The Insight Management Academy (IMA) are the world’s leading authority on transforming insight teams. This year, The IMA’s CEO James Wycherley condensed 16 years of The IMA’s thinking into a book – Transforming Insight. The book contains advice across 42 areas that’ll help insight professionals identify value, drive change, manage their teams, optimise insight’s impact and plan for the future. It’s vital reading for insight professionals. If you want to make insight commercially valuable, then glue Transforming Insight to your desk and refer to it daily.
This week we’ll be discussing Transforming Insight’s key learnings. Today, here’s my perspective on the 43rd secret to insight success Transforming Insight shares. And that’s to be obliquely educational (i.e. educate in non-direct ways) as the book itself does so across several areas.
Target smartly
Abercrombie & Fitch will forever be a case study in targeting excellence. Put your clothes on attractive young people and who’ll want to buy them? Those same people AND everyone who aspires to be like them. So, by communicating to one audience, you reach many.
Transforming Insight does the same (in a significantly more tasteful and intellectual way). By creating a book for client-side insight professionals, it’s a great book for agency insight professionals. Why? Because Transforming Insight doubles-up as a view into client’s minds. Like much in the world of marketing, this same targeting approach can help insight drive change in businesses.
Teach without teaching
When you write a book about impactful communication, practicing what you preach is mandatory. And Transforming Insight does just this. No jargon. Smart use of spacing to add clarity. A clean design. Simple messages. All of which are the ingredients for excellent insight communication.
Make it easy
Two things make me cry when I receive a book: 1) if it’s 300 pages long but only 4 chapters. 2) if the font is size 7. In both instances, the book in question goes back to Bezos or is repurposed as a tea coaster.
Transforming Insight is the opposite. You can read it for 10 mins or 2 hours due to the way it’s broken down. And the clean design makes it as easy for the eyes as it is educational for the brain. So good news Jeff, there’ll be no returns this time.
Communicate the benefits
Copywriters often say we’re all tuned into WII-FM (what’s in it for me). That means when we’re trying to influence people, we must communicate what we’ll give them in a value exchange.
Want a stakeholder at a KO meeting – tell them what they get from attending. Need a product designer to input into a survey – tell them what they get out of it. Transforming Insight not only gives you 42 – now 43 – secrets, but it subtly tells you why you should apply them.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about Transforming Insight this week. Despite my best efforts, I’ve not even scratched the surface of what this book can do to help insight professionals succeed. To learn more about what Transforming Insight offers, please click here.
