Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with the system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code, through quick snapshots, for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and helps you draw a blueprint on what it takes to get great things done.
Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts
by Neil Hoyne
Neil Hoyne serves as the Chief Measurement Strategist at Google. He is also a Senior Fellow at The Wharton School.
Some of the points Neil makes in this book focuses on the importance of conversations in Digital Marketing that seem to be missing completely today. He also talks about the need to marry authentic relationship-building skills with data-crunching skills.
These are only a handful of insights that stood out to us and there are several more in his excellent book.
In this episode, Neil Hoyne, talks about the gap that exists between companies having sophisticated data tools and the scarcity in building relationships with their customers. He also brings up problems with respect to use and misuse of metrics at companies.
There is a lot to learn from this conversation. You can also listen to this episode on:
Roger Kneebone is a professor of surgical education from the Imperial College Centre for Engagement and Simulation Science.
In this lecture, Roger provides insights from his own experience as a clinician, his decades-long collaborations with extraordinary masters and what does it take to build mastery in any chosen profession.
Reinventing Digital Marketing
As we listened back to Neil Hoyne’s conversation, we resonated with many of the points he made on digital marketing, especially given the fact that Digital Advertising will exceed more than 60% of Ad spends.
The Customer Purchase Journey or Path is changing. During the purchase process, the need for marketers to have conversations is increasingly becoming important. If it was so easy to see an online banner ad and conversions happen in a jiffy, then life will be a lot more easier for companies. That’s not the case in reality.
Customers go through different Stages of the Purchase Process:
Trigger Phase (when a need gets triggered)
Consider Phase (the customer asks if they need this product or not)
Search Phase (once decided, then they search for alternatives, reviews, quality, availability, etc.)
Choose Phase (from the range of shortlists that they make, go through what best suits their requirements)
Buy Phase (this is the final purchase moment like payment, finance options etc.).
But, digital marketers, as Neil said, have a problem of “Single Interaction, Marry me” Syndrome. Marketers expect online ads to convert after a click but what they may be missing is the fact that they are unable to understand in which phase of the purchase journey the customer is in and what needs to be done to keep this conversation alive and also valuable from the point of view of customer.
Digital or data-driven marketing needs to factor the power of conversations in their marketing to create better impact and value.
Some lessons we learnt from this week’s missions:
Mastery requires repetitive practice. Not just mindless repetitive practice but ‘conscious’ repetitive practice. So, if one is at an early stage of their career, when the person is asked to perform repetitive tasks, they can get bored and get disillusioned or alternatively they can consciously improve how the task is done every time to get better at it. Conscious improvement of repetitive tasks are the Path to Mastery.
Academic research papers are a great source of validating hypotheses and learning. There is a treasure house of knowledge and information there. It is not widely used or referred to. Unlock this information to build a more robust blue-print for all your strategies. Make it a point to read at least one research paper every week to start with and increase the count every week or every month.
Success begins with curiosity and interest. To be successful, begin from where no one wants to start, learn by doing it rather reading it, ignore the noise or negative clutter around you, do the work with conviction, don’t keep measuring the effort invested to outcome all the time.