Before I get into the “meat and potatoes” of this post, I want to preface it by emphasizing the fact that the easiest and quickest way to build your network marketing business will be by talking to people that you already know.
This is important so I want to repeat it…The easiest and quickest way to build your network marketing business will be by talking to people that you already know.
It’s called “network marketing” because you are marketing to your network of friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances, etc. Ideally these are people that know, like, and trust you.
Important distinction – Recommending a product or service to someone that already knows you, trusts you, and genuinely likes you is much different than recommending a product or service to a complete stranger. Obviously it’s much easier and effective to recommend something to a person that you already know.
“But I Don’t Want To Be Salesy And Approach My Friends Or Family”
I hear this one a lot. Many new distributors don’t want to face that awkward feeling of being “salesy” towards their friends and family, and I get it, I don’t want that either.
My advice is to find a company that has a product or service that you absolutely love. A product that you would buy, use, and recommend to others, even if you weren’t compensated for doing so. This is when network marketing becomes natural and there is no awkward feeling of being salesy or pushy. You’re simple sharing and recommending a product that you use yourself, and love.
Below is great advice from Richard Bliss Brooke. In his book, The Four Year Career, he writes,
“…most people think they have to sell the product. It’s better to see yourself just recommending it, like you would a good movie or restaurant. You listen to the people around you…listen to their problems. And when someone shares a problem your product can solve, just tell them your story. Let them decide if it is right for them. If you recommend a great Italian place and the person says, “I don’t like Italian,” then the conversation is probably over. if they say, “that place is too expensive,” you just let it go as their opinion. You don’t argue, right? Don’t sell or argue with customers either. Just recommend it. If it is a fit, perfect. if not, let it go.”
The point I’m trying to make is, talk to people. Talking to people with excitement and enthusiasm is the key to success in network marketing.
“But I Don’t Know Anyone”
This is also something I hear a lot from new distributors, “I don’t know anyone”. Finding people to talk to and meeting new people is a skill that can be learned. In fact, in Eric Worre’s popular book Go Pro, the first skill he lists is “finding prospects” and he devotes an entire chapter on how to do it.
It’s easy to say, “I don’t know anyone”, and then let that be your excuse on why you aren’t having success in your business. But don’t let that be YOUR excuse. Become good at meeting new people. Practice. Practice. Practice. And over time you’ll have a never ending stream of new people to talk to about your products and opportunity.
Content Marketing
In addition to talking to people that you already know and going out there and meeting new people, content marketing can be a great way to get more eyeballs on your business and what it is you are offering.
Content marketing is simpleycreating content as a way to acquire potential customers. It could be a blog, youtube videos, sharing content across social media platforms such as facebook, instagram, pinterest, twitter, etc.
The key to content marketing is to create content that is valuable. You want to create content that your readers, viewers, and followers will find helpful in some way. It could be a “how-to” of some sort, tips, inspiration, motivation, valuable knowledge you acquired, etc.
Create value for your followers. Don’t just say, “buy my stuff”.
In the beginning of this post I mentioned how recommending something to someone that already knows, likes, and trusts you is different from recommending something to a complete stranger. With strangers (your website viewers, video watchers, followers, etc) your job is to get them to like you and trust you. A great way to accomplish this is to give them helpful and valuable content.
Create Once – Works 24/7 For You
One thing I love about content marketing is that you spend the time to create it once, and after that it’s out there in internetland working for you 24/7. Every day, all day long, while you’re asleep, people in any part of the world can be viewing your content.
(Important caveat – Creating content is easy, getting people to find it is the challenging part.)
Real World Example – Case Study
Let’s take a look at a real life example to show the power and time leverage of creating content. Back in Sept of 2012 I made a video that is just under 5 minutes long and that has been viewed (at the time I’m writing this) over 8,500 times.
(If you’d like to see the video I’m referring to you can find it here: https://youtu.be/2q2vPPr8U8c)
This took me less than a hour to make from start to finish.
What is awesome about video is that you spend the time putting up the video once, then the video is out there in internetland, working for you 24/7.
If we do the math on this video, 8500 views, 5 minutes long, equals 42,500 minutes, or 708 hours people spent watching my video….708 hours! And that just from one video. (As I write this I’m realizing I should be making more videos.)
