SMS: Friend or Foe?

Recently, an executive at a direct selling company expressed concern about sending distributors and customers messages through SMS. It was his belief that communicating with his audience in this way was too intrusive and that good old-fashioned email was the least of all evils when it came to communication channels. I can certainly understand the sentiment, consumers do exhibit more sensitivity to unsolicited SMS messages and the government also works to protect this channel through regulations like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

However, I believe it’s a sucker’s choice to either go all in or all out with SMS messaging. The truth of the matter is that, when done right, no channel is more effective for audience engagement than the same channel that people use to interact with their closest friends and family. In North America, that channel is overwhelmingly SMS (although a strong argument could be made for social media channels like TikTok and Instagram for teens and Gen-Z).

The reason why SMS is so effective is that it is the most frictionless of channels – I’m already engaging with my closest circle of associates through SMS, so if you can effectively reach me there, you will get my attention. The carriers confirm this phenomenon by saying that 98% of SMS messages are read and a whopping 90% are read within the first 3 minutes of receipt^[1].

Most consumers are happy to receive automated messages if they see and feel the value. A clear example of this is using SMS as a means for multi-factor authentication – you want to access your bank account online? Your bank may send you a code via SMS to make sure it’s really you. We really have no issue with use cases like that.

What consumers do have issues with, however, are unsolicited text messages that are salesy and overly marketing heavy. We work hard to protect the sanctity of our preferred channel, the last thing we want is to muddy it up with tons of unwanted messages like…well, like what email has become.

So as a direct selling executive, how do you strike the balance of leveraging a messaging channel that is the most effective without burning bridges or relationships by abusing it?

I work with a mobile messaging expert who helped me understand this dynamic very well a few years ago. He explained to me that any incoming message we get via SMS is an interruption, even if it is coming from our best friend. And how true that is, an incoming message is unexpected and an interruption. The key is to make sure that the interruption is a welcome and valued interruption. I want my friends and family to text me. These interruptions enhance my life. And the modality of SMS is such where I can reply on my own time and on my own terms, increasing its convenience.

So how do you ensure that your messages are welcomed and valued? Here are a few tips:

• Understand the law. We live in an increasingly regulated world and SMS is no exception. There are government regulations like the aforementioned TCPA that you need to be aware of (violations can be as much as $1,500 per message!) as well as regulations that the carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, etc) The carriers recently implemented a protocol for automated messages through long codes (10-digit phone numbers) called A2P 10DLC. These protocols require companies to register their campaigns in advance and adhere to terms of service. Compliance to these regulations requires companies to employ more sophisticated technology platforms.

• Make it easy for users to opt in and opt out. Users should have 100% in control of your SMS relationship. This puts the onus on you to ensure the messaging experience they have feels valuable.

• Move beyond marketing. Yes, you want to use this channel to promote your products and services but that relationship is too one-sided. Consider implementing benefits and services into SMS such as allowing customers to use SMS for customer service or to access coaching and educational tips and tutorials.

• Implement personalized communication preferences. Taking a cue from email subscriptions, you can give your distributors and customers choices about what types of messages they receive as well as frequency of such messages. The more control they feel, the more likely they’ll hang around.

• Create a Return on Investment calculation. For all its virtues, SMS is expensive. And A2P 10DLC policy modifications also came with even more price increases. You should think through an ROI calculation to ensure the money you are putting in is at the very least paying for itself. Can you use SMS to increase customer loyalty? To help distributors be more effective? To increase sales? To decrease contact center costs? Ultimately, like with any tool, you need to justify its usage.

If you think about it, the relationships you value the most in your life, whether with people or with businesses, you are quick to offer your mobile number to be communicated with. If you’re distributors and customers value you in such a way, they will surely give you a shot at proving that you can use SMS to help them and in turn, help you.

^[1] https://www.twilio.com/learn/call-and-text-marketing/best-practices-text-sms-marketing

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Depending on the company’s overall strategy and on that specific product, the endorsing personality can be a movie star, a musician, model, athlete or even an ex-politician. If the company has operations in multiple countries, it is a good idea for that chosen figure to be internationally well-known. Generally, the characteristics sought-after are the familiarity of that figure to the target audience, his or her trustworthiness and attractiveness.

So, the effectiveness of a celebrity marketing program depends on finding the right figure for that product or business and obviously, on successfully executing the program after that. The celebrity’s personal stability and dependability are crucial for the program’s success. When all the pieces fit in, such campaigns can bring in huge benefits. On the other hand, there are also big failures ruining both the brand’s and the company’s image.

While some of the celebrities appear merely on product catalogues, websites or ad campaigns, others’ involvements might go deeper by being a spokesperson or the “face” of the brand or the whole company for longer periods of time.

The direct selling industry is no exception when it comes to utilizing this marketing tool. Here are some examples:

ACN

Probably the most interesting of all celebrities that direct selling companies have ever worked with was ACN’s pick: Donald Trump. He featured the company in his TV shows, pitched ACN’s products and made paid appearances for the company. Reportedly, he was paid $8.8 million by ACN.

AMWAY

Movie stars like Alan Ladd, Sandra Bullock and Teresa Palmer, international football player Ronaldinho, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and NFL Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner are on the list of famous figures Amway worked with.

AVON 

Avon has a long history and a long list of celebrity partnerships. The famous baseball player Joe DiMaggio, and the stars like Rosalind Russel, Claudette Colbert, and Catherine Deneuve are only a few of the icons that collaborated with Avon in the past. Then, came in other international stars like Jacqueline Bisset, Julia Roberts, Fergie, Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey, Megan Fox, Salma Hayek, and the famous tennis champion Maria Sharapova.

HERBALIFE

Being predominantly a nutrition company, Herbalife’s choices have been among athletes. Within this context, it worked with the two biggest names in international football: Ronaldo and Messi.

LR HEALTH & BEAUTY SYSTEMS

Germany-based cosmetics direct seller LR worked with stars to promote especially its fragrances. Among these were Bruce Willis, Michael Schumacher, Heidi Klum, and Karolina Kurkova.

MANNATECH

Mannatech is another company that decided partnering with athletes. Former basketball player nicknamed “Lady Magic” Nancy Lieberman was an example. Besides athletes, Mannatech was also endorsed by Dr. Ben Carson who then served as as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump Administration.

ORIFLAME   

This European direct selling giant does not have a long list of international stars, yet did work with some very familiar names like the actress Demi Moore and the famous tennis player Caroline Wozniacki.

USANA

The last example that we cover here will be USANA. USANA works with quite a number of individual athletes and sports teams to get endorsements from them. The company was also endorsed by Dr. Oz as his “Trusted Partner”.

Although not too many, there are still people in the direct selling community who are categorically against doing any marketing activities. Whether a company should allocate budgets on activities like celebrity endorsements, instead of making the funds available to the field should not be a discussion in today’s day and age. The question here is choosing the right marketing tools and executing them effectively. Further to this, you might want to take a look at Brett Duncan’s insightful article that was published last week: The Makings of a Modern Marketing Team for a Direct Sales Company
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Hakki Ozmorali is the Founder of WDS Consultancy, a management consulting and online publishing firm in Canada, specialized in providing services to direct selling firms. WDS Consultancy is a Supplier Member of the Canada DSA. It is the publisher of The World of Direct Selling, global industry’s leading weekly online publication since 2010. Hakki is an experienced professional with a strong background in direct sales. His work experiences in direct selling include Country and Regional Manager roles at various multinationals. You can contact Hakki here.

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The Makings of a Modern Marketing Team for a Direct Sales Company

“Marketing”

It’s one of the most inconsistently defined words in the English language. But “marketing” for a direct sales company takes that inconsistency and dumps it on its head even more.

What should marketing look like for direct selling today? Is it a sales support role? Is it the driving force? Is it online? Is it just pretty pictures and catchy words? Is it packaging and products?

