The New York Giants Guide to Executing a Successful Marketing Campaign

The Super Bowl Champs are back on the field. Last week the New York Giants, and the other 31 NFL teams, strapped on their helmets for the first official round of workouts for the 2012 season.

And each team took to the field knowing exactly what their goal is…hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy at next year’s Super Bowl.

Having a goal like that puts these teams at a big advantage over most businesses. Because everyone in every NFL organization knows exactly what they’re working toward each season.

Most businesses don’t. Especially when it comes to their marketing campaigns.

Sure, there may be vague goal-ish type targets in place…”more sales”, “improved website”, “increased ROI” but you can’t measure that stuff.

When I set up a Google AdWords campaign, the first thing I want to understand are what the campaign goals are.

And the more specific the better…

• Generating more phone calls is fine, but increasing inbound phone calls by 20 calls a month is better.
• Getting more people to download a Special Report is okay, but increasing the conversion rate of the report download form on your site by 50{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} within 90 days gives us something real to shoot for.
• Increasing sales is the objective for everyone in business, but increasing web sales by 25{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} while decreasing the campaign budget by 10{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} in 6 months is much stronger.

A specific metric achieved by a specific date.

When you have those two things in place, then you have something real to shoot for. And having that specific goal simplifies things. Because every keyword, every landing page adjustment, every word of ad copy all have to earn their spot on the roster. If they can prove they’re helping the AdWords campaign reach its goal, they stay. If not, they’re gone.

When you run a campaign that way, you’re not constantly spinning around in the hamster wheel trying to reach fuzzy objectives. You’re laser focused on what you’re trying to achieve and when you want to achieve it by. That gives a huge boost to your chances of success.

And even if you don’t reach the goal you laid out, you’re still going to get better results than taking a shotgun approach.

(Non)Excessive Celebration

This is another area where entrepreneurs fall short of their NFL counterparts…the celebration. What happens in most companies if they hit their marketing goal (or overall business goal)?

Not much.

Contrast that to what fast growing St. Louis marketing firm goBrandgo did last year. They had a goal of $1 million in revenue. If they hit it, the owners were going to take the whole company on a trip to Mexico. That’s the way to celebrate when you hit your goals!

Now I don’t know if they hit the $1 Million mark or not, but I do know that everyone in that company was laser focused on what they were working toward and what the reward for winning was.

We entrepreneurs are a very hard working bunch and don’t usually stop to celebrate our successes…big or small. So, even if you’re a solopreneur, I challenge you to take a page out of the goBrandgo playbook and make sure you not only plan what your goals are, but how you’re going to celebrate when you achieve them.

So with that I leave you with just one question…

What’s your Super Bowl?