Following is a guest post from our friends over at Long & Short of It, masters of ideation, customer insights and market research. They like to say they “dig and find lots of data and then turn it into actionable insights.” Following is their guest post.
When Metrics Start Driving the Strategy
While serving as Fractional CMOs for a client, we told an agency we didn’t care about the metrics they were presenting. In reality, we did care. The point was to interrupt their siloed thinking that had elevated one tactic’s metrics above the client’s broader brand health.
The Problem Isn’t the Metrics
Their intentions were good. They truly wanted to be able to demonstrate their value, the quality of their thinking, and be held accountable for what they promised the results would be. All good, yet at some point the tool was dictating the strategy and that’s when things can go wrong.
Having worked on both the client and agency side, we’ve seen too often how the need for metrics, attribution, proving ROI, and for agencies to prove their worth took precedence over what makes the brand unique and authentic. The proverbial cart before the horse.
What Actually Matters
Marketing metrics do matter. But you know what matters more? The business metrics. More clicks, higher engagement, more followers — none of it means much if sales, memberships, or whatever metric actually moves the business isn’t moving. That’s the one that counts.
There’s an order to things. Business plan first, marketing plan second. Strategy first, tactics second. Thinking first, action second. It may sound logical and many won’t argue with this. Yet, we’ve seen issues like the case above come up time and time again. Why? It’s not due to lack of caring or wanting to do the right thing. It comes down to lack of experience, leading to tunnel vision.
The Difference Experience Makes
What’s often missing is this: talented, well-meaning teams with real expertise in their craft, who haven’t had the experience of working both in the business and on the business.
When you’re accountable for the business results, not just the marketing results, you develop a different kind of judgment. You learn when to question the process, when the latest approach isn’t the right one, and when a metric that looks good on the dashboard is quietly working against you.
It’s one of the biggest differences between simply executing marketing and understanding how marketing decisions affect the business as a whole.
Following is a guest post from our friends over at Long & Short of It, masters of ideation, customer insights and market research. They like to say they “dig and find lots of data and then turn it into actionable insights.” Following is their guest post.
Marketing metrics matter. Sit in enough meetings and you’ll see people read the numbers differently. You can feel it about five minutes in. That becomes a problem when you’re trying to move in the same direction.
Performance reports, KPIs, dashboards, they’re full of data. It’s usually easy to find. The harder part is getting the team to look at the same numbers, through the same lens, and arrive at a shared understanding of what to do next.
The Elephant in the Room
There’s an old Indian parable about blind men describing an elephant for the first time. One feels the side and calls it a wall. Another grabs the trunk and says it’s a snake. And so on. No one sees the whole.
Internal teams are remarkably good at recreating this parable. The SEO lead looks at the dashboard and sees an organic traffic problem. The channel manager sees a conversion rate issue. The CEO sees a revenue gap. Same data with different conclusions. Sound familiar?
Why This Keeps Happening
Part of it is structural. Marketing teams are often organized around channels and functions, which means expertise gets siloed right along with accountability. Each person or team is optimizing for something slightly different, spend efficiency, engagement rates, attribution, pipeline contribution. Those objectives don’t always point in the same direction.
The other part is they skip a step, going from data straight to action without pausing to ask whether everyone agrees on what the data is saying. We worked with one client who had different team members being “fairly certain” as to why lead volume had dropped, with different potential ideas on what to do. The issue wasn’t the data. It was that no one had sat down together to build a shared read of it first.
What to Do About It
The goal isn’t unanimous agreement on everything. Consensus by committee leads to mush. It’s about building a shared framework for making sense of what you’re seeing and using that to decide what to test and what to change. At Long & Short of It, this is often where we add the most value: not in the analysis itself, but in facilitating the conversation around it (with a bit of our own view on what the data says of course!).
Start with the business objective, not the metric. Before opening the dashboard, align on what you’re trying to achieve. Not “improve click-through rates,” but are you trying to drive more qualified leads? Increase fewer but larger dollar sales? Improve retention? That objective is the anchor. Every metric conversation needs to connect back to it.
Separate observations from interpretations. An observation is what the data shows: “Website traffic is down 18% month over month.” An interpretation is a theory about why or what the data is telling us: “We may be reaching fewer new people because we pulled back on paid media in Q3.” Keeping these two things distinct, and being explicit about which you’re doing, reduces the noise considerably.
Build hypotheses together. Once observations are on the table, bring the full team in. There is power in a collective discussion with different areas of expertise. A good hypothesis is specific and testable: “If our cost per lead is rising because we’re talking to the wrong audience, we’d expect to see plenty of clicks but very few conversions. We could test that by tightening our targeting and running a 30-day campaign to a more defined segment.”
Design a test, not a committee. Once you have a hypothesis, resist the urge to debate it indefinitely. We love the 80% rule – once you’re about 80% there, move on. It’s more important to take action, test and learn rather than debate or try to get to perfection. Pick one thing to change (not several at a time, because then you won’t be sure what affected the change!), define what success looks like before you start, set a timeframe, and measure. Sometimes a focused 30-day experiment tells you everything you need to know.
Close the loop to revenue. Channel metrics are useful diagnostic tools, but they’re not the point. The point is whether your marketing is contributing to actual business outcomes: leads, pipeline, sales, revenue. Build that connection explicitly into how you review performance, even when the attribution isn’t perfect.
The Real Opportunity
The teams that get the most out of their marketing data aren’t necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated tools. They’re the ones that have learned how to have better conversations about what the data means and how to turn those conversations into clear, testable decisions. A smart team, working together, and being curious is worth more than any software platform out there. Work with what you have.
