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Dan Zarrella

The Science of Marketing: When to Tweet, What to Post, How to Blog, and Other Proven Strategies Hardcover – April 22, 2013

by Dan Zarrella (Author)

4.2 42 ratings

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Scientific marketing research delivers proven marketing tactics and tips

The Science of Marketing applies a scientific approach to the way businesses and brands approach marketing. It uses a combination of marketing, statistical, and psychological research to explain why and, more importantly, how, companies should adapt marketing strategies such as blogging, social media, email marketing, and webinars to achieve maximium results.

The book contradicts what the author calls the "unicorns and rainbows" strategy that simply encourages companies to love their customers and hug their followers. Instead, the book offers more substantial, proven tactics and tips gathered through scientific research and techniques.

Lists what time of day and what day of the week the most retweets occur
Explains why weekends are best for Facebook sharing, which blog posts lead to comments, why early mornings are best for emails, and how to blog to acquire links
Describes how to avoid crowding your content

The Science of Marketing provides the research and tools to help you make a stronger impact in the digital marketing space.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Wiley
Publication date

April 22, 2013
Dimensions

5.9 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
ISBN-10

1118138279
ISBN-13

978-1118138274
See all details

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Forget the "unicorns and rainbows" approach to marketing that encourages companies to love their customers and hug their followers. Sure, it's great to "be awesome" and "engage in the conversation," but a successful marketing strategy requires something far more substantial. Author and "social media scientist" Dan Zarrella uses data, experimentation, and real science to understand how people behave online and how you can leverage that behavior in your digital marketing strategy.

The Science of Marketing shares proven online tactics and tips gathered through scientific research that will upend your approach to digital marketing. Using a combination of statistics, marketing, math, social psychology, memetics, and epidemiology, among other fields, this book brings a scientific approach to the way businesses develop content, SEO strategies, lead generation, and analytics. Learn why and how you should start executing socialblogging, social media, e-mail marketing, and webinarsaccording to data-driven metrics to achieve the greatest results.

The Science of Marketing provides the research and tools you need to make a stronger impact in the digital marketing space. It offers valuable takeaways such as:

Late in the day and week is when the most retweets occur
Weekends are best for Facebook sharing
E-mail newsletters to subscribers very early in the morning
Your newest subscribers are the most likely to act
Blog on the weekends for a higher number of comments
Blog early in the morning for a higher number of links
Don't crowd your content
And much more!

The Science of Marketing delivers undeniable proof that challenges assumptions about how marketers should approach digital marketing. Let Dan Zarrella's scientific approach lead you toward a better timed, highly targeted, more compelling, and incredibly successful online marketing strategy.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Science of Marketing

"Dan delivers nitty-gritty facts, not theories. Loaded with charts, surveys, and actual data (!) about what's working right now online."
Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow

"For decades, marketing has been about so-called 'creative work,' with success measured by ad industry self-congratulatory awards. It's time to finally get serious about the science of marketing, and Dan Zarrella is the right person to set us straight. Dan holds no opinions of success that he doesn't back up with hard measurements. In this book, he lays out the facts so your marketing will be more successful than the typical award winners."
David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR

"This book equips you with the actionable real-world data you need to make your communications more scientific and successful."
Nancy Duarte, author of slide:ology

"Dan Zarrella has bagged a most rare bird: a book that's actually useful to real, working social media pros."
Hugh MacLeod, cartoonist, gapingvoid.com

"Dan's Science of Marketing is the toolbox of actionable data you need to vastly improve your online and offline marketing. Along with a wide range of critical datasets on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, you'll also find the pages brimming with useful stats and survey results on e-mail marketing, blogging, and other web channels. Keep this book close and read it often!"

Mari Smith, top social media influencer, speaker, author of The New Relationship Marketing, and coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day

"Zarrella's Science of Marketing is the essential handbook for every business to thrive in our newly data-driven world."
Erik Qualman, international bestselling author of Socialnomics

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (April 22, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1118138279
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1118138274
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,535,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,219 in Retailing Industry (Books)
- #4,236 in Web Marketing (Books)
- #6,929 in E-commerce Professional (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 42 ratings

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About the author

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Dan Zarrella

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Dan Zarrella is a social, search, and viral marketing scientist with a background in web development who combines his programming capabilities with a passion for social marketing to create applications like the social URL shortener Votrs.com, Link Attraction Factors keyword tools, as well as TweetPsych, TwitterBrandSponsors, TweetBacks and TweetSuite.

