The pollution of marketing

Corine La Font, Contributor

At high school, we learned about the different types of pollution - air, water, land, and noise - but I would like to suggest marketing as a form of pollution. Why marketing? Just like the other traditional forms of pollution, marketing, whether offline or online, brings with it its own contaminants.

Many persons, companies, and self-taught leaders market their products and services to you. There is a barrage of emails - no less than 100 in my inbox each day, with someone trying to sell me something. Some are worth looking into and some are worth deleting. How can you tell which to look at with all the noise happening not only on the Internet, but also on websites you visit or in your inbox? Hard, right? Some of you reading this may even suffer from information overload, severe confusion, and stress from the simple fact that you think you need all that information and so you keep it until you get the chance to either respond or look into the opportunity in more detail at a later date. Really, now?

If this is happening to you then you need to follow the tips below to get a handle on the situation before it gets the better of you and it's too late to turn back:

1. One of the things we need to recognise is time is not on our side, so to manage it well, we need to pick and choose those things that can help us now or in the short term. Focus on an area or two that you want to work on such as better budgeting for your family. Make that your focus and decide on a time frame in which you want to accomplish this. That means that any other emails coming in your inbox that have nothing to do with budgeting should either be placed in a separate folder, appropriately named for ease of access, or maybe deleted.

2. Stay focused. Many times, I go to Facebook or to my email to carry out a specific activity and upon reaching these sites, I find myself distracted by the notifications or wall posts or emails from a friend and end up signing out, only to realise later that I did not do what I had originally set out to do. What a waste of time! Now, I have to sign back in again to start all over. I know this has happened to many of you, and so the headlines or subject titles of emails or pictures placed on posts tend to be a major distraction or contaminant that leads you away from achieving your purpose.

3. Reduce or start eliminating those subscriptions. Just because they are free does not mean that you have to sign up for everything you see. You know you won't get the time to go through all of them. Not all free is good. You must decide how much information you can consume and how frequently. I resisted doing newsletters for a long time because I didn't want to be seen as one of those pollutants that keeps bombarding your inbox. I did some deep thinking and after liaising with my clients and networks and noting the frequency of other newsletters that were successful, I decided to give it a try, and now, my newsletters are sent out to my list once every two weeks. The content is concise and the tips shared can be implemented immediately. It's a fast-food environment in which readers want solutions to their problems now. So quick, short, and easy is the way to go.

4. Marketing is a non-stop activity. You have to be consistent and creative if you wish to reach your target audience, so those marketing their services, including me, cannot be blamed for doing what needs to be done.

We are in business for a reason, right? However, we as marketers need to understand our markets to know what they like or don't like and even how they would prefer to receive communication.

Some like text, some like audio, and some like video or even a combination. Get to know your audience so that when you send your campaigns or follow-up emails or newsletters, you don't end up having a high unsubscribe rate as a result of your subscribers or followers feeling overwhelmed and bombarded. Realise that they have a lot to deal with in their own lives, work, and family, so take some of the additional stress off and make your communication more welcoming and palatable so that it can be consumed within one to five minutes.

5. Stay away from SOS - Shiny Object Syndrome. Don't go clicking on everything you see that catches your eyes. It lands you in trouble. Most times, they are bugs or viruses or a never-ending rabbit hole. If your gut tells you it looks suspicious, follow your gut feeling and stay away!

Take back control of your environment, work, or personal space online. Use the five tips above to help you not only manage your time, but also to clean up your inbox as well as regain peace of mind to breathe and focus on what really matters in getting you closer to your goals. Try out this tool to help you http://bit.ly/QVDxn9, and remember, only 12 more days to Authors Summer School 2014! Sign up now at http://bit.ly/1nlQYYp.

Corine La Font is a self-publishing, online marketing and virtual events specialist and consultant. She is also an award-winning publishing resource in the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. Get a copy of her book at http://amzn.to/TFHQka and tune in to her radio programme at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/helpdeskja. She can be reached at corine@helpdeskja.com.