As a network marketer working to build your business, you are given lots of advice about how to do it. The truth is, network marketing isn’t what they tell you. Unfortunately, what happens is many of you end up believing what you are told, find no success, and then end up quitting in sheer frustration because it just doesn’t work!

You see, many network marketers (and you may be one of them), somehow come to believe that the business is a numbers game just like direct marketing. You p probably have heard your upline, sideline, crossline, or whatever line tell you this.

The problem with using a direct marketing approach with network marketing is that it forces people to focus solely on recruiting. You have to become a non-stop recruiter machine. What happens to a non-stop machine after awhile? Yes, you are right, it burns out! With network marketing, you have to become a trusted and respected leader for your team.

The fact is, the secret of network marketing is viewing it as a relationship game. It is true that direct marketing is a numbers game, but MLM is far from it. Why? Because people are much more than numbers. They have goals, dreams, and desires. They are mothers, sisters, grandmothers, nieces, aunts, and so much more. Constantly trying to recruit people and not working on building relationships will result in sheer frustration, no success, and ultimately, you quitting your network marketing business.

As Michael Dlouchy says in his ebook, ‘Success in 10 Steps’, ‘There is only ONE way to build your spider web for life-long success. And that is to build relationships. To do that, you need to become a mentor with a servant’s heart. When you do, people ask you to please sponsor them into your business.’

As you can see, this is a 360-degree turnaround from the direct marketing ‘recruit’ mindset. By building relationships, when you and your prospects work together to create a powerful team that is supportive with everyone helping each other out, it enables everyone to achieve the level of success they deserve.

The question you may have it how can this be done? How can I build a strong and supportive team that is all about relationships and not recruiting? The answer is simply to become a student. Learn about people. Study them. Build your network right for life. Then mentor and coach your team to do the same.

Get away from the ‘this is just a number’ game mentality in your network marketing business. View your prospects and team members as people and help them achieve their dreams. This is the true secret to successful network marketing and knowing it will enable you to have the success you desire once and for all time.

If you are reading this you’re probably interested in whether direct response radio advertising can help your business grow profitably. To find out the answer, you’ll have to go through the process of selecting an agency and conducting a test. But where do you start? Which agencies do you talk to? First you should know that there are two basic “kinds” of direct response radio agencies: Full Data and Black Box.

The Full Data and Black Box models sit on opposite ends of the spectrum in their approach to and philosophy about direct response radio advertising. Yet, as different as they are, they are the same in one crucial way: they are both successful at procuring the discounted, remnant media rates required by all direct response radio advertisers. They differ in their tactics, which can have enormous implications for your business. As we’ll show you, the Full Data agency offers a number of customer benefits that are worthy of serious consideration.

Comparing the Black Box Agency and the Full Data Agency

With the Black Box model, the radio agency commits to buying a certain amount of remnant media over the course of a year if, in return for that commitment, the station sells it to them at a super-low rate. The Black Box agency, now obligated to that amount of media, resells it to its clients for a marked-up (and possibly variable) amount. Black Box agencies won’t disclose what they’re paying for the media before they mark it up and resell it to clients. As a result, clients don’t see detailed station-by-station or spot-by-spot reporting. Instead, they only see metrics based on the entire media spend over a particular period. This is where the “Black Box” name comes from – clients are not given any level of detail about what’s going on behind the curtain, only basic “dollars in – dollars out” reporting.

The Black Box Agency:

[BB Graphic] [http://www.strategicmediainc.com/images/black_box_agency.gif]

Full Data agencies also obtain remnant media rates. However, instead of negotiating for the full year and taking on a large and possibly risky obligation to the radio station, the Full Data agency negotiates on behalf of each specific client during the week or two prior to airing. This labor-intensive “last minute” approach allows the Full Data agency to obtain remnant rates, but without the inflexibility or conflicts of interest that stem from a long term contractual obligation. As a result, the Full Data agency can provide detailed reporting of media performance , including station, day, daypart, format, geography, call center, adcopy and so on. Full Data is the only way for a client to understand the answer to the questions “what works, when does it work, and with whom?” This transparent approach is where the name “Full Data” comes from.

The Full Data Agency

[FD Image] [http://www.strategicmediainc.com/images/full_data_agency.gif]

The Customer Benefits of the Full Data Radio Agency

Fee Transparency vs. Floating Rates

With Full Data agencies, the agency fees are fully disclosed, reconcilable, and don’t change unless agreed upon in advance with the client. Since the Black Box markup is variable, or floating, the agency can increase its margin to take more profit if a client’s campaign is performing better than expected. Without visibility inside the black box, there is no way for the client to know when this floating margin occurs.

