7 COVID-Friendly Tips For Success In Network Marketing

Written by Matt Zavadil
Updated June 3, 2022

Does success in network marketing seem like a pipe dream? 

You may have been working on your MLM business for a little while and feel frustrated. 

You may have been sold into the business by a company presentation or upline encouragement that made this seem super simple. 

But you’ve asked your friends and family to buy products or look at the business…

…and they’re not interested or even laughed at you. 

Then a pandemic came along that makes meeting people to show the plan or do home parties less than optimum. 

What is the fastest way to succeed in network marketing when it’s hard to meet 1on1 with prospects? 

Luckily, there’s good news. Success in network marketing comes down to a few simple tips.

Let’s dive in…

Treat MLM Like a Business

If you’ve ever heard people tell you that your network marketing business won’t work or ask if it’s a pyramid, then you’re experiencing the bad rap MLM has gotten over the years. 

Part of the bad rap is due to the way people get trained in many of the MLM companies or uplines. 

Making money in network marketing is similar to making money in any other business system. You need to treat your MLM efforts as a real business. 

A real business doesn’t rely on “hope & a prayer” marketing. A real business owner identifies a target market of customers and advertises to that segment of the population with effective marketing messages. 

Hope Marketing Doesn’t Work (And Screams: Amateur)

Unfortunate fact: Most folks fail to find success in network marketing. Why? They’re taught to use ideas that amount to nothing more than hoping they can fool someone into buying a product or joining a business opportunity. 

Why do I say that? 

Because asking friends and family or social media contacts to buy from you isn’t the type of targeted marketing that real businesses use. 

It’s hoping that someone will take action even if they don’t have the problems your product solves. It’s putting your personal relationships at risk because you’re using that relationship for financial gain. 

Wouldn’t you feel much better using marketing methods that attract people actively looking to solve the problems your product solves? 

For example, let’s say your product helps people with diabetes. Wouldn’t you get more sales and recruit more people if you attracted people with diabetes? Wouldn’t these people buy from you over and over if you helped solve their diabetes problem? 

Or, let’s say you’re in a business like Jeunesse and you sell skincare products inside your MLM business. Wouldn’t it make sense to sell to customers who are searching for skincare solutions instead of the random supermarket employee you bumped into? 

Bottom line? 

Ask yourself if you’ll more effectively find success in networking marketing by marketing to a targeted prospect base than random friends, family or social media “friends”…

Take this seriously. Commit to learning “real” marketing and looking at this as a “real” business. 

Success In Network Marketing Requires a Long-Term Plan

Commit to working your network marketing business for a long time after you commit to working it like a true business. 

This is easy to say and hard to do. 

Let me tell you a quick story. Way back, over 20 years ago, I joined one of my first MLM companies and made a relatively quick sale that netted me over $400. 

I was excited. 

I thought this was gonna be easy and I was gonna get rich and have success in network marketing in no time. 

I was young and impatient… I didn’t realize I had made a fluke sale and that my future success depended on me learning how to be a businessman and marketer. 

Can you guess what happened next? 

Yup! It took me a long time to make another sale. I got frustrated after a while and eventually quit that business. 

That pattern repeated itself in many other endeavors over the years until I finally realized that I needed to stop joining opportunities and believing that success would come quickly. 

The lesson I hope to pass on to you is that you must commit to working your MLM business for 5 years and longer. 

If you expect instant riches from network marketing, then you’re in for a heck of a disappointment. 

If you’re younger like I was back then, please stop reading for a moment and ask yourself if you’re committed to doing this long term. 

Online Marketing Education: Get One!

Did you decide that you’re committed to a long-term plan? Are you understanding that getting rich in network marketing isn’t about gimmicks and hitting up people on social media? 

Great! Let’s continue…

Your next step to success in network marketing is committing to getting an attraction marketing education. 

My background is music. In my younger days, I lived in Hollywood, had long hair and played guitar in a rock band. 

What did I know about marketing and having success in network marketing? 

Nada!

But, you know what? 

