MLM Lead Generation, The Key To Survival

MLM lead generation used to be a fairly simple process. It was basically done two ways. Either you invited all your friends, family, associates, your warm market, to a meeting, showed them some products or a marketing plan or both and then invited them to join your business opportunity or you visited those same folks in their home, product in hand, asked them to try the product, presented a business opportunity and then invited them to that same meeting in method number one. Simple, right? Sure it was until you were into your second or third MLM and when those same friends, family and associates saw you coming they would run for the hills! None the less this was how it had been done since MLM began with Amway in the 1940's. Then came the Internet and online marketing and MLM lead generation was changed forever. No more terrorizing your warm market, you now had the whole internet as a recruiting ground. Problem solved, right? Well, yes and no.

The Internet is a very big and impersonal place and the process of MLM lead generation just took on some new and significant challenges, mainly, how to find people and get them to our websites to see our products or present them with a business opportunity or both. The internet is full of scams and people tend to be skeptical of MLM opportunities. So how do we get people who don't know us to trust us enough to try our products and look at our business opportunity and then get them to trust us enough to join us? If MLM lead generation is the life blood of an internet business and key to it's survival, these problems have to be solved. Of course we can always go back to that same warm market and invite them to look at our website, but we really don't want to run them off, do we?

Well, if we are not going to harass our friends, family and associates, we're left with finding ways to get total strangers to visit our site. That means buying traffic and there are basically only a couple of ways to do that. You can advertise your business, print or online, or you can buy website traffic. All the paid methods really boil down to those two options. The best ad campaigns, leads and traffic, the ones that give you quality people who are serious about finding a business opportunity, are very expensive, costing in the hundreds to the thousands of dollars. They work well, but the average MLM distributor can't afford them, at least not for long. The budget leads really aren't worth what you pay for them. And the free ads and free leads, well, you get what you pay for. They tend to produce more "tire kickers" than "car buyers." Either way, In the end you're still left with the problem of getting people who don't know you to trust you. What's the answer to this dilemma?

In my opinion, personal branding and attraction marketing have revolutionized MLM lead generation. This is the process of becoming known as a person worth listening to and worth following, a leader and mentor. You attract prospects to you rather than chasing after them. This is accomplished by adding value to the online community by joining and contributing in online MLM or home business forums, blogs and social networking sites. These communities are populated by millions of people, many of them either in or looking to be in a good business opportunity. Over time they begin to know and trust you and you will attract like minded people to your business. Article writing is another way to establish personal branding. If you write quality articles on subjects related to your business or your products and they get published in article directories, you become recognized as someone who is knowledgeable and someone who can help others become successful. This will attract people to you and your business. The great thing about attraction marketing, it doesn't cost a dime! It takes time to produce but once it starts to do so, you will never have to buy another lead again.

MLM lead generation is the life blood, the key to survival for your home based business. I suggest a two phased approach. In the beginning you will need to buy leads and traffic but this should be a short term fix. It will get you started building your business but then you need to begin the process of branding yourself and becoming an established leader and mentor to the online home business community. Once accomplished you will be off to the races and MLM lead generation will never again be a problem. You will have more leads than you can handle and they will be quality leads. If you have questions or would like to discuss personal branding, attraction marketing, or any other subject, feel free to contact me. I would be more than glad to help in any way I can.