For over two years I struggled using “old school” network marketing strategies. You know which ones I mean: cold-calling; making an appointment; driving to the prospect’s house or coffee shop to show them the plan; taking the prospect to a hotel meeting or company event; calling again to follow-up with them; etc.  (Very time consuming!)

Honestly, I had very limited success.  I thought about searching the internet for online strategies but my upline kept discouraging me from using the internet.  He said, “That’s not how the pros do it.”  “Follow the system!” “Using the internet is going to be a distraction!”

It wasn’t until I went to a generic network marketing conference that I discovered that many network marketing leaders and high income earners were actually using the internet to grow huge teams.

They were actually embracing the internet and the new technologies to grow their businesses.

One 6-figure earner that made a lasting impression on me was Julie Brooks. She is a mother of two boys who gave up her franchise businesses for network marketing.  In less than 4 years, Julie leaped to the top of her network marketing company, built a huge team of 8,300 people, and made over $750,000 in commissions all without putting together a “warm market” list, making a single cold-call, or struggling for a single day to make a profit in her business.

Julie built her business 80% using online strategies!  After hearing this, I had to learn how to employ the internet for building my business.  I could no longer ignore the power of using online strategies!

Fortunately, we’re now in the 21st century and we now have access to new technologies that can help us to explode our network marketing business very quickly.

We can consistently prospect 20, 50, 100, or 300 leads per day.  We can show them our business plan and introduce them to our company with a simple referral to a presentation link.  We can also follow-up with these leads face to face using Skype or Zoom.

And best of all, we can do it from the comfort of our homes and without having to pester friends or relatives!

If you’re ready to jump into the 21st Century and start using the internet to grow you business quickly, here are four proven strategies:

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Strategy #1: Social Media Prospecting

This strategy is an approach which will seem pretty familiar, because it’s prospecting as we’ve always done it, just with an online twist.

Now prospecting on social media is NOT “Internet marketing,” however it still beats camping out at Walmart.

1) SEARCH – Use Facebook Search to find ‘friends of friends’ who live locally (at least to start with).

There are a few reasons for doing it this way…

First of all, Facebook allows you to directly message ‘friends of friends’ so that your message goes into their main inbox, instead of the “Other” inbox, which most people don’t even know exists. (I didn’t know either, prior to this).

Secondly, you start with local, because it will allow you to eventually meet face to face with them to form a more powerful personal connection. Given that you have no prior relationship, it’s important to meet.

2) QUALIFY – Next, you take a minute to look at their profile and identify key interests that might resonate with you personally, your business or your products. You are also looking for more subtle things, like are they smiling in their pictures? Are they outgoing? Do they seem to be a positive person?

Bear in mind, you are prospecting, but you are also qualifying them.

For example, an interest in Robert Kiyosaki might indicate an interest in entrepreneurship or diversified income streams. An interest in CrossFit indicates an interest in health and wellness and that might resonate with your company’s products.

3) MESSAGE – Then you craft your first message to them, which believe it or not, follows a somewhat standard prospecting approach.

You can come up with a template, but each message will be tailored to them specifically. This message will mention friends you have in common. You mention that you’re a recruiter for a “health & wellness company” or whatever the niche is, you’re “expanding in the area” and you ask if they are “open to earning extra money?”

As Julie described it, “You throw the ball in the air and see if they swing back at it.”

You DO NOT want to be posting copy/paste messages with links to sign up for your opportunity. Not only is that not effective, it’s considered SPAM by Facebook and can get your account shut down and get your company in trouble too.

In this initial message, you aren’t giving them any info or links. You are simply trying to get them to express an interest.

4) BOOK – If they “swing back,” book a face to face meeting, if local or at the very least get them on the phone. You just let them know that details are better explained in person and, “if we were to work together, it’s a good opportunity to see if we would like each other! ;-)”

At this point, if they meet with you, hopefully your company or upline have defined a solid process for you to follow here.

According to Julie, she and her team experience about a 30% positive response rate.

If they don’t answer back, there are some different approaches here. Some play it safe and leave the 70% that didn’t answer back, alone.

Julie is an advocate of following up with a 2nd message 4-5 days later, if they don’t answer back. It’s a short message simply to see if they a) received the 1st message and b) to see if they are interested. Sometimes they don’t get the first message or see the message when they are in the middle of something and forget to answer back.

The 2nd message, will usually double his overall results vs only sending 1 message.

Sending a 3rd follow-up message is not recommended. At this point, you assume a “NO” and move on.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg…

On top of this, there are some really powerful and high leveraged online prospecting & network marketing strategies utilized by a friend of mine, which you can learn more about here.

Strategy #2: The ‘Mouse Trap’ Method

This process is pretty simple and depending on your personality, may or may not be great for you. This pretty much involves posting your results on social media (i.e. setting the ‘mouse trap’) and waiting for people to express an interest via the comments or private message. (i.e SNAP!!!)

Additionally, to boost results, you can add a CALL TO ACTION to message you, if they want more info.

