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Marketing's a lot like Golf. Everyone's on the struggle bus.

johnf738

I've never met a business owner or entrepreneur who's completely confident with their marketing game.

Just as I've never met a golfer who's 100% confident with every club in the bag. Even the best scratch golfers say things like, "I'm not a very good putter," or "my ball striking's gotta improve."

We're all searching for solutions, usually in the form of a quick fix.

So we spend $600 on a new driver to gain a few extra yards off the tee. Or we spend $20,000 on the latest, greatest marketing automation software that promises to provide the most detailed data stack in the world.

Sometimes those measures work, temporarily. But they're half measures at best. Longer drives do not guarantee better scores. You can still loose your balls.



Marketing's a struggle - a lot like golf. Birdie Ops - a hybrid agency for golf brands

And more data at your fingertips doesn't mean your marketing efforts will improve.

So marketing's a struggle. We try to buy a better game, or the latest greatest solution, but we end up on a merry-go-round of experimentation. After a short reprieve we're right back on the struggle bus.

I've been there, at work and on the golf course. I even wrote a book about the universal struggle to play better golf. It's called the Forget-About-It Guide To Better Golf.

With that in mind, here are three ways you can keep your sanity while trying to manage a marketing program that never seems to be running smoothly, right down the middle.

​ 1. Marketing's a struggle. Embrace the Bus!

Marketing — as in golf — is a never-ending quest. You might as well embrace the fact that you'll never perfect it.

Thankfully, you don't have to do everything right. You just have to do a few things a little bit better than your competitors. (And believe me, most of those competitors are doing a lot of stuff wrong.)

Golf is not a game of perfect. In fact, it's mostly about managing your misses... Take the swing, accept the results and move on.

Same for marketing.

Even the most analytical, "science-based" marketing experts have to take wild shots in the dark on a regular basis. They start with a hypothesis, also known as an idea or a concept in advertising circles, and they put it out there to see what happens. Some are hits, some are misses.

"This landing page actually decreased conversions by 168%." It's like missing the green and dumping the ball in a bunker. But they learn something and move on.


The next shot might be an improvement of 500%.

If you can reframe the struggle and look at as business as usual, things will be much brighter.


Yes, marketing's a struggle. Find some fun in the quest and accept the fact that it'll never be perfect. Your marketing, like your golf game, will always be a work in progress.

​ 2. Use all the tools in your bag.

Marketing a business or a product with just social media, or just PR, or just influencer marketing, is like trying to play a round of golf with just one club, instead of 14.

You gotta have the right tool in your hand for every new situation.

The smartest CMOs know that. So they start every year with a fresh perspective on all their marketing activities. They assess what's changed, and they shift their tactics and tools accordingly. They don't accept the way it's always been done as gospel. Everything's on the table.

Think about that if you're planning your marketing effort for 2024. Consider the shots you took, and the shots you chose to avoid. What tools are you overlooking? What tools are not working as well as you'd like?


There's always room for improvement.

​ 3. Find a decent marketing caddy.

Caddies help guide you around the course, provide specific directions, keep your spirits up and help carry the load. A good branding agency can do the same for your marketing game.

Find one you trust and hang onto them. The longer you work together the better they'll know your business, and the more valuable and effective they'll become.

If you have a really strong in-house marketing team that's great. But sometimes you still need an outsider's perspective in order to reach your full potential. In a perfect world, you'd have both.

The top pro golfers these days employ a host of specialists. In addition to their caddy they have a personal trainer for fitness, a swing coach, a mental coach and a manager. It's a team effort, week in and week out.

Many of our clients at Birdie Ops have outside specialists they rely on, in addition to their in-house marketing team. We pride ourselves on our ability to play nicely and integrate our creative efforts with what's already working for our clients.

No one's effective when they're working in a vacuum.

4. Resist shiny objects and fast-talking salespeople.

I'm getting really sick of all the snake-oil salespeople, both in golf and in marketing. There's so much bullshit out there it's nauseating.

"This revolutionary new driver is guaranteed to straighten out your slice, in just three swings."

Some of golf's most credible, big-name instructors are spewing claims like that every day online.

"Massive 5,6, even 7-figure revenues from this one secret marketing trick. And it's completely automatic. Just set it and forget it."

Those fly-by-night Facebook pitchmen are the only people I ever run into who do NOT think marketing's a struggle. They're absolutely certain their marketing "strategies" will work for you, and it's easy to get sucked in.

So do your best to resist the shiny objects while staying up to speed with all the new marketing tools, options and opportunities that are out there.

We can help you with that.

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