“Gentlemen, this is a football.”
That’s how Vince Lombardi started training camp in 1961.
He wasn’t talking to beginners. He was talking to 3 dozen professional athletes. Athletes who had come within minutes of winning their championship the year before.
The team wanted to raise their game to the “next level”. To focus on the details that would help them win the next championship.
But Lombardi had a different idea. He focused on the fundamentals.
This story always reminds me of a marketing lesson I heard years ago. I don’t remember the exact quote, but the gist of it was this…
“Effective marketing isn’t about doing lots of things. It’s about picking a few things and doing them really well… and doing them consistently.”
We have more ways to promote our services today than any time in history.
It’s easy to get excited about automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
But it’s important to revisit, focus, and work on marketing fundamentals
Things like:
- Being crystal clear about who we want to attract
- Keeping our lists validated, segmented, and cleaned
- Making offers that prospects will see high value in receiving
- Creating strong sales copy that SELLS the offer or next step
- Writing copy enters “the conversation going on” in the prospect’s or client’s mind
- Using testimonials to build trust and credibility on the page
- Providing specific instructions on how to respond to an offer
- Following up and using multi-message campaigns
- Tracking and measuring our campaigns
- Quickly following up on new leads
We’re more than halfway through 2019. If you are looking to raise your game to the “next level” make sure you are taking care of the fundamentals.
BTW, if you haven’t heard the Lombardi story before…
Six months later his team, the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants 37-0 to win the NFL Championship.
And he never lost in the playoffs again.