From a ‘leading with the opportunity’ angle, this would involve posting pictures and announcements about your ‘rags to riches’ story, income results, and the impact it’s made on your lifestyle. (Obviously, you can only do this if you’ve gotten results.)

I’ve seen people whom I know personally deploy this strategy with great success, but I’m a person that is very wary of this approach and I could see you running into compliance or even legal problems, if lots of people in your company are doing this. I personally don’t like this angle because it can piss off your real life friends & family, but I know it can work well too, because let’s face it, most people have a desire for more income.

Alternatively, with a ‘leading with the product’ angle, the mouse trap approach could be very powerful and usually more friend & company safe, especially if the results you are posting has to do with a personal or customer case study. This angle will help you generate more customers and a few of those customers may express an interest in the business, after they fall in love with the product.

We’ve seen this angle run rampant with weight loss challenges & case studies, which still work amazingly well, but can also work with other products, if there is a clear and visible result that was produced from product use.

For example, I’ve seen people in travel businesses, post pictures of their luxury vacation/trips and reveal how little they paid for that experience.

Or you can post pictures of yourself running a marathon, triathlon, or whatever, which would not have been possible without certain supplements.

Essentially, show everyone connected to you on social media a desirable change in your life, achieved in part or as a direct result of your product.

Once they express an interest, you follow whatever process you’ve been taught for closing people.

For closing offline after using strategy #1 or #2 for getting the prospect, I would recommend training by Tim Sales on presenting, closing, and enrolling new reps.

But if “closing” people is not your thing, then there’s my favorite Internet strategy, which I’ve employed in my business for the past 9 years…

Strategy #3: ‘Attraction Marketing’

I think we will all look back at the year 2018 as the tipping point for when Internet marketing (i.e. passive online selling & recruiting) was finally legitimized as the force it deserves to be recognized as, in network marketing.

Person after person, stood up at the event saying they built their businesses, primarily using the internet.

Now, if they were only 6-figure earners, what has happened in the past is that ‘old schoolers’ would dismiss their success as a ‘fluke’ or ‘non-duplicatable.’

However, 2 seats from me sat a woman who stood up when 7-figure earners were asked to identify themselves and she openly said that she built online and she described her strategy. (I later interviewed her to get a detailed account on what she did.)

What she outlined as the blueprint for her business was exactly a method we’ve been teaching at Elite Marketing Pro for 10 years, which we call ‘attraction marketing,’ outlined in our FREE 10-Day Online Recruiting Bootcamp available here and published an e-book on called Attraction Marketing Formula.

In addition to her, others stood up and shared very similar approaches.

These folks didn’t message strangers online templated messages like in Strategy #1.

They didn’t fill their friend’s News Feeds with promotions for an opportunity or product as in Strategy #2.

What they did was they created a truly passive way of making sure that when they woke up each morning…

They would have an inbox full of notifications, letting them know that there were 10, 20, 50, or even hundreds of new prospects, interested in learning more about their opportunity or product or mentorship.

Or they would also have an inbox full of notifications of 5 – 10 new CUSTOMERS waiting to receive their product and excited about the possibility it holds for them.

Or they would also have an inbox full of notifications of 5 – 10 new DISTRIBUTORS ready to get signed up (or possibly already signed up while you slept), waiting to be led in their new exciting venture.

You see, just about every other type of business in the world is now using proven network marketing strategies, passive and scalable online marketing & advertising methods in ADDITION to prospecting and referral based methods.

So why NOT your network marketing or direct sales business? The only reason would be if it wasn’t a REAL business. But you and I know better.

Bonus Strategy #4: Email Marketing

The use of email has been around for a while and by now we’re all comfortable and proficient at sending and receiving emails.  With all the emails we receive, many of which remain unopened, you’d think that email is no longer an effective method for growing a network marketing business wouldn’t you?

On the contrary!  According to the Direct Marketing Association Fact Book, email marketing has a huge return on investment (a whopping 4,300%)!  It continues to be the most effective marketing tactic in use today!

As you are making contact with people on social media, you refer them to a “lead capture page” also called a “squeeze page.”  You refer them to this page with a link that when they opt-in they will receive something for free, such as a bootcamp, a short course, video, or tutorial that will help them to solve a particular problem.

For the network marketing industry, it may be a short course or video for “How to Create a Recruiting Frenzy,” or “How to Recruit Uber/Lyft Drivers.”

As people opt-in with their email addresses, these leads are placed into your list. You can now follow-up with these leads on a regular basis to promote your business or another offer. You now have a growing list of prospects that you can contact using email.  This process can be automated using a simple tool called an “autoresponder.”

It’s important to grow a list, because as any successful online marketer will tell you “The money is in the list!”

I know online marketers who have lists consisting of thousands of people.  Whenever they want to promote something, they send out an email announcing a webinar they are doing and instantly earn thousands in commissions!

Does that make sense to you?

There is a proven way to build online and you can learn more about it here via my bootcamp.

Just like anything else in business, this will take work and study.

But ultimately, you’ll enhance your skill set by moving you into the 21st century. Are you ready for this journey?

Look forward to working with you!

David C Figueroa

(Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)