The business world is generally considered to be a place for calm, collected logic. It is a universe dominated by calculated decision-making and a numbers-based approach to seeking and finding success. We live in a world where data is readily available. The business world is on information overload. Wondering how many people came to your website in 2014? It takes five seconds to pull a number.
It’s incredible that this information is so readily available and it is undeniable that these metrics are good for business. That said, there is an element of business that seems to be falling by the wayside… intuition.
Remember that in the battle of logic vs. intuition, numbers only tell part of the story.
It is crucial to remember in this day and age that numbers only tell a part of the story. Let’s look at an example.
Facebook now has millions of members. With such fast-growing numbers, many businesses have seized the opportunity for cost-effective advertising on Facebook. Boosting posts and placing ads that reach their target market is cheap and often leads to a steep increase in page likes. This seems good, right?
So why is that many businesses who purchase Facebook advertising complain that despite steep growth in likes, there is little to no increase in interactions? Some sources suggest that the answer resides in countries like Mexico, India, Portugal, Brazil and Philippines. These countries are home to massive click farms. No, Facebook is not using these click farms to boost numbers… but click farms are interfering with statistics just the same. Experts suggest that in order to appear legitimate, click farms make employees click on paid ads and like pages so that instead of liking too many pages in one location, they appear to be liking pages all over the world. This makes click farms harder to pinpoint.
The long and short of it is that increases in page likes after placing paid ads might boost your numbers, but those numbers might not mean anything for your business.
Listen to the je ne sais quoi.
You’ve followed your gut before. Maybe it was the time that your car just sounded a touch funny and you took it in, only to find out that if you had let the problem go, you would have been in serious trouble. Maybe it was the moment you were deciding between two jobs… the numbers were the same, but you had to follow your instincts about what would be best for you and your family.
In a world that is so reliant on numbers, it seems that businesses are forgetting the most important fact of all. Whether you are in the B2B or the B2C space, you are still marketing to people. At the heart of all business transactions is a decision-maker or a team of decision-makers that are saying yea or nay. If you are marketing a product, remember that your product is being sold to people. At the end of the day, the numbers can say anything you want them to say… but that doesn’t mean your product will or will not sell.
Pair logic and intuition to make strong business decisions.
Now, to be clear, we aren’t telling you to chuck the numbers out the window and do whatever your little heart desires… but we are saying that using logic and instuition together can help you make the strongest business decisions. It isn’t logic vs. intuition. It’s a healthy dose of both.