It’s an interesting question, and it’s an area of direct sales that has seen seismic shifts in recent years. It’s also forced many companies to completely rethink how they set up their marketing teams. It’s also continued to frustrate many other companies who stick to the organizational structures they always known to try to navigate these new waters.

It would be impossible for me to capture everything a marketing team needs for a direct sales company in a single article. Mostly, because the marketing needs of every company are different. I don’t believe that every direct sales company needs the exact same structure because every company defines the responsibilities and role of marketing differently.

What I will attempt to do in this article is offer the foundational pieces of a modern marketing team for today’s direct sales company. I will no doubt miss something that you think is essential. But as I’ve personally worked with well over 30 companies over the last five years, I’ve seen very common trends and gaps within the marketing departments. Companies often reach out to us at SCP asking for guidance in this area. Others reach out asking our Marketing Services team to step in and help with the load. Regardless of the circumstance, I’ve clearly seen very similar needs and oversights among all companies.

So, based on that, let’s take a look at what the modern marketing team should look like at a direct sales company:

Graphics Designer(s):

In a world where the first step toward success has much to do with “stopping the scroll” as anything else, your design team is a critical component of your company’s success. It’s critical to have designers who not only crank out great work, but can also do it for multiple platforms. Gone are the days where one designer can specialize in print, another in web graphics and even another in packaging. Today’s direct sales company needs designers who can hold their own in every area of design. From flyers to specific sizing for social media networks to web banners, and everything in between, your design team needs to be fluent in them all.

Even more importantly is the volume of design needs that today’s company must crank out. I can remember not so long ago when a flyer and a couple banners could get you through several weeks. Today, the constant need for content across so many channels make fresh graphics output an almost daily need.

Today’s graphic designer must be great, fast and versatile.

Front-End Web Development/User Experience:

A close cousin of your design team is your front-end web developer. I’m not talking about your IT team and the back-end work that they do. Today, with so many companies leveraging platforms like WordPress and Shopify to handle their “front-facing” sites, it’s imperative to have someone on site who knows how to make those platforms work. We’re talking about experience in plugin selection and installation, minor coding needs, browser testing, responsive design experience and much more.

This person often has come out of the design side, not IT (although not always the case). They are a web designer who has had to figure out how to make these things work on their own, and over time have taken a liking to it. They are developers, and they can work in code (to a certain extent), but they have much more of a design and user experience focus, making them much more of a marketing resource instead of an IT resource. Many times this person can also help with web design work.

Many companies I work with, especially smaller ones, have not found this person, or they are at the mercy of “some guy” who helps them on the side. The work of this person impacts almost every area of your marketing efforts. It’s critical to find the right resource and one who can respond quickly.

Content Development and Copywriting:

Copywriting has been a pillar of any marketing team for decades, and that will continue. However, the new twist on “writing” today is that it expands much broader into what I would loosely term “content development.” Your writers cannot just focus on the message; they now must also account for the medium where that message will appear. Subject lines in an email have a dramatic impact on the consumption of that email. Headers and sub-heads (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are critically important on a landing page.

In addition, we all work in a heavily regulated environment, and your content development team must also internalize those boundaries to streamline the review process and obviously reduce risk. This is a steep learning curve for any team. Be it product claims or income claims, it’s quite the learned skill.

Your content development team will also influence, at a minimum, your social media strategy, and may even oversee it in some instances.

Simply put, because the internet runs on content, you now must find content creators who understand what and how the internet wants to receive that content. The beautiful thing about the web is that it gives us instant feedback on what we’re producing (in the form of analytics and open feedback). Your content team has an opportunity to learn with every single item they push out. Are they taking advantage of this?

Video Production and Video Marketing:

Video is certainly a part of content development, but the skills and thinking it requires is at a whole other level. The good news is that video has become so accessible and commoditized for any company, no matter your size. The bad news is that finding high quality video production and know-how on how to leverage those videos gets lost in the clutter a bit too easily.

The biggest change over the last five years in video production is that the volume of videos need has increased dramatically. If the Internet runs on content, then video is its super-fuel. Think about it: as you scroll through Facebook and Instagram, how many videos do you see? It’s a lot.

Yes, we can all capture and create videos from our phones, and there is definitely a place for that in your video strategy. But we must make sure we are also cranking out well-produced, professionally created video work, as well. These videos are often your sales force’s most used sales tool, so we can’t get too lazy on the video front.

Let me first make this point: If you have only one person producing videos, then you’re not producing enough video. Video production and editing takes time, and to meet the needs of today’s marketplace, one single video editor won’t cut it. So start looking for ways to complement your current team to economically crank out more.

On top of it all, you also have to account for video marketing. Put another way, once you’ve made that great video, what do you do to get people to watch. Yes, your Distributors can certainly help with this, but it takes a lot more than that in today’s world.

I won’t go into all the details here, but video marketing needs to account for things like incorporating video into your organic social strategy,  your paid social strategy, YouTube optimization, search engine optimization, email marketing, sales funnels and much more. My experience is that the person who produces the video is rarely the person who knows best how to market the video. So how does this work at your company?

Social Media Management:

These days, “social media” has become synonymous with “marketing,” for better or for worse. And yet there are so many aspects to social media that the direct sales company must account for. Depending on the size of your company, it can seem very difficult to find the right people to manage it all.

Step one is finding that person who oversees what is actually posted on your social media channels. They are creating the content calendar and driving whatever necessary work needs to be done to make it happen. You can find all kinds of opinions and case studies on how often you should be posting as a company. For me, if you’re not posting at least once a day on at least Facebook and Instagram, you’re falling short as a direct sales company.

Then there’s community management. Who is engaging with the audience that’s engaging with you? Who is replying to comments? Who is answering questions? Who is escalating customer service issues? Who is monitoring what’s going on? It’s great if the person producing the social media content is also this same person, but as you can see, it’s an entirely different skill set. It’s hard to find someone who handles both of these areas well. Especially for a direct sales company, the person (or people) responsible for community management need to be very well informed about what’s going on with the company (or they at least need to be really good at getting answers quickly). This is because they’ll see questions about products, incentives, contests, the comp plan… and so much more. So they at least need to have some decent familiarity with how everything works in the company, so they at least have the proper context for whatever questions they may receive. On top of it all, they need to do all of this with a tone and approach that represents the company, because so much of what they’ll do will be public.

And even still… we aren’t include paid social strategies here, which I include later in the article.

Oh, and who is training and equipping your field with social media training and resources? Because that’s a very different skill set, too.

Suffice it to say, most companies are transitioning to social media teams, vs. just a social media person.

Communications Planning:

My opinion is that successful marketing at a direct sales company hinges on communication planning. I also believe that consistently creating impactful communications plans for a direct sales company is one of the hardest things you can do. This is because we must account for so many audiences and messages at once. Is this an email for customers, or Distributors? U.S. or Canada? English or Spanish? And how many emails have they already received this week?

And that’s just email ;-).

Some companies can afford to have a dedicated Communications Director, where their primary purpose is to handle this planning. This is obviously great, and yet I have met many a Communication Director who struggles with figuring out how to properly plan and account for everything happening at the company.

In smaller companies, the communication planning function falls on someone with a different title. It may be a Marketing Manager, or even Marketing VP. It may even be your main writer, or possibly someone on the field development side of the aisle. Regardless this function is absolutely critical to your entire team’s success. Time and time again, I have found that, once a company can get a grip on its communication planning, it starts to see progress in all of its marketing efforts.

Digital Marketing Specialists:

“Digital marketing” covers a lot of ground, so it’s almost unfair to lump this into one category. But for the sake of brevity, I’m going to do just that here.

There are many rabbits you can chase when it comes to digital marketing. On top of that, many of these digital tactics appear to be within reach of anyone on your team, who may have other responsibilities within your department other than digital marketing. These two facts is what can make digital marketing dangerous. If you don’t have a) someone leading the way in terms of what your company will and will not focus on, from a strategic standpoint, and b) true expertise in each specific channel, you can end up wasting a lot of time and money suffering through your learning curve.

