What lessons can marketers learn from the GB Cycle Team?
9th August 2012
Seven years of hard work and planning have gone into the London 2012 Olympics. Though the Paralympics are still to come, the Olympics are almost over and it’s been a fantastic ride!
Particularly successful are the GB Cycle Team, who’ve earned an impressive seven Gold medals for track cycling so far. Everyone wants to know what’s led to the team’s great success, and the answer is ‘marginal gains’.
What do we mean by ‘marginal gains’?
The cycling team’s success doesn’t come from just one thing. It’s not just the coaching, or the equipment, or the technology or preparation – it’s everything, coming together with great thought, meticulous planning, testing and attention to detail to create success.
Marketers should work with ‘marginal gains’ as well. They need to make small, incremental improvements to every aspect of their marketing strategy. Over time, small changes build up to a ‘Gold Medal’ of marketing success – for example better search engine rankings, higher conversion rates, a better click-through-rate and lower cost-per-click on Adwords, higher advertising responses and ultimately a more successful business.
How can we use ‘marginal gains’ in marketing?
You’ve got to make the most of small opportunities in marketing, and you have to take time to fine-tune your strategy. There are hundreds of things you can do, here are a few:
- Test new technologies
- Change your copy regularly, experimenting with new words and styles
- Test different website designs and split test your website
- Try writing the same copy in two different ways, and see which is more successful
- Target different keywords
- Advertise in different places
- Try new approaches to social media marketing
- Most importantly, always monitor, measure and optimise what you do
Making small and regular changes to every aspect of your marketing strategy can lead you to success, but be sure to monitor everything you do and the impact each action has.
Find small successes and let them build on one another. Like the GB Cycle Team, don’t be afraid to get help from a coach if you want to be the best – successful marketing requires time, expertise and commitment.
