01 May FOMO In Marketing

People being driven by their ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ can be seen every day in marketing. Having worked in the field for over 25 years, one of the most time and resource wasting activities can be this scatter gun approach which not only is unlikely to deliver the results you are chasing, it can give marketing an undeserved bad name.

When the internet first started taking shape in the early 90s, early adopters jumped on it for a number of reasons (and many of them right). These innovators saw it as a new opportunity to connect with a growing number of people who may be interested in what they have got to offer.

When yahoo and then google took hold in the late 90s a swelling number of businesses took advantage of adwords and primitive versions of content marketing to generate new opportunities in the market.

When Myspace, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media channels popped up on the scene in the early naughties, engagement with the masses took a hefty step forward.  By this stage most Aussie households had a computer, phones were not yet smart, but people had started adopting new forms of tech for their daily social interactions. It was the next frontier and a definite opportunity to connect with audiences.

Now in the 2020’s we have literally thousands of digital channels to promote our offerings and connect with our potential market. New avenues are being launched on a monthly, weekly and hourly basis, at a rate that is likely to make your head spin!  The problem is, even if you are a brand like Coke with an estimated $5 billion dollar annual marketing budget, you couldn’t cover off all of the channels.

In the real-world, businesses need to be savvy with how they spend their resources.  Not just financial but human capital. The smartest operators take things back to basics.  They really try to understand who their target market is, be realistic about what they do better than (or at least as well as) their competition,  and then plan marketing that is measurable so they can track how tactics are working and refine as they need to. Then be open to new opportunities as they come along.

This might mean that Facebook is or isn’t right for your business, it might mean you need to do things a little differently to how you have it them in the past, or it may mean just refining what you are already doing to ensure you are capitalising on your marketing investments.

Don’t fall into the trap of doing something just because everyone else is, they might be doing it just because others are and its wasting their time and money too.  Call in an expert, get back to basics and build a sustainable marketing mix that is right for your business.