If you are a consultant with one of the kitchenware party plan companies you probably focus your marketing on home parties and other cooking demonstrations. While the home party is likely very successful for you, there is a group you can market to that has probably not yet been approached – local catering companies.

Marketing to your local catering companies doesn’t require a cooking demonstration or home party. One approach you can take is to send a newsletter geared towards tools that will save time and make food presentation faster and prettier. Caterers also need storage containers and serving pieces, especially those that keep foods warm or cold.

Write up a newsletter highlighting these types of items along with your top sellers and new products. Mail the newsletter to all the caterers in your area. You can find them through an online search or local classifieds and yellow pages.

Catering to caterers can open up a whole new revenue source for you.

When you are a consultant a for clothing and accessories or makeup direct sales company, you can become a walking billboard for your products. When you wear great clothes people will ask you where you bought them and when your makeup is gorgeous, they’ll ask you what it is.

Jewelry is a very popular gift so be sure to market for all the gift giving holidays. You can specialize in a particular style or teach customers how to change the look of an outfit just by changing the jewelry or accessories that go along with it.

Two of the main marketing techniques use for makeup and skin care sales are hands-on demonstration and free sample marketing.

While it would be ideal, it’s almost impossible to give personal attention to every guest at a home party. Involve the entire group by having people pair up and make up each others’ faces using techniques that you demonstrate. Or you may want to offer parties that focus on training in the art of color.

Cosmetics and skin care lend themselves well to specialty parties such as “all natural” beauty, makeovers, anti-aging, skin repair, relaxation and stress relief, pampered feet, baby care, and much more. Choose one of your company’s product lines and build a specialty party around it.

For online marketing, use those same themes to put together “kits” and instruction sheets for “time for myself” indulgences or for gifts suggestions. Use before and after pictures to demonstrate the transformations and offer lots of tips and “tricks of the trade.”

As with any direct sales business, personal attention and a unique approach will go far to gain and keep customers. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Become known as the person who sells the best gemstone jewelry or the one who will customize a great skin care regimen, pull together a mix and match wardrobe, or offer a cosmetics makeover. You want to be the “go to” person for your area of expertise.

Market your home decor business by using your creativity to develop your own style and area of expertise. Teach your customers how to arrange and group products to enhance a room. Or instead of selling baskets and storage containers, teach people how to get and stay organized. Show potential customers how the product work for them or enhance their lives.

Put yourself in the shoes of the customer. As a business owner we sometimes forget that we are also a consumer. We look at selling our products from the standpoint of the company and their marketing materials. Consider what you would look for in a product? What questions would you ask before purchasing your products from someone else? Use this information to direct what you say during your parties or as website content to gain the trust of your audience. Trust translates into sales when done well.

Turn your own home into a showplace that advertises the beauty and necessity of your products. If customers see that they can have a living room or kitchen like yours by purchasing your products, they are more likely to buy. It is one thing to see a group of products in a catalog and another thing to be able to see how they actually will look. Use before and after pictures of your home on your website to further showcase products.

Holiday decorating provides another opportunity to show customers how to transform their home. Be sure to have holiday tips and catalogs available in plenty of time to get products delivered for your customer’s decorating schedule.

When you are having success with a particular strategy or sales method, develop training tools for your team so they can begin to use the same or similar techniques. And be sure to market your training series is an added benefit when recruiting team members.

With so many gift businesses out there, it is important to use unique marketing strategies to help get your direct sales gift business noticed.

Direct sales consultants have the opportunity to provide customers with the individual attention and customer support that is missing from the big chain stores many of us shop at now. Go the extra mile for your customers by offering special services like a personalized reminder service for special dates, gift wrapping, and gift giving suggestions.

You can market locally to women’s groups and offer seminars about gifts and your business or topics like putting together gift baskets. Some of the groups that you may want to approach are mother’s groups, red hat society groups, and ladies auxiliary groups.

Market employee recognition gifts to other small businesses.

Offering gift certificates has the potential to get two for one customers. You gain the gift giver and if the receiver likes your products and service she just may become a loyal customer too.

