Greetings fellow home party consultants!

How many of you are tired of trying to build your Home Party Plan Business with dead beat leads, poorly attended Home Party Meetings, cold calling lead lists, and spending more money than you make?

Then your troubles have ended!

How would you like to attract an endless stream of NEW home party plan recruits, home party plan sales representatives and customers right to your front door with credit card in hand?

A home party plan business opportunity is the business of marketing! Regrettably, many of those who pursue this industry have no idea how to market or promote (their home based home party plan business)!

There are many ways that you can market your business without spending any money. While it might be difficult to do an entire no-cost marketing plan that is effective and efficient, many of these ten ideas will definitely help stretch your marketing dollars. While free, some of these tips do require effort, and you may have to learn new skills, but others are so simple everyone can and should be doing them.

1. Thank You: Thank you is the mark of an educated individual! Studies show (as indicated in my post about appreciation & party favors), that people will do almost anything if they feel GENUINELY appreciated! Say “thank you” to your customers. This is rather obvious, but many businesses do not have a “formal” process in place for saying thank you or showing appreciation to their customers. Say it verbally if possible, send an email, pick up the phone. Let your customers know you don’t take them for granted.

2. Free online classifieds and link listing: Not my favorite method. I will discuss further in another post why I don’t care for it and offer suggestions on how to further improve on the message. Don’t get carried away with this, but do take advantage of some of the free ad space online. Typically if you search one of the major search engines for “Your industry + add link you can find a few decent sites where you can list your business for free.

3. Article Marketing: There are many, many online article submission sites. The deal is that you write an article that others can use in their ezines or on their websites and in exchange, they give you “credit” at the end of the article in the form of an “author bio” or credit paragraph. Search for “article submission.” The more closely related the article is to your industry, the better. And, please triple-check grammar, spelling, and logic.

4. Social Marketing: Sites such as MySpace (link to myspace posts) Posting in forums just to promote your business is considered bad manners. However, if your post has value to the discussion, it is usually okay to post your website or company name in your signature line. Be careful not to “spam” forums. Just like a press release, be sure your post is newsworthy and well written!

5. Effective Follow Up & Follow Through: Remember the old adage The Customer Is Always Right? What happened to that philosophy? Great customer service does well to help people tune in to WWIIFM and answers the question Make Me Feel Special And More! When people love something (and I do this so much) the will tell at least one person. When people have a bad experience, they will tell 10 people! For more on this issue, be sure to get my FREE Report 10 DEADLY Home Party Plan Mistakes Revealed!

Home Party Plan Success Tip: Always under promise, ALWAYS OVER DELIVER!

6. Ask for testimonials: One of the best tips The Renegade Network Marketer, Ann Sieg, gave me as my coach, friend and mentor is: If a client or customer praises your product or service, ALWAYS ask them to write down their testimonial! Deut19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. (and now you know the foundation upon which the justice system is built). Indeed in the mouth of two or more witnesses shall every word be established!

7. Ask for Referrals: It stands to reason, if you are getting testimonials, these very people will be the mother lode of potential home party recruits and customers for you. Asking for a referral is a simple as ABC, 123! Your question would go like this, thank you so much for your kind word in that beautiful testimonial you gave me. Who among your friends associates and acquaintances would most likely benefit from the services (home party plan products etc…,) I offer? Home party plan demonstrations are a great venue to obtain referrals!

8. Blogging: (What the hell is blogging?) My blogging expert and friend Amanda Proctor does well to explain. Be sure to check out her extensive services. You want a blog, trust me!

9. Press Releases: A press release is a public service announcement. As such it must be newsworthy & properly written. Why is publicity is better than advertising? Simple, when something is made public it is now common knowledge. In the world of commerce, there is a concept known as critical mass. That is at some point in time, enough people know about something such that it sells itself. It is upon this principle that the Home Party Plan Industry is founded. Publicity. In my post relative to skill acquisition, I discussed the importance of learning how to write. Learn about press releases first if you do no know how to write them.

10. Craigs List (see video tutorials on how to do this), more tutorials coming your way!

11. Continued Education: This commonly referred to as dripping information (refer to post about avoiding verbal diarrhea). It may come as a surprise to you, BUT not everyone knows what you know! Tip sheets, fact sheets, helpful hints, etc., can do wonders for your business. This is why grocery stores offer free cooking tips on how to prepare certain foods and my personal favorite the how to make a home cooked meal under $10!

Purpose of dripping information: your customers learn skills needed for various projects and are more likely to buy the products there. Involved in a home party plan that sell eco friendly cleaning products? Tell you what, stain removal is a big deal, you could for example You can offer something simple like a STAIN removal tip sheet if you sell cleaning products.

Creativity is key in home party plan success!

For more ideas on marketing you the home party consultant, be sure to read: http://homepartyplansuccesstips.com/2008/07/16/marketing-your-home-party-plan-business-with-samples-testimonials/

A beintot!
Party Plan Pat