it genuine. If you’re promoting your home-business opportunity, don’t just feature bland testimonials of members saying how exciting the business is; show visitors why it’s amazing. Film some testimonials, upload them to YouTube, and post them on your site. It’s cheap and it makes prospects feel connected right off the bat.
Encourage your team members to speak frankly and openly in these videos. Make sure they have an idea of what they want to say, but allow for improvisation and spontaneity—you want the testimonials to feel natural, like the person is simply having a conversation with the camera.
New media is great at knocking down the wall between marketer and prospect. By watching someone tell their story of success, prospects can see the smiles on their faces; they can feel the excitement in their voices. And that translates to positive thoughts. So the more authentic you testimonials feel, the more a prospect’s doubt melts away.
Part 2: Capitalize On Your Awareness
So, people know you’re out there. Mission accomplished, right? Eh, not quite. You’ve got them hooked, but you can’t reel them in too fast.
The next step is to take that mild interest and turn it into genuine excitement. And here’s another place new media can help. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, even blogs are great ways to make prospects feel like a part of the process.
When looking for a home business, people want to feel like they’re a part of something. They don’t want join and then suddenly be ignored. In fact, nearly every successful home-business owner I’ve ever met says the same thing about the company and the people they work with—it feels like family.
So make your presence felt. Send updates once an hour on Twitter, even if it’s just an inspirational quote or an update about someone who made a big sale. It shows prospects you’re involved on a constant basis and that people on your team are having success. Family, remember?
If Twitter’s not your thing, start a blog and encourage comments. Then, respond to those comments, answer questions, and get engaged. Find interested prospects on Facebook and send friend requests.
Little steps like these go a long way to making someone feel like you can give them the attention and support they need to start a business with you.
Part 3: Keep the Cycle Going
When all these techniques pay off and the people you interact with turn from prospects to team members, don’t abandon your efforts. Step them up.
Remember those testimonials from earlier? Grab a webcam and ask your new members to talk about how they got involved with your company and why they decided to join. Then post it on your site to attract even more prospects.
The same goes for social gatherings. If you’re going to a leadership conference or an annual event, take a camera along and film the fun. Show visitors to your site that your business isn’t just about making money; you can have fun here, too.
Also, make your site a portal for exclusivity. Meaning, if you have a new product or service coming soon, drops hints and early looks at whatever is coming down the pipeline to members on your website. Buzz is the number one method of generating awareness, and if you become the go-to source for news and product info, you’re awareness—and your business—will benefit tremendously.
Lead generation. It’s the key to any successful network-marketing venture. If you can’t connect with the people who want your product or service, or strive to be a part of your opportunity, your business will never get off the ground.
So the question becomes how to generate leads. There are several ways, but the best and most effective is to simply purchase them from established companies specializing in lead generation, such as Peak Impact.
I know, I know—it sounds too easy, right? If you could just buy leads somewhere and turn them from prospects to partners, why is network marketing’s failure rate stay above 50 percent each year? And why, if purchased leads are such an instrumental way of building a business, do marketing gurus and some networking veterans claim self-promotion and local growth are the best methods of finding success?
Well, the answer, like the question itself, is pretty simple. The trainers, gurus, and mentors who advocate lead generation don’t want you to think you can do it yourself. Otherwise, what would you need them for?
Generating your own leads can be costly, time-consuming, and most importantly, risky. Say you start a home business and want people go get involved. Where do you start? If you’re like most rookie marketers, you turn to friends and family, what industry insiders call your “warm market.”
The problem with doing that, however, is that the warm market is both small and shallow. You can only ask your close acquaintances for so much help; if they’re not interested, you can’t get very far. Furthermore, most people are hesitant to approach their friends and family for fear of putting business in between personal relationships.
So if you’re not going to tap into the warm market but you’re still set on generating your own leads, where do you turn? Well, many suggest canvassing neighborhoods, dropping small ads in newspapers, and talking to people in the grocery store, at the gym, or anywhere you interact with potential prospects.
The fact is, though, most people don’t respond well to these forms of advertising—think about how you react when a telemarketer calls your home with a business opportunity. If someone isn’t interested in working from home, they’re going to tune you out and continue about their day. It’s frustrating, and it consumes valuable time that could be better used elsewhere.
