Before you begin with any MLM program, you need to have a marketing system in place. Your system does not have to reflect the 'PIPS' model to a tee, but you need to have at least the following in place:
ü Lead-generating web siteü Autoresponder for collecting leads and following up
ü Focus on a niche
In other words, you need the basics of the PIPS model in place, but you don't have to start off promoting quite as many programs. The key is just to get going and start getting some results you can leverage into expanding your business.
Your marketing system should also follow a clear, logical path towards conversion.Put another way, you want a step-by-step strategy which:
1) Drives targeted visitors to your web site
2) Converts those visitors into leads
Let me elaborate on that a little bit.
Your niche determines:
ü The type of products you promote
ü The type of customer or downline prospect you're looking for
ü The key words and key phrases you use to run targeted advertising– to get targeted traffic to your site
that you use for targeted traffic (e.g. Forums, reprint articles, etc)
ü The tone of your copy writing, and how you position yourself and your offer to the market.
In other words, the niche you go into will determine the best strategy for:
ü Driving qualified traffic to your lead capture page
ü Positioning your offer in a way that speaks to that particular market.
Note: Your traffic and positioning strategies do NOT represent your whole marketing system. Rather, these are just the variables within the system.
A complete marketing system works without regard to niche. In other words, your system is like a generic template you can use over and over again for any niche.
Does that make sense?
What I'm hoping to get across here is that the path to conversion does not change. Your marketing system must always include some form of landing page, lead capture and e-mail follow-up.
In light of this, let's take another look at that PIPS sales letter (that URL again is: http://www.flashthemoolah.com/pips/).Notice that, early on in the letter, there is a lead capture form:
Did you see that little bit of copy at the top that says: “Before you dive in and read all the exciting details – Sign up to receive my FREE Affiliate Secrets Mini-Course...”?
This type of lead capture form is critical component #1 in your marketing system!The example we're using here is somewhat unique in that this page is both a sales letter AND a lead capture page. If you were to ask a direct-marketing purist, he would say that it’s “just a sales page with leadcapture”, rather than a true lead capture or landing page.
And there is some merit to this....A traditional landing page is NOT a sales page– and, in fact, landing pages are often much shorter in length than sales pages.
BUT, the important thing here is this:
It doesn't matter how long (or short) the copy on your landing page is...
You must PLACE YOUR E-MAIL OPT-IN FORM AS HIGH and EARLY up the page as you can!...
And you need to provide some type of BAIT to entice people onto your list...THIS is how you get the maximum of visitors to convert to leads. Why? Because you won't know in the beginning whether long copy or short copy works best until you've had time to test your results.
The fact is some people just skim long letters or flat out refuse to read them.By putting your opt-in form before the main section of landing page copy, you increase the likelihood of turning that visitor into a targeted lead.
Now, let's look at the second critical component: THE FOLLOW-UP
As promised in optin copy, there is an “Affiliate Secrets” mini-course. This mini-course is actually an autoresponder series delivered to the subscriber via e-mail.
The initial course will run for X number of days (he doesn't actually say how long it is), and provide new leads with immediate follow-up information while the product is still fresh in memory.
The 'how to' information delivered in the follow-ups achieves several objectives at once:1) Build familiarity and trust – Stone introduces himself again and gives the background on his experience with affiliate marketing.
2) Provide Value Upfront He recaps some of the tricks and techniques he discovered which helped him achieve new levels of income from affiliate marketing.
3) Reinforce the Sales Letter – Most people will opt-in to the list before they decide to purchase the program. Some of them will have skimmed the letter, while others may not have read it at all. Either way, these 'affiliate tips' will repeat and reinforce the highlights of the sales letter, putting the offer back in front of the prospect again and again.
There's really no limit to how long a course like this can be. Usually, though, you'll have initial follow-up information structured in a special format– e.g., a mini-course, free special report or a combination of both.
Again, this all goes towards selling people on the program whileit’s fresh on the prospect's mind.BUT, your follow-ups don't have to end at this point....and they shouldn't!
You see, there are some extra cases you'll want to factor in when designing the followup portion of your marketing system, such as:
ü Fence-sitters and other types of 'non-buyers' who do not respond to your offer during the initial follow-up series
ü Other programs you wan to introduce to your leadsü Anything else you can think of to squeeze more leverage out of your list.
The most significant case to examine is that of the “fence -sitter” or “non-buyer”. When you sit down to write your first follow-up series, you'll want to think about some of the“objections” people will come up with against your offer.
You can address some of these objections up front during the first series, but you should plan for a second series to address even more than that, and in more detail.This second series should take a slightly different tone and approach than what you used in your first follow-ups.
Let me give you an example.... Let's say you've come up with the following list of objections, along with a strategy for responding to each one:
û “I don't believe it actually works” (needs more proof)û “I tried this before somewhere else and got ripped off” (needs not only proof, but more reasons to trust my recommendation. Credibility issue. Provide more value.)
û “The price is too high.” (Re-emphasize return on investment. Show more income proof.)
You'll want to address these objections in-depth, but not all at once!
There's enough material here for you to create at least another 7 e-mails for the next series. You could, for example, devote 2 messages a piece towards each objection– and 1 message towards sending your list an unexpected gift (something free, but of high perceived value).
