Everyone loves to get something for free. Run your favorite search engine using the word “free” and you’ll have thousands of hits. It is just a matter of fact, people like receiving things and they also love the challenge of a good contest. You can use both of these facts to promote your direct sales business.

Giveaways: What can give away to promote your business?

Pens – Wherever you go, someone asks to borrow a pen to write something down, and then forgets to give it back to you. Why not take advantage of this “natural” tendency and use it to your advantage? Check to see if your direct sales company has pens with the company name on them that you can purchase.

Better yet, spend a little bit of money and have them printed with your business URL. The next time someone asks to borrow a pen, you can give them one with your name and website on it. They will see this web address each time they use the pen and it might help generate a sale. The pens aren’t that expensive, so why not give them several? They can give them out instead of their favorite pen, and in that way they’ll have done advertising for you.

Mouse pads – If you work on a computer, you use a mouse pad. What better thing to give away than something that will be useful and that you know will be used? People sit at computers all day long with their hand resting on their mouse pad. If you have your website address printed onto mouse pads, and give them away, you’re keeping the name of your business before potential customers. Choose something that’s visually appealing, as well as functional. If the person you’ve given the mouse pad to has many people visit them during work, they may ask where to get one, too.

Contests: Use them to generate leads.

One way to generate leads is to have a contest that people will be eager to participate in. Choose an item, such as a gaming system or the newest MP3 player, as a prize and you’ll have people beating down the doors to your direct sales website to enter. Make sure the rules are clearly stated so people know what to expect and know when a winner will be announced.

Of course, for a chance to win, they’ll have to leave their name, address, email address, and telephone number. Make sure to advertise the contest with a press release, and you’ve increased the possibility that more people will sign up. Don’t forget, however, to issue another press release when the contest is over; you need to announce the winner.

Using giveaways and contests to bring traffic to your website accomplishes two things:
1) It promotes your business by giving people a reason to come to your website.
2) By providing these items, not only will you bring potential customers to your website, you can also take the price off of your taxes as advertising costs.

Take advantage of people’s desire to get free items, and you’ve taken a step into a new realm of marketing your business. Remember to choose wisely when to hold contests and what items to giveaway to advertise your website. You might generate so much buzz about your direct sales business that you won’t lack for customer and direct leads for quite some time.

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