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 social—blogging, social media, e-mail marketing, and webinars—according 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.

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