How Tennis Helped Me Become a Better Marketer
When I first started playing tennis, I had to learn a lot. I had to learn about the rules, scoring, proper behavior on the court, and equipment. I also had to do some things I didn’t really enjoy doing, such as sprints, weightlifting, or even waking up at 5:30 a.m to go to practice.
However, these things helped me become a better tennis player. I managed to keep my focus and improve my game by doing these things and now I realize they were really helpful. Now I know that if I hadn’t done those things, I never would have played tennis like I do today. Without all the pain I wouldn’t have been given the opportunity for a full-ride scholarship to play on a Division I team. And it’s the early morning practices that helped our men and women’s teams win conference titles two years in a row. What most people see is the victory of winning, without realizing how tedious and exhausting our workouts are.
The same principle can be applied to marketing. Marketing isn’t always fun. Some things are easier to do, such as doing creative design, PPC, or writing blogs. However, in my case, Google Analytics, Google Trends, or SEO are not fun at all. I find them to be boring and tedious. However, they are extremely important.
Through tennis, I realized that doing things we don’t like can be very helpful. It helps us become a more rounded person- a marketer who knows not only how to write blogs and do creative design, but one who also knows how to track their audience, how to target potential clients, and how to rank higher in SEO.
Tennis is also a team job. In doubles, you have a partner and you have a part to play. If you don’t trust your partner, you won’t succeed. Both of you need to rely on each other and only then will you outperform your opponents.
Marketing is a team job, as well. Every person on the team has a task to do, but these tasks mix and you create a bigger picture. You need to know how to work effectively as a group and how to trust that your team members will do their part. That is successful marketing.
At first, I thought marketing will be fun. I thought there will be no boring parts, but now I know better. I forced myself to learn about Google Trends and SEO. Thanks to tennis and keeping my eyes on the task at hand, I learned new things and grew as a business person and a marketer.
