List Building | Lena Bjorna | Award Winning Online Marketer

Archive for the ‘List Building’ Category

Dazed, lost and confused…? Here’s what to do when overwhelmed – AND marketing on a shoestring budget

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Knowing what to do next and how to prioritize your priorities as home business owners, well, it can be a challenge for the best of us.

The other day one of my very astute “Her Success Blueprint” students, Carmen, left a nice message for me on my Facebook page, asking for some direction with her marketing.

I decided to write this message in response to her questions so that it can benefit others, too, who may be wondering the same. For sure, these are common questions that pretty much all new home business owners have!

Carmen was basically asking, “What now?” She’s read my eBook, she’s diligently studying the resources in the back of the book, she’s following my daily marketing newsletters…

But where does she actually start? What should she DO specifically to get her business up and running?

Very important questions! In particular, Carmen was looking for some ideas for a shoe string budget, so let’s look at that now. And let’s see if I can help her – and you – get a bit of a clearer sense of direction. Pin-point the non-negotiables as it were.

As you may remember, in “Her Success Blueprint” I talk about the importance of having a 90 day plan…you absolutely must, must, plan ahead. (Go back and reread that part if you need to. It’s in Section III, ‘Your Plan’…then go to Part 2, “Building Your Empire”.)

CHOOSE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGIES.

Next, you need to choose a marketing strategy, or strategies. If you’re on a shoestring budget (say $100-$300 a month), you’ll have to go with the “free” or “low cost” stuff.

Some ideas would be: Article or video marketing, blogging or press releases.

Choose one or two strategies that you can see yourself getting really passionate about and then seek to become a true expert in that strategy.

Say you’ve decided that blogging is “it” for you. Then make it your daily pursuit to consume every webinar, marketing call and course that you can get your hands on on this topic. Eat, breathe and live blogging. Seriously!

MAKE YOUR CONTENT GO VIRAL.

Be sure to utilize TribePRO - truly a “must” if you plan to do any kind of content marketing! But get the paid version, not the free one, because only the paid version lets you automate the process of sharing others’ content (they’ll then do the same for you).

You may remember Rhonda from my book, a successful consultant in the UK that I trained in my primary business, who built her entire business with free blogging strategies. But, very importantly, she used TribePRO from day one to make her content go viral all over the web.

Regardless of what marketing strategy or strategies you go for – paid or free – there are a couple of items that you’ve got to add to your “to do” list:

NON-NEGOTIABLE #1: YOUR BLOG.

1.) You need to have a blog. Even if you aren’t planning to using blogging as a primary marketing strategy, you still need a blog. I’d go so far as to say that your blog is your most valuable asset as a marketer.

It’s your home base, the place where your prospects go to learn more about you and how you can help them.

You should be posting fresh content on your blog 2-6 times a week. Keep bringing your prospects back to your blog to build trust and credibility. This, as you may remember from my book, is the real purpose of content and social media marketing.

As for the blogging platform itself, I highly recommend you go with WordPress.org (“self-hosted”, not free, but not very costly, either, however you will need to outsource the set-up as it is pretty “techy”, and this could cost a little. It’s money well spent, though!)

If you simply cannot fit .org into your budget no matter what, then use the free version, WordPress.com. But this really is your last resort because the .org version gives you so many more options as far as layout, look and design goes, and it just looks a lot more professional.

But hey, you do what you can and you start where you’re at, right?!

NON-NEGOTIABLE #2: YOUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.

2.) You need to have Facebook fan page (also called “business page”). This is separate from your Facebook profile, and anyone can set this up on Facebook. It’s free by the way.

Every business these days has a Facebook fan page, and if you learn how to “work it” you can start generating some free leads this way, too.

For more on what your Facbeook fan page should look like and what type of content to post on it (no, it should NOT be about your products or opportunity!), click HERE to read a useful blog post I wrote on the topic.

Those two – your blog and your Facebook fan page – are the only “web pages” you need for starters other than the pages in your sales funnel. But you obviously also need to have a sales/marketing funnel as well…

YOUR MARKETING SYSTEM & SALES FUNNEL.

You need a funnel that consists of a lead capture page, sales pages and auto responder messages. For this I highly recommend MLSP - I simply don’t know of a more user friendly system out there.

