With the World Cup starting, soccer fever is definitely in the air and fans are getting amped up to cheer their favorite teams to victory. You may or may not be a fan, but did you know your role as a marketer is a lot like an athlete’s? Check out the list below to see why!
1. You Evaluate Yourself
Professional soccer players relentlessly evaluate where they need to improve. Do they need to increase their stamina? Should they focus on their accuracy? Depending on what areas they need to develop, athletes first identify their problem areas and then come up with a set regimen to improve. You wouldn’t find a professional athlete haphazardly training without a set plan. He’s got a World Cup to win!
Much like soccer players assess themselves, you as a marketer need to evaluate where you can improve. Look at past goals you’ve made and see if you’re hitting your numbers. How many mentions did your brand get on social media? Did you hit your number for inbound website visitors? If you haven’t met some of your goals, it might be time to reassess and think of a new strategy. If you’ve surpassed them, maybe it’s time to revise your goals and create new objectives.
2. You Mix It Up
Soccer players have to mix up their workouts in order to keep getting results. If they did the same routine everyday, their bodies would get used to the workout and their progress would plateau. This wouldn’t be a very good Cup winning strategy.
As a marketer, you shouldn’t just use the same strategies and create uniform content everyday. You might get positive results, but in order to maximize your potential and avoid plateauing, you need to switch it up! Try incorporating infographics in your inbound blog, GIFs in your marking emails, or using a more conversational voice. Not every product or service is innately interesting, sleek, or sexy but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your marketing engaging and exciting. Don’t get stuck in a bland routine!
3. You Have Endurance
On average, a soccer player runs 7 miles per game depending on his position (even as much as a 9.5 mile average for some players). He knows not to burn out. It’s all about consistency and there’s not much room for error. After all, spotty performance won’t beat the competition.
Similarly, being sporadic doesn’t do you much good for generating leads and building your brand. Your social media, email marketing, and blogging need to be done continuously in order to build a strong relationship with current customers and reach out to new ones. If you drop off the radar, you might lose followers and fans. Not only that, but by standing still, you could be missing out on key leads! Keep a steady stream of quality marketing material in order to beat out the competition.
4. You’re On A Team
Yes, it has to be said. The number one sports analogy is teamwork. On a soccer team, there are different positions like defense and offense. These positions require different training and serve different purposes but they must work together to reach the goal.
A marketer may generate a good number of leads, but without the sales team to close the deal, the company will not reach the goal. This is why it’s important for your marketing and the sales team to communicate. Communication is key. The marketing team must let the sales team know what campaigns are running and who they’re going to, help them understand the content, share their results, score their leads, and ask for feedback in order to work together and score some business goals.
5. You Track Your Results
Sports teams track everything. For soccer players, this means possession percentage, pass success, tackles, fouls, interceptions, shots, etc.
For marketer, this means stats like number of visits, contacts, customers, form submission, and subscribers. If you don’t keep track of your past and present performance, you’re not going to know where you need to improve and how you can plan to do so. Marketing numbers are just as important as marketing content. You need to track your results to keep improving.
A marketer is a competitor. He is committed to his team and his position, he works hard and endures the tough stuff, and he mixes up his routine. Looking back on carefully recorded performance stats, he creates a plan to keep improving. Standing still isn’t an option. Like World Cup players, marketers must keep pushing the boundaries in order to reach the goal.
