How standing in the rain helps shape marketing outcomes

For about the past five years at my house, I've had some issues with soil erosion after heavy rains. It seems miniature mudslides would develop, taking mulch and dirt from my front yard down along the side of the house, finally depositing a thick layer of sludge on the backyard walkout patio. I tried several methods over the years to get things under control. I constructed a wall out of landscaping stones. I installed drain pipes. Yet no matter what I did, the sludge returned.

​Recently, after a particularly heavy rain that lasted several days, the walkout was completely covered in filth. I decided this needed to stop, and stop now. During the next downpour, I went outside and observed what was going on in realtime. I could see the flow of the water down the side of the house. With shovel in hand, I began to dig a small trench to divert the water. Then I saw the areas where the sludge was really making its way to the walkout, and mapped out a plan for building a retaining wall in the proper area. A few days of backache-inducing work later, the problem was solved.

So often, we as marketers and strategists fail to get out in the rain. We might be good at measuring the results of our communications when the campaign has ended, but can we ever really understand why what we do works or doesn't work if we can't be right there in the middle of the action?

It's not always easy to observe marketing working in the wild. But there are some simple things you can do to gather intel while the message is still active:

• Invite feedback from key customers during a campaign. First, find out if they have even seen the communications. So often, we don't really know if our message has been processed. In other words, did our audience receive it, read it, and understand it? Click rates, open rates and other digital metrics tell only part of the story. Sometimes it pays to just have a real, old-fashioned conversation.
• Talk to the people in the field. Not just your clients and customers, but employees, vendors, reps and anyone else who is likely to see your campaign, or the effect it is having. Ask them what they think. Sometimes, you don't need an elaborate quant/qual analysis. Sometimes, anecdotal information can lead to the best insights.
• If possible, create multiple campaigns. Craft distinct content and messaging for each one, and carefully monitor the results during the campaign. If Option C is clearly beating out Options A and B, it's time to adjust.
  
  

No matter how you measure results, whether in realtime or post-campaign, it's critical to understand how your communication is received, and what affect it is having. Knowing this will allow you to dig a trench, build a wall, and more accurately direct where you want your message to go.