Monthly Archives: October 2014

October 8, 2014 · 10:30 am

The Road To Understanding

A piece from the eMarketer group caught my eye yesterday.  The headline was Marketers Can’t Avoid Technology Anymore.

Figure 1: Simple schematic for a data warehous...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Off the top of my head it made me wonder who exactly was trying to avoid it since there isn’t a single company that comes to mind where technology isn’t sort of a big deal.  As it turns out, the article was about a subset of tech, big data, and how professionals need to up marketing technology investments if they hope to make sense of this data as well as to focus on integrating technologies and data across channels..  No doubt with a big caveat.

This hints at the issue:

April 2014 research by Accenture also found big data was top of mind for the majority of executives worldwide, with 59% saying it was extremely important. Of course, technologies are needed to make sense of and combine all of this information, and Accenture noted that using such tools to understand big data could transform an entire enterprise—if done correctly.

It’s the “done correctly” part that’s the caveat.  The road to understanding doesn’t begin with technology.  It doesn’t begin with a fully integrated series of systems or a huge data warehouse.  It starts with something much simpler that’s often overlooked.  It starts with some basic questions.

  • What do we need to know?
  • Why do we want to know it?
  • Once we know it, what actions can we take to use it to grow our business?
  • How is what we have going to improve our relationship with our customers?
  • When prospects encounter us, whether online or off, which of these data points will help us convert them to customers?

My guess, based on a fair number of experiences, is that many of the aforementioned companies are just puking up data instead of using the data to develop actionable business information.  The eMarketer piece concludes this way:

Companies that avoid implementing and using marketing technology to make sense of data have an uncertain future. Nearly 80% of execs agreed that companies that did not embrace big data would lose their competitive advantage—and possibly face extinction.

I agree with that but if they don’t do the above while traveling the road to understanding and having asked some questions before they embrace and develop big data, extinction is just as likely.

What’s been your experience with this?

 

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October 7, 2014 · 11:06 am

Look Through The Windshield

Today’s wake up call comes from the good folks at Hubspot.  They do a report each year on their area of expertise which is inbound marketing.  What the heck is that?  Well, you’re sort of reading some now, since the screed is not just a way for me to blow excess verbiage out of my system but also a way for people who might need some help with their business to see how I think and where I can help.  Company blogs (yes, I’m a company) are a form as are corporate social media and SEO.  Inbound marketing is just a fancy way to describe content companies put out there to attract the right customers and to generate leads.

Hubspot’s report – The 2014 State of Inbound Report reviews how companies are using this marketing form.  It contains the aforementioned wakeup call as they discuss measuring ROI – return on investment of those activities:

Given the compounding benefits of measuring ROI, you’d assume most marketers would list it as their top initiative. Surprisingly, very few marketers — even marketing leadership — are prioritizing it. Only 15% of marketers ranked “proving the ROI of our marketing activities” as their #1 marketing priority and a little over half (53%) of marketers we surveyed are measuring ROI.

Yikes.  Almost half aren’t even attempting to figure out if what they’re doing is providing them with the desired results.  Marketers should have a clear way to measure success otherwise how can they allocate resources in a manner that maximizes the benefits of their marketing efforts?

I wish I could say I’m surprised but I’m not.  The “newness” of new media seems to obfuscate the fact that part of the benefit of digital is that it is highly measurable.  It’s not just knowing for the sake of knowing either.  As the report says, marketers that measure ROI are 12X more likely to generate a greater return year-over-year than a lower return. In other words, simply the act of measuring ROI correlates with positive results. 

You wouldn’t drive a car without looking through the windshield.  Not measuring the results of, and return from, your marketing or any other business activity is doing just that.  While driverless cars may almost be here, business activities will never become that way.  If we don’t look out the windshield we’re heading for a wreck.  Thoughts?

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October 6, 2014 · 12:37 pm

Say Yes!

As we start the week, how about we all try something? This week, let’s all agree to say “yes!” as often as we can. Sounds simple, right? Hopefully so. I’m willing to wager that you’ll be surprised at how often your instinct is to say something else, however.yes-238373_640

    • When someone walks into your office with a new product idea that might mean a lot of extra time and effort but could pay off nicely if it works, what’s your instinct?
    • When you are sent an article from a writer that has a different view of politics from you, what’s your instinct with respect to investing the time to hear the writer out?
    • When your significant other suggests making it a meatless Monday, what’s your instinct?
    • When someone says they need an answer RIGHT NOW, what’s your instinct?

The above and dozens of other questions are all about a couple of things.  First, it’s about escaping your comfort zone and pushing yourself to explore new things. It’s about learning and expanding your knowledge base even if it never changes your opinion.  It’s about, in the words of the famous Alka Seltzer spot, listening when someone says “try it you’ll like it” and having an open mind. Sure, there will be the occasional bout of heartburn but there may also be some phenomenal discoveries.

Finally, it’s about all of us (me included and maybe in particular!) bringing a lot more positive energy to a world where things often seem kind of negative.  Happiness and a positive attitude can be catching, just like a sneeze or hiccups.  Let’s try spreading them around.

Yes?

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