So, what’s a direct selling company to do? Here’s a baseline recommendation, that by no means includes everything you could be doing on the digital front, but rather covers the areas that I believe is both within reach of and would have a significant impact on every direct sales company, regardless of size or shape:

Hire a Digital Marketing Leader.
You need someone to provide the digital roadmap that makes sense for your company. I’m not necessarily talking about IT strategy (though it’s closely related), but rather a marketing strategist that knows the digital space well and knows what is realistic for your specific company to pull off, given whatever circumstances and constraints you find yourself in. That last part is really important. I’ve seen many company that hire a digital marketing expert who comes in recommending that the company does “everything” right away, only to find out the infrastructure, platforms, backend software, budgets… whatever can’t pull it off (at least in the recommended timeframe). So all the work that gets done often creates confusion and even more problems that it can solve.

If you can hire a full-time person for this position, I definitely recommend doing that. They can then either hire more team members who specialize in certain areas, if there’s budget for it, or contract work out. If you can’t hire this person full-time, I would consider finding a digital marketing consultant who can become rather involved in your business and play this role.

Optimize and Leverage Your Analytics.
There are all kinds of analytics packages, but most companies use Google Analytics, so I’m going to speak in those terms. Here’s a fact: Most companies do not have their Google Analytics set up correctly. When they do, they typically aren’t leveraging all that Google Analytics can provide. And from that group, rarely does that data make its way to the executives and help inform decisions. We have so many capabilities to track and analyze the work we’re doing, but most of us are completely missing the boat here. Have someone take a look under the hood and get your web presence humming on all cylinders. This begins with optimizing your analytics.

Incorporate a Paid Social Strategy.
Social media is now largely a pay-to-play. You probably already know that. The real question is: How are you using this capability? Most direct sales companies go straight to acquisition: how can we crank out some Facebook ads to get new customers or distributors? While this is possible, I don’t think it’s where I would start with paid social campaigns.

If you’re not incorporating retargeting, custom audiences and a true funnel strategy (top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel) into your paid campaigns, you are, again, wasting a lot of money and time, and missing out on what could be some very promising results over time.

You need a resource that knows this space for at least Facebook and Instagram and can commit a decent amount of time to it each week to optimize your results. And … you need to make sure all the necessary tracking components (pixels, etc.) are in place so you can actually tie sales and ad spend (see Analytics above).

Pay More Attention to Your Email Strategy.
One thing all direct sales companies seem to have in common is how much we continue to rely on email. We send out a ton of emails. Half the time, that’s because we don’t adequately plan our communications (see above). But I digress… I’m a big fan of email, so don’t take my criticism as a reason to forget it altogether. However, as long as we’re going to rely so much on it as a marketing and communication channel, let’s invest some time and even money in making it work better.

Do you know your company’s open rate on all emails? For Distributors? Customers? How about clicks? How often are you testing components of your emails, like subject lines, graphics and offers? Do you segment your email campaigns? Every email campaign is an opportunity to learn something and to improve. Are you doing this? And who is leading it?

Automate as Much as You Can.
Marketing automation is here, and it’s a beautiful thing. I think it’s especially important for direct sales companies. As so many distributors introduce new people to your brand via website visits, social media, and so much more, how are you taking the ball and running with it from there Marketing automation can cover so much, so rather than get into those weeds, let me simplify it to this: what is your automation roadmap for 2021? If you don’t know, you’re not doing this at the level you should.

Now, as I mentioned, digital marketing can include so much more. Ecommerce analysis, user experience improvements, apps and third-party tools, Google Adwords… there’s a lot I could make a really strong case for. But at a minimum, make sure you are addressing the areas of digital marketing I’ve mentioned above.

Product Marketing & Management:

With so many different platforms and channels to use for our marketing, it’s easy to lose sight of the most important component of your marketing, and that’s the product you offer. Nothing accelerates a marketing strategy like a great product that meets the needs and desires of a clear and targeted audience. And yet, so many companies tend to look to R&D to just crank out something to go sell, or the founder’s whims drive whatever we’re launching at conference next. Who is laser-focused on your team on the success of any given product that is made available? Who is thinking about that product day and night? Who is dreaming of campaigns?

Don’t let all the fancy bells and whistles of marketing overshadow the most important part of it: your product. Invest in expertise in this area.

SEO and Online Reputation Management:

You may be thinking that SEO and online reputation management isn’t a “must-have” component of today’s marketing world. I couldn’t disagree more. Let’s consider online reputation alone: you can hit the ball out of the park in every other part of your marketing, but if the Google results associated with your company are negative, you’ll find it very difficult for a prospect to get past it. This is tough on any business, but especially a direct sales business. Think about it: Your Distributor is working their tail off, sharing the message of your company with a prospect, only to watch it crash and burn when they inevitably Google your company name. Not only do you lose the prospect, but you will eventually lose the Distributor, too. Why would they work so hard time and time again only to see the same results over and over?

Many factors influence your online reputation, but only the corporate office can really do anything about it. The best time to handle issues like this are before the negative results even appear. It must be a constant focus of any direct selling company.

Whew… there’s a lot to marketing in the direct selling world these days, and that only covered what I see as the “must-have” areas. I know it can be overwhelming. That’s why it makes sense so often to reach out to third-party teams (like the SCP Marketing Services team that I lead) to jump in and fill whatever gaps you may see in your current marketing strategy.

I’d love to hear where you feel like you struggle the most, or maybe areas you think I overlooked. Please drop a comment below.

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Vince Han
Mobile Messaging Best Practices for Direct Sellers

Direct selling companies rely on being able to effectively communicate with their field. This is simple when a company is starting out with just a handful of early leaders; company founders can easily spend time developing and nurturing relationships with their first distributors.

Then the company grows to the point where the founders can no longer personally keep up with everyone in their field. When this happens, maintaining effective communications transitions from personal, one-on-one communication to mass communications.

The modes of mass communications have ranged from email to social media posts, but in recent years, companies are finding that the most effective communication channels are popular messaging mediums like SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Mobile messaging channels are effective because they are the same channels where distributors are communicating with their first level contacts–friends, family, and work colleagues. These messages take priority over all the other influx of messages that inundate people today. And people work to fiercely protect the sanctity of this primary messaging channel by guarding against unwanted, unsolicited, spam-type messages.

If direct selling companies look to utilize mobile messaging (and they should), they need to be adept at creating messaging that consistently feels valuable to the user. They should keep in mind that any incoming message that comes to your phone is going to be an interruption. Some of these interruptions are welcome (like a message from a loved one or a friend) while others will feel unwelcome (like an unsolicited marketing message).

The following is a best practices list that direct selling companies should consider when using mobile messaging.



Set user expectations and keep that promise

Whether you use an automation tool or have staff handle messages manually, it’s important to establish a set of expectations that users can consistently rely on.

For example, let people know how frequently to expect messages. Something like, “We will rarely message you more than once a week and it’ll always be something important enough that you’ll want to stay updated.”

You can also give people an idea of the types of messages you’ll send. Uncertainty is one of the main reasons people get nervous about messaging. If they’re worried that the messages will just be marketing or guilt-tripping to work harder, people are less likely to engage. On the other hand, if you can establish trust quickly and send truly helpful messages, people will get excited to see each new message.

Choose the right channel for the right audience member

Depending on where someone is in the world and what demographic they belong to, their primary messaging channel preference might vary. A partial list of primary messaging channels includes SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Viber, LINE, Kakao, WeChat, VK, and Telegram.

It’s important to gather feedback from your field when selecting channels. Where are they already messaging friends and family and trying to connect? Ideally, your messages should be in that same platform. You want them to feel like your messages are deeply integrated into their work and existing network. The farther they have to go to hear from you–even if it’s just into another app–the less they’ll pay attention to your messages.

