Ch 5. Where To Find The Market

This is probably where most affiliates find difficulty.  It's not that it's actually difficult in itself, but the edges are blurred and the waters are muddy.  So it's easy to go off piste or end up down blind alleys.

This is not, in any way, the fault of the affiliates  Many MLM businesses actually create the confusion deliberately (I'll explain why, later).  Most of them do it accidentally, simply by not being clear enough that the separate streams are separate streams.  There are overlaps.  But these overlaps need to be marked in bright yellow so affiliates can clearly see that "here is a potential area of confusion".

The Streams

Let's begin by clearly identifying the streams.  There are two.  Yes they overlap, but they should always be seen as separate items at all times.

Think of a bus full of passengers.  The bus is one item.  The passenger is another.  At times they travel as a single unit.  At times they travel separately.  The bus goes back and forth over the same route all day long.  The passengers generally go one way in the morning, and the opposite way in the afternoon.  The bus goes to the garage for servicing and cleaning.  The passengers have other ways to handle those needs, maybe going to a canteen for lunch.

In affiliate marketing there are equally two separate and overlapping aspects.  One is sales of products.  The other is recruiting team members to assist in making those sales.  Sometimes both can be done together, sometimes they are better done separately.  But you must be clear on which you are doing at any given moment, because they do need to be handled in different ways.

There is no success in taking a passenger to a bus garage and pouring diesel into him.  Nor in inviting a bus to lunch in the canteen. So don't do it.  You'd be surprised how many try it, then complain that affiliate marketing doesn't work, it's a scam, etc, etc.

The Sales Stream

Think of this as the "major" or "predominant" stream.  It is, in fact, the entire purpose of marketing as an entity, whether affilate marketing or any other kind.  If sales are not made, then profits are not made, so no-one earns any money, so no-one gets paid.  The job of a marketer, is to place goods and services where they can be seen and bought by those who want them.

But marketing is changing all the time.  Things that used to work don't any more.  This is a major problem for suppliers trying to get customers to try their products.

One of the best methods, but fast losing its effectiveness, is TV advertising.  This used to be brilliant because it catches people off guard while they are relaxed.  A constant drip-feed of "XYZ cat food makes your pet happy" will gradually convince you to buy it (assuming you have a cat, of course).  Even when we use the ad break to make a cup of tea, we're still aware of the ad in the back of our minds.  Many of us sad b******s can sing the lyrics and reel off strap-lines in our sleep.

The problem, today, is that we record the programs we want to watch, then play them back at a more convenient time.  And when we play them back we skip fast forward through the ads.  From a sales point of view the ad might just as well not exist.  It's dead space.  And catchup TV doesn't even have the ad break.

Newspaper ads equally no longer work, 'cos so many of us find what we want via the internet.  There has not been a newspaper in my house for many many years.  And the freeby local that (sometimes) comes through the letter box gets pulled through and goes directly into the recycling bin completely unread.

Even internet marketing is hitting barriers because of the vast numbers of people who no longer use a PC.  They now do everything via portable devices, like tablets and mobile phones.  These "small-screen" devices do not have space to carry visually attractive ads.

This is why more and more suppliers are turning to affiliate marketing or network marketing.

Where affiliate marketing (or network marketing) is effective is that there are people you - personally - can reach or talk to, that the product supplier either has no chance of reaching, or can reach only at extreme cost.  Equally there are people that your brother or sister can reach that you cannot.  People that your friends can reach that you cannot (and people you can reach that your friends cannot, etc, etc).  Everyone of us has a "market" that no-one else has.  The best kind of marketing is where you talk about your stuff with the people you have access to, and you let your friends talk about your stuff with the people they have access to, etc.

If you opened a shop in the high street then you'd be perfectly expected to tell everyone you know, and everyone you meet, that you have a shop and they are welcome to come and visit.  In fact you'd be pretty stupid not to.

You would probably sweeten the deal by offering something unique like "If you come in on a Tuesday I'll give you a 10% discount" or "If you bring a friend I'll give you both a buy-one-get-one deal".  There is no end to the ingenuity and creativity that you can bring to this kind of relationship.  I'll suggest a few more ideas later.

So that's one stream - sales.

Before I go on to cover the other stream it's important that I close off a critical, and all too often overlooked, issue regarding sales.

Thinking back to your shop - it is absolutely fundamental to your success that you know your stock intimately.  You absolutely have to know what product you carry and why someone - anyone - would find that thing attractive.  You might not find them attractive, but someone does.  Why?

I touched on this earlier, with my cigarette selling friend who doesn't smoke.

You might think that setting fire to a vegetable, and sticking the burning material in your mouth, is the daftest idea you could come up with as a means of making money.  Be that as it may, you must understand that there are people "out there" who think it's attractive, cool.  And that they will hand you fistfulls of cash if you offer them the opportunity to do it.

You do not have to agree with them, just as you do not have to agree with any other person on any other matter.  But, from a sales perspective, you absolutely MUST recognise that they have their opinion and that they WILL give you money if you can demonstrate that you have the means to deliver what they want.

Never forget this.  It is the heart and soul of marketing.  It is the key to success in affiliate marketing and in network marketing.


NEXT TIME: The Team Stream