Is Shiny Object Syndrome Sabotaging Your Marketing?

Do you find yourself bouncing around from one marketing activity to another?

Maybe you find yourself lured into trying the next new thing because you see your peers doing it, and think you should be doing it too.

Or you see a new strategy promoted on social media that’s guaranteed to bring you clients and sign up for the course. You’ve purchased others in the past, but this is the one...

Jumping around like this is getting you nowhere fast! It’s eating up your time, your energy, and your money - and you’re still struggling to find clients.

You’re not alone - we’ve all been there! I’ve bought courses and memberships I’m convinced are right - only to get bored halfway through, or (embarrassingly), not even start them.

What’s shiny object syndrome?

Shiny object syndrome is where you focus your attention on something new and then drop it when the next new thing comes along. It’s like being a marketing magpie, attracted by the new shiny activities to promote your holistic business. If left unchallenged, frustration sneaks in and you can fall out of love with marketing, or even worse, you fall out of love with your business.

I’ve had clients want to give up because even though they’ve tried really, really hard, they still aren’t finding clients and building a sustainable business.

Marketing consistency

When it comes to marketing, practitioners usually fall into two camps:

1. Those who jump from one marketing idea to another, constantly changing strategies
2. Those who focus on one or two key strategies and stick with them until they get results

Which camp are you in?

If you're struggling to find clients, I’d guess that it’s the first one.

Start with the fundamentals

Understand who your clients are and know what makes them tick. If you’re still trying to figure this out, check out this article and podcast on finding clients starts with knowing who you're looking for.

Have a clear marketing message that communicates exactly who you help and what you help them achieve – this is then communicated consistently throughout your marketing. Here’s a blog on creating your marketing message. 

Know what you have to offer your clients that solves their problems in terms of your products and services – you have to have something to sell.

Focus and consistency

If you have been doing any marketing, look at which methods have worked best for you so far and attracted clients and enquiries to your business - do more of those. If nothing’s worked yet, or you’re just getting started, pick two or three strategies (no more) that work to your strengths, your skills and the time you have available.

Don’t even try and do everything at once, you'll be setting yourself up to fail. The key to marketing yourself well is being consistent - once you’re in your stride, you can add in other activities.

Many marketing strategies are a long game, and you probably won’t get great results straight away. Doing things that take time to develop is good for building a sustainable business - just doing something once or twice isn’t enough.

If you don’t have time to build your marketing machine and need clients quickly, look at strategies like personal outreach to your existing network. You’re more likely to get clients from people you're already connected with than starting from scratch. If you want to find out more about how to do this, check out this podcast and article - the fastest way to find clients.

When you’ve decided your approach, stop doing the other activities that are distracting you and focus. Once you’ve been marketing yourself consistently, reflect on what’s working. Every time you get a new client, asking them how they heard about you will help you to understand this.

Marketing is a long game and there is no one size fits all. Just because it's right for someone else, doesn't mean it will work for you. Accept that it can take time and experimentation to get your marketing right, but once you have the right recipe, it will flow.

If you want to start making your marketing work for you, let’s have a chat about how I can help you.