Behavioral Insights: Copywriting, Vanity Metrics, Unpersuadable People, False Consensus Effect, Icebergs...

Behavioral Insights.

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👋 Hi, here is a new Behavioral Insights. In this week's newsletter articles on how ML can improve copywriting, vanity metrics, persuasion, experimentation culture, false consensus effect + a bonus fun link on icebergs.

1. Machine learning meets copywriting ✍️🤖
Booking.com is doing some interesting stuff in summarizing hotel reviews with the help of machine learning. Read the article

2. Avoiding vanity metrics 📈
Julian Shapiro on how to focus on the right metrics, and avoid vanity metrics. Read the article

3. Persuading the unpersuadable 🧠
This HBR article is adapted from Adam Grant's newest book 'Think Again'. It's about how we can persuade others to rethink their positions. With many examples of how people at Apple changed Steve Jobs thoughts on the future of the company. Read the article

4. Experimentation culture 💡
I was not able to attend Craig Sullivan's presentation on 'Practical steps to embed experimentation culture', but I enjoyed flipping through his slide deck (pdf). Including lots of references.

5. False consensus effect
We often assume everyone acts just like us. The Canadian Marketing Association shows research that marketers overestimate content consumption and usage of social media apps. Lesson: your peers might all be talking about Clubhouse, that doesn't mean your target audience is.

😉 Fun link of the week 🧊
"The "classic" image of an iceberg is usually some kind of ice cream cone-shaped hunk of ice with 90% of it below the water's surface and 10% above (source: every iceberg stock photo on the internet)." In reality it's different. Draw an iceberg and see how it will float.

Until next week, keep experimenting.
— Kevin