Offline Advertising
Media advertising IS NOT for the faint hearted!
Make sure you have fully exploited the card and tape system we have in place before you even consider cold market contacting via any other method. The next thing you do is ask your sponsor or an upline person what is working for them and use a proven method that they use. This way they can coach you in what is working for them.
Obviously advice I give here whilst it may work for me, it may not work for you. Trying to build a Network business from the cold market is not the easiest of things to do. You will need plenty of self determination to make it work. Now I am not saying you can't do it by any stretch of the imagination. If you think like me, then you will have the attitude of "Well if others can do it so can I!" And yes certainly you can do it too! Be prepared to be knocked down and get back up again a few times as you learn. It can be demoralising at times. However as long as you are a team person and prepared to learn and use the filtering tools, you will succeed.
Central to cold marketing advertising and business building is the "Voice Box System" and your own domain name and website. I call this, the method we use, the OBB System (Online Business Building System). It effectively combines the strengths of both the Internet and the offline advertising we undertake.
Whilst the Internet is a readily accepted medium in the States with something like 85% of households now with access it is somewhat less so over here in the UK. Perhaps around 50% of households have access to the Internet. Many people here in the UK still view doing business on the Internet as risky. In many ways this is very good news for us here in the UK because we are right at the start of a major trend. As more people move to the Internet for everyday purchases etc then we (savvy networkers) stand to reap a fortune from it as we build our businesses.
Running with the "Big Dogs"
So you have exhausted all your Warm Market people and you want to start running with the "Big Dogs".
I take it you have your Voice Box set up. You have your own domain name and website set up and operational. Your business What if....? cards you have used to good effect and you have stuck your name and address labels on everything that has left your house including all the "Time Of Your Life" tapes you have dispatched around the country. Your business is growing but you are keen to see it grow faster!
Right! You are running out of contacts to approach because you have done all of the suggested things and you want to develop your business even more so than what you are currently doing. Or perhaps you were with another network in the past and the company just wasn't up to it and you have already worked through your warm list and you no longer have credibility. That's fine I know what that feels like. You need to start working the cold market with advertising.
Unsavoury characters.... Watch out!
The secret to advertising is not to spend up big on any one thing until you are certain the results are going to be worth the outlay. A word of caution here. There are some very unsavoury characters out there in the world of advertising, ready to suck you into various advertising schemes and deals. So be warned! Some of the dubious publications such as business opportunity magazines may claim to have huge circulations but in reality they may do just a limited token run of a thousand or less to try and give some credibility to the scam they are running.
If you are approached by any such sales rep from a magazine purporting to be a business opportunity type publication ask for the name of the publisher and where their office is first. Then armed with the name of the magazine and the publisher, see if you can find it in any of the better bookstores. If you come across it regularly on the shelves then it is probably bona fide. If you can't find it easily then I suggest don't use it to advertise in. Many networkers in the past have been sucked in for a lot of money by these scam merchants.
One of the favourite tricks is to quote a price which will be payable over say three or four instalments for the next four months then charge your credit card for the entire amount, print their limited run of magazines and then claim to have fulfilled their part of the contract. The Trading Standards people are always getting complaints about this practice. Unfortunately there seems to be a never ending crop of unsuspecting Networkers constantly being sucked in by them. Make sure you are not one of them!
DON'T RELY ON VERBAL CONTRACTS WITH ANY OF THE MAGAZINES OR PAPERS.
Get the deal in writing and don't give your credit card details to anyone connected with advertising until you have a written quotation from them.
Now having said that, some of the quite small publications can actually be quite cost effective if they are reaching a niche market of people who would be interested in working from home or perhaps interested in the health aspect of this New Ways business. It is a matter of testing the water as you go. Opt for classified advertising to start with. Little three liners will give quite a response at times and it will not cost you a large amount of money to find out if there is an interest out there in what you are offering to the readership.
Use The Tools
Always make sure you direct enquiries to your 0800 Voice Box number and to your own focused lead generating website. Use these two tools to act as filters to get rid of the time wasters. If you weren't to do this then the average person trying to establish a network would soon become demoralised sending out information packs to all and sundry without results. By having both means of contacting you in the ad, then you will experience the best of both worlds. Many people in the UK still don't have Internet access and will gravitate to the Voice Box method. However there are lot of people who do have access and recognise the Internet is the way of the future for Home Business development. They will tend to use the website facility to find out more about your opportunity. These are the people you want in your business. The ones with the vision of where the Internet is leading to.
I can't make specific recommendations as to what publications you should use. The best bet is to ask your sponsor or to ask upline what is working for them. If I was to tell you to advertise in the ABC of Home Business or whatever and 30 or 40 of you all decided to do just that, then no one would have any effective results from it.
You may find some of your local or regional papers are quite effective with suitably worded advertisements in the jobs section or employment. Start small and don't commit to any long term deal until you are sure the results you are getting will warrant a long term commitment.
Remember test the water first before committing to large advertising budgets.
Take care now!
Geoff