Understand your users (where are they, what is their schedule)

Depending on your core user demographic, the types of messages and when you want to send them are very important. For example, maybe your core audience has full-time day jobs and focus on their direct sales business on nights and weekends. In that instance, getting your messages onto their screens at the right time can make a big difference in how they respond. If possible, consider letting your field set their own schedule to receive your messages to increase the chances of your message getting to them at the right time and place.

Write in a consistent voice

The compelling reason why messaging is so effective is that it’s conversational. In fact, in product terms, this is called conversational user interface because it isn’t like traditional software that requires logins, menus and search bars. Chatting with a trusted source is the most frictionless way to convey information.

So make sure that you message in a consistent voice over time. If you don’t, the experience could feel jolting. If you think about it, people work hard to portray themselves authentically when messaging their friends and it should be no different when receiving a message from a business. A consistent “look and feel” to your messages naturally develops trust and helps reinforce your brand identity with your field. The relationship they have with your messages should mirror the relationship you want them to have with your brand–whether that means being professional, straight-forward and efficient, or fun, surprising, and energetic, or anything else.

Offer interactivity

While you probably don’t have the time to message everyone individually, creating a messaging group can be a great way to help everyone feel a part of the community and get individual interaction without adding to your corporate team. You can create a group with several members, then simply start a discussion and let the group talk amongst themselves. This allows your field to naturally nurture each other and helps scale up your existing resources.

The best discussion questions are open-ended and require nuanced responses. For example, instead of asking, “Did the onboarding materials provided by corporate help?” you can ask, “What was the most helpful resource for you when you were first starting out? Why was that resource more helpful than the others?”

Another way to scale up your corporate resources to grow with your field is to build a chatbot. A good chatbot can provide step-by-step mentoring and answer a large number of the most common questions your field asks.

With a good chatbot in place, your existing team can spend less time answering the same question over and over and more time dealing with the most important work of developing your field.

Personalization

The more personalized a message feels, the more people are going to pay attention to it. Personalization can be a key factor in making a message feel helpful instead of annoying.

Thankfully, many messaging platforms offer ways to personalize messages at scale. Adding in a name to a message is now fairly standard and straightforward, but you can also find ways to personalize beyond the name, including messaging preferences like time of day and frequency, or allowing users to “follow” certain topics and not others so that the messages you are sending out are most likely going to the audience that wants and needs it the most. Additionally, full chatbot solutions can offer more complex personalization based on time with the company, rank, recent account activity, and so much more.



Get smart about what technology to use

As your business grows, you’ll quickly find that manually keeping up with communicating with thousands of people isn’t scalable or doable. This is where marketing automation tools really come into place. Marketing automation tools for email are quite mature but the bad news is that email has quickly fallen out of favor for many users.

Marketing automation tools for mobile messaging are also now widely available although can require sophistication in putting them together correctly and can be costly. This is why businesses should have a solid ROI (return on investment) calculation in place as they implement them.

Key components to effectively using marketing automation include having workflows to keep your contact database clean and adhering to all consumer protection laws and regulations around text messaging.

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The competency you develop in effectively messaging to your field will also translate into interacting with your customers. It is estimated that 85% of all customer interactions will be handled via conversational interfaces this year and a 2017 Nielsen study showed that 53% of people are more likely to choose a business that they can contact via chat.

Direct selling companies that invest now in both the technology platforms and internal messaging competencies and best practices will find themselves a step ahead in this increasingly digital age.

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Clark Diemer
Video: The Lifeblood of a Modern Content Marketing Strategy

It’s no secret today that online video content is a key element to any good sales and marketing strategy, and the statistics for online videos prove this ten times over. I believe that online video content is even MORE critical for direct selling companies compared to traditional companies because of the sales force/distributor base. This is no surprise to any direct sales company. The problem I see so often is that too many direct selling companies do not put enough emphasis on the volume of videos they put out. In today’s day and age, you need quality AND quantity when it comes to videos.

In the event that you are not 100% convinced that video is key to your sales and marketing strategy, here are just a few statistics for you to chew on.

• 85% of all Internet users in the United States watched online video content in the past month on their device. (Statista 2018)
• Internet users spent an average of 6 hrs & 48 mins per week watching videos online (Limelight, 2019)
• In 2022 82% of the global internet traffic will come from video streaming and downloads (Citco, 2019)
• Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year (Insivia, 2020)
• 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video than (HubSpot, 2020)

On top of all this data, the Covid-19 pandemic has created what essentially is a digital bonfire where most of America is spending a great deal of time on their devices, and brands are either telling their marketing story around this proverbial bonfire or they are simply missing out on the opportunity to do so.

At Left Hook Videos, our team has been creating video content for direct selling companies for over 10 years and our goal has always been to create videos that serve as a silver bullet for the field to fire.

In general, almost all direct selling companies provide their field with the following core videos:

• Brand Story/Company Overview
• Informational/Product Promos
• Event/Trip Promos
• Success Stories/Testimonials
• How To Get Started

Some companies have these videos integrated into their social media strategy. While all of these videos are absolutely essential, what your field and your brand NEED is so much more. You need much more volume to stand out from the crowd than just a few of these basic informational videos. I understand the hesitation and the reasons why a lot of companies do not produce video content by the truckload. Below are just a few of the most common I’ve heard:

• “It’s too expensive.”
• “We don’t have the manpower or the bandwidth.”
• “We have other priorities.”
• “Creating video content is difficult and too time consuming.”

Sound familiar? All of the above mentioned reasons are real, and depending on the size of your company, more video may seem impossible to even consider. However, not producing fresh and ongoing video content for your field to share with the world in 2020 is a mistake you cannot afford to make. In a social-media-centric world, video is the fuel that keeps that content engine flowing. And your distributors are begging for it.

There is not an industry out there that can offer as much value, inspiration and creative video content as the direct selling industry. In our experience, the PEOPLE and the PRODUCTS that make up direct selling companies are the content that should and can be leveraged more often. Your field will always appreciate you pumping out short, creative, and fun videos for them to like and share, and you can never supply too many!

In the same way, you can never share too many stories about your field and their love for your products and your company.

Some companies understand the need for more video content, but feel that they just cannot make it happen right now due to budget. Budgetary concerns don’t have to stop you from producing great content.

Here are two helpful ideas in creating fresh content that won’t break the bank:

1.Take current “long form videos” and cut out 15-30 second nuggets, add music and a simple introduction and ending.

2. Incentivize your field via social media to create and submit a 30-60 second video with content such as:

• • Their passion for the company and products.
  • Any success or feel good stories they may have.
  • Showing how they like to take or use the products.
  • The type of financial or time freedom they have been able to experience since being part of your company (be careful with those income claims!)
  • Anything involving kids and pets! (the web loves kittens!)

Be sure when incentivizing your field that you give guidelines/instructions. One thing you can do to help your field create these videos, is to create an example video in which you walk them through the type of video you are looking for.

So what does a more appropriate amount of video content look like? We believe that there is no such thing as too many videos, but understand that there must be a realistic goal in place.

Setting a goal to pump out 2-4 online videos a week (not including the bigger videos that you already have scheduled to go out) is a great place to start.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating fresh video content:

• Try to keep them under 60 seconds.
• Keep it upbeat and fast paced to help maintain viewer engagement.
• You can never go wrong with funny and witty.
• Adding stock footage can help immensely. One option for stock videos is to utilize resources such as Storyblocks.
• Add music and try to use different tracks for each video. ArtList is a great place to start.
• Remember that sometimes perfection is the enemy of progress. Not posting a video for weeks because you don’t feel it is 100% perfect can oftentimes be a mistake. Get that content out there!
• Have at least two people review and proof the video before posting. Things like spelling errors can turn a great video into a bad video very quickly.
• If you start to increase your video content output by even just 20%, your field leaders WILL be thankful and you will see that reflected in their engagement and in the numbers they produce.

