5 Ways Inbound Marketers Are Like the New York Giants
We're coming up on Super Bowl Sunday and those who call ourselves Giants fans are very, very excited. Inbound marketers around the globe should be excited, too.
By our nature, inbound marketers have a lot in common with the Giants team that finds itself one win away from the world championship. What could inbound marketers have in common with Manning, Cruz, Coughlin & Company? A lot more than you might think.
How Inbound Marketers Are Like the Giants
- We keep pounding away. This season was not an easy ride for the Giants. After starting off with some successes, they lost four in a row during weeks 10-13 followed by a demoralizing loss to the Washington Redskins in week 15. They could have given up, but they didn't -- winning five in a row to go the Super Bowl. Inbound marketers don't give up, either. We keep pounding away, creating new content, building new landing pages, nuturing new leads and converting new customers. Consistency is the trick with inbound marketing.
- We have multiple tools. When the Giants are playing well, they can hurt their opponents in different ways. QB Eli Manning can throw long to WRs Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks or Mario Manningham. The Giants can pound it up the middle with RBs Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs. Or the defense can make something big happen with a sack or turnover. Inbound marketers have lots of tools as well. We can create content on our blogs or put it on our landing pages. We can use SEO to get found by the right people. We can promote our content with social media and email campaigns. In short, we can find lots of ways to win.
- We are disciplined. During week 14 in a must win game against the Dallas Cowboys, Coach Tom Coughlin benched star running back Bradshaw for the entire first half. Why? Bradshaw had missed curfew and Coughlin decided discipline was more critical to the Giants' success than having any one player in the game. Inbound marketers must also be disciplined. New content must be created consistently. If your plan calls for blogging twice a week, you must post twice a week. If one post does great, you can't take the week off and dance around the end zone.
- We don't get intimidated. When the Giants made the playoffs, they knew every playoff game would be on the road. When they won the wild card game against the Atlanta Falcons, their next opponent would be the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field. And the Pack had lost just one game all season. The Giants were not intimidated and beat Green Bay 37-20 for a huge win to put them one victory away from the Super Bowl. Inbound marketers aren't intimidated either. We can compete well against outbound marketers, even though they're often the favorites with big budgets and established champions in their organizations. Why? Because the inbound marketing game plan is a winner.
- We're in the Super Bowl. The Giants this Sunday play in one of the most watched sporting events of the year. More than 110 million people tuned in to the 2011 Super Bowl. This is a marketer's dream, which explains why TV airtime during the game is the most expensive of the year. Inbound marketers play in the Super Bowl every single day. We live on the Internet, which has more than 2 billion worldwide users -- nearly 20 times the viewership of the Super Bowl. We work in the single biggest marketing opportunity ever known. It's game day every day.
I may not be wearing blue every time I sit down at my desk to write a blog post, build a call to action or set up a new landing page, but I know I'm approaching it just like the Giants, who created an improbable run to the Super Bowl this year with unsurpassed discipline and toughness. That's what it takes to be a successful inbound marketer.
The tools the Giants relied on this year are the same tools we inbound marketers use every day of the week. Except this Sunday, of course. When we'll all be watching the Giants beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI!