There are many way to promote your gift business. The key to making your business stand out from the rest is going above and beyond what everyone else is doing. By doing this, you will give your gift business the edge that it needs to succeed today and in the future.

You might be surprised to learn that one of the most effective ways to recruit new direct sales consultants for your team is to publish an online advertisement. Online advertising isn’t cheap and for many it can be a bit of trial and error. The key to success is creating advertisements that speak directly to your audience. Namely, you want to appeal to people who are looking for new opportunities, self-employment or careers.

There are three essential tips that help you appeal to this audience.

1. Keywords – What keywords do your prospects use when they’re searching for information? This is important particularly if you’re utilizing PPC ads. The ads will be displayed depending on the keywords your prospect has used in their search. You want to make sure you’re targeting the right keywords.
    
   If you’re not using PPC but are instead creating a traditional text ad to be published on a website or ezine keywords are still important. They grab the reader’s attention and help them quickly identify the benefit of reading your ad.
2. Call to action – What do you want readers to do when they read your ad? Do you want them to visit your website? Do you want them to give you a call? Do you want them to download a free ebook you’ve created about how to achieve direct sales success? Make sure your ad’s call to action supports your goals. If your goal is to connect with potential recruits make sure you give them the means to connect with you.
3. Benefits, benefits, benefits – What’s in it for them? An advertisement that says, “start your own direct sales business” is fine. You might get a few responses. However, an ad that says, “Control Your Destiny – Achieve Your Personal Annual Income Goals Your Way with Direct Sales.”
    
   In order to stress the benefits of becoming a member of your team consider what needs, desires, wants and problems your prospects are feeling. Then show them how to solve their problems by becoming a consultant. Keep it short, simple and sweet.

The final element of direct sales advertising success is to make sure you’re placing your advertisements in the right location to attract your prospect’s attention. Additionally, test and track your advertisements success. Keep tabs on which ad’s perform the best. Which generate the most interest and response? Which produce the most effective recruits?

Image courtesy of 4nitsirk on Flickr

Direct sales offers an abundance of opportunities to make a great income. In addition to your own sales success, recruiting other consultants can boost your income. There are many common and effective ways to recruit new teammates.

One of the most popular of course is to recruit at home parties. If you’ve exhausted the standard recruiting strategies or you want to launch a recruiting campaign consider some of these unique, and effective, strategies as part of your overall direct sales advertising plan.

1. Social Networking
   Many successful direct sales consultants accidentally stumble upon the power of social networking. They post a promotion or a review for a product and not only do they make sales, they connect with others who are interested in representing the company. Social networking is extremely powerful for connecting with other like-minded people.
   However, instead of stumbling upon success, you can create a plan and implement it to recruit teammates. For example, you might create a Facebook advertisement or a Facebook fan page to support your career. In addition to promoting products occasionally you can also share your experiences and the joys of being a direct sales consultant for your chosen company.
2. Blogging
   Do you presently have a blog? You can recruit motivated teammates by starting a blog about your adventures, misadventures and successes as a direct sales consultant. You’ll help other direct sales consultants achieve success. You’ll also attract great people to work with and join your team.
3. Guest Blog, Article Marketing and Helpful Content
   Finally, and perhaps you’re starting to see a theme here, consider publishing content about how to succeed as a direct sales consultant. When you publish helpful content you position yourself as an expert. Share your personality in your content and you’ll also attract people who want to work with you. You’ll be amazed at how well this strategy works. Publish content on article marketing sites, become a guest blogger for work at home or direct selling blogs and publish content on social networking sites like Linked In.

Add these three online recruiting strategies to your next recruitment drive and reach your goals quickly, and effectively. You’ll recruit top notch teammates and be well on your way to lasting direct sales profits and success.

Promotion is defined as the act of furthering the growth or development of something. Under that definition just about every action you take for your business is a promotion. However, the word promotion implies something greater – a concentrated effort to bring awareness to a product, service, or campaign.

As a direct sales professional you can promote a product, an event like recruitment fair, or a promotion your company is offering. Regardless of what you’re promoting there are key ingredients to a successful promotion.

