The “Other” Marketing Science

Being the VP of Marketing for a marketing and sales messaging and skills organization is not always easy. My team and I are well trained on our decision-making and psychology science-backed messaging methodologies, and we are expected to utilize these messaging skills to develop world-class demand generation content and campaigns – and for the most part, I am proud to say that we do.

But, as a marketing leader, here is a cautionary tale of where I’ve dropped the ball. At the beginning of every quarter, we hold a half-day team meeting to review how we performed the previous quarter and what our content and campaign strategy will look like in the quarter ahead. For the first half of the meeting this last time, I reviewed metrics and measures like website traffic, inquiries, MQLs, SALs, SQLs, the performance of our tech stack, etc… For the second part of the hour we previewed the campaigns we would run and what content we would develop to hit our upcoming targets. During this time, we all became engrossed in the metrics and data but unfortunately, we spent NO time on our messaging. None…zilch…nada.

Oh, by the way, did I mention we are a messaging company?

I only bring this up to point out that if the marketing leader for a marketing and sales messaging company can overlook the importance of planning and developing the right messaging based on the “other” science, i.e. the science of decision making, any marketing leader can, and probably will. It’s imperative to review and plan for why your prospects and customers make the decisions they make—and to understand the buyer psychology behind the questions you need to answer at each stage of their deciding journey. This will better equip you to create the right messages and content to influence those decisions. In turn, you will produce more positive results for the metrics I mentioned above—the very metrics all of us modern marketers obsess about.

 

After all, there’s no shortage of ways to track and analyze customer behavior. These metrics tell you what buyers do, but they don’t tell you why they do it. That’s where the science of decision-making comes in.

To learn more about applying this science to create messages and content that influence the most important buying decisions, check out our interactive eBook, Becoming a Decision-Savvy Marketer. Learn how to infuse decision psychology into all of your most vital marketing activities by:

• Matching your messages and content to the buyer psychology of the situations you face
• Telling the right story when you need to win new customers and when you need to expand with customers you already have
• Creating campaigns that answer the most pivotal questions your prospects and customers are asking

Great marketing has always, first and foremost, been based on the ability to tell a great story, at the right place and at the right time. Somewhere along the way, between tech stacks and lead waterfalls, many of us have forgotten that the story we tell is still the most important part of our job and ultimately what will set us apart from our competition. Hopefully, my story will help you remember to master yours.

Want to learn more? Get the eBook.