My last couple of posts have been dealing with 3 Elements of a Successful Marketing Strategy. Now it is time to take a closer look at each one. Before going on, you might want to go back and read the previous post here: MLM Tip: Brand Awareness
Today we will focus on Your Brand Presence. How are you going about getting Your Brand out there, and keeping it out there? Regardless of what venues and methods you use, it will take constant consistent effort to keep your brand in front of your target market.
If you are going to use social media, you should be performing tasks, daily, to help further expand your brand presence. If you plan to use traffic exchanges and safelists, then you should be earning credits and tracking your results daily.
I know this is not always easy. You have to work at marketing every day, follow up with prospects, work with your existing team, and you probably still have a full time job. That is a lot to juggle for sure, but that is a topic for another time.
The bottom line is, you want to promote you daily. Every day you want to have your brand in front of new people as well as others who have seen you before to serve as a reminder. Think of what you are doing to market yourself now.
How can you stay in front of your current audience? How can you adapt to be sure new people find you every day? Answer these two questions and you will be on your way. After that, it is only a matter of duplicating your efforts so as to increase your circle of influence.
Just be sure you are playing the right message. A steady stream of sales pitch posts via social media is not effective. It gives a sense of desperation. Also, try to keep your message consistent. It is fine to change some wording here and there, but be careful of being too scattered. This is why you should always promote you, not a program. Programs come and go. You don't want to be one of those people who is promoting something different every week. Besides. People join people, not companies.
The next post in this series will discuss element #2, the various marketing venues at your disposal. I look forward to it.
Hi Bill, I enjoyed this article and the last one about Brand Awareness. That was really interesting about Coca Cola and Pepsi. How do you balance the sales message on social media? 1 in 5 posts, 1 in 10 - what ratio do you use?
ReplyDeleteI too find it interesting how the two companies progressed. Especially when you realize Pepsi was actually around first.
DeleteAs for the ratio I use, that is kinda hard to answer. I don't ever put out strictly promotional posts.
Enjoyed your post Bill.
ReplyDeleteThat's right:People join people, not companies.
No kidding Wendell. I try to make this point to people when I see them just plastering their opportunity links all over Facebook and other places. The few people who join simply from a link will not stick around long enough to actually build anything.
DeleteBill I agree people click links but don't stick around. But to those that do, I liked to say thanks you. Nice one Bill.
DeleteHi Bill, this is what I strive to do everyday to brand ME. I use my creativity to come up with ads about me (Vita Woman) with hopes that will allow someone to remember what my product is. Yes, indeed this is something you have to do every day to keep yourself in front of the millions that are out here on the interent whether it new user or old. Thanks for this grand information on branding yourself.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing a heck of a job branding yourself Ann. Keep it up girl.
DeleteHi Bill!
ReplyDeleteLove this article! Let me ask you a question - what do you in the case of MLM companies that won't let you use personal branding. In other words, they have strict constraints on use of their own logo and the MLM people can't have their own website, etc.?
Do you have any recommendations?
Karen
Great question Karen. I'll do my best.
DeleteMost MLM companies do not want distributors creating their won product sites, and for good reason. Companies have gotten in big trouble because reps make all sorts of claims on their own sites. It is too much of a liability on the part of the company.
However, the company cannot tell you that you cannot go start your own website, or blog, that does not directly promote the company or products. This is to your benefit as well. Brand YOU, because companies come and go, but if you brand yourself independently from that company, you can continue long after that company has disappeared.
Now, I am not bound by any company regulation, but I choose to not promote my primary business here on this blog. Go ahead and look around. It's not there. Others take the approach of utilizing their blog for promoting their company.
I hope that makes sense.
Bill and Karen:
ReplyDeleteI have nothing to do with MLM, so this may not be germane. However, I am certified in various products- and I'll pick one that has been acquired by LexisNexis, which seems to believe that bureaucracy is the dream for every customer and consultant.
They have a list of requirements for us to employ the logo of the product that we have been servicing before they ever acquired it (let's say about 20 years now). We use our own website to promote it- beyond for what they clearly market. The product was designed for lawyers (with trust accounts) and works excellently for any organization that tracks time (accountants, engineers, product designers, lawyers, consultants). And, if they have retainers, it is absolutely stellar. We market it as such (no, we really don't sell the product, we let others do that)- installation, training, and remote support.
As Bill said, we are now longer in business than the first marketer of this product- with clients who have been relying on us to help them with their issues for some 20 years (and some for only 6 months). They know us- they want us to work with the vendor to secure their annual licenses (see my comment about bureaucracy above), and are thrilled we help them go and grow.
It took me FOREVER to learn that I would get nowhere in my business without proper branding...but once I realized it, I started taking right actions, and the activity in my business every day took off! I now read everything I can on branding, and I have to admit that this article hits every point so well.
ReplyDeleteYou show people how to have a brand presence without being a multinational presence and remind us that we are our brand and we need to promote ourselves daily. Great article...and I wish I had not taken so long to get a clue. ;)