I wrote a post a while back about Why Everyone Should Have A Side Hustle. Within that post, I said that I wasn’t a fan of MLM’s (Multi-Level Marketing by Direct Sales companies, Network Marketing) and that I didn’t think the poor souls that did them made any real money from them. Just to be clear, it’s not actually the products or companies themselves that I dislike. It’s their crappy sales and marketing techniques and this I believe is why so many crash and burn within a short time after they join an MLM.
Quite a few people I know are part of various different MLM’s and I often cringe at their badly written sales copy they dress up as inspiring Facebook posts. Please, for your sake and the sake of my sanity, stop with the 1980’s style advertorial sales copy. It’s rubbish. And it’s probably half the reason as to why nobody is buying your products. The other big reason is that you are constantly banging on about this fantastic lifestyle you have because you sell this product and how everyone you know should also sign up to selling it. And how wonderful the company is to work for. I know that your life isn’t amazing as I also see you posting about being skint, not being able to afford to go out, not going on holiday and how you’ve nothing to wear and can’t afford to buy something new.
Ok, so stop. Stop copy and pasting the rubbish lines your upline is giving you. Stop copying the same lines every other MLM person in the world is using. It’s time you actually told us about the products you are selling.
SHOW DON’T TELL
In my first ever marketing job, many, many years ago I was told to sell the sizzle, not the sausage. I don’t see many sausages sizzling on your MLM barbeque. In fact, I don’t see much about your products at all. And that is a massive problem with pretty much all the MLM posts I see on Facebook. You’re that busy trying to convince me to join this company (and I know that’s how you make more money and your upline bangs on and on about it) you forget to tell me about the products. Posts about your discounts and offers and £5 off this and £3 off that actually is useless unless I am fully convinced of your product in the first place. If I don’t know anything about it, I don’t know the benefits of it. I don’t know how it can help me. What value will it bring me? How can I actually use it? You aren’t selling me the products based on its sizzle (what it can do for me and why I need it) most of the time you are selling it on price, which is pointless.
I’ll give you an example. I use Elemis beauty products a lot. They aren’t cheap. But they are good and I love them. A pot of moisturiser is £80. I could probably buy 10 pots of moisturiser from some MLM’s for the same price. So why do I continue to keep on buying my £80 one? Because I was sold on the benefits. It’s anti-ageing. It has other stuff. I only need a small amount so the £80 pot lasts ages. If I was shown the benefits of using a different product in terms that demonstrated the value to me, then maybe I’d switch brands.
IT’S TIME TO DITCH WHAT YOU’VE BEEN TOLD
So now you’re going to drop the copy and paste crappy sales lines, here’s 10 ways to help promote your MLM business using social media. And that’s without sounding like a robot running on low batteries because it’s desperate for the sale before their upline calls for this week’s figures. Because that’s what every other MLM person does. You’re different. You’re selling an amazing product that just so happens to be from an MLM company.
1. YOUR MLM IS A BUSINESS. TREAT IT LIKE ONE
One of the major things that put me off even engaging with MLM people is their constant posting on their personal Facebook page. Firstly, it’s annoying. Secondly, it’s confusing. One minute it’s all kids photos with ice cream all over their faces the next it’s your wonderful life thanks to an aloe vera gel and all the immense opportunities it brings you and I can have that too. Your MLM is a business (and should be treated as such for tax reasons too), therefore you need to be a business just like every other.
Which brings me on to my other point here. It’s against the terms and conditions of Facebook to use a personal page for business. It’s why God, I mean Mark Zuckerberg created business pages. So you can use them for business. Are you getting my point here? Use a business page to market your plant extract, juicing, vegan-friendly, crock pot. By all means, share the occasional post to your personal page, but when the vast majority of your Facebook posts are about your MLM then you’ve gone off track. Reign it back in and back over to your business page.
A business page is not a group. That’s different. And if you add me to a group without first asking me don’t be shocked when I leave and unfollow. That’s just bad manners on your part. Facebook know full well that MLM’s are using groups to spam, I mean post, about their products rather than setting up a business page. Be warned. We’ll cover spam further down the list. A nicely laid out business page, with a strong header image and using all the functionality that business pages provide, will set you apart from a lot of the other MLM’s out there. Be different. Be businesslike.
2. LOOK LIKE A PRO
The image is everything, especially in business. If the look and feel of how you present your products aren’t right, you are fighting a losing battle. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve seen MLM product photos taken with untidy backgrounds, bad lighting and no real framing. I’m not saying you need to invest in a load of photography equipment, your phone is absolutely fine. But look at your surroundings. Placing a product on the floor to photograph it is fine (so long as the floor is clean) but when I can see clutter and mess in the background and the lighting is that poor you’ve massive shadows across your product, then it looks amateur. You’re a business, not an amateur.
