The Importance of Avoiding "I-Neveritis"

I'll be the first to admit I suffer from I.N. every now and then, and so do a number of my Internet marketing colleagues. "I.N." stands for "I-Neveritis" and the first step towards recovery is, of course, admitting you have a problem in the first place.

There, I feel better already.

What is "I-Neveritis," you ask?

Well, if you're an Internet marketer I.N. is the debilitating and counterproductive habit of thinking that everyone uses the Internet like you do. As in, "I never click on Sponsored Links in Google so that can't possibly be an effective marketing tactic," or "I never use text messaging so that can't possibly be a good way to reach people." You get the idea...

There's nothing wrong with you not doing, or not liking, some particular aspect of this medium. Just be careful that you never write off the validity of a tactic or media vehicle because you personally aren't a big user or fan of it. A lot of the times it really doesn't matter what your personal preference or usage of the item is because - chances are - you're not the target market.

What really matters is the target market and what they like and do. (Hint: Be sure to ask them.) And that tactic or media vehicle you don't like could turn out to be enormously popular and effective. So try to keep as open a mind as possible and avoid catching "I-Neveritis."

Comments

[Marcovious]

Very good point. Something that really hit this home for me was that video that...I think Google put out (for their Chrome marketing campaign, I think), where they went around asking random people on the street what a web browser was. Most had no clue, and a lot of the answers were quite ridiculous. The average user is not us, as that video clearly shows.