How to reach your prospects or buyers, Part I

Dear Home-Based Business Owners, Network Marketers, Multi-Level Marketers, MLMers, Affiliate Marketers, Internet Marketers, and Students in Internet, Advertising, and Marketing.

Hi, how are you? Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Ray Rapeepat here.

In the photo above, my Grandson, Tristin, couldn't resist it. Seeing the elephant enjoying the swim, he had to jump in. That was in Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand. He was vacationing there.

Now, is swimming with elephants the same as a newbie jumping in online to do Internet marketing? Well, it is, in the sense that they are both new experiences. But it's not the same as swimming with sharks. Elephants don't eat you. In fact, if you are good, you can ride on them and go about with a stronger force.

Today we are going to talk about "How to reach your prospects or buyers".

Another way of saying it is where to advertise so that our prospects and buyers can receive our message.

It sounds simple, but it is not as simple as it sounds.

First, who are your prospects or buyers? This question alone can be an article in itself. But we are not talking about that today. We assume that you have it defined already. What we want to talk about is how to reach them.

So, to make a long story short, I am going to define your TARGET MARKET for you, as those people who want to have a home-based business working online (mostly), making money from home.

There are basically 2 main groups. The first group is the current network marketers, or MLMers. They already know about the business. They have decided on it and are working it. They are not really looking for opportunities as they already have one. But since 95% of them fail, chances are they are open to new fruitful opportunities or other suggestions, one of these days. Within this group, is the "future" networkers and MLMers who are SERIOUSLY looking for a good program.

Another group, though not interested in network marketing per se, are those looking for information to make money online like in affiliate marketing. They are tired of the 9-to-5 jobs. They are seriously looking with credit card in hand, ready to buy.

So, that's settled. Now, how are we going to reach them?

"HOW YOU THINK, NOT WHAT YOU THINK" can solve the problem.

You'll be surprised that COMMON SENSE can help you a lot. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes and go from there. This is HOW you think.

To make it easier to understand, for the time being, instead of dealing with business opportunities, lets make it a physical item such as a piece of furniture, say a sofa.

Okay, so here is the scenario. You've just moved into a house, and you want to buy a sofa.

Don't forget, you are in your buyer's shoes right now. Where do you look? If you want a new one you would go to furniture stores. Here the Yellow Pages can help you. But you want to save money. You want a used one but in good condition. Prior to the Internet Days, you would look in the PennySaver, or the Classified Ads Section in your local newspapers.

As you know, things have changed since we've had the Internet. You can still look in the PennySaver and the newspapers classified ads. But they are much thinner now. Besides, the sellers still have to pay for the ads. Today, you might want to buy it at eBay. Or look in Craigslist. Actually Craigslist is very similar to the PennySaver now because they are purely local.

As far as physical items are concerned, BUYERS know where sellers advertise. They can also "SEARCH" the search engines for the product.

Now let's move back into the "opportunity" market. There are no "eBay's" or other main advertising sites for biz opps. Craigslist was once a place for that, but it no longer is. There is a small category for "small biz ads", which caters for non-opportunity ads, like carpet cleaning, house painting, etc. You can advertise biz opps there, but not effectively. There are Classified ads sites around, but they are not known to buyers like the PennySaver for physical products.

A new marketer is often told to advertise in TrafficSwarm. Other sellers know about it, but not buyers, not the second group above. (Go back above, if you have forgotten what it is).

To sum up, where do you advertise to reach you prospects or buyers for network marketing or other biz opps? I hear somebody says "What about Clickbank?" Well, that's not a regular ad site. You can't advertise anything you want there. You can only advertise Clickbank products there. For example, you join Clickbank and offer your product at the Market Place there for affiliates to participate in, then you can advertise it there.

There are really no GOOD or EFFICIENT places to advertise your opp. If you use TrafficSwarm or other Traffic Exchanges, you advertise to other sellers who MAY become your buyer. It is few and far between.

So, what is there left for US to do? Ah ha! You know that there is such a thing as "search engines" on the Internet, especially "GOOGLE".

Almost everyone on the Internet uses Google one time or another. Remember, you put yourself in the buyers shoes. He doesn't know where to look. So, what does he do? HE GOOGLES.

Exactly! He will have to use KEYWORDS. What keywords will he put in? It's up to him. He may put in "Home-based business", or "Work at home income", etc. The answers will come up. And he will go from there.

The person who googles is serious. Otherwise he/she wouldn't do it. He/she is your BEST Target, most motivated, and ready to take action.

So the best way to reach your prospects or buyers is to use Google's Adwords or its equivalents on other search engines -- BAR NONE. How to do it is another lesson. If you don't know what you're doing, you can lose your shirt.

In my next Blog, I will tell you what to do in the mean time since I don't want you to hurry to get to use Adwords.

Sorry this Blog is a little long. I hope you have learned something and enjoyed it too. Practice HOW to think and not what to think. My next blog is "Sell shovels to Gold Diggers and become rich".

Till then. Aurevoir.