Data-Driven Marketing - The Prevailing Way (Part 3)

Prevail Marketing are growth hackers. We have never found an activity that we have not tried to measure. We measure everything and constantly use A/B tests to optimize. Monitoring everything and understanding what is working and what can be further optimized is powerful. It is a continuous, never-ending process that will result in marketing/sales success. We have decided to throw back the curtain and share our process.

DATA-DRIVENA/B TESTINGSALES BUYERS' JOURNEY REPORTGROWTH ENABLEMENTMARKETING STRATEGIESARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEBUYERS' SENTIMENT REPORTMARKETING/SALES SUCCESSMARKETING AIDISCOVERY AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSMETRICSKPISSTRATEGIC BUYERS INSIGHT REPORTSCORECARD

Bill Arnold

12/6/20247 min read

Data-driven marketing prevails
Data-driven marketing prevails

Data-Driven Marketing Equals Growth Hacking

Over the past few articles, we have discussed why data-driven marketing should predominate in any marketing program. In our first articleData-Driven Marketing—The Secret Sauce (Part 1)we discussed the benefits of this approach. The second article, Data-Driven Marketing- Best Practices and Strategies (Part 2)discussed the framework for starting a program.

The reality is that not all metric-driven programs are built the same. On one side of the spectrum, you have marketers who track only a few dozen metrics every month and claim to have a program. On the other side of the spectrum are the growth hackers of the world who attach a metric to every activity and every endeavor. This group is obsessed with tracking, measuring, and analyzing everything.

Prevail's Data-Driven Marketing Program

Prevail Marketing are growth hackers. We have never found an activity that we have not tried to measure.

We measure everything and constantly use A/B tests to optimize. Monitoring everything and understanding what is working and what can be further optimized is powerful. It is a continuous, never-ending process that will result in marketing/sales success.

We have decided to throw back the curtain and share our process. We are not overly concerned about giving other agencies a competitive advantage by sharing our process. We have done so in the past and found the agency owners had three truths about our program.

1) It works!: Every agency we have shared our program with has proclaimed it a success. While most tried it for a few select clients (those who could afford the cost), they all saw superior results. Not only did the results exceed all prior quarters it was compared against, but they also blew off the expectations originally promised to the client.

2) It is a Lot of Work!: It took each of these agencies a lot of time and effort to implement an actual metric-driven program. Even though they did not have a growth hacker level of engagement, they felt overwhelmed by the effort required to extract, analyze, and implement marketing campaigns driven by what daily metrics dictated.

3) Best Left to Prevail!: At the end of the experiment, despite the fact the results were beyond expectations, virtually all of the agencies reverted back to their original program. They did the work and got the results but failed to establish a metric-driven culture. Ironically, they felt what they were doing was good enough to keep the client and did not require "all that work" to do so.

We understand this approach is not for everyone. It requires discipline to continuously refine and improve, and it requires a level of transparency that most agencies are not comfortable sharing. We understand that there are easier ways to engage marketing programs; however, none of them work as well. We will not take shortcuts or allow our clients to achieve just "good enough." We will push each element to its brink and squeeze out each incremental improvement.

Prevail's Discovery and Assessment Process

At the commencement of EVERY engagement, we have a proprietary process where we become experts in our client's industry, marketplace, and competitors. This is a deep dive where thousands of data points are pulled using over 48 third-party analytic tools. Most marketers could not justify the cost of using all these tools (they are not cheap). However, we learned a long time ago that we could not afford not to use these tools. The insights and information that are gleaned will allow you to create a marketing strategy that will achieve a successful outcome.

We have written about this process a number of times and more details can be found at the following sources: "Our Approach" and "How To Create an Winning GTM Plan - Part 1." This comprehensive analysis provides both an understanding of how we will craft a marketing plan but also the baseline of where we are starting the process.

While there are many steps in this process, one of the first major deliverables is the Strategic Buyer's Insight Report. This is a comprehensive analysis that provides a detailed examination of all industry, company, and competitive factors that might impact your growth. While each report’s contents will vary depending on the company, the typical areas analyzed are:

strategic buyers insight report
strategic buyers insight report

This report analyzes all of those data points, determines the degree of importance, and makes concrete recommendations on how each should be addressed. This is NOT the marketing plan, but a precursor that will help formulate it. Each of these reports is unique, and the journey it takes will be dictated by the data. So while I am sharing an example, understand that each is unique and the outcome is data-driven and not premature. Here is one example:

Strategic Buyers Insight ReportStrategic Buyers Insight Report

Strategic Buyer's Insight Report

Pro Tip: We often use several different analytic tools to test and measure the same key performance indicators. We don't do this to waste money, but we have found that the nuances shared by each analytic tool offer meaningful insights and allow us to really understand the motivations of the targeted persona or how to differentiate our client in a way that will obtain traction.

The Prevailing Culture

Every company is the sum of its people and its processes. While every marketer strives to achieve their version of a walk-off grand slam home run at the bottom of the ninth, AKA Dodgers, in 2024. (MLB) The type of campaign that is so successful the client has to rewrite their year-end goals to accommodate. The reality is those victories are few and far between. Marketing is often a game of inches where incremental improvement and gains collectively combine to achieve the same results.

Prevail has a growth-hacking mindset and a culture that thrives off internal competition and the fun of gaming the process. We share a collective understanding of the value of data analysis and the power that our interpretation of the data provides. Every day presents hundreds of opportunities. We believe in fostering this culture through the following programs:

1. Continuing Education - Once you stop learning, you are done. We provide opportunities and encourage each member to take courses and improve their skills. Each month, we supplement this educational initiative through a book club where we collectively drill down to discover new truths and ideas.

2. Break Down Silos - We have cross-departmental teams working together to collect and analyze data. This allows for fresh insight and observations. It also ensures that the entire organization has a stake in executing new programs or concepts.

3. Financial Rewards—Success is rewarded. If you initiate a data-driven marketing campaign and it is successful, you will receive a bonus. Compensation drives behavior, and we want to encourage innovation and the use of best practices.

Numbers Don't Lie

We never guess what is contributing to your marketing/sales success. We track everything. We A/B test everything continuously. While every engagement has its own unique set of metrics that will determine a successful outcome, there is always the bedrock of KPIs that must be tracked. Our basic program is to track over 400+ monthly KPIs for each client. This is non-negotiable if you want to achieve success.

Every aspect of your program must be continuously monitored and improved. In an earlier blog, we discussed that some KPIs are tracked and analyzed daily, while others have a monthly review. This information makes the path to success much easier to ascertain.

We believe in true transparency and share the monthly scorecard with the client. At any time, they can check in as to the status of their program by looking at the raw metrics and how they compare to the prior period. We also have weekly and monthly client reviews where we answer any questions and explain which KPIs are our focus and why. Here is an example of our foundational scorecard. This only represents the basic metrics we track for everyone. All clients also have unique metrics, which are added to the scorecard based on our discovery and assessment and the needs of the client.

Here is an example of our basic 400+ KPI scorecard:

Prevail Marketing ScorecardPrevail Marketing Scorecard
Conclusion

By leveraging data and analytics, Prevail Marketing can gain valuable insights into consumer behaviors, preferences, and trends. This approach allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns, make informed decisions, and optimize strategies in real-time.

Without measurable metrics, businesses risk wasting resources on ineffective marketing efforts that do not resonate with their target audience. Moreover, metric-driven marketing fosters accountability within teams, as defined objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) set clear benchmarks for success. Ultimately, this data-centric approach enhances marketing effectiveness, drives growth, ensures customer satisfaction, and provides a competitive edge in the market. Embracing metrics is not just a trend; it is necessary for any organization seeking to thrive in an increasingly data-driven world.

Artificial Intelligence

The collection and analysis of data on the magnitude that Prevail Marketing does can be a time-consuming and daunting task. Finding the nuances in the patterns and information obtained requires a skilled strategic marketer. At Prevail Marketing, we harness the power of application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect and pull third-party data from applications and facilitate the collection of all the metrics. We utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help analyze the data and to make recommendations to the team on what A/B testing should be done and how to enhance the marketing campaigns.

The AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of data at unprecedented speeds, identifying patterns and trends. We have found that AI can find the nuances that human analysts might miss. This capability enables us better to understand customer behavior, preferences, and needs, facilitating targeted campaigns that resonate with specific audiences. Our machine learning programs continuously learn from new data, allowing them to quickly adapt and refine marketing strategies. This adaptability maximizes return on investment and ensures a more personalized customer experience.