It’s hard to go online without seeing some latest new trend in digital marketing, and shiny object syndrome means that we allow our attention to be captured by ideas that take us off track from our core of success.
- Webinars are killing it for conversion these days!
- You’ve absolutely, positively, got to be doing video.
- Facebook is where it’s at! You need ads! And a group!
- And Twitter, seriously, that’s where people are really making money.
And so on and so on.
I honestly believe that all of these statements are true. For some people and some businesses. But they may not be true for your business.
In fact, if you don’t have your online marketing system in place, it’s likely that they most definitely won’t be true for your business.
All of these tactics can work…if
- Webinars can be great for conversion if you nurture and follow up with the people who attend.
- Video is a great place to be if your target buyer is on YouTube searching for the kind of answers you can provide. And you still need a way to follow up before your viewer is distracted by the next funny cat video.
- Facebook is a great place to engage people in your target market if you are willing to show up regularly and create engagement among your group members. What’s more, an ad alone will not grow your business. The best ads bring leads into your system, so you can follow up and engage.
- Twitter, well, I honestly don’t know. I love to use Twitter at in-person conferences but I have no idea how people use it to make money online.
All of these marketing tactics can have a place in your marketing system. But using any one of these tactics without having a system is like pouring a lot of water into a colander – the people you reach flow right through and onto the next shiny object that captures their attention.
Build the system first
When I started this website (which we kept as simple and quick as humanly possible), here’s the general process I used to build the marketing system and avoid shiny object syndrome.
- From day 1, there was an option to join my email list to receive emails about future posts and offers.
- Two weeks later, there was a valuable opt-in behind the email sign-up.
- I kept writing new posts and mentioning my upcoming products (like the Online Marketing Systems Workshop – it’s this Saturday in Evergreen, Colorado!) and sharing the content.
- Then I started the Momstyle Your Business Facebook group to engage with members of my community and build more of an ecosystem around what we do here. (And if I was more disciplined, I probably would have worked on my follow-up sequence first.)
Then focus on growth
Then and only then did I focus on growth, which now means my email list and Facebook group. Here’s what that short trajectory has looked like:
- I launched a 5-day challenge to grow the Facebook group and my email list.
- Now I’m going back through my articles to optimize them for search engines so they start to get picked up by Google.
- Parallel to this, I’m reaching out to podcasters and other blogs, offering to be a guest expert. If these tactics work, they will have a short-term impact on both lists, as well as contribute to organic search traffic long term.
Beware of shiny object syndrome
Of course, there are some shiny objects that keep sliding into my peripheral vision too.
- I’d love to be on Periscope, but if I’m honest with myself I have a little more housekeeping to do on my content, and I want to fully figure out Facebook before branching out into a new social media platform.
- I feel these tingling calls to do a live webinar or call for my community, but something keeps telling me not yet.
- I’ve been told my image quotes would be great on Instagram, but again, I’m not ready to sink my time into a new social media platform until I have Facebook figured out.
- A marketing consultant I hired mentioned that analytical types like me are on Twitter. It was tempting to follow that trail, but instead, I doubled down on what was already working on Facebook.
When a new marketing tactic pops up, yes it can add value to your business. And if you love the work of implementing the tactic and it helps you reach your target audience, it very well could be the next shiny thing that helps your individual business take off.
But no matter what the tactic is, it will add a whole lot more value to your business once you have your marketing system set up. Because then you have a tested way to nurture and follow up with the people you reach through that new tactic, via the solid foundation of your marketing system.
Join us
We’re going to be talking a whole lot more about marketing systems in Saturday’s Online Marketing Systems Workshop. This workshop is about the fundamental principles I used to build a system for my first business that now generates over 1,000 leads and 100 product sales each and every month. It’s about the principles I’m applying right now as I build this new business too, because I 100% believe they work.
The workshop is only $47. It’s this Saturday, January 23, from 9-noon. I hope you can join us.
Click here to learn more about the workshop