What Does Saturday’s Game Has To Do With Marketing?

If you read my entire message on Friday, then you already know that I picked Michigan to win the big college football game on Saturday.  Well, it looks like I’d better just stick to dishing out marketing insights instead of picking college football games.  As you probably know, Ohio State came out on top, but not by much.  At the very least, it was a close, entertaining game.

Aside from admitting the fact I’m horrible at picking winners, I wanted to share one thought I had as I watched the game.  And believe it or not, I’m going to relate it to marketing your business.

One of the comments made by the broadcasters at half time was how Michigan was sitting back, not pressuring the Ohio State quarterback, Troy Smith.  They said that if they continued to play that way, there was no way they’d be able to stop the Buckeyes.

As the second half started, one thing I noticed immediately was that the Michigan defense was no longer sitting back, allowing Troy Smith to pick them apart.  They were now blitzing him, throwing different schemes at him, and mixing things up.

As the game wore on, you could see that the new approach was working.  The Ohio State offense wasn’t as productive in the second half and even though the ultimately won the game, Michigan made it a much closer game than what it would’ve been had they not made the adjustments.

So, how does this relate to marketing?

The first thing I thought of was it demonstrates the importance of getting immediate feedback from your marketing efforts.  If you don’t know whether something’s working or not, how will you know what you need to change? 

And how do you know if your marketing’s working or not?

Well, the only way you’ll be able to know if your marketing efforts are working or not is if you’re tracking every campaign you send out.  Many make the mistake of simply sending out marketing campaigns without paying attention to the results they generate.  How many new customers are they getting?  How much is each new customer worth?

Finally, the only way you can track your marketing efforts is if you’re using direct marketing methods.  Direct mail letters, postcards, telemarketing, flyers, internet marketing, referral systems, and joint venture systems are all methods you can use to track the results of our marketing efforts. 

The beauty of direct marketing is that not only can you track the results, but it’s usually an immediate response.  You’ll know within days of sending out a campaign if it’s going to be successful or not.

And just like college football, when you get the results of the game plan you drew up, if things aren’t working as intended, don’t be afraid to make some adjustments.

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