Lessons All Business Leaders Can Learn from the Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson Fight
Even if we don't realize it, business lessons are everywhere in our daily lives. The most recent event that was packed with business takeaways was the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. You may say, “it was just a boring fight”. However, as someone who helps businesses implement marketing and technology strategies and can astutely identify these lessons when they present themselves, let me tell you, there were valuable lessons all around. So, what are some lessons all business leaders can learn from the Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson fight? Let’s get into it…
Importance of partnering with others in your industry
Most people steer clear from engaging with their “competitors”; however, partnering with others in your industry is a great way to boost your brand and grow your business. Think about it, Jake Paul picked up the phone and called Tyson and said, “Hey, I respect you, you’re the best of the best. Why don’t we both get in the ring and partner together to promote a fight?” They were strategic in their partnership and were able to mutually benefit from the agreement by using their individual reputations and knowledge about marketing and their target audiences to build awareness and pull in viewers. Boxers or not, these two are smart businessmen and they walked away from the fight having earned over $60 million dollars between them.
Clearly understand your target customers and what they desire
Jake Paul has a very good pulse on who his target audience is and what they want/need, as does Mike Tyson. In the Netflix documentary leading up to the fight, Jake specifically said that he knew that this fight was what both their target audiences wanted and that was one of the biggest reasons he wanted to pursue the idea.
As a business leader, you should always be tuned into your target customer and how you can meet their needs. Doing extensive research about your target customer before you even start working on implementing any strategies in your business, marketing or otherwise, is key. In order to be profitable, you have to know what your ideal customers want and are willing to buy.
Use a marketing nurture campaign to build relationships and encourage customers to take action
Many business owners are beginning to recognize the benefits of leveraging a marketing nurture campaign for their businesses. For many of us, these campaigns come in the form of a sequence of automated emails that each contain content strategically crafted to achieve certain goals. Each email supporting the next and essentially nurturing the customer journey by providing information, building relationships and brand credibility, and encouraging them to take a desired action (e.g. buy a product/service).
The Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight also leveraged a nurture campaign of sorts by having a 3 part documentary series leading up to the fight. During this series they re-introduced the main characters and built up interest in the fight. They made us feel connected to the fighters by telling us about their history, giving us a peek into their personal lives, and a glimpse into how they prepared for the match.
They also used the documentary as a channel to execute a form of scarcity marketing. They included the marketing tactics of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and created a sense of urgency to get us to take action (watch the fight). By continuously showing us a countdown to fight night and and using other strategic messaging in the show, they apealled to the interests of their target audiences to get them to ultimately watch the fight.
Use your platform to support others
From the feedback I’ve seen online since the fight aired, the match up between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor was one of the highlights of the night. Apparently, Jake Paul wanted to bring more awareness to women’s boxing and has been using his name to support their recent fights, helping them earn more money than ever before.
Using your business and platform to support others is always a good practice. Helping others to grow and reach success whether in business or in life has a return on investment that sometimes cannot be quantified.
Have testimonials and reviews to improve brand credibility
At the end of the Paul/Tyson fight the interviewer asked Tyson several times about Jake’s performance and his ability as a boxer. Mike answered with positive feedback and praised Jake. Think about the impact that feedback had on Jake’s reputation as a boxer to some of his critics. Having boxing legend and champion Mike Tyson leave the audience with a “positive review” of Jake Paul is impactful. It helps to dispel some of the negative opinions and helps Jake to build credibility, relevance, and a loyal customer base.
As a business leader, having social proof and positive feedback from past customers is a marketing tactic that is incredibly important. When people see that your business has what it takes to meet their needs and you have client feedback to back it up, it increases their confidence and desire to work with you.
Make sure your technology systems are set-up to scale, even if your business is small
We all experienced it last night; slow Netflix load times, difficulty logging in, blurry resolution, and inconsistency in connection. It was terrible and made watching the fight a poor experience.
This is a lesson for all business leaders - even if your business is small, make sure you have systems in place that are set-up to scale. It’s better to have efficient systems in place before you fully need them, then to need them and not have them.
Technology is how most people interact with businesses these days, so it’s important that each online experience is a good one. Each bad experience that a customer has with your systems impacts their trust and the credibility of your business. Lowered trust and credibility leads to lower engagement and less sales. Therefore, it’s important to have an efficient and streamlined tech stack implemented so your business can grow and succeed. Unfortunately for Netflix, from last night alone, many of us have lost trust in their ability to provide live broadcasting, and that could prove to be bad for their live broadcast engagement in the future.
To wrap things up, even though we may not have gotten anything of value from the fight itself, there was plenty of business value to be gained. Seeing examples in day-to-day life of how marketing can be used and how it can change outcomes is a valuable learning tool for business leaders. By using the Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul fight as a case study, business leaders can learn a valuable lesson about the impact of marketing strategy. Embracing these lessons can empower leaders to make informed decisions that can help them achieve their business goals.