His Link Attraction Factors report helped readers determine which topics, days, times, and keywords attract links in social media stories for semantic content optimization, while his Viral Content report details the motivations, preferences and habits involved in online content sharing.

Dan has written extensively about the science of viral marketing, memetics and social communications on his own blog and for a variety of popular industry blogs, including Mashable, CopyBlogger, ReadWriteWeb, Plagiarism Today, ProBlogger, Social Desire, CenterNetworks, Nowsourcing, and SEOScoop.

He has been featured in The Twitter Book, The Financial Times, NYPost, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, Mashable and TechCrunch. He was recently awarded Shorty and Semmy awards for social media & viral marketing.

He has spoken at PubCon, Search Engine Strategies, Convergence '09, 140 The Twitter Conference, WordCamp Mid Atlantic, Social Media Camp, Inbound Marketing Bootcamp, and The Texas Domains and Developers Conference, and he currently works as an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

42 global ratings

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Claude Whitmyer

Use a Color Reader to See the Great Color Graphs

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

I think you need to use a color reader to see color. I just checked the free sample using my iPad Kindle app and it shows the color--as should the Kindle Fire. You can also download reader apps for Windows and Mac PCs which should show the color (I haven't checked this book, but all my other books in color show up in color in my Windows app).

Caveat: I'm already a Zarella fan. I recognize his works are popular science and like gamingjunkie I'd love to get hold of some of his data sets, but in general his books, ebooks, and blog posts make significant contributions to most of the discussions about social media marketing.

I borrowed a paper version and have only read the first 3 chapters, but am already willing to give Dan 5 stars for the significance of this contribution to the overall discussion. Especially valuable, I think, for those of us who are less scientist and more educated lay person.

I'm impressed enough that I'm going to order my own copy right after I post this review.

Judging from the table of contents and what I've seen in the first three chapters, "The Science of Marketing" (SOM) seems to be an expansion on his 2010 work "The Social Media Marketing Book (SMMB)." That earlier work was more introductory in nature and only touched on a small subset of the data sets he has been collecting for quite a while now.

Also, SMMB included info on Virtual Worlds (think Second Life), Forums, Bookmarking, and Media Sharing (think YouTube). These are missing from the TOC of SOM, but may be referred to somewhere in the text. Though it is easy to see why they may not be included since most of effort put into Internet marketing is usually focused first on Analytics, SEO, Blogging, E-Books, Webinars and the big social sites (Facebook and Twitter). While the newer Pinterest is included, Dan may have felt he didn't have enough data on Google+ to include that.

I'll be watching his blog (DanZarrella[dot]Com) for reports on Google+ there.

Claude Whitmyer
FutureU[dot]Com
ClaudeWhitmyer[dot]Com

2013/05/15 UPDATE:
I got my own copy of Science of Marketing (hardcover) and all the graphics are shades of grey. But they are still pretty easy to read and understand.

I bought the Kindle version too, so I can read on the road. That's the only version with color graphics and you will need a reader that can display color to see it.

My guess is if you view the Kindle ebook (which contains color) inside any of the Kindle models that view in black and white (anything below a Fire), then you may well get muddy graphics as reported by gamingjunkie.

A new copy of the hardback is $16 to $19 bucks including shipping. And the Kindle version is $12. If you don't have a Fire or a color viewer for some other device (Kindle on the iPad, for example) then you may find the graphics muddy. Buying the hardback will be much cheaper than upgrading to a color device and the graphics in the hardback, while black and white, are not muddy.

Hope that helps future purchasers.

claude

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

CK Syme

Proven methods for increasing your social media effectiveness

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

Social media marketing is an enigma for many. There's lots of talk about engagement, building relationships and communities, and creating influence. But in order to be successful in the digital space, we need something more substantial. That's where The Science of Marketing by Dan Zarrella comes in. This is a book for the many.

Zarrella is a social media scientist for HubSpot--yes, you read that right, a social media scientist. He is the brains behind HubSpot's "The Science of..." series. His forte is data and its interpretation. He spends his time analyzing online behavior and translating that into marketing theory that increases our bottom line. I am a Zarrella fan. One of the basic tenets of my marketing philosophy is never make a decision without data. I encourage clients to rely more on the science of marketing and less on the "I think so" school of thought. Maybe it's my academic background, but I believe good data can lessen risk and increase the chances of success.

The book is laid out by media, which is extremely helpful. It starts with content (e-nooks and webinars) and progresses through all the channels from SEO to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs. He ends up with email marketing and analytics. The content is analytical with a strong encouragement to experiment to test and see how it will work for the reader.