If you are looking for a place to get started, I want to encourage you to check out some of the videos that we have created here. This portfolio can help you come up with concepts for your company, perhaps spark creativity, and will give you a better understanding of the videos we have been referring to in this article.

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Alan is a US DSA Hall of Famer and a member of the DSEF’s Circle of Honor. He’s served in executive roles at Tupperware, PartyLite, DK Family Learning and other companies, and has been a part of launching more than 30 direct selling companies over his career.

Alan Luce
Lessons from the Lockdown: Part Two (*)

Recent discussions with direct sellers have expressed feelings ranging from surprise to astonishment about how well their companies are doing during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Three things have happened that have produced these good results: First, millions of people have lost their jobs and are open to direct selling opportunities that can help them make some money while staying socially isolated at home; second, the millions of people isolating at home and with little else to break the monotony have been willing to join direct sellers for online product demonstrations, and third, direct selling sales forces have adapted to using online selling techniques much more rapidly than anyone would have or could have predicted. The combination of these factors has produced outstanding, even record-breaking sales and sponsoring results for many direct selling companies in April and May. June appears to be going in the same direction. All is good, right?



Maybe yes and maybe no. Many are doing well at this time in these unique circumstances. But can we expect things to stay the way they are now? No. Sooner or later the pandemic will recede and the economy will come back. We may not come fully back until a vaccine is readily available and the populace has been mostly vaccinated and that may not be until next year, but we will eventually come back. We do not know whether we will resume our lives as we lived them before the pandemic lock down or something less social. The unemployment rate will go down again to something below 10% and many jobs will be hiring again. It is likely that that due to automation and robotics that more full-time jobs will be eliminated and, for that reason and others, gig work will continue to be a major competitor for part-time income opportunities. As that recovery occurs, the market environment will likely look more like the pre-pandemic period than now.

Knowing those things will likely occur, how do direct sellers maintain some of the momentum and advantages that have been enjoyed during this shelter-in-place lock down period?

First, figure out what your folks are doing now that they were not doing or not doing as much before the lock down. If your company is like most, your sales force has quickly adapted to using online platforms such as Zoom, Facebook Live and Facebook Rooms and other platforms to arrange opportunities to show their products and services, generate orders and attract and sponsor recruits. Exactly what are they doing that is the most successful and what can you the company do to make the salesforces online activities even easier. Have you provided improved images and content designed to assist online presentations? Have you implemented one of the many smart phone applications that allow sales folks to show products and videos and place orders? Have you adopted a new seller kit program that fits a sales activity that needs fewer actual product full size samples and more single use sample packets? Does a new seller need a physical kit at all? What are the best online sales and sponsoring practices? Are you spending anytime trying to learn the answers to these questions and create new support materials, training and programs?

Second, have you considered that selling on line may require your sellers to spend less time to make a sale? Online selling does not involve travel, and is often less social than one to one or one to many in person sales. Yet, for many companies this important difference from in person selling may not have been considered or even thought about. But it is an important difference and one that may become a competitive advantage for thoughtful direct sellers when the employment figures go up again and things post vaccine begin to return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy.

Historically direct sellers have not talked about or even tried to calculate a dollars earned for time spent or, as more commonly thought about, the dollars per hour opportunity associated with selling their products and service. We have avoided this topic because our sellers are not employees and direct sellers do not pay salaries or wages. Rather, direct sellers receive commissions for the products they sell or they make retail profits from the difference between what they pay for the product when they buy it from the company at wholesale and what they sell it to their customers for at retail. Out of an abundance of caution to protect the independent contractor status and, in some cases, because the retail sales profit reward does not tell a good story, we simply stay away from the subject. However, I not only think we can safely tell this story, but will be forced to do so as we come out of the lockdown and have to once again aggressively compete for gig workers to sell our products and services.

Here’s how: Do the research surveying your sales force to find statistically supportable data as to the time it takes to make the average sale to a buying customer. Data should be gathered for one on one in person sales, one on one online sales and one to many (party) in person sales and one to many online sales. Match the time data with the average customer purchase amount data and you will come up with an average retail commission or profit for average time spent making the sale. Most companies will find this data very revealing. First, do your sellers make a decent profit for time spent selling your products or services. If your average profit for time spent is less than $15 an hour, you may not be competitive with other direct selling or gig part-time income opportunities. On the other hand, if your average profit for time spent making a sale is $25 an hour or more, you may have a recruiting advantage. In either case, this is information that is well worth knowing. Can you use such data in promoting your opportunity without damaging the independent contractor status of your sellers? I think you can so long as your data is statistically accurate and supportable and you clearly state that this data is a composite of all independent seller activity and not a dollar per hour income promise. Of course, before publishing any such income hypothetical please check with your legal counsel.



Summary:

Many direct sellers are experiencing strong sales and recruiting during the pandemic lockdown. It seems clear that it is the very limitations the lockdown places on customers and part-time income seekers that is working to direct sellers’ advantage. The sales forces of the companies have adapted to selling and sponsoring online more quickly than most companies were prepared to support. The companies can learn from what their best online performers are doing. At some point, science and medicine will defeat the Covid-19 plague and the limitation of the lockdown will be lifted and some degree of pre-pandemic employment and social norms will return.

The companies that take the lessons learned during the lockdown and do the work to have supportable accurate data as to the competitiveness of their part-time income opportunities will survive and prosper when the pandemic is finally over.

Do not simply enjoy these strong months! Learn the important lessons from the lockdown and prepare for the post lockdown period.

(*) Click to read the first part of Alan Luce’s article here: Lessons from the Lockdown

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Brett Duncan
The 10 Marketing Challenges Direct Sales Companies are Taking On in 2020

Marketing has always been important in direct sales. But it’s never been as important as it is now. Today’s direct sales environment finds the sales force expecting the best in packaging, lead generation, awareness campaigns, online marketing and much more. On top of that, they also want constant training on how to become great marketers themselves. It’s a load that most direct sales companies didn’t have to account for (at least to this degree) until recently.

I was privileged this past week to facilitate a session at the DSA Marketing & Communications Seminar that included about 20 different marketing professionals from different companies in direct selling. The companies represented included Young Living, Nu Skin, AdvoCare, Oriflame, Scentsy, Senegence, Saladmaster, Amway, Tastefully Simple, Zurvita and Isagenix, to name a few. It was a wonderful mix of great companies, and an excellent forum to share ideas and best practices.



Over the course of the three-hour session, we spent a lot of time discussing what areas these companies will be most focused on in 2020. Listed below are the top ten takeaways that I personally noted from the discussions. These are my own paraphrased takeaways and should not be taken as absolute or exhaustive plans by all the companies I mentioned above. Rather, my hope here is to provide an informal “state of marketing” in direct selling, to serve as a reference point for your own plans this coming year.

