In fact it was the first thing that I was told to do when I started my direct sales business.

Dawn you have to have a launch party!

A launch party I said? I did not have a place to have a party let alone the friends to come to my party!

I was the one who had very few friends and living in a studio apartment at the time.

So having a launch party was simply out of the question.

But despite the fact that I did not have parties, I was still successful in recruiting tons of people AND making tons of product sales in my business.

The thing is, when most people were doing parties, I took the time to learn different strategies that made me stand out. 

In an industry where competition is HUGE it is important to make the difference.

Sometimes going in the opposite direction is OK.

I would admit that a few Facebook parties did get me sales here and there, but what actually skyrocketed my business was using new, modern-day approaches to direct sales.

So what did I do differently?

5 Simple Ways To Grow Your Direct Sales Business Without Having Parties

1. Online Marketing

There is so much power in the internet and there is a reason why most successful businesses leverage this platform.

But many direct sales consultants seem to forget that it is there or if they know it is there, they do not know how to use it.

The internet provides a playground of opportunity, to find people who are searching for AND interested in your products when you have exhausted your warm market.

When I started direct selling, I went through my warm market in a matter of days.

Although I was trained to use social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook to find new prospects, many other people were also doing that!

It is no wonder why I sucked big time at trying to build a brand for myself. I mean, every time someone reached out to me in my DMs about my product, they usually followed up with something like “Oh yea! XYZ told me about this so I would buy from her”.

I had to come up with an alternative and it was to use the internet.

Using the internet to build a brand for yourself opens so many doors because you are in touch with a lot more people, both locally and internationally.

If you really understand how to use the internet to build a global direct sales company, then you can build a huge business. Check out my latest article where I explain how to build a global direct sales business.

It also meant that I could target people who were actually looking for my product rather than rely on people who only supported me, because I was a friend or family member.

So here’s what this looks like when I do a search, using my keyword research tool, to find people who are looking for a specific direct sales product.

Let’s say that product is the infamous skinny wrap that helps you tighten loose skin.

When I search for a keyword that could be searched by people on Google or other search engines, this is the type of results I get:

The above screenshot shows you the keyword that I have entered on the left which is “tighten loose skin” and on the right, it shows you the potential volume of searches on the search engines for variations of the keyword.

So for example, “loose stomach skin” gets approximately 1300 searches on the search engines. “Tummy skin tightening” get approximately 590 searches on the search engines.

This means that you have the opportunity to show your product to these people who are actually searching for a solution to “loose stomach skin” and “tummy skin tightening”.

And if you market your product properly to those people, then they are more likely to buy that product.

That is what is so amazing about search engine marketing.

Meanwhile on Instagram or Facebook, I was taught that every person I spoke to was a potential prospect. Knowing what I know now, I have to say … not really!

I would waste hours searching for that ONE person to say yes, when I had thousands of targeted people on Google who wants a solution to loose skin.

The most important thing that you can learn here, is to go after targeted people, as opposed to everyone.

It will make your life so much easier and running your business so much fun!

If you are looking for targeted prospects for your direct sales or network marketing business, check out this blog post or read my review of MLM Leads and Udimi Solo Ads.

How To Convert Searchers Into Leads and Buyers?

This was a secret that no company to my mind ever mentioned, although I strongly believe that every direct sales consultant should use.

(Before you use these methods, make sure that your company policy supports it.)

I used a marketing sales funnel. 

What Is a Marketing Sales Funnel?

A marketing sales funnel automatically introduces a prospect to my product via a lead capture page. 

A lead capture page, is a website page where I tell my audience what I have to offer, then entice them with something free in exchange for their name and email address.

By having a lead capture page, I was building an email list for my direct sales business so that I could find new prospects for my business.

Click this link to see what my lead capture page for direct selling consultants looked like.

My lead capture page will then take my prospect to a bridge page where I speak about the product and tell them more about why they should buy it and how it can solve their problems.

The bridge page also includes a link that directs the prospect to the website where they can purchase the product if they want to.

By using Google and other search engines, I could easily target my ideal customer and ask Google to show that potential customer my lead capture page via an internet link.

A marketing sales funnel, literally catapulted my business to success and gave me the freedom of time that I desperately needed.

Marketing sales funnel builders like Clickfunnels and LeadPages allow you to create a targeted website, then use that website to capture people’s information who are really interested in your offer.

This meant that I no longer had to speak to over 100 people, just to find that one person who would say yes.

