There are different types of online businesses. One of them markets almost exclusively to other online (network) marketers. They are involved in selling their advice and marketing programs to people who also sell the same advice and marketing programs to other people. The people who make a lot of money in these programs are the people involved in starting them. Most people make a little money. When the program becomes saturated slows down, the network marketers repackage their advice and marketing programs and relaunch them to the next batch of network wannabes with a new look. There’s a buddy network of top network marketers that tell each other when they are about to launch a new program so the same guys can get in at the top and make most of the money. It takes about 4 years to work your way close to the top.
What we are concerned about, the type of marketing that we’re concerned with, is affiliate marketing which is mostly about boot strapping a business that is going to grow and maintain it’s presence so you can maybe pass it on to your children. Companies like the one we’re looking to build have existed for decades based on the U.S. Mail system. Now they’re based on the email system with an MLM twist.
MLM, multi-level marketing, is not a new concept. Ancient farmers and craftsmen would sell their produce and wares to passing buyers who would sell them to shop owners for resale. Most jewelry stores get their diamonds from importers in New York. Almost any foreign made product goes through a number of hands before it ends up on store shelves. MLM has been used to launch some very respectable companies like Avon and Tupperware. MLM has been given a bad name by the network marketers and some scam artists as the Internet proliferated. A properly run MLM program is good for everyone involved that wants to work hard. One way of doing this is to pay people for their downstreams only if they sell product. If you want your downstream to generate money for you, you had better help them be successful. Affiliate programs are mostly free programs no one makes money unless everyone sells.
Marketing vs Sales
There are many facets to marketing. Basically, marketing involves selecting a product, identifying customers, and letting those customers know that you have the product. In doing this, your main goal is to cause your company to become the hunted instead of being the hunter. Marketing is not selling. Marketing is creating visibility with a group of customers that will buy and use a specific product. Selling involves talking to, establishing relationships with, and taking orders from customers. The sales staff, in a case like this, is usually your web page. Marketing is making customers want to talk to your sales people or look at your web page. In this case, you are marketing and sales but you have to think with different hats on so that you make things as easy for yourself as you can. Don’t forget that, in MLM, your downstream, their web pages, and the people working at the company you are marketing the products for are also your sales people. We will talk about marketing and sales as if they are different people.
Selecting a Product
You do not want to select a product to market that no one wants. You will not be able to attract enough people to your company and your sales people will not be able to sell it. You just cannot make a living selling a product that no one wants. If you are IBM, General Motors, or some other corporate giant, you have millions of dollars to spend on advertising over a couple of years to “create a need” for a product. You have to select a product to market that people already want.
So, the question is, what do people want? People do not want saws, dishes, flowers, candy, furniture, or any other object. People buy things because they want comfort, pleasure, safety, happiness, love, convenience, recognition, and money or they want to provide these things to their loved ones. If a product does not provide one or more of these things, don’t choose it. The more of these things a product provides or allows people to provide them to other people, the more successful you will be. You do not want people who do not want what you are selling to talk to your sales people. It is a waste of everyone’s time and money. How many Mbps or rpms something does, how many GBs it has, how many XYZs it has, how far and long it runs and how much it glitters are features that may end up providing people with what they really want but they are not the real reason people buy things. Comfort, pleasure, safety, security, happiness, love, convenience, recognition, and money are your real selection criteria when you are evaluating products.
Identifying Your Customers
Different people achieve comfort, pleasure, safety, happiness, love, convenience, recognition, and money from different things. You must identify the people who achieve these things by having or using what your company has to sell. Targeted advertising, mailing, and email lists are ways to do this but, these things cost money and we are boot strapping so, we have to try to identify people in a different way. One thing that makes this much easier is if we select a product that is used by almost everyone. The more people that use your product, the easier it is. Almost everyone uses things that provide them with food, shelter, transportation, and communication. Try to select a product that does one of these things it will be easier to identify your customers. In a bootstrap operation, sometimes you are forced to identify your customers through randomness. Looking in online membership listings for different organizations for high tech corporations, lawyers, doctors, etc. and mailing to them is a more efficient method of doing things.
Marketing Tools
In online marketing, we can use free online ad placements, free traffic generators, search engine placement, blog or discussion group participation, and email campaigns to drive people to our web sites. There are thousands or free ad spots, hundreds of traffic generators, thousands of search engines, thousands of blogs, and billions of email addresses. You just have to find them. I have provided some of the tools in other pages on this site.
