To people who say marketing and communications are ‘soft’ disciplines and can’t be measured: “that is not the world we live in anymore. You can have a hypothesis and test it. Now we have the data to remove gut instinct from marketing [and communications].” This was the theme of my recent podcast with Kristen Garvey, Vice President Corporate Communications at Waters Corporation.
How to use data to fail fast in marketing and communications
Our conversation digs deep into how you can use marketing data to ‘foster the failure mindset’. Kristen discusses the need to be fearless: “don’t let fear of failure stop you succeeding”.
Designing measurement into the communications program
Waters takes a scientific approach to marketing: develop hypotheses and then A/B test. It is important to design measurement into marketing and communications programs. “If you can’t measure it, you should question whether you should do it. When you set objectives, tie a metric to that objective”. This enables people to adjust programs while they are running.
[You may also be interested in this article on PR metrics]
Waters bakes measurement budgets into overall campaigns. You have to know what is working or not. The team uses metrics and data to prove value. This is especially the case for offline programs including PR and brand, where you can use brand tracking studies or analyze message pull-through and share of voice. Kristen describes a project they are working on to build a comms dashboard.
Take a listen to the podcast to learn more about how to design measurement into your marketing and communications programs.
