How to Generate Better Leads for Multi-Level Marketing Businesses
- New entrepreneurs traditionally generate MLM leads from people they already know
- Pitching products repeatedly to family and friends who aren’t really interested can harm relationships
- As with any business, entrepreneurs will find more success by focusing on specific target markets
- There are at least 5 methods to use the internet for more effective lead generation
- Smart Funnel helps entrepreneurs of all kinds to generate better leads, faster!
Anyone who’s ever tried to start running their own Multi-Level Marketing business, or MLM, knows that one of the greatest challenges is finding more customers. Acting under the advice of the sellers who came before them, many such entrepreneurs begin with a list of a hundred or so supposedly warm leads. Most of these leads are friends and family members, though, and that doesn’t necessarily translate to them being really interested in what you’re selling. Often some of them will purchase just to help out, but not usually out of genuine interest. Pursuing repeat business from these kinds of leads can not only be very unproductive but actually start to damage relationships. Small business owners should never get comfortable relying primarily on their existing close acquaintances or family members for sales growth. The question arises, then: how can you get better MLM leads?
The answer is surprisingly simple:
The same ways as every other business!
Identifying Your Target Market
The first thing you need to do is understand what kind of person would be interested in buying what you’re selling. This is mostly a matter of knowing the nature of your products.
If you’re selling clothing items, it matters whether they’re for everyday ordinary use, or for fitness and exercise, or for winter wear, or whichever kind of category they may fall into.
If you’re selling health and beauty products, likewise, you need to understand as specifically as possible exactly what it is your products do, when, and for whom, and in what circumstances.
With all of that information laid out, you can have a clearer picture of what kind of person will be most interested in buying. Your products will satisfy some very specific needs that specific people have. Your job is now to find the people with those needs. But not everyone with such needs either knows what they’re looking for or where to find it, so you have to put yourself out there. You have to generate content they can find, in other words.
Generating MLM Leads Online
There are at least five excellent ways for any entrepreneur to start generating leads for their business using the power of the internet.
1. Starting Your Own Website
This is the basis for most online businesses. You need to invest in at least a basic platform where you can post informational content about yourself and your products. It’s not just about having a buy button and a PayPal link, although that’s helpful. You need to have useful links and content that helps your target market find you when they search for specific keywords relating to their needs.
Depending on the organization you join, you may not be able to design your site content specifically to sell products, but you can make yourself into an expert on the topics relating to your products, and make yourself easy to contact for more information.
2. Email List Building
This is the fuel for almost every modern online business. If you can provide useful information to a list of subscribers on a regular basis, you will be able to generate sales. Email is actually one of the best ways to generate leads. By providing a subscription to good content in exchange for an email address, you can build a database of people who are interested in hearing more from you. Just make sure that you comply with the laws and regulations around email marketing to ensure that you don’t get flagged as a spammer.
3. Blogging and Article Writing
Writing content is how you make your business more useful to everyone who interacts with it. It’s not enough to just say you have something for sale. You need to write about the problems your products solve. Write about the science behind the solutions. Write about current events that have to do with those problems and solutions. The more content you can generate, the more likely it is that interested customers will come to you because you will have established yourself as a trustworthy source of information that can benefit them.
4. Social Media Activity
Social media can magnify the effects of each of the first three strategies for generating MLM leads on this list. You can spread your content across multiple platforms, you can sell in different ways to different subgroups of your target market, and you can develop a following.
5. Referral and Affiliate Programs
With affiliate and referral networks, you can help others earn money while boosting your own sales. See our previous posts on the benefits of affiliate networks for more details.
Smart Funnel Accelerates Lead Generation
Contact Smart Funnel today if you want extra help boosting your efforts to generate new and better MLM leads. We can help you set up many of the strategies we list here, as well as more specific sales development programs!