It's not just about the best time of day to tweet, what kind of photos work the best on Facebook, and how to attract more sales leads from Pinterest. It's also about the kinds of online behavior and expectations that produce the data. This is not your typical online freebie market "research" we see marketing companies pump out every day to sell their own products. Zarrella's conclusions are the result of tedious amounts of data analyzed to increase our bottom line, not his.

There were several interesting facts about Twitter science that caught my eye:
* As negative comments increase, followers and retweets decrease. (be positive)
* As self-references increase, follower count and retweets decrease. (it's not about you)
* Links in a tweet are a must. (it's about what you give)
* The headline in a tweet is the most important call-to-action to get people to click through. Say something creative, but clear. If you're just saying what everyone else is saying, don't plan on a retweet or click-through. (differentiation gets you noticed)
* Experiment but keep track of your results so you know what works well. (know thy audience)

The bottom line: the unicorns and rainbows approach to social media (as Zarrella calls it) of "being awesome" and "engaging in the conversation" can only produce results if there's a method to your madness. If you're a data nerd like me, or just want to turbo boost your social media return, this book is a definite must-read.

6 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Wow - the first practical book I've read on social media

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

With so much noise about social media and tons of cash being thrown at this supposed "marketing silver bullet" it is hard to not only to understand it but know and apply what works. "The Science of Marketing" is pure gold and the first book on the subject that I've found grounded in science, empirical "what works" results and which had an actionable realistic plan.

"Conversation doesn't build reach" is but one example. No matter how many Twitter followers you have, blog posts, Facebook friends and depth of 'conversation' you are not assured of quantifiable business results. Vanity metrics, such as 'eye-balls' or page visits, may be ego boosting but do nothing for top-line revenue.

"The Science of Marketing" slays many sacred cows. Most importantly it informs you (with data, charts, and tables) where to put your money and time. For example - eBooks and white papers might not be as effective content marketing as believed. There is also a substantial difference between what works in B2C versus B2B. This book has guidance for both.

"The Science of Marketing" teaches about content, channel, and technology all within the framework of business results, lead generation, and funnel building. It tells you how to do something, where not to waste your time, and how to optimize almost every area of the internet as it relates to marketing: content, social media, lead nurturing, just to name a few. The book tells you want analytics are important, how to test and how to prototype efforts. Remarkable breath of material in an easy to read, well written and excellently organized book. "The Science of Marketing" has become my guidebook and bible for internet marketing, really marketing in general. Excellent.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Siddharth Suchde

Highly Recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

What was different about this book is the analytical approach it took to marketing. A lot of books in the market when they talk about social media, email marketing or SEO fail to back it up with hard facts or data. Zarrella's book on the other hand is entirely data driven. He presents the "conventional wisdom" arguments, then throws up what the data shows and finally gives his own input on why the data shows the particular prevalent patterns.

Its a very interesting read, but not a particularly exciting read. Most marketing books are quite exciting with anecdotal passages which make the reader smile and keep him entertained. Zaralla's book does none of that. Its very practical and to the point. Not recommended if your looking for a light read. Highly recommended if your in the marketing space. The analysis is very insightful and would benefit anyone trying to understand how to leverage different marketing channels within their business.

One person found this helpful

James Schutz

Great Data

Reviewed in Canada on May 31, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book contains amazing analysis of very large social media data sets. Dan Zarrella offers hard evidence that a number of the common sense tactics used by many social media marketers actually work, as well as a number of new suggestions and tactics gleaned from unexpected trends in the data.

Zarrella doesn't get too deep into the nuances of strategy or brand positioning, but that's OK. There are a million other books for that. This is, at long last, one of the only practical guides to execute your social media strategy more effectively.

Ian Brodie

Probably the most exciting book I've read in years!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

Can a business book really be exciting?

For me, this one was. Very much so. As I sat in the coffee shop taking in every word on my iPad I found the butterflies in my stomach growing and fluttering around like mad as I just couldn't wait to get home and try out some of the techniques shared in the book.

What Zarrella does is remove the rumours and myths from online marketing. From Twitter to blogging to email marketing to Pinterest, he looks at huge piles of data to synthesis what works and what doesn't.

Sometimes his answers back up accepted wisdom. Sometimes they contradict it entirely. But they always give you food for thought and insights you can but into action in your own business.

- Ian

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Very useful!

Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book has been and continues to be very useful for me. I was recently hired as a social media specialist for a nutritional company and this book has made my post timing and structure an easier task. It's quite thorough in the necessary areas. I would recommend it to anyone looking to succeed in the world of social media.