Chapter 1

• Data & Analytics specialists: Professionals in working with data, using web analytics, social analytics, CRM, etc.
• Content specialists: Professionals with a proven track record of strategically producing and distributing content that attracts, nurtures and retains stakeholders and audiences for specific actions/goals.
• Conversion Writing specialists: Professionals who understand how to leverage cognitive biases and key insights from behavioral science to produce headlines and copy that get people to read and act. This is not about prose; it is writing for algorithms and people’s actual behavior.
• Social & Community Nurturing specialists: Professionals who know how to build and nurture a group of loosely connected stakeholders into a community with shared purpose and beliefs.
• Digital/Performance Advertising specialists: Professionals who know how to systematically and strategically leverage the big tech platforms (Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and others) to reach stakeholders at the right moment in their journey. This skill is crucial, and historically it used to sit in Marketing teams. You need to get such people into your CommTech team immediately.
• Conversion Optimization specialists: Professionals in running serious A/B and multivariant tests with specific conversion optimization tools and frameworks. They ensure that every communications dollar spent is yielding the maximum return. The insights generated by these specialists are also an important feedback signal that will make the entire CommTech team smarter and more impactful over time.

Key concept: Our use of behavioral triggers, social signals and other so-called “dark patterns” has ethical implications. One practice in digital marketing is the “false front door” – creating a front end that simulates a true back-end capability. For example, in the travel industry, the widespread use of fake social signals such as “38 other people are booking this hotel” has led to reproach of travel companies. Clearly, the practice of faking data is unethical. Before deploying a test or even the real capability, ask yourself whether your use of social triggers and personalization crosses an ethical line.