Today I decided to create a network marketing infographic that shows some of the differences between network marketing strategies that worked back in 1994 versus network marketing strategies that work today in 2014.
I’ve been in a number of different network marketing companies over the last 20 years and the biggest complaint I hear from new people is that they don’t like the marketing aspect of their business.
Most people love the products that their company sells, but they hate the marketing strategy.
Most of these marketing strategies are outdated, and date back to 1994 or before.
Here’s a network marketing infographic I created that shows some of the strategies from 1994 and how they’ve changed over the last 20 years.
One of the most exciting things about getting involved with network marketing in 2014 is that you can virtually eliminate all the annoying, boring and difficult marketing strategies that don’t work very well anymore, and replace them with newer strategies that are a lot more fun, easier and way more effective.
Here are some examples:
No Need for a 25 Name List
Back in 1994, most network marketing companies would start a new distributor off by getting them to make a 25 name list of their top friends and family members.
Then the person’s job was to call those people as quickly as possible, invite themselves over to their house along with their sponsor, and to go see as many of those people as quickly as humanly possible.
Ideally, you and your sponsor would do a blitzkrieg style attack on your 25 name list and get to see everyone on your list before the first person on your list that you went and saw had a chance to call the rest of the people on your list to warn them about your new business venture. 🙂
I won’t deny that this approach does work in some situations, especially when a person has a good reputation and relationship with their 25 name list, but in most cases it was a very stressful and intense experience to go through.
I have personally seen the downside of this approach with family members calling the new sponsored distributor and yelling at them for being put in a high-pressure position when they were visited by the new distributor and their sponsor.
Once a distributor goes through this process once or twice in their lifetime, they never ever want to put together another 25 name list again.
Today, in 2014, there’s a much better approach to building your network marketing business.
Instead of attacking your 25 name list of friends and family who are probably not interested in your latest business venture anyways, you can instead build an online following of people who are interested in you, and your business offering.
You can learn how to setup online marketing systems that generate an ongoing stream of new, targeted and interested leads who actually WANT to hear from you – instead of bugging your aunt Ruth for the 90th time to join your latest venture.
No Need for Meetings at Your House
Another slightly different strategy that some network marketing companies have been doing for decades, which I believe also belongs in the “1994 network marketing strategies” bucket is doing meetings at your house.
In this model, what the new distributor does is they pick up the phone and they call all their friends and family and try to invite them over to a “business opportunity” meeting at their house.
The idea is to try to get around 20-50 people invited, which will usually mean that about 2-5 people will actually show up.
Then, the distributor’s sponsor shows up and “closes” those people on joining the business.
To be fair, this method can be very effective and is still very widely used by companies such as Tupperware, Mary K Cosmetics, Partylite, and other network marketing companies that do a great job of training their distributors to put on proper meetings.
In these types of meetings – which are usually referred to as “parties” – a group of women (usually, but not always just women) will gather at one of their houses and a distributor will do a demonstration of their products and then take orders at the end of the party.
This method can be effective in these types of situations, but it is usually best suited for people who enjoy standing up in front of a group and putting on a presentation.
For people who are shy, introverted, or just don’t like putting on group presentations, this method is largely ineffective unless they can overcome their fears of being in front of a group.
In most cases though, the typical situation that happens is a new distributor tries to put on a meeting and after exhaustively calling everyone they know, they can’t get people to commit to coming to a home meeting / party.
A lot of times, even if the distributor successful invites a few people over, they are later disappointed when on the day of the meeting / party, everyone calls with some excuse to cancel, or simply just don’t show up.
This leads to a lot of awkwardness amongst the sponsor and his guests, and that is why most people avoid even doing meetings like these.
Today in 2014, this whole process can be made much more effective by firstly building an audience of people who are actually interested in your offering (as discussed earlier), and then by using Webinar technology to invite people to online webinars, instead of over to your house for a meeting.
There’s a much higher chance that a person will tune in to a webinar than showing up to a meeting at your house.
Think about it – the person doesn’t have to get dressed up, doesn’t have to find a babysitter for their kids, doesn’t have to drive over or explain to their spouse where they are going.
