Selling to Tightwads, High-heeled Hotties, Killer Ad Copy, more – Roger’s Picks

And here’s our reading list for this week:

Eloise Keating (@ellykeating)’s Brain gain: How neuroscience can improve your business’ marketing today picks up some of the key points from my Australian speech at the Creative Fuel Conference in Sydney. Familiar stuff to some of my readers, but worth a quick look.

I love it when someone grabs something I wrote and takes it in a new direction. Gregory Ng (@GregoryNg) does that in 5 Ways to be Data-Driven During a Site Redesign. When I wrote that big, flip-the-switch website redesigns were dead (or should be – see Never Redesign Your Website Again – Really!), Gregory correctly noted that some big companies still do it that way and won’t change easily. So, he offers some tips for minimizing the damage by focusing on performance metrics.

If you weren’t in Sydney for my Creative Fuel keynote, Wenlei Ma (@wenleima) shares The marketing tricks developed through brain science that make you spend more money. The headline is a bit scary-sounding (mind control and all that!), but the content is fine.

This post made the cut because it was the most-clicked link I shared this week. Consider it a “reader’s choice.” In Speakers Beware: Don’t Break Your Promises To Your Audiences, Nick Morgan (@DrNickMorgan) discusses an all-too-common mistake by speakers: failure to deliver on what the audience expects. Don’t be that speaker! (Also, check out my earlier podcast with Nick: Power Cues and Non-Conscious Communication with Dr. Nick Morgan.)

As a long-time community builder and forum administrator, I’ve encountered plenty of trolls. These unhappy people can spoil the atmosphere of communities and hurt the reputation of brands. Dealing with troublemakers is important, but must be done carefully to avoid making the problem worse. Dan Sullivan (@danielmsullivan) tells us how to do it right in Community Trolls: Types, Motivations, and Solutions.

Headline writing is a critical skill for marketers, and crafting pay-per-click headlines and ad copy is a unique subset of the category that has its own rules. James Scaggs (@jamesscaggs) gives you 5 Ways to Beat Your Competitors With Killer PPC Ad Copy. The post is nicely illustrated and even has a Neuromarketing shout-out.

My Stuff

The latest Neuromarketing post comes from guest author Jeremy Smith (@jeremysaid). In The 3 Types of Buyers, and How to Optimize for Each One, Jeremy breaks down your customers by their spending proclivities and tells you how to market to each category. Even tightwads can be convinced to buy!

In the lates Brainfluence Podcast, we meet Christian Madsbjerg, a social scientist who deals in “business anthropology.” This unique approach to product planning and business strategy has created huge wins for companies like Lego. Listen to Episode #17: Business Anthropology with Christian Madsbjerg to find out how business anthropology works and, surprisingly, why liberal arts majors may be in greater demand by businesses.

And if you missed it, last week we hit diverse topics, including Twitter psychology and why wide-faced men are more successful in pay negotiations. All these and more in Why Your Website Launch is DOA, Twitter Psychology, & More – Roger’s Picks.

Weird and/or Wonderful

What is it about high heels that has compelled women to wear them for centuries? Evolutionary psychology has the answer. Read the detailed and often humorous explanation in The High-Heel Hottie Effect: The Evolutionary Psychology of Women’s Shoes by Jesse Bering (@JesseBering) writing at Scientific American.

Remember, you are welcome to add your own content find by posting a link in a comment!