In today’s world, we need to apply more scientific rigour to our campaigns and executions to measure results and document return on investment.
No matter the kind of business you run, marketing is its lifeblood. It involves everything that your business does to let a potential customer hear about and interact with your business.
Whether it’s paid ads, social media, content creation, or blogging, these strategies are meant to create awareness of your business and attract potential buyers. They fill up the top of your sales funnel with leads that can be nurtured through their buyer’s journey.
However, not all marketing strategies are equal. Depending on your business, some may do exceedingly well, while others may not be so successful.
So how do you assess whether your marketing strategy is yielding results? And how do you maximise those results?
This can be done by applying scientific rigour through the scientific method.
What is the scientific method?
The scientific method is what researchers and scientists use to identify and solve some of science’s great mysteries through experimentation. In simple terms, it involves:
– Identifying a problem
– Hypothesising or creating a theory that aims to explain and solve the problem
– Creating an experiment to test your proposed theory
– Testing out your theory
– Analysing your results and refining your testing process and hypothesis.
This same method can be applied to marketing to improve your marketing campaign.
[caption id="attachment_1040831" align="alignnone" width="1024"] -[/caption]
Applying the scientific method leads to data-driven marketing which can help you better determine your marketing return on investment (ROI).
Simply put, you’ll be able to really narrow down what works by testing relentlessly to find a winning formula for your business.
Too many marketers run from campaign to campaign without capturing and analysing the data and optimising it in the next campaign. As a result, some of the mistakes in previous campaigns are doomed to be repeated, and in the unforgiving world of the hyper-connected consumer, that is unacceptable.
How to apply the scientific method to your marketing strategy?
– Identify and create a marketing goal
The scientific method is all about solving problems and questioning what seems to be working.
Most marketing goals are created to solve specific problems like increasing a company’s revenue or customer base, creating brand awareness, or testing a new product idea.
Likewise, if you want measurable results from your marketing campaign to help determine your ROI, you’ll need to be as specific as possible.
In this case, it’s not enough just to say, 'I’m looking to increase revenue by 20 per cent,' or perhaps 'cut down ad spending by 40 per cent.'
The more specific a marketing goal is, the easier it is to analyse and improve existing strategies accurately.
Creating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) goals is critical.
A good example of a spe