Accountability for Profit Optimization

Full Data agencies show clients reporting detailed to the individual station level. They can therefore demonstrate that they are optimizing the profitability of a campaign. With the Black Box approach, the client loses the ability to hold the radio agency accountable for profit optimization. The client can’t know that the Black Box agency is cancelling unprofitable media because the client isn’t able to see the full station by station data. In a direct marketing business, data tracking and reporting is what enables the very foundation of direct response advertising: testing and continuously improving the profitability of a campaign. Without visibility into the data, clients of Black Box agencies cannot know for sure whether their campaign is providing the maximum return on media dollars.

Input into Business Improvement Initiatives

Every dollar spent in direct response radio advertising will generate valuable data that can be used to improve not only the campaign but also the business. Calls, close rate, average revenue per sale, credit card decline rates, customer retention rates … these are all areas that can be linked back to certain media buys to optimize profitability. With the Full Data approach, the client can see the detailed results data, and therefore has the ability to benefit in many ways from its own radio media spending. With the Black Box approach, this is not possible. The client loses the ability to learn what’s working and why. The client can’t know which audiences its campaign is working best (and worst) on, because the client doesn’t have visibility to station formats, days, dayparts, and other data that can yield important – often vital – insights about the client’s customer and campaign. Without this information, the client is often left without guidance as to where to focus efforts to improve radio advertising results should they be falling short.

Freedom to Choose or Change

What if the client wants to engage another radio agency? With a Black Box agency, the client doesn’t have the knowledge of its campaign that makes it possible to pick up with another agency where it left off with Black Box. The client’s campaign knowledge stays visible only to those inside the Black Box agency, forcing the client to start from scratch if they decide to use another agency. Full Data agencies, in contrast, provide the client with all of the information needed to test with another agency.

Better Access to High-Performing Media

Full Data agencies buy media just before it becomes remnant, which allows them access to media that is a combination of lower cost and higher quality – the sweet spot for direct response radio advertisers. A Black Box agency can only place a client on a station if there is remnant time available – that is, radio airtime that is left over and unsold — in other words, bottom of the barrel inventory. Nobody else, including the Full Data agency, wanted it.

More Effective Media Schedules

Full Data agencies work with detailed data and have tested different schedules to determine which schedule configurations work better. Buying media according to those station- and product- or service- specific schedules reduces the client’s cost per lead and cost per order which increases profits. With the Black Box approach, the ability to buy specific placements in specific days and dayparts is seriously hindered because the Black Box agency clients simply have to take whatever airtime is leftover – in whatever day or daypart it falls, regardless of whether that happens to be a time when the target audience is listening or ripe to pick up the phone and buy.

No Conflicts of Interest

Full Data agencies have one customer – the client. This creates a very close alignment of interest between the Full Data agency’s success and the client’s success.

Conflicts of interest are inherent in the Black Box radio agency model because agency has two customers — the client and the radio station. The commitment to the radio station requires the Black Box agency to buy a certain amount of media from each station. They must fulfill the obligation by selling to a client or paying out of its own pocket. As a result, the agency might book a client on underperforming stations just to satisfy the needs of the Black Box agency. The client would never know, because the poor media would be buried in a total media buy that achieves the client’s minimum profitability objectives. The result could be that a client’s campaign could have been more profitable, not just profitable enough.

There can also be a conflict of interest among Black Box clients. If one Black Box campaign is performing better and is therefore allows Black Box to charge more for the media, the lesser performing campaign might find itself without access to the same opportunity for quantity and quality of media placement.

Media Budgets Customized By Client That Maximize Campaign Profitability

Full Data agencies can take full advantage of radio’s ability to target a specific demographic and quality of listener, because they negotiate specific schedules (i.e. number of spots by time of day and day of the week) with individual stations and networks. This greatly increases the efficiency of the media, delivering leads that are more likely to convert to sales, have methods of payment, and remain customers over the long term.

Full Data agencies negotiate each media buy with a specific client/campaign in mind. As a result of this approach, a 100% customized “pool” of media is built for each campaign, thus optimizing profitability. The whole idea of media profitability management is based on the process of continuously refining media buys, weeding out the stations that perhaps once performed well but are fading and replacing them with new high performing stations. This is a process completely enabled by the Full Data agency model, and which is nearly impossible to either do or monitor in the Black Box agency model.

Black Box agencies, in contrast, don’t know specifically what product or client they’re buying for when they negotiate the annual media contract. As a result, they generally have to buy their media based on 18+ CPM’s, which is a shotgun approach that always includes wasteful media. Plus, remember that Black Box agencies don’t get to place their media according to a specific schedule. They only get to choose from unsold slots (generally the least desirable schedule) on that station.

Call Forecasting Maximizes Monetization of Leads

Forecasting calls and orders is imperative to a smooth running direct response campaign. From staffing call centers to managing inventory and procuring enough product to fulfill orders, having accurate and smooth volume is very important. For example, call centers are used in many direct response marketing businesses. The radio ads entice people to call a toll free number as the call to action. If the call center is not properly staffed, many calls will go unanswered and the media spend will be a waste. On the flip side, if the call center is overstaffed with idle agents, the center will lose money.

