Wikaniko Warriors - Internet Marketing

The Internet Marketing webinars with Jay Roberts have certainly given us all a lot of food for thought - and action. But, hopefully we won't be so busy playing with our shiny new toys that we forget the basics .....

The Internet is awash with FREE information on almost every subject under the sun. That's the good news. The bad news is that some of it is absolutely contradictory, and it's up to us to decide what resonates with us. The real challenge is when two people who have been equally very successful in MLM / Network Marketing present diametricaly opposed information. Who do you believe ?

Last year somebody who has had a great deal of success in the Network Marketing industry said to me, "Mike, you simply don't understand this business". Strange, because I was simply modelling myself on someone else who had an equally impressive track record in the MLM industry.

I've always believed that Network Marketing is a "people" business, not merely a "selling" business - that people buy people first. And by it's very definition Network Marketing is a team effort. Experience in building project teams has taught me that it is personal relationships are the glue which binds a team together, and ensures customer loyalty..

Recently the penny dropped - I didn't understand his business, but I did understand mine - building, training and coaching people. That's what I LOVE doing, that's what gets me up in a morning.

Wikaniko is a Co-operative Marketing business. Actually I'd prefer to call it a Co-operative Marketing and Distribution business. Not a Co-operative Selling business, not a Co-operative Recruiting business.

It might be worth looking at some definitions from the Oxford Dictionary :-

Selling
give or hand over (something) in exchange for money: persuade someone of the merits of:

Recruitment
the action of finding new people to join an organization or support a cause:

Marketing
the action or business of promoting and selling products or services , including market research and advertising.

Big businesses pay a lot of money to Marketing gurus to promote their business and products.

Why ? Because they know that we are creatures of habit. Once we find a product, or business we like, we tend to stick with it, until someone or something changes our mind.

One very successful Network Marketing company was built on the premise of people being able to buy the same product they were already buying at a cheaper price.

As Wikaniko distributors, as I see it, our job is to promote and raise awareness of Wikaniko, the products and the opportunity.

We need to give people accurate information as to the damage their weekly shopping habits might be doing to them, their families, and the environment.

We need to show them that there is an alternative range of eco-friendly products, available at reasonable, affordable prices through Wikaniko.

And, we need to promote ourselves, and our businesses, because we want to be their first choice when it comes to buying those products.

The Internet is a very powerful tool for doing this, through blogs, forums, and free advertising.

But all this effort will be totally pointless unless we make a habit of regularly checking our E Mail, and voicemail.

Many very successful businesses were built before the advent of the Internet, using only the telephone, and snail mail - imagine the cost to the environment, and your bank balance of sending all the information on the website to a potential customer, or distributor by snail mail. Now you can share all this information with a link in an E Mail, or simply handing out a business card with your website on it.

That to me is the most powerful use of the Internet. There are only ten entries on page one of Google - and some searchwords return millions of results. Use the Internet to provide the information on your business, and tell your story, then make it your business to drive traffic to your site and blog.

That's my take, for what it is worth. I could of course be completely wrong.:-)

Mitakuye Oyasin

Mike Pendragon