1. Know Your Destination
   What do you want to accomplish with your promotion? What are your goals and objectives? This is the very first essential step to any successful promotion. There is any number of potential goals. They can be monetary, for example $1000 in sales. Your goal might be to attract X number of ezine subscribers. Or you may want 100 people to attend your recruiting fair with the additional goal of recruiting 5% of them.
2. Action Plan
   Outline exactly what you need to do to achieve your goals. For example, if you want to attract 100 people to a recruiting event you might decide to publish an ad in your local newspaper and to email everyone on your email list and ask them to come and bring a friend.
3. Scarcity, Urgency, and Your Call to Action
   When you implement an element of scarcity or urgency your promotion will gather more attention. For example, if you’re promoting a new product you might offer a coupon for the new product. The coupon will have an expiration date. If you’re hosting a recruiting event you might say that it’s limited to the first 100 people. Studies have shown that these tactics produce results.
4. Integration
   When creating your promotion action plan be sure to integrate it into all of your existing marketing tactics. For example, market it in your email messages, on your blog and/or website, on your social networking profile and anywhere else you market your business.
5. Testing and Analytics
   Each promotion is an opportunity to learn. Use this opportunity to learn about what your customers and prospects respond to. Learn about what they want, need and desire and how you can best service them. Test your marketing tactics for results. Which tactics work best? Measure sales, clicks, and visits to your website and examine the data. Each promotion will offer you with an abundance of information to help you improve your business and your next promotion.

Embrace these keys and you’ll enjoy success time and time again.

Image courtesy of SixRevisions on Flickr

Getting ready to launch an advertising campaign? Want to recruit a few new top producing team members? Are you hoping to draw attention to your direct sales company and all that you have to offer? Before you place an advertisement take some time to create your advertising and listing strategy.

Step One: What Do You Want To Accomplish?

In order to achieve advertising success it’s important to first know what you want to accomplish. What are your goals? For example, do you want to recruit three new top performing recruits?

Step Two: Define The Offer.

It’s also very important to know who you’re looking for or what you’re offering. What are the characteristics of top performing recruits? How will you appeal to your audience? What benefits can you highlight? How can you solve their problems?

Advertising is about capturing your prospect’s attention and motivating them to take action. In the case of recruiting new teammates the desired action may be to click through to your recruiting page. Decide exactly who you’re advertising to and what you have to offer.

Step Three: Researching Advertising and Listing Options

Now it’s time to decide where you’re going to advertise or list your business. Take some time and research your options. For example, you might advertise or list on Craigslist. You might also create a Facebook ad or list your business opportunity on a Direct Sales Company directory.

Step Four: What’s Your Budget?

Once you have an idea about your advertising or listing options, it’s time to begin comparing them. You’ll of course compare them based on how they fit your goals and your target audience. You’ll also want to evaluate them in terms of cost. Which options best fit your budget?

Step Five: Optimize Your Advertising and Listing Strategy.

At this point you likely have your goals, your ad or listing created and you have chosen a site or sites to focus on first. The next step is to integrate y our advertisement of listing into your overall marketing strategy. For example, if you publish a new advertisement on Craigslist you might link to that ad from your Facebook page. Integrating your marketing and business building tactics helps draw more attention to them. It makes them more effective.

Finally, consider sending prospects to a landing page for each specific goal you identify. This will help you test and track your results. You’ll learn what your prospects respond to and which listings or ads generated the most interest and results. Also consider tackling one ad or listing at a time. Tackling too much at once often results in incomplete efforts. Focus on one tactic, perfect it, and then add more.

Image courtesy of deanmeyersnet on Flickr

Customer loyalty is an essential success ingredient for any business. It’s particularly important for Direct Sales success. Every customer who becomes a regular buyer helps you generate predictable income. It makes it much easier to manage your cash flow. And you know what they say about the cost of a new customer – it costs ten times more to get a new customer than to keep the ones you have.

 
So how do you build customer loyalty? A few offline and online tactics can help you take great care of your customers.

