Some people love it and others hate it – making decisions.
As a digital marketing strategist, making decisions is a core part of the job. After all, the creation and implementation of a marketing strategy is really a series of decisions.
In a perfect world all the information required to make the correct decision would be available. However, in real life, decisions are most often made based on incomplete information.
Information may be incomplete because of:
- limited time
- limited money
- uncontrollable factors such as the environment, industry, or economy
- inaccurate data
Limited Time and Money
Because we all have to deal with limited resources, the cost of acquiring more information to make a decision may reach a point where the added value is less than the cost of acquiring it. This is the point of diminishing returns on information. Consider what the likelihood is of making a better decision by spending another X amount of time or money.
Predicting the Future
Because we can’t accurately predict the future (if you can, please post the lottery numbers in the comments), many external factors may influence the outcome of a decision. These uncontrollable factors pose a great risk to any decision. Consider contingency plans in case an external factor is realized.
Inaccurate Information
Because we rely so much on information to make decisions, you must critically analyze the validity of the information you have. Especially in the online environment, there are many new monitoring and analytics tools being launched regularly. Before relying on any given tool, consider what is actually being measured and what that information means. If a tool is reporting 50% of the information inaccurately, your decision may be little more than a crap shoot.
Victor Chan
Digital Strategist
Photo Credit: Sarah G…
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Tags: decision, digital marketing, information, strategist, strategy
