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Whether you’re considering becoming a Network Marketer or a Veteran to the Network Markering scene here is everything you need to know.
Here we’ll break down Network Marketing, creating a Network Marketing Strategy, Network Marketing Do's and Don'ts, and how to grow your network. Plus, we’ll cover Network Marketing on social media, as well as how to Amplify Success and Make More Money.
Network marketing is everywhere in. Whether you know it or not, it’s present all over your social media feeds, in your day-to-day interactions with friends and colleagues, and, of course, in the businesses of countless ultra-successful people worldwide.
But what is it?
Network marketing is a type of business model that relies on relationship-building. It can be applied to any situation where you invest in connecting with people in order to grow your business or enhance your success in the long run.
How does it work?
First, let’s take a step back and look at marketing in general. Marketing is all about finding the right customers for whatever product or service you’re selling, serving them messaging that makes them want to buy. The challenge with traditional marketing is that you’re focusing on your timeline as the business owner. Customers can see through this artificial urgency, and the moment you push your latest marketing email might not be the moment they’re ready to purchase.
Think about your own experience as a consumer. Your inbox is bombarded with emails every day from brands that don’t know you at all—you’re just a number to them. So, they’ll promote their products or services left and right, hoping that eventually, you’ll be ready to buy.
The problem arises when you’re not ready to buy. Maybe you like the product in theory, but you just purchased something else and you want to use it up before you try something new. Maybe you bought their products for a gift one time, but you have no use for the brand yourself.
Whatever the case may be, if you’re not ready to buy, heavy sales messaging is just frustrating. Over time, you’ll remember these aggressive promotions and unsubscribe—and you may actually be less likely to ever return to the brand in the future, just because they irritated you.
Network marketing takes the complete opposite approach. Instead of a mass sales push 24/7, it’s more about getting to know the people in your audience and providing them with valuable content and information, whether or not they’re ready to make a purchase right away. As you can imagine, the outcome is also completely different. Because your prospective customers feel a more personal connection to your brand, they’re happy to hear from you, and they’ll know exactly where to turn when they are ready to buy.
In other words, network marketing is playing the long game. Develop relationships with your audience, consider the experience you’re providing for those who aren’t quite ready to buy, and then watch as the sales come straight to you down the line.
Thanks to all the benefits you can see in the description above, network marketing has become incredibly popular.
It’s especially common in the home-based business and MLM space. Why? The home-based business space seems to be the first industry to really understand the power of relationship-building for long-term business success, and now, it’s what every new entrant to the space thinks they’re supposed to do.
Another reason for the success is the opportunity that network marketing creates for women to excel in their own businesses, smashing the income ceilings that remain in countless other industries. Because network marketing doesn’t require set hours.
One of the questions we hear most often at Trading-Secrets is, “What’s the first step towards becoming successful in network marketing?” Our answer is simple: create a plan to outline your future success.
Network marketing is an incredible opportunity, but too often, we see people forget that at the end of the day, network marketing is still a serious method of running a business. It’s not something you can treat as an afterthought, assuming that you can sit on the couch and wait for the money to come to you. And while that outcome may be possible in the long run, it’ll only be because you’ve put in a ton of effort up-front to reap those rewards later.
As you create your network marketing strategy, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Why do I believe in network marketing in the first place?
This is the essential first step of your network marketing strategy. Why do you care about network marketing? Why do you think it’s a better approach than “set it and forget it” marketing strategies that don’t care about relationships at all? It’s one thing to understand the benefits conceptually, but you need to really internalize why it matters to you.
What product or industry do I truly believe in?
Next, make sure whatever product or industry you enter is one that you’re truly passionate about. Whether you like it or not, this space is going to become the thing you talk about most for the foreseeable future. Plus, relationship building will be much easier if your sales pitch around your product is authentic. Pick a product you like and you’ll make the rest of your business much simpler.
How will I approach my relationships?
Speaking of your business, don’t forget that consistency is key when it comes to building relationships. Connections are built over time, so think through how you’ll conduct initial outreach, how you’ll nurture contacts that you haven’t heard from in a while, and how you’ll add value for your audience even when they’re not quite ready to buy.
