Copyright ? 2006 Rick Williams
Network Marketing is no different to any other business. In order to succeed it is essential to understand your target market.

Promoting your opportunity to the wrong audience will drain your cashflow and eventually force you out of business. But it is amazing how many network marketers are unaware of this basic marketing principle.

So many upline leaders teach the "shot gun" approach of making your list, getting information to them and seeing who sticks. This is one of the reasons we have a 95% failure rate in this industry.

The bottom line is that any network marketer really needs to learn the basics of target marketing in order to succeed in the business.

Before we go on, it should be stated that there is nothing wrong with mailing out some product CD's to your warm market. It's what you want to do, but that's just your first step. Not your only step. There are smarter ways to build your business..

So the first thing we need to do is define our target market:

These are people who are ALREADY actively using or consuming what we are promoting.

The first rule of marketing, is to sell products people want to buy, to the people who want to buy them.

You can't sell a steak to a vegetarian. You can't market a product to someone who does not have the desire to consume it.

You can't sell an opportunity to someone who isn't looking for one, no matter how 'perfect you think they would be' or how much money you think they could make.

In our industry, we have two target markets:

The first is our potential business partners.

This target market consists of one primary group of peopleother network marketers, or people who buy products and services related to building a network marketing business.

Network marketers are opportunity buyers, meaning they are actively buying what you sell. They understand the Network Marketing industry so you don't have to spend time explaining basic concepts and the business model.

They are also experienced enough to know that it takes work and application to build a successful network marketing business.

It is essential to make the distinction between 'opportunity buyers' and 'opportunity seekers'. An opportunity seeker is anyone looking for a quick fix to their current problemnothing more than someone who filled out a survey and raised their hand to say "I would like to earn extra money".

There are specific ways of marketing to opportunity seekers but don't be lulled into thinking that this is your prime market for business partners.

Target opportunity buyers for the greatest chance of success.

The second target market consists of our product customers.

However, we also need to be laser focused when targetting our product customers.

Let's use as an example a nutrition based opportunity. Most people would think that their target market consists of people who have health issues.

That is true to a point, but we can get, and want to get more specific than that.

How about people who have health concerns, and who actually spend money each month on health products' These people are your TRUE target market. So how do you find people these people?

People who have acid reflux, for example, currently buy prescription medication for it, and are between the ages of 30 and 60.

If you have a nutrition product that helps relieve acid reflux, then those are the specific people you want to market to. Not your Uncle Bob.

Just remember the difference between people who simply inquire about your offer, and those who are already spending money on something similar.

That is called "target marketing, and it's the foundation of your marketing efforts.

Clearly identifying your target market is a major step to achieving sucess in any business. Network marketing is no exception.