Marketing Through Networking
There seems to be a lot of confusion among new business owners
as to what, exactly, networking IS. The most common misconception
is that it is a whole new bunch of people to market to.....
WRONG!!!
Networking consists of two facets:
1. Getting to know people who have business experience and
business knowledge or assets, which they are willing to use
for mutual benefit, or which they are willing to share in
the interests of kindness. You network in trade associations,
business professional forums, MLM groups, and other gatherings
of business people, to learn from one another, and to find
prospects for joint ventures and collaborations.
2. Participating as an expert in forums for people who need
knowledge that you have. You do this to build relationships
with prospective clients, but you HELP, and give good advice
FIRST, and marketing is only a secondary (abstract) facet
of that. You never market to them, you never advertise to
them, you just be helpful, be a real person, and drop your
signature line as an afterthought in case they want to contact
you professionally.
You need to choose the networking venues with your purpose
in mind. If you market to either one of these, you'll fail!
If you spam them, you'll get kicked out. If you try to sell
to people who are selling the same thing you are, you'll not
make any headway.
When people talk about how good a marketing tool networking
is, they are not referring to some quick fix. They are talking
about learning, developing relationships, collaborating, getting
great ideas, and helping people who eventually become a customer.
But the helping, the collaboration, and the giving happens
FIRST.
If you just advertise to your networks, you'll not have good
results. It sounds faster, but is actually a dead end. The
seemingly slower course DOES take time! But it pays off in
solid and lasting dividends that are SO worth it.
I have met some people on forums that have truly benefited
my life. At its simplest, we traded links. Some people put
links to my new sites on their sites just because they loved
the content, without asking for a return link. Someone on
a forum asked me to be a guest speaker for their radio show
- this was many months after I began to participate in the
forum. I learned some new marketing and web design skills
from conversations on one forum. I got a couple of web design
contracts from another forum, but I did not ONCE offer outright
to build a site for anyone! In fact, the only time I mentioned
that I built sites was when someone asked me directly what
I did to earn, or in a sig line (and my signature line varies
with the topic). I have gained many lifelong customers from
forums, but it was from polite and kind offers of help, not
from advertising. I was offered the chance to participate
as co-author in a viral eBook, given the opportunity to moderate
a forum that helped to set me up as an expert, and I have
been publicly praised for my expertise on forums. I have gained
confidence to move forward with a new site venture from comments
from other business owners on forums, and I have developed
many personal friends.
Now, some forums are too chatty for me. I don't need to hear
that someone's dog got sick, and I don't need to read forwarded
emails on my forums. I want information and conversation that
helps me to succeed. Friendship woven into it is fine, but
I don't need the bulk of the mail to be frivolous topics.
So I choose forums that don't waste my time. Otherwise I could
spend all day chatting and answering emails instead of working.
That would not help me.
I choose forums that deal with topics that I need to learn,
or that I can help someone else learn. I choose my trade associations
and other networking venues the same way. They have to offer
me something of value, and they have to have the potential
to interact with other business owners in a way that benefits
my business, instead of wasting my time or money. Networking,
in that context, is very powerful.
Is it fast? No. Nothing truly good ever is! And it's a bit
of work, but no so much that it drowns you. Offering a sincere
and helpful bit of information takes just 5-10 minutes.
Is it worth it? On every level, yes.
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