In the Headlights: August 5, 2020 Issue - Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting

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What does it mean to be data-driven? We define it simply: use data as the primary factor in making decisions.

This is why being data-driven is so difficult. Many companies – many people – struggle with one or both sides of this equation. For example, some organizations prefer to rely on intuition, experience, or theory to make decisions. While these skills aren’t unimportant, if you make the claim to be data-driven, then they have to take a back seat to data. That challenges many individuals’ egos – when we use intuition or experience, we inherently please our own egos. We’re a vital part of the decision-making process.

When we put data first, our egos have to take a back seat – especially if our data and analysis show the opposite of what our intuition says would be correct. For example, in which direction do you travel to go from Reno to San Diego? Intuition tells us Nevada is east of California, so you go west, right? Except that San Diego is actually east of Reno. Our intuition can easily be tricked, especially with complex, data-rich problems.

The second reason why being data-driven is so difficult is the flipside of the coin: we collect data, then do nothing with it. We’ll run analyses until they pile up to the ceiling or occupy our entire hard drive, but not take action on it. Data, without decisions, is just distraction – but often times, it’s distraction that looks and feels like work. Don’t allow decisionless data to seduce you! If you aren’t using data to make decisions, stop analyzing it and question whether you even need to collect it.

Some less scrupulous folks who love to claim they’re data-driven will try to weasel their way out when confronted with either of these situations, decisionless data or ego-driven decisions. They’ll claim they are data-informed, data-inspired, data-aware, or other watered down, uncommitted ways of saying they’re uncomfortable making decisions with data first. That’s fine if you don’t profess to be data-driven, but if you’re going to make that bold claim, live up to it. If you’re evaluating a vendor partner and data-driven decision-making is one of your criteria, be sure you ask how that vendor partner uses data to make decisions and listen carefully to the answers. There’s a good chance they’re not actually making decisions with data first and foremost.

It’s okay to not be data-driven as long as that’s a conscious choice you’re making, you have sound, rational reasoning for it, and you’re not claiming you are data-driven when that’s not the reality. It isn’t for everyone, and it isn’t the right strategy for every organization.

No matter what kind of organization or professional you are, be clear in what you say you do, and live up to it. That’s the best any of us can do, and it’s the easiest way to avoid disappointing partners and customers.

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In this week’s In-Ear Insights, Katie and Chris discuss the current state of AI deployment. Companies are rushing ahead to put models and algorithms into action with little to no due diligence, and the consequences can be disastrous. Should AI adopt a practice similar to clinical trials, where a model must prove that it causes no harm first? Listen in for how to think about AI and machine learning from a clinical perspective and ways to proactively adopt best practices from the pharmaceutical industry to your AI.

Watch the discussion now!

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In this week’s Rear View mirror, we examine the Slack universe using SEO tools. What are the most prominent Slack instances visible to the public, and how popular are they?

We see Feedly Lab’s Slack instance topping the charts by a considerable margin with almost 200,000 visitors a month, followed by Soylent, the Slack API, SQLlite Slack, and the Exodus cryptocurrency. Many of the publicly-visible Slack communities are technology-centric; for marketers who are working in the B2B technology space, using SEO tools to identify Slack communities is a fantastic way to find and explore new niches for particular technologies you market to. However, remember that traffic numbers don’t tell the whole story; once someone signs into a Slack instance, they would likely no longer need to transit through signup and instance links on the web (where SEO tools get their data from), nor will friend/colleague referrals show up in this data.

As a result, even a small Slack instance by traffic numbers may have hundreds or thousands of members valuable to your business. Find them using SEO tools, and then dive in. You might be surprised at how rich and vibrant the audience is once they’re out of the public eye.

Methodology: Trust Insights used the AHREFS SEO tool to extract inbound links to the Slack.com domain, then processed and filtered the data to de-duplicate it and sort by AHREFS’ traffic estimates. The date of the study period is January 1, 2018 – August 1, 2020. The date of extraction is August 2, 2020. Trust Insights is the sole sponsor of the study and neither gave nor received compensation for data used, beyond applicable service fees to software vendors, and declares no competing interests.

AI Academy for Marketers is an online education platform designed to help marketers understand, pilot, and scale artificial intelligence. The AI Academy features deep-dive Certification Courses (3 – 5 hours each), along with dozens of Short Courses (30 – 60 minutes each) taught by leading AI and marketing experts.