1. Online Advertising is Our New Norm.
   As a general rule, direct selling companies will be spending more on online advertising in 2020 than they did in 2019. Most of this spend will be on Facebook, Instagram and Google Adwords, with some adding YouTube advertising or additional display networks, too. The campaigns will be focused primarily on brand awareness and end-consumer lead generation, with very few focusing on Distributor recruitment. That said, while all will be advertising more, not everyone has yet taken advantage of some of the more fruitful components of “funnel marketing,” like retargeting and abandoned cart campaigns.
2. Multichannel Approaches are Getting More Attention.
   Several direct selling companies are committed to finding a way to leverage Amazon in 2020, with a handful already listing their products there. It’s important to distinguish that no company is looking to Amazon to replace their salesforce efforts; rather, companies simply know they must account for the Amazon effect while also still serving their salesforce in the process. One company shared that Amazon has actually become a great marketing channel for them, introducing new customers to the brand who may have never purchased otherwise, then leading them to the corporate website and/or a Distributor’s website to continue their purchases and enjoy better deals.Admittedly, this approach can cause some concern and confusion with the field, but the pros seem to outweigh the cons for those with experience in this area. Specifically, many companies are creating commission pools that pay eligible Distributors profits from these Amazon purchases, adding for some a healthy income addition.
3. Influencer Marketing is a Priority, but Still Challenging.
   Most companies are planning to leverage influencer marketing more in 2020. However, almost all who have experience in this area to date express challenges when it comes to helping their existing salesforce not feel as though they are in competition with these influencers. At the same time, many influencers sometimes struggle with the requirement to purchase through an Independent Distributor as part of their promotional efforts.Regardless, all companies recognize the potential of incorporating more influencer marketing into their plans. Some pay with product, others with experiences and others with actual money. Many experienced companies suggest focusing more on micro-influencers, and not getting too caught up in network size. They often see better results with influencers who have from 5,000 – 15,000 followers, instead of those with 100,000 or more. In addition, many companies are trading sponsorship and celebrity endorsement budget for increased influencer marketing work, seeing a better direct return for their influencer marketing efforts.
4. Website Design is Never Done.
   It’s safe to assume that every company is redesigning their website in 2020. By “redesign,” I’m talking about significant design and/or architectural updates, not just simple banner tweaks here and there. In some cases, this even means a new platform or ecommerce engine.Many companies that plan to redesign their website in 2020 also redesigned it in 2019. The point is simple and clear: a website is never complete. A redesign could be prompted by technological updates that need to be taken advantage of. In other cases, new business programs and positioning prompt a whole new approach to the company’s online presence. Regardless, the simple truth is that changes in positioning, platforms, programs and capabilities requires us all to be ready to update our core website design regularly. And, in most cases, companies are working with third-party agencies to help them make this happen.
5. Corporate Messaging Needs Some Attention.
   Given the current regulatory environment, my assumption is that all companies would be taking a hard and thorough look at the corporate messaging represented on their websites, print materials, etc. However, there is a wide-range of work in this area, in terms of both urgency and degree of change. Some companies are aggressively reviewing their own messaging and changing years-old positioning to match what they deem to be aligned with the current guidance provided by the FTC. Others don’t feel like their messaging was far off to begin with. And others are simply waiting to see what happens.Let me add a personal opinion here: I believe the degree of change in corporate messaging that is required is much more than many companies believe it should be. I would stress that all companies a) gain more clarity ASAP on what is and is not acceptable in terms of income claims and implied claims, and b) prioritize a thorough review of all marketing materials to identify areas in need of an update. This is something a third party (like my company, Strategic Choice Partners) can help with if you don’t have the bandwidth or understanding to do it yourself.
6. Print Work Continues to Diminish.
   While it is no surprise that companies print less than they used to, it is somewhat surprising that companies plan to print less than they did in 2019. In my discussions, no company plans to print as much as they did in 2019.
7. Low-Cost and No-Cost Enrollment is the New Trend.
   To compete in the Gig Economy, where an enrollment fee is rarely required, many direct selling companies are lowering their enrollment fees to well below $50, and many are foregoing enrollment fees altogether. In addition to competing with the no-cost norm of the Gig Economy, companies also like the low barrier to entry and low-risk positioning that comes with these lower fees.
8. Who Matters More: Millennials or Gen Z?
   As the topic of marketing to millennials arose, many expressed that a focus on millennials is “so five years ago.” If you haven’t addressed millennials already, you may have missed that boat. The focus now needs to be on Gen Z.However, many in the group agreed with a sentiment expressed that psychographics, not demographics, is what really matters. In other words, what’s the brand story or worldview that your company resonates with, and who holds to the same worldview? There are people in every generation that can find something about your brand that resonates with them. Focus on attracting them at a psychographic level, and then focus on how you reach them (channels, messaging, etc.) based on their demographic.
9. Search Marketing and Online Reputation Management are Getting More Attention.
   Most companies plan to increase their search marketing efforts in 2020. This work may include organic search engine optimization, paid search or online reputation management. More companies are recognizing that the Home Office must be better stewards of the company’s online presence, understanding that only the Home Office can improve online reputation.
10. Roughly Half of Us are Rebranding or Repackaging in 2020.
    Based on the group I chatted with, half of them plan to launch a new packaging design or even a new brand approach/logo design for the company overall in 2020. If you’ve ever been a part of rebranding or repackaging, you know how much work goes into that. For many companies, this means many resources will be consumed with all the work that goes into new packaging, leaving them with little bandwidth to handle additional projects.

Overall, it’s clear that direct selling is a digital marketing industry. Just the simple shift in looking to digital marketing as a component of what we do to an identity can shape many decisions from the executive level on down. I found myself frequently impressed with and encouraged by some of the efforts direct selling companies are making in their marketing. That said, many participants expressed the need for marketing budgets to increase many times over, leaving the company with some very important decisions to make in terms of where those funds can be found in their current model.

Let me thank the DSA again for hosting such a helpful and practical summit, and I hope they continue to create these experiences more in the future.

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Guest Post by Jonas Hedberg
Marketing’s New Role To Keep A Direct Selling Company Relevant

Direct selling companies are being challenged on several fronts presently, where new gig economy alternatives and customers changing purchase behavior are two of the more important. This is great news! It’s the wake-up call the industry needed to stay, or in some cases, become relevant. It needs to be seen as an opportunity more than a threat.

What needs to happen for companies to stay relevant? In this article, I’ll address how the role of marketing needs to evolve. The old-school marketing modus operandi is often too back-office and sales tools focused. Marketing needs to become customer-centric, find a way to more actively contribute customer acquisition and loyalty and build brand awareness to fuel the economic engine.



This is how I imagine a testimonial from a happy Distributor could sound, in a company where Marketing took on this role:

“Before, in spite of having done my vision board, going to all trainings, learning Go Pro by heart and listening to three podcasts daily my earnings were far lower than expected. I struggled with signing up new customers and Distributors. Then something changed and the company started playing an active role in the customer acquisition process. As I understand it, the starting point was the customer insight initiative that Marketing led. Understanding the customers better allowed the company to target and reach out to new customers with an interest either in our products or for the earning opportunity. Put simply, we started fishing where the fish were. I still do prospecting daily but the additional flow of customers coming to me in the app makes a big difference. The company provides leads, I close the deals.

The customer insight also helped the company to improve new product development, at the end of the day we’re here to support customers with solutions they can’t get anywhere else.

The brand building efforts have also helped a lot with customer acquisition. Before few had heard about my company but after the different sponsorships and more focused social media actions (fishing where the fish are) the company got more known, which makes prospecting easier. People prefer to join something they’ve heard about and trust.

I also look forward to the customer loyalty program that will be launched soon. It will enable me to regularly contact customers with offers relevant to them and their needs.

Beside the Marketing area, also the Field Development side has evolved. I now get paid after each sale, which helps me manage my economy and it reinforces my belief that I can make a living as a gig economy worker. However, the most important impact from that change is that it how it helps newcomers. In the old system, it took too long for newcomers to make money, they often got discouraged and left. With this new system, the newcomers are guided to quickly make money which increases retention.



As a result of better customer and distributor understanding, the company has also stopped nagging me about going to the convention in the US. The show is fantastic but it didn’t make sense to me to spend a month worth of commissions to spend a week hearing about initiatives that mostly concerned other markets. It was also in the midst of our vacation season, and I chose to be a gig worker to spend more time with my family. I prefer for the company to spend money on brand building, new product development and giving back rather than putting on a convention show every year.

I feel that the company has cracked the code about what I needed as a Distributor to turbo charge my business. The parts I liked before as training, recognition and our community remains the same but in addition, Marketing has led the company into a new era”.

There’s no one size fits all approach for companies wanting to embark on this journey, it depends on where the company is in its life cycle, the product offering, the P&L, the competencies in the marketing department, etc. And it inevitably starts with a commitment from the board and management to stay relevant.

