Achilles Tendinopathy and “Switching Marketing Strategy”

So… I have achilles tendinopathy.

Which kinda sucks.

Pretty much missed hiking and backpacking the entire fall season, which is pretty great here in Spokane.

But… I’m thankful its not achilles tendonitis.

Because part of my recovery is exercising my calf and achilles.

Achilles tendonitis is way differnet; basically you ice/heat it for somwhere between 5 weeks and 5 months and hope it gets better!

Yeah… its one of THOSE injuries.

I’ll still be able to bike, squat, stair step, snowshoe, walk, and even ski throughout the winter.

But you probably don’t care that much about that.

What you care about is HOW I got it, and what that has to tell you about your marketing strategies.

Ok, so about a year ago I was walking the trails along High Drive on the phone with my dad, and thoughts: “Huh… the bottom of my feet hurt, like, A LOT”.

It wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time I told anyone else about it (my dad got an earfull about it).

And a few months and 3 different new pairs of shoes later… the pain was STILL there.

In fact, it had gotten worse; I could barely go a quarter of a mile before it started acting up.

So I made a big shift…

I bought some five finger shoes.

Its like a sexy tuxedo for your feet…

Now, I want to make one thing very, very clear:

I am hyper aware of how ugly these things are (and how terrible they smell…)

HOWEVER, I love walking around barefoot, and these things are the next best thing.

The science isn’t quite as strong as it was when they first came out, but like all minimalist shoes the principle is the same: your foot was designed for walking, and a lot of shoes just get in the way and actually make that harder for your body, not easier.

And best of all, they WORKED:

• The pain on the bottom of my feet went away

• My knee pain also wan’t half as bad

• I was able to do light trail running and hike all spring and summer

And I was careful too… I read online that it is such a sharp transition that you have to SLOWLY adjust to the shoes; too much too soon will just result in injuries.

Well, by come August, I suddenly notice that that achilles pain I had waking up wasn’t going away throughout the day.

And with the Christian Mcaffery injury fresh on my mind, it dawned on me just what I had done to my body.

I stressed my achilles in order to relieve the pain on my foot.

Not only did I probably not transition slowly enough, but those steep hike sprints I was doing were putting a tooooon of pressure on my achilles.

And instead of paying close attention to any pain in my body, I just ignored it and thought my lower-leg problems were behind me.

And boy was I wrong.

(honestly I am so relieved I still will get to ski a little bit this winter…)

With all that said… what on earth does this have to do with your marketing strategy?

Switching marketing strategies can make everything worse.

Its not a 1-to-1 correlation, but abruptly saying: “SEO content isn’t bringing more traffic… lets try social media ads!” or “email is taking too long to develop close relationships with customers… let’s hire an influencer instead” isn’t usually the best idea.

Instead of abrupt changes, talk to an expert in your industry (I’m good with tabletop games and healthcare) and go one of these other directions instead:

1. See if there is anything missing that is keeping that strategy from working

2. Check if your marketing channel is reaching people at the wrong stage of the funnel

3. Adjust the marketing tool’s place in your overall funnel and strategy.

In other words…

It is better to ADJUST the marketing you are doing rather than ABANDON.