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

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Stumped By Direct Sales Advertising? Try These Tips for Writing Attention Grabbing Ads

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.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Three Strategies to Recruit Direct Sales Consultants Online

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

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Creating Your Direct Sales Advertising and Listing Strategy

             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

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Direct Sales Advertising — How to Advertise With Facebook

Of course the challenge to growing your team of consultants is connecting with the right people. While this is usually an ongoing process you can boost your numbers by launching an advertising campaign. There are many effective direct sales advertising options to consider:

1. Classified Ad Sites – The majority of classified ad sites are free. This is of course one of the benefits to using a site like this. Additionally, you can generate some very good leads for your direct sales team. They can also generate links to your website which can of course increase sales and recruits. One of the most popular classified ad sites is Yahoo Classifieds.
2. Craigslist Advertising – Craigslist is a unique type of classified ad site and therefore deserves its own category. Craigslist gives you the power to control what region to advertise to. For example, if you only want to advertise to your city or region you can do that or you can advertise to multiple states and metropolitan cities.
3. Facebook Ads – Facebook advertisements give you the ability to target a specific prospect based on gender, age, location and much more. Facebook reaches millions of users daily. While it does cost money it can generate targeted results.
4. Text Ads on Directory Sites – Direct sales directory sites provide a unique opportunity to appeal to people who are likely already considering a career in direct sales. They’re visiting the directory site for a reason – to research opportunities. Your advertisement can help attract your ideal recruits.
5. Ezine Advertising – An ezine is a newsletter that targets a specific audience. For example, a website owner may have a parenting ezine or a work at home ezine. Placing advertisements in these ezines can help you reach a motivated and potentially profitable crowd.
6. Website/Blog Paid Advertising – You can buy ad space on a niche website or blog. For example, if you’re interested in recruiting single moms you might buy advertising space on a blog or website dedicated to that audience.
7. PPC Advertising – Google is just one of the search engines that provides PPC advertising opportunities to motivated business owners. Creating targeted, keyword specific ads, help you achieve success.

There are multiple options when it comes to advertising your direct sales business. Before you choose any particular option make sure to establish goals for your ad. What do you want the advertisement to achieve? Then create a plan to make it happen. Consider your budget, what link you’ll include in the advertisement (for example you might send prospects to a landing page designed to recruit new direct sales team members) and finally decide how you are going to track your results. Then choose your advertising medium and launch your campaign.

Image courtesty of swanksalot on Flickr

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Effective Direct Sales Advertising Options to Consider

All kinds of products and services come with a guarantee, but some guarantees aren’t really what they seem. Adrian Jock exposes “the truth about guaranteed hits” in his article below. It’s the kind of examination we should all do before making a buying decision based on a guarantee. And it got me thinking about other guarantees.

I won’t even go into the madness of guaranteed income for online business opportunities. That’s a whole article in and of itself and hopefully by now we all understand the impossibility of that guarantee.

Another common guarantee that many online business owners come across is guaranteed uptime for website hosting. The guarantee makes it sound like a promise that your website will be available 99.5% or even 99.9% of the time. But the hosting company is really guaranteeing is that they’ll credit or refund part of your hosting fees if they don’t maintain that level of service. Personally, I stand to lose more than a few dollars if my site is down for any length of time, so I look for actual uptime statistics rather than guarantees.

When making purchase decisions of any kind, a guarantee may be an important feature. Just be sure you understand what it means. Read Adrian’s article to understand guaranteed hits and please leave your comments and questions.

Email Marketing – The Truth About Guaranteed Hits
By Adrian Jock

Since no traffic equals no sales, hits to his website is the goal of any email marketer. However, many email marketing campaigns fail by delivering few clicks. The reason is simple: this type of marketing is not that easy. You need an attention grabbing subject line, a good ad copy and more. What if someone guarantees you hits?

All hard work is simply skipped. The prospects land on your salesletter without you wasting your time on copywriting and testing. Doesn’t sound great? Yes, it would be nice, but… how true (and effective) are those guaranteed clicks on your link?

Let’s see. So what actually means to get guaranteed hits? Well… No matter how bad my subject line is, no matter what I write in the ad copy, no matter anything, someone (let’s call it from now on the seller) will make his opt-in subscribers click on my link. Wonderful! But how can the seller “force” his subscribers click on my link?

