One Quick Football Metaphor
With 2:37 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Kurt Warner threw a 64 yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald to put the Arizona Cardinals ahead by 3, poised to win the 43rd Superbowl.
If you’re patient, 2:37 is plenty of time to turn things around.
Football metaphors aside for the moment, it’s worth thinking about how time relates to perspective. Many of us look for quick results, immediate returns. But good marketing doesn’t work that way. It takes time.
How To Measure Your Results
A lot of that has to do with the end results. Shouting a message is a fast way to make yourself heard. Creating a message and inviting people to hear it takes patience. You have to think about what to say, how it might be said. Where you say it makes a difference, too.
And you have to wait for people to hear you. They won’t hear you unless you build their trust, which takes even longer. And you won’t build their trust without a continuous effort, creating content regularly that people can use.
So, you can move quickly with little effort and be heard, or you can move deliberately with hard work and be listened to. Both methods can create conversion: the goal depends on your perspective.
Building Something
Are you getting a sale or making a customer? Which is more important? That’s where perspective comes in. If you’re after sales, there will never be enough time. Your metrics won’t move fast enough. You’ll have to jump to the next big push before you know much of anything about your last one.
If you’re after customers, perspective changes. Because you’re inviting people to get useful information from you, you’ll develop relationships with them. They appreciate what you’re doing. Getting to know your listeners becomes a really cool, useful part of your job. Time works for you.
The Steelers worked all year on getting 2:37 to work for them. It was all the time in the world.
Tags: content marketing, Copywriting, Social Media