Does Online Marketing Work?

Yes, of course online marketing works! It always has!

And the same holds true for offline marketing.

Even the veterans of our industry who say that one or the other does not work, only have to reflect on their own contact lists, to realise that the names on their lists owe their presence to a mixture of online and offline.

In my case 90% of my contact list can thank its origin to the Internet, and 10% to offline sources such as newspapers, yellow pages and the people I have bumped into sometime in my life.

For example, my sponsor 5 years ago approached me as a result of coming across one of my websites. He was using keyword searches on the Internet looking for likely prospects and he found me. And he phoned me. Now the traditional network marketer might tell you that this was offline marketing, because he used the telephone. And I will tell you that this was online marketing with an offline follow-up. Because without my original website and his initiative to search the Internet, my name would not have appeared on his contact list.

There are the veterans who have been in the industry for 30 years or more, who when asked how they first came into contact with the network marketing industry, say that it was through a friend or colleague approaching them offline, and not online through the Internet. Well I am inclined to believe these stories, because the Internet only started coming into being in the early 90s, less than 20 years ago.

A number of the active relationships I have built over the past couple of years (I am a relative newbie with less than 5 years direct network marketing experience) in fact originate through my GDI related acivities. These relationships have of course been further developed through personal contact, either face-to-face or through Skype, but the starting point was GDI.

Many of the relationships that I now build on a daily basis take place through Skype chatrooms, interaction on Social Networks, my responding to an online ad or a blog posting, or someone responding to one of my online ads or blog postings, or a conversation that starts up when I post a comment on someone's online article. It takes time to build relationships and to build your list. And in 5 years time when I step into a new business venture, then I will cash in on all this investment by being able to pick up the phone and talk to each of these individuals and personally sponsor a number of them into the new business... because they are on my list, because I have built a relationship with them, and because the timing is right. For others the timing will be wrong, but there will be a next time. And they approach me in the same way.

Even today, when I add a name to my list and pick up the phone and call that person, should I call this offline marketing? Well, if I found the name in the yellow pages or the local newspaper, then one could say yes. But if I found that name by searching the Internet, or because I read an article he posted on a blog, or because I read in an online forum that he was a top 10 distributor for another company, or because he had emailed me once through a safelist that I joined, then I would be doing online marketing an injustice by insisting that my success was due to my offline marketing approach.

It should be clear by now that success is not coming from an either/or approach, but from an online and offline approach.

Each of us has to find a working balance that works for us. And for many online marketers that will mean the challenge of picking the telephone up more often as a tool to approach potential prospects in a more personal manner. But that can be a Skype phone as well, or a personal Skype chat, or some personal comments posted on a social networking site.

And for the traditional network marketers it means being more receptive and acknowledging of the growing role that online presence plays.

It is a cheap shot to look at the upcoming generation of internet marketers and point a finger at them and say "internet marketing does not work!". Or that social networks are a waste of time. Ask that question in 5 or 10 years time, and you will find that many successful networkers of the future will look back and smile on the time they invested building relationships online.

And the traditional networkers who are enjoying success after a 10 year indoctrination period, remember that they are cashing in on relationships that were started 5-10 years ago. And during the period 5-10 years ago it would have been very easy to point a finger and say "See, your offline approach does not work!".

So at the end of the day, the question of offline and online becomes irrelevant. It is ludicrous to brush the internet aside in today's world, when it has become such an important source of information for each of us in our daily lives. And it is equaly ludicrous to think that all we have to do on a social network is advertise our business and that people will sign up in droves. Online or offline, prospects will decide to join you, your team and your business in that order. If you don't share something about yourself then why should you expect someone to sign up with you? And if you meet someone or phone them up, and just talk about your business... why should that person listen to you or be interested in what you have to say?

Online or offline, the key to success is the amount of energy that we put into initiating, building and maintaining our relationships. It has always been that simple since the beginning of time, and it will continue to be that simple in the future. Especially when our profession is network marketing. Offline or online is just a matter of deciding which tools to use and which skills to develop. And our decisions are guided by our national culture, local language, our physical location, any physical or mental ailments we may have, our access to the phone or the internet, etc.

When all is said and done, we do not develop people, people develop themselves. Their personal ABC (A=Attitude, B=Belief, C=Committment). And the best we can hope for as leaders and mentors is that we can share our knowhow and experience in an open, inviting and educational environment. When our online training rooms are full, chances are that we are doing something right and along these lines. And when our training rooms are empty, well maybe we should listen to what the facts are trying to tell us... it could be that everyone is living his or her dream and is on vacation :-)

"Team members don't care how much you know... until they know how much you care."