Great reminder to stay relevant.

For anyone who missed it, a great article from Aaron Goldman at MediaPost ...

My two favorite points were on relevance and allowing data to guide your decisions.

Relevance rules.
The reason Google became so popular is simply because its search engine displayed the most relevant results. For marketers looking to leapfrog to the top of Google or have your product earn Google-like market share, the key is make your brand relevant. Apple is one company that manages to stay relevant -- read: build a cult-like following -- by continually releasing products that operate best when used with other Apple products, or simply work better than previous versions. It also aligns itself with its audience's passion points like music and design.

Let the data decide.
This could easily roll up into either of the last two points, but it's worthy of its own spot on this list. Too often, marketers use testing or tracking merely to prove an idea to which they were already married. In other words, they -- or their agencies -- come up with a concept that sounds spectacular and "just feels right" and then set up some experiments -- read: focus groups -- and manipulate the data to help push their idea through. Not Google. Per Marissa Mayer, Google "let(s) the math and the data govern how things look and feel" -- some would say to a fault. There's certainly a spectrum from "going with your gut" to letting data decide, but when it comes to being accountable to your boss -- or your shareholders-- doing what the numbers tell you is certainly the most defensible position -- especially if that data is highly targeted.