Comments on: Why Your Numbers Game is BS

By: kongrit

kongrit — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:56:49 +0000

Excellent site, useful information .Thanks for this great post - I will be sure to check out your blog more often.............

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:56:00 +0000

Excellent site, useful information .Thanks for this great post - I will be sure to check out your blog more often.............

via uberVU

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:06:35 +0000

Completely agree with you Jackie. It's one of the reasons I'm a big fan of market research and data mining, as opposed to blanket email lists. And, as you say, the after results speak for themselves why data analysis is so important.

Cheers!

By: jackieadkins3

jackieadkins3 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:23:29 +0000

Hi Danny, I'm a little late on this discussion, but just stumbled upon it while going through some of your older ones. Before reading your post, I was reared up ready to completely disagree with you, but after reading it, i think I was confusing “numbers” with “data.”

I would agree that higher numbers aren't always better, and your Twitter example is a perfect one. However, I'd argue that numbers in a data analysis sense are very valuable from a market research perspective, as they help you both in planning a marketing project as well evaluating it once it's done. This way, you're not going completely off of your gut, but taking calculated risks.

By: Definition

Definition — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:49:44 +0000

Great posting. I like this.

People are so jaded to flyers on cars already, I'm willing to bet 99% of ours were thrown out. Only really our friends at that high school knew who we were and would consider going to our show.

By: Definition

Definition — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:49:44 +0000

Great posting. I like this.

People are so jaded to flyers on cars already, I'm willing to bet 99% of ours were thrown out. Only really our friends at that high school knew who we were and would consider going to our show.

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:40:09 +0000

I'm not discounting the approach in general, "Ravm" - I'm questioning the method and its overall effectiveness if you have to put extra time and man hours into making that approach effective.

If you're hitting people that aren't targeted because of entrusting a mass mailing mindset, then you're wasting resources that could be put to much better use elsewhere if that mass mailer info is incorrect and out-of-date.

I've worked and used both methods for employers in the past and I know they do work, to a degree. But I've also seen so many marketing budgets cut because of a poor response rate, and that's hurt companies more than the "moral" aspect of spamming.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, appreciate it.

By: ravm

ravm — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:27:04 +0000

You stated that the numbers game is utter bullsh*t and I completely disagree. What you're really discussing is a divergence of approaches, both of which are equally effective when executed well. Now, you could state that being real and geniune makes your approach morally superior to grabbing a huge customer mailing list and spamming it, but your entire postulation gets destroyed in the face of so many people who are succeeding with these types of strategies. And I assure you that if people are doing it, they are experiencing some financial measure of success, otherwise they wouldn't do it. So while you and I may despise such tactics, to discount them as ineffective is an injustice to the trade.

By: GlobalPatriot

GlobalPatriot — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:06:09 +0000

The ROI concept comes to mind, the discipline in which we should be focusing our efforts on measuring the return (benefit) we derive for the time and money we invested. Sadly, too many quote the top line numbers – followers, connections made, emails sent – because they're easy to measure and sound impressive, instead of quantifying the results – sales made, projects identified, relationships enhanced – as these metrics require work to produce.

By: The Power of Connection and How to be a Connector | danny brown

The Power of Connection and How to be a Connector | danny brown — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:02:00 +0000

[...] offered my views on the numbers game recently; as did both Dan Schawbel and Kasey Skala in posts of their own (and, I’m sure, many [...]