My last column broke down the elements of a persuasion scenario and highlighted the need for more robust scenario planning, rather than today’s overly simple conversion funnel.

Marketers are venturing into new, unfamiliar territories, juggling multichannel strategies, allocating ad dollars among media, and trying to maximize new technologies, all at a time when consumers seem to find it easier than ever to bypass and ignore those efforts. These are just a few of the challenges.

Though marketing choices have increased, ad budget dollars haven’t. The answer can’t be to A/B test everything and see what sticks. Even with an infinite budget, do you really want to just throw anything up against the wall?

Great marketing has always been tough, though never as complex as it is now. In a world of thousands of marketing allocation and messaging choices, businesses require a methodology for modeling customer behavior if they’re to maintain a lead. Persuasion architecture methodology will guide them in planning and prioritizing marketing tactics and leave no customer modality behind. Still, that’s not enough.

As traffic costs inflate, accountability increases too. Persuasion scenarios, what used to be called “marketing plans,” must be accountable. Just as planning a robust scenario requires a willful, thorough execution, we must move beyond reporting metrics to actually analyzing data. The goal isn’t to simply jockey reports but to determine why behaviors occur.

Continue reading my column at ClickZ…