Remember the time when you first started a new marketing activity.

Perhaps you had heard about the marketing methodology while browsing through blogs or sites. After doing a bit of research, you could see nothing but the fact that it fitted to your business very well.

You thought about it and researched a bit more.

The more you thought about it, the more excited you became. So in just a few short weeks, you had done everything you could to get started.

First, you read all the articles you could find, even bought a few books or ebooks, training courses, and consumed them all in two or three days. You could not wait to see how it would improve your business.

After only two to three weeks of planning and implementing, you lost the “feeling.” The excitement was just not there any longer.

Results could not find its way to you. Or, if there were some results, they were so slow they didn’t fit the imagination you had put in the first place.

This is just when you started to seek for another marketing methodology, hoping you would stumble upon it in another chance — one that brings home run every time without fail.

Sounds familiar?

What’s wrong with this picture?

Perhaps I am being too extreme in this example. But you get what I mean.

The person I told you just now was exactly who I was (and still am to certain extent) back then when I got started online. That was the scenario I had gone through countless times.

I bought a lot of ebooks. I read everything I could find. I took random strategies, tried them for a short period of time and jumped to others.

Just like a circle or chain that I could not break.

One day when showering suddenly I realized that the problem wasn’t in my business. It wasn’t in the marketing methodology. It wasn’t in the system either. The problem has alwas been and will always be me.

Until I change, there is no way I can get a better result.

I think as a human being we are always looking for excitement. We are addicted to it.

While there is nothing wrong with it, there is another facet that we often fail to notice.

When we first planned for a new marketing activity, we can’t but feel the joy of what is in front of us. The thing is, this feeling won’t last.

Those who are successful focus on taking actions and implementing the marketing activities long after that. They believe in the system and follow through.

The joyful feeling we experienced once is not the sign of success.

You know what I mean if you have ever read a book about marketing strategy at least twice. Every time you read, there were new things you picked up, as if that wisdom was not there the first time you read it.

If you take the same wisdom, put it into action or fix what has been done wrong all of the time, you will get better and better every time. Before you know it, you will see success.

Countless of time, people are distracted by the next shinier object. They abandoned current “not so excited” project for the new one, just to repeat the same process again.

Little that they know, often they were very close to the destination before they stopped.

What can you do to avoid this and maximise the chance of success?

There are several necessary components to start with:

• Solid information and system. What steps should you take, how and when to do it are key to successful marketing. Only by owning the right information (and a system) that you can focus on creating a customized plan and getting things done.
• Consistent actions. We are bound to a dimension called time. If no one can hold your feet to the fire long enough, you will not get any meaningful result.
• Motivation. If what you do is something you are passionate about, you will find it easy to follow through and all the process won’t be a struggle at all. Motivation and consistent actions allow you to not only get results but also do it well.
• Accountability. Being held accountable for a marketing plan means better chances to achieve it. If you don’t set a deadline and do whatever you can to reach it, the plan will die without you even knowing it.
• Support. In the process of doing marketing activities, you will get frustrated and confused. It is wise if you could turn to someone and get unstuck. Keeping the momentum is important to see results.

One thing that can help is to see marketing as a game. You always play in the mindset of winning. You find ways to get over problems and keep moving in the right direction. Every step is closer to the destination.

So what you can do is to prepare and get the necessary components, i.e. get a proven system, make a plan out of it, take actions and do what it takes to keep moving until you succeed.