The Vital Card and Marketing

While I always talk about looking for value first in any opportunity (one that's so good, you're happy to be involved even if you don't make a dime), a critical element is the quality of marketing tools made available to you.

Most people don't know how to develop professional marketing tools of their own, and often a company will require you to have such tools approved for compliance reasons. And even if you can build your own materials, if you can't replicate these for a team then you're going to be stuck with your own referrals if the company isn't providing your team with a good way to spread the message.

Again, I always feel this should come second to value. I get it: market something well and you can sell garbage. But garbage can only sell so long before people realize what's happening, and then you can't make any more sales. And then you're back to square one in having to find and build a program.

So value (I don't mean cheap, I mean getting something valuable at whatever its price point) is the thing that will make something last; but marketing is the thing that will get it off the ground.

This is why I'm so pleased with the presentation on the Vital credit card opportunity website. (Click the link and you can see it.) It is clean, professional, and tells its story plainly. (I also summarize what I like best about the program here.) This kind of professionalism also builds trust, which is critical when you're asking someone to do something.

At the time of this writing, while the program is in pre-launch, the only thing people need to do to be involved is enter their email address. (It then asks you to confirm by tweeting or Facebook posting, but after you click on either social button, you are confirmed whether you finish the posting or not.) And even later, there is no cost to be involved.

An email is a pretty easy thing to give for an opportunity this well presented.

Of course as a marketer myself, I do hope they expand the tool set. One key that very few programs offer is a way to connect to Analytics and track one's marketing efforts. This means it's hard to focus on efforts that are actually bringing you results. But for now, long before they launch, I'll happily drive traffic to a great looking website that offers a simple way for people to make some extra cash ... and all they need to provide for now is an email address.