It comes with training, too, which will allow you to dig into various marketing strategies and become a true master at Attraction Marketing and it can be used with any MLM or network marketing opportunity.

Note: You’ll need to have your funnel set up and ready to receive leads before you start driving traffic into it!

If your marketing strategy of choice is video marketing, then obviously you need a YouTube channel as well (also free).

Now…once you’ve made sure you’ve set aside a budget for TribePRO and MLSP, also preferably WordPress.org (if you are going to use blogging as one of your main lead generation strategies, then .org truly is your only option)…

…then, if your budget allows it, think about outsourcing some article or press release writing to someone on Odesk or in The Warrior Forum. And if your budget doesn’t allow it…? Yeah, you guessed it. You’ll have to do it yourself.

HOW TO USE AFFILIATE MARKETING.

Carmen also asked about the use of affiliate marketing…another great question. It is very important to start monetize your list with affiliate programs as soon as possible, and I suggest you start by adding affiliate links on your blog – you can have a resource section like I have on mine.

You can also have banners on your blog for some of your favorite affiliate products.

The other place where I use affiliate marketing is in my auto responder messages.

With a marketing platform like MLSP, you will be able to easily add your affiliate links in your MLSP back office so that you instantly start earning commissions on every MLSP member that you bring in when they again go in their back office and purchase any of those same affiliate products!

The commissions are then traced back to, and paid out to…YOU! (Do a little money dance, now!)

As you set up your MLSP auto responder messages, which are pre-written but which you can personalize over time and at your own pace, the system also automatically inserts your affiliate links into the messages.

This is yet another way to monetize your subscribers/leads, and it will save you a lot of time that you don’t have to do this yourself!

ACTION, ACTION, ACTION.

What I’ve described above is exactly what I did it when I was brand new to online marketing in order to generate quick cash flow.

So there, you have it, Carmen and everyone else – those are my own personal recommendations. That’s how I would do it if I were starting out all over again and if I didn’t have much of a marketing budget.

Remember, massive, massive, massive action is key – you’ve got to create momentum in your business; you’ve got to get those 30 leads a day.

Again, go back and re-read any info in my book pertaining to this subject, and be sure to check out the various links throughout the body of this message!

One step at a time, remember, and you will get there…

<----- SHARING IS CARING. If you think this post could benefit others, consider re-tweeting, sharing or "liking" it. Also, as always, feel free to leave me a comment below.

Successfully,

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Posted in Lead Generation, List Building, Marketing Strategies, Marketing Systems | No Comments »

How to get your prospects to eagerly anticipate your emails and keep coming back for more

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Ever had leads curse you out for emailing them too often or for coming on too strong with your MLM opportunity?

Of course…everyone has. And I’m no exception. There was a time (not all that long ago) when my leads used to reply to my auto responder messages not with appreciation but with annoyance.

What I want to share with you in the rest of this post is how to change that. How to instead have your subscribers email you and thank you for your messages.

How to get up to a 22% open rate for your lead lists (3 or 4 times the norm) – which will keep your leads “hot” and soon turn them into buyers and loyal customers.

Let me preface the rest of this post by letting you know this is somewhat advanced stuff and not something you need to master as a new marketer – you’ll get to it soon enough. But let’s keep going, shall we…

Over the course of the last 12 months or so, I’ve gone from one extreme to the other – experiencing the exact scenario I described above – and here’s what’s made the difference (The key points to remember are in bold)…

THE LOOK AND FEEL OF YOUR MESSAGES:

Copying and pasting big chunks of text straight into your emails isn’t gonna do it. If your lead opens your email and sees long, wordy paragraphs with little or no visuals, you are not creating interest, you are creating resistance.

The way I get past this – the way I get my messages to look unique, personal and attractive – is to use templates in my emails.

One way this can be done is to send your reader to an external website template. This was the tehcnique I used when I first started marketing onlnine. What you’ll do in this case is to just have a few words in the email body itself and then, from there, you’ll link to a template that you’re hosting externally, on the servers of say Godaddy or Bluehost.

To better illustrate what I mean, here is an actual template I used in one of my older funnels.

With this strategy, always keep in mind that you should be “continuing the conversation”- from the subject line of your auto responder message to the email body to the template.

As an example, my email subject line may say, “{First Name}, do you have what it takes?” The email body may then read, “To see what I’m talking about, click here”.

