Context Is King In Data-Driven Marketing
Context is critical, and we often have too little of it.
I adore David Oglivy.
He was a thought leader in the truest sense of the word. A man who was BOTH expert and visionary.
Decades ago, he made a prediction…
Marketing, he declared, would eventually experience a grand shift. A re-adjustment towards WHAT WORKS rather than pomp and amusement.
We’re seeing that shift today.
Google, Amazon, Apple — the world’s most valuable companies are championing the cause of data-based marketing. Of split testing. Of careful analysis and user profiling.
But companies emulating these giants often fail, miserably.
They seem to do everything right. They walk the walk. Talk the talk.
It just… doesn’t work. Their tests are inconclusive. Their conversion rates remain stubbornly low.
Mainly because they’re missing a critical piece of the puzzle.
Luckily, this isn’t a hard problem to fix.
The first step, of course, is to…
Collect All The Data You Can. Be Greedy.
The raw numbers.
There are so many data collection tools out there these days there is NO good excuse for not having any. Zero.
Rather, to actually not know anything you’d have to really work at it.
Most are free.
Google Analytics, for instance, is an extremely powerful tool that will show you ALMOST everything you need to know.
Eye and mouse tracking, which usually do need to be paid for, can also be incredibly valuable in showing you how people are interacting with your brand. Most profitable companies can (and should) probably spare the $20 a month that requires.
User surveys can be built in tools like SurveyMonkey — which are free for most purposes. People will readily answer them.
The point is…
Getting Good Data Is Easy.
The hard part is making sense of it.
There’s the usual stuff marketers look out for, of course.
Visits, conversion rates, bounce rates, time on page, and other such things.
The basics.
But to really dig deep into your customer’s mind, you have to get deeper into the numbers too.
For instance, average cost per purchase. Average number of purchases. User activity for the past 30–90 days. The all-important lifetime customer value.
You have to know just WHICH metrics are relevant for your exact situation, and how to interpret them — which depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Here’s Where It Can All Go Wrong
“John, this bounce rate shows not enough people are staying on our landing page for more than 5 seconds.”
“Well Larry, that’s a cryin’ shame. Why do you think that is?”
“It’s the design John, it must be! I TOLD you that green was utterly revolting!”
Humans LOVE to make assumptions, especially on things they don’t fully understand.
It’s our nature.
It’s why we have tons of old superstitions on what gets you sick, why you shouldn’t eat before sleeping, why drinking cold water on a winter day is a bad idea…
It’s also probably the biggest and most expensive mistake in data-driven marketing.
Why aren’t people sticking around to use the app after the first 14 days? Why aren’t people converting on this landing page? Why aren’t people referring their friends even when we’re offering such incredible incentives?
When we try to analyze data is a vacuum, our mind automatically jumps to explanations.
This is a mistake.
Because the truth is…
Even WITH The Numbers, We Do Not Know.
In the above example, the only actual “fact” we know of is that people don’t stay on the landing page for more than 5 seconds.
That’s it.
The problem COULD be the design, as Larry believes.
Or it could be that the page is loading too slowly. Or that the audience isn’t the right one. Or that people are viewing it on their phones and it looks completely broken on mobile.
The thing Larry lacks, and what most companies lack, is context.
Without this context, you risk confirmation bias.
Here’s a BETTER way to make sense of your numbers.
Collect Qualitative Data.
Qualitative data provides the context necessary to provide accurate analysis.
For instance, you might have an app with 1,000 reviews, half of which are negative.
That’s quantitative.
The qualitative data necessary to understand why half are negative would be the comments accompanying those reviews.
“Didn’t like the sharing function.” “Too many push notifications.” “Hate the dog picture when you login.”
When you combine the raw numbers with the context necessary to understand it…
The picture just snaps into place.
And that’s what the companies who trip of data-driven marketing miss…
You need both halves of a map to chart a course.
Here’s how to start.
Get Your Customers Talking.
Offer a promotion to people who fill out a survey on your offerings. A survey you’ve customized to shed light on your most uncertain features.
A promotion might not even be necessary. People just LOVE to throw their opinion at you, even if you don’t want to hear it.
Heatmap tracking is great for websites — but even better when combined with user testing.
Professional tests that allow participants to talk aloud and illuminate you on their thought process are absolutely invaluable to figuring out the common pain points.
The interesting thing about such user tests is you don’t need MUCH qualitative data. 5–10 people will actually let you “catch” most major issues.
Similarly, you can contact your most active customers for interviews in exchange for some type of reward.
You can ask a direct question in your autoresponder email sequence.
You can engage with your audience on social media, one of the single best ways of figuring out how your audience thinks.
And once you have that all-important context…
You Can Test Solid Hypothesis’ With Higher Success Rates.
The right numbers and the right background will allow you to draw accurate insights.
And accurate insights are the key to sound decisions that lead to growth.
Once you know how your customers are behaving AND know why…
Split-testing becomes far more effective.
Ultimately, we’re still in the transition period to a more data-centric marketing model…
And there will be growing pains.
You don’t have to be the one to experience them.
Get context — and grow.
Read this far? A favor, if you would…
Whether you agree with what you’ve just read, or just want to explain to me how utterly WRONG I am…
Comments, claps, and shares make my day.
This is the totally shameless tip jar on the counter… and my end of article call-to-action (because I try to practice what I preach).
Originally published at numberglutton.com.
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