Over the last few years, social media has exploded as a tool that we can use to not only stay entertained and connect with loved ones, but also a tool for network marketers to reach out and contact a huge potential pool of leads and customers.
In fact, major corporations have embraced social media after seeing how it can work to improve their branding, their customer reach, and their overall marketing efforts. And in the right hands, it can be one of the best weapons for those who are starting their own business no matter what it may involve. Even those who are involved in network marketing will have plenty of advantages when they use this properly. But that’s the key – using it effectively.
To do so, you’ll need to understand social media, marketing as a whole, and a few key elements of what is known as the warm market. Combine those three pools of knowledge and you could create a truly successful network marketing business.
What Is A Warm Market?
The first thing you’ll need to understand is what a warm market is. Essentially, this is a network of potential leads you have largely come into contact with in some capacity. Initially, it may include:
• Friends
• Family members
• Co-workers
• Church associates
• Existing customers
• Neighbors
After spending some time in your network marketing business, you’ll meet more and more people – each of whom will become a potential prospect in your own warm market. Even a referral that comes to you from someone else is considered part of your overall warm market.
The difference between the warm market and cold market really comes down to how you start marketing to them. Instead of cold-calls or emails you use to try to attract leads, you’ll already have some form of a connection to your warm market, even if it’s just a slight one.
Social Media Recruiting Through Your Warm Market
Hopefully, your social media page will quickly attract attention from people you have never seen, met, or spoken to. But initially, it’s likely that it will begin to fill up with people you know. These warm market prospects are the most important to your early days in your business, and it’s important that you take the right steps to attract them to your business.
It’s also important to note that in most cases, your business page isn’t where these contacts are going to originate. Instead, you’ll have to approach friends and colleagues through your personal Facebook account or using your connection as the touching off point, then funnel them over to your business page. It can seem like a daunting task, and taking a closer look at it is vital for success.
First of all, it really is all in your approach. If you want to ensure that you don’t immediately get shut down, the key is to make sure that you don’t come across in the wrong way. People aren’t stupid, and you need to give them credit for being smart enough to know when you’re trying to be ‘fake’. Instead of starting off with the ‘Hey, long time no see. Just wanted to see how things are’ message, be honest. Give them a quick hello message, and after a response go ahead and get your reason for contacting them out of the way.
Let them know what you’re asking, and why you’re contacting them. Nobody likes to have their time wasted and when you spend 5 minutes beating around the bush before finally trying to half-heartedly work in a plug for your business, you’re doing things wrong.
Consider something else: You’re a business professional now, correct? So would a business professional approach things in the manner described above? The answer is obvious – no, they wouldn’t. They’ll contact their warm market lead, explain why they’re contacting them, and offer them whatever it is they’re trying to provide. It’s that simple.
Figuring Out Who To Contact
This is another point that people spend a lot of time worrying over. You may have hundreds or even thousands of people on your friends list, but who among them should you contact? The answer is…. all of them. Every single one.
Each of those names may be a friend, a relative, or a business associate. But do you know what else they are? A potential sale or a potential lead for your Network Marketing company. No matter how well you may think that you know someone, you never really know how willing they are to join your team or make a purchase from you until you ask.
However, it’s important that you don’t just use a cookie cutter, copy/paste spam type message. You’re talking to real people here, and the last thing you want to do is come across like you’re a robot. Yes, it’s going to take time to send each of those contacts a message, but if you want to take your company towards success, it’s something that you should be 100% willing to do.
One thing worth thinking about, however, is when to contact them. Since you’re not using that cookie cutter message, it’s important to send out individually crafted messages at the right time. You can look at a social media profile to ensure that you time things right. It’s obviously important that you don’t message someone when they’re dealing with a loss in their family or a transitional period in their work or if they’re on vacation. Pay attention to what each person is doing, and you’ll be able to time your message appropriately.
Local Warm Marketing And Social Media
Another thing to consider is that while social media lets you connect with people across the globe, you’ll likely have a lot of people in your immediate area that you’re friends with on Facebook or Twitter. That means that you have even more potential to grow and nurture your leads.
