Cialdini’s Latest Persuasion Secrets, More – Roger’s Picks

It’s been a big week for new content in that overlap area between psychology, neuroscience, and marketing we call neuromarketing. Be sure to check out the Robert Cialdini interview and book review, and the fascinating advice from “Dr. Love,” neurochemistry expert Paul Zak!

My Stuff

This week’s edition of Brainfluence Podcast may be the most exciting one ever. My guest is a legend in the field of persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini (@RobertCialdini). We revisit his famous Six Principles and talk about some of the new research featured in his latest book, The small BIG. Check out Ep #30: Small Changes, BIG Influence with Dr. Robert Cialdini – you can listen to the audio or read the transcript. (Quick reciprocity cue: if you’ve been enjoying the podcasts I produce for you each week, please take a minute to leave an iTunes review! Thanks!)

Good news for Brainfluence fans worldwide. The newest addition to the list of translations is Simplified Chinese, which is already shipping from Amazon.cn and other vendors in China: ?????:????????????. Equally exciting is the upcoming Spanish version of the book from Ediciones Urano, which we expect to see in the first quarter of 2015. Details of the two versions are in New Brainfluence Translations.

In preparation for my chat with Dr. Robert Cialdini, I read his new book, The small BIG: small changes that spark big influence. Coauthored by persuasion experts Steve Martin and Noah Goldstein, it proved to be an eminently practical business book, featuring recent research that can be applied to all kinds of business problems. My review at Forbes is The Small Big: Powerful Persuasion From Robert Cialdini. (Or, head directly for the book’s Amazon page – The small BIG. Be aware that the hardcover version is caught up in the Hachette/Amazon turf war, and may show strange delivery times.)

Last week’s picks actually came out at the beginning of this week. If you were swamped Monday, here’s a second chance: Defeat Comparison Shoppers, Brain Upgrades, More – Roger’s Picks.

Around the Web

HBR.com may force you to register to read this story, but it’s important enough that you should make that small effort. Oxytocin is sometimes called the “hug drug,” but its influence goes far beyond affectionate touches. Oxytocin guru Paul J. Zak (@pauljzak) delves into the neurochemistry of stories and turns it into actionable advice for leaders and presenters. Zak’s Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling is this week’s must-read.

It was a great coincidence that, at the same time I was working on my own simple info dashboard, I ran across an interesting article by Shilpi Choudhury (@Shilpi1412). In The Psychology Behind Information Dashboards, she explains how dashboard features interact with our brain and thought processes. (Separately, do YOU have a favorite, small-scale dashboard tool? Post a comment with your suggestions. I’m using a Google spreadsheet at the moment, which is a bit… crude.)

Is digital psychology a discipline yet? I’m certainly seeing far more interest in these intersecting fields. Andrew Nicholson (@The_GUkU) provides a batch of interesting examples from real websites in The (completely subjective) digital psychology top ten countdown.

Jelly babies that scream as you chew them? Virtual reality “teleportation?” Anne Cassidy describes these and other unusual multi-sense marketing approaches in Sensory marketing: the brands appealing to all five senses.

You’ve made your landing page relevant to your traffic, eliminated distractions, and beefed up your call to action… but still aren’t converting as well as you’d like. Neuromarketing contributor Jeremy Smith (@jeremysaid) shares some brainy ways to get your results to the next level in 3 Conversion Psychology Principles to Test on Your Landing Page.

Ahhh, the ubiquitous contact form. Every site has at least one, but these pages often get little or no attention. That’s a mistake, according to Syed Balkhi (@syedbalkhi), since you could be losing sales or leads without even realizing you have a problem. He gives us some practical tips to prevent these losses in Three reasons your website contact forms are not converting.

As usual, if you have your own great content find, feel free to share it with your fellow readers in a comment!