Wow! It’s super-easy to get caught up in somebody’s marketing hype. After all, that’s what the marketers aim for.
Their mission in life is to entice a larger and larger portion of their traffic to actually click the “I’ll Buy It!” button.
I find myself sucked in by the claims of easy this or massive that. I click all the fancy widgets and end up on their mailing lists and getting their oh-so-interesting emails.
I chase after each of the “undiscovered” ways to increase traffic, to increase click-through-rates, to automate my cash-flow, adding each one to my growing folder of “I Bought This” files.
What I end up with is a mish-mash of techniques and processes with no coherent pattern to them. I follow at random.
I end up with random results.
It Doesn’t Have to Be that way.
My tendency is to act randomly. I’ve been that way most of my adult life. Not sure why, but that’s just me.
These impulsive actions tend to get me all tangled up, and make me lose track of where I’m trying to go with my business. The cohesiveness of my thinking and of my planning dissolves into somewhat managed Chaos.
I suffer from lack of structure.
A Business Plan is Not the Answer
No, a Business Plan might seem like the answer, but it is not.
A Business Plan’s main focus is the big picture. It can’t manage the day-to-day activities that go into making a business go.
And a daily plan won’t do, either.
Daily is too much of a micro-view of business.
That’s how I get lost the easiest – nose down to the trail like a Beagle, and off I go with a new scent on the trail.
No, what I need is that intermediate planning device that allows me to see details in the big picture when I need to see them.
Sort of like a magnifying glass.
I Need a Plan for Planning.
One example of how I get tangled up is with making and distributing videos.
Videos as a marketing device are well-proven to make a difference. Making videos is a whole ‘nother topic.
But, the distribution of videos takes time and thought for maximum exposure and effectiveness.
I found a web service that allows me to upload once and distribute to many video sites. www.oneload.com allows me to upload once and distribute to many video services. With a Free account, I am limited to 100 video-somethings and a file-size of 500 MB. (No, I do not have an affiliate account with them.)
Ooh, ooh, ooh… Great! Now, I can shoot my videos and get them posted in a hurry. Let me get started!
But how do I go about managing the flow? I have to set up accounts with each “partner”, decide on categories, devise campaigns…
There’s a ton more to do than shoot videos.
Write It Down
Perhaps one of the most useful advice I ever got from a marketer was to “write it down”.
I knew that.
I’ve always advised my clients to get away from “scratch-paper management” and create formal processes and procedures. If it sin’t written down, I’ll forget it in a heartbeat!
More exciting things come along and push that idea or resolve out the window.
So here, I have to write down my Plan on how I’ll use OneLoad to market using videos. I’ll mark down who the destination sites are, how I create and access accounts there, what sorts of videos I will use, how will I measure, and on, and on…
Without this sort of roadmap for each of my main areas of concern, I’ll get lost in the jungle of Hype.
Writing Down the Bones
In order for me to stay focused, I need to keep in front of me the map I made for getting to my destination. If I don’t write it down, I can’t keep it in front of me. If I don’t write it down, I will forget it in an instant.
If I don’t write it down, I will lose my way.