Then, when they click “here”, they are taken to my website template where I carry on the conversation and explain what I mean by the provocative question posed in my email subject line.

Do you see how powerful this is? How can you not want to click on the link in the body of my email to find out whether you “have what it takes”?

One of the most powerful human emotions is curiousity. And I’m creating curiousity from the moment that my subscriber lays their eyes on my email subject line!

The email body itself – in this case it consists only of a single sentence – doesn’t explain anything. It’s not wordy. It just sends the reader to the next step, which is to click on the link that takes them to my externally hosted template.

Once they land on my template, however, I have to make sure I deliver the goods – that I actually address what I mean by the question posed in the subject line, “Do you have it in you?” Otherwise my subscriber will feel misled.

THE CONTENT OF YOUR MESSAGES:.

Forget the pitching and selling. Give value instead. Seek to educate and be solution oriented. Seek to inspire, encourage and motivate.

It’s also important you always provide a strong call to action at the end of your message – whatever the call to action happens to be for that particular email. Be it to submit an application, purchase a product, attend a webinar, read one of your blog post, or whatever your objective may be.

Yes, in the context of giving value it is not just “okay” to sell the next step of action – you MUST sell it! Your reader needs to be guided along to the next step; they need to be given a clear sense of direction on what to do next!

I also like to use value driven stories whenever I can. Because everyone loves a good story. Stories are relatable and personal.

And, of course, use visuals relevant to the content. And don’t forget to break the content up into short paragraphs. Use an attention grabbing headline and subheadings if the message is long. This will all help make it easy on the eye.

And this is exactly why you want to take them to a template in the first place: Here you have options as far as visuals, design and other personalization go that you don’t have within the body of an email.

Your reader is going to be blown away. Trust me, you are going to rise above the competition and your messages will be remembered!

Another option – and this is the method I’m currently using – is to use templates in your actual auto responder messages.

Aweber has many premade templates to choose from that you can simply insert into the html version of your email messages as you go about creating your auto responders. Then you simply type straight into the template.

These templates come in different designs, with different layouts and headers. I in particular like the “newsletter format” where you can tell a story or share some value in the left handside column while promoting a product or a service on the right handside.

Also here, you want to makes sure you keep your reader’s attention by using pictures and graphics, and by breaking the content up into short paragraphs and sentences.

Well, there you have it – that’s how to get your prospects to look forward to your emails and eagerly listen to what you have to say. Which of course is essential if you are to build a relationship with your prospects and get them sold on working with you!

Best of luck!

<----- SHARING IS CARING. If you think this post could benefit others, consider re-tweeting, sharing or "liking" it. Also, as always, feel free to leave me a comment below.

Successfully,

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Tags: mlm success, mlm success tips, mlm tips, success in mlm
Posted in Attraction marketing, Copywriting, List Building, Marketing Strategies, Sales Psychology | No Comments »

Are Facebook fan pages silly?

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Isn’t it too soon for me to create a Facebook fan page?

Occasionally, I’ll get that question from one of my students. It’s really more of an objection. “Nobody knows who I am,” the argument goes. “I’m not a top earner yet. I’m not an expert. I’d feel silly having a fan page.”

Of course, what they’re really saying is that they’re afraid to step outside of their comfort zone.

I was in the same boat for a long time, believe me. The idea of having a fan page on Facebook before I had significant results made me cringe: Wouldn’t that just look foolish? Why would “little me” need a fan page?

What I now realize, is this: It is your task as a marketer to make your future customers aware that you exist. A fan page is one of the best ways to do just that. Present yourself as a leader worthy of being followed, and you will soon start to attract a following.

Knowing what I know now, I would have created a Facebook fan page from the get-go and not have waited as long. Because when you have a fan page, you get “likes”, and “likes” are social proof.

Even if your page just sits there and you’re not actually advertising it by creating Facebook ads, even if you’re collecting a “like” only once in a blue moon, you’re still slowly building a following!

In a few months this fan base may have built to a couple hundred. And at some point you’ll start driving traffic to your page with Facebook ads, which will help collect “likes” much more quickly.

When you have built up your fan base to a few hundred, it’s time to add a plug-in to your blog for social proof – like I have on my blog here, down to the right.

