Internet marketing involves creating a plan and using current technology and trends to outsmart the competition online. The biggest mistake when it comes to launching a site is that you spend your time creating the site instead of doing the research required to understand what today’s audience is looking for in a particular niche and what will interest them.
What Is Shiny Object Syndrome?
Many marketers, unfortunately, fall prey to “shiny object syndrome.” Shiny object syndrome is when you keep buying and trying new programs and approaches but never keep at it long enough to see if you get results. The most successful internet marketers set long-term goals, have a strategy to reach them, and then focus, stick with it, and do not get distracted by all the new stuff that comes along. This means they’re attracted to new buzzwords, trends, and channels and feel they must use them on their target audience. Before adding these new concepts to your marketing plan, here are some things to consider.
Although “shiny object syndrome” can be alluring, the issue is that the marketers don’t bother to see if these are things that the target audience is actually interested in.
People will quickly leave a site if they can’t find the information they need, no matter how trendy the marketing is. Being new and “shiny” may make them seem “hot” and like they maybe could blow away both the audience and their competitors. However, this can backfire on the marketer if the content is not interesting to the audience, or worse yet, if it prevents them from getting the valuable information they need.
Before trying any new concepts, think about your current business strategy and the problems you are trying to solve. Consider how you reach your customers, the number of visitors that use your information, your resources, and whether you are considered an expert.
If you don’t integrate these new concepts into your goals, you risk your marketing plan–and your audience–turning against you. Conversely, if you don’t understand these considerations ahead of time, the chances of the new concepts succeeding are slim.
Don’t adopt new tools simply to use something new – it may not be appropriate for your target audience, and you’ll end up wasting valuable time. You cannot improve your plan’s chances of success by adding new elements without first understanding why it fails. Chances are, this will result in continued failure.
Changing Your Marketing Plan
Before making any changes to your marketing plan, be sure that everything is in place for success. Before making any changes to your marketing plan, be sure that everything is in place for success. Have you done the proper steps to ensure a fully functional system is in place to work towards these new goals?
Does your team know about your new goals? Does your team have the proper tools and resources to help them reach your goals? Do you have a good budget to work with as well?
What I mean is this: if you are going to change your logo, your artwork, your website, your slogan, your tagline, and so on, you must be sure that all of these elements are:
- 1. Working in harmony together
- 2. Evocative enough so that they communicate what you want to communicate
- 3. And that they will stand the test of time for at least a year, which is about how long it will take for you to see any kind of results.
Choose suitable marketing methods for your target audience to ensure the best chance of success. For example, if you target women of a certain age, make sure that your strategy is appropriate for that audience.
Conclusion
Do not fall for “shiny object syndrome as an internet marketer.” You can use new objects in your strategy, but you must consider your current plan, what you are trying to achieve overall, and if what you want to add will help you reach your goals.
As an internet marketer, you will constantly get bombarded with new things, apps, tools, and programs that will supposedly make you 10x more money or build a passive income. But before you dive into these things, decide what you want to do in your online business.
Do you want to build a long-term business, or do you just want to make a quick buck? If your answer to the latter is yes, you are likely susceptible to shiny object syndrome. It’s easy to get distracted by cool things out there, but you should always stick to the plan you made for yourself. Avoiding shiny object syndrome will be the best thing you can do for your Internet business.