Today, I want to talk to you about how to advertise your MLM Business. I’ll cover the best places and best ways to advertise your MLM Business, so you can get more leads, recruit more reps and make more sales. I will only share tips and strategies I have used myself.
I know there are MILLIONS of network marketers out there wondering where they can get leads for their business. I used to be one of those people. After all, EVERYONE wants and needs more leads, but most people don’t know how to generate their own leads.
Without a steady flow of new qualified leads, your business is doomed. In my opinion, the # 1 reason people quit our industry is because they don’t know how to get leads.
Most people who are desperate to get leads eventually decide to use paid advertising to grow their business. Because they don’t have any experience in sales, marketing or lead generation, they get horrible results and lose money, and end up quitting the business. I hope to fix that.
Before You Advertise Your MLM Business
Before you spend even one dollar to advertise your MLM Business, please keep in mind network marketing is a warm market business. It’s always best to build with your warm market and to teach your new reps to do the same thing. Teaching “paid advertising” strategies to people who have not approached their Facebook friends and cell phone contacts first will almost always lead to failure and disappointment.
The cold market is brutal. Your prospects don’t know, like or trust you, so you have a lot of barriers to overcome. It’s also very expensive. Acquiring new customers and reps via paid advertising costs a lot of money! That is the primary reason companies choose this business model. They know that nothing beats word of mouth advertising.
The 6-Step Process
If you decide to advertise your MLM Business, there is a simple 6-step process you should follow. You never want to just “wing it” and hope for the best. You need specific goals, a budget and game-plan. Before you spend your first dollar on paid advertising, make sure you go through this six-step process.
Your six steps to get started are:
- Clearly Identify Your Target Market
- Give Them an Irresistable Offer
- Promote & Advertise Your Offer
- Generate Leads
- Follow Up Until They Buy, Die or Unsubscribe
- Wait for Interested Prospects to Reach out to You First
In the next few paragraphs, I will explain each of these six steps in additional detail.
Clearly Identify Your Target Market
The first thing you MUST know is EVERY business has a target market. If everyone is a prospect, no one is a prospect. A target market is a group of people MOST LIKELY to be interested in what you are selling.
For example, McDonald’s target market is people who want cheap food and want it fast. No one goes to McDonald’s for customer service or quality.
When it comes to network marketing you have TWO target markets: one for your opportunity and one for your products or services. Your target market for the business is other network marketers, small business owners, salespeople, and entrepreneurial people. Your target market for the products or services is people already buying similar types of products, who have the disposable income to buy from you.
The more specific you can make your target market the better. If you haven’t taken the time to determine your target market yet, you are wasting your advertising budget. Don’t spend one penny on advertising until you clearly define your target market. Put some serious thought into it.
Give Them an Irresistable Offer
The next thing you need to do is come up with an irresistable offer. Don’t publish your traditional work from home or MLM ad. Get creative and think outside of the box. The best way to do this is to come up with a unique selling proposition (USP). Here are a few examples, just to get you thinking.
- Join My MLM Team today you will get $100 in free advertising, 300 USA leads, our secret getting started training manual, and unlimited coaching until you sponsor your first five people.
- Free $25 gift card. Save $25 on any $25 or larger order. Natural and Organic products including CBD.
- 3rd Party Tested CBD. 60-Day Empty Bottle Money-Back Guarantee. Save $25 on your first order.
- Looking for one student to mentor to a six figure income in the next 12-months. Serious inquiries only please.
As you can see, these are much different than a traditional MLM ad.
Promote & Advertise Your Offer
The next step is to promote your ad. To do this you need to take some time and figure out the way best way to reach people in your two target markets. This will vary based upon your product line and company. Once you know your ideal customer you can take the time to figure out what websites they visit, what publications they read, what keywords they are searching for online, etc. These are the places you will advertise your irresistable offer.
It also makes sense to set some type of advertising budget. I would start with minimum $500 to $1,000 per month and commit to doing that for a year. If this number sounds to far fetched for you, and you can’t afford it, I would suggest starting with your warm market instead of doing paid advertising.