Writing Ads and Emails
When you write your emails or letters and put slogans on your post cards remember to offer comfort, pleasure, safety, happiness, love, convenience, accomplishment, or money. “Free” is the most effective word in advertising. “For Sale”, are the most effective two words. People can’t resist looking to see if you are selling what they want. “Make Some One Happy Today”, is much more effective than, “Gift Baskets” or “Flowers”. “Sleep in Comfort”, Is much more effective than, “100% Down Blankets”. “What Melts in Your Mouth?”, is much more effective than, “Candy with Nuts and Pralines”. “Make Your Web Page Browsing Lightening Fast”, is much more effective than, “1Mbps DSL”.
As you write your ads, ask yourself the following questions:
Who are you talking to?
What do they want?
Why should they buy it from you instead of some one else?
Why should they think it’s safe to buy online from you?
What will they respond to?
What will they get out of it?
What guarantee can you offer?
How will you ask them to order?
Your email subject line or ad title has to cause people to move forward with you and read your email or your ad. Speak to them. Don’t just offer a product. “Mother’s Day Flowers” is not as effective as “Did You Order Your Mother’s Day Flowers Yet?” or “Make Her Happy on Mother’s Day”.
If you don’t ask for the order, you won’t get it. “Sign Up Now”, “Enter Here”, “Don’t Wait”, and “Order Here” are different ways of asking for the order.
Keep your ads short and to the point. People will not read a book to order your product. If you can provide a picture or pictures in you email or ad, it is much better. “A picture says a thousand words.” The thing is that people will look at a nice picture and get what they want out of it. You may say fudge and they want nuts. You may say green and they want red. You may say gorgeous and they may want enticing. It’s always better to let a picture do the selling.
If you have to use text, break up paragraphs into two or three sentences or use a list of bulleted features. The visual effect will keep them jumping from one paragraph or bullet to the next.
Avoid the Junk Mail Bin
There are things that will guarantee that your email gets blocked or ends in the junk mail folder. Most spam software uses a point system to decide if your email is junk or not. Try to avoid the following things:
The first 8 characters of your email address are digits.
The subject includes the words advertisement or adv.
Don’t put the words “money back” in your email.
Don’t use the words "cards accepted"
Don’t use the words "spam removal instructions"
Don’t use the words "extra income"
Don’t use an exclamation point in your subject line along with the dollar sign.
Don’t use “Free!” in your subject line.
Don’t use exclamation points with dollar amounts.
Don’t use the words "Dear friend"
Don’t use the phrases "for free?" or "for free!"
Don’t use "Guarantee" and "satisfaction" or "absolute" in the same ad.
Don’t use "more info", "visit " and "$" in the same ad.
Don’t use the words "special promotion"
Don’t use the words "one-time mail"
Don’t use "$$" or "$$$" or any variation.
Don’t use the words "order today"
Don’t use the words "order now!"
Don’t use the words "money-back guarantee"
Don’t use the words "100% satisfied"
Don’t use an email address with "friend@"
Don’t use an email address with "public@"
Don’t use an email address with "success@"
Don’t use an email address with "sales@"
Don’t use an email address with "success."
Don’t use an email address with "success@"
Don’t use an email address with "mail@"
Don’t use an email address with "@public"
Don’t use an email address with "@savvy"
Don’t use an email address with "profits@"
Don’t use an email address with "hello@"
Don’t use the words " mlm"
Don’t use the words "@mlm"
Don’t use the words "///////////////"
Don’t use the words "check or money order"
Don’t use the words "click here" or "click below" (try using "visit here" instead)
Now it may seem like you can’t write anything but remember, it’s a point system. One or two of these things are usually OK but, not four in the same ad or email.
Spam
When you send some one a solicitation via email, you must offer a way for them to have you stop sending them emails. You must at least use the phrase “If you would prefer to not receive these offers, reply with “remove in the subject line”.
Make sure that your email list contains addresses of people who, at the very least, buy things on line. It is better if they buy the thing or things that you are offering online. Don’t just collect a bunch of names from some place and send them emails hoping they will buy. They will not only not buy anything, they will get mad and report you for spam. There are plenty of FFA {free for all) business opportunity lists and list building sites available for free by simply joining. If some one sends you a solicitation email, you can reply to them with your own offer.
No legitimate businessperson would ever send thousands of emails to random people culled from the Internet. Bulk mailing is unprofessional and makes you look bad. You want to hit your target not make people mad at you and your business. Do your email campaigns to a respectable list.
Downlines
The really painful thing is that everyone who signs up as an affiliate in your downline is not prepared to put the thought and effort in that it takes to be successful. You can spend the vast majority of your time spending the vast majority of my time finding new tools to offer them in order to help them achieve success. The thing is that the things that work for you and that you offer them may not work for them. The people who are going to be successful will take your offerings as food for thought, take the initiative, and find the things that will provide them with success.
