Glenn asked the great question: To calculate the value of an email subscriber, better to treat as 1-time (funnel math 101) or an annuity, since they get multiple emails w/multiple offers? This is a great question because it forces us to think about how we measure a single action with multiple consequences. The short answer…
We’re at the cusp now. The week before Labor Day tends to be quieter, due to many people squeezing last minute vacations in. Are you prepared? Do you know what’s to come? Let’s take a look. Here’s an abbreviated look at what happens once Labor Day comes and goes, a summary marketing calendar. We marketers…
We live in a world that is sometimes described as post-factual, a world in which the average person ignores data and facts in favor of a belief. While politics, for example, has always had a questionable relationship with fact, recent times have transformed “spin” into egregious falsehoods. However, politics is not alone in the post-factual…
One of the simplest, yet most powerful ways to perform attribution analysis as a marketer is to ask people in an open-ended way how they heard of you. My friend and colleague Tom Webster recommends asking, “What made you contact us today?” as a variation. This creates a challenge for many marketers. What we receive…
I’m a self-professed nerd. I react with the same amount of excitement and vigor about a new software release that baseball fans react with about a new season or that Netflix fans react with about new episodes of their favorite show. When IBM Watson Analytics released its new version, I immediately jumped in with my…
One of my SHIFT Communications coworkers recently asked, “what’s the difference between whitepapers and eBooks?” This is a surprisingly common question among content marketers. What constitutes a whitepaper vs. an eBook? Is it length? Intended audience? Format? Noted marketing author and friend David Meerman Scott says, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that a whitepaper is any document printed…
I read with curiosity recently a piece on TechCrunch titled “How Google Analytics Ruined Marketing”. The author posited that Google Analytics’ focus on digital and last-touch attribution has ruined marketing. How? By strongly encouraging marketers to think in pre-defined digital buckets and about last-touch attribution only. The latter criticism is wrong; Google Analytics hasn’t used…
Google Analytics offers a ton of useful information; we can understand nearly any part of our mid-funnel digital marketing business with it. However, the price of a massive buffet is too much choice: what should we pay attention to frequently? What should we pay attention to less frequently? One of my favorite quotes from Seth…
I’m honored and proud to be a part of IBM’s newest book, 23 Reasons to Get Excited About Data. In this collaborative work with the Watson Analytics Predictioneers, we share our insights about how data powers your business, changes the world around you for the better, and helps you improve yourself. Data is only as…
