Cure Your Marketing FOMO: Do Less with More Focus

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. According to a Mashable article by Samantha Murphy Kelly, "Report: 56% of Social Media Users" Suffer From FOMO," it's a common problem. People who suffer from severe FOMO would give up chocolate for social media if ever presented with such a cruel choice. Most marketers probably already suffer from mild to moderate FOMO, but marketing FOMO is a greater problem than worrying about missing out on the latest online gossip; it's the fear of missing out on the latest social media platforms, content strategies, and other marketing trends that impact bottom-line revenue.

What’s our problem with FOMO?

It causes a loss of focus and spreads marketers too thin — rather than focusing on everything, marketers should select channels where their audience is and test their brand against those channels.

Stay Updated on Your Target Market's Preferences

First, you might figure out if you know the answers to some basic questions about the consumer behavior habits of your current and potential customers. Are they watching your videos on YouTube or Facebook? Which platform is mostly likely to lead to conversions or shares? Alternatively, is your target market slowly moving over to another video site like Instagram? Maybe your target audience doesn't even like videos and prefers articles or graphics. They could even still be just watching TV.

Set Hard KPIs to Determine Efficacy

We can’t be too hard on FOMO: wanting to try new techniques and tactics is important, and savvy CMOs know that part of their marketing spend should go towards outside-the-box, experiential channels. But when it comes down to spreading spend too thin, nothing alleviates fear of missing out like hard numbers. In this digital age, successful marketing without marketing metrics is like trying to guess a checking account balance when you have an online banking app on your phone. In other words, guessing is both ineffective and unnecessary.

Of course, lots of companies have never even established marketing key performance indicators (KPIs). Laura Lake outlines the characteristics of this particular kind of performance metric:

• Quantifiable: You have to be able to measure them somehow.

• Directional. They have to tell you if you are getting better or not.

• Sensible: They must integrate with your brand.

• Actionable: You can do something to improve them.

In other words, marketers need to take actions that are in line with their company's objectives. These actions must be measurable and have the potential to improve their objectives. Hard KPIs eliminate fear of missing out because they eliminate guesswork. You will know if you are missing out or not.

Use Marketing Automation to Increase Productivity

If your problem is the vast number of marketing platforms and a lack of time to properly implement campaigns and analytics, much less analyze or even establish marketing KPIs, marketing automation provides a solution. Not only do these automated platforms make it easier to implement campaigns, they make them easier to measure. If you think you are missing out on a new advertising platform, you can plan and implement tests. By relying upon automation, there should be more time to strategize, plan, report, and analyze.

Do Less with More Focus

If your brand's audience uses social media, there is a good chance that a majority of them do experience FOMO. Just like their audience, marketers need to stop worrying about missing out and gain hard numbers to figure out which strategies are most effective for their own particular brand. Since the habits of Internet users can change abruptly, finding the best mix for a particular campaign, or even a specific day takes some testing. These tests must have measurable results. Guessing breeds fear and is not likely to lead to accurate conclusions. On the other hand, knowing relieves fear and leads to positive action. That way, you'll be sure that you never miss a thing.