Marketing is a Science, Not an Art

by Oct 30, 2010Marketing0 comments

Recently,  I had the opportunity to hear Barb Gilles from Google speak to the Indianapolis BMA chapter. Barb’s lecture covered the changing business marketing environment.  Her overarching message:  business buyers aren’t buying at the traditional “Moment of Truth” (say, when you’re standing in the grocery aisle deciding which toothpaste to purchase).

With the  wealth of information online Barb contends the new moment of truth is now far earlier in the buying process. As a result of the shift in the moment of truth, companies need to change the way they focus their marketing efforts.

A few of the things I learned:

  1. Keep a finger on the pulse: Now more than ever, it’s easier to find out what’s on everyone’s minds. Using tools like Google Trends, marketers know exactly what the world is talking about at any given moment. This allows businesses to be more responsive to consumers’ needs than ever before.
  2. Test, Analyze, Iterate: Google has an interesting business philosophy. They don’t roll out finished products…they roll out products that are 75% complete so users can test and give feedback. In this way, Google allows their consumers to determine the best products for the market place. Businesses have to be more flexible and adapt quicker than ever before, and the Google model proves that these qualities make for an effective strategy.
  3. Mobile IS the future: Some of the facts on the growth of mobile search are staggering. Five years from now, mobile search will outpace desktop search. Marketing professionals can no longer ignore the need for mobile marketing. If they do, it’s at their own peril.
  4. Marketing is a science, not an  art: Because of the advanced resources and information at our fingertips, targeted marketing is easier to boil down to a simple formula than ever. The growth of analytics allows marketing teams to cater their efforts down to the individual, and this capability only makes marketing departments more efficient and effective.

I found Barb Gilles to be an incredibly thought-provoking speaker. The tools Google creates to track and monitor marketing efforts are changing the ways all marketers do business. I’m excited to take these lessons back to Roundpeg, and I look forward to helping build the company into an even more flexible, efficient business in the future.