Direct selling companies love representatives who are independent, self-motivated entrepreneurs. At the corporate level, we have a strategic focus on new product launches, promotions, and sales, but we’re also invested in the values we share and the lifestyle we and our representatives espouse.
That’s why we, as an industry, need to be on top of how our representatives communicate brand experiences, values, and products with their networks and audiences, as well as help them find more avenues to grow their businesses. When a company and its representatives join forces, it’s always a win-win situation. This type of approach asks your company to use its resources, tools, and technologies to set up smooth processes across your network of representatives, and then take the administrative tasks off their shoulders so they can focus on what they love and do best: build relationships.
We’ve learned how important this approach is when lockdown started and the whole world switched almost instantly to digital communication, specifically through social media. Our dōTERRA representatives, known as Wellness Advocates, have had to invest more time and effort into marketing themselves online, and we as a company quickly provided them with the tools to be successful in the new digital marketplace.
When a company just provides branded content for social media marketing, it doesn’t work as effectively because the content has to be posted in a timely manner and representatives find the process of posting that content cumbersome. Representatives have to go to an asset manager (if applicable), choose what content to post, decide on when to post it, and finally share it on social media. It can be a huge challenge for them, as they may not be the most tech-savvy individuals. It’s also a huge pain for you and your marketing team, especially if you’re running limited-time campaigns.
This problem is actually easy to fix when you create a smooth workflow between your marketing team and representatives and proactively suggest content for them. From what we’ve experienced at dōTERRA, such an approach—which requires several important steps—enables representatives to become involved in active promotions on social media and to greatly grow their sales.
Arm Your Representatives with On-Brand Content
Representatives are far more likely to post on-brand content when it’s at their fingertips and organized in an easily accessible asset manager. Provide your representatives with quick (and simple) access to product images, branded quotes, and promotional pictures for them to post online. They’ll then be free to pick content that fits their needs and aesthetics and never be out of ideas for what to post. We store our branded assets on dōTERRA Social, a social selling software powered by PromoRepublic.
The feedback on dōTERRA Social from one of our top-performing Wellness Advocates speaks for itself: “I love that my leaders have access to the robust library of unique content and that we’re not sharing the same pictures or promotion posts. It’s also so intuitive. You don’t have to be experienced with other social media or design tools.”— Hillary LaMay, Platinum dōTERRA Wellness Advocate
Encourage Your Representatives to Build Their Personal Brands
When your representatives show authenticity, show their true selves, online, it resonates with people who share similar values, concerns, and lifestyles. On social media, this authenticity emerges in a person’s tone of voice, distinct visual style, and unique approach. This individuality is what attracts followers (and potential clients) and enables your representatives to build positive reputations.
At dōTERRA, we understand that when we give our Wellness Advocates the opportunity to develop their individual approaches and personal brands, they more actively represent our products and build relationships with audiences. Knowing this, we provide tools to help our representatives stand out online, creating unique lifestyle content and adding graphic elements to branded content to keep social media pages compliant while still being in line with their personal brands.
Take it from Diamond dōTERRA Wellness Advocate Nicole Chase: “I think the posts suggested to my calendar are great, as they are versatile. I have what makes me happy—what I like to see—as well as what my audience wants to look at and share. I’m happy that the content is not just geared toward one thing. It engages, educates, promotes products, and inspires me to be creative.”
Help Your Representatives Consistently Post
Marketers know the importance of posting regularly to your social media accounts. It’s how you build trust with your audiences, keep them engaged, and also make the online algorithms work for you. For representatives, it may not be so simple. They’re likely not professional marketers by trade, nor are they going to be able to devote large chunks of time to posting, as they already have a lot on their plates, building their networks and businesses. And on top of all that, representatives don’t always know how to create and consistently follow a content plan.
Providing a corporate-level content plan to representatives is incredibly useful to them, not to mention easy for you to create. Consistent posting across an organization, no matter the size, is achievable with the right software.
At dōTERRA, we collaborate with our representatives when:
- Our marketing specialists suggest ready-made posts for representatives’ pages via dōTERRA Social.
- Representatives can approve them on the go, using the dōTERRA Social app or editing them before posting, if needed.
Provide Your Representatives with Continuous Education
Few representatives are going to be star marketers from day one, so it’s important for their development to provide them with pathways to expand their reach. One effective pathway is continuous education. With the PromoRepublic team, we at dōTERRA run a live educational series to help our Wellness Advocates learn about all things social media, from the fundamentals for beginners to more advanced topics for top performers. Some of our past webinars include:
- How to choose the right social media platform
- How to make social media pages attractive
- How to create outstanding content
- How to engage with customers in groups and communities
Implement these steps and watch the reach and engagement on representatives’ pages grow, bringing them more opportunities to connect and build their businesses. That then extends your brand exposure and opens new sales opportunities for your company.
