If you're already one of the thousands of Avon representatives around the world, or looking to become one, then one question you might be asking yourself is:

How Do I Find New Customers?

With Avon, unless you sell the products you aren't making any money. OK, there is the option of taking the management route, but even then, if you can't sell Avon cosmetics, or haven't done so, then you're not well placed to pass on tips to people who join your team.

So listen up and take heed. Here are some great ways you can find yourself some new customers.

Right now you are looking at (and reading) what could prove to be a brilliant sales tool. You're reading a hubpage and by joining hubpages you can build yourself some exposure and drive free traffic to your own Avon website, enabling people to buy Avon cosmetics from you 24/7.

Making a page just like this is as easy as using a simple word processor - and you can change anything you write if you change your mind at any point. So start small, then improve and build on it over time if you're new to the whole idea of online publishing.

Create a Hubpage About Avon Products

What you shouldn't do is create a bland one pager, saying "Avon cosmetics ... blah blah ... get yours from me ... blah blah ..." No. You can work much smarter than that!

Step By Step Guide to Using Hubpages to Find New Customers

• Join Hubpages (it's completely free)
  
• Look at the Avon range you have, the current catalogue - and pick your favourite item, your favourite range, a new product, one that's most popular ... and simply write about it. Write an article about just one Avon product.
• Tick the box to say your hub is commercial
• Add NO MORE THAN 2 links back to your Avon website where you are selling Avon cosmetics online

Now, don't sit back, there won't be a rush as half the world beats a path to your website to all spend $100 apiece in the next 24 hours. No, but your article is out there, slowly clawing its way up to the top of Google.

So, what then? OK, if that were all there was to it, that'd be too easy, so once you've done that, set yourself a target to produce more great articles on individual Avon products. Include testimonials from your own customers. Be enthusiastic about the product. Have you used it? Did it do wonders for your friends? Engage people with your writing.

• Set a target to write X articles per day/week/month on Hubpages about individual Avon products. You can start them and save them unpublished, then just pick at them when you have time until they're finished. Then publish them.
• Build your individual articles (over time) into a whole series. You can link your individual pages into groups, so what starts off as a bunch of random articles will, over time, end up a comprehensive collection of articles, grouped together into relevant sections

Note: Don't include the link to your website on every hub. That is over-promotional.

Become an Expert

You could become an expert in one particular area. Maybe you're interested in face creams, or nail varnish techniques. Write informative articles without any promotional aspect to them, except a link back to one of your promotional hubs, that has a link to your website.

Give benefit to your readers and build your business by giving people free information.  They will become your fans, tell others about your Avon hubs and come back for the information you're giving.

Remember the girl who made all the YouTube videos showing people how to put make up on? Well she wasn't trying to sell any products, she was simply sharing her makeup tips with people and she got to be famous! Well, maybe that's not for you, but certainly by being useful and helpful to people you will generate a buzz around your site!

Become an expert by publishing a hub a week, or one per Avon catalogue perhaps... be in it for the long-term.  Build your Avon business on strong foundations and gain a great following.

The initial way you're told to sell Avon is through party plan.  Finding people to hold parties at their houses.  But how can you get more people to do this?

You can find new customers through more party plan if you:

• Put up small notices/postcards wherever there is a noticeboard
  
• Always keep a stock of business cards and printed adverts handy for when you spot a new board.
• Seek out where social and activity groups hang out and get your advert onto their board
• Take out a small local paper advert.
• Ask your family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues.
• Take the Avon books to work with you - or get your friends/neighbours to take one to their place of work.
• Place free classified ads locally online
  

When you do hold a party, try to book two further parties from the people that are at that one.  Make the dates quite soon, so they don't go off the boil.  Maybe you can time their party to coincide with them receiving their order!

Get friendly with the local hairdresser, don't go in when they're busy, do a few walk bys and find a time when they look empty, or quiet. Then go in and ask if they'd like to have a stock of Avon catalogues to collect orders from.

You can offer them the party host bonus, or some other incentive.

A lot of people who go to hairdressers are there every week or two, so it could work out quite well.

The best hairdressers for this would be the small, local, back street ones, who rely on regulars, rather than the funky, chic upmarket ones with all the bright lights - but don't pre-judge, ask them anyway... you might be missing out on a niche market you never knew existed.

Other Local Businesses

You'll find other local businesses that might be ideal partners too, for example Spas and beauty salons, even tanning salons.  Quite a lot of people bring a friend along and those people are in reception bored while they're waiting!

If you can get in with the staff at your local maternity hospital, you can leave your book with them - and even a basket of goods or samples.

You have a captive audience of people who need a little pampering, plus their visitors might buy them a small gift.

Make Up Gift Boxes

When you've a few more products, samples or a bit more cash behind you, you can buy gift boxes and make them up into nice hampers of all sizes, available for sale immediately.

• Making Your Own Gift Hampers

If you can start supplying ready made Avon gift hampers into the maternity wards, or even the shops in the public area, then you can tap directly into a market crying out for a spot of gift-giving and pampering!

Hampers to Order

A bit harder to achieve, depending how long it takes you order new products in, unless you're prepared to buy in large stocks for yourself speculatively, but why not make up a small leaflet offering gift hampers to order, let people pick from a range of products and you can make the hampers up by the next day (if you have stocks) and have them delivered direct to the person at their bedside. This will need a bit more thinking through as it will depend on your time available, your stocks and how close you are to the maternity hospital.

There are formal Avon baskets, but you can also make up your own, finding your own baskets and packing them yourself - perhaps making up Baby Gift Baskets with a mixture of gifts for mum and the baby, to include other products from outside the Avon range even - such as booties, bibs, or even a nappy cake.  Have a brainstorming session with some friends or new mums and find out what items they'd think would be good to include.

Scour your local noticeboards, online and offline, as well as your local paper, to find out where there are Xmas Fayres, or other fairs being sold.  Find out how to get a table, or go to the fairs and try to find somebody that has already rented a table to see if they'd be interested in going halves with you at future dates.

With this you'd need to have the products in stock already - and mostly you would be selling what you had, but there's also the opportunity of taking orders on the day and booking parties.

Make yourself a myspace account and put into your profile that you are an Avon rep. Get active within the Myspace community, make friends and see if you can generate some interest in your local area to have a party with you, or some interest to your Avon website to sell products online.

You can use free classified ads websites to advertise for people to have parties, or to drive traffic to your Avon website.

Use sites like Craigslist or Gumtree ... there are thousands of places online you can advertise.

Tips for Advertising

Don't confuse your message: write one advert for finding people who want to have a party, another for people to direct them to your website - and a different advert for people who might like to join your team.

You will confuse people if you let them know they can do all three things, simply target one of them - and once you've had contact with them, maybe when they are a happy customer, you can bring up the other options in a conversation with them!

I hope  you've found the above ideas useful - and I wish you success finding new customers for your Avon cosmetics business!

Good luck!

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Photos by:

Wikimedia Commons Makeup | Lipstick | Avon Cosmetics, Anew Cream