My name is Lauren Peugeot, and I am the incoming 2026 Public Relations (PR) Intern for Sonnhalter. In the fall, I will begin my third year at The Ohio State University, where I am pursuing my Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Communication and minoring in Pharmaceutical Science. I am also working towards obtaining a Strategic Sales Certificate to complete my degree. Through both my coursework and extracurricular activities at Ohio State, I have developed a passion for creativity, marketing, and building lasting relationships with the individuals I work with.
At Ohio State, in addition to maintaining a busy academic schedule, I am engaged in social and leadership aspects of campus culture. Currently, I am an active member of the Sigma Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta, where I serve on council as the Vice President of Recruitment & Marketing. Within this role, I have taken on responsibilities such as delegating marketing content and managing PR-related initiatives for optimized recruiting efforts while maintaining Kappa Delta’s core philanthropic values.
Another role I hold is working as a Research Assistant for the Ohio State School of Communication. In this position, I help facilitate relationships with lab directors and assist research participants in successfully completing studies so that the collected data can contribute to new findings of communication styles. The study I specifically work on examines how utilizing different media channels affects personal relationships, which has further expanded my interest in public relations.
I am from Mayfield, Ohio, about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Cleveland. Besides academics and extracurriculars, I enjoy staying active and spending time with friends and family. One sport I especially enjoy is volleyball, and I play on an intramural volleyball team at Ohio State. Activities like this have taught me the importance of teamwork, communication, and adaptability, which are qualities that will hopefully benefit me throughout my time interning and learning more at Sonnhalter.
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join the team this summer and become part of such a welcoming and supportive company culture. I am excited to “connect the pipes” between public relations and marketing with the B2T mindset and gain firsthand experience with all “the nuts and bolts” of the industry. Through this opportunity I hope to build new relationships, contribute to the team, and make the most of this internship with Sonnhalter.
As more trade shows approach, many companies find themselves asking the same question, “How can we stand out and drive more traffic to our booth?” With crowded show floors and countless exhibitors competing for attention, creating an engaging booth experience is more important than ever.
Over the years, we’ve seen everything from puppies and arcade games to immersive brand experiences. Below are several proven booth ideas that can help attract attendees, keep them engaged and create lasting impressions.
Games That Engage
Interactive games are a simple yet effective way to draw people in. Whether it’s cornhole, spin-the-wheel, Plinko or another easy-to-play option, games add an element of fun that encourages attendees to stop, participate and linger longer at your booth.
Games also create a natural opportunity to give away branded swag or prizes, making your brand more memorable while starting conversations with potential leads.
Photo Booth Experiences
Photo opportunities are a powerful way to generate buzz on the show floor and beyond. A branded photo booth or backdrop gives attendees a reason to gather at your booth while incorporating your logo, colors and messaging.
Taking it a step further with branded filters or hashtags encourages attendees to share their photos on social media, expanding your reach and boosting brand awareness well after the show ends.
Virtual Reality (VR) Experiences
Virtual reality can instantly set your booth apart. VR experiences are immersive and naturally attract crowds, keeping visitors engaged longer than traditional displays.
VR can be used to demonstrate how your products work, showcase environments that are difficult to replicate on the show floor, or tell your brand story in a more interactive way. When attendees can see, hear and interact with your offering, the experience becomes far more memorable.
Hosting a Contest
Contests are one of the most effective ways to generate booth traffic, but success depends on promotion. To build excitement, start promoting your contest before the show through social media, emails and even trade media outlets.
At the booth, contests encourage participation while allowing you to collect contact information from attendees. This not only increases engagement during the event but also helps generate qualified leads you can follow up with after the show.
Final Thoughts
These ideas are just a starting point when it comes to creating an engaging trade show booth. The key is to combine creativity with interaction, giving attendees a reason to stop, participate and remember your brand.
By exploring these strategies and thinking outside the box, you can make the most of your next trade show and create meaningful connections with attendees.
Social media is no longer just a channel for posting updates, it’s a strategic tool that influences brand perception, engagement and growth. To use it effectively, brands must understand not only their own performance, but also how they compare against their competitors. That’s where social media competitive analysis comes in.
What Is Social Media Competitive Analysis?
Competitive social media analysis is the process of evaluating competitors’ social media activity to understand what content they share, how audiences engage and where opportunities exist.
This analysis typically looks at:
Platforms competitors are active on
Content types and posting frequency
Engagement (likes, comments, shares)
Audience growth
The goal isn’t to copy competitors, it’s to gain insight into what resonates in your industry and identify ways to differentiate or improve your brand.
A thoughtful competitive analysis helps brands make smarter, data-driven decisions rather than guessing what might work.
Identifies opportunities and engagement By seeing what competitors post, and what performs well, you can uncover gaps, trends or underserved topics your brand can own. Understanding how audiences interact with competitor content provides insight into preferred formats and top content.
Supports platform prioritization Competitive analysis shows which platforms matter most in your industry, helping brands focus time and resources where they’ll have the greatest impact.
How Often Should Competitive Analysis Be Done?
Competitive analysis isn’t a one-time exercise. Social platforms, algorithms and audience behaviors evolve constantly. Ongoing monitoring can help to spot trends or shifts across competitors and how your improved social media works.
Social media competitive analysis helps brands move from reactive posting to an intentional strategy. By understanding the competitive landscape, brands can create more relevant content, engage audiences more effectively and strengthen their digital presence over time.