In the Full Data model, call forecasting is much more effective because the Full Data agency places media according to a specific schedule, not just whatever time is available. This greatly decreases the percentage of wasted calls due to call abandonment. In addition, because the Full Data agency is placing specific media schedules, the client knows their call and order volume will not fluctuate wildly.

Under the Black Box model, call forecasting is difficult because there is no way to know ahead of time when the stations will air the remnant rates. In addition, the Black Box model is very vulnerable to wide call volume fluctuations that create a nightmare scenario for clients. Call volume can suddenly fall in the latter half of each month because stations give bonus airings to their high-paying customers (called “rate card” advertisers) at the end of the month. Also, the sales teams at the stations try to meet their numbers toward to end of the month so some additional remnant inventory goes to rate card advertisers and to Full Data agencies. The Black Box agency as no control over this because they’re the last to receive inventory.

Flexibility and Working Capital Management

Full Data agencies require only one week’s worth of media one week ahead of time. This enables the client to better manage its cash flow and working capital. Many Black Box agencies require large up-front media commitments, often up to a month’s worth of media spending. This is to mitigate their own risk due to their large media commitments. This strategy transfers the agency’s risk to the client. The difference can often translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in the client’s working capital.

A Full Data can make adjustments in campaigns with relatively short notice. Let’s say it’s week one of the four week month and the client’s campaign experiences a dip in performance that needs to be diagnosed and remedied. The Black Box agency has committed the next three weeks of the client’s media spend, whereas the Full Data agency has the flexibility of selectively booking the following week’s media until a solution is found to the campaign performance problem. The Full Data agency’s flexibility saves the client a lot of money and time.

Summary and Conclusion

For some radio advertisers, the Black Box approach probably works just fine. As the client, you simply hand over your money for media and as long as you always get a certain amount of revenue or a certain number of orders in return, you’re happy. If you’re a company that doesn’t particularly care about data analysis or the insights your advertising dollars produce, and you have a very profitable campaign that minimizes the need for diligent profitability optimization, the Black Box approach may meet your needs.

But you must also be comfortable with the fact that the Black Box approach concentrates a lot of information and power in the agency’s hands and away from the client’s hands. An over-concentration of power combined with a misalignment of interests (incentives) can lead to problems. Add-in the known conflicts of interest and there is increased potential for substantial issues.

Fortunately, there is a better radio agency choice for business people who require accountability in their agency and relish the insights and information produced from their media spending.

With the Full Data approach, all of the “catches” are for the agency. This method to obtain remnant media rates is much more time intensive than the Black Box agency approach. Nonetheless, the hard work pays off for the client. Not only does the Full Data agency obtain remnant rates, they also provide additional important benefits.

You do have a choice when it comes to radio advertising agencies. At first it may seem overwhelming to decipher the similarities and differences between the available alternatives. We hope that this paper proves useful in assisting you with your selection process.

A key concern of most marketers is how to build their Email lists without compromising on the subscribers that already exist. After all, Email marketing is about building relationships with your best customers without neglecting others. The process of growing email lists can very easily turn into spam. This is something all marketers need to steer clear of. Most companies are always looking for ways to get their email marketing address lists together. Large companies are trying to get email addresses for their existing customers and prospects, while small or startup companies are just trying to create any list at all.

With careful and meticulous planning, you can build strong relationships with new subscribers. Here’s how:

Collect only relevant information

While requesting a visitor to sign up, collect information that is relevant to your business. A recent study lamented that most of the corporate probing was unnecessary, given that most companies never act on the information they extract from their customers. It is crucial that you know exactly what you intend to do with the information you’re going to collect. Moreover, you should also be able to prove to your visitors that information you would be collecting from them is actually vital for your business.

Do not make your customers repeat information

Most customers don’t mind telling their banks the ages of their children if they think the bank will use the information to help them sort through the myriad college savings plans or make them aware of estate planning issues. But nothing irritates customers more than having to repeat the same information to each channel as if it’s the first time they’ve ever heard the information. This is especially true in the case of Email lists on web sites.

Focus your list
We have discussed the importance of focusing or targeting customers earlier as well. Current customers are the most important e-mail addresses to collect, much more so than prospects. They’ll be more receptive to your communications and likely to respond, since they’re familiar with your company and its products. Do not run campaigns that attract a high number of visitors that have no interest in your products or services.
Scrutinize and leverage all available data

Scrutinizing all data that is collected is vital. This is particularly true for bigger companies. Let the rest of the company know what you’re doing–they may know of a quick way they can help you. There have been many cases when employees come and go, unknown projects sprout up and wither before anyone discovers them and multiple, redundant databases flourish.

