Here’s my latest content for the week, and hand picked items both I and my readers liked, too.
My Stuff
Brands often think about the retail packaging of their product, since they know it reflects on their brand and product. But what about how the product gets to the consumer when it’s shipped by UPS, FedEx, or the USPS? Read How Your Packaging Improves Customer Experience to see how exterior packaging can influence the way a customer perceives and values products.
Didn’t get to my speech that opened the Neuromarketing in Retail Conference in Amsterdam? You can get at least part of the experience in this week’s Brainfluence Podcast. In Ep #28: Shopper Marketing Meets Sensory Marketing, I cover how appealing to the customer’s five senses is the key to retailers holding share against the ecommerce giants.
And of course, don’t forget to check last week’s picks. We covered Internet trolls, looked at whether Twitter and TV shrink your brain, moods, how to make decisions without cognitive bias, and more. It’s all in How Sunshine Changes Reviews, Psycho Trolls, and More – Roger’s Picks.
Around the Web
This week I’m happy to announce I am a part of a new online course called Product Psychology. Lessons include insights into how to understand what your users really want, how to build for emotional engagement, how to do effective user research, and many other topics. The lessons are curated by several notable psychologists, entrepreneurs, and designers including Nir Eyal, author of Hooked, Michal Levin from Google, Matthew Pearson from AirBnB, Ryan Hoover from Product Hunt, and me!
Since economics is supposed to be a practical, applied science, one might think that it would always be “behavioral.” In fact, for most of its history, the field of economics has been theoretical and completely ignored the fact that humans don’t behave like robots, or even rationally. Why is Behavioral Economics so Revolutionary? by Diogo Gonçalves‘ gives a perspective on why understanding behavior is so important.
Social media success is all about understanding people, and the science of understanding people is psychology. Courtney Seiter‘s (@courtneyseiter) article 7 Social Media Psychology Studies That Will Make Your Marketing Smarter, you’ll learn science-based strategies to amp up your social marketing.
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but all too often they are an afterthought when creating web content. Writing about teamwork? Sure, you could use a totally generic and overused stock photo of a happy multi-cultural team… But is that better than no image at all? Alex Turnbull (@alexmturnbull) tells you how to do it right in The 8 Types of Images That Increase the Psychological Impact of Your Content.
This article meanders a bit, but makes a key point: cultural assumptions and beliefs aren’t the same for everyone, and a customer experience has to fit both the culture of the organization and that of the customer. Read Peter Morville‘s (@morville) Creating a Cultural Fit for more.
You can skip this one if you don’t read Swedish (or want to mess with Google Translate). Handelstrender shares a few bits and pieces of my keynote at Conversion Jam 4 in Stockholm. I like the headline, “Minska friktionen på era sidor!” which translates to, “Reduce the friction on your sites!.” The reporter was clearly paying attention! CJAM4 was a great conference – 400 attendees showed up to hear a great lineup of speakers. Almost all presentations were in English, and I highly recommend John Ekman‘s (@Conversionista) conference to anyone wanