30-second summary:
- Blogs are a valuable and insightful arm of any brands’ marketing strategy.
- The drawback to that, of course, is that industry blogs are filled with untested theories and can start to resemble echo chambers if relied upon solely.
- Marketing innovation comes not by reading the work of others, but by continually testing and trying new approaches to age-old problems.
- Sarah Fruy explores new testing strategies marketers can explore in order to maximize the value of their funnels.
If more than a decade of work in the marketing trenches has taught me anything, it’s that no silver bullet will make all your problems go away.
Unfortunately, a misconception exists that a one-size-fits-all answer is available through a simple Google search. One marketer finds success with a particular tactic, writes a blog post about it, and tells everyone to use the same strategy. Before you know it, a listicle features this tactic and more people start viewing it as a best practice.
Rinse and repeat.
While this tactic might very well be the right strategy for your business, chances are good that it’s not. I absolutely encourage scouring the internet for helpful advice, but you must test that theory with your own audience on your own platforms. Consumer behavior is constantly evolving. As effective marketers, we need to test our theories as much as possible to avoid costly mistakes.
Marketers who neglect testing are probably working from a waterfall approach rather than using an agile method. They believe success stems from big-bang campaign launches, with a long planning period leading up to a major release. They value their instincts over data-driven decisions.
This might result from a lack of knowledge around agile marketing practices or an organization that requires many layers of approval before a