I’m from Massachusetts so I grew up a fan of all the Boston professional sports teams. Yes, that includes the New England Patriots. And yes, that includes Tom Brady…
If you follow the NFL, then you know the quarterback of the Patriots, Tom Brady, has been suspended for the first 4 games of the season. Regardless of how you feel about the suspension, there’s no denying that Brady is the #1 player on the Patriots and the suspension means he will be out for a quarter of the season.
To put that into perspective, consider losing your #1 marketing channel for a quarter of the year. Would your business survive?
What If You Lost Your #1 Marketing Channel?
This is a very important question that says a lot of about the stability of your business. My prediction is that the Patriots will be OK despite losing their #1 player. The reality is that the Patriots team is full of other great players and they have one of the best, if not the best coaches in the NFL.
But what about your business? Do you have other great marketing channels that would pick up the slack if for some reason your #1 channel was suspended for a full quarter? In case your skeptical that you could ever lose your #1 marketing channel, let’s take a look at a few examples.
How Can Marketing Channels Get Suspended?
Let’s say your #1 channel is SEO. If that’s the case then unfortunately Google could suspend your rankings at any moment since they are in complete control over their own algorithm. Just a few weeks ago, Google updated their local search results to only show 3 businesses instead of 7. That means at least 4 businesses for every search phrase were effectively suspended from receiving traffic and leads from Google!
Or how about email marketing? Again, we’re not in full control over emails because they must be delivered through an internet service provider and then make it past spam filters. If you’ve ever managed email marketing campaigns, then you know how frustrating it can be to get your emails delivered. At any time your email service provider can literally suspend your account if they believe too many of your emails are being flagged as spam.
Finally, let’s look at digital advertising. If your #1 channel is advertising, then you’re not immune from suspension either. Consider what will happen as more and more competitors catch on and inevitably start advertising on the same keywords and the same websites. What does that do to the cost of advertising? It goes up! As your advertising costs go up, then your margins erode and your profitable channel could soon turn unprofitable.
What’s the Solution?
In the NFL, players are constantly getting suspended for misconduct. Smart coaches know their team is not immune and eventually even their #1 player could be suspended, which is what just happened to the Patriots.
So if you can’t avoid suspensions, then what’s the best strategy? Diversity!
One of the reasons the Patriots have been so dominant recently is because they do not rely on just one single player. They diversify their roster so that different players can be swapped in and out from week to week.
This is exactly what you need to do with your marketing. As I highlighted above, any one of your marketing channels could disappear nearly overnight. When (not if) that happens, then you need to be prepared with a roster of other great channels that will pick up the slack.
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