The Do's And Don'ts Of Forum Marketing
Forum marketing can be a very effective (and free) technique to generate leads for your business
. Although, there are several things to keep in mind.
As with any free marketing technique, the compromise is you are investing your time instead of your money, so be sure to follow these 8 suggestions so you can be sure you are spending that time wisely and efficiently!
8 Important Tips For Effective Forum Marketing:
1. Nobody cares about your business. Let me repeat that. Nobody cares about your business. The last thing you should do is begin pitching your business as soon as you join a forum. Instead, join the conversation and share some expertise when appropriate.
You're joining the forum to meet other people, build relationships, gain knowledge, share information and help each other out. As time goes on and you provide important knowlege and suggestions to the members of the forum, they will begin to recognize you as a leader. Remember, people join people and they are searching for leaders!
2. All links belong in your signature. Regardless if it's for an affiliate offer or your primary businesss, links belong in your signature. That's why it's there in the first place! The one exception is when you are providing a link to information or a helpful website, not affiliate offers or landing pages though.
Offer value and add to the dialogue in your forum posts. Become a leader and other members will become interested in you, which is when they will go to your signature to learn more about you.
3. Do not put links to generic company websites/capture pages in your signature. You've taken the time to form relationships with the members of the forum and provided them with value. The last thing they want is to land on a generic website when they click on the link in your signature.
Be a leader. Leaders have their own branded websites. It's important to send them somewhere that you can develop a better relationship with them. A place where you can provide them with more value, such as a blog, for example. It's important, however, that you have an opt-in form on your blog so they can join your mailing list while they are there.
Most forums have room to put a couple of links, so one can most certainly be to your own personally branded website/capture page. If you are using a generic lead generation system such as MyLeadSystemPro, which can assist other network marketers to build their own business, that would be a terrific place to send them!
4. Don't be a know-it-all. It's crucial to be self-confident and display leadership, but be considerate of other people and be mindful to not act like you know absolutely everything, because no one likes that!!
5. Don't be scared to join a forum on a subject matter other than online marketing. For example, if you're really into golf, it's okay to join a golf forum and use your signature to say something like "Earning money online yet? I can show you how."
6. Be consistent. Don't go joining eight different forums all at once because that won't accomplish anything. It's much more effective to choose 1-3, depending on how much time you have to allot to your marketing. You're better off being more involved on fewer forums than less involved on more forums.
Once you join, get involved. Don't just sit back and observe the discussion! You should expect to allocate 3-6 days a week, especially in the beginning. Be careful though, and set a specific amount of time that you can afford to spend on each forum so time doesn't just slip away!!
7. Be patient. It's unreasonable to expect that you can join a few forums and then have hundreds of leads the following week. Forum marketing can be very effective, but you must be patient. It takes time, but if you stick with it, it can be a great marketing strategy. Remember, with marketing you are either spending time or money and in this case, it's definitely time.
8. Join active forums that get a good amount of traffic. Use sites such as Alexa.com to help you with determining some active forums to get involved on. The following are three examples of great forums for network marketers to join:
RichDad.com
WarriorForum.com
BetterNetworker.com
It looks like it's time to wrap things up! Remember, with any marketing method, stick with it and stay consistent. It won't happen overnight, but forum marketing can be a great place to pick up leads for your business. Forums are also a good place to learn and grow, so don't forget to do that while you are there!
The Do's And Don'ts Of Forum Marketing
By: Lynne and Chad
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