Integrated Marketing

How to STOP the Scatter Gun approach to Marketing

by Amanda Daniels-Allen | Sep 13, 2017 | Marketing Strategy, Mindset & Inspiration | 2 comments

Nearly all people I encounter talk to me about their scatter gun approach or the scatter brain they have when it comes to marketing. Some of the words people use are;

 – Scatter gun approach

 – Scatter brain

 – Can’t focus or not focused

 – Splurge; when they have time

 – Dip in and out

 – Have a go

So why is it that so many people struggle to focus when it comes to marketing?

In my opinion, I think I have found the reason…

Habit!

Because humans are creatures of habit its easier for us to just carry on with what we do every day then to do something different every day.

We become stuck in the rut of checking emails, replying to emails, answering phones when they ring, getting social media notifications, replying to them and then what I would call “sucked into media”. That could be your desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile, TV… which are essentially distractions and these distractions are keeping you within your comfort zone.

“Magic and miracles are ONLY created outside of your comfort zone!”

What is a Habit?

A habit is… a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

Making a start in the first place is what we should do. Not making a start generally comes down to fear. Fear of the unknown. For example; unsure about how or what to do, fear of what other people think of you, your blog, your video, etc. Fear of getting it wrong and nothing happens with your marketing (what’s the point).

It is this fear that debilitates us and stops us from moving forward.

If we delve a little deeper, the real reason why your marketing isn’t being done is because it is not yet a habit of yours.

We all learn something new every day; mentally and physically.

Remember when you were learning how to drive, swim or ride a bike? We all thought we couldn’t do it at the time, but with a bit of determination and confidence from our peers or parents we kept doing it until it became a habit. Now we don’t even think about doing it anymore, it is just done.

Habits are funny things. They start with taking a new action, like buying a chocolate bar on the way to work, having that coffee at break time, going a new way home and by doing it repeatedly it becomes a habit.

So, the scatter gun approach, how does that fit in?

This simply comes down to planning and having clarity.

A daily exercise of something as simple as emptying your head of ALL your thoughts; business, personal and anything else that is in there!

A simple trick I have got into the habit of every day, especially if I get overwhelmed to the point of stagnation, is to literally stop what I’m doing!

Grab a pen and paper and write ABSOLUTELY everything that I am thinking about into three different columns.

1. Personal – Get the car serviced, change light bulb, etc.
2. Business – Update email marketing lists, follow up with X, Y and Z, etc.
3. Other Stuff – This are things that need to be delegated or things that are not in your control, i.e. things you are worrying about

This is just to get everything out of my head, so I can clear it.

Sometimes our heads can become so crammed full of information, to do’s, reminders and more. We just need to take the time and stop what we are doing so that we can get clarity of the next step or the way forward.

We all know that saying… “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!”

Here are 5 ways to get rid of the scatter gun approach:

1. Don’t try to do everything at once

   Become great at one thing (like Facebook or Blogging, your choice) and then look at bringing in your next marketing activity. Choose a marketing activity. Something you are happy to do, feel confident in doing and can become GREAT at.

   A problem that people face is that they believe they should be doing EVERYTHING.

   Doing everything won’t get you anywhere quickly, just into a mess.

2. Break the elephant down

   Gain clarity and specificity on what you want to achieve.

   Write down everything in your head and then split things up into Business and Personal.

   Keep these lists somewhere safe, maybe in one book so you can keep looking at them. By keeping them all in one place, you may start seeing a pattern of the things you keep thinking about may not be completed.

   This is about noticing what you notice.

3. Talk to someone or have an accountability buddy
   

   This is a great exercise to do. Ensure they will listen and offer an opinion AFTER giving them context. If you work alone, are new in the marketing role and/or haven’t got much experience, speaking to someone else about your ideas and thoughts can spark other ideas. This can lead you down a different path as you may not have thought of those things before.

   Talking through your marketing goals with someone else on a regular basis will help you to not only take more action but also become more creative!

   This is something we help a lot of our clients with weekly and monthly. Why not book a complimentary 30-minute call with me to see how can help you step away from the scatter gun approach to marketing.

4. Plan your next steps
   

   This doesn’t mean a 12-month plan. To start with just plan a few marketing activities over the next week and move into a 90-day plan when have more time. Let’s say that you decide to get REALLY good at blogging. Look at nothing else but emails on blogging, webinars, podcast and learn as much as you can about blogging, until you have formed a habit.

   I’ve realised that for me to write useful content, I must be out of my office and change my environment, which could either a coffee shop or a different meeting room for me to step away from all the distractions I have mentioned before.

   This enables me to know where I am and what I need to do over a certain period as I will set deadlines. Also, afternoons for me are the best time for me to write.

   Work out which activity you are going to do and nail it like it’s your own!

5. Stick to it, even when its hard!

   Keep going week by week and you will start to see some results. Even if these results are not yet the ones you had hoped for, you need to have something to go by to be able to make any changes and tweaks for next time.

If marketing where easy and there was a blue print that worked for everyone in every sector, then we wouldn’t have this scatter gun approach. We would just follow the steps.

Marketing is easy when we make it easy for ourselves.

For some reason, we put so much pressure on ourselves to achieve far too many things in such a small amount of time, that may not be within our remit.

Get in touch and book a FREE 30 minute complimentary call to help us to find out about your business, your goals and target market. We will then use this information to help you move forward with your marketing strategy.