Exceptional Customer Service
Customer service is about more than simply offering contact information or a FAQ page. Customer service is about going out of your way to make sure your customers feel appreciated. It’s about addressing their problems and concerns immediately and with great concern. It’s about taking measures to provide the best products and services possible so there aren’t any customer complaints or concerns. Exceptional customer service makes your customer want to buy from you again.

Consistent, Frequent, Communication (but not too frequent)
Okay, so you probably don’t want to email or connect with your customers every day. However, frequent interactions help keep your company at the front of their mind. When they have a need, they’ll remember to turn to you. You might consider communicating with your customers via a monthly email newsletter, on social networking sites and occasionally by mail.

Personality Marketing
Your personality is one of your strongest assets as an entrepreneur and a Direct Sales consultant. People buy from people they like. Share your personality with your customers and give them your best.

Giveaways, Promotions and Freebies
Who doesn’t like getting something for free? Help your customers become engaged with your company and excited about your products by occasionally offering giveaways, freebies and special promotions or offers. Generate excitement!

Easy To Use Website
Make sure connecting with you and/or making a purchase from your website is as easy as possible. If you’re unsure, ask your existing customers what you can do better. Then follow their guidance.

Get Your Customers Involved!
Contests, quizzes, and questionnaires – ask for your customer’s opinions and get them interacting with you and your company. Interaction breeds community. People gain a sense of belonging. Also when you ask their opinion they feel appreciated and valued – great for customer loyalty!

Create a customer loyalty strategy and integrate it into your overall business plan. Each of the above tactics can be implemented and integrated into your existing customer service, marketing and communication strategies. It’s an extremely valuable step to take. Customer loyalty makes growing your business easier and more enjoyable.

Facebook offers advertising benefits to business owners from all industries. Yet for direct sales consultants, it may be particularly effective. Why? Because Direct Sales is all about connecting with your audience and prospects – it’s social networking. Facebook of course is a social networking tool. You can use Facebook to build your business and recruit new teammates. Let’s take a look at how to advertise with Facebook.

             Image courtesy of David Berkowitz

Step One: What Do You Want To Accomplish?

It’s very important with any advertising strategy to create a goal for your ad. An example might be that you want to recruit five new teammates. Once you have your goal you can then create an ad and a plan to achieve it. The goal comes first.

Step Two: Register for Your Account

If you don’t have a Facebook account you’ll want to get one. Registration is free and you can get a Facebook page up in a few hours. Once you have your account you can then move forward and create your ad.

Step Three: Create Your Ad

Facebook is incredibly user friendly. It actually walks you through the step process of creating your advertisement. Initially, you’ll be asked to:

• Create a title for your ad
• Prepare the text for the body of the ad
• Upload an image for the ad
• And provide the web address of the page that users will click through to – where will you send your prospects? An example might be a contact us page or an opt-in page.

There are a few specs to pay attention to when creating your ad. For example,

• You have 25 characters (including spaces) for the headline of your advertisement.
• You have 135 characters for the body of the ad.
• Your ad image must be no larger than 110 pixels wide x 80 pixels tall – it should have an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9. (The Facebook interface will attempt to resize it automatically).

One of the wonderful user friendly features a Facebook ad provides is the ability to view your ad as you create it. This helps you make minor tweaks as you go and generate your ideal advertisement.

As you’re creating your advertisement make sure the ad copy, including the headline and call to action in your body copy support your goal. You’ll also want to follow basis advertising guidelines – namely, capture attention and tell your prospect what they have to gain by clicking on your ad.

Step Four: Target Your Audience

The next step is to target your advertisement. You can target:

• Location
• Age range
• Gender
• Education level
• Where your prospect’s work
• Their relationship status
• And the language they speak.

Step Five: What’s Your Budget?

Your final step is to decide on your advertising budget. Start small and consider initially creating one ad rather than several. This will help you fine tune the results and make sure your ad is generating the desired results. Once you’re achieving Facebook advertising success you can then branch out and create several advertisements.

Have you tried Facebook advertising and if so, were you happy with your results? Comment below to tell us about your experience or to ask any questions you have about social media advertising and marketing