This question was posed on a social networking site recently and here is my answer below. I invite your comments.

My “secret” to mlm success is to think outside of the box and to study marketing. I find that I learn a lot from people outside of the network marketing industry. Since I come from a marketing background, it was a no brainer to me.

Unfortunately, most people struggling in mlm are not taught how to market properly. No one is teaching them effective direct response marketing strategies. Lately, “attraction marketing” is all the rage. However, I do not agree that you should focus all your energy on one form of marketing. Why leave money on the table? Get good at effective marketing. Period.

Wyteria Jacobo

http://www.WyteriaJacobo.com

ZKRFXRP59QDR

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard the term “attraction marketing.”  This term was originally coined by Mike Dillard, of Magnetic Sponsoring fame. Essentially, attraction marketing is when prospective business partners are attracted to you instead of you chasing them down for business. Offline marketing refers to any activity you do outside of the internet. When most people think of offline marketing for network marketing, they immediately think of hotel meetings, home parties, or cold calling.  In fact, offline marketing also includes postcard marketing, space ads in newspapers, magazine ads. Combining both methods is what will yield the most success in network marketing.

Lately, attraction marketing has become so popular that offline marketing is touted as old-fashioned or outdated. To clarify, I do not advocate hotel meetings or home parties as an effective means of building your network marketing downline. However, I see nothing wrong in holding seminars to attract prospective network marketing clients. Nor do I believe it’s a cardinal sin to do cold calls to invite someone to a webinar. As with anything else, balance is necessary as both methods have a place in network marketing. Sometimes I feel that people are looking for a way to avoid talking on the phone so they jump on the “attraction marketing” bandwagon hoping that it’s the solution to their phone fear. However, true leaders recognize that developing telephone skills are vital to the growth of one’s network marketing organization.

So the million dollar question is which one works best to succeed in network marketing and the answer is….wait for it….BOTH! Why leave money on the table? Master attraction marketing and master effective offline marketing. The truth is that the heavy-hitters got that way by studying all forms of marketing. If you want to be the next top producer in your network marketing company, I suggest you do the same.