If you’re a direct selling consultant
running your own business, you know that the foundation of any direct selling
business includes recruiting and selling by consistently communicating with a
customer base and gathering prospects. Before the digital age, direct selling consultants
were forced to seek out this customer base and book parties through phone
calls, grassroots marketing, collateral and snail mail. Now, there is a
plethora of ways direct selling consultants can book parties and a variety of
avenues in which communication with consumers can occur. For example, at IMN, we
offer e-newsletter solutions that allow companies to harness the power of
content and consistent communication to drive sales opportunities, book more
parties, recruit more sponsors and build stronger customer relationships.
The direct selling of today looks little
like our mother’s party planning business of the past. The digital age has
brought with it powerful social networking tools, readily available content
created by average people and many other ways for consumers to connect with
large brands on a new level. The advent of social media alone has fashioned a
different world in which we communicate. Personal relationships are fostered
through social networks that provide a way for us to stay in touch and enhance
those personal relationships.
According to TGDaily.com, 48% of Americans
over the age of 11 now have profiles on at least one social networking website.
In addition, 30% of those with profiles check them "several times a
day." With almost half of all Americans now using social media, there is
no doubt that direct selling consultants need more tools to help them keep up
with the immediate world of social and mobile media. Social
media widgets and “Tell a Friend” features within e-newsletters are now
commonplace and allow users to share content on social networking sites in
order to drive business fast by increasing exposure to a whole new audience. An
April 2009 survey by the Pew
Research Center’s
Internet and American Life Project shows that 56% of adult Americans have
accessed the internet by wireless means, such as using a mobile device. In
addition, nearly half (46%) of those surveyed said that mobile access is very
important for getting online information on the go.
It’s likely that
if you’re a direct selling consultant, you probably already run your business on
your Smartphone while picking up the kids from school and attending seminars. At
IMN we’ve integrated mobile technology into our
e-communication platforms to help consultants run their businesses on the fly,
while facilitating consistent engagement and network growth. With these
technological solutions, consultants are better able to easily, effectively and
quickly stay in touch with their customer base and potential recruits while
easily booking parties.
Social media and e-newsletters will likely –
if it hasn’t already – be the platform in which consistently communicating with
customers becomes the standard much like Facebook Fan Pages has become the
standard for showing your support for a company’s brand.
For more information on using e-newsletters,
social media and mobile capabilities to help grow your business, contact Michelle
Larter at mlarter@imninc.com or (781) 890-4700
ext. 237.
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