How Internet Marketing Can Help You Build Your Marketing Network

Adding a digital strategy to your internet network marketing plan can help you build an audience for your business on the web through social media, videos, content marketing, infographics, email etc. However, building the network itself goes well beyond basic online prospecting.

Wegmans does an amazing job of this here in our Rochester, New York area. They have dedicated customers in all age groups, locations, and ethnicities. Many times their customers are members of different generations in one family. My grandparents, my parents, and now I shop at Wegmans for the majority of our groceries. Why? Brand loyalty and brand awareness. It’s “the food you feel good about” and we want what they’re selling. Everyone in this area knows Wegmans and most people swear by it too. Wegmans has taken full advantage of their network marketing opportunities through traditional as well as digital marketing to expand their reach.

Granted, your business is probably not the same size as Wegmans which means you lack the level of resources they have at their disposal, but don’t let that discourage you. The principal is the same, you simply need to adjust the scale a bit.

Building Your Personal Brand

Business is about connecting with people, not companies. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly more rare to actually have a personal connection with someone in business because there are so many ways to communicate through automated tech systems.

Although this may work very well for your business internally, it tends to leave out a very important step when it comes to building a loyal customer base. We are all human, which means we are social creatures that need some sort of connection to thrive. If you set out to ensure some sort of connection is made with your customers from the beginning, you’ll have a better chance of retaining them over a long period of time.

Once you connect with a potential or current customer, you need to focus on building your personal brand. Yes, you are trying to market a particular product or service for a specific company. You’ll have a much easier time doing so provided a little time and effort has been invested into building your network marketing ‘brand’ as well.

Think about an old-school salesman for minute. He’s probably a sharp dresser, always smiling and cracking jokes, and good at conversation. He has invested the time and energy needed into his selling tool and brand, which is himself. You could be that point of contact between a lead moving toward becoming a customer and you’re ability to connect with that individual on a personal level – which is what will guarantee the sale. This means you’ll be the one who actually motivates an individual to become a customer, not your business logo or the pristine layout of your website. Invest in yourself and your abilities to connect with those around you.

Target Personas

The importance of knowing who your customers are is extremely important and cannot be overstated. If you’re not sure who to target or your guessing, I can guarantee you’re wasting your time and money. Not everyone is the right fit when it comes to working with your business or being a customer, and that’s okay. You just need to figure out who you actually want to do business with and go from there.

Target personas or buyer personas are an in-depth, comprehensive profile of your various types of ideal (and non-ideal) customers. Target personas can cover everything from income, gender, age, family structure, political preference, religion etc. These are sensitive topics. Therefore, it’s important that you gather the information for these personas ethically.

     Two Ways to Get Target Persona Data:

1. Ask your current customers a series of questions through an optional interview or a survey
2. Review any and all public information available on their social media profiles

You want to gain the most accurate data possible, so your target network marketing techniques can be effective. Having an individual persona for each type of customer, including those you don’t want to attract, will help keep your internet network marketing techniques on track. The data gained will become valuable research for future marketing and product campaigns.

Active Social Media

If you’re not consistently active on at least two or three social media platform, today is the day to start!

The top reasons small businesses fail so frequently is due to a loss of money or too few leads to convert. If you don’t have a presence on social media, you’re potentially missing out on hundreds of quality leads that you won’t have access to through any other marketing format.

The nice aspect of most social media platforms is you have access to your followers’ profiles. You can conduct fairly thorough customer research just from reading their profiles. You may also have access to a list of their followers as well, thereby increasing your list of potential leads to target. Once you determine the individuals well suited to either work with or buy from your business, you can easily send a message directly to them in a no-pressure environment.

Messaging on social media is an easy and hassle free way to connect with leads you’ve never had access to in the past.

There’s no need to schedule a meeting into your hectic day or prepare some sort of convincing presentation. By sending a direct message (DM), it let’s a customer know you’re available to chat on their terms. This helps you and the customer get comfortable with one another before the first initial meeting takes place. And if you find that you’re not the right fit for each other, you haven’t wasted any resources on trying to recruit a lead only to have it not work out.  

Of course, this means you will need to do a little research to find out what social media platforms the majority of your target audience and buyer personas subscribe to in order to get the best ROI. But, from a purely business brand awareness standpoint, you should have a Linkedin and a Facebook account.

Show the Results

You want to attract leads to your business. One of the easiest ways to do that is by showing them your success. Creating a profile page, gathering customer testimonials and reviews, and conducting customer case studies are all valuable methods where you can show potential customers direct results supported by facts and numbers.  

People trust statistics, especially when they are backed by research. Layout your process and the experience of customers working with your business. If someone can relate to a particular problem or need outlined by one of your existing customers, they can be reassured that you have the solution for them as well because you’ve effectively helped others before. The goal is to show others the desirable outcomes they desire and can achieve by becoming a customer of your business.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is how you found this article that you’re reading right now!

You can’t possibly locate and meet with every single person who may be interested in your business, so we use content marketing to do that for us. By creating and publishing valuable content in various locations and across different platforms, you can reach people regardless of their location, age, or particular industry.

Content marketing helps you build your internet network marketing reach and position your business in the path of someone who may not have found it originally. Optimized content puts your webpages in front of those who are already primed to be customers. If they’re searching on a particular key-term or phrase and your website appears in the SERPs, you know they already have an interest in what your business has to offer or a solution to their problem.

If you struggle with writing, don’t worry! Not all your content needs to be blog-style articles. Infographics, videos, reviews, customer testimonials, images, research results, and popular, relevant articles all make for great content options that encourage viewer engagement.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure it’s optimized and published so your target audience can easily find their way to your website.

In Conclusion

Attraction or target marketing is a great way to grow your online, marketing network and gain leads. By using the tips above, you can create an internet network marketing campaign to grow your business and create actual connections with leads and customers.