How To Avoid Marketing Overwhelm

"Two paths diverged into a wood, and I took the one less traveled... and that has made all the difference."
Robert Frost

Every time you scan the news headlines, it probably seems like some new marketing tool or platform is trending - like TikTok. ABC company is making millions using TikTok - the headline reads. 

Your curiosity is piqued. You click on the article. "Hm, maybe TikTok would be good for us to advertise on," you think to yourself. You start watching TikTok videos. You read a few "how to advertise on TikTok" blog articles. Then one of your colleagues tells you they've just started advertising on TikTok, and their videos are getting lots of attention. 

"Well, if it's working for them, it should work for us too," you think to yourself.

Maybe you open an account, and your team starts posting videos and placing ads. Perhaps you hire an agency to do it all for you.

Meantime the dollars flow out, and nothing rushes back in. 

“Ok, maybe we shouldn't be on TikTok”, you think to yourself, “but what about Clubhouse? Or perhaps we should be doing those custom Facebook audience-type things they spoke about in that Wall St Journal article?”

Then the marketing overwhelm descends like a thick black cloud, causing usually one of two actions:

1) total shut down and paralysis or

2) the “squirrel syndrome”. One of my colleagues used to have the nickname Squirrel because every time he heard of a new marketing tool or way to advertise his business, he'd jump on it, but only be halfway through its implementation before he charged off to try the next new thing he heard about.

Yes, marketing your business can feel overwhelming. Yes, there are new ways to advertise your business popping up every day. But this doesn't mean you need to be advertising on them just because they're trending.

Cut Your Marketing Overwhelm By Asking Yourself These Three Simple Questions:

1) Will this new tool or platform help us reach our target audience better? - if yes, proceed. If no, move to the next question.

2) For positioning purposes, do we need to be "seen" on these new platforms by our target audience? For example, saying you are active on Clubhouse.io might reinforce people's perception of you as cutting-edge, etc.

3) Can we use this new tool or platform to sell. Or is it just positioning?

Above all, don't feel pressured to jump on the latest "marketing trends." Sometimes doing the opposite thing to everyone else is a very good strategy indeed!