What You Can Learn About Marketing from Nate Silver

Here’s an interesting bit of information from last night’s election coverage:

“The New York Times election statistician, Nate Silver, perfectly predicted all 50 states last night for President Obama, while every single major pundit was wrong–some comically wrong.”

Silver uses the same techniques highlighted in the book Moneyball (and to a lesser degree, the film). Silver’s results underscore why I’m such a fan.

Your ability to manage your business depends in large part on how effectively you measure your business. So, with that in mind, here are four past tips on how to measure more effectively:

• Web Analytics Fundamentals: Learn What’s Working On Your Site
• 7 Keys to Successful Web Metrics
• 8 Excellent Analytics Lessons
• How To Measure Anything: Book Review of the Week-ish.

Finally, I’ve written a whitepaper on Best Practices for Website Analytics for the hotel industry, though the lessons apply across many industries. Contact me if you’d like a copy.

Normally, I use this space to talk about what we do here at Tim Peter & Associates. But with so many suffering the after-effects of Hurricane Sandy, please visit the American Red Cross and help any way you can.