So what is offline business building? Offline marketing is talking to people you know or others that you believe will be a good fit for your company. Some people cringe at hearing the old school method of make a list of friends and family and call them. Now if your friends and family do not have a business mindset it will be a waste of time. However, you could make a list of people you know who have a business mindset. Handing out business cards, posting flyers etc.. still work if you target the right people. I don’t recommend starting out doing this if you are on a tight budget. Think of Free ways to build your business offline. Ask for their business card and calling people you believe would have an interest would be a great start.
Why people fail at offline business building? They take the wrong approach and target the wrong people. Many people start off in the industry buying leads. The leads you call don’t know you so they view you as a telemarketer. Most of these leads companies really don’t care about your success. When I took this approach in the past most of these leads got an incentive to opt in such as a gift card. They really were not interested in a home base business. You are better off talking to people you meet at star bucks, or an office store etc.. Some offline marketing strategies that have worked for years is belonging to organizations. You can expand your network by joining toastmasters or chamber of commerce clubs. Home meetings about your product and service still work to this day.
So what is online business building? Online marketing is leveraging the internet to promote your business. The key is to stand out from the noise. Offer something of value or even give a Free gift to build a relationship. This will help your prospects to be open to listening to you. Your prospects will look forward to talking to you and reading your future emails. Yes, some of them will be sales oriented but at least a rapport was established first. The key to success is to have new people to talk to daily. It can be overwhelming so effective advertising is the key. These days the choices are huge. You can do PPC, classifieds, videos, article marketing, text message marketing, and social networking. Starting with one strategy and mastering that is a good start.
So why do people fail at internet business building? Really just a lack of traffic to the right people. You could have a great product and website but if no one sees it you will fail. The key is to brand yourself as a solution provider. After just a few days online majority of companies look the same. You need to sell yourself first. Then, people will be inclined more to see what you are offering. In conclusion, approaching the right people is the key. This can be done online and offline when business building. Don’t get overwhelmed with learning every marketing method. Pick one or two strategies that fit your personality. Then, master this strategy to the point you could write a book about it. You can learn more by checking out the link in the resource box.
Gregory Finkelson 