Posted by Ray White on February 15, 2010 Comments (1)

Athletes are a dedicated bunch of folk. They have to be disciplined and focused, not to mention talented. The Winter Olympic Games shows us the best of the best. People who have trained their entire lives for this moment of glory, or defeat since whenever someone wins, someone else has to lose. But they all have a goal – the gold medal. And they all know exactly what they need to do to get it. Each sport has its requirements for the perfect performance. Training for the Olympics is a lot like planning a internet marketing campaign.

Let’s pick a winter Olympic sport – figure skating. Each skater wears a fantastic outfit and picks soulful music for their routine, but that doesn’t figure into the final score of the performance. Figure skating routines are judged on various aspects, all of which apply to the success of marketing campaigns as well. Let’s discuss a few of those aspects.

technical difficulty

Flash, CSS, javascript, all those bells and whistles that can make your web site stand out. Not so much an issue unless you are trying to do something that you have absolutely no experience in and have no back up. We all need to branch out and test our limits, but unless you know what you are doing, leave the programming to the experts.

performance/execution

The best written ad can go to heck with a single minor typo. We can all forgive typos since they are so easy to make, but sometimes they can have humorous or disastrous results. You can change the meaning of a sentence by leaving out the word “not.” That could cost you some serious money too. Or a time-sensitive message about your affiliate marketing campaign goes out to your list a day too late. What can go wrong usually does, so plan to avoid it.

choreography/composition

How often have we seen a big buildup for a program launch only to have the server crash five minutes after opening? Plan ahead, and plan BIG. Expect huge traffic and prepare for it. Get reliable hosting. Get a dedicated server if you have to for the expected traffic. Have your programmer on call on the day of the launch to put out fires. Have extra help at the support desk. Better to be overprepared than underprepared.

interpretation

The most important part. You can’t please all of the people all of the time, yet you don’t want your words to be misinterpreted or twisted into something inappropriate or even downright ugly either. It is very hard to have tone come across in print. What is considered funny in the United States may not be so funny in the United Kingdom. You want to be clever and memorable, but be careful with your slogans. The internet is a global stage so you need to be mindful of cultural differences.

So do marketers have to train like Olympic athletes to be successful? Well, it probably wouldn’t hurt to put some of that enthusiasm and dedication into the planning of the perfect internet marketing campaign. I mean, we are going for the gold, too, aren’t we?