Maybe his subscribers are all dumb. Maybe they don’t do anything all day long but wait for the seller to send emails so that to click on the links from the emails and make happy the seller and the advertisers. How does this sound? Quite unreal, right?

Then… if the subscribers are not dumb but they still click on links no matter how bad and not attractive is an ad copy, then it means that there is something the advertiser doesn’t know… What can it be? An incentive for subscribers! Something to make them click on links, no matter the content of the email. In comparison with the first assumption, this one looks very possible, right?

What if behind the seller’s mailing list there is actually a get paid to read emails program? What if there is a credit based safelist, or a similar program, or a combination of such programs? Wow! That’s it, right? This sounds very real and it seems that we found out how can someone guarantee hits. OK, but this is not what it was advertised when I placed my order, right? Not so nice practice, but… at least is it effective?

Let’s see… Who are those people clicking on my link? Hungry buyers? Hmm… I doubt… a) they waste their time clicking on links because they cannot afford a serious and professional promotion way (or they are freebies hunters) and b) they are looking for credits in order to blast their own ads – they are sellers, not hungry buyers.

Will they at least take a look at my salesletter? No one can tell exactly what other people will do, but… we can estimate their actions by asking ourselves “Why did they land on my page?”. Because they were interested in my very bad subject line? Because they were interested in my ad copy that they did NOT read? Nope! They landed on my page in order to get credits (Most of them are wasting their time, but that’s another story) and right after that will close my page and go to the next email to continue their job. To be honest, if I’m lucky, maybe some of them will take a look at my page, but… hey, did I say lucky? Is this email marketing or gambling?

What is the conclusion? Hmm… No further comments from my part. You know my opinion and actually you know my conclusion. It’s your turn… Be wise!

To Your Online Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. If you want to read more internet marketing tips, you’re invited to subscribe free to the Worst Newsletter in the World. Why would someone call his own newsletter “the worst”? The mystery is revealed here: http://www.adsmarket.biz/internet-marketing-tips-news.html.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adrian_Jock
http://EzineArticles.com/?Email-Marketing—The-Truth-About-Guaranteed-Hits&id=3763160

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
What Good is a Guarantee?

To get the most from your marketing efforts, it’s important to make sure you deliver your message to your target market – to the people who are your ideal customers and team members. Even the most well written advertisement is completely wasted if it’s not delivered to an interested audience.

For example, if you sell high-end baby clothes, you’re not likely to gain a lot of customers on a website for frugal moms. Even though many of the moms there have babies, they are looking for ways to save money and aren’t likely to indulge in designer or expensive baby clothes. You’ll get much better results with an article or ad placed on a site for professional moms on maternity leave or a nanny referral service.

Take some time to figure out who is most likely to buy your product or service. Are they male or female? How old are they? How will your product or service help them? Take a look at companies who sell products that are similar to yours to determine if their market is your market. How and where to they advertise?

By making sure your message gets in front of your target market you’ll start to see a much better result for the time and money you put into marketing.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Is Your Message Reaching the Right Market?

1. Not having a marketing plan.
   A marketing plan is simply a blueprint for how you will go about promoting your products or services. In the same way that a business plan provides focus, goals, and tasks for your overall business, a marketing plan provides a road map for your promotions and advertising. It’s best not to approach marketing without one.
2. Putting all your eggs in one basket.
   This old saying seems to work in a lot of situations and marketing is no exception. Diversification is the key to success and growth. You may find one or two strategies that work particularly well for your business, but don’t base your entire marketing plan on just those methods. Explore other options to avoid being stalled at a certain point.
3. Ignoring the power of networking
   Business networking is invaluable. When entrepreneurs get together to brainstorm and exchange ideas, all sorts of beneficial relationships are formed. In your business networks you will form joint venture partnerships, referral networks, and find mentors and friends.
4. Working alone to “run the whole show.”
   Most small businesses start out with one person working alone. But as your business grows there will come a time when you’ll need help to keep things running smoothly. Your time can best be spent marketing the product in new and creative ways. Someone else can take care of designing your web site, answering emails, and handling the bookkeeping. Use your expertise where it will increase profit the most and hire others to take care of the everyday details.
5. Cutting the budget.
   When business is slow is natural to want to cut expenses. But it’s especially important to keep marketing and advertising during a downturn. A better choice is to beef up marketing to reach a new or wider customer base.