Special Offers and Discounts

Special offers like coupons and discounts are classic direct marketing techniques that translate extremely well to email. In order for an offer to be effective, it must provide something of real value to the recipient. Minimal discounts are not enough to get the readers’ attention; you have to offer something of substance. Don’t discount lower than your profit on the transaction, however. Having a time limit on these types of offers is extremely important, in order for the call to action to work.

Apart from using the Internet as a medium, there are also some ways you can use your marketing efforts in the real-world to help build your Email lists.

Networking Meetings

From your local chamber of commerce, to specialized industry groups, the meetings of many organizations are great opportunities to make contact with new people. You are exchanging business cards with interested prospects or possible referral sources, so make sure that you send appropriate email communications to these people. Start with a personal email recapping your conversation with them, and letting them know that you will be adding them to your monthly email list. Don’t just start sending a barrage of email to every person that you come in contact with, however. Make sure that the person indicated some interest in what you have to offer first, or your contact will become quickly unwanted.

Trade Shows

Whether you have a booth, are one of the presenters, or are simply attending a trade show, you have an excellent potential opportunity similar to networking events, but at a much greater scale. Organizing the follow-ups to people you actually spoke to yourself, and then adding the person to your personal list is a given.

The general information requests gathered by associates at your booth can be handled in a similar way. Lastly, you may have organized a giveaway or contest to gather more leads at the show. These people are frequently less interested in what you have to say, and more interested in whatever they might be getting or winning. As a result, it may require secondary contact to obtain the permission to add them to your regular communications. In general, hitting contest winners with a “hard sell” is not usually effective.

Seminars

Organizing informational seminars is a great way to build a healthy relationship with prospects and potential referrers. One effective technique is to have advance registration, and to ask permission to send regular emails at that time. This way, even if the person is not able to attend the seminar, you still have an opportunity to stay in touch with them. After all, they were interested enough to register for the seminar.

Events

Concerts, parties, art openings, or any other occasion that gathers people together can provides an opportunity to build your email address lists. Having a registration or check in location, or associates with clipboards working the room are just two ways to make contact. In the case of events, it is a good idea to offer some kind of incentive to boost signups. However, make sure that the person can only receive the incentive via email. This way, you will improve the quality and accuracy of the lists you are collecting.

Post Cards/Direct Mail

When a company has an existing database of postal addresses, direct mail may be the best way to get the email addresses for your existing customers and prospects. Again, offering an incentive always helps stimulate a greater response, and is particularly effective when there is a pre-existing relationship. This helps increase the typical response rate of converting postal address recipients to email recipients. Publish a specific, but simple, web site address on your mailing to direct people to a landing page with the list signup on your site.

Everywhere you turn, you see marketers both excited and anxious about the changes in the industry, as web/mobile technologies open new doors while complicating strategies and budgets. The dream of building meaningful relationships directly with consumers is now a reality and everyone is now part of the direct marketing universe. EVERYONE!

It’s all coming at us at a furious pace and so it’s no surprise that some fundamental building blocks are getting pushed aside. The new technology for delivering marketing messages is dazzling and gets those creative juices flowing. But translating all of this into sustainable financial results will in large part depend on how more mundane issues are addressed now in order to reap the rewards in the next few years.

The tools out there to develop, manage, and track campaigns in each channel are plentiful and robust. More than ever before, if I want to know about e-mail performance, web traffic behavior, catalog response rates, or retail sales, I can get oodles of information sliced and diced in hundreds of ways. And “more information” almost always brings a smile to a marketer’s face.

But let’s not forget that this is now a MULTI-media, MULTI-channel world. Customers no longer exist primarily in one channel or another but rather in all of them simultaneously. And so we need to see all of this information in an integrated model and we need to do that quickly.

We know that web traffic impacts retail sales (Toyota’s Yaris), that catalogs send people to web sites (Victoria’s Secret), and that social networking extends the influence of word-of-mouth (iVillage). To optimize the reurns on our marketing investments, we need to know “how much” of an influencer each of these factors can be in a given set of circumstances. We need to be able to test these variables. We need to know the outcomes in terms of revenue/profit but also in terms of customer lifetime value. There just aren’t enough companies looking hard at CLV in this new environment.

No doubt you’re spending lots of time with the technical wizards who can take the new tool palette and turn them into a web/viral marketing push that reaches hundreds of thousands of potential customers. And you should be.

But you should also be spending lots of time with more traditional tech experts in more traditional technical areas such as data design, database management, and application development. Chances are you’re existing systems aren’t ready to mesh retail, direct response, web traffic, and mobile data into the sorts of business models that you’re going to want to see. It’s not an IT challenege, it’s a marketing challenge. And developing these is no small undertaking – just ask the people at amazon.com or American Express.