Book Review - No Limits by Mukesh Bansal

No Limits – A book on performance optimization of our lives with tools & maintenance manual for the billion dollar body – body, mind & soul.

If you are always intrigued about how to pack a lot more productivity in your days and are tired of tracking & testing hacks that listicles & gurus keep sharing; this is your encyclopedia.

Mukesh Bansal, founder behind Myntra & Cure.fit; at least packs 25+ good book learnings into this one in a bid to decode a manual to draw max out of life.

And its not just around health & fitness (diet, habit building); it also addresses mind & soul with mindfulness, meditation, creativity & purpose search. A simple read with at least 50 productivity hacks peppered across text for people who want to skim through.

Here are some gems from the book –

Ø Thoughts around plasticity of brain & body – Humans have spent 90% time on earth as hunter gathers & 10% working in agricultural fields; thus to believe you are too old to pick up a musical instrument at 40 is naïve. Your mind is plastic to learn at any age.

Ø What's needed to max performance – Deliberate Practice, Ignition, master coach, mindset (growth), will power, creativity & meaningful purpose.

Ø In life, in every sphere you can apply Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey – aspiration, odds, evil, effort, coach, right path, victory.

Ø Deliberate practice is all about those 10,000 hrs narrative to master anything.

Ø Ignition triggers our practice – inspiration from an idol, environment, parents etc.

Ø A master coach often shortens your journey with correction/feedback on practice.

Ø Strong mind & body together work to boost your muscle you flex most (to make it stronger).

Ø Sleep is a key maintenance process to boost performance.

Ø Meditation helps us to attain higher freq of brain activity associated with bliss.

Ø Mindset decides whether we work on ourselves to grow Vs believe its all about innate talent and stay stale.

Ø Will power keeps you going despite distractions during deliberate practice. It is cultivated with 3 drivers of sleep, fitness & food.

Ø One needs to taste, read & experience different things/fields to boost creativity.

Ø By understanding and channeling all the power of your mind and body into your true purpose, you can make magical things happen in your life.

New Email Marketing 101 - courtesy Zomato

In today's times of social media's organic reach diminishing day by day; its important that brands work on their email marketing and website which are true Owned channels for securing future. Zomato has been upping its Email Marketing Game with superb content marketing as its lever.

Stories which are engaging and relevant to its audience - either around the category, target audience's life or topical trends. And while telling stories on the above themes, it keeps a razor sharp focus on the soul of the story - brand essence. The content creator thinks - "how would the funny savior of hungry/bored souls - brand Zomato" would interpret a particular trend/event? And that's where the tone of voice, the quips, the wits, follows! This is super evident in its creatives across channels - social, email, digital etc. This is the power of Content Marketing done right from a Brand. 

Here i am putting 4 Great examples of unexpected pieces of content in Emails from Zomato -

1. Slice of Customer Life X Zomato

Subject - Leaked! Zomato WhatsApp Chat
Creative - This long chat inside.
Content - Topical & Customer Life X Zomato

What i loved was that email didn't even talk about food/food delivery (category) in this long chat. It hits the topical mark and is full of brand attitude even without talking about what brand is or does! Its funny and enables a great connect with "working audience" which is the TG. This audience goes through such life dramas daily in work groups, brought beautifully in this creative by Zomato.

2. Bollywood X Zomato

Subject - Agar tumne aaj order nahin kiya toh...
Creative - Red & White + Dialogue + Code
Content - Bollywood X Zomato

Inspired by Bollywood dialogues, Zomato has sent many emails with a quirky subject line forcing a bollywood fan to open the email. And within email, lies the complete story + incentive. A great way to push open rates and also to drive traffic with coupon codes; a new way to help businesses get rid of those transactional coupon code emailers.

3. Music X Zomato

Subject - Tere bin nahin lagda 

Creative - Red & White + Food image + Code 
Content - Music X Zomato

Here using Music as another lever; Zomato flips uninteresting "Miss You" Emailers into interesting ways to connect with consumers.

4. Fun X Zomato 

Subject - Our copywriter is on leave this week

Creative - Red & White + Story completion + Code
Content - Music X Bollywood

These are genuine ways to tell funny stories. Why would a consumer expect such an email from a brand. And that pushes the curiosity to open the email.

I have just selected 4 of such emailers that i keep receiving from Zomato; but most of the times, they ensure that i try to open the email. Opening emails from them definitely brings a chuckle, whether i order or not. But many a times when i order, i open Zomato by default. Such is the connection, a brand can establish with focused efforts to push a metric; here for example is Open Rates. And the levers used are - Content Marketing anchored in Brand essence and yet always being relevant to target audience. 

Conversely, you receive umpteen emailers on festivals, New Years written exactly the same way by many brands across categories - "This (Festival Name), celebrate with (Brand Name) & get (Offer)". I have also been a culprit in initial years of my career, there :)

- Please note that its not a paid partnership :). I am a Zomato Pro/Gold member for years and this is an honest confession by a customer/marketer.

-Nitin