What does FOMO and bread heels have in common? Well, you’re about to find out.

When it comes to your brand, one of the last things you should do is to use FOMO. Which translates to “fear of missing out,” for those who have lived under a rock all these years, and I myself consider you VERY LUCKY. Table of contents:

Why is FOMO hurting your brand? 
7 Reasons why you should stop using FOMO
How can you do business without FOMO? 
What happens after you quit using FOMO?

“There are only two spots left in this program! Sign up now or you will miss out on  your goals this year!”

Fear of missing out, fomo, has been used in marketing probably more than any other trick out there. The simple truth is because it works. Fear is the the strongest emotion out there and it makes people do things. If you have ever seen a horror movie and see how people act around in those movies, you know. Also if you have not seen a horror movie, consider yourself lucky. But just know people act all kinds of crazy in those movies.

 

So why exactly is fomo hurting your brand?

The whole point of fomo is to make you feel like you’re missing out. “Look at how much fun people are having when they signed up with me!” The whole idea is to make you see how others are having a fulfilling life and amazing time. And you aren’t. Fomo creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity in people. It is emotional manipulation.

There has been studies done that show fomo leads to anxiety and depression in people. It affects both, your physical and your mental health. This alone sounds BAD to me. But then you look at a list of the things that it does that include mood swings, loneliness, feelings of inferiority, reduced self-esteem, extreme social anxiety, and increased levels of negativity and depression.

Do you really want to make your possible future clients feel this way about themselves?

Using fomo sounds like you’re desperate and often, leads people to second guess why are they even working with you in the first place. They didn’t make a conscious decision when signing up with you, you technically pushed them into that position. Your brand comes off as disingenuous.

It hurts your brand because you chose to build your reputation as a fomo brand. People see when you’re doing fomo. They just get suck into it because it makes them feel left-out. And this destroys your brand. It’s really hard to dig yourself out of the hole once you buried yourself in it. It becomes known as your brand language, part of your brand personality, to push people to buy. And no ones likes pushy people, let alone pushy brands!

There fomo businesses are not there forever either because it’s so unsustainable way to do business, people start to realize that everything you do from email sign up to getting people to sign up for your programs, all involves fomo.

 

How can you do business without using fomo?

Establish a strong brand foundation, people who do fomo are often doing it because their brands are weak and never thought through. They crumble away as they keep pressuring people to sign up. Strong brand strategy is the key to have a strong business that keeps flourishing for years to come. It gives you clarity, it gives you peace. It gives you the language and personality you should be using to find your people.

Have a strong vision. Alright, you got me there. This is also part of the previous step but just putting it out there because it’s that much more important. You need to have a strong vision where you want your brand to be, what you what your brand to do and I bet once you think of this, fomo is not the way to get there.

Power of surprise. Yes. You read that right. Surprise people. The beautiful thing is that surprising people (positively) releases serotonin and makes them feel GOOD. Who wouldn’t want to make our customers/audience feel good? There are multiple ways to do this and I will be talking about it more in my up coming posts, so if you want to keep a track whenever these blog posts drop. Hit the follow button on my Instagram or Pinterest, I will be letting people know whenever I have new blog posts dropping!

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