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Guest Post by Brett Duncan
The Seismic Shifts in Marketing’s Role in Direct Selling

“Marketing doesn’t matter for a direct selling company.”

Have you ever heard this one before? If you’ve been working in direct selling for more than ten years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard someone say this outright, or at least imply it. In fact, that person may have even been you.

I know it’s a concept that’s been suggested to me on more than one occasion since I started in direct selling in 2002. You see it pop in several different contexts and conversations.

For example, it was a popular rebuttal to any marketer with a consumer packaged goods background prior to coming on board, as they began their journey in the mysterious waters of direct selling. You’d hear this sentiment when a creative director was asking for packaging that would take away a few extra pennies from the bottom line. You’d even hear it when it felt like corporate was over-stepping their bounds, relying on the field to come up with their own tools, their own campaigns and their own messaging on how to share the products.

I heard one corporate executive even go so far as to say the corporate office’s role was to “ship product and mail checks.”

I always loved the simplicity of that statement, and the loaded implications behind it. Unfortunately, I think there’s a little more to it than that now, though.

In large part, up until 2005 or so, the “Marketing” team at a direct sales company was really just a “Sales Support” department. They ran promotions. They designed stuff. They wrote stuff.

More than anything, they did what the sales leaders in the field needed them to do. Often times, they would even do it for them.

I still believe some marketing departments at some companies work best with a sales support-centric mentality. But what became very apparent around 2006 was that marketing was becoming a lot more important in direct selling than it ever had before. Companies were considering areas that had been largely ignored in the past. Good marketing was no longer a bonus; it was a must-have.

For example, I can remember when Xango launched, and how beautiful and fresh and current their design was, how consistently and modernly they presented their brand. That curvy bottle of juice was so sexy.

I remember Mona Vie showing up, and taking it all a step further. Packaging was SO important, and it was SO different than the industry had seen before.

I remember seeing Vemma’s Brand Book, a style guide that meticulously laid out the brand elements of the company. They took it all quite seriously, and it was impressive.

Now, it may be easy for you to get hung up on the journeys those companies have gone through, but don’t. This article isn’t about that. This article is about the seismic shift that marketing has undergone in direct selling, and those three examples really stick out in my personal journey. They were pioneers in this area, and that’s something I definitely appreciate.

Which leads us to today. As 2017 nears 2018, I think anyone with direct selling experience can easily point to not only the evolution of marketing in direct selling, but also its fundamental importance for direct selling success. Marketing is no longer a support role; it is a sales driver, and often the centerpiece of a direct selling company.

With that in mind, and given my experience now as a consultant who specializes in corporate strategy and marketing know-how for direct selling companies, let’s explore a few of the more obvious shifts we’ve seen in marketing over the last 10 years.

Brand and Target Markets Matter

I’ve maintained that, at the end of the day, a direct selling company is selling and sharing a culture. It’s not just the comp plan, not just the product. It’s a melting pot of those two things and so much more. Ultimately, people choose and stay with a direct selling company because it feels like a tribe where they belong, and where the elements of the business align with their worldview.

That’s what good marketing does, no matter what industry you’re in.

So it makes sense that direct selling companies are launching now with a very clear brand vision in place from day one. They are clear on who they are, what they do and who they do it for. They aren’t interested in “providing products everyone needs,” but rather presenting their products in a way that attracts a certain demographic and psychographic in a nearly irresistible way. There is a personality, a tone and an approach to how that company “does its thing.” And there are also clear boundaries that the company does NOT cross.

That’s what a brand is all about. It’s not the logo, not the packaging, not the writing style and it’s not even the founder. It’s an impression. It’s a promise made, and then a promise kept. It’s the culmination of so many things (best saved for another article).

But it’s also a culture, and that’s especially important for a direct selling company.

Today’s marketing team is needed to keep a direct selling company’s identify and culture clear and contained. When done well, it helps a company stand out. When it’s not, companies get lost in the shuffle.

Brand Awareness Is Even More Important

Building a brand is important, but making sure your audience is aware of you is the real key. In the past, direct selling counted 100% on its Distributors to create brand awareness. Now, Distributors still do it (to the point that many companies call their Distributors “Brand Ambassadors”), but what helps them more than anything is knowing someone will know what they’re talking about when they mention their company or their product.

Assuming that a conversation is the fundamental unit of success in direct selling (and it is), then your Distributors will have more conversations about your brand when they know that conversation will go well. And a great start to a conversation is when someone says, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of them.”

Today’s marketer must invest in building brand awareness for the primary purpose of emboldening your sales force. Some companies go as far as sponsoring large events or sports teams. Other stick to more direct or targeted means, like Facebook ads. Regardless, figure out where you can take a next step in terms of brand awareness, and take it ASAP!

Packaging May Matter More in Direct Selling Than Any Other Channel

When I first started in direct selling, the popular thought was that packaging really didn’t matter for us. After all, it’s not like our products are sitting on a shelf somewhere, in the midst of all of the competition. Lots of customers don’t even see the packaging until after they’ve bought the product anyway, so why bother with wasting money on great packaging? The product should speak for itself, right?

To me, that all sounded logical. But I’ve completely changed my tune. I actually think packaging may be more important in direct selling than anywhere else. Here’s why:

We rely on Distributors to share these products with their friends, family and other contacts. That can be a scary proposition for so many, and the least little hiccup in the process can be enough to keep a well-meaning Distributor from sharing the products with anyone. If a Distributor can show a product packaged in a way that’s modern, attractive and impressive in the customer’s eyes, it can be a huge boost to their confidence. And more confidence leads to more conversations, which lead to more sales.

On top of that, contrary to popular belief, we humans do judge a book by its cover, and a product by its packaging. When a new customer receives our product for the first time, we need them to feel reassured that they’ve made a great decision. A great product in half-baked packaging won’t cut it. If we can create an experience, a moment, with our product, the likelihood of them ordering again and being happy with the product increases exponentially.

Finally, today’s direct selling company is also an e-commerce company, in that we offer our products online. And we all look at packaging when we shop online, so it has a profound impact on our decision to buy (or not to buy).

Today’s successful direct selling company must invest in compelling packaging, both in terms of label design as well as container design. Provide products that your sales force can be proud to share with others, and that customers can be impressed with before they ever even use the product.

Dig in to Digital

No one needs to be convinced of the importance of technology and online solutions in today’s marketplace. Over the last decade, we’ve watched most of these projects merge from isolated IT projects into marketing-led collaborations that touch every department.

I still use the term “digital marketing” in my conversations, simply because it helps communicate a certain concept in those situations. But there’s a part of me that cringes every time I say it, because I think all marketing now is digital. Put another way, every bit of marketing we do has a digital impact in some form or fashion.

In just the past 10-15 years, we’ve seen marketing go from simply making a website look great to leading and sometimes even managing the teams that develop and create the entire technical solutions.

Great Design Boosts an Emotional Connection

Our attention to design cannot just stop at packaging. Every touchpoint must be presented in a way that’s congruent with the brand and in sync with your audience’s worldview. They need to have personality and clarity that makes someone happy they interacted with you, even if it’s on the smallest level.

In today’s environment, there’s really no excuse for even the smallest company to have compelling graphic design that is consistent across all touchpoints. Great design is more accessible than ever.

That said, great marketing leadership must step in and make sure those design chops lead to consistent and simplified communication in all that you do. When done well, the typical customer won’t even notice everything you’re doing; they’ll just know they love interacting with you because it always clearly portrays who you are. When it’s not done well, people most definitely notice. They feel like the company has multiple personalities, and the inconsistency can lead to doubt for your customers, which can eventually lead to disengagement.

These emotional connections are extremely valuable for a direct selling company. A major variable we deal with are all of the different personalities and approaches of our Distributors. We already know that they will be inconsistent among each other, and sometimes even with themselves. The company must present itself as a solid rock in every way, and consistent, compelling, clear design helps achieve this.