When your blog visitors see proof that all these other people like you, they’ll be more inclined to like you, too – and to opt in on your blog and become a lead in your funnel.

Because everyone wants to work with and buy from those that they know, like and trust!

At this point you may even be a successful marketer and people now know who you are! And – get this – for an industry leader, having a fan page is pretty much required!

But while most other emerging leaders would now just be starting from scratch, building their fan base on Facebook after they’re recognized, you, on the other hand, are ahead of the game!

You’ve been building your fan base for months, anticipating your breakthrough! You saw the bigger picture.

Focus on giving value. Speak with posture and authority. Offer help and solutions. Be entertaining, think outside-of-the-box, and be outspoken, but in a way that is attractive.

Remember, people see you as you see yourself. Instead of claiming that you’re “not an expert yet” and therefore should wait to create a fan page, commit to raising the bar on yourself and to working as hard as you can on becoming an expert as soon as possible.

This naturally becomes easier the more knowledge you gain. However, chances are you already know more about marketing than 90% of your peers out there who aren’t as committed as you are to their self education!

Because if you weren’t committed, you wouldn’t be reading this blog post, right?!

<----- P.S: If you enjoyed this post, feel free to re-tweet, share or "like" it...or leave me a comment below!

Successfully,

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Tags: facebook ads, facebook fan page, facebook marketing, facebook page
Posted in Lead Generation, List Building, Marketing Strategies, Social Media Marketing | 4 Comments »

The only way to get rich in network marketing

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

One of my Facebook contacts left me a message on my wall the other day, asking a very direct question: He asked if I could help him become rich.

“Start by putting up a profile picture so that people can begin relating to you,” was my just-as-direct reply.

You see, my contact had no avatar – all you saw was that grey silhouette that appears by default. In truth, I had no idea who I was communicating with.

In our industry “getting rich” is a result of building relationships with people…

You connect with someone online, you build trust, you give value (something that actually helps them), they come to like you and respect you…

Next, they decide to go check out your blog. On your blog you’ve got a few product recommendations…and because your contact has come to value your opinons, he “takes your advice” and purchases one of these affiliate products from you. And you make money.

This is how it happens on a small scale.

How to Sell 100 Times More
with 100 Times Less the Effort

On a bigger scale, here’s how it’s done: you build your internet presence, you leverage a marketing system and a personalized sales funnel that builds trust, you post on the social networks using tools that automate the process and make your content go viral – reaching thousands of your contacts and followers online.

In the process your contacts and your subscribers come to like you and trust you and respect you. They begin to value your recommendations. They click on the links in your automated emails and on your blog, and they buy the products that you promote.

Because YOU recommended them.

Your group of online followers and contacts continues to grow. Before too long you have thousands of people on your email list that are paying attention to you and what you have to say.

You make another product recommendation, perhaps this time one that’s more pricey… Even then people buy. Because they trust you.

As your list grows, more and more people buy from you and join you in your primary opportunity.

And all the while you are training your team to duplicate what you are doing.

You now have a rapidly growing, profitable home business. You are making substantial commissions. You are building your residual income as a result of investing yourself in your team.

But every sale that you make, small or big – every sale that you made which put you on the path towards riches – started with a relationship.

Are You Unknowingly Killing Your
Relationships On Facebook?

Okay, so you can’t relate to people if you’re hiding behind a grey silhouette…understood.

But what about using a company logo then – someone may ask – as your “profile picture”? Or a picture of the products you’re selling? Is that okay?

It’s not much better. Yes, it’s an avatar, but the message that your avatar now gives to everyone you come in contact with is that your identity is “a distributor for XYZ company”.

So, immedeately, if they aren’t intersted in your products/opportunity, they are turned off. Because XYZ opportunity is what you’re “all about”, and that’s not at all what they are about.

Certainly, at a later point they could get interested in your products or biz opp but the thing is you’ll never know because you don’t give the relationship a chance. Instead of attracting new business contacts, you turn people away.

Facebook and the other social networks is not a place where you “sell stuff”. It’s a place where you build relationships with people who have similar interests.

Give people a chance to get to know you, reach out to your peers offering them valuable tips and training, and use an avatar that tells the story of who you are rather than what you do.

Remember, a person has to buy you before they’ll ever buy your products or opportunity… Best of luck!

