andrewmurrayhq

Are You Using Internet Marketing As A Crutch?

Are You Using Internet Marketing As A Crutch?

There's no doubt that internet marketing has changed how people build network marketing businesses.  For me, marketing has always been about the promise of more leverage.

I started in the network marketing industry doing one-on-one “New Horizons” presentations for Melaleuca in coffee shops.  (New Horizons sounds very cultish, no?)  So when I saw top leaders presenting on conference calls to hundreds of people at the same time, I got hooked on the internet.

I was an early adopter of internet marketing, but one of my first attempts was a solo ad that cost $600 (which was like several thousand dollars to us at the time) and we promoted a word-for-word swipe listed in the affiliate tools section for some Corey Rudl product, and it bombed.  Completely.

I persisted long past the point at which most sane people stop, and put in more time and effort than most people care to to.  I was committed to learn internet marketing.

Marketing just has more leverage than sales.  You can multiply your results.  I did a YouTube video where I explain the difference between sales and marketing.  It's well worth watching:

The Big Problem with Internet Marketing

The big problem with internet marketing are the rabbit holes.

Not only will you find tons of normal problems, some of them technical, some of the strategic, but you will find other opportunities.  Have you ever said, “Hey, this looks like a cool idea/hook/product/keyword stem to build niche blogs.”

And then 2 months later, you end up abandoning the whole thing.

It could be that, or it could be a whole brand-new red herring advertising model.  Take CPV advertising.  It sucks, but a few marketers have made courses on how to do CPV (cost-per-view) advertising because it's expensive, and it can be presented like this:

  • Got banned from Adwords?
  • 1 cent per click
  • Watch over my shoulder as I generate hundreds of low-cost leads
  • Get it before your competition buys it
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That stuff gets people to buy without thinking.

And boom.  You're down another hole – until you end up realizing that CPV sucks, and it's only 1 cent per click for international, untargeted traffic, and even the US traffic doesn't convert.  Whoops!

There are tons of these little holes – because they are very profitable for marketers to exploit.

Why Generating Leads Online Is Addictive

But once you start generating leads online, you realize that the quality is unbelievably high.  When I was rocking Adwords, I made a ton of cash.  Very targeted traffic, leading to a good opt-in page and a high ticket program on the back end.

That Spells Money!

Back in the early 2000's I spent thousands of dollars on leads.  In fact, I become a lead reseller for a little bit and made some money there as well, before abandoning that business.  The lead broker business is the dirtiest business.  Like pigs in shit.  Period.  It's based on smoke and mirrors.  They sell quantity when really quality is the metric you should be looking at in terms of leads.

And they deceptively present their wares.

But I learned how to call leads.  I went through the numbers, and I enrolled some people.  I got better at it.  And it took lots of time, but it produced results.

But the sales are those online leads.  When you get a call from somebody who has already researched the company and likes it and wants to join – those kind of lay-down sales are addictive.

Where Success Plants It's Flag

Success resides OUTSIDE your comfort zone.

outside your comfort zone

As you get better your comfort zone expands.  You need to go there.  Always moving outward.

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As you get better at online marketing, you get more leads, requiring less effort to close – and leaving less opportunity to move outside your comfort zone.

Do you see the Yin and Yang battle going on here?

I know this, because I know how easy it is to rely on good leads.  And even wait for them instead of just producing.

Forcing Your Income

Here's the bottom line.  You can spend hours doing busy work.  Updating websites, tinkering over here, reading a new ebook you bought from the Warrior Forum.  Studying a tutorial video on Youtube.

None of that leads to sales.

Sales are the only thing that leads to income – and the only metric that shows your results for your time.

[notification type=”standard”] Don't get me wrong, you NEED to learn marketing, and spend time learning it, but I make a clear distinction between work time and learning time. Learning time is time you spend over and above the time you normally spend on your business. That's off hours stuff. Because if you let it, your mind will generally lead you down the path of least resistance. And there's no rejection in learning new stuff – in fact, learning new techniques can fire off endorphins in your brain as you dream about all the income you can make. But there is a large gap between learning and implementation. [/notification]

So no matter how cool it is to generate leads, if you don't have enough leads to be spending the majority of your time talking to prospects, following up and closing, then you need to stop reading this blog post (hopefully after commenting) and get to work.

Call people.

  1. Call people you don't know.
  2. Call people on your cell phone
  3. Ask to connect with new people on Skype – and ask for their real phone number
  4. Buy some leads
  5. Look through your lead notebooks for people you missed
  6. Look through your online contact manager (Outlook/Gmail)
  7. Find business cards from past network marketing events and reach out
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Those will create money for your business.

Tinkering on your website will not.

You only get paid for producing.  And I'll finish off with this.  Take the last 3 months in the income I have generated in my primary business.  1 of them was pretty light comparatively in income.  Marie and I spent far less time on the phone and were tinkering with our sales processes.  Some of that had to be done.

But the other 2 months, we were the #1 enrollers company-wide in the fastest-growing network marketing company today.  And we were CRUSHING it on the phone.  We were often both on the phone on different lines at the same time.

And let me tell you, being #1 enrollers in this company is a big deal.

But it illustrates my point.  Just make sure that you're not fooling yourself into thinking you're producing when you're doing everything except the most important task of all – talking to new people.

 

 

 

 

 

15 thoughts on “Are You Using Internet Marketing As A Crutch?”

  1. OUCH!! you hit me right between the eyes!! Andrew I do generate leads online daily and try to rely on my email follow ups to generate sales and this does work but not to the degree I would like. You have renewed my belief in picking up the phone as annoying and slow as it may be lol

  2. This is great info!! As much as I have wanted the internet to be the silver bullet, this is a friendly reminder that people buy from people. Getting leads is just one component. Life is about relationships, and so is sales right? Thanks so much for the reminder!

  3. You might be good at layups, but I’ll still kick your butt in a 3 point shooting game. Not bad confidence for a 64 year old guy. Thanks for not forgetting me. Lou

    1. I play the inside game. Driving the net. And I play to win 🙂
      My 3-point shots are … weaker.
      I can’t forget about you. I got your back.
      Let me know when you want to lace up the sneaks!

  4. Well said. Internet Marketing rocks, but it is pocked with Alice in Wonderland rabbit holes. As long as you don’t enticed down too many holes it works wonders.

    But, in Network Marketing at least, you MUST pick up the phone. Network marketing is all about relationship marketing.

  5. Najja said it best! OUCH! The truth is my leads are at a grinding halt. I can no longer afford the “system” I joined when I started my business. The leads they funnel have gotten so expensive and I have maxed out pretty much everything and now I need to generate my own. I have lost the few distributors I had because of the same reason so I am literally starting from scratch. That puts me in the necessary learning mode that brought me here. But I have a Weight Loss Challenge starting tomorrow. Only a few have registered but its a start, and it only takes a few to get started.

    1. If you’re referring to the MLSP system you may want to check out this post on my thoughts about MLSP.

      The internet has change a bit since their system really rocked.

      Internet marketing works — as long as you drive ACTION up behind it as well. You’re not alone.

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