Gear up to navigate turns: Marketing lessons learned from hitting the slopes
Photo / Provided
The Sugarloaf ski area is Nancy Marshall's happy place; this snapshot was taken in late December.
For those who know me, skiing and marketing have played significant roles in my life and career. My two sons were raised on the slopes and became college racers and coaches.
I taught skiing at Lost Valley, then worked for many years in the marketing department at Sugarloaf before starting my PR agency, with Sugarloaf as my first client.
While skiing over the holidays, I realized many parallels between skiing and marketing. Here are my top 10:
Have your gear ready. In marketing, it’s best to have your laptop or iPad, notebook, pen and, most importantly, cell phone ready. Keep your files and emails organized into logical folders. To make skiing the most efficient, you must organize your ski equipment. It’s most efficient to keep all your ski gear together in one place: skis, boots, poles, helmet, goggles, boots and pass. If you’re organized, it’s not a massive effort to get ready to go skiing, but if you have to find all your stuff every time, it becomes stressful (every time).
Be prepared for adverse conditions. When skiing in the mountains, bad weather — such as high winds, snow, sleet or rain — can occur anytime. In marketing, things can go wrong, such as your website going down, a critical meeting getting canceled, missing a flight to an important meeting, or a typo in your marketing materials.
If you are skiing alone, always find someone to share the chairlift. You never know if the person under that helmet beside you might be U.S. Sen. Angus King, Gov. Janet Mills or an influential company president like Mike Bourque of MEMIC. Some of the best networking I have done in my career has been on the chairlift. Likewise, in marketing, inviting people to coffee, lunch or a glass of wine is a good idea whenever possible. There’s a book entitled “Never Eat Alone,” and I think I will write one called “Never Ride the Lift Alone.”
Focus on continuously improving your technique, and don’t hesitate to hire an instructor or coach. In marketing, you can continually improve your digital marketing techniques, and online classes, webinars or business coaches are a great investment of time and money.
Skiing with a group of people with the same ability as yours is always more fun than skiing alone. In marketing, finding a Mastermind or peer group is beneficial and fun. I belong to several professional groups of people who always have my back. Years ago, I was part of a group of women called “Chicks on Sticks” who skied together on Saturday mornings with a professional coach at Sugarloaf; I loved those days!
Assess the risk of slopes, especially if going off the trail into unknown territory. Getting caught in terrain that’s too difficult for you is dangerous. In marketing, you must evaluate risks in campaigns, such as negative feedback or cultural innuendos. If you are trying something new, such as LinkedIn advertising, you can waste a lot of money if you don’t seek professional help on your first campaign.
In skiing, you want to build momentum and always be prepared to turn. In marketing, momentum through consistent messaging and engagement with customers will help drive brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Learn from your falls. I fell severely two years ago and dislocated my shoulder, which taught me that I needed to use different goggle lenses to see the ice. In marketing, failures provide insights, and it’s crucial to analyze what went wrong and improve future efforts.
Set goals: Setting goals to ski a certain number of hours a day or days in the season is rewarding and fulfilling. In marketing, setting goals and measuring the ROI of your efforts is critical. But with skiing and marketing, you can always pivot if unforeseen obstacles arise, such as fatigue or flawed campaigns.
Be persistent and patient. Marketing is the same way. There’s no ‘one and done’ marketing campaign that will set you up for permanent success. You must be patient while continuously testing and learning from your messaging and campaigns.
I don’t know what my life would have been without both skiing and marketing, and I have figured out a way to combine the two in a career that has been fulfilling and rewarding. My wish for you in 2025 is to combine your interests for health and happiness.
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