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When It Comes To Marketing, Consistency and Discipline Beat Shiny Objects Every Time

Written by: Chip Wilson

Article Overview: When you are starting out in a new venture, all you want to know is what sort of marketing works so that you can focus on it 100%. Because there are so many options, you will be tempted to throw your efforts in 100 different directions and chase down anything that looks promising. As a result, you will find yourself chasing after each new "shiny object", abandoning avenues that will produce for you if you give them time. This is a classic path to failure. Instead of chasing the gurus, learn from what they do - spend the time to master each form of marketing before you chase the next best thing.

When It Comes To Marketing, Consistency and Discipline Beat Shiny Objects Every Time

Our world is dominated by the psychology of immediate gratification. The Internet only exacerbates this problem.

Buying into the immediate gratification thought process is exceedingly dangerous for an entrepreneur. It is directly at odds with two of the most important traits embodied by all successful entrepreneurs – consistency and discipline. There is little glamor in being disciplined and consistency is often viewed as boring, so these traits don’t get much press. However, they are more important than 90% of the activities on which most on-line entrepreneurs spend their time.

For many entrepreneurs, the allure of “shiny objects” draw precious attention away from the focus that they need in order to become truly successful marketers. Many of these items are, in and of themselves, valuable tools. But they need to be purchased and used wisely, with discretion. The true cost of these items may be more than the price tag you see on their website. Chase too many of these trinkets and it may cost you your business.

Best Intentions, Wrong Actions



All anyone wants from their marketing is to identify what converts well as rapidly as possible, and then just repeat the process multiple times. This is understandable and completely valid. However, the message that entrepreneurs must take to heart is that the question is not really about which strategy to use.

Any marketing strategy can yield results if you stick with it day in and day out. (Assuming that your message is sound and appropriately targeted, but that is a subject for another time.) The key is to concentrate your efforts, monitor your progress and refine your campaigns, not just to scatter your shots and then look for a blood trail.

This is especially true when your efforts are just beginning. Too many on-line entrepreneurs are so unsure of how they should market that they decide to try everything at once, almost at random. These folks rapidly become overwhelmed and exhausted by running around chasing various strategies and tactics without any coherent method to their madness. This activity is further complicated by the barrage of “shiny objects” that get thrown at them faster and more furiously as they wait for their efforts to produce results.

There are many examples of highly successful marketers who owe their success to a specific form of on-line marketing. You can find a guru for every camp! Many of them are almost handing out the step-by-step instructions they used to create their success. The obvious contradiction is that precious few of their followers are actually duplicating their results.

How do you explain the dichotomy? It all comes down to the fact that the majority of aspiring on-line entrepreneurs have the wrong mindset about their marketing at the outset. They operate under the assumption that if a form of marketing is going to work, it will work right away, relatively easily. (This expected ease may, in fact, be what they thought they paid for if they bought a "shiny object".)

A Better Alternative

The most important lesson to learn from the gurus is not the details of their latest new tactic, but rather to understand how their knowledge reflects the importance of mastering each form of marketing, one at a time.

Instead of being a dabbler, I suggest that you create a 2-3 month action plan for any form of marketing you will try. Create specific objectives, such as to create 3 new adgroups a week, or to publish one piece of fresh, new content on a fixed schedule until you have 60 – 80 out there for the world to find.

As an added incentive, form an accountability group of your peers to whom you will answer regularly. They will keep you honest even if you don’t feel like continuing, or when some resistance or doubt is creeping in. They can also help prevent you from jumping into additional forms of marketing until you have mastered the rhythms of those you’ve already started.

The beauty of marketing is that it is entirely within your control. That is, so long as you have some basic control over your own mindset. When you have the patience to exercise discipline and consistency with any proven form of marketing, you will gain the momentum you seek.

Related Articles
  Ooooh! Another Bright Shiny Object!
  Sifting Through the Marketing Chaos
  5 Mistakes I made in 2005
  How to Achieve Consistency on the Sales Force
  Look out for the new shiny object

Article Tags: allure, best intentions, blood trail, campaigns, consistency, discipline, discretion, entrepreneur, glamor, immediate gratification, marketers, marketing strategy, multiple times, price tag, rsquo, shiny objects, successful entrepreneurs, thought process, trinkets, valuable tools
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



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