What football teaches us about email marketing
Soccer's World Cup was expected to garner a cumulative TV audience of 40 billion. That's a b, not an m.
Right now in Europe, you still can't move for ads and promotions exploiting the soccer theme. Or an anti-soccer theme: the TV channels who missed out on broadcast rights advertised their wares as a refuge for those left cold by the beautiful game.
It was the bandwagon of the moment.
And since no bandwagon is too small to ignore, I thought I'd pen this essay on what soccer might teach us about email marketing.
Learning from football (as we call it here) is not new. The French philosopher and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus once said, "All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football."
Football generates the kind of loyalty and passion marketers can only dream about. It has catalyzed wars (Honduras versus El Salvador in 1969) and stopped them (German and British soldiers left their trenches on Christmas Day 1914 and played a game in no-man's land).
So can email marketers draw inspiration from this social phenomenon? Let's see...
1. Get the basics right
No football team succeeds without getting the basics sorted. The simple, unspectacular stuff like pass - move - pass. And just getting the basics right is often enough to win. Greece won the 2004 European Championships with no stars. But they got the basics right.
It's easy to get excited about the latest whizz bang technologies or funky creative. But does your email work when images are blocked? Do you have sign-up opportunities on every page of your website? Have you covered all the basic elements that go to make up a solid email marketing program?
Because it's things like that that are the foundations for your success, not your new imaging software. Although...
2. Use the power of creative flair
Most of the more successful football teams in history were certainly built on solid, often uninspiring play. The Liverpool of the late 70s. Germany in 1990. Today's Chelsea.
But it's the flair players and teams that engage the audience most. Efficiency brings respect and good results. Innovation and creativity inspires devotion and excitement.
But the two have to work in tandem. The ideal team has a mix of solid dependability and creative flair. Together they make legends.
So it is with email. If the basics are right, you'll have a good program with respectable open rates and bottom line results. Throw in a touch of flair, innovation and creativity, and you'll have a great program. And people will look forward to your emails.
3. Don't rest on your laurels
In football, you have to keep on moving forward to stay at the top. If you don't, there's a hungrier team waiting to take your place. The recent renaissance of English football came about from observing its own weaknesses and adopting remedial measures already in place elsewhere.
The top teams imported foreign coaches and talent and began to focus more on such things as nutrition and sports psychology.
In email marketing, there is constant competition for a place in the inboxes and minds of your customers and prospects. Everyone is trying to do a better job. Keep an eye on best practices and industry developments. Buy in the expertise where you see a knowledge gap. And keep on pushing.
However good your metrics may be, they can always be better.
4. Listen to the numbers and react accordingly
At halftime in the 2005 Champions League final, England's Liverpool were three goals down to Italy's AC Milan and completely overrun. Did they persevere with the same tactics? No. They swapped out a player or two, reorganized the midfield to address the weaknesses revealed in the first half. And went on to win.
When things are going badly, all is not lost. But it is time to change tactics. Don't cling on to failed theories...look rationally at the metrics that tell you exactly how you're doing and dig out the root causes for a poor performance. Then change what you have to.
5. Small things matter
At 3-1 in the above Champions League final, an AC Milan player bent down to do up his bootlaces. While distracted, the ball went past him on its way to Vladimir Smicer who promptly shot and scored.
Badly-tied laces were an important factor in losing a game that cost the club millions in lost prize money and merchandising revenue, not to mention knock-on effects on team morale and the AC Milan "brand."
Before you send out your email, have you rechecked the links, looked for typos in the subject line, tested the personalization, made sure the right boxes are ticked in your mailing interface, etc...? One broken link is all it takes to lose the game.
6. You can win, whatever your size
No team is unbeatable. No game is lost before it starts. In 1990, the Faroe Islands (population 48,407 and - at the time - no grass football pitches) beat Austria (population 8,150,000, fresh from that year's World Cup). Football is littered with tales of various Davids mastering embarrassed Goliaths.
Bigger budgets and staff numbers are -- obviously -- helpful. But every email gets equal space in the inbox. If you follow best practices and give your readers a rewarding, valuable and relevant experience, you'll win their attention and custom. Whatever your size.
Go for it. And remember: use the full width of the pitch, give the man with the ball a passing option and never let the Brazilians get in behind your left back.
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