Marketing Strategies

How To Choose Your Personal Marketing Strategy

Strategies are what you use to find and attract people who want to join One Group as representatives or customers. It is important that you choose strategies that work for you and fit in with your lifestyle. You need to take into account how much money you are willing and able to invest into your business and the time you have available. You may also want to consider at this stage whether you want to build your business locally, internationally or both. Once you have chosen 2 or 3 strategies, stick to these rather than changing. This business is simple but it requires patience and persistence. Often, the strategies you have chosen will take time to work but if you stick to them for at least 12 months, they will succeed. The only thing that doesn't work in this business is inconsistency. "Persistent & consistent" should be your motto.

THE STRATEGIES

"100 Newspaper" Strategy

With this strategy your aim is to purchase, and then distribute 100 (or number of your choice) newspapers each month. (Why use this tool?)

Choose places you think would be suitable, for example vegetarian cafes, mother's groups, health clubs, health professional waiting rooms etc. Make sure your contact details and website are clearly printed on the back. It may take a while for this strategy to show results but if done consistently it can be successful and you will find people still contact you even months after handing the newspapers out. You could also do the same with brochures or flyers on both products and business opportunity. These can be placed on community notice boards, patient waiting areas, and places that you think organic products/businesses would appeal to people.

This is a great strategy and many representatives have built their business this way. Newspapers cost between 40-55 cents each depending on the volume you buy. One hundred newspapers will cost approximately $55. This is a good strategy to choose if you have the capacity to be out and about and feel confident about asking people if it is ok to leave newspapers or brochures on their premises. Experience has shown that on average 100 newspapers will generate about 3 inquiries.

Advertising

Small classified ads about the business can be successful if you keep the ad running over consecutive issues. Local papers, health/beauty/networking marketing publications and magazines are suitable to place the ads in. If you can find a health publication with a business listing or classified section this would be ideal. You will need to repeat this strategy at least 3-6 issues as the more times a person is exposed to it, the more likely they are to respond. This technique is crucial in marketing and will increase your response rate significantly. New ads will need to be approved by ONE Group.

Advertising can be very effective if you choose the right publication and consistently follow up inquiries. This method is a good if you don't have a lot of time. The downside is that advertising can be risky and expensive. When you have enough people in your team you might consider co-operative ads to spread the cost and the risk. As a rule avoid large display ads. Always consult your upline sponsor before advertising in a publication.

Examples of classified ads can be found at www.miorganicbiz.info. Here is a sample line which you may use (or something along the same line):

World's First Certified Organic Skincare and Cosmetics

Something new, something different!!!! Reward your personal and financial health! This is your opportunity to become a part of the world's fastest growing industry - Organics! You work when and how you choose. Training and ongoing support provided. If this sounds like you, call (name) now on (number)

Visit www.onegrp.com/?(username)

To view the FAQs on Advertising procedures and resources, click here.

E-Commerce

Using the internet as a tool to promote both business and the products is another way to build your business. This is definitely the way to go if you want to build an international business and/or you are relatively housebound (eg. have young children). This strategy can be done in the comfort of your own home but will require a certain amount of time dedicated to researching sites, making calls and following up with inquiries. If you are advertising overseas you will need to take into account the time zone differences (sometimes their day time will be your night time).

There are a variety of ways to use the internet to your advantage and we have only mentioned a few. Ask your sponsor for some ideas if you are unsure. The more time you spend online the more you can put the information out there with little cost. The internet is such a vast tool with a continual world-wide growth of people getting online. We have included some ideas on how you can use the internet as part of your strategies:

As inquiries can be from other countries, try to find the best deal you can on international phone rates. Phone cards could be the best option.
Some of the ways to promote your website is through advertising on other web sites. To help you with finding appropriate sites download the Google toolbar from Google search engine and use the 'page rank' to get a rough gauge on how much traffic the site gets and its popularity. Any site with a rank of 5 or more is worth considering. Decide what type of market you would like to reach and then proceed to find websites that would reflect this, for example, work at home sites, health or organic sites, eco friendly sites, natural parenting sites etc.
Another type of internet advertising is the 'pay per click' option, and you can find it on most major search engines and high ranking sites. For instance if you would like to be an advertising sponsor on Yahoo search engine, you would choose the search keywords to be listed under. Let’s say you chose ‘Home Business’. You would be asked to bid the price you are willing to pay to get listed and then if your bid is high enough, your website link and description would appear at the top of the page when people typed home business in yahoo search. To maximize this strategy, be as specific as possible or else it could be a costly exercise.
If you would like to use a banner, there are various resources on the internet to enable you to create these.
You may like to do your own web page which can link to your ONE Group site for people to join or purchase from. With your own site you might focus on promoting it through cost free avenues like web rings where you can list your site as long as you reciprocate the link of the web ring you are involved in.
To promote products and build a customer base use your www.onegrp.com/?(username) site for advertising
For promoting the business opportunity use your www.mienterprize.com/?(username) site. This professional site is specifically designed to provide a brief business overview and targets other people looking into the business and would appeal more to potential reps.