Product Development Isn’t Just an R&D Thing

I remember the first time I heard a marketing executive say that marketing was the leader of product development. That rocked my world. Coming from a background in nutrition, I was used to the R&D team coming up with a product (and sometimes it even came with a name and container already selected), and then turning it over to the marketing team to make a label and go sell it.

There’s a natural friction that lives in that space between marketing and R&D, and it’s typically a healthy friction. But a major role that today’s marketing team must heavily contribute to, if not own completely, is product development.

Good marketing starts with the market, the people. If you know your audience well, then developing solutions for that audience becomes not only easier, but also more successful. Where the typical R&D-driven product development approach begins with a product looking for a market, the marketing-driven development approach begins with a market looking for a solution.

Today’s marketing team in direct selling is increasingly driving product development. I personally believe there’s a healthy mix here that can be achieved, and regardless of where product development “lives,” it’s the collaborative approach and checks and balances that make all the difference.

As marketers gain more and more influence, and even ownership, of product development, the more successful a direct selling company can be in creating products that best serve their audiences.

Shifting from Sales Support to Sales Empowerment

I have a core belief about what the corporate side of a direct selling company is responsible for, and it’s especially true of marketing. Our job is to facilitate evangelism. Our Distributors are responsible for sharing and selling the products, and enrolling new Distributors. We simply try to make that process as easy and effective as possible for them.

Of course, a lot has changed since I originally thought this ten years ago, but I believe the fundamental truth is still the same. Digital tools, social media and a company’s online presence all make a consumer’s connection to the company itself just as prevalent as to their own upline. And the expectations of the sales force has shifted from simply supporting their efforts and their systems to actually giving them the system to follow, the tools to use and the content to share.

Marketing is (and maybe it always should have been) all about sales empowerment, not just sales support. From the social graphics we create for Distributors to share to the videos and decks we create to use in presentations, today’s direct seller expects to be fully stocked for success. On top of that, today’s environment requires that those graphics and videos and other materials are all compliant, too.

Marketing’s role must constantly be looking at ways to help Distributors spark conversations, connect with new people and complete transactions. Sure, they’re still “independent” Distributors, but their dependence on marketing to partner with them throughout the process has grown exponentially.

“Lead”ing the Way to Prospects

I remember when, at best, a company’s corporate leads program was just a nice extra that generated a few new customers here and there. At worst, I can remember lead generation at the corporate level and the process behind it causing a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth among field leaders. The field would feel threatened by the programs, to the point that many companies shut off their leads efforts altogether.

Not any more. Today’s direct seller is looking for a company to hand over qualified leads on a regular basis. They appreciate the company incorporating Facebook Ad Campaigns, retargeting campaigns, search marketing and all the other different lead generation mechanisms.

The most attractive income opportunity is the one that makes finding prospects the easiest. Marketing teams must get aggressive and creative in how they deliberately and proactively generate leads for their field.

No More Single Channel Operations

Direct selling is just a distribution channel.

Many of you cringe when you read that. Direct selling represents so much more to so many of us than just a way to distribute products. But at its core, that’s all it is.

Which is why we’re seeing a multi-channel approach as such a trend right now throughout the marketplace. Many companies are choosing direct selling as the newest sales channel, coupling it with retail stores or e-commerce. Other direct selling companies are, likewise, choosing other channels as a way to extend their brand outside of direct selling.

It’s all quite exciting, and it’s definitely requiring companies to think very differently about how they operate.

Many companies are bringing in marketing experts for each channel, which makes sense. But as the multi-channel approach continues to grow, it will become important for at least some members of the marketing team to have not just direct selling expertise, or retail expertise, but an expertise over all channels, and especially how those channels co-exist. Phrases like “channel conflict,” “cannibalization,” and “shelf space” will become more common in our conversations.

Where Are You Seeing the Biggest Shift? 

These areas only scratch the surface. Where are you seeing the biggest shifts in how marketing works in direct selling? What must marketers do now that they didn’t have to do before?

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The post The Seismic Shifts in Marketing’s Role in Direct Selling appeared first on The World of Direct Selling.

She has helped to shape the communications landscape of global brands and leading companies like Amgen, Arbonne, Bank of Montreal, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, ORGANO, and ViSalus. Wave2 Alliances serves the direct selling industry and is a supplier member of the U.S. and Canadian Direct Selling Associations.

Guest Post by Bobbie Wasserman
2017 Communication Planning – An Enterprise Approach

This year the Direct Selling Industry in the United States was sent a clear message by the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC – focus on selling products to customers and reward Distributors for that activity. While the case before the FTC was specific to Herbalife, and noted industry lawyers have pointed out that the settlement does not set a legal precedent, direct selling companies understand that the FTC’s ruling on the Herbalife case is a referendum on the industry as a whole.

As companies start their 2017 business planning, and especially moving forward, one area that companies need to focus on moving forward is corporate communications activities. Generally, the public direct selling companies and larger private industry companies have sophisticated corporate communication departments. However, most midsize and smaller direct selling companies view communications as a marketing activity focused on Distributor communications. Given the stance of the FTC, communications oversight is essential at the enterprise level. This will expand the critical role of Distributor communications, deal with positive corporate reputation programs and broaden audience reach beyond the Distributor. The result can move the companies forward and allow for companies to build a strong, credible reputation among the general public which can positively impact sales and increase Distributorships.  

While every company has a unique value proposition, there are common communication threads that can benefit all industry companies keep communications cohesive, on message and focused.

1. Mission, Vision, Values Statements

These statements are critical to communicating the ‘who, what and why’ of a company. The vast majority of direct selling companies have developed these statements and use them to motivate and inspire their field organizations.

However, these statements can also prove critical in building relationships with consumers. A Harvard Business Review study noted that 64% of consumers that have brand relationships cited shared values as the primary reason, not interaction (primarily through social media), which only accounts for 13% of respondents’ reason for brand relationships.

Clearly understanding and articulating what drives the company, and then communicating that to a diverse and broad audience, is a critical step towards general market awareness and sustainable sales. The direct selling advantage is that the enterprise has two effective approaches for this communication – direct to the distributor as well as the customer.

2. Content Check

It’s imperative that all of a company’s content reflect the mission, vision, values and culture of the organization. Does the corporate message resonate for the audience for which it is intended and reflect the organization as a whole?  For text, are messages consistent, given they are and written with words to engage the intended audiences? Are key words and SEO best practices incorporated into a company’s text content? 

Are the images distributed through all communication channels on brand and on culture? Do the videos evoke emotion and portray your brand’s image – without being overly promotional? Videos should promote the company, but the entertainment value needs to outweigh the promotion and ‘sell’. And for those educational videos often associated with compensation plans – the same applies: are they engaging and informative, and reflect the company’s brand and culture?

Formal communication guidelines are strongly recommended to keep organizations on track in this critical area. They serve as a blueprint for the enterprise as well as a resource.  This living document needs to be kept current and easily accessible to both Distributors and employees.

3. Proactive Media and Influencer Relations

The definition used here includes journalists, bloggers and others with notable influence in mass media – online and offline.  Direct selling companies can have a tremendous advantage in mass media today, due to the internet and online channels and the Distributors that represent the organizations. Every Distributor represents an online voice and content on behalf of the Company. Few companies exploit this advantage by training their Distributors in effective micro-entrepreneur public relations. 

Proactive media relations can boost the company’s awareness and credibility, which is an extremely valuable asset for Distributors to grow and sustain their business.  It is an opportunity to capitalize on the business model as a full sensory experience that the ecommerce competition currently lacks.

Notably, these points are very broad and they are intended to start an internal discussion within direct selling companies on how to move forward in this new FTC era, using these new guidelines as an opportunity to expand reach and ultimately sales.

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