Using cheap signs to market MLM is a bad idea
When you begin to market your MLM business, one possible criteria you might have in the forefront of your mind is to keep costs down.
Be it through cheaper web design, slightly less than premium business cards or perhaps coming up with cost effective inventive ways to market your MLM business. Sure, there are various ways to keep costs down but going to extreme measures to cut costs can actually have the opposite effect in the presentation and perception of your business.
For the cost of a few A3 sized bits of plastic (or if you’re really cheap, cardboard that you then cover in sticky tape), some textas and petrol – you too can plaster your suburb and surrounding suburb with marketing for your MLM opportunity.
It’s not expensive but boy is it ugly, unprofessional and seriously – when was the last time you looked at someone advertising something with handwritten notes and thought it was credible?
Homeless people make signs in handwritten markers – and that’s because they have no money. How is anyone going to believe you’re rolling in the dollars or that you possess the slightest hint of success when you employ the same marketing a hobo does to market your MLM business?
The other side of the coin is that people might actually even start to get annoyed with your ugly advertising clutter; as Anna Greaves from ThinkBelieveHave.com recently found out when trying to market her Polaris Global business on the cheap.
Whilst amusing, from a business perspective these signs will remain up offering a poor reflection of your business until the owner spots them, or the council takes them down.
This of course could take weeks and if you’ve plastered your marketing signs everywhere, as is often the case when someone goes on a sign erecting spree).
Although ugly and unprofessional to look at when not defaced, the above signs are undoubtedly not going to Anna Greaves and her website any marketing favours.
Is saving a few pennies with hand written signs really worth risking the reputation of your MLM business over?
In the US, it is generally illegal to post signs without a permit (which would include cost of cleanup). Don’t know about “Down Under”. 😀
Here’s a sample law:
“No sign shall be attached to, or leaned against, any street furniture, utility facility (including poles and boxes), street light, building, fence, or any other sign.”
http://www.ci.sanmateo.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=745
Based on this law, all the signs above are illegal. 🙂
Here’s some more illegal bandit signs in Kingsford and Bondi, New South Wales
@K. Chang
Yeah, most councils ‘down under’ also ban the practice. In this particular case it’s the council of Stonnington and they apparently don’t take too kindly to unauthorised signs being erected;
The website was not cheap. Cheap posters can be defended by that their only purpose is to get people to visit the website.
The posters have worked as intended if people are visiting the website. The combination of cheap and expensive advertising may work well, provided you are able to “defend” it to customers – they must feel that it is “intelligent” and “smart” to use the cheap posters as a “contrast” to the website.
“My posters have even gotten free “advertising” on behindmlm.com, and people are visiting the website to see “Who makes these ugly posters?”. They are pleasantly surprised by the website. Though, many of those visiting the site in this way are critics looking for something more to criticize, but the website gets many more visits.” 🙂
thinkbelievehave.com was ordered through thehomebusinesspeople.com and is simply a replicated website template. The Home Business People seem to be charging around $174 for a basic website and then $25 a month in hosting.
The hosting isn’t cheap but if you’ve got no experience in creating a website (or using the internet) then $174 isn’t too bad. It’s certainly not going to break the bank.
Although they might serve their purpose, it’s a bit hard to defend illegally advertising your website – which appears to be the case in this particular instance. How would you positively explain that to a customer? Illegally advertising your website on the cheap is neither going to come off as ‘intelligent’ or ‘smart’.
Especially if the local council decides to prosecute you.
On a raw traffic scale yes, they might work but it’s targeted traffic you should be aiming for.
Like the photos 🙂
while you may be right that people won’t think you’re “rolling” in it if you hand write your signs… one key component of MLM is new people associating and knowing that THEY can do it too.
I don’t mean you can triple the sign you put out, but that if you’re too slick, too polished, and spend too much on advertising, interested people may think THEY have to be like that and avoid it entirely.
The flipside though is that it’s hard to take a sign that says ‘make serious $$$ today’ if the person who wrote the sign is using textas and cardboard.
Here in Yank land, we call that “ghetto marketing”. It is meant as a derisive term (ref: ghetto blaster)
I assume “textas” is some kind of a pen?
Yeah textas are what you call markers I believe.