Growing A Startup Is Like A Game Of Football

A Game of Inches

Posted by / Communications Strategy, Lean Communications Framework, Lean Communications Methodology, Marketing, Public Relations, Strategy

This afternoon I watched a pick-up game of football.  Almost every play was an attempt at a long pass.  Most were incomplete.

It’s a problem I see regularly with startup and small business marketing strategies.  Rather than moving the ball down the field with a combination of short runs and passes, the go-to play is a long pass down the field in an attempt to score a touchdown – with the result that most fail.

When you’re building a marketing strategy understand that a successful outcome results from a combination of short and long plays; both on the ground and in the air.  Marketing, as football, is a game of inches.  A game is rarely won by the team throwing nothing but Hail Marys.