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What the World Cup can Teach you About Online Marketing
18 Jun2010
This post was written by Andrew Nattan
The World Cup is trying to teach you something. You might not be able to hear it yet, over the drone of the Vuvuzelas and the muttering of Mick McCarthy, but it’s speaking to you.
Despite the sponsors, it’s not telling you to drink more cola, move your money to a particular bank or wear a certain pair of trainers.
And despite the players, it’s not telling you to swear at referees, roll around on the floor or spill a ball into your own net in a tragically comedic fashion.
No, what the World cup is really trying to make you understand is that success isn’t about one person striving out on their own. It’s about a team effort.
Whether you want to win the World Cup or succeed in the online marketplace, you’re going to need to put together a team. So let’s introduce you to the players at your disposal.
Goalkeeper – Search Engine Consultants
Without a good ‘keeper, you’re going to struggle to get out of the group stages, let alone win the final. Your goalie’s job is to keep you in the game, stop anything unexpected from causing you trouble and help you build from the back.
Sounds like your search engine consultants to us. They’ll be there to bring your SEO and AdWords into play, stop a sneaky breakaway from the search engine algorithms derailing your whole campaign, and generally to provide a safe pair of hands when you need them most. Just make sure you select a Gordon Banks or Dino Zoff. Robert Green need not apply.
Centre Backs – On Page SEO
Good centre backs are the solid foundations on which winning teams are built. Unflappable, dependable and consistent, they’re essential to any side. And if they can pop up with a goal or two from set pieces, so much the better.
Your on page SEO needs to be just as reliable. By consistently ranking on the search engine results pages, on page SEO provides a sustainable level of traffic – and just like a towering centre back rising to score at a corner, it will lead to a fair number of conversions too.
Fullbacks – AdWords
In the modern game, a fullback has to do it all. Remain steady in defence, and rampage forward in attack to create space. Versatility is the name of the game, and speed is needed to back that versatility up.
Fast and versatile? Sounds a lot like AdWords to us. When you need to keep it steady, your AdWords campaign can focus on your core areas. Then, in an instant, it can switch, probing forward to find spaces, trends and unexploited key phrases.
Holding Midfielders – Inbound Links
Possession. Holding territory. Supporting the defence. You can’t win a World Cup without a holding midfielder, as Gennaro Gattuso can attest. By supporting the defence and neutralising the opponent’s advantages, the holding midfielder is the key to a team’s success.
And by supporting your on page SEO and giving you a competitive edge, inbound links are the key to your online success. Good quality inbound links fortify a website’s rankings, and building new links is a great way to gain ground on the competition. It might not be pretty, but it’s rewarding.
Wingers – Social Media
Always probing forward, looking to link up play and create openings and opportunities – the winger is the prime creative force for any football side. Nobody in the side reacts quicker, and the winger is always looking to turn a situation to his advantage.
In the modern game of online marketing, social media is your way of reacting quickly to unfolding events. It also helps you create openings for conversions by building up relationships, and by monitoring what potential customers want and need, it shows you a myriad of opportunities.
Strikers – Online Shop
Despite what Emile Heskey’s apologists will tell you, a striker has one job. Convert chances into goals. Simple.
Your online shop has one job. Convert visitors into customers. Simple. So make sure it can do its job, and then set up the rest of your side to create opportunities for your star striker to convert.
The Manager – You.
Football is a team game, but there’s still got to be someone to stand up and take responsibility. Someone to put the strategy together and make everyone on the team pull in the right direction. And the same is true of your online marketing strategy.
It’s your company on the line, so you need to be the one to take charge. Sure, you can rely on your goalkeeper to command the defence, but you need to give him clear instructions.
But if the pressure gets to you, remember one thing. Unlike the World Cup, there’s no chance of you being knocked out on penalties.
If your team needs a safe pair of hands at the back, call FirstFound now on 0161 909 3400. We’ll even coach your wingers for free with our handy Social Media Guide.
3 Responses to What the World Cup can Teach you About Online Marketing
Carolyn Thomas
June 18th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Very clever! There seems to be one missing team member here however – that of the guerilla marketing genius! Wonder how this newly pervasive element of World Cup event management can be worked into your online marketing team?
Consider what Adidas has been forced to learn this month, for example. Even though Adidas paid $200 million for the privilege of of being an official World Cup partner, it’s Nike’s very UNofficial guerilla marketing campaign – including their completely over-the-top “Write The Future” TV ad – that everybody is talking about. As of this morning, over 16 million views on YouTube! Without paying one red cent to be a corporate sponsor.
More on this, including a link to the full-length 3-minute “Write The Future” ad, at “Adidas vs Nike: The World Cup Battle of the Brands” on: The Ethical Nag: Marketing Ethics For The Easily Swayed — http://ethicalnag.org/2010/06/17/adidas-vs-nike-world-cup/
Andrew Nattan
June 21st, 2010 at 9:35 am
Good point! I wonder where we could fit them into the team?
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