It's that time of year. Americans are preparing to eat as much as humanly possible, sit on the couch in sweatpants, and watch football. And for anyone in a fantasy football league, it's time for playoffs. Here, we break the game down into four strategies that you can apply equally to marketing and fantasy football.

1) Draft a running back before a quarterback.
Even though quarterbacks get the celebrity spotlight, most fantasy footballers will tell you to draft a powerhouse running back first because of the high-scoring potential and smaller talent pool. The same goes in marketing. Think of email marketing as your running back and social media marketing as your quarterback. Both are essential to the game, but email should be your foundation. Forty-nine percent of marketers surveyed for our 2014 State of Marketing report believe that email marketing is producing ROI, compared to 34% who say social media marketing is producing ROI. (However, 52% say that social media marketing will eventually produce ROI - perhaps it's just a matter of channel maturity at this point.)

2) Don't pick all your players from the same team.
Even if you're a diehard Bears fan, drafting all your players from the Bears is a bad idea for the obvious reason: when the BYE week rolls around, you're toast. Diversifying your team is just as important as diversifying your marketing channels. Some of your customers might prefer Facebook when communicating with your brand. Others might prefer email, and yet others might prefer to use your app. The point is, you have to be cross-channel in your marketing mix the same way you are in your fantasy football lineup to ensure you're maximizing your score.

3) Stats trump player loyalty.
Just because Matt Stafford is your favorite QB since he graduated from the same university as you, doesn't mean he's always the best man for the job in fantasy football (trust me). While your players won't always earn their projected points, you have to be objective and consider the numbers when selecting your starting lineup. The marketing parallel here is simple: data beats opinions. You can like version A of a subject line or creative design better than version B. But if an A/B test shows that version B is the winner, you can't argue with that.

4) Check your lineup often.
Who missed practice, who's injured, and who's slated to step in and pick up big points? A lot changes from week to week in the league. The same way you review your fantasy lineup regularly to make sure your team is in good shape, you'll want to pay keen attention to your customer journey. While "customer journey" may sound like just another buzzword, it's not - in fact, 86% of senior-level marketers agree that it's absolutely critical or very important to create a cohesive customer journey. For more on this, check out our recent report published in partnership with LinkedIn, The State of Marketing Leadership.