Case Study – Fake studies?

In the age of too much information, businesses & advertisers are in constant pursuit of winning marketing case studies that can skyrocket their sales. Businesses use marketing case studies to measure the success of a certain strategy or goal without understanding the true variables and metrics of the study. What is the cause and effect? Is there a true statistical significance?

By all means, before you continue reading this article, understand that I am not trying to be objective at all here. Behind every voice lays a hidden interest. My interest here is not hidden, I will say it loud and clear; forget about success stories. They are not relevant to you nor to your business.

Marketing success stories never tell you the full story. They only tell you what the narrator wants you to hear, and there is always a hidden agenda. The narrator usually writes the success story to promote a hidden goal, such as the promotion of a service, product or an app. Or sometimes just to get recognition.

SO LET’S BREAK IT DOWN FOR A SECOND

• If you are reading a success story in order to find the next level strategy that will boost your sales, ask yourself if you think marketing strategies can be copied and pasted? If the answer is yes, what happens when everyone uses the same strategy? Will it still be effective?

• How do you know that the strategy and its result is what made the difference and not simply the product?  

• When they talk about strategies, do they ever test it against any different strategies at the same time? How can we possibly credit the strategy for producing the results if there are so many other variables that can impact the results?

• Last but not least, if you would take these amazing strategies and plug them in to your business, would you get similar results?

The point being is that your strategies should be based around your product. Reading about someone else’s success is good for motivational purposes and competitive analysis, but probably won’t help your business. 

Someone else’s ROI is totally irrelevant to you. Someone can get an X amount of ROI and make millions, while another one can make XXX on ROI and lose money. Every business has different metrics and there is no universal ROI that is applied to all businesses.

So my fundamental approach on strategies is always straight and simple. Product and performance from day one. If you had 100 dollars to spend on marketing, and you would have to make every dollar count like it’s your last, you wouldn’t invest money on awareness or branding that you couldn’t measure in dollars, would you? My approach in marketing is simple. Showcase your product at every interaction stage along the way.

Define your goals and expectations, set a clear and simple strategy that promotes the sale of your product/service at every stage along the way. Use a simple strategy and find the right marketing balance between spend per visitor and return on investment.

IN SUMMARY

Let it be clear. I strongly believe that most marketing case studies online can be misleading and shouldn’t be used in reference to your own strategies. Strategies are not meant to be copy & pasted and should be built solely around your product and not the other way around. Remember that every dollar counts, performance should be your ultimate goal from day one.