You must also commit to advertising for at least one year. Trying it for a month or two to see how it goes is a recipe for failure.
Generate Leads
Now that you are advertising your offer, you should be generating leads. Make sure you track each lead source to figure out what ads convert the best. Ideally, you want to get to the point where you are generating at least 10-20 leads daily. This should result in several new sign ups and customers each week.
Follow Up Until They Buy, Die or Unsubscribe
The fortune is in the follow up. Most people will need to hear from you at least 10-20 times BEFORE they make a buying decision. You must realize that every prospect is a prospect for life. Don’t be shocked if it takes you 3-12 months or more to convert a prospect into a paying customer or rep. Use an auto-responder and automate this follow-up process so you can work smart.
Wait for Interested Prospects to Reach Out to You First
This step might sound crazy, but hear me out. I learned this lesson from Dan Kennedy, one of my business heroes. If you are doing your marketing effectively, and generating lots of leads, your follow-up system will find you interested prospects. These prospects will call you, email you, write to you, or even order without talking to you. These are the people you want to connect with. By waiting for people to contact you first, you become the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest. This makes the business fun, profitable and enjoyable.
Best Places to Advertise Your MLM Business
Assuming you’ve gone through the six steps I described above, here are some of the best places to advertise your MLM Business (or products).
Safelists
Safelists are an online membership site where members agree to send and receive emails with other members. The good thing about safelists is that it is very affordable and most of the members are looking to make money online. The downside is that you will get HUNDREDS of emails per day from other members. My favorite safelist is Herculist.
Solo Ads
Not everyone is a fan of solo ads, but I love them. This is when you find someone with a large email list and they send your email to their list on your behalf. This has easily been my fastest and cheapest way to get leads. The key to success is to find a seller with a good list and have a good capture page and auto-responder sequence.
Craigslist
Craigslist is a gold mine, if you can get creative and follow their terms and policies.
Postcards
This is something anyone can do. Postcards are one of the easiest ways to advertise your MLM Business. You can buy a mailing list of people in your target market and send them a postcard with your offer.
Blogs & Forums
You can find blogs and forums in your niche and advertise on them. This might include text ads, banner ads or even a sponsored listing.
Newspaper Classifieds
In some cases, the newspaper classifieds work great, especially if you are looking for Baby Boomers. I prefer weekly papers compared to daily papers. It’s definitely worth testing out.
Magazines and Trade Journals
Look for magazines and trade journals that people in your target market read and subscribe to. These are a great place to advertise your MLM Business.
Pay Per Click
Also known as PPC, this is one of the most popular ways to advertise your MLM Business. There is a bit of a learning curve, and it can be quite expensive, but it’s definitely worth considering. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube about how to do PPC. The best platforms are Google, Facebook and Bing.
Contests
Contests are a great way to advertise your MLM Business. Have a contest on social media and give out a prize if a certain amount of people like, share and comment on your post.
Fish Bowl
I love the Fish Bowl strategy. This is when you team up with a local small business owner and do a raffle for a free product. Participants put their business card in an empty fish bowl to be entered into your raffle. You pick a winner and then follow up with everyone else.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, these are my best tips and strategies about how to advertise your MLM business.
I hope this helps you grow your business. If nothing else, try it! See what happens. I think you will find people are WAY more receptive to join your business when you use this approach.
On a side note, you should still talk to people when you are out and about living life. Nothing beats face-to-face communication. But, if you are going to combine prospecting with advertising, this is definitely the strategy I use and recommend.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Sincerely,
Chuck Holmes
Network Marketing Professional (21+ years)
Top Recruiter & Top Rep
mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
Even though this post is an oldie, it’s definitely still a goodie. I recently signed up as a brand ambassador for a child company of medical marijuana inc. I originally did so because the BA’s get discounts on their CBD products, and I truly love their products. I’ve been using them since May, and now I’m wanting to actually branch out and start sharing these products with people who truly would benefit from them. The business opportunity with this network marketing company is also a fantastic one (but MLM is tricky), and your post has offered more info for what I would need to do than many others (even the training material through my back office) I’ve found online. Clear and concise with actual, follow-able resources. Thank you for this!
