I don’t know about you but with free agency in full swing this week, my cell phone has been buzzing every 5 minutes with another alert. Justin Tuck goes to Oakland. Philadelphia gets Darren Sproles. Giants get Jon Beason back for a hefty salary. And the list goes on. It got me thinking, does football bear some striking similarities to the inbound marketing methodology (at a very high level) or am I just too eagerly awaiting the return of football? Let’s see if we can make this analogy work…
Attract
The first step in the inbound marketing methodology is “Attract”. As implied by the name, this crucial initial step involves drawing potential customers in or attracting them. This is typically done by blogging, being active on social media and optimizing your webpages with keywords to begin getting found organically.
When does football attract players (and fans)? During scouting and recruiting season. This is the time when college players are vetted, tapes are reviewed and ears are to the ground listening for which veteran players will be a free agent this year. Players are attracted to different teams after meeting coaches, beginning negotiations, being invited to combines, etc. Fans fill the winter football void by being re-attracted to the sport through news and updates that come through blogs, social media, RSS feeds, TV/radio sports shows and word of mouth.
Convert
The second stage of the inbound marketing methodology is the “Convert” stage. When you’ve garnered some valuable eyes, you must then convert them to leads. How is this done? It’s all about offers. Using calls-to-action (CTA’s), landing pages and forms you can put out and offer to those you have attracted to entice them to convert.
Sound at all similar to any key part of football? Free Agency. The Draft. It’s all about offers. Teams offering trades to other teams. College scouts offering a full ride to the All American High School Quarterback. Rookies getting drafted to pro teams in the draft. I know what you’re thinking…maybe this analogy isn’t so farfetched.
Close
After you have converted someone to a lead, now’s the time to close them as a customer. Using emails and lead nurturing workflows, you can turn those leads into customers.
This one’s easy to relate to football. The talent signs with your team. The fans buy tickets (or the NFL ticket). Players closed. Fans closed. Enter preseason and regular season.
Delight
The final step to the inbound marketing methodology is to “Delight” the customer. According to the inbound marketing process, your relationship does not end once you sign the customer. You need to continue woo-ing them to create a brand loyal customer. There are a lot of ways to achieve this from a marketing standpoint: continued follow up using social media, personalized content, ongoing support, etc. Anything to keep your customers knowing that they are valued will likely keep them as customers and/or create repeat customers.
Football fans and players alike are delighted each time their team wins and especially if they go all the way to the SuperBowl. Or, if your favorite team isn’t in the SuperBowl this year, maybe you get some marginal delight from seeing them chosen for a ProBowl team. The delight and accolades for each team, the players, the MVP and the franchise itself are enough to keep players hooked. The bragging rights certainly keep fans thrilled too.
So there you have it. Football and inbound marekting methodology: kindred spirits. Okay, maybe not. But, the analogy does work at the highest level. Its all about finding interested parties, directing them towards a goal, achieving that goal and then making sure they stay happy. While Justin Tuck is probably not sitting there thinking “hmm, looks like Oakland just closed me in the inbound marketing methodology”, it’s a unqiue way to look at and understand the process. And for those of you who just read this because of the word “football”, only 173 days until the Seahawks host the 2014 regular season opener.