Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said ‘the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.’ This couldn’t be more true when it comes to business and marketing. Although fear can hold us back in all walks of life, in business, fear is anathema. It stifles growth, has a detrimental effect on profits and can ultimately result in the thing we fear most in the first place: failure. In order to implement a powerful marketing strategy and reach your true business potential, it’s crucial to overcome these fears. Here’s what ‘marketing fear’ looks like, how it’s holding you back, and how you can overcome it.

GDPR – the EU General Data Protection Regulation – is among the biggest legislative changes to hit UK businesses in years. Organisations that fail to adhere to the new rules face fines of €20m or 4% of their global turnover. And there’s no limit on size of business; it affects everyone.

 In 2007 the CIA had a day at the races, running an experiment on information overload - specifically, among professional horse race gamblers. The organisation found a break point at which too much information became a drawback. Once an experienced handicapper had the minimum information necessary to make an informed judgement, the additional information didn’t lead to more accuracy in their predictions – only overconfidence.

 In a growth-driven world, businesses often focus on the new: new markets, clients, products or services. Too often they miss our most reliable source of profit – existing customers. The probability of selling to an existing customer is somewhere between 60% and 70%  compared to between 5% and 20% for successfully selling to a new prospect. They’re also cheaper to market to, it costs three times as much to win a new customer as it does to retain an old one. 

The clock is ticking for UK businesses to become GDPR-compliant, with the legislation coming into force in May 2018. The consequences of failing to adhere to the new rules are considerable: businesses of all sizes face fines of €20m or 4% of their global turnover.