Lead-generation companies, on the other hand, provide qualified leads at reasonable prices. You’re not walking up to strangers in malls and restaurants and hoping they like what you’re pitching. Qualified leads are generally people who have worked from home before or displayed an interest in network marketing. They understand the challenges and opportunities available and in most cases are actively looking for a way back in the game.
Companies such as Peak Impact can provide you with as many or as few leads as you need, and keep them coming on a regular basis. So save yourself a lot of time and money and get connected with people who want to join your business….quickly, efficiently, and affordably. It sure beats approaching strangers or asking your aunt if she ever considered working from home.
On November 12th, the United States Department of Labor released statistics showing unemployment numbers at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent nationwide. Companies slashed 240,000 jobs during the month of October, cuts that affected nearly every sector of the economy—retail, construction, leisure, hospitality, and financial services were all hit hard.
Worse, economists are unable to predict how bad things will get (September’s job losses were estimated at 159,000…the actual number proved to be 284,000) or what industry will get thumped next. All across the country, hard-working people lay awake at night wondering if their job will be there in the morning, or hope there’s enough in their savings account to weather a financial storm.
With the global economy in historic decline, more and more people are seeking alternatives to the corporate world. Not only do they want financial security, but personal independence, unlimited freedom, and a lifestyle that puts their needs and dreams first.
Welcome to network marketing, an industry where you determine your success, become your own boss, and never have to worry about being laid off. Oh yeah, and your office is whatever room in the house feels most comfortable today. It’s no wonder that over 15 million people in the United States are involved with network marketing, a number that’s rising with the unemployment rate.
“The work-from-home industry is absolutely exploding right now,” says Dave Lipson, marketing director for Peak Impact. “People are tired of having their fate dictated to them by corporate presidents they’ve never met. This industry allows men and women of every background create their own independence by building a business that gives them a real income from home.”
“We said we’d never put our future in anyone else’s hands again.”
In 2006, James and Stacy Claybaugh were your typical middle-class couple. They had a strong, steady income, a gorgeous home in the suburbs, a pair of late-model cars in the driveway, and a small vacation home on the Carolina coast.
Today, the Claybaughs still have all those luxuries…but they wouldn’t without the power of network marketing. In March of 2006, James walked through the front door of the insurance company where he worked as a senior account supervisor and was told that the company had been sold to a corporate buyer and all the staff was being let go. Just like that, the Claybaughs’ income dropped by six figures.
“It was horrible,” James remembers. “There was no warning, no severance, nothing. We had money in the bank, but with a mortgage, two kids, groceries, and all the other bills that pile up, we burned through that fast. We had the vacation home, the cars, even the house up for sale. Times were tough.”
With only Stacy’s receptionist salary to support them, the Claybaughs new they had to make a change, and make it fast. So after learning about network marketing and its ability to provide a stable, secure income and a flexible schedule all from home, James started his own home business and hasn’t looked back since.
Today, just two years after being laid off, he makes more than he did in the corporate world, does it in about half the hours, and spends more time with his family than ever before.
“We’ll never go back to the nine-to-five lifestyle ever again,” Stacy says. “We always tell ourselves, we’ll never put our financial future in someone else’s hands again. We have everything we want here—time, money, family, freedom—and we encourage everyone we meet to just take a look to see if it’s for them. Because what happened to us—the ups and the downs—can happen to anyone.”
Don’t Wait, Start Today
With network marketing, your future is in your hands. Not falling victim to downturns in the market or the whims of CEOs is an independence you must experience to understand.
And you don’t need to wait until the pink slip arrives to make a change. Want to start putting some money away for a rainy day but can’t afford to do so right now? Start a part-time home-business. You can make hundreds or thousands of extra dollars a month that can be put toward anything—a mortgage payment, a savings account, an extra vacation, Christmas gifts, and much more. You can always transition to working your business full time if circumstances dictate.
There are thousands of companies in the network-marketing field, ranging from health and nutrition to jewelry to cooking products to cosmetics and everything else in between. The opportunity for you out there—all you need to do is look.