So I spent 1 hour putting the video together, and got 708 hours worth of viewing time for it…I’d say that’s pretty good ROI for my time. I’m certain this video has made some sales and signups for me.
Video can be an effective way to promote your business. Although most people feel uncomfortable doing it, including me. I’m not an expert on video, or video marketing, or anything like that. I simply make a video, put in a relevant title, description, and tags so that people can find it. If you feel uncomfortable making video, my challenge to you is for you to step out of your comfort zone and just do it. The more you’ll do it, the better you’ll get at it.
Keep this is mind, BAD video is better than NO video…
Also, keep in mind that you most likely won’t see drastic results from one or 2 videos. So I don’t recommend making 1 video, then sitting back and waiting for it go viral, because
the chances are very good that is NOT going to happen.
A great idea to to commit to making 1 video a week (or more), and stick to whatever schedule it is that you set. If you make one video a week, over the course of a year,
you’d have 52 videos uploaded that are out there working for you 24/7.
Chance are you’re more articulate, and better than looking than me…so why not put yourself on video too!
If you decide to make a video, send it over to me once you have it up, I’d love to see it.
Video Tips
Don’t let “technical difficulty” stop you or get in your way. You don’t need a fancy camera, equipment, or editing software to put out a nice looking video. With most cell phones you can create a high quality video and getting it on youtube is very easy.
Don’t say, “I would but I don’t know how to do it”. Take the time to learn how. Pay someone to teach you if you have to do. Be resourceful.
Share a message that your viewers will find helpful and valuable, you don’t want your video to just be a “buy my stuff” sales message.
Include a “call-to-action” of some kind at the end of your video. Give your viewers a next step to take. For example, you could say, “I’ve created an ebook on this to explain things further that I want to give to you completely for FREE, just head on over to my website at www.YourWebsite.com to get it….again, that’s YourWebsite.com”. Having a clear and concise call-to-action is vital.
Don’t be a perfectionist and worry about how you look or sound. You don’t have to be perfect. Viewers like “real” and will relate more to you if you’re not “newscaster” perfect. Just hit record and start talking, you’ll get better with practice.
Blogging/Website
Nowadays I don’t really know the difference between a website and a blog, in my eyes they are basically the same thing. But the actual definitions are not really important. With blogging, and creating content in the form of blogs, the concepts are the same that I talked about above with videos.
You create a blog post once, and it’s out there for people to find…forever.
Again the key is to create useful content that your readers will find valuable and helpful. A great combination is to make a video, and then also make a blog post on the same topic, basically writing out in words what you are saying in your video. Then, once your blog post is up, you can embed your video into your blog post. This way people searching can find you searching on youtube, and google!
The biggest thing to remember is to create quality content. Creating content is a great use of your time as you are leveraging these tools to work for you 24/7. (Remember my 1 hour to create a video that been viewed for 708 hours example above.)
Patience And Consistency Are The Key To Success With Content Marketing
The biggest reason for failure I see is that people simply quit too soon. They start a blog, make a few posts, and sit back and expect people to start showing up, which doesn’t happen right away. Content marketing is a long term strategy. It can take months, even years before you start to see the results of your work. It’s important to understand this going in so you don’t get discouraged and give up too soon like most people do.
Remember, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
The key is stick with it past the normal quitting point of most people (which I’d say is around 3 -6 months). Create quality content consistently and over time you’ll see results.
If you’ve been wanting to set up a blog of your own but don’t know where to begin, I’d be happy to help you get set up and started completely for free. Click Here To Get Started!
Getting a website set up is the easy part, getting visitors to it is the challenging part, which is something I can also help you out with. I can help you get a website up, and also help you come up with an action plan to turn your website visitors into leads, customers, and sign ups.
Remember, content marketing is not easy, but it can be effective if you’re willing to put in the work.
Let’s get your blog set up today!
In conclusion, I just want to reiterate the fact that the easiest and quickest way to build your network marketing business will be by talking to people that you already know. Content marketing is not not something that is for everyone. I personally know many successful network marketers that don’t even have their own website and are crushing just going out into the world using old school belly-to-belly tactics.
Talking to people, face-to-face with excitement and enthusiasm is the key to success in network marketing.
If you’ve found this post helpful, leave me a comment below letting me know, I’d love to hear from you!
