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| No One Wins With Bad Data |
Part of a continuing series of moments from my career, in
which great breakthroughs came from great setbacks. The point, as always, is to
not work from fear, but to learn from every mistake. Besides, they make for
better stories.
One of my earlier jobs in marketing was with a manufacturing
service that had a wide range of marketing activities. We had a highly
successful affiliate program, print ads back when those worked, regional
events, co-promotional marketing books and more. But one of the most successful
programs for us was an anomaly on the data, in that it seemed just way more
effective than it should be. It was a local trade show, and one I knew very
well, in that it was the place that I had worked at, prior to accepting a
position with the manufacturer.
For years, my Marketing brethren and I wondered why we
weren't able to replicate the success we saw from this trade show to other
events. We upped our game into prime sponsorship promotions, and paid to have
exclusive access. We sponsored soft-sell information panels that spoke to our advantages.
We improved our booth presence, our swag, and our signage on badges and bags.
Still, we didn't get to the local trade show level. We didn't even get close.
After a while, the data was just too predictable to
question. There was something about our local area that was just special.
Prospects who came to that show ran into a wide range of happy clients.
Entrenched media and local industry talked us up. The trade show attracted a
more serious group of prospects, which played into our branding. It was what it
was.
Time passed. The business expanded dramatically as a result
of new catalogs. The challenge to the business became one of production and
customer service, not marketing. Our programs became less intense, and we went
into a bit of a slowdown. Frankly, I was looking for something to do.
So I started auditing all of our customers for the source of
their lead, just to see if I could find something that was worth our time.
Maybe I'd catch a mistake or two that would give us a trade publication to stay
in, or maybe find that the affiliate program was being over-reported. It was
basically an unrequested fishing expedition, and as we had thousands of small
clients and no way to automate the work, it took months.
What did I find? A classic mistake by junior call center
personnel. When they entered leads from our local trade show, from long-term
clients who had stopped by the booth and entered a sweepstakes out of just
saying hi to their rep, they overwrote the old source (i.e., old client, no
need for a fresh lead source) to the trade show. Just a huge mistake, and one
that really spoke to revenue, since some of those clients were among our
biggest sources of revenue. We should have caught it years and years ago. We
didn't.
Our magic trade show wasn't magic. Once I completed the
audit, we saw that it performed about 15 to 20% better than the others, not 2
to 3X. We had wasted a lot of time and resources, over several years, trying to
optimize a program that was already functioning at near peak efficiency. And,
worst of all, we had failed to spend every marketing dollar to the best benefit
of the business.
Lessons learned?
1) Data makes its own marketing reality. We live in a
universe of facts and stories about facts, and we tend to treat those stories
as if they were facts. Presented with data that we believed to be clean, we
quickly came up with reasons why the data made sense... even though it, well,
never did. Especially with sample sizes that aren't statistically significant,
or from sources that you aren't absolutely sure are airtight, hypothesis can be
your undoing.
2) Messengers are, indeed, shot. Change was, as you might
imagine, difficult. Some of my marketing brethren felt professionally
threatened by the new data, and cutting down our commitment to the not magic
show, especially as it was my old employer and I still had friends there,
wasn't fun. There wasn't even the expected thanks that you might get from
management, since they enjoyed being King of the World at that show, too. But
it was the right thing to do for the business. Which is where your allegiance
has to lie.
3) Data entry matters. Entering trade show postcards
required keypunch data entry from our most junior people, and there was no
cross-check of the work. It really didn't take too many errors to throw off the
data, and put us on the wrong scent.
4) Bad news today is good news tomorrow. You can cry over
the spilled milk, or you can feel very good that you aren't going to keep using
that bad cup. I prefer the latter option, but your mileage may vary.
5) Experience helps. If I ran into this set of numbers as a
pro today, it wouldn't have taken me as long to suss out the error, because
over time, you pick up moments like this that inform your later decisions.
Also, when you come into a meeting with more gravitas and war stories, it makes
it easier to not go along with the party line.
* * * * *
You've read this far, so connect with me personally on LinkedIn.
And I'd love to hear your Tale Of Horror in the comments below!
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