In the real world, telling people you are going to do a/b testing is a clear statement loud and clear that you have no idea what you are doing.

Or do you.

This takes positioning, and this is where the scientific method is the best pitch leading in.

“I don’t know what our customer’s right now want, feel, will respond to. But I know how to apply a scientific method to approach solving this problem.”

This response establishes you as a professional who knows how to learn and solve problems, through hypothesis, design thinking, then checking with numbers and then applying a series of tests to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Most marketers don’t move through this point of weakness, to then establish something even better on the other side. Proof.

It is a moment of weakness to say you don’t know and you will test. And you are going to brainstorm ideas, and talk to experts out side the company. BUt on the other side of that journey is the beautiful fruit plucked from the tree of experiments…….Proof.

Suddenly you start to see the results and you learn and you can take the tests back to the CEO/Executive team and deliver presentations on the user that explain behaviour, test that show what works and what doesn’t.

The testing takes time and dedication, and is best started slowly.

AB Testing Software

The following software can be used to assist in AB testing.

Is There Really a Need for Data Cleansing?

The importance of clean data cannot be understated. Unfortunately, cleaning data is difficult to get on the agenda and to be allocated budget. Experian reports that on average companies data is only around 75% clean. This is costing significantly both in reputation and money. For example, in this day of strict privacy, having dispersed sources of data where the user may have consented at one point but not another, may lead to breaches of Privacy Laws.

The ROI on putting in place some data cleansing functions will be positive if the right steps are taken. But, it is only when senior executives call for “trusted” data that the problem can be seriously addressed.

What Types of Data Problems are There?

There are 5 types of data problems:

1. Incomplete Data.
2. Duplicate Data
3. Inaccurate data.
4. Inconsistent data
5. Outdated data

How Are Data Corruption Issues Prevented?

Solving each type of data problem needs a different approach. But let’s look at prevention. 

One of the best approaches is having a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) but this is an architectural solution that can only be addressed by a large IT Department change in strategy.  This ensures all – well as many as possible – use the same source of data for common data such as client data, address data and contact information. The data duplication, inaccurate data, inconsistent and outdated data cleansing still need to be done but it will be in one place and less of it. In the meantime, the following can be done. 

Another important tool in prevention is having standard approaches across all systems to ensure formats, rules and metadata are the same for the same type of data.

Reporting on Data Cleansing Problems

You will need to do data profiling providing adequate analysis reporting to identify data problems enabling measurement, visualisation and data profiling. Managers need to understand where the problems are located. Once problems are identified steps can be taken to fix the problems

How Are Data Cleansing Problems Fixed?

Whether it is incomplete, duplicate, inaccurate, inconsistent or outdata data problems that need to be tackled, there are many problems to assist in cleaning. 

For data duplication, this is perhaps the easiest because the tools allow selection of some fields to compare and identify duplicates.  Then making a decision on which of the duplicates is to be removed or merged with other data. This problem will require some manual intervention and oversight.

With outdated data, in some cases purging data after a certain date may be appropriate but usually not feasible.  Sometimes, these can be tackled by going to more up-to-date sources on the web and running updates. 

Inaccurate, incomplete and inconsistent data all need to be identified first. Then the decision can be made on the approach. One approach is to use externally sourced data, to update and improve the data. The other is to examine the data and apply a series of standards edits e.g. remove spaces and padding that is not needed, fix spelling mistakes, hot-deck (copy same data from other valid sources), fixing capitalization.  Once problems are identified manual intervention can allow you to do bulk updates.

Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions

The solutions for cleansing data quality are improving. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Quality shows the top programs.

Data Cleansing Software List

There is now significant software and processes to help companies clean up their data including the following:

How do you choose the number?

Influencers can be a very effective way to reach a targetted audience. But making decisions about which influencer to choose, large or small, and how many to choose is difficult. More than 70% of campaigns use influencers to some extent and most use multiple influencers.

A marketing strategy for influencers needs to be developed. There will need to be testing to see what works for your company’s brand. Factors that will influence your choices are:

1. What are your niches?
2. The best approach for that niche – brand ambassador, gifting, blogging ads, video ads.
3. The type of adds – video,
4. Which influencers will your company be able to build a relationship?
5. How much compensation are you willing to pay.?
6. Detail what you want from the advertising and your expectations of the influencer.
7. Document guidelines for the influencer to follow.
8. Create a standard influencer agreement template.
9. Expected ROI.

List all the sizes and types of influences and look at what is best for your company. The trend at the moment is to have many smaller influencers and spread the risk. But this may not suit your company and selecting one or two brand ambassadors would be more effecdtive.

What are the different sizes of influencers?

STIM has identified five groups of followers:

• Nano-influencers: 1,000-10,000 followers.
• Micro-influencers: 10,000-50,000 followers.
• Mid-tier influencers: 50,000-500,000 followers.
• Macro-influencers: 500,000-1 million followers.
• Mega-Influencers: 1 million+ followers.

Types of Influencer Collaboration.

There are a number of ways to collaborate with influencers:

1. Sponsored Social Media Content – your company provides content
2. Gifting – your company provides gifts
3. Brand Ambassador – the influencer commits to your brand long-term
4. Takeover – the influencer appears on your social media accounts
5. Sponsored Blog Posts – influencer blogs on standard websites
6. Guest Blogging -your company blogs on their website.
7. Video content – such as Youtube and Tiktok.

Costs of Influencers

The costing will varying significantly. Gifting, for example, can just the cost of providing the gift – but with no guarantee the gift will even be mentioned. Some indicative pricing is:

• 10,000 followers could charge $20 per post.
• 100,000 followers could charge $200 per post.
• 1,000,000 followers could charge $2000 per post.

Influencer Marketing Software

Software that you help you through the maze includes:

A large proportion of the ads on browsers are third party cookies. Rather than just blocking cookies, Google is planning a phased approach with new tools for advertisers without causing the current irritation to browser users.

At this stage, it is unclear what the full impact of the loss of cookies will be. And any changes will be gradual.

At this point, the only thing that can be done is to be aware. Trackita will monitor changes and keep you up-to-date.

Ad Serving and Retargeting Platforms enable you to remind your customers of your products and services if your customers leave your website without buying. These platforms also allow your company to show visitors relevant ads when they visit other sites. Retargeting works with apps and searches as well as website banner ads. These will adjust as Google makes releases.