The Internet Marketing Game

I encountered the phrase I have used as my headline a few days ago. I saw it on a website I was visiting. It set me thinking as I had never heard internet marketing referred to as a game before and I had never thought of it that way myself either. I could, however, see immediate parallels between internet marketing and sport. In my youth I was a very ‘sporty’ person playing almost every sport that was going, many to some sort of representative level. I was never outstanding at any of them, however, as music was the big thing in my life and took a lot of time and commitment, but I got a great deal of joy and fulfilment from being involved in sporting activities.

The enjoyment I got from sport is very much reflected in the enjoyment I now get from working at my internet marketing. The more I have thought about the comparison between running an online business and game playing, the more links I can see. First of all, the basic skills have to be known, practised and applied. The rules have to be fully understood and nobody can achieve high standards in any sport without training. To anyone involved in internet marketing there are some pretty obvious links there.

The basics of most sports are fairly simple to grasp. A track athlete has to run the set distance faster than anyone else. A footballer has to play his part in helping his team to get the ball into the opponent’s goal more times than the opponents can get the ball into theirs.. A golfer has to take as few shots as possible to get his or her ball from the tee into the hole on the green. If you look at any sport you can reduce it to such simple concepts.

However, every sport and game has its subtleties. A golfer has to select the appropriate club for each shot he or she is faced with. Every member of a football team has a particular task to perform be it in attack or defence. A track athlete achieves through a combination of power and technique. Some sports and games rely very much on technique first and foremost and require very little in terms of physical fitness, e.g. snooker.

In the sphere of online business it is crucial to know the rules; that is, to understand the process by which success can be achieved. It is essential to practise the necessary skills and learn them thoroughly, in particular, learn how to apply them. Just as a footballer who has been out of action for a few weeks might get back to full physical fitness but is still not “match fit”, to use the usual term. He needs a few games to apply his fitness in a match situation. Physical fitness itself is not enough! Application is the issue!

Top sportsmen and women are for ever honing their skills and their level of fitness to improve their performances even further. They work to improve, not only their physical condition and tactical awareness, but also their mental strength and attitude so they can cope with adversity when it occurs. For those involved in internet marketing, we certainly need that latter approach too so we can deal with the disappointments and difficulties we will, at times, have to face. Many who fail in online business do so because they have not got the resilience to cope with problems that arise, especially in the early weeks of setting up a business. The mind-set has to be right.

So, looking at internet marketing as a game it is quite thought-provoking to draw parallels between the two apparently disparate issues. With both fields of endeavour the basic concept is fairly simple but being able to perform at a high level requires study, skill, technique and lots and lots of practice. I wish you all the best as you play the internet marketing game.

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