Take photos during the day with natural light if you can (window bottoms are great for this). Tidy up so you’ve nothing in the background (especially kids toys). Look in magazines at products. See how the shot is lined up. What angles the product is placed at. Are there props in the shot? If it’s a makeup product how about a model or even yourself wearing the make-up holding the palette or bottle next to your face (good lighting is essential for this)? Don’t just think that by posting a photo of the product I’m instantly going to want to buy it. Where’s the sizzle? Write a good description that tells me the benefits of this product and what value it will add to my life. Check your spelling, grammar and punctuation are right and don’t be too informal, no text type talk. Remember, professional, business-like.
3. STOP RECRUITING!
What a lot of MLM folk forget is that most people don’t actually want to sign up to join this remarkable company you are working for. They have jobs and lives, maybe even a side hustle like I said they needed (they listened to me). They just want to buy the pot of moisturiser and be left alone to use the product. If they like it, they’ll buy more. And if you aren’t a nasty pushy salesperson, they will likely be ok with you suggesting other products. If you constantly bang on about the discounts they will get if they sign up and all the bonus trips to Skegness they will earn, you will put them off. Because that’s not what they want. They just want the product.
When I go to the Elemis counter to buy my stuff the girl on the counter doesn’t try to recruit me to work for them. She might ask me to sign up to their loyalty scheme or email newsletter. She may well suggest other products or tell me about a gift set that contains the product I want and I’ll get something else for free. But that’s as far as it goes. I totally understand that you are pressured into recruiting. I get it. But this goes back to the very basics of marketing. Know your customer. I am the last person on God’s green earth that will join an MLM. I am not alone. Just show me the products.
I have lost count of the times people have tried to recruit me into their MLM. They say it’s because I’m good at this marketing stuff and can be inspirational. Ummmm, go figure! Unfortunately, at that (insulting) point I’ve written them and their products off and will never buy them. Ever.
4. BLOGGING
A great way to show off your products and write better descriptions for them is via a blog post. You don’t have to start creating a fancy website if you aren’t looking to drive traffic to online sales but starting a blog will not only help you demonstrate your products better, it will help with your own personal branding. A lot of MLM people jump from one company to another. This is actually another annoying thing when they constantly post on Facebook, but anyway. So it’s important that you can carry your customers with you wherever you may go. One of the ways to do is this through building up your own personal brand, ie your own (business-like) social media presence. And a simple way to start is via a blog.
If for example you’re a busy working mum and the products you are selling are of benefit to you as a working mum. Therefore, they will be of benefit to other working mums. So why not blog about your busy life and incorporate talking about your products into this. Or are you a juice person. How do you use it in your everyday life? Show us! Don’t just presume that your audience will know firstly how to use the products but also how to make them part of their daily lives. We presume that you do it already, so show us how you do it.
Beauty products, show us how to use them. Review them. Write lovely wordy content about them that you can link to via your social media pages. This is all part of your content creation. You need your own unique content otherwise, you go back to being just another MLM robot. We don’t like robots here.
5. TAKE GREAT PHOTOS
We’ve already covered this in the section about being a pro, but honestly, I can’t stress enough how important good photos are and how they will set you apart from others. Especially if you plan on using Instagram. A great photo stands out. An average, blurred, poorly lit photo gets lost in the noise. You need to stand out because you are in a market that is very, very noisy. When you post a poor image of your products, not only does it not show your product off but it also doesn’t show you off. Now I’m not overly keen on massive self-promotion, but you have to give the right impression. And the impression you want to give is that you are motivated, keen and totally professional. This increases your know, like and trust factor so people are more confident in buying from you.
Again, your phone is perfectly ok for taking great images. There are literally thousands of how-to videos on YouTube that will help you take amazing images. Spend some time watching and learning. It will be time well spent. And on a side note there whilst we’re talking about photos. Back to the point about using a Facebook business page. You know when you post those drunken photos to your personal page that you are also using for your MLM business? What message do you think that sends out when you are trying to sell me a juice cleansing detox programme, product thing? Yep, not a good one.
6. VIDEOS
Video killed the radio star and now it’s killing every other form of social media post. From off the cuff live broadcast video, to short sharp Snapchats and perfectly polished YouTube videos. This is your chance to really stand out. Video is the absolutely ideal way to show off your products. Make short, clear, good videos demonstrating your products. Have a beauty product, grab a model and show us how it works. Makeup; do a makeover. Kitchenware; cook me up a storm. Show off your products in action but do not just sit there telling me about them, waving them to the camera and telling me about this month’s special offer. If you make me feel that this product is exactly what I need, by showing me its benefits, the cost will be irrelevant.