How will I show up for myself consistently?
Last but not least, some people in the network marketing space like to promote this avenue as a “get rich quick” scheme that you can dabble in whenever you feel like it. We’d argue that’s not a reliable method to get results, and it’s not true network marketing if every connection is ultimately hinging on a sale. As the last part of your strategy, ask yourself what your bare minimum effort is. Will you do one hour of upkeep every weekday? Spend every Saturday focused on building this out as a side hustle? Revisit your strategy every two months to keep things fresh? Set clear goals so you can hold yourself to them later.
When you’re ready to put the network marketing approach into action, here are six do’s and don’ts to implement in your business!
In a space like the home-based business and MLM industry, having a mentor is even more critical. It can be tough to navigate niche industries, and the MLM concept is often met with criticism from the general public. To help ease your entry into the space, boost your success, and bolster your self-esteem when you face hardship, mentors are essential.
Do listen as much as you talk
While you may have to take the first step to make introductions with new contacts and explain who you are and what you do, make sure you’re also listening to your audience. A huge part of building a connection is hearing what the other person is saying and making a genuine effort to learn how you can be helpful. Plus, if you listen carefully enough, you may get exactly the information you need to learn how to position your product or service down the line. Every conversation is a source of valuable information to use in the future!
Don’t bash other businesses to boost yours
Gossip isn’t helpful in any professional setting, and it’s a relationship killer with new contacts. No one feels good about supporting a business owner who has to tear down someone else just to make themselves look better. When in doubt, reframe the conversation back to your own business without commenting on alternatives.
Do view network marketing as a community
As a follow-up to the last point, remember that network marketers need to stick together! The home-based business and MLM space is a unique industry that not everyone understands, and the people who know best will be your fellow business owners and network marketers. Try not to see anyone as competition—see them as your peers to learn and grow alongside!
Don’t ignore people who aren’t ready to buy
As you build relationships with your audience, don’t make the mistake of only engaging with people who seem primed to buy. If someone tells you it’s not quite the right time or they’re saving up to buy something later, it’s not a good practice to forget about them until they’re closer to the closed deal. Instead, send resources, check in as a human being, and get creative with how you provide value up until the point of purchase.
Don’t let rejection get you down
Finally, as any business owner will tell you, rejection is just part of the experience. As you grow and start to experience more and more success, you’ll also have to hear the word “no” more and more often. Try to develop a thick skin as early as possible and remember that not everyone is your ideal customer. You don’t have to get through to everyone to have a successful business!
As you can probably guess from the name, one key to success in network marketing is having a solid network to begin with. That’s where we come in! Trading-Secrets is all about building community among home-based business and MLM owners, and our online vendor shows are the perfect way to grow your audience and your support system at the same time.
How does it work?
The gist is simple: you register for our online vendor shows (which take place over a week-long period via Facebook Group) along with thirteen other MLM or home-based business owners. In the days and weeks leading up to the show, you’ll share the event with your current network to try to get as many people as possible to join us.
As you’re recruiting your own audience (which should be simple because of the great relationships you’ve already built!), the other thirteen business owners will be doing the same process with their audiences. We ask that each person try to bring in at least 25 contacts, so if every vendor is successful, you’ll be sharing your business with 325+ new people!
When everyone ultimately joins the show, you likely won’t have too many sales from your own audience because they already know what you’re all about and what they can buy from you. But that’s okay—that’s intentional!
Instead of selling to your own audience, you’ll be exposed to thirteen other audiences from your fellow network marketers. All of these people then become part of your network moving forward—and they’re ultra-valuable contacts since they’re already supporters of another home-based business.
While we can’t explicitly guarantee any sales from these events, we have tons of participants who find that the experience completely transforms their business. Plus, you’ll get to meet thirteen other network marketers who can become part of your support system and serve as inspiration for future success. Win, win! (Learn more about our events here)
It’s impossible to ignore the role that social media plays in business success. Here are a few ways to leverage social media to develop and improve your network marketing strategy.
