One Year of “Looking Outside In”
It’s the 1st Anniversary Week of Outside In – this will be the 53rd post of the year! Not bad, eh!? While there was enough confidence that I can do this every week, for a year at least… there’s now real pride that I have succeeded with more or less regular efforts. I had an organized content calendar for most of the year, while leaving some open slots for ‘spontaneous’ ones. And, yes, I am enthused enough to do this for another year. Yahoo! Let’s do this…
Let me share snippets about what we have seen ‘Outside In’ through this 1 Year… I am hoping that it will as good Journey for you as it will be for me…
Subscribers Growth
The growth of subscribers – people who have formally subscribed to get my e-mail in their Inbox every Friday – has been slow but moving up with an assurance. So, while my posts have a large readership via my social posts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, the subscribers – whom I would consider true fans – are still lower in number. Hopefully, as my writing and curating gets better, I will be able to impress many more of you…
Visitor Trends
My visitor numbers have been fairly large – courtesy my social posts – and are mainly coming from via Direct Page Visits (which means many are visiting Outside In every week without really subscribing), LinkedIn, Google and Twitter (in that order)
My Best 5 Posts (going by Visitor Trends)
Post 1: Saving Neverland –
Post 38: The Gen Z Tribe –
Post 25: Doing Live Commerce Right –
Post 2: The Pursuit of Dynamite Experiences (Part-I):
Post 3: The Pursuit of Dynamite Experiences (Part-II):
My Worst 3 Posts (going by Visitor Trends)
Post 14: Indian Luxury Fashion’s Burberry Moment
Post 48: What I Read (WIR) Predictably Irrational
Post 22: Branded Entertainment In Depth-2 – How to Make It Work
3 Posts I Thought Were Brilliant but Didn’t Drive Excitement (I Guess)
And when I am saying that ‘it didn’t drive excitement’ I am referring to a mix of all variables – Traffic, Social Post Views, Personal Feedback… I had thought these posts will create massive chatter and buzz (comparatively) but didn’t do anything extraordinary
Posts 9 and 10: Retailer Digital Maturity and Equity Investing Parts 1 & 2 –
and
Post 47: “Corporate” Reflections: “You Don’t Win Silver, You Lose Gold” –
Posts 21 & 22: Branded Entertainment Parts 1 & 2 –
and
Maybe I am sad about these posts because in all of them, I think, I tried to blend multi-functional disciplines into a brand new point of view…but I guess I need to do better, in order to resonate…
Long-form Post
I released one long-form post via the Outside In blog covering my Point of View on Omnichannel Retail:
https://outsideinlens.blogspot.com/2021/07/omnichannel-retail-has-arrived-or-has.html
Subscriber Open Rates
For the last 2 months (which is the highest base period in the last year and there have been Zero un-subscribes), my E-Mail/Subscriber Open Rates have hovered between 30-41%
Personal Kudos
When I say personal kudos, I am referring to a feedback which I received one-on-one via Mobile, Social Messages or Mails – which has not necessarily posted on the Platform itself – apart from the Likes. I’ll take it :)
Blogpost on Omnichannel Retail: “This is comprehensive”
My Posts on Virtual Events: “Totally love your Insights”
Nudgestock 2021: Multiple Thanks received by readers (subscribers as well as non-subscribers) for covering this Event in depth and sharing exhaustive Notes – “These ones are Good”, “Thanks for doing the write-up! I’ll read it this weekend”, “Awesome! Thank you!!!” “Good one. I did not get the time to check it out this year. I’ll have a look”
Seize the Viral Moment: “I really liked the ocean spray article”
CMO’s New Arsenal: “Read your newsletter. Liked your outside in perspective”
That’s it. These are the key highlights on Year 1… Onto the next one…
Looking at Year 2…
I recall one of my readers had asked me how long I took me to write my posts. There have been some very easy-to-write ‘few hours’ posts and there have been some ‘long-nighters’ as well – especially if they came up during a busy work week. I have enjoyed both these experiences. The biggest variable I track is the ‘effectiveness’ to be able to curate ‘the very compelling’ stuff from the noise out there and maintain ‘consistency’ in what I ship out. While my focus has to been write everything in and around the customer, I have expanded scope at times to cover what organizations can do to better deal with the customer. I am hopeful that it has been enlightening…
I am looking forward to your growing encouragement and patronage… and more feedback… to continue looking ‘Outside In’. My Heartfelt Thanks…