Persistence Marketing:

This is probably one of my biggest soap boxes and primarily because the problem can be fixed so easily and with very little cost. The question, “What’s in a name”, can be applied to so many different aspects of our business and yet there are still countless numbers of people running around that have given little to no thought to this VERY important question.

If you are in the business of marketing anything (business, yourself, products, etc) this simple question can make a major difference before you have even met your next prospect.

While I am primarily focused on my Network Marketing business, I spend a fair amount of time leveraging the numerous networking opportunities that can be found in Indiana. As you can imagine, as a result of this networking events I have the pleasure of meeting a vast number of people that are networking for the purposes of building a traditional business, looking for sales leads and as you may expect a number of people are marketing themselves looking for employment.

With that said I am going to focus much of my energy on those in the Network Marketing profession.

How often have you met someone that is trying to recruit you into their business and they hand you a business card that looks like the following:

Joe Example
joe9936@aol.com

http://www.mlmcompany.xxx/1598743

Again, I will ask: What’s in a Name?

When looking at the email address and the domain name contained as part of Joe’s contact information it screams out that Joe has put no effort or thought into the marketing of his business. Personally, I am of the opinion that since AOL is not paying be to build their business it is not in my best interest to be marketing their brand.

What would your first impression be?

Does Joe standout as a leader in the industry? Does Joe’s contact information strike you as being the contact information of a successful professional? While many of these will not be conscious thoughts these are all of the things that run through person’s mind that Joe is attempting to recruit.

Another advantage to having your own domain name is that you can now have a personal email address that is not dependent upon providers like Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, or your internet connection provider.

The sad truth is that for less than what a lot of people will pay for the cost of a lunch this entire problem can be solved. What few people understand is that from the moment the above information is presented to a prospect you are being judged on a number of levels.

The simple truth is that it is about professionalism, establishing yourself as a leader, your own personal branding, tracking your marketing efforts, and the list could go on.

Personally, I have spent countless hours working on developing a domain name that will work effectively for my business and yes there have been those rare times when within a matter of minutes the perfect domain name presented itself. While we addressed the fact that there are a large number of Network Marketers that have put no effort into selecting an effective domain name, there are still others that put just enough effort into purchasing a domain name to actually have one.

And, as bad as I hate to say this in most cases that is better than doing nothing. However, the careless selection of that domain name can be a major impact on your marketing efforts.

What is the primary purpose of the domain name you are selecting?

What will you be using this domain name to market?

What key words will you be targeting on the search engines?

Will you be making use of pay-per-click advertising with the likes of Google?

The impression you are going to illicit from your prospects will be one of intrigue, curiosity, perceived professionalism, or nothing because the domain name selected has no meaning or a neutral meaning. While a neutral reaction may not necessarily generate any negative perceptions it will make it more difficult to move a person to action or excitement.

As many of you know already, replicated websites are a common part of the Network Marketing Industry. The problem with replicated websites is that the domain names are not what most people are accustomed to when entering a website address into the favorite browser.

How many of you have actually had a prospect purchase products from another distributor because a number was mistyped when entering the domain name of a replicated site?

How about this one: Have you ever tried to give out a long difficult replicated website address to someone over the phone?

Many times that you give someone your domain name or link with additional information in it like your name or ID number, your prospects will automatically erase the extra part and go straight to the primary domain name just out of curiosity. Still other people are not going to remember the number at the end of your web address.

The answer to all of these issues is your own carefully selected domain name and a URL Redirect.

This simply means that you can let the company that is hosting your domain name know to “redirect” all traffic coming to your domain name to your replicated website. Many of you are familiar with forwarding a phone call from one number to another or having the post office to forward your mail to a new address. Basically, with the URL redirect you are doing the same thing for websites.

The bottom line is that in order to increase your perceived professionalism, you should come up with a catchy domain name that is easy for people to remember, has something to do with what you are trying to market and most importantly can be redirected to your replicated website.

I can make you this promise: If you don’t have your own domain name for your Network Marketing business, you losing a lot of good customers and more importantly the best prospects to your competition.

To Your Success!

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