When you take up running, your best might be running a single mile without stopping. But the more you practice, the better you get — until you’re running marathons and steadily improving your finish time. It turns out, the key word in “best practice” isn’t “best.” It’s the practice that matters. Think of best practices as an invitation or a challenge, not a...

There’s nothing marketers do that they can’t do just a little bit better with measurement, experimentation, and optimization. The most successful marketers are constantly re-evaluating their tactics, refining their approaches, adjusting strategies — and then doing it all over again to get ever closer to perfection. I’ll go one step further: The most successful...

Marketing is a highly strategic profession. We set measurable goals, keep a close eye on the metrics that matter most, and are constantly optimizing and improving performance. Every digital ad and every piece of content is part of our ingenious master plan. That’s the ideal form of marketing. In practice, of course, things can get a little murkier. It can be...