My experience with old school business-building techniques and those of attraction marketing has caused me to label these two types as "Attraction Marketing" and "Distraction Marketing". Anyone who has ever been shunned from activities with their family members and friends has obviously used Distraction Marketing techniques. Thanks to Attraction Marketing, the days of chasing disinterested prospects and cold calling are over...at least for me.



An old school ,"Distraction Marketing", sales process typically goes something like this: You introduce your family members or friends to your latest business with a great deal of enthusiasm, which is likely to be greeted with a great deal of resistance about nine out of ten times.

That is the ratio that you can expect when using old school network marketing techniques. One out of ten people you talk to will be interested in joining your business, maybe two out of ten, if you are really good. This ratio leaves you with eight or nine family members and friends who may want to avoid you like the plague for the next month because they don't want to feel pressured into joining your business, in other words they don't want to be "distracted" from their activities by your sales pitch.

"Attraction Marketing" offers a much different process and outcome. This type of marketing uses on and offline strategies to build a constant stream of interested prospects. To implement this type of marketing plan, a network marketer begins by offering valuable information to their prospects, which lays a foundation to establish an identity as a leader.

By making themselves an indispensable source of information, they will literally have people calling them with credit card in hand, ready to join their business. An attraction marketer will likely also experience a ratio of about nine out ten, only this time the ratio is reversed. Nine out of ten of the people they talk to will probably join their business, if they are doing things the right way. How can this be? With attraction marketing, you do not waste your time bothering disinterested prospects.

By implementing a system that allows your prospects to get to know and trust you, review your information, then contact you when they are ready, you are no longer wasting your valuable time dealing with people who have no desire to join your business. Instead, the people you talk to are well informed and ready to move forward with your opportunity.

Proponents of old school network marketing techniques often cite the fact that network marketing is a numbers game. Using the Internet to market yourself, enables you to sort through far more people than you could ever talk to personally, and with the right system, you can develop relationships with these people and build a duplicable business that will allow you to live the lifestyle of your dreams.

Many old school network marketers view the Internet with skepticism. But like it or not, the Internet is the future of network marketing. The Internet allows prospective business builders the opportunity to research every detail of virtually any company in the world, with just the click of a button.

This paradigm shift has created an opportunity and a necessity for savvy marketers to differentiate themselves from the masses, while allowing them expose their businesses to a much larger audience than ever before. The Internet has created an avenue for network marketers to build their own "brand", rather than the company they represent, and in the process shift themselves from the hunter to the hunted.

If you perform a Google search for anything related to network marketing these days, you will notice the growing number of advertisements and links that do not promote a standard affiliate website, but instead promote a website that is building an individual leader's "brand" or some sort of internet marketing system. Websites like these substantially increase the likelihood that prospects will join the individual's business.

On the other hand, a person who simply attempts to market their company using the standard affiliate page will likely have a more difficult time converting prospects. These pages do very little to help introduce the business to their internet prospect in a manner that establishes trust and builds rapport.

A website that allows a leader's personality to shine through to a visitor, assists the prospect in obtaining valuable information and builds the leader's credibility. This type of website is a far more effective means of developing a relationship than a standard company affiliate website.

If you are ready to stop chasing family members and friends, and put away the cold-call lists, the following tips will help you get started on your Attraction Marketing campaign:

1. Familiarize yourself with the marketing tools available on the Internet to learn more about how to promote your business effectively.

2. Create a blog that offers visitors valuable information about how to help them build a business, whether they join your business or not.

2. Visit web forums about topics that are related to your opportunity, and offer the members of the forum valuable information. These forums allow you to include a website in your signature file, which will drive traffic to your website when people read your posts.

3. Use advertising, traffic exchanges and articles to help promote your website and build your brand as a network marketing leader.

4. Remember the importance of providing valuable information to your prospects, the more helpful your information, the more likely you are to attract people to your business.