Hello, The information what you shared is really good and informative. For online promotion, I prefer Youtube first. As this is the place where we can reach all kind of people easily through mobile device. It did really successful for my business.
I’m glad you’ve gotten great results using YouTube to grow your business.
Hi Chuck!
Thank you so much for all of this great information, it was so helpful to me. I was thinking about getting more involved with an MLM that sells gold for those interested in investing in precious metals. Based on your blog post, I thought about an idea of creating a Free report on the “Benefits of Investing in Precious Metals” via a capture page. I’m so new to all of this and would love your thoughts. If you read this and respond, thank you!
Something like a top 10 list would be really good.
Good information. However I have kind of a different problem.
The opportunity I share is free. The “product” I’m trying to get out is a service in which if they online shop through this portal they will make money back on their purchases plus the people they refer, as they buy they will get referral cash back on their purchases as well! This can be built very large. There is huge potential, and I know to target online shoppers, but there is nothing ‘free’ to offer but the opportunity itself The money comes from the advertising budgets from the stores themselves.I have heard this before about offering something free. Don’t really know other than just advertising it as what it really is.
Any thoughts?
Advertise a free report about how to save money when you shop and mention your service at the end. That is what I would do.
Great ideas Chuck really appreciate you sharing.
Looking forward to put this in action! Definately a top bookmarked page 🙂
Great article Chuck… very useful information.
These days it is very easy to use the internet to build your Network Marketing business once you set up the systems.
Social Media is a gold mine IF used correctly, unfortunately however most people don’t understand Social Media and use it to spam people.
Keep up the good work!
Stay Blessed!
Moni
Thanks for the kind words, Moni.
I agree with not advertising your opportunity. It totally turns people off and they never hear another word. Do you think paid advertising is the best way to go?
No, but it is one way to go.
Building a mailing list from sales ( MLM book,and others), Blogs, and forums can be a great way. I have genertaed more than 1000 leads using this method. With mobile technology now, i generate leads using whatsapp software and with Bulk sms . These are my latest methods of ;promoting MLM.
Have you used bulk sms or whatsapp bulk software before?
I would never endorse bulk texting. It is just a form of spamming.
Hi, I came across your website. Great thing I did. You have some really great ideas about marketing. Some marketers advertise their site not knowing their market. Product users is really a great idea. I usually target network marketers and work from home. Thanks for posting. ..Keep it Coming..
Have A Great Day
Glad I could help. Yes, every business has a target market, and sometimes multiple markets they could focus on. It’s best to pick one target market and focus all of your budget and efforts on that target market. Learn everything you can about them. Find out their hopes, wants, needs and desires. Figure out their problems. Figure out the best place to reach them. And then offer some free information that might be of interest to them. That is what I recommend.
Great comment.
Chuck
Chuck, really, really really good advice and value! Thanks!
Great article, very helpful informaion.
Thanks,
Renee
I’m glad you enjoyed the information.
You really need to know your target market well. Many places that I do business with have short surveys (sometimes just a single question), asking “How did you hear of us?” It could be as easy as having an employee ask the customer on the way out of the store, or one button to click after an on-line transaction. That way the business owners know immediately where their paying customers are coming from, whether it is an on-line ad, a poster or word-of-mouth. And that will enable the business owner can put their advertising dollars where they will work.
I agree. I’m always focusing on my target market. That is how you work smart.
This was an excellent article!
I agree that a free item is the way to find your leads. I was just curious Chuck, what auto-responder do you use? Also, is there a very low, or no cost auto-responder?
It is quite wise advertising in magazines too. You may even think of ads in newspapers. I am going to absolutely save this webpage because you have excellent material here. I must read this a few more times. Thanks Chuck.
I use Aweber for my autoresponder. It’s $1 per month the first month and about $19 per month after that.