Great Industrial Marketing Can’t be Measured

Numbers … they condense our world into the organized and understandable with a simple equation. In marketing, we rely heavily on numbers to tell us if what we are doing is really working. We have charts and graphs as hard proof to show our clients or bosses. The problem with this type of data is that marketing and advertising rely on molding human sentiment and expectation and then proceeding to continuously manage and alter them. You cannot deduce whether the marketing campaign you started 6 months ago is going to build a long-term client base. Building a brand and brand loyalty take great marketing, and great marketing cannot be measured by metrics and data extrapolation.

Metric-Mania: One of the Seven Deadly Marketing Sins

Metric-mania has bewitched us! Technology has put data, literally, at our fingertips. It is great we have all this data, and it seems particularly magical to those of us who have tried for years to show “success by the numbers” before this technology existed.  The downside to placing so much emphasis on analytics is that metric-mania causes us to shift to short-term thinking and we tie our choices to manipulating the data, and not focusing on the long-term goal of laying a strong foundation for brand loyalty.

Look at companies like Amazon, Google, or even Facebook and Twitter. These are companies that are so influential that they have changed society, our lexicon (Google is a verb, Like is a noun, and Tweeting is not a sound birds make), and consequently, our buying habits. They have been able to tap into the higher levels of our hierarchy of needs: Confidence, Creativity, Belonging, and Achievement. In our “First-World” society, what we buy is intricately entwined with our identities, sense of worth, and how we feel the world will perceive us.

Apple is a classic example of this — they have tied their products to our sense of belonging, our self-esteem, and senses of recognition and validation. Apple’s CEO has even likened the iPhone to being as or even more important than oxygen, food, and water…(that may be a little over the top, but you have to admit that the iPhone’s fan base is insanely loyal!) Think how much the iPhone revolutionized the way we think about our mobile phones. They created a phobia of being without them! And, they pretty much killed RIM’s Blackberry (which was the standard for a mobile device for ages). Apple has not built a rabid global customer base by focusing solely on metrics, but by years of cultural influence and marketing strategy.

I Can’t Quit You, Metrics!

Numbers can be manipulated and twisted to become truth… yet, we keep coming back to them and their seductive promises. Statistics are persuasive, but an over-dependence on them can be used to mask weak tactics and strategy. Once again, it drives short-term thinking.

In our world of instant gratification, you want something concrete that tells you whether the inbound marketing campaign you’ve been spending $10,000 on every month is panning out or not. You pour over the analytics:  the page hits, page views, unique visitors, traffic sources, anything that will make you feel that you’ve gotten some return on your investment. This becomes a cycle as you begin to consider those numbers as true indicators of success and focus on making them go up and down.

To understand your client base, you need to think like a human, not a calculator. If you are a B2B company, your audience may be different than a B2C company, but there is still a human on the other end ultimately making the decisions whether or not to buy what you are selling. Human thought cannot be condensed into a metric, it is a complex process that simultaneously involves emotions, memories, logic, and analysis. Engineers may believe that everyone is a Vulcan, but subconscious feelings and emotions do make a difference in how we buy.

Great Industrial Marketing Is Farsighted

It is time to let go of the metrics-crutch. Success should be measured by more than numbers. The Internet has altered the way marketing works. Consumers no longer take advertising as truth — they research, read blogs, watch videos, read reviews, and check out other content to help them make purchasing decisions. They want to hear the story of how your company began, the history of the products you make, and even become part of your “brand family.” Consumers want to feel that they have a personal relationship with a company. This is the psychological component to marketing that simply cannot be measured. It can take months, even years to build this kind of preference for your products and services.

Metrics have their place; but they should only be indicators that you’re heading in the right direction. Great industrial marketing is the long-term game that turns visitors (those numbers) into leads and customers. It is about brand building, the sculpting of your image, and the evolution of your company from an impersonal corporation to a personal friend of the “family.” A great industrial marketing professional will use a combination of well-honed instincts and data that will fly in the face of the marketing-by-numbers approach to create innovative and effective marketing campaigns that will, over time, create long-term brand loyalty and enlarge your customer base. Play the long-term marketing game and you will get to where you want to be.