In this way, you're not only addressing the fence-sitters, you're also building trust and credibility with your entire list.What Happens Next?
Your starting goal should be to perfect the basic steps of getting your system running and converting for you:
ü Choose a niche
ü Drive targeted traffic
ü Capture leads
ü Follow up with leads
ü Adjust as necessary to improve conversion
Step Two: Multiple Streams of Income (Including Residual Income)
Here's the truth of the matter: you aren't going to get rich on just one stream of income. You might be able to make 'decent' money or even something in the low six-figures in exceptional cases – but, that's not what you want, right?
You want to go for the big money. There's absolutely no reason why shouldn't, either, since this system puts the serious income within your reach.So, rather than sticking to just one MLM program, you need run your marketing system on multiple programs, for multiple streams of income.
Here's why.... There will always be limitations inherent in any program– in terms of both income and longevity.
A solid company isn't likely to go under out of the blue, but you still don't want to depend on it as your sole source of income. What would you do if it disappeared?Consider the cap on your earning with one company as well. Sure, maybe its a great company and your income “ceiling” is something fantastic, like $50, 000 per month – but, why stay stuck at fifty-grand a month, if you could just as easily earn one-hundred grand? That's a $600,000 per year difference in income!
Another thing you want to throw into the mix is residual/passive income.The idea of residual income entered the mainstream primarily through the real estate industry. When you own several homes, for example, you can turn around and rent them out to generate a 'guaranteed' monthly income.
In the world of MLM and affiliate marketing, this concept is played out through memberships and subscriptions.For example, let's say you find a “buyer's club” t hat's run as an MLM. Members of the 'buyer's club' get access to products at wholesale prices as long as they pay their monthly membership fee.
If you earn a commission on this monthly fee, then you're getting a 'guaranteed' amount of income each month from that referral, for as long as that referral remains a paying customer.Or, let's say you find a subscription-based 'book club' MLM program. Maybe there are 3 different levels of subscriptions, each with different price points, and they auto-renew every 6 months.
Again, you'd have a residual commission for each subscription level.It doesn't matter whether you're getting monthly or quarterly or yearly. If its residual/passive income, then it is income you've earned by making the referral just once. You do the work once, and get paid for it over and over again.
If you truly want to get rich in MLM, then you need these multiple-streams of income, and you need to have some passive/residual streams included. Doing so gives you more power and more leverage over the long haul.
Step Three: LeverageI've mentioned leverage numerous times throughout this report. Obviously, leverage is a crucial part of the total system, but why? And how?
Leverage is all about resources – namely, the resources you have available to grow your business faster, and more effectively.
The two resources I've mentioned again and again are time and money.
Let's look at leveraging your time first.
One of the reasons people start Internet-based businesses is because they want to control their own schedule. The ultimate goal is to create a sizable income without having to work the same (or more) number of hours as you'd work in a 'regular' job.
In essence, part of the allure of Internet business is having more free time to spend on family, friends, hobbies, vacations, etc... However, in order to do this, you must make the most of the time spent on your business.
This means finding powerful 'shortcuts' that return more in the way of results than they take from you in the time spent on executing them. As you've seen so far, one of these shortcuts is in automating your business.
Automation saves you time because it cuts down on many of the repetitive tasks involved in running the business (lead generation, follow-up, etc).Logic dictates that the more things you can find to automate, the more time you'll free up. We'll talk a bit more about this in Step Six.
Let's move on for now to leveraging money.
What we're really talking about here is leveraging a portion of your profits by re-investing them into the growth of your business.
Although it’s tempting to go on a personal spending-spree when you first start making real money, you should keep this impulse in check. Set aside something for yourself, and set aside something for your business.
What you want to do is increase the amount of money you re-invest each time your profits increase.For example:
Let's say you make $300 net profit your first month (this is after paying expenses), and that you were able to do this on a budget of $75. Well, what if by doubling your budget, you could actually triple your results?
If your program is converting well, this is a very likely result. So, you double your budget to $150, and take this money from the previous month's profits. You're keeping $150 for yourself, while leveraging $150 back into the business.
These new leads end up generating a $900 profit.
Now, you could leverage $450 into advertising + a consultation with a professional copy writer who helps you improve your follow up e-mails.
This leads to an even better conversion rate, so you make more sales than before. Suddenly, your month's profit jumps up to $2,500.
Do you see where this is heading?
Proper leverage of resources can help you not just double or triple your results, but multiply them by factors of 10 or more.
This is especially true when you devote a good portion of your time or money towards improving your conversion rate.
Why?
Let's say you earn a $50 commission on one product, and you've got 5 out of every 100 of your leads converting to a sale (5% conversion rate). So, your gross profit on those 5 sales is $500.
You spent, say, $20 on traffic to get those leads, so your net profit is $480.Now, imagine that you are able to increase, through some form of leverage, your conversion rate up to 25%. This is “only” a 20% improvement....but, you're now earning $1,250 per 100 leads. ...while still spending only $20 on traffic.
Now, your net profit is $1, 230$1,230-$480 = $750.... $750/$480 = 1.56 x 100 =