You don’t need loads of fancy recording equipment just make sure that your sound and picture are clear and just like photos, lighting is essential. Hit record and off you go. And don’t worry if you make a tonne of mistakes along the way. You can easily edit them out and use them as an outtakes sequence at the end of your video. And sure all your friends might see your video but who cares what the neighbours think! This is your dream, your job and your quest for a better life. Are you willing to do what others won’t in your quest? Because I bet most other MLM people won’t make the videos. Go for it!
7. CREATE MAILING LISTS
When you use your social media properly you can be building an audience that will stick with you for a long time. Why not encourage them to sign up for your mailing list? Despite us thinking that everything needs to be on social media, most of us also still check our emails just as much. So a nicely presented monthly newsletter from you with product news offers etc won’t go unnoticed. You can use services such as MailChimp to get you started for free and they even have pages you can use to collect email signups from. Drive traffic from your social media pages to your email sign up page and on to your list.
Before you get all excited, though, let me give you a word of warning about newsletters. Do not spam. Do not abuse my email address. Again, do not spam me. Make yourself aware of the rules about email sign up and spam. Never just add people’s email addresses to your list without asking them first. On your sign up pages make it clear what people are signing up to. Once you spam or abuse those email addresses in one way or another, you will either get your account shut down or your own email address will be marked as spam and nobody will get your emails apart from in their junk folders. You can also receive a fine. Make yourself aware of the new GDPR regulations in regards to email sign-ups, data security and how you use those email address. Once GDPR comes into law on May 25th 2018 you can be fined for misuse of someone’s private data. And that includes their email address.
Which brings me to…………
8. STOP SPAMMING!
I think pretty much every MLM person I have ever come across has spammed me in one way or another. Spam isn’t just for your emails. Here’re a few examples that you need to stop doing immediately;
DM’s – an auto DM on Twitter is not only an almighty faux pas but it’s damn annoying. Especially when it’s to ask me if I’ve heard about these crazy wraps. Never, ever enter someone’s inbox with a big long message about how fabulous this company is you work for and the amazing life it’s enabling you to led, without an invite. You may well get a response from 1 in 100 people, but you’ve managed to annoy 99 along the way and that’s actually a really poor conversion rate. Stay out of my DM’s!
Tagging – do not tag me (or anyone else) in a post that is not relevant to me! Ever! Tagging a load of people into a Twitter post is just spam. It’s like begging for a share, a like even, oh please just give me a god damn retweet. It stinks of desperation and makes you look really unprofessional. Stop doing it. Before I block you. Tagging me anywhere, be it Twitter, Facebook, Instagram even sending me a Snapchat that isn’t relevant, is the fastest way to get me to not ever buy from you.
Events and Groups – do not add anyone without their permission. Sure, invite them. But auto adding makes me want to hurt your fingers so you can’t tap to add anyone else. It’s very bad manners on your part and it clogs up my newsfeed with your badly written posts about your latest crazy offers. Go away!
Can you see how none of these methods is showing me your products or encouraging me to buy?
9. TIME MANAGEMENT
Chances are your MLM is your side-hustle or there’s something else that takes up a good chunk of your time during the day? Your evenings are when you are focusing on selling more stuff. People aren’t just online in the evenings and by 8pm I just want to complain about Eastenders, not have to sit through 20 posts from you about your fabulous opportunities if I just drink the juice/aloe vera/junk.
Social media scheduling is what is going to save you a tonne of time and keep my newsfeed free of your spare time posts. Tools such as HootSuite and Buffer allow you to pre-schedule posts to go out at any time of day. You just need to spend a little bit of time uploading your posts, setting the time and date they go out and that’s it. You don’t need to sit there every night, live posting about every single product in your range and clogging up my newsfeed. You can spread them out during the day so that you only need to deal with any comments and engagement you get.
This will then free up your time to enjoy the amazing life you keep telling us you are creating for yourself.
10. BE CONSISTENT
One of the joys of pre-scheduling all your social media posts is that you can be consistent. If you are live posting then at some point life is going to get in the way. One of the key factors to social media success is consistency. You have to show up and post every single day. But life may not always allow for that. Scheduling will.
Be consistent with your tone and your message. People need to know what you are about, why you use these products. What motivates you to detox and cleanse your system? Be consistent with the message you put out. If it’s not clear then people will struggle to relate to you and then that will dent your know, like and trust factors and people won’t buy from you. And be persistent whilst being consistent. There will be days when you think you are talking to yourself and that nobody is reading your posts or liking your beautiful photos. But keep on keeping on. Rome wasn’t built in a day!
* This post was first published to Socially Sam on 27th October 2016 but it has since been updated and republished