Home Shopping Presentation

Home presentations are done in front of a gathering of people and are one of the fastest ways to grow your business. This method also has the advantage of providing upfront income from retail sales while you build your business. Presentations allow customers to experience the products first hand with all their senses in a relaxed fun environment. Home presentations take time but have the advantage of being held at any time that is convenient for you and the hostess. It also enables you to present the business and products to more than one person at a time and thus can generate a lot of business quickly.

This is a fantastic strategy for those who love to socialize and/or have some experience in party plan. Choose this strategy if you want to make some money up-front and build a residual income at the same time.

Remember that if you choose this strategy, you will need to purchase a display kit.

The Yellow Pages (Phone Directory)

The yellow pages is a great place to make lists of health and beauty professionals, s and other businesses that might be interested in the opportunity ONE Group offers, or its products. Once you have made a list (you might like to start with those in your immediate area), send a brief letter (an example can be found in resources at the back of this manual) with a brochure to everyone on the list and follow up with a phone call. If the individual expresses an interest in the business/product follow up with the system outlined in Module D.

If you choose this strategy, factor in the cost of the brochures, postage and follow-up phone call. As with the newspaper strategy, expect anywhere from 3 to 10 leads for every 100 letters sent. Remember to follow up!

Expos/Markets/Stalls

The main purpose for doing expos and stalls will be the networking component. You may choose to bring stock to sell but more often than not people are there to gather information rather than shop. Use the expo or market to your advantage by gathering a database of potential customers and representatives. Handing out newspapers and brochures with your details can be a way of getting the information out to people but offering a prize of some of the products if people fill in a "free" ticket is a great way to get contact details. The tickets can have a couple of questions asking the person if they would like more info about products and/or business. You will have an instant database of people to follow up with.

With markets you can also have the same purpose in mind. Retailing the products is one part of it but the exposure through the expo or stall also provides you with an opportunity to promote the business by handing out the company overview.

If you choose this strategy you will need to apply through the member's area of the website and get the expo, market, or stall allocated. For expo allocation you will need to be at the level of manager. This protocol will prevent any doubling up of reps and will protect your right to be there representing ONE Group.

Retail

Retail will probably be a small aspect of your business but it can help to build your group volume which in turn increases your bonuses each month. If you choose retail, aim for only two or three stores to begin with.

Note: You must be at the rank of Senior Associate (automatically qualify if you purchase a 'Fast Start' pack of 250 PV) before you can apply for a Retail outlet through the members area of the website. You will also be required to participate in retail training conference call with a retail trainer (dates and times can be found on the website noticeboard under events) and then complete the Retail Questionnaire in the members area at forms and allocations.

Fundraising

ONE Group has designed an innovative system to allow an organization to raise funds by promoting a website given specifically for this purpose. There is no prerequisite for the organization to spend any money themselves, all they do is point their members/patrons/clients to the website and they will make up to 30% of the retail value on purchases. There is no ongoing maintenance or requirements for them. ONE Group take care of the website, shipping, and financial side of it all. Some of the organizations that may be suitable are schools, sporting clubs, non-profit s and in particular those concerned with health and the environment, health societies, post cancer groups etc. Representatives will need to be at the level of Senior Associate to apply and approach fundraisers. As with Retail, reps will need to apply for allocation the organization they would like to approach.

Presentation/ Information nights/ Meetings

You could hold information nights to educate the public about Organics while advocating the products and business. If the company directors or top distributors do a tour in your area you can promote it to get as many people to come and hear them as possible. You could also use regular meetings for training new reps. A suggestion is use the training manual to set the format of the meeting by doing two modules at a time. You could also hold your own "Product Education" meeting using the company power point.

Warm List (People You Know)

We have left this strategy until last as it may or may not be a bit confrontational. Many top distributors have built massive businesses as a result of exactly this method.

Everyone will have family, friends and acquaintances that would benefit from joining One Group either as a representative or just to buy the products. If you choose this strategy, you could write a list of all the people you know that you would like to talk to about the products, business opportunity, and company. Don't prejudge what you think they will or will not want to hear. Give them all the same opportunity to hear about ONE Group and what you are doing. Once you have the list of names, use the strategy in Module D to approach your list. Never come across pushy but rather let your passion for what you are doing show through. Some people will be interested and some won't, but at least you have told them about it and you just may give someone the opportunity they have been looking for.

In this Module, we have discussed the strategies for promoting your business and the products. By the end of this module you will have:

∑ a better understanding of the strategies that are available to market your business

∑ chosen the strategies you are going to use for the next twelve months

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