Attraction Marketing In MLM...Say What?
Posted by Roger Smith
What is Attraction Marketing?
Attraction Marketing seems to be ‘the next big thing’ in both online and offline marketing. The obvious question is ‘What is Attraction Marketing?’ however, two better questions would be ‘Why should I care?’ and the question every entrepreneur, vendor or organization should ask before they do anything ‘What’s in it for me?’
In order to understand Attraction Marketing, it would seem logical that one must first describe marketing. This could easily fill another article – there are literally hundreds of definitions in thousands of textbooks, articles and websites. A theme common in the majority of definitions is that Marketing relates to the many forms of communication that take place between a product or service vendor and the target audience. Quite separate from the activity of selling, which refers to the transaction where goods or services are exchanged for an agreed value. In the easiest of terms we can say that marketing is the process by which a customer can be persuaded to conduct a purchasing transaction.
If this will be our working definition, what has attraction got to do with persuasion I hear you say? Well in short not a lot and that is the key. It takes a lot of effort to persuade someone to do something or to buy something that they have not yet already decided to buy. Effort, in this instance, equates to time and money. If you do not have a large supply of cash, the task of persuading someone to buy your product is going to be impossible, especially when you consider you’re going to be competing with some very big budget advertisers. Can you really out market Coke or Pepsi? Do you want to compete head to head with Nike? I don't think so!
But let’s take a look at this approach from another angle. What if you didn’t set out to persuade anyone to buy something? What if you just let people search for you? Already this sounds cheaper and easier because your potential customers are now looking for you. And thanks to MySpace and other online methods, prospects/consumers now have an almost unlimited variety of choice. This choice includes the big name mega brands and all the other not-so-big or not-so-mega brands. The Internet has, to some extent, leveled the playing field. If a potential consumer has a need that is currently unsatisfied they can search for a product or company that they believe will meet their need.
And this brings us back to Attraction. It is a well known statistic that it costs five times as much to win a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. The same would be true in the broader world of Marketing. Convincing someone that they have a need is expensive. However, persuading someone who already has a need that your product or service or MLM company is better than your competitors is a much cheaper exercise. Why? Well the potential buyer has already qualified their own need; they have already convinced themselves that their need can be met. It is your job to attract them to your particular corner of the market, whether that is your Internet site, your company’s office, in fact wherever you do what you do!
Attraction Marketing is the practice of allowing pre-qualified buyers or prospects to find what it is that you are offering. If, at the same time, you can show them that it meets their need and in a better way than your competitors can, you probably don’t even have to worry about the sales transaction or the signing up process for your particular company. After all they came looking for you, it’s not like you had to sell them anything…Right?
