Indulge me for just a moment as I enjoy a nostalgic little stroll down memory lane with a “Sound of Music” moment. Do you remember that song?
“Let’s start at the very beginning,
It’s a very good place to start.
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi…”
Now, at this point I either have your attention, and you will read on because you have been attracted by my headline and introductory paragraph and are interested in what I have to say. Or else you are bored out of your mind already and have logged right back out again because you believe I have overdosed on Christmas pudding and brandy custard and gone completely mental.
Hopefully, it will be the former 
And so to the first point I wanted to make. When you start a marketing campaign, you want to engage principles of attraction marketing, and attract your ideal prospects to you, rather than chasing down everyone you come into contact with, or who clicks on your ad, article or video (trust me when I say you do not want unqualified prospects racking up a huge Google bill for you).
We are always being told that this is a “numbers game”, which is true to a point, but at the end of the day, the quality of your leads will have a far greater impact on the bottom line in your business than the quantity, especially if you are paying for them (e.g. with Adwords, classifieds or banner advertising).
I want to suggest that before you unleash any marketing strategy, you have a very clear picture in your mind of your ideal prospect, and the niche where that person resides in the first instance.
Understanding niche marketing is the second key to successful marketing, online or off.
Think about it for a moment.
Not everyone is going to be interested in what you have to offer, so it makes perfect sense not to waste your time and energy (and money) trying to appeal to everyone.
“If you attempt to appeal to everyone in general, you’ll attract no-one in particular” – I’m not sure who said that, but they were on the money.
I recommend that you take the time before you get started, to write down potential niches to market to.
Now, here is a hot tip for you. We have marketed exclusively and very successfully to the MLM and Network Marketing niche in our own business.
The reasons why are these:
* Mike Dillard (network and online marketing guru) suggests that this is our most powerful niche. If the top person in our industry recommends this as a strategy, we are very happy to use it.
* People who are already in the industry are usually struggling, particularly if they do not know how to market online at best, or in a professional and leveraged way at worst.
* People who are already in the industry are “sold” on the business model. This in itself is a powerful qualifier.
* It is a vast market, with 79 million people in the USA alone looking at starting a home based business in the next twelve months. Plenty of fish swimming in that pond, in other words.
We would also recommend that you take this strategy a step further, and drill down even deeper into this niche. There are well over 250 network and multi level marketing companies out there, which makes for a very broad field.
So we suggest you target specific companies in your marketing, and not the entire industry in general. You would do well to start with the ‘top tier’ companies, rather than go after the companies which have a lower investment level to buy in.
Why?
Because ideally, your prospect and potential business associate will have some working capital to invest in their own business. Our experience has been that those prospects who are looking around the lower end companies simply do not have the money to get started and maintain their membership commitments.
It may seem that I am laboring this point, but this is a foundation principle in an industry like ours.
If you are so inclined (and this will depend entirely on your own circumstances), you can go even deeper into your chosen niche, and break it down even further by location, and even demographic.
For example, you may be a single, female “baby boomer” living in Australia. Perhaps you have come into the industry from a corporate style of career.
In your marketing, and when you write your story, these are the elements you will want to emphasize.
Why?
Because people who are more like you, are more likely to relate to you.
Writing your story is an element of marketing in this industry which is very much overlooked and underestimated.
In fact, it is so important that I will dedicate an entire post to it (note to self – jot that down for tomorrow).
But to cut a long story short, your goal should never be to impress (in fact, if you are trying to be impressive, you will be more likely to come off looking tragic).
The sole aim of putting your story out there, is to give prospects an opportunity to “get to know” you, and to give them something to relate to. I will go into a lot more detail about this tomorrow.
Having determined who you want to speak to, the next stage will be to complete your keyword research to get a feel for whether this will indeed be a profitable market for you to explore.
Mike Koenig’s keyword research training in the back office is where you will want to head for this. Get ready to do a little sorting and sifting now, to identify which keywords may be ‘money words’ for you.
Be aware, that if you are going to use Adwords, there are very tight restrictions in place in terms of using trademarked company names.
However, no such restraints exist if you are using free marketing methods. I will say this though.
Always uphold a professional and ethical image in all of your marketing.
Do not get online and rubbish other companies or products. This is an unnecessary technique that fortunately, has well and truly had its day.
When you have attracted the attention of your prospect, you will want to make your message to them sufficiently compelling for them to take the next step in your process.
I suggest here that you go into the back office and check out David Schwind’s copy-writing training. David is a top earner in our company, and as luck would have it, a world class copywriter.
When you are writing copy, you will want to pay particular attention to the headline, as this will be what “hooks” your prospect to continue to read your message in the first instance. We have dedicated a great deal of space to that very topic in our own online marketing manual, and you can find the link to it on this site.
So, in terms of your marketing strategy, start at the very beginning. It is the only place to start.
Make today a great one.
Cheers,
Tan