<----- PS: Feel free to re-tweet, share or "like" this post if you think it can be of help to others...and/or leave me a comment below!

Successfully,

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Posted in Attraction marketing, Leadership, List Building, Social Media Marketing, Sponsoring & Recruiting | 5 Comments »

Leads are not your problem

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Whenever I do one-on-one coaching with my reps, I don’t just ask them to give me an account of how many leads they are producing daily, from which traffic sources, and at what conversion rates…

I also ask for a list of all their various websites, social media profiles and links so that I can see what they’ve got “going on” online.

You see, I have found this to be a very effective way to “take the temperature” on someone’s business.

Often a consultant will come to our coaching session with the notion that they aren’t generating enough leads, then leave 30 minutes later with the understanding that the lack of leads isn’t really their problem.

I find that most network marketers or online business owners fall into one of two categories:

GROUP 1: They spend too much time on polishing their internet presence and not enough time on generating leads.

Their blog has to look “just right”…same thing with their auto responder emails…desing of their Youtube channel…Facebook profile…the list goes on. They never really get going with their lead generation – they keep getting ready to get ready.

These are the perfectionists among us. Only a small percentage of MLM’ers falls into this category.

GROUP 2: Most network marketers belong in this group. They’ve heard how imperative lead generation is to their business, and so this is where they spend all their time and energy.

“What do I need all the bells and whistles for?” they ask. ‘Bells and whistles’ as in photos on their blog (if they even have a blog), design, header, background, color schemes, free offers, videos and so on.

Rather, they settle for the most basic website they can find, upload a not-so-professional-looking photo to their Facebook and their Youtube, and then they’re done. Or so they think.

Off to study another lead generation strategy.

Here’s why neither of these two approaches work:

Having a fantastic looking blog (or Youtube Channel, Twitter background etc) but not driving consistent, quality traffic to it is like having a beautiful store front that no one sees.

You may take great pride in your ownership of that store…you may stand outside and look over at your store, feeling all pumped up about it, but if you don’t know how to draw customers to your store, you just aren’t going to become very profitable…

On the other hand, learning to generate leads but devoting little to no time to building your Internet and social media presence is like spending a fortune on advertising and sending heaps of customers to your store….but when your customers arrive, they see a bland looking, shabby, old building with empty display windows, no store front sign…no nothing.

Why would they be inclined to enter your store, let alone buy anything from you?

The solutions lies somewhere in the middle. Because successful marketing is about two things: 1.) driving leads, and 2.) turning those leads into shoppers who put money back into your pockets.

Building your Internet presence (creating and maintaining a blog, distributing articles, videos, press releases, and posting in forums and on social networks) is a process. It takes time. And it will never be “perfect”.

But it must not be neglected.

If you don’t have a real Internet and social media presence, you don’t exist. Not in the world of online marketing.

If, when your prospects google your name (and they will!), no search results come up because you don’t have any content out there…

If, when they click on the link in your email signature and get taken to your blog and find very little value and that nothing has been posted in months…

If in your photo, you look untrustworthy or nervous or depressed, or your videos are shot in a run-down apartment with no furniture (and all the while you’re giving them advice on how to make a fortune online!!)…your prospects won’t grow to like you, trust you and respect you…

And if they don’t like you, trust you and respect you, they sure as heck won’t want to buy from you or join you in your MLM!

The answer is to work on both the front end and the back end of your marketing: Learn to generate some traffic and how to convert this into profits…then more traffic into more profits…

Master lead generation but at the same time build your internet presence bit by bit.

Front end, back end.

Drive traffic, convert traffic. Drive more traffic, convert more traffic.

That’s how you not only build a successful business, but – most importantly – build it on a solid foundation…

<----- PS: Feel free to re-tweet, share or "like" this post if you think it can be of help to others...and/or leave me a comment below!

Successfully,

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Tags: free leads, free mlm leads, mlm leads, mlm training, network marketing training
Posted in Attraction marketing, Lead Generation, List Building, Social Media Marketing, Sponsoring & Recruiting | 1 Comment »

20 hot marketing tips that make THE difference in your business in 2011

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Here are some simple, tried-and-true tips that can help you boost your results in 2011. They are based on a list I put together for my own team members recently, but I modified it slightly and posted it here, hoping it could benefit others as well.

