In 1923, Claude Hopkins argued that there are rules of advertising that, as long as they were understood and followed, would make success both attainable and repeatable. By combining marketing best practices with conventional wisdom and applying that knowledge across the best tools and channels, he said, marketers could provide predictable success.
Today, too often we think of the “best” marketers as the ones who have the best mastery of these rules and tools. Many companies focus on developing mastery of marketing tools like CRM integration or social media among their marketing professionals. The more you know about these tools–and the more you’re able to use them in conjunction with conventional marketing wisdom–the more successful you’ll be. At least that’s how the thinking goes.
We’ve talked before about how this old marketing value chain has severe limitations for today’s business operations, but it also places limitations on how marketers can demonstrate their return on investment (ROI.) “Rules and tools”-based operations fail to set marketers up with the data and strategy that allow them to prove their worth to the rest of the team. Today, we’ll discuss how marketers are doing themselves and their careers a disservice by not operating around data and analytics.
Traditional marketing wisdom stays around for a reason: what worked for David Ogilvy in the 1960s makes sense. And it’s easy, at least relative to the new data-driven approach that is coming to the forefront. Playing on common sense, traditional wisdom and the personalities of marketing thought leaders, the codifying of marketing best practices stifles creativity and innovative thinking within the field.
However, data can break these boundaries and provide marketers with the analytics to back up their work by demonstrating real results. By targeting audiences and messaging and relying on the data you receive during your campaigns guide your future marketing strategy, you can break free of stale marketing rules. Data-based operations allow for greater flexibility and tactical adaptation, and help you to bolster your measurable ROI. Even if your tactics go against traditional marketing rules, those positive results don’t lie.
Whether it’s leveraging a social media platform or investing in a new marketing CRM, tools help a marketer do their job better. However, many companies think that simply having and using these tools will result in success. Not so. In order to maximize the impact of any marketing tool, it’s essential to use data to guide your strategy. For example, a company Twitter account that occasionally tweets a cat picture or a #ThrowbackThursday may be using a tool and taking heed of traditional rules, but it’s not going to go very far.
By contrast, a company that uses data from a network like Twitter to look at the trends their followers are responding to, the topics thought leaders are discussing, and the conversations about needs related to their industry is likely to see meaningful results from the time spent on Twitter. A marketer who combines data-based operations with the smart use of marketing tools is going to have a clear, demonstrable impact that they can bring to the C-Suite to prove their ROI.
Let us know: how do you use data to prove your ROI as a marketer?
Photo Credit: Sebastiaan ter Burg via Flickr Creative Commons
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