It also meant that I could automatically get sales into my business, without me speaking directly to my prospect. The sales funnel did all the talking for me.

Click the video below to see how this process is completed with Clickfunnels.

>>Free Book Teaches You How To Use Sales Funnels For Your Direct Selling and Network Marketing Business <<

2. Email Marketing

You have probably heard somewhere before that “the money is in the list”.

Yet you are probably not building your email list at all.

An email list, is simply a list of subscribers who provide their email to you, so you can send them promotional content like newsletters, product offers or posts directly to their email address.

Do you know that social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat do not belong to us?

When we build an audience using these channels, there is a risk that it can easily be taken away from us when we least expect it.

Imagine growing your audience to over 20,000 people. Now imagine the time and effort put in and then one day it is wiped out! Gone!

This is why you should be working on building your email list as any audience we create here belongs to us.

Yes! We have complete ownership of our email lists.

When I started building my email list I did not quite understand the phrase “the money is in the list”.

Now that I have an email list of over 1000 targeted subscribers, I can send one email with valuable content and generate a sale from that email blast.

Optinmonster also confirms the effectiveness of email marketing over social media with their blog post Email Marketing v Social Media Performance.

So how do you start building an email list?

Well you must have the following tools to start:

• A website or lead capture page – I use LeadPages for my lead capture page builder but you can also use Clickfunnels or any of these awesome builders to start.
• Email autoresponder – I use and recommend Aweber because it makes sure that all my emails are sent directly to my prospects’ inbox. There is also GetResponse which is another great autoresponder and they have some pretty neat lead capture pages as well.

I then strategically place my website link, on the internet or my social media accounts and capture prospects’ details if they want more information about my product.

Building an email list allowed me to easily follow up with my prospects and continue to remind them about my products.

This was a key way that helped me to get so many sales into my business.

Related Article: 

• How To Start Your First Email List From Scratch  
• How To Build A Profitable Email List Step by Step
• How To Get Email Subscribers As A Newbie

3. Blogging

If it is one thing that you can do for your direct sales business, it is blogging.

That is because blogging allows you to provide a hub where prospects can go to, to get more in-depth information about you and your product.

I DO NOT recommend your company’s website blog, but your own personal blog that is hosted by you.

The reason why I would recommend your own personal blog, is because it belongs completely to you.

What is a blog?

A blog is like your home on the internet. It is a place that you fill with content on just about anything.

So if you are in direct sales and you are selling hair care products, you can personalise your blog with posts about hair care that will help viewers solve their problems.

A blog will help grow your business

If you optimise your blog so that it can be found in search engines, you are accessible by many more people than you can meet at home parties or Facebook parties.

With parties, most times you operate in ways that are sales-oriented. You really only have about an hour to impress upon your prospect why they should buy your product.

Let us not forget that people do not like being sold to.

However with a blog, your prospects have the time to read your helpful posts.

If the right amount of value is provided, you bet they will be ready to buy immediately.

A blog helps establish trust and credibility

When you write a blog, you establish yourself as an expert. Do not worry if you are new to blogging or your direct sales company.

You can easily do research on your company’s products and write posts in your own words. The internet is also full of resources that help you to recreate posts that provide solutions to your prospects.

By blogging, you stand out and this can be your unique selling point.

After all, you are using a forum that other direct sales consultants hardly or do not ever use!

Furthermore when you present yourself as an expert, more people will trust your recommendation and are thus more likely to buy from you.

Ready to start your own blog? Read my article The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog  which provides a step-by-step walk through on how I created this blog. You can actually start your blog for as little as $3.95 a month with Bluehost and WordPress. 

Related Articles: 

• Network Marketing Blog 5 Reasons Why You Need Them  
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog

4. Facebook Marketing

Yes you can use Facebook groups to promote your products to your circle via Facebook parties but Facebook is bigger than that.

Just like online marketing, Facebook has a huge database of information on its users.

This allows you to specifically target people who may be interested in your products.

So if you are a direct sales consultant in a weight loss company, you can create an ad and ask Facebook to show it to people who are interested in Diets and Weight Loss or Easy Weight Loss.

Do you think these people will be interested in your product that helps them to lose weight?

Of course they will be.

So not only are you connecting with people who are not in your inner circle but you are connecting with the right kind of people who are ten times more likely to buy your product because they are interested in it.

