My View Of The Two Sides Of Internet Marketing
It is tough being in internet marketing. On one side of the coin we have to use data, cold hard facts, and analytics to make decisions. This is very logical and rational. On the other side of the coin in the need to be creative, to innovate, and create connections with customers. This is very abstract and subjective. Both tasks must be met with total fervor and dedication. Being mathematical and artistic at the same time is difficult. They say that these come from different sides of the brain and the connection between the two halves is limited.
I have been thinking a lot about the skills I have been working on over the last 2.5 years of being at Giantnerd. I have learned more about the abstract side of the marketing than the analytical. Because of my education I have more than enough knowledge to look at data and recognize correlations and find statistically significant causation (or not). What I have learned is how to take these and apply them to a more abstract realm, like user intent, or recognize issues within our site based on the data. We are currently working on an item page redesign which I think will help us in many ways, but more importantly it will help users.
Over time these skills will be used more and more to create the best site we can. In the meantime we have some catching up to do which involves a completely different skill that I have honed at Giantnerd. I have gained the ability to see what other people, using their data, have done and make educated assessments of the reasons why they would do it. I have learned so much about user experience that I can look at a website and understand why they would make the decision they have.
I still have tons to learn and I’m excited that I am in a profession where I get the opportunity to work out both the right and left side of my brain. I believe that data and analytics is the future of ecommerce but only for the people who are well rounded enough to look it outside the bubble of numbers. Data can tell us which page element works best between a variety of options, but there must be a baseline with which to begin. There must be something creative and innovative to the element which is having data applied to it.
Every position has conflicting ideals and I believe to be successful you must find a way to marry these ideals and get the best out of the conflicting sides. I am hungry to improve my ability to marry the analyitical and creative ideals.