These ideas all spring from my own experiences of what has made the greatest difference in my success as an Internet marketer.

I recommended you pick a handful of them and start implementing them in your business today. Let me know which ones you commit to: feel free to leave me a comment below!

1. Connect with two or three people on your team or perhaps in some online networking community that you belong to: touch base often, hold each other accountable. Staying in close connection with other like-minded individuals can make ALL the difference during challenging times in your business.

2. Plan your marketing budget (however big or small) for the next 6 months and stick with it no matter what: What are you going to be spending on your marketing per month for the next 6 months to build your business to momentum?

This marketing budget is not based on whether or not you make sales in your business – it’s funding coming from other income sources. But any profits your make in your business should be added to this budget.

3. Opt in to the email list of one or two successful leaders in the industry that you feel you resonate with: Follow them closely, see how they market themselves as leaders, and model yourself after them (-model, not copy).

4. Bookmark CopyBlogger.com and use it whenever you need inspiration for headlines, subject lines for emails, and other copy. It’s free, and it’s a fabulous place to start learning some basic copy writing.

5. Mark your calendar for your company’s next marketing event and commit to being there. There is simply no substitute for live events, and you can’t even begin to grasp what I mean until you actually attend one. You come back as a changed person, and when you change, your business changes.

6. Add one more hour to your workday: That’s six extra hours a week; 24 extra hours per month. Then, ask yourself what sacrifices you need to make in order for this to happen.

7. Become more deliberate about how you spend your time: Plan your weekly schedule – I recommend using an online calendar and writing down specifically what you will be working on each and every day of the week, blocking out 1,2 or 3 hour blocks of time.

8. Become more consistent about “working your list”, using promos, free offers & bonuses, conducting online webinars for your subscribers, etc, as a way of giving value, building trust & credibility and prompting your prospects to take action more quickly.

9. Learn to leverage & recycle all your content: Here is a youtube video I did where I explain how to do this.

10. Start personalizing your email auto responders. You’ll find some helpful training tutorials for this as well on my youtube channel.

11. Pick one direct response marketing strategy and master it to perfection: focus on that one strategy only; learn everything there is to learn about it.

12. Unsubscribe to all those email lists that you never should have gotten on in the first place, which are doing nothing but filling up your inbox.

13. Start calling your leads. NOT calling your leads is a right you have to earn, and unless you’re generating 30 or more leads a day consistently and/or making $10K a month, you haven’t earned that right yet.

14. Commit to doing keyword research for everything you write and publish: if you aren’t using keywords properly in all your online marketing, you are going to get buried in the Internet graveyard where no one will find you.

15. Become crystal clear on your “why”. Why do you do what you do? Where are you going? If you don’t know where you are going, why would anyone else want to follow you?

16. Every day, focus on profit producing activities. There are only 2 of them: Marketing, and talking to people. In other words, driving and converting traffic.

17. Consider getting a screen capture software such as Camtasia, and start shooting video tutorials where you teach and train on specific marketing strategies.

Post these to your youtube channel, and also, use a video distribution tool such as Traffic Geyser to blast your videos all over the net. Video tutorials are incredibly effective in attracting high quality prospects. They make you look like an expert in the eyes of your viewers, too.

18. It is never too soon to start creating your own unique offer: an ebook, a video series, a live webinar course, a pdf file or another type of report… There’s probably nothing more powerful you can do as a marketer in order to establish yourself as an authority and to build your brand.

Plus, with your own offer 100% of the profits go back into your pocket!

19. Become consistent about tracking your traffic. Because how can you know what marketing strategies are working for you if you don’t know what traffic sources are producing for you and which are not?

20. Consider outsourcing some of your work: Use odesk.com, guru.com, or the warriorforum, to hire some helping hands – whether it is to write articles, create banners, build a blog, or whatever.

Outsourcing – which does not have to be expensive by the way – can be a life line during those times when you feel especially overwhelmed. As a wise person said, “Do what you do best, then outsource the rest.”

PS: Let me know about your progress… Perhaps you have already implemented one or more of these strategies and have seen a big difference in your business and your life? If so, be sure to leave me a comment right below! Also, as always, if you think this post can be of help to others, feel free to retweet it.