When you use Facebook’s platform in this way you can collect your prospects’ information exactly as you would by using lead capture pages if you want to use email marketing to follow up with them later on.

If Facebook Ads is your choice of growing your direct sales business without having parties, then I would strongly recommend the Social Traffic Blueprint Facebook Ads Course by Jon Penberthy and Jubril Agoro.

They teach you everything you need to know about how to place a Facebook ad the right way. I would not try Facebook ads without doing a course or understanding the ad platform thoroughly as you can waste a lot of money. Be sure to also check out Facebook Blueprint which is a user guidance for Facebook Ads.

Check out the response that I got from one Facebook ad for my company’s product which generated hundreds of product sales. 

If you would like to use Facebook as a traffic source feel free to check out the course here.

5. Pinterest

If you are in direct sales then Pinterest is one of THE best platforms that you can use to grow your business.

Best of all, it is a FREE platform.

Not many people go to Pinterest because it is one of those social media outlets that is rarely heard of for business, but did you know that Pinterest has more than 150 million monthly active users and is actually a search engine? So people are actually searching for solutions to their problems on there.

I have said over and over that I absolutely LOVE Pinterest. It is the one place where I can showcase my business through my blog and get targeted leads and sales.

With Pinterest you can surf visually stimulating images and get ideas for hair styles, wardrobes or gift ideas.

I however use it strategically to drive traffic to my blog or website.

Check out the amount of traffic that I am getting from Pinterest to my blog below.

Do you think that if you can get this amount of traffic to your website that you can make a few good product sales?

To learn how to use Pinterest I first invested in a course called the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course by Alex Nerney and Lauren McManus. This course taught me some really cool things on how to increase traffic to my website with Pinterest.

In the course they also teach you pinning strategies, how to create viral pins that get the most traffic amongst other valuable lessons to grow your business. If you wish to use Pinterest as a traffic source feel free to check out the course here.

How to create pins

How I do this, is I create beautiful pins using an easy to use graphic tool like PicMonkey and stock photos from Shutterstock, then connect that pin to my blog.

I then share my pins in targeted group boards where I can connect with people who may be interested in one of my topics.

So for example, I am a part of many network marketing, direct sales and affiliate marketing group boards because I know that people on these boards have followed it because they are interested in it.

Before now, I would have never thought about using Pinterest as a business tool but once I discovered that I could actually grow my business using it, I became absolutely hooked on the idea.

Final Thoughts

Online marketing is huge. It is a known fact that the top direct sales consultants grow their business using the internet and with the help of various marketing tools.

However even today, consultants are still encouraged to use the “belly-to-belly” strategy which in my view only helps you achieve mediocre results.

Cheers,

P.S Are you using any other ways to grow your business without home parties? Show me some love in the comments and let me know. I would love to hear more from you.

Resources That Will Help You Even More

How To Use Sales Funnels To Grow Your Network Marketing Team a free e-book that will teach you all you need to know about using sales funnels to build your direct selling and network marketing team.

Start A Blog ECourse 5 Days To Blogging Success my free blog course will teach you how to start a blog and build it around your direct sales business.

Power Coaching if you have a product, service or business, personally work with me and I will help you automate and leverage the internet so you can live the life that you truly want. I will help you take your business to the next level with personalised coaching sessions. My coaching sessions are $247/hour. Please only complete the application form if you are serious about utilising my coaching. Click here to complete the application form. 

Aweber the internet’s most powerful tool to help automate your email communication. This is what I use to build my email list and send my newsletter to my subscribers to form the relationship. It is one of the biggest tools you will need in your business.

The post 5 Simple Ways To Grow Your Direct Sales Business Without Having Parties appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Before I started affiliate marketing, I knew nothing about sales funnels.

Are you confused as well? Read my article on A Complete Guide To Automated Sales Funnels For Any Business. In this article you will learn all about sales funnels and how you can use it whether you are an affiliate, blogger or network marketer.

In short, a sales funnel is the path that a customer or client is taken through to purchase a product or service.

If you are making money through affiliate marketing or network marketing and you DO NOT have a website, then you WILL want to AT LEAST have a sales funnel in your business to drive traffic to your landing page and then onto the product offer.

If you do already have a sales funnel, but you are not getting the sales that you want, then you may want to focus on your bridge page.

What Is A Bridge Page?

A bridge page is webpage that comes after a lead capture page, but before the sales page or the page where you offer your product.