If you’ve already made some of these mistakes, don’t panic. Take a good look at what you’ve been doing, keep doing what works and drop what doesn’t, and begin again with more knowledge and a marketing plan for success.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Marketing Mistakes

1 – Business card marketing. While business cards are an essential business tool, leaving a trail of them wherever you go cheapens them and minimizes their effectiveness. To use them to their best advantage, treat your business cards as if they are valuable. Only hand them out in person, to people with whom you are starting a business relationship, and always try your best to get their contact information as well.

Read more in “Is it Marketing or Littering.”

(Flyers and brochures should be handled similarly.)

2 – Catalogs. Consultants are often advised to generously give out catalogs and to leave them in doctor’s offices and hair salons, on the train, or anywhere else someone might pick one up. While a single catalog may be inexpensive, this practice can become a significant expense for consultants over the course of a year or two. And in most cases, catalogs left anywhere are more likely to end up in the trash than result in a sale.

Save your new catalogs for existing customers, guests at sales parties, and people who you meet face-to-face and who express a real interest in ordering from you.

Your old catalogs can be left around town with a big sticker on the back indicating that it’s an outdated catalog and inviting people to contact you for a new one.

3 – Car bumper stickers or magnets. Unless you have an extremely catchy domain name, it’s not likely that you’ll reach many potential customers with this method. When cars are moving it’s difficult to read what’s on the bumper sticker and when they’re stopped or parked it still requires someone to get out a pencil and paper to write down information. And before you add your business information to your car, check with your insurance agent to see if that changes your classification to business use.

4 – Free online classifieds. The only thing I’d recommend advertising in free online classified is an offer of interest to others who place free classifieds. They are the only people that are likely to read the ads.

5 – Safelists. The only reason someone signs up for a safelist is to promote their own offers. Almost no one actually reads the ads. Treat them the same way as free classifieds.

One of the biggest drawbacks to these free and inexpensive marketing methods is that they put control in the hands of potential customers. You drop off cards or catalogs and wait for customers to contact you. If you collect contact information from potential customers you’re in control and can contact them with additional information and reminders.

Additionally, most of these methods have to long term benefit. Cards and catalogs have to be replenished and free online classifieds generally move very quickly and your ad ends up buried under hundreds of other ads.

I won’t say you should never use these methods, but I am advising against relying heavily on them. If you do use them, be sure to track your results so you know which are worth repeating and which aren’t worth the time and effort. Use them as a small part of your marketing plan and spend more time on free marketing methods that also have benefits and are longer lasting. Methods like article marketing, press releases, social media marketing, link directories, and online networking not only connect you with prospective customers and team members, but they promote your expertise, provide search engine benefit (backlinks), and help you develop a referral network.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Do Free or Inexpensive Advertising Methods Actually Work?

Image courtesy of swanksalot.

1. Advertise where your prospects will see your ads. Do some initial research to find your target audience and use ad tracking to determine if you’re reaching them.
2. Know your competitive edge. What can you offer that others can’t? Find a different spin or edge to make your product more appealing or offer just a little bit more. Maybe you have more experience or knowledge. There are a lot of ways to form a competitive edge. Know your market and your competitors and be creative.
3. Be careful that the image you portray for your company and products is positive. Always be professional. Be careful of what you say, whether it be on air or in print. Use a catchy logo and tag line. Maintain a consistent image so that it becomes recognizable.
4. “You have to spend money to make money.” Many people don’t like this age old adage, but it is very true. You will eventually spend money on advertising. Even free advertising has a cost – your time is money.
   The more money you spend, generally the better your reach. You don’t want to lower your effectiveness by cutting corners. Free or inexpensive advertising may be a good short term solution when you’re starting out but eventually you will want to look into different advertising options that may require more money.
   Of course you want to set an advertising budget, but allow for flexibility so you can take advantage of opportunities that arise. Also, learn the best times and season for your product or service increase your budget accordingly. Keep in mind that these seasonal times can change according to economy and market changes.
5. Keep in mind that your product or service will not appeal to everyone. Find your market and appeal to them.

These basic advertising tips are not difficult to implement. Diversify, be persistent and track your results and before long you’ll find the best mix of advertising to suit your budget and produce results.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Advertising Tips