When you’re using social media to connect with those in your area, it’s important to try to meet up face to face. You can set up an appointment to show your products to them, but an even better choice is to try to get these nearby leads to join your team as an affiliate member. Good social media recruiting is made easier when you’re able to talk directly to them and explain to them just what you have to offer.
Either way, using social media could put you in contact with many in your area whom you can then meet face to face or over the phone to start taking steps towards recruiting them or turning them into a customer. Start off digital, but then take your efforts into the real world.
Some Social Media Tips For Better Warm Marketing
Now that you have a basic idea as to the fundamentals of warm markets and using social media to cultivate and nurture leads, it’s time to start learning more about the little steps that can net you big results.
• Create separate accounts – one for you and one for your business. You’ll want to use social media for more than your business, after all, and keeping the two separate can certainly make it easier to do so. Always keep your personal, funny, or other similar posts on your personal account and maintain the utmost professionalism on your business page.
• Don’t fill your personal page with posts about your business. However, you can certainly – and should – sprinkle in some posts about your business and what you provide. Nobody will listen if you’re constantly posting links to your website, products, or social media business pages. But a mention of the products every so often could get noticed.
• When you do talk about your business or your products, it’s a good idea to do much more than just post a “buy this stuff” kind of post, Instead, get personal with it. Tell a story about how the products have changed your life or what it is about them specifically that you love. These personal anecdotes can have a big impact on the way people perceive your business and what you’re offering.
• Interact with people directly, either through commenting on their posts or through direct messages. When you do, don’t constantly bombard them with a message or comment about your products. But, if you see that they’re having an issue or that they enjoy a part of life that your products fit into, adding that anecdote could be worth doing.
For example, if they comment about how they’ve just started a new diet and weight loss regimen, you may congratulate them on their new journey and then mention something about “These products really helped make it easier for me to reach my weight loss goals. You may want to check them out too”. Don’t be pushy or annoying – just offer a solution that they might be interested in.
• Use the business page to highlight your favorite products, and keep content coming on it. Regular posts help remind people of what is available and could show them new products, and that means creating compelling content they’ll want to see. Things like video demonstrations of your products, links back to blogs on your main site, and similar steps can all help keep people interested in what you have to provide to them.
• Don’t forget that marketing – even in your warm market – is made easier when you have special offers to make. Things like discount coupon codes for Facebook followers or Tweets offering a discount can keep people interested, informed, and engaged in your business. You should make sure to keep things personal through your primary personal account, but when it comes to your business page be sure that you’re making them offers they can’t refuse.
In short, the key thing you want to remember is simply that you can’t oversell the product or business, but you shouldn’t undersale it either. Use your personal social media page to network and grow your warm market, then funnel users back to your business page to help increase your revenue.
Growing A Larger Warm Market
Finally, let’s talk about the fact that eventually your warm market will grow a bit cooler in terms of interest in your products. The reason is simple – over time you’ll end up talking to everyone you know about your business. When this occurs, you’ll need to start generating additional leads and adding people to your warm market.
But how can you go about doing this since ‘warm market’ generally refers to those people you know in some capacity? The answer is that your warm market also refers to anyone you aren’t actively seeking specifically for business – those who have come to you or those that you connect with in other ways.
So how can you grow a larger warm market? There are a few ways to do it. Let’s look at a few of the best ones.
• The first is simply to keep on networking. Using social media, you can meet a wide range of people with similar interests. Whether they’re friends of a friend, members of a social media group or fan page, or just someone you encounter in the digital world, adding them to your friends list is a great way to increase your contacts.
• Referrals help as well. Try to offer incentives to your customers and contacts to refer a friend to your business – a discount code or a special offer for every person they send your way can help generate a larger warm market.
• Keep on working. As you do, word of mouth can spread and you may be surprised at how many people actually find you. That’s a key part of why maintaining a strong online and strong social media presence is so important.
Your business deserves all the benefits you can give it, and your warm market is one area of potential leads that you simply can’t afford to ignore. Give it the attention it deserves and you should be able to get better results from your business and move closer to your overall professional goals.