“Marketing Teleology” and Lap Swimming
Ok, so let’s say you have been marketing your TTRPG, board game, or TCG for some time now…
You’ve read a bunch of blogs, chatted with like-minded folks on reddit, and maybe even hired a marketing consultant for a few hours…
You know all the different tools like SEO, social, email, etc…
And even know what order they all go in and how they should work together…
But even months after implementing all these marketing…
YOU STILL AREN’T SEEING RESULTS.
Well, one reason for this might be best illustrated by something I realized while swimming the other day…
Lap Swimming Revelations
So just the other day I hopped in my car and headed to the gym for a swim.
And after my loooooooooong dry land warm up with bands and stretches (seriously its been 6 months how long do I need to do physical therapy on my shoulder?!?) I hopped in the pool.
Now I am not a lifelong swimmer; I didn’t swim in high school or college. In fact, I quit swim team when I was 9 years old.
But I have always HATED running with the burning passion of a thousand suns (Fairly Odd Parents… anyone?).
I’m a tall guy with kind of skinny calves, and just the motion of running feels awkward. Not to mention my ADHD makes just running laps intolerably boring.
But in college I wanted to get in shape, so I picked “PE 352- Intermediate Lap Swimming”.
AND I LOVED IT.
I am a much more natural swimmer
It works out all parts of the body
It uses sprint/HIT exercises
Get to cool off on a hot day
My ADHD can focus on the strokes
So, 13 years later, its still my favorite form of exercise!
But despite aaaaaaall that time swimming, yesterday I realized something for the first time that was so simple and basic that it’s kind of embarrassing.
For months I have been swimming a few times a week, really keeping focused on my form so that I can rehab my shoulder.
And my arm strokes were feeling … just… I dunno… weak?
I was using the correct form, but something seemed off.
I had been struggling to use all my upper body muscles with every stroke… taking each lap to focus on a different muscle.
But just the other day I asked myself: “Wait… what is the PURPOSE of all of these muscle movements?”
to - move - through - the - water
The point of swimming is to go fast through water.
Hella basic.
Borderline obvious.
Actually… VERY obvious.
But all my emphasis on form had made me forget about just this basic fact of swimming.
So instead of focusing on individual aspects of form, I focused on just MOVING THROUGH THE WATER FAST.
And you know what?
I shaved 5 seconds off a single length.
For those non-swimmers out there, I went 25% faster, just by changing my perspective.
That is a colossal improvement!
And this story has something we can learn about marketing tabletop games.
Board Game Marketing Teleology
Teleology means: “a branch of causality giving the reason or an explanation for something as a function of its end, its purpose, or its goal”
In other words, it thinking of the purpose of something to discover the essence of something.
When you start beginning your tabletop games marketing, it is really easy to remember your purpose of marketing.
Depending on your business it could be to gain subscribers, build brand awareness, or just sell more product.
But the deeper and deeper you get into board game marketing…
And the more details and nuances you learn about email and blogs and social media and web design…
The easier it is to FORGET the purpose behind your marketing:
You get caught up in making sure your emails look great and the copy short and snappy
You get lose in website SEO and forget about user experience
You continue to post all the things your supposed to post on social media
Obviously, none of these tactics are BAD, and used properly they can make huge differences in your marketing.
But if you are doing all these things and still aren’t seeing results…
If might be because you lost sight of “the forest of the trees”…
And going back over all your marketing materials with the end in mind might reveal different ways your messaging has been unengaging, unclear, and irrelevant to your customers.