They just click on a link you send them, and they join a webinar to see if what is being offered is of interest to them.
Also, using webinar technology instead of putting on meetings in person means that you are usually going to be getting the companies BEST OF THE BEST doing the webinar, instead of your local sponsor doing the meeting.
Meaning, in most cases the person putting on the webinar might be the founder of the company himself or someone who is ultra successful in the business – like a 7 figure earner in the company – and your invited guests will be exposed to someone like that, versus attending a meeting where you and your barely qualified sponsor try to stumble through a presentation.
Using online webinar and sales funnels is a much faster and easier way of building a network marketing company.
No More Cold Calling Prospects
Another “1994 network marketing” strategy that I absolutely detested was cold calling prospects from different lists and directories.
Back in those days I would get listings of business owners in my local area and cold-call them asking them if they happened to know anyone who is interested in a business opportunity.
99 out of 100 people would either hang up, tell me to go away, yell at me, or tell me to never call again.
1 out of 100 would agree to meet with me to see what I had to offer. Only a certain percentage of those would actually show up to the meeting.
It is a strategy that can be made to work if you’re willing to pound the phones for hours every day, hoping to hit that 1% of your market list who will actually agree to meet up with you, but it’s really hard to stay motivated when you’re constantly being rejected on the phone.
Personally I hated cold calling and I avoided it like the plague.
Today in 2014, cold calling is no longer required.
Instead of trying to cold call thousands of people who are most likely not interested, in the hopes of hitting that small percentage of people who just happen to be interested in a business opportunity – using today’s marketing strategies we can connect with ONLY THOSE people who are interested.
How? By using tools like Blogs, Facebook marketing, Solo Ads, Email Lists, Banner Ads, and many other tools that allow us to connect with people who are looking for a business opportunity.
How to Get Started
Many network marketers who are still trying to use 1994 style tactics and strategies in their marketing will sometimes ask me “Okay Paul, but how do I learn how to do all those things you’re talking about?”
The best way to get started in learning how to do network marketing using the strategies that work in 2014 is to buy into a training system that teaches those strategies.
Don’t wait for your network marketing company to provide you with those systems.
Most network marketing companies on the planet are still stuck in 1994, using those strategies – because most of them have top level network marketers on their advisory boards and on their marketing teams who build successful network marketing downlines back in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s.
Those people built their downlines using OLD strategies that don’t work the same way anymore, but they continue to teach and preach those strategies today because that is ALL they know.
How can you expect to learn online marketing strategies from someone who has never used online marketing strategies to build a downline?
It just doesn’t work.
Don’t expect or wait for your network marketing company to teach you what works — the truth is that they don’t know.
At best, they will hire a consultant to come in and build a replicated website, after their field agents complain enough about not having one.
However, these replicated websites are often made to look pretty, and not to be effective. They simply don’t work.
And when field agents / distributors try to use them, and don’t get a lot of positive results, their company’s leadership will then say “See, we TOLD you that online marketing doesn’t work. Here, just do this thing I used to do back in the 1980’s and 1990’s and you’ll see that it works.”
Trust me, I’ve been there. I’ve tried plugging into the online marketing training from network marketing companies.
At the very best it barely scratches the surface of what is required.
What you really need is to learn from the best strategists on the planet. People who are producing results with online marketing TODAY and who have results to show for it.
Not theory – but actual results.
Personally, after close to a decade of searching for a training system on this topic I have found the best training comes from a company called Empower Network.
Empower Network teaches the most up to date online marketing strategies for network marketers.
They teach everything from Blogging to Facebook advertising, to developing a following and building your email list. Virtually every topic you could think of related to building your network marketing downline in 2014 is covered and taught within the Empower Network.
Empower Network also has a proprietary Viral Blogging System platform they created to enable anyone to launch a fully optimized Blog within seconds of joining the program.
For more information about Empower Network and what they offer, click here to watch a short video explanation.
As a member of Empower Network myself, I also offer personalized coaching and mentoring to my team-mates along with regular webinars and training videos that are exclusively only available to my team.
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