TypeCarl

Addicted to Statistics

I thought I would never say this. I remember taking statistics in high school and wasn’t too amused. Nothing has changed, so you can be assured I’m not talking about that kind of statistics. I’m talk’n about the web yo.

The internet has become a powerful force in marketing these days. Sure, there are millions of people using it everyday, but that’s not really why. It’s the fact that you can get amazingly detailed statistics on your visitors aka potential customers.

It’s unbelievable for an old school marketer. For every single person, you get to know how they found you. What they are doing on your website, and which customers are adding to your bottom line.

It’s amazing.

To offer perspective, let’s go back in time to the old school marketing days. I can envision this old dude named John in a suit sitting in a nice office. He happens to be CEO of a medium sized business. However, his business is becoming stagnant. He’s an old fart, but is good with people, so he asks his employees. Chris, the new marketing director, offers him advice.
“John! We need to use television to advertise our products. It’s the future!”

Now… there is just a couple of issues. Television advertising is expensive! The second issue is there is no way to know if you received a positive return on investment.

What is John to do?

If he’s a risk taker and has big dreams, he’ll do it. He’ll just cross his fingers and hope for the best. You can be assured he has his doubts.

John sees his ads run on his television at home. He’s quite excited. His own products are in the magic box! He is incredible anxious to see if business improves. The next few days business seems to increase. His retailers are ordering more of his products.

But how can he be so sure?

He can’t. His customers are retail businesses. Thus, he can’t ask the “How did you hear about us?” question.

Traditional marketing has had this huge problem since the beginning of time! I can just imagine how many young marketing directors had to sweat bullets when jumping into large scale marketing projects. It has to be nerve wracking. Anything could happen, and it may have nothing to do with you or your advertising project.

Anyway, times have changed with the internet. I use Google Analytics, and it’s amazing how much information I get from it. It allows me to make minor tweaks and test how little changes affect my bottom line.

There is only one problem. I’m addicted. I check it 10+ times a day, which is a complete waste of my time.

I have a funny feeling this is a shared problem with internet marketers. Maybe I’ll start a mental health program helping internet entrepreneurs reduce their stat checking obsessive compulsive disorders and become the next internet Tony Robbins.

Until next time, live your life with passion, but cut the stats.

Carl Zetterlund