How to manufacture desire

13 Mar 2016 | Vlad Mehakovic

1. How to manufacture desire

Psychology

How is it that companies like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest can, with little more than bits of code displayed on a screen, seemingly control users’ minds? Why are these sites so addictive and what does their power mean for the future of the web?

2. We tripled our leads using this rarely-discussed blogging tactic

Growth

HubSpot hires a team to publish ~200 new blog posts a month
46% of monthly blog leads come from 0.5% of their posts
By refreshing and republishing the high performing content they were able to triple their monthly leads

3. The Netflix recommender system: algorithms, business value, and innovation

Product

An excellent walk through how Netflix uses various recommendation algorithms to drive value.

4. Microcopy: tiny words with a huge UX impact

Microcopy is the term for the small bits of copy on a apps’s interface that help users do ‘stuff’. Microcopy examples are error messages, contact form explainers, ecommerce hints.

5. Leverage data from your most profitable customers to find more just like them

Data informed

role of the marketing team within a SaaS business has broadened from simply building awareness and creating interest, to guiding customers much deeper into the funnel. In this work though Mattermaek shows how to use their product to track real-time information to segment potential VIP customers.

6. New York Magazine building out branded content studio

Content

Fresh off its stellar performance at the National Magazine Awards for editorial excellence, is in the process of building out an in-house branded content studio. With 33% of digital ad revenue in 2015 came from native ads and custom executions the company's already active in the space but now seems to be doubling down.

7. How to run a weekly growth meeting that gets results

Growth

Good preparation: review experiment pipeline, dashboard and update lessons doc
Focus on impact and lessons over activity
Dig into interesting lessons
No debating priorities as a group

8. Facebook launches Canvas

Channel

The new ad format is a mobile-optimised immersive platform. Think of a microsite in a Facebook ad. Because, why would you want anyone to leave Facebook right? Launch partners include Burberry and Coke.

9. Prompt debuts “a command line for the real world”

Trends

A great example of the "No UI" movement - Prompt is a service that you interface with through text messaging or Slack and integrates with a range of other home automation, commerce, information and productivity product / services.

10. WebDAM

Tool of the week

Enables marketing productivity and brand management across your entire organization and beyond.