Having developed and managed many customer service, marketing, and sales groups, I have learned that a person either wants to do what they need to do to be successful or they don’t. Pep talks, sales meetings, pats on the back, new sales tools, etc. will get some people going for a while but, if they’re not inclined to do their jobs, they will slip back into an excuse mode blaming everything and everyone but themselves for their lack of success. Successful people appreciate the help that you give them but, they don’t need it and they don’t need your encouragement. Any help you give them just makes them more successful than they would have been. They will find a way to succeed with or without your efforts. The people who do not want to succeed won’t and will leave an affiliate program and tell everyone how they got ripped off and what a sham the whole Internet business is. Never mind that it didn’t cost them anything and other people are making substantial incomes on the Internet.
That being said, I have also taken people headed in the wrong direction with bad attitudes that were caused by poor management and changed their perspective simply by encouraging them and showing them that their efforts were appreciated. The worst thing that you can tell some one is that it’s going to be easy and they will be an over night success. It will take months, not days, and maybe even years. The thing is that if people are willing to work hard persistently, they at least have a chance.
The main thing that you can do for your downline is to set an example. Do the things that you tell them that they should be doing. Let them see your emails to them at 3AM so that they know that you are working hard at being a success and that this is what it takes. You brought them a business opportunity but, you can’t make them drink.
It is much smarter to work on finding successful people to be in your downline than it is to work on changing people in your downline who need to be changed.
Make Sales 1. Use reward programs to keep people revisiting your web site and buying your products. You could 10. Keep people at your web site as long as possible. Allow them to download free ebooks, sign-up for contests, use free online services, etc. 14. Take on as many of your business' chores as you can handle; outsource what you can't. Only you can determine how your business is operated. 15. Try out new business opportunities. You could combine them with your current business. It could add an extra profit stream to your web site. 16. Create an alliance with 3 or 4 web sites. Include each of your ads or banners on the other web sites. You will all share targeted traffic from each other. 17. Create a free e-zine directory. You'll attract a lot of traffic from ezine publishers and people that want to subscribe to the e-zines. 18. Make your visitors curious about your product by telling them they need to sign-up to get into a password protected site to read the rest of the ad. 19. Remember the little things about your web pages really count. Include the title of your site at the top right corner, a description about of your site, etc. 20. When you ask someone to sign-up to receive a freebie, don't ask for really personal information. 21. Remember newsgroups are still pretty popular. You could post your ad in ones that allow it or you can leave messages with your sig file include. 22. Create a memorable logo and slogan to brand your business on the internet. When they see your slogan or logo it will remind them of your business. 23. Multiply your marketing all over the internet by creating f.ree bonuses for other business' products. You just include your ad somewhere on the bonus. 24. Offer to b.uy advertising space inside electronic products like ebooks, software, subscription sites, etc. It will be cheaper than print insert ads. 25. Increase your sales by adjusting your product or service to attract other target audiences. This may mean redesigning or adding on to it. 26. Test the prices of your product or service. You may increase the perceived value by raising your price and a lower price may decrease your sales. 28. Use your product's features to support all of your benefits. Just because benefits are more important, don't forget to list the features. 29. Market yourself or business as an expert. Most people have been told throughout their life to trust and respect the authoritative figures in society. 30. Train yourself and your employees to be polite to all your customers, even if they're shouting. Solve their problem quickly and it may even turn into a sale. 31. Give your visitors a good impression when they first visit your web site. Don't make the first thing they see at the top of your home page a banner ad. 32. Join online business associations. Most will give you a membership graphic to put on your web site which will give your business extra credibility.
Here are 21 things that you can do to increase visits to your website and sales.
reward gifts or discounts for revisiting or buying.
2. Publish e-zines for other web sites to increase your traffic. You could do it at no charge and in return just ask for a sponsor ad in each issue.
3. Trade endorsement ads with other e-zines. They pull more hits and sales than just trading classified ads because it gives your ad instant credibility.
4. Test your ad copy before you start taking orders. Tell your visitors to e-mail you if they want to be notified when you launch a new product.
5. Get your visitors excited about your product by letting them know how excited you are about it. Tell them why you're excited and use exclamation points.
6. Use incentives to gain referrals if you don't have an affiliate program. Tell people when they refer
customers you will award them with free products.
7. Tell your visitors the reason why you're having a sale so they don't think your products are cheap. It could be a holiday/seasonal sale or clearance sale.
8. Stay away from overloading your web site with high tech gadgets. They can create a slow loading
web page and distract people away from your offer.
9. Cut out words, phrases, and paragraphs in your ad copy that aren't selling or supporting your product.This will stop people from getting bored with your ad.
11. Sell a few back end products that are not related to your main product but are needed by all humans.
12. Create more free web sites with links back to your main site. You can do this for free on places like Yahoo. Your free site on Yahoo will get noticed by Google and Yahoo search engines.
This is a fast way to lose a potential prospect.
