Should you be primarily concerned with offline or online methods? By "offline" we mean connecting personally, one-to-one, with "prospects" and customers either by telephone, handwritten letter, and/or in-person.
In many cases you will need to be concerned with both online and offline attraction marketing skills. Although every home business situation is unique, you can gain insight from the case examples below.
Case Example #1: A Network Marketing (MLM) Business. Network marketing is a people business and, no matter what strategy you use, you will need to connect with your customers, distributors, and "prospects" personally - typically by telephone.
Every network marketing business includes four stages of interaction, the first of which is to FIND interested customers and distributors. "Internet marketers" find (attract) their "prospects" online. Traditional network marketers find (attract) their "prospects" offline. From that point on, whether you attract people online or offline, your most powerful and effective interactions will take place offline -- for the most part by telephone.
What about the SELL stage? As an "internet marketer," you can provide a great deal of valuable information online. You may even SELL some affiliate products online. But a prospect's decision to actually join your MLM company will most likely take place after a relationship has been established, typically by telephone.
Network marketers can point to excellent online TRAINING for all the different marketing strategies (including both online and offline strategies). This can be supported primarily through telephone MENTORING (coaching). Finally, ongoing FOLLOW UP can be conducted largely through automated methods, but occasional personal conversations will make all the difference in the world.
KEY POINT: learning person-to-person interaction skills, relevant to each of the four stages, that are consultative and attractive is critical to ALL network marketers.