Successfully,

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Tags: internet marketing, network marketing tips, network marketing training
Posted in Attraction marketing, Copywriting, Lead Generation, Leadership, List Building, Marketing Strategies, Mindset, Social Media Marketing, Sponsoring & Recruiting, Time Management | 2 Comments »

Got Leads?

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Everyone’s always complaining that they aren’t generating enough leads for their online businesses…

So am I taking issue with that? Isn’t lead generation important?

Well, of course it is. Leads, as all of us marketers know, are the fuel for our marketing engines.

However…lead generation means nothing if you don’t know how to convert those leads into customers and sales for your MLM business!

The Two Skill Sets You Must Master To Succeed With Internet Marketing

Successful online marketing is about TWO things.

1. Generate leads.

2. Get the leads to convert into sales.

Miss one of the two, and you’re DONE. You’ll soon find yourself buried in the Internet graveyard, with wasted time and ad dollars left as your only legacy.

Okay. So how do you best go about each of the two? 1. Generating MLM leads, and 2. Getting the leads to convert into sales?

Well, in order to generate sufficient leads for your online business, you’ll want to use some form of direct response marketing.

Examples of direct response strategies would be pay-per-click — either on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or (the very latest) Facebook PPC.

Another example would be paid media. My favorite paid media method is banner ads, which by the way, you can do quite inexpensively and generate heaps of leads with very quickly.

How To Get A Flood Of Targeted Leads For Your MLM Business

We call the above methods “direct response” because you are simply responding to your prospective customers’ needs.

They are already out there actively looking for you. Not by name, obviously, but they are typing in actual keywords that pertain to your offer. Or at the very least they are on a web site reading about something pertinent to your offer.

And voila, there you are with your banner or text ad, announcing that “Here it is. Here is the answer to all your troubles.”

Do you see how powerful that is? You are simply placing yourself in front of those who are already looking for what you have to offer!

And the following you can write down in red, highlight and underline: As a new marketer, you must have some sort of direct response marketing strategy in place to produce sufficient leads for your internet marketing business.

Social media marketing or content advertising just ain’t gonna do it. You aren’t consistently going to generate 30+ leads a day for your online business writing articles or press releases, shooting videos, or interacting with people on Twitter.

(Sorry if I’m stepping on someone’s toes here, but I’m just saying it as it is.)

And 30 highly targeted MLM leads per day is the very least that you require in order to see consistent growth in your business.

Are You Just Wasting Your Time With Social Media? Here’s How To Do It Right…

So, then, is there any use at all in social media? In shooting videos, and writing articles and blog posts?

Much in every way. But it’s probably not what you have been led to believe.

What these strategies are primarily meant to do, is help convert your traffic into customers and reps/members for your MLM business.

When your prospects google your name (which people do, believe me!), you’ll want them to actually find something. Something of value. Some content that you have created (or outsourced), which helps builds trust and establish you as an expert. A leader.

Because – and this really is Attraction Marketing 101 – we all prefer to buy from and work with those that we like, trust, and whose opinions we value.

And your task is to make your prospects feel that way about you!

If You Don’t Want To Wait Months To Make Money In Your MLM…

The added benefit of content advertising and social media marketing (although not their main purpose) is that they, over time, also serve to generate quality traffic for your MLM or internet marketing business.

But yes, it does take time. “Time” as in, well…likely several months.

And my guess is that you probably don’t want to wait months to make money in network marketing!

Therefore, my advice to you is to pick a direct response marketing strategy that fits your budget and your overall marketing plan, so that you can get the lead flow you need from early on.

And at the same time, start to work on building trust and establishing credibility through your online presence by consistently publishing new content and making yourself known on the social networks.

Successfully,

More here:

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PS: If you enjoyed this post, feel free to re-tweet it and/or to leave me a comment below!

Tags: internet marketing, mlm business, mlm leads, network marketing, online business, online marketing
Posted in Lead Generation, List Building, Marketing Strategies, Marketing Systems, Social Media Marketing, Sponsoring & Recruiting | 1 Comment »

Who’s business are you building anyway?

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Most of the time, when a person unsubscribes from one of my email-lists, their reason for doing so, (as stated in the “comment” section of the unsubscribe email) is usually, “not interested”, “not relevant”, “too many emails”, or “no time”…or something similar.

But the other day I received an “unsubscribe” comment, which was, if not unusual, at least a little different. And it inspired me to write this blog post.

