How Marketing Leaders Use Math and Magic to Achieve Their Goals [Infographic]

Do you follow your head or your heart?

Love it or hate it, this is often a struggle we marketers face.

In an increasingly data-driven world, many creatives who entered the marketing world to spin emotional brand stories and channel Don Draper are instead finding themselves torn before art and analytics, with the latter usually taking the crown.

But rest easy, my free-spirited friends!  According to a recent survey report by Bain and Company, both math and magic are needed to see substantial marketing results for any business.

In its study, the company surveyed marketers at 436 companies in the US and Canada and found that while aiming for a measurable return on investment is admirable (and obviously, necessary), “... trouble comes when marketers mistake the algorithm for the person.”

Its brief reads:

“Our wants and needs can’t always be reduced to, or predicted by, data. Great marketers have always known this, which is why they work hard to build an emotional bond with the customers they are targeting. They tell compelling stories about their brands through memorable messages and indelible images. At its best, this kind of marketing pops and dazzles, like magic. Marketing that ignores the magic and relies on math and science alone will be marketing that doesn’t work.”

In the infographic below, you’ll see some of the key findings from the company including that marketing leaders (defined as having an average annual sales growth and market share increase of more than 10%) are:

• 3x more likely to use data in their decisions -- BUT also 2x more likely to “own their magic,” taking advantage of their creative capabilities.
• 2.5x faster in making decisions
• 3x more likely to use test results to change campaign spending

It also shares three things you can do to harness your own magic and math:

1. Paint a holistic picture of your customer: Supplement data with human interaction and direct customer feedback to create a more complete portrait of your customer

In other words, create a buyer persona!

2. Encourage emotions: Listen and act on customer feedback and aim to create a “wow!” moment -- you need creativity and emotional understanding of your buyers to see results.

3. Stay nimble -- and be bold: The “learn” in “test and learn” means discarding what isn’t working while devising new, more effective methods while making what is working even better.

Check out the full design below and the detailed report here!