Share valuable content as often as possible
Since a huge part of network marketing is engaging with your network in ways that don’t push a sale, social media is a great place to stay top-of-mind without being overly promotional. You can share product features, example use cases, troubleshooting support, Q&A responses, and any other resources that might add value for your audience. Before you post, just ask yourself, “Would I find this valuable in some way if I were a member of my audience?” If the answer is yes, post away!
Explore new platforms to find new audiences
One of the most amazing parts of social media is the way each platform’s algorithm can help you find your best-fit audience. Some platforms are better at this than others, but the beauty of evolving in your business over time is that you can try a variety of social approaches to find the strategies and platforms that work best for you. Your most authentic (and, in the long term, profitable) audience may be found on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, or somewhere else entirely! If you ever start to feel stuck or limited by your current audience, test a new platform to see if you can gain traction there.
Use your DMs to forge authentic connections
Your DMs (direct messages, just in case you’re not familiar) are the perfect place to put the “network” in “network marketing.” Most business owners will find that people use DMs to ask questions about your products or services, share stories about their own experiences with your brand, or start conversations around the content and resources that you share regularly. The worst thing you can do for your business is ignore these messages. Instead, reply to as many as possible, and treat each interaction like the beginning of a new friendship or relationship. Remember not to push sales if possible—just focus on being an enjoyable, trusted contact, and trust that things will develop as they should.
Show the behind-the-scenes of your business
Lastly, one of the most underrated elements of social media is the way you can show the day-to-day elements of your life for your followers. Why does this relate to network marketing? It’s common for businesses to feel overly polished, especially when social media seems to demand that brands present a perfect presence all the time. This is great news for you, because it means that people are delighted by authenticity on their social platforms. People are naturally drawn to people and posts that feel genuine, and you’ll humanize yourself for your audience. As you can probably guess, this is great for developing an image that feels approachable and relatable over time.
As you build out your business, the next step past initial success and traction is learning how to scale your business over time. Network marketing is amazing because as long as you keep growing your network, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish and how much money you can make as an owner. That’s a big deal! We see tons of network marketers completely transform their lives with the power of this approach, and it’s amazing each and every time.
With that aim in mind, here are a few tips to take existing success and continue growing over time.
Invest in yourself as a leader
When you’re running a business that’s already experiencing some degree of success, it can be tempting to think that you have it all figured out and that you just need to find more customers. But don’t forget that you are part of your success equation too, and there’s always more to learn and develop as a leader and individual. At Trading-Secrets, we’re huge proponents of lifelong learning and regular check-ins with where you still need to grow and evolve personally and professionally. We offer courses through our VIP membership that cover everything from how to tackle procrastination to how to leverage the latest social media features to grow your business. Investing in yourself is often the perfect catalyst to move past your plateau and reach new levels of success.
Don’t underestimate word of mouth
As you grow your network over time, don’t forget that your existing audience is a powerful source of recommendations and referrals to help you find new clients. Don’t be afraid to create a referral program that rewards people for helping you spread the word, or simply ask your network to do you a personal favor and share your brand with someone they know. At the end of the day, people truly enjoy being helpful—especially for people they’ve come to care about personally. Leverage your existing relationships to build new relationships!
Test, test, test
Next, the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has no place in the network marketing world. You should be testing your outreach approaches, messaging, social media strategies, and other elements of your business all the time. Even if something is already working, you never know if it might be able to work even better! Just make sure to give your tests enough time to actually understand whether or not they’re working, and try not to test multiple variables at once. If you change how often you reach out to new contacts, don’t also tweak the language that you use to describe your product. Focus on one thing at a time so you can more clearly attribute the results to one specific trigger.
Believe you can!
Finally, almost all your success in network marketing (and in life!) ultimately boils down to just believing that it’s possible. You won’t put in the hours, take risks, and fight for your business to succeed if you don’t 100% believe that you can succeed. Remember that you’re capable and worthy of achieving your wildest dreams, and watch how you start to show up differently for your business. Everything starts with you!
For more information around network marketing and how to succeed with a home-based business, make sure to check out our blog. We’re always posting the latest insights in the space, and we love to share them with you!