Join Katie Robbert, CEO of Trust Insights, and Christopher Penn, Chief Data Scientist of Trust Insights, for three separate courses in the academy:

5 use cases of AI for content marketing
Intelligent Attribution Modeling for Marketing
Detecting and Mitigating BIAS in Marketing AI

The Academy is designed for manager-level and above marketers, and largely caters to non-technical audiences, meaning you do not need a background in analytics, data science or programming to understand and apply what you learn. One registration gives you unlimited access to all the courses, an invitation to a members-only Slack Instance, and access to new courses every quarter.

Join now and save $100 off registration when you go to TrustInsights.ai/aiacademy and use registration code PENN100 today.

Shiny Objects is a roundup of the best content you and others have written and shared in the last week.

Data Science and AI

SEO, Google, and Paid Media

Content Marketing

Get Back To Work

We’ve changed things up in Get Back To Work, and we’re looking at the top 310 metro areas in the United States by population. This will give you a much better sense of what the overall market looks like, and will cover companies hiring in multiple locations. Want the entire, raw list? Join our Slack group!

What do you do with this information?

By looking at this data, you’ll see what the most popular titles are; use any of the major job/career sites to ensure your resume/CV/LinkedIn profile matches keywords and phrases for those titles. For companies, search job sites for those companies specifically to see all the open positions and apply for them.

You can also hit up LinkedIn and see who you know at companies listed, and see if your connections have any inside tips on hiring.

Top Marketing Positions by Count, Manager and Above

Marketing Manager : 466 open positions
Digital Marketing Manager : 249 open positions
Account Manager : 202 open positions
Social Media Manager : 201 open positions
Marketing Director : 169 open positions
Director of Marketing : 142 open positions
Project Manager : 126 open positions
Product Manager : 99 open positions
Product Marketing Manager : 94 open positions
Program Manager : 80 open positions

Top Marketing Hiring Companies by Count, Manager and Above

Amazon.com Services LLC : 144 open positions
Google : 121 open positions
Northrop Grumman : 84 open positions
Amazon Web Services, Inc. : 74 open positions
Verizon : 60 open positions
Facebook : 52 open positions
Interdependence : 42 open positions
T-Mobile : 42 open positions
Deloitte : 38 open positions
Walmart : 37 open positions

Top Locations of Hiring Companies by Count, Manager and Above

New York, NY : 614 open positions
San Francisco, CA : 400 open positions
Austin, TX : 340 open positions
Chicago, IL : 330 open positions
Seattle, WA : 324 open positions
Los Angeles, CA : 266 open positions
Atlanta, GA : 262 open positions
Boston, MA : 236 open positions
San Diego, CA : 201 open positions
Denver, CO : 199 open positions

Methodology: Trust Insights uses the Indeed.com API to extract open positions from a geographic area focused on marketing analytics, marketing, social media, data science, machine learning, advertising, and public relations, with a filter to screen out the most junior positions.

Featured Partners

Our Featured Partners are companies we work with and promote because we love their stuff. If you’ve ever wondered how we do what we do behind the scenes, chances are we use the tools and skills of one of our partners to do it.

Join the Club

Are you a member of our free Slack group, Analytics for Marketers? Join 800+ like-minded marketers who care about data and measuring their success. Membership is free – join today.

Upcoming Events

Where can you find us in person?

Women in Analytics workshops, August 2020, virtual
ContentTech Summit, August 2020, virtual
INBOUND 2020, September 2020, virtual
MarTech East, October 2020, virtual
MarketingProfs, November 2020, virtual
MadConNYC, December 2020, New York City

Going to a conference we should know about? Reach out!

Want some private training at your company? Ask us!

In Your Ears

Would you rather listen to our content? Follow the Trust Insights show, In-Ear Insights in the podcast listening software of your choice:

Stay In Touch

Where do you spend your time online? Chances are, we’re there too, and would enjoy sharing with you. Here’s where we are – see you there?

Required FTC Disclosures

Events with links have purchased sponsorships in this newsletter and as a result, Trust Insights receives financial compensation for promoting them.

Trust Insights maintains business partnerships with companies including, but not limited to, IBM, Talkwalker, Zignal Labs, Agorapulse, and others. All Featured Partners are affiliate links for which we receive financial compensation. While links shared from partners are not explicit endorsements, nor do they directly financially benefit Trust Insights, a commercial relationship exists for which we may receive indirect financial benefit.

Conclusion

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