Alex Birkett 
A/B testing (i.e. running a controlled experiment, normally in a digital environment like a website or an application) is prevalent nowadays. All of the biggest tech companies you know – Microsoft, Netflix, Booking.com, Google – run thousands of experiments per year. Now it’s weird if you don’t run A/B tests. There are dozens of tools … Read more
More data isn’t necessarily better, and in fact, sometimes more data leads to much worse decision making. We’re all trying to make better business decisions (I hope, at least). All decisions include some level of uncertainty. Properly collected and analyzed data can reduce that uncertainty, but never eliminate it. However, in practice, I’ve noticed many … Read more
Content marketing is often looked at as a “brand” channel. In opposition to a “performance” channel, brand channels tend to be unmeasurable, emotional, and yet, still perceived as important (especially in larger companies and in consumer spaces). Despite this clearly being a false dichotomy (why can’t performance channels build the brand, too?), it’s also directionally … Read more
I’m a marketer, but I spend a lot of time in R. I use it to analyze A/B tests and explore data sets. I’ve also built fully functional web applications using R and Shiny to enable new processes for my team at HubSpot using the language. There are so many free resources for learning technical … Read more
“Kmart has plenty of awareness, so what?” -Purple Cow by Seth Godin I hear the term “brand awareness” all the time, but to be honest, I don’t really know what it means. On its surface, it’s somewhat obvious: it’s the amount of people who know about your brand. But that simple, stupid Google search definition … Read more
Content creation has a cost, both directly and indirectly. Knowing that cost lets you make better business decisions (and choose what to read)
Content marketing strategy is something few companies do well. This is something I’ve focused on for years, mostly because all the companies I’ve worked for, from super early stage startups to HubSpot where I work now, have been largely supported by content marketing (in one way or another). However, each company’s content marketing strategy was … Read more
New Year’s Resolutions™ are overrated, but time-based goals are nice, and so are general life reflections. I find it’s valuable to put them in writing and in public, mostly for reference and reflection down the line. I did one last year, and in 2017 as well. 2018 Was a Good Year (Recap) 2018 was an … Read more
A/B testing (aka split testing or online controlled experiments) is hard. It’s sometimes billed as a magic tool that spits out a decisive answer. It’s not. It’s a randomized controlled trial, albeit online and with website visitors or users, and it’s reliant upon proper statistical practices. At the same time, I don’t think we should … Read more
How do you model and predict growth (and growth opportunities)? There’s all this talk about “growth models” and “growth modeling” but not much talk about how to build them and get value from them. As with many things, it’s easy to see why they’re important, but hard to put them into action. This post covers … Read more