Successful Advertising for Your Direct Sales Business
You probably realize that without advertising, your business isn’t going to get very far. This is especially true when you’re in direct sales because your store location is usually your home, a website, or in some cases, your car.
This means that you’ll be limited as to signage and people won’t know about your business. While advertising can be challenging, it’s not difficult. Direct salespeople just need to get creative in advertising.
With just a few business cards, some flyers, and maybe even some posters, advertising your direct sales business can be easy, and even fun! Think about the places you go and think how you can get the word out about your business at every one of these places. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Visit the library. Go through various books and leave your business card in them. Pay special attention to books that are related to your business. If you sell jewelry, look at books that tell others how to make their own jewelry, or jewelry appraisal books. Flip to a random page and tuck a business card inside. Leave your business card in books that aren’t related to what you’re selling, too. You never know who’s going to take an interest in your business.
Place a poster, flyer or business card on the back of public restroom stalls. Have you ever noticed the wide variety of advertising that’s now done on the walls of a public restroom? This is because people know this type advertising works.
Many public restrooms have magazine style racks attached to the back of the stall doors. If you’re lucky enough to find one of these, tuck a catalogue inside. You never know who will stop by to pick it up. If you do leave catalogues, keep a list of where you left them. That way, you’ll be able to check back in a week or two and replace the catalogue someone was interested enough to scoop up.
Take some catalogues or flyers for your next party to a play date, or on a trip to the park. Many direct sales consultants are stay-at-home moms and dads. And they make especially valuable prospects because they probably live near you and would be able to attend a party to see your products.
Because other stay-at-home moms are doing the same things you do every day, you’ll most likely have a lot in common with them, too, and be able to connect with them on some level. And they probably have some of the same needs that you have, which is perfect since you’ll already know what they want.
Leave a flyer on your local laundromat’s bulletin board as well as a catalogue on the folding table. Laundromats are hotbeds for people who have time on their hands with nothing to do. If the laundromat is large, count how many tables they have and leave a catalogue on every one. You might be surprised how many phone calls you get just because you caught someone when they had time to browse.
Anyone can put up flyers in the grocery store or on community bulletin boards. As such, these locations often become overcrowded with different ads and yours might get lost in the shuffle. It’s important to think outside of the box and consider places that others may not have thought of. This is one sure way to get you noticed, get more people to attend your next party, and increase your direct sales revenue quickly.
Article Marketing Can Mean Big Bucks For Direct Sellers
The world of direct sales is highly competitive, so it cannot be stressed 
enough that being able to drive traffic to your website is key to the success of your direct sales business.
You want people to head to your website so they can see all the wonderful products you have waiting for them, right? Well, there’s good news. Article marketing has become a very popular way for direct sales consultants to accomplish this.
How Is Article Marketing Helpful in Driving Traffic to My Direct Sales Website?
Article marketing is free advertising for your business. By writing articles that contain valuable information for your reader you will establish yourself as an expert whom people will come to trust. Don’t make your article one big sales pitch though. That will have your prospective customer leaving your site lickety-split. Instead, write an article that includes information on solving a problem. With titles like – The Best Way To ______ or 10 Tips To Creating _______ you’re well on your way to creating a good article.
So, how do you get people to come to your site by writing that article? Include a short bio about yourself and your business and include a link to your website or have a line that says something like, “For more information email me at iwant@yourproduct.com” That way they can either visit your site or email you for the information they need.
After you’ve written the article you’ll want to submit it to an article directory. By submitting your article to an article directory you are able to reach a large number of potential customers because other people looking for content to place on their site will take your article, including your short bio with your website links. Do you begin to see how that one article has the possibility to be published by several websites providing you the potential of a ton of free advertising? And there are literally thousands of article directories just waiting for you to submit your finished work.
Distributing articles drives traffic to your direct sales website and helps you establish trust with your potential client base. By writing easy-to-read, informational articles related to the type of products that you sell you can establish yourself as being knowledgeable about your products.
Customers are very likely to purchase products from a direct sales consultant that is familiar with their products and can honestly answer any questions that their customers may have so make sure you have a system in place for your customer service – an FAQ page on your website, perhaps.
Just because you write an article doesn’t mean you have to give it away. Publishing your articles on your own direct sales website can help move your website up through the search engine rankings as people search for the information you are providing. Make sure to use well researched keywords to increase the likelihood of appearing in search engines for the search terms that fit best.
When your articles are picked up and published on other websites it increases your link popularity. Link popularity is a huge factor in how websites are ranked among the search engines. Your goal is to get your articles on as many websites as you can, and this is an easy way to start increasing the link popularity of your direct sales website.
Check out the internet for even more suggestions on how article marketing will be able to help you drive more traffic to your direct sales website.
photo credit: truello
