Even as England licks its wounds following yet another disappointing tournament outcome, the nation turns its attention to what went wrong, who’s to blame, and what needs to change.
While the discourse about the team’s performance – both now and throughout the competition – has been less-than-pleasant, it is an activity worth doing. Equally, it is an activity that can be applied to any number of contexts, including digital marketing.
If you’ll excuse the tortured analogy, you could think of your digital marketing team like a football team, with your internal employees acting as the backroom staff, and the agency team as the starting 11. The manager, in this example, would be the CEO or key decision-maker for the company.
Just like a football team, managing different aspects of the marketing function requires a harmonious balance between the backroom staff and the starting 11. You expect the internal team to set the strategy and direction, with overall objectives coming from the CEO, and it’s then down to the agency as your starting 11 to execute those plans.
But what are some of the core principles that can be gleaned from this analogy and applied to your marketing strategy?
Have a strategy
It may seem obvious, but you need to have a plan. Southgate didn’t just tell the players to go on the field and play football. There would have been a strategy – play it out from the back, play safe, pass back to Pickford (constantly) etc. That would have been drilled into the players, and they would have practised the set pieces continually to ensure everybody knew what was happening.
You should take the time to come up with a coherent strategy, taking into account your competition, market conditions, your differentiators and available resources. That plan of action needs to be shared with everyone in the company, otherwise you’ll end up with object misalignment.
Avoid objective misalignment
When it comes to setting marketing objectives the strategy needs to be clearly defined so your agency can hit the ground running and ensure your message is dominating possession. If you haven’t communicated effectively what it is you’re looking to achieve, the misalignment between your internal and external teams ( your backroom staff and starting 11, respectively) could result in disaster. One coach might be coming up with a plan to systematically play from the back, but the goalie has been briefed to always play it long, creating dysfunction.
It’s the same principle in a company. It’s not enough to have a team of talented people on the payroll, they need to know what is expected of them, what they’re working toward, and how they should achieve those objectives. If you don’t know whether you’re looking to increase awareness, improve sales, or build out a mailing list, your agency is going to be playing with one hand tied behind their back. Make sure everyone is looking at the same playsheet to get the best out of them.
Play to the strengths of your team
It’s hard to see the sense in playing a striker who isn’t at full fitness and expecting them to be able to slip behind defenders from a long ball. It’s similarly hard to see logic in employing an agency that excels at paid media and SEO, but has no proven track record of video content, to create a series of videos that will be part of a global campaign.
Do your due diligence during the recruitment process, and if you are doing RFPs make sure you thoroughly scrutinise the agencies that respond to ensure they are able to meet your needs. Don’t take their claims at face value, and if they are speaking in highly technical terms and are unable – or unwilling – to explain what they mean, assume they’re talking the talk but are unable to back it up.
If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to adapt and make changes
One criticism that is perhaps fairly levied against Southgate was that he was slow in making changes when the current strategy wasn’t working. At times, England were lethargic, uninspiring, and not getting results. A substitution, when they finally got made, brought with them a new sense of vigour, and more often than not, that elusive missing goal.
That’s an important lesson to apply to all areas of life: if something isn’t working, change it. That extends to your marketing. Marketing is never ‘set and forget’, there will always be tweaks needed as you gather data, and you should always be experimenting to see how to eke the best performance from your assets to ensure your message is seen. At the same time though, you have to make sure you give the starting 11 enough time to get into the game – don’t hit the panic button immediately.
The performance of England's team in the tournament, while disappointing, provides a rich learning ground for marketing professionals. By drawing parallels between football game plan and marketing strategy, we can better understand the importance of having a clear plan, avoiding objective misalignment, playing to the strengths of our teams, and being ready to adapt and make changes when necessary. As marketers, we can take these lessons on board and use them to improve our strategies, our teamwork, and ultimately, our results.