It is a powerful conversion booster that every good marketer must use in his or her online marketing efforts. So essentially you are bridging your landing page with the product page and it is here, where you can use various strategies to improve your conversions.

Before I used a bridge page, my sales funnel would take the prospect from the lead capture page or landing page, straight to the offer page.

What this did, was that it did not pre-frame the prospect with what they were going to expect when they landed on the offer page.

However, after I included a bridge page in my sales funnel, it gave me the opportunity to “talk” to the prospect one on one.

What you need to understand, when doing affiliate marketing and network marketing, it is all about building a relationship with the prospect.

A bridge page will help you to do that.

So you may want to explain what the offer is to your prospect before they visit your sales page.

This way they get a better understanding of the offer from someone who has already used it.

It also gives you the opportunity to offer your visitors bonus content. You really want to stand out from other marketers who are promoting the same product as you!

Many marketers forget this key step in their online marketing activities. Please do not be one of them.

What To Include On Your Bridge Page?

Now a bridge page should not be a distraction, so keep it very simple.

The only purpose a bridge page serves, is to introduce yourself and your offer/product to the prospect.

You can also use it to help your visitors make micro-commitments which is another strategy to help you improve conversions.

Micro-commitments can be in the form of interactive and engaging content, that gets the prospect to feel immersed in the content, such that when they land on the offer page, they have already built up a desire to take the action that you want them to take, whether that is opting into a form or buying a product.

#1 Introduce Yourself

If you are in network marketing or affiliate marketing and you have to build a “team”, then introducing yourself to the prospect would be a great starting point.

Tell your story on this page. Video is best but if you are afraid of video, then text.

Honestly for best results, I would recommend video.

By introducing yourself you are:

• Allowing the visitor to get to see who they will be working with.
• It also gives them a chance to see if you are genuine. Most times a video can tell A LOT about a person. You can tell whether the person is speaking from a script or whether they are speaking from the heart.
• You want to be as confident as you can. Even if you know nothing about your industry or you are a beginner, you want to act like you know what you are talking about.
• You will also give the visitor the chance to know you. People like to join others who they can resonate with. Be as truthful as you can! Speak about where you came from, your struggles, what you did before you bought the product or joined the opportunity.
• Transferring trust from the video to the visitor. Essentially breaking the ice. This helps to MASSIVELY increase sales in your business.

#2 Make An Offer

Another good point is to make an irresistible offer to your visitor. Why should they buy from you of all people?

Remember, this prospect has probably seen many lead capture pages before yours.

Give them a reason to want to take out their credit card and buy from YOU.

This is what singles you out, because you took that step to show them something which the other hundred marketers did not.

Your offer could be:

• Free training
• A free report related to the niche
• A free complimentary product to help them
• A free 30 minute on-boarding call

#3 Do A Review 

If you have a product to sell then you may want to include a demonstration or review of the product.

Do not just buy the product and review it.

Use the product and speak about the benefits of it, how it affected you and what type of results you got.

You obviously want to be positive in your remarks but giving some constructive criticism on the product can boost your credibility.

It shows that you are not particularly biased to the product and are willing to carefully scrutinise it for your audience so they can make an informed decision as to whether the product is for them.

When you do a review you have a much higher chance of closing the sale.

#4 Add Testimonials

Testimonials are another good thing to add to your bridge page.

Whilst the sales page may have its own testimonials, it helps to reinforce to the buyer what other people are saying about the offer or product with your own testimonials. Too many testimonials can’t hurt right?

Your prospects see testimonials as recommendations from friends.

If a product is great enough for a bunch of people, who the prospect knows nothing about, then surely it can be good for them.

Anything that you can use to persuade the visitor to become an instant buyer is always a great thing to implement.

Adding a bridge page can help model the visitors’ opinions of the offer or product and assist them in making up their mind whether they will become a buyer.

So if you are an affiliate marketer or a network marketer and there seems to be a slump in your sales, the first thing you want to do is:

Use a marketing system to build your sales funnel. My recommended choices are Clickfunnels or LeadPages.

Design a sales funnel with your product or offer in mind.

Include a bridge page within your sales funnel. It goes between the lead capture page and the product or offer page.

Launch your sales funnel and monitor your conversions.

Thanks for reading,

P.S What are the biggest struggles you are facing in getting sales in your business? Let me know in the comments section and I will do my best to help you.

P.P.S Why have you not subscribed to my You Tube Channel for online entrepreneurs?

The post How To Get More Sales By Using A Bridge Page appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.