This particular subscriber decided to opt out from receiving any more information because, as she herself put it, it “breaches {name of MLM company}’s policies”.

Now, I’m obviously not writing this to promote my own business, or to argue the fact that the training, system and tools that I offer are generic and should therefore be able to be used to market any MLM opportunity, without significant issues.

Although true, that is not my point here…

Here is the real issue… And it’s actually best addressed with a question:

“Who’s business are you building anyway?”

You may think you are building your business but if your leadership restricts you from using a generic marketing system to promote your MLM – a system that does not only NOT hurt your company’s brand in any way, shape or form, but has in fact the potential to rapidly grow your current business and boost your sales…

…if your company’s policies have it that you may only use their training, their methods, and their tools – well, then I want to argue that you don’t actually own your business AT ALL: You are an employee of your company, catering to their will, however unreasonable it may be.

And that’s the problem, I think, with so many MLM distributors today… Because they haven’t been taught to market properly (not their fault, may I add), they have no real skills, no value in and of themselves. They are expendable.

And of course the leadership knows this. One distributor comes, another goes. Big deal.

If you do something – heaven forbid – that your leadership disapproves of…if you, even unknowingly, breach one of their policies, and they decide to kick you out (which I’ve seen happen on more than one occasion), well, then you have to start all over again, from scratch.

You’ll have to start with a new MLM company, new products, a new compensation plan, and building an entirely new customer base.

In fact, you can’t even take your leads, customers or members – considered you have some left – with you to your new company! Do you realize how much money that means leaving on the table?!

It is my conviction that most MLM distributors are led to believe that they are business owners when they really aren’t.

Most people grow up with such a herd mentality and are so accustomed to following rules and taking orders that they mistake the little bit of freedom they acquire as MLM distributors for full business ownership.

Which, of course, it is not.

You only own your business when you have value in and of yourself, as a marketer. When you have acquired skills that are in demand in the market place – which makes people seek you out and want to work with you.

And that means you know:

1.) how to generate traffic to your web sites at will, and

2.) how to convert that traffic into sales at increasingly higher profits (ROI).

When you have learned these skills, you will be in demand.

Then you won’t have to rely on someone else to supply you with leads (the life blood of your business). Because you’ll be able to produce them yourself. Which means you are, in fact, in control.

And then you can take your expertise, your know-how, anywhere at any time, and create results. For yourself, and for others.

Now you are independent.

Now, suddenly, you are indispensable.

So, then…what do you do if you find that using a generic marketing system, tools and training to build your MLM business “breaches” your current company’s policies?

Easy.

You resign. You go learn the skills that will make YOU sought after in the market place. So that you can set your own rules…and write your own pay check. For life.

And then you’ll truly be working for yourself and building your own business, not that of someone else.

Successfully,

More here:

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PS: Agree? Disagree? Feel free to re-tweet this post and/or to leave me a comment below!

Tags: mlm leads, mlm success, mlm success tips, mlm tips, mlm training
Posted in Lead Generation, Leadership, List Building, Marketing Strategies, Marketing Systems, Mindset | No Comments »

I just received a check in the mail for $11, 269…for my AFFILIATE sales

Friday, February 19th, 2010

If you know anything about me, you know I’m not someone who usually plasters screen shots and photos of checks and bank statements on my web sites in order to try to impress my readers…

I only do it if it is to prove a particular point, and because sometimes the skeptics need to see tangible proof.

Well, today I received a check in the mail for $11, 269. And that’s not profits off of the primary program that I market – no, it’s for affiliate sales only. It’s in addition to the earnings I make off of my primary opportunity…which obviously is a great deal more.

This is passive income, more or less. $11, 269 in one month. Just extra cash.

Bottom line: you can work hard or you can work smart. I choose the latter: leverage the internet, automate as much of your work as possible, tap into multiple income streams, train qualified individuals to duplicate your success so as to produce a residual income for you…

Lots of planning, lots of smarts, and plenty of sacrifices along the way. But if you do the above, and you do it right, you can retire in 3-5 years.

I certainly intend to.

Successfully,

More here:

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Work with me in PRO

Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, cash flow, multiple income streams, passive income
Posted in List Building, Marketing Strategies, Marketing Systems, Uncategorized | No Comments »