Marketing Metaphors: Why Marketing is Like Fitness

When marketing professionals are attempting to communicate the value of their actions to their team, they often rely on metaphors. Metaphors are usually easy to understand and provide marketers with another angle from which to view their work, and marketing is all about angles. Last time we approached extended metaphors in marketing, it was with the Fishing Edition. Today, we will come at it from the fitness angle to drive home the message of best practices in marketing and help your team remember the importance of keeping themselves fit when it comes to their strategy.

Evaluate Yourself

What does your marketing muscle really need? Does it need some fat trimmed? Is it in pretty good shape but just needs some toning and strengthening? Knowing what your body needs before you hit the gym is the same as what you do in marketing when beginning a new year, for example: what needs to be accomplished? What are your “problem areas”? Jumping in blindly and having it out on the rowing machine may not be the best approach. Have a plan.

Consistency is Key

Anyone who has spent any time trying to work off a year’s worth of bad habits in January for a New Year’s resolution understands the truth behind these words. You can’t do ten reps of curls three times a year and expect to have biceps of steel. You need to be consistent. This goes for all of your marketing efforts: social media, email marketing, new initiatives, tradeshows, etc. Being sporadic doesn’t do much in the way of help when it comes to building your brand and generating leads.

Don’t Do Too Much, Too Soon

As a balance to the above point, you want to be consistent but you don’t want to do too much too soon. This is especially true when it comes to new initiatives. You should take it easy on a new machine and learn how it works for you before you go all out and end up injuring yourself. Same thing with marketing: introducing a bunch of new lead gen programs all at once can be confusing to keep up with, and you may end up hitting customers with too much at one time and risk alienating them. Also, you want to take the time to see what works before you go all-out. Not every exercise works for every body, and the same is true for business.

Mix It Up

If you do the same workout every day, eventually you’re going to stop getting results. Your progress will plateau as your body gets used to the monotony and you’ll start to wonder what you’re doing wrong. You’re not necessarily doing anything wrong…you just need to mix it up. The same way you can’t just run on the treadmill to get the results you want, you can’t just do email marketing to get the results you want. Mix it up. Try new exercises. Challenge yourself and your team.

Track Your Results

This is perhaps the most important point of all. You don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you came from, so in order to be successful, you need to measure your success. In the gym, this means keeping track of how many reps you can do from one week to the next. Measuring inches. Tracking your heart rate. In marketing, this means measuring your ROI, using call tracking numbers to learn which of your marketing initiatives are actually driving calls, etc.

When it comes to marketing, you want to be on top of your game. Keep your strategies fit and trim, and the results will feel easier and easier as you build strength. Want to learn more marketing strategies that will turn you into a marketing-fitness guru? Download our free white paper, The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation. It has great tips for building a strong marketing strategy.

Read more: 6 Tips for a Tight and Toned Body