If you’re a geek like me there is a good chance your interest falls outside of the world of online marketing and into other areas, such as science. For me, the area I find most intriguing is physics. I devour books on the subject probably more-so than anything to do with SEO, PPC and other areas related to the online world.
One thing I’ve realized over the past couple of years is that I tend to use a lot of physics ideas and concepts when doing marketing work, so I began considering a post on what physics has taught me about marketing. While considering the idea I did a quick search on the subject and turned up one result – a very good TED talk by Dan Colby.
He offers some great ideas in the above video and definitely worth the watch.
However, this also fueled my desire to take it a step further. While Dan Colby makes some great points, there is still a lot of physics theories and scientific concepts that can be used when thinking about marketing.
1. Newtons Laws of Motion - In the world of physics there is probably no one more important than Sir Isaac Newton (possibly “as important”, but not “more”). Of all the things that Newton gave the world of science, the most known (if not notable) is the laws of motion.
- - According to Newton’s first law, “Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it.” For marketing this should be fairly obvious: if you have an object – say, a piece of content or video – and you do nothing to promote it or place it into the view of the public, it will continue in its inherent state of rest until you act upon it.
- - The second law states “Force is equal to the change in momentum per change in time. For a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration.” Depending on the size of the project (and the size of your company), it will take a certain amount of force to accelerate the object you are promoting enough to be noticeable. For a larger business, such as an Apple or Coca-Cola, the marketing campaign better have a lot of force behind it, or it will go unnoticed in the world and in the company. For a smaller company – such as a local shoe store – even the smallest of marketing force can make a huge impact on the acceleration of your company.
- - Law three states “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This could be either good or bad, but if you are placing an marketing message out into the world, you better be ready to face the consequence of that action, and you better know which direction the force of your message is moving.
2. The Big Bang & Deceleration - Before I get nasty comments, yes, I am well aware that the theory of deceleration has given way to the modern accelerated universe theory. I don’t care. For marketing, it’s still deceleration. Anyway, roughly 14 billion years ago all the matter of the universe was contained in a single, small-ish point. There was a gigantic explosion (not “actually” an explosion, but nonetheless) and the universe expanded outward at an extremely fast rate. After the initial bang the universe slowed, but continues to move forward infinitely through space and time. This is viral marketing. An idea or marketing effort explodes onto the scene and gets shared at an alarmingly fast rate. Over time the rate at which the content or idea moves outward slows, but continues infinitely. Also, once it’s in the world, there is nothing you can do to get it back.
3. Theory of General Relativity - Of course, we could not talk about physics without mentioning Albert Einstein. The question, though, is how the hell can general relativity relate to marketing?! According to the theory, an object moving in a straight line will be subject to the gravity and curvature of the Earth. So an object moving East would actually be moving East and South. To move directly East, you would have to take into account the curvature of the Earth and actually head East and slightly North. Marketing works in much the same way. When we conceptualize the goal of a marketing effort, we tend to think in straight lines (i.e. if I perform A, it will get me to B).
Nothing in life will work exactly like that, however, and we need to take into account other consequences and resources before taking action. If I create a video content and upload that content on YouTube, and then embed that video on your site, and then utilize social media to promote that content, you may drive people to your site. YouTube, however, is the second largest search engine on the planet, and there is a very good chance people will find your video there instead of your site. While you were hoping to get directly from point A to B, you need to consider C, meaning you will also need to consider how you will drive traffic from the YouTube site to your site.
4. Evolution & Natural Selection - Okay, so maybe evolution is not necessarily a physics concept, but it definitely plays a huge role in the world of marketing – if you think about it for a minute. The online world is a pretty level playing field. As marketers, we all have access to the same basic tools. A small mom and pop shop really does have the ability to compete with larger companies. Of course, the more money you have and are willing to put into your efforts, the better the payoff will likely be; but the ability to use the tools is there.
The issue comes when a company, or marketer, gets set in their ways and refuses to change with the rest of the world. The Internet moves very quickly, and if you have been around longer than six months you’ve noticed it, or you simply aren’t paying attention. What makes the difference is how willing we are – and how quickly we can – adapt to the ever changing landscape. Just like the peppered moth, you must evolve or die.
How to Use the Scientific Method in Marketing
How can you not love something as perfect as the Scientific Method? You learned it in grade school, yet it amazes me how many people never use it and basically fly blind in the marketing world.
We can sit around all day long thinking we’re artistic, or writers, but if you are not utilizing something like the Scientific Method to gauge the results of your efforts, you are doing it wrong and you should probably get back on your VW Minibus…hippie.
Everything starts with a question. “If I create this blog post, what will be the goal? How will I get it in front of people? What will happen if I raise my CPCs in my adWords campaign by 25%? What if I target region specific? Etc. Etc. Etc.
We could always just throw things out there. Set it and forget it if you will. But if we do these things it is very likely we will be unemployed, and enjoying that Minibus.
The Scientific method is simple.
1. Ask a Question. I just did this in the previous paragraph and am not going to give more examples here.
2. Do background research. Has anyone tried your idea before? What were the results? Just because something failed doesn’t mean it will fail for you. What did they do wrong? how could you improve upon what they did?
3. Form your Hypothesis. Think about what you want to do and what the likely outcome(s) will be. Get this down on paper (or computer screen) and save it.
4. Test, Analyze & Test Some More. This is where we drop the “set it and forget it” mentality. Figure out your starting point, what your goal is and then test your efforts over time. Did your hypothesis fail miserably? Figure out what went wrong, fix that and try again. Was your hypothesis true? I bet it wasn’t perfect. Make a change and test that. Keep doing this until the end of time.
5. Track & Report your Results. Your bosses (or clients) will appreciate this. It will also allow you to understand over time what works and what does not works, as well as how things change over time (see Evolution & Natural Selection above).
And that kids, is why physics is not only fun, but can help you be a better marketer.
How about you? What do you enjoy outside of the online world that helps you be better at your job?