The central ideas and much of the following are from Samantha Stone’s excellent book on marketing that works called, Unleash Possible. You could whitewash it and say that data is only misleading, but data by itself, can turn reality on its head. Data is not productively actionable without a human analyst. Here are four (of the many) ways that data lies: 1. It only tells us what, not why: Behavioral data doesn’t reveal the underlying reasons behind actions. To do this, you need qualitative research. 2. It loses sight of the individual: When everything we do groups people together, we lose sight of the some of our best prospects. For example, in sending out mass emails, we look at the open,
The central ideas and much of the following are from Samantha Stone’s excellent book on marketing that works called, Unleash Possible. This is a great title because it captures the essential tenant of marketing: opening up possibilities, rather than assurances (keep trying well-thought-out options and pivot quickly until you find something that works). So your sales rep has made a great presentation, but—as is often the case—the decision maker was not there. How do you help the people that were there make a business case to decision makers? Following are four items that Stone says should be included in this champion kit: 1. Justification Brief: This is an overview of the problem that the t
Multiple studies have shown that the subject line is the most important factor in driving digital marketing results. You can spend hours composing a truly informative email for clients and prospects, but it’s a waste of time if no one reads it. The good news is that you have many more characters in the subject line than you’re using—about 85. The average email subject is only 45 characters. What a waste! The thinking used to be that you want the subject line to be as short and snappy as possible. With the proliferation of mobile devices subject lines were supposed to be even shorter and snappier. It was a valid argument at one time. However, the new thinking is that, as long as you put th
