Try the bait but keep your mind on the job
One of the beauties of Facebook is that you can get instant gratification with a variety of money-making samples such as tips from property investors, small business experts and digital marketing gurus, and a plethora of miscellaneous social goop that seems to get stuck all over your social media pages.
It happens to me all the time. I’ll like a few posts and then BAM! Those people are everywhere in my Facebook feeds, Facebook ads, Google search ads and Google ads on other pages I visit. It’s called “retargeting”, and while it’s a wonderful marketing tool if you’re on the other side of the equation as a consumer it can get a little overwhelming at times.
Retargeting is when a marketer tracks your visit to their site by using a “pixel” embedded into its site or ad, and then tracks you everywhere you go on the internet like a bit of chewing gum on your inter-web shoes.
The easiest way to get rid of these ads is to click on the little down-arrow on the top right of the ad which will open a dropdown box, and then click the button that says “see less of these posts” or simply “unfollow”. The alternative is to sample a few of the posts and products you see to find something that might float your boat in a risk-free manner.
One of the best things about marketing on the internet and Facebook is the art of reciprocation. Advertisers have to give away some of their best information as click bait such as a “free” piece of content in exchange for your email and potentially other details. This clickbait can either educate you or just sign you up to countless communications across social and email spruikers.
This is one of the most common types of marketing around at the moment. In fact, if you look at my home page, I have a free download, “15 strategies to reduce your tax and boost your super”. This is an ebook designed to give away some of the best strategies we use with our clients to attract new clients, and it works a treat. We collect an email address in exchange for the book and this permits us to communicate directly with a pre-qualified audience. Sounds sensible, right? And it mostly is.
But there are a few rules around these types of communications. One of the most important is to offer recipients the option of unsubscribing, which is simply providing them with the opportunity to opt out at any time and stop receiving the communications. I’ll often clean up my mailbox by unsubscribing to all those emails I don’t read from marketers. A clean-up of your inbox is good for you and good for them if you’re no longer interested in what they have to offer.
In this age of information overwhelm and high anxiety, these emails can add to your problems and detract from your solutions. Anxiety, distraction and indecision are a big problem in our money-making world and it’s probably one of the greatest reasons people don’t become wealthy.
So clean out your inbox, tidy up your social media and maintain your focus on how you plan to achieve financial independence and peace of mind. After all, that’s what we’re all searching for.
Sam Henderson is CEO and senior financial adviser at Henderson Maxwell and is host of Foxtel’s Sky News Business program Your
Money Your Call – Retirement. He is also the author of three best-selling books.
The marketer tracks you everywhere you go, like a bit of chewing gum on your internet shoes