Once I decided to commit to a future in business, I found people who taught me about online marketing, getting leads and closing into sales or recruiting new distributors. 

My point? 

If an ex-rock guitarist with earrings and nose ring can build a network marketing business, then you can too. 

Your background doesn’t matter. What matters is a commitment to think like a child and get excited about learning again. 

Learn Everything You Can About Internet Marketing

The COVID-19 pandemic made some people worried about their futures from both a health and financial standpoint. 

I’m not so worried. 

The reason is that I already worked from home prior to the pandemic hitting. I already earned my family’s income from my Internet marketing knowledge. 

You know from what I told you above that I learned this information. 

You can learn it too. 

I would say that our world situation with COVID-19 makes it imperative that you learn how to use the Internet to bring in leads and sales for your network marketing business. 

I encourage you to start learning about:

• How to identify your best target market (some people call this your avatar)
• How to generate traffic online (through a blog, paid ads, a podcast, a YouTube channel, etc)
• How to attract leads for your MLM business from that online traffic
• How to educate those leads about why your product or opportunity is a great fit for them

If you get good at these four areas, then you can make money in your network marketing business no matter where you live. 

These four skills will change your life because you’ll never be beholden to someone else for income. 

You’ll know how to create residual income with these four skills. 

Knowing how to market properly and make sales from the Internet is one of the most exciting and liberating skills you can possess in today’s world. 

I hope you take my words to heart and do everything you can stop bugging friends, family or your FB friends…

…and instead start attracting interested prospects online because you learned how to be a professional marketer. 

It’s the fastest way to succeed in network marketing. 

Develop a Recruiting Gameplan & Mindset

After you’ve learned how to market successfully online, the next thing you want to do in order to succeed in network marketing is to develop a recruiting mindset. 

Yes, you want to make product sales. That’s always important. 

Most of the people your online marketing skills attract will be product customers. The majority of people will want to solve the problem your product helps with. 

Less people will have the desire to build a business like you. 

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on finding those people and putting most of your time and attention into helping them. 

The reason?

Because your residual income will grow only as big as the team you put together. 

Passive income is the way to get rich in network marketing. 

Now, remember…. This doesn’t happen overnight. You’re going to work your ass off to build a healthy residual income stream from network marketing. 

You’re going to meet frustration and down times in your pursuit of recruiting distributors. 

You’re going to hear new recruits say, “I’m gonna build this huge with you!” and then never hear from them again. 

Don’t get dejected. 

Stay strong in your goal for building a large downline. 

Don’t let others and their lack of commitment distract you from what’s important to you and your family. 

Keep working with those distributors who pay attention to you and work hard with you. 

Help enough of them grow their businesses and you’ll see your residual income checks grow larger. 

Commit to developing a recruiting mindset when your goal is finding success in network marketing. 

How To Succeed In Network Marketing Fast 

If you’ve made it this far into my post, then you know how I feel about succeeding in network marketing fast. 

The word “fast” is relative to how hard you work, how much you commit to learning to market correctly and staying true to your goals for the long term. 

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t become successful relatively quickly. Doing it over the next two to five years is a short time frame when you consider your entire lifetime. 

Here are some additional tips for speeding up your success timeline.

Set a Goal

Get specific when goal setting. Come up with something that gets you excited and pushes you. 

It shouldn’t sound impossible but it should make you a little scared to take on. That’s OK! Let that little bit of fear push you into action and become obsessed with overcoming all obstacles in front of you. 

Don’t set a time limit on your goal. I used to do this and found that I’d become disappointed when my goal wasn’t met by some random date I had set for it. 

When I started creating goals and worked hard to meet them, no matter how long it took me to do it, I noticed that more goals were accomplished. 

I think what happens when you put artificial dates on your goals is this:

You told yourself you’d start getting 10 leads a day from your blog or YouTube channel within 90 days. When you’re only at 3 leads a day in 90 days, you convince yourself that you failed and quit. 

But, if you had kept going, you’d be at 10 leads a day 30-60 days later! Who cares that it took 5-6 months instead of 90 days. You still got there and now you can work toward doubling that number. 

The same goes for income goals. Create your first income goal without a date attached. Just commit to getting it done and don’t ever stop until you do!

Design a 6-Month ACTION Plan

Notice I didn’t say “design a 6-month GOAL”…no, design a 6-month action plan.

Create your goal and then figure out which action steps will get you to accomplishing that goal. 

For example, I once wanted to get to 10 leads per day with this blog. I figured if I could get 10 really good blog posts to generate just one lead per day each, that I’d hit my goal. 

I then doubled it to 20 good blog posts just in case my estimate was wrong. 

Then, I developed an action plan for how I would invest each day for the next 6 months to make that goal happen. 

In the end, it only took 15 blog posts to hit my goal. 

The key is I didn’t tell myself it had to happen in 6 months…just that I would work hard at my goal for 6 months and then assess where I was after that time period. It took a little longer than 6 months to get my posts ranked to where the goal was attained….

…but that’s OK because I then had 10 leads a day coming in on autopilot for the rest of my life, whether I was eating dinner with my family, sleeping or working on my yard. From there, I kept working on new goals so that my lead flow continued to increase beyond that first goal I set. 

You need to do the same thing. 

Figure out what will make you happy and successful inside your network marketing business. 

Set the goal (lead flow, income, number of times you show your plan daily, etc) and then create a 6-month action plan. 

Develop a Positive Mental Attitude

I said above that you’re going to meet challenges and feel discouraged at times. 

Building your MLM business is definitely not all happy times. 

Your mental well-being is more important than your marketing skills because you’ll stop marketing if you allow negative thoughts to invade your mind. 

Is this easy? 

Nope. 

I still have days where I fight those negative demons inside my mind. 

You will, too. 

There’s simply too much negativity in this world and you can’t be naive to think it doesn’t affect your mind. 

Everyone is different when it comes to developing a consistent positive mental attitude. 

Some people are born relatively positive, while others fight anxiety and depression sometimes. 

Be honest with yourself, learn more about yourself as you grow older and figure out what you need to stay “up” mentally. 

I like to read positive books, listen to podcasts or watch personal development videos. 

Sometimes I need to get away from everybody, go for a run and sweat out any feelings of frustration. 

I’m an introvert so getting away from people helps go inside my own thoughts and gets me mentally energized and positive. 

You might be more extroverted and so you’ll need to find what works best for you. 

The point is this: Figure out how to keep negative thoughts, fears, anxiety or frustration to dominate your mind. 

Replace all that with positive thoughts about your future. 

Whatever it takes…make sure you stay motivated to work your 6-month action plan. 

Develop & Maintain Your Enthusiasm

Isn’t this the same thing as maintaining a positive mental attitude?

It’s close, but not quite the same. 

You can think overall positive thoughts and still lack enthusiasm or motivation to work your plan. 

One of the most effective ways I keep my enthusiasm for accomplishing my goals is to write them down and look at them daily. 

This daily reminder helps me stay committed to where my mind was on the day I wrote those goals down. 

Daily life has constant distractions to your goals. 

Netflix, the whims of family members or friends, or whatever will easily get you distracted. 

Keep your goals simple. Don’t make 15 different goals because it’s too overwhelming. 

Write one main goal down and let that drive your enthusiasm and actions. 

For example, when I had that goal to get to 10 leads per day on autopilot, I wrote down what getting those daily leads would do for me. I wrote down the income I estimated it would bring me. I wrote down the feelings it would bring me. 

Here’s a screenshot of that first goal in my notebook:

Whenever I felt my enthusiasm toward my action plan, I looked at that page in my notebook and it spurred me back into action. 

After that, it was simply a matter of increasing my daily lead goal in order to increase my monthly income…

…and more importantly, increasing the benefits in terms of how I felt to accomplish each goal. 

Tie your goals to how accomplishing them will make you feel and you’ll find that you’re more attached to getting to completion. 

OK, you’ve learned what you need to do in order to find success in network marketing. 

Want to know some “next steps” you can take to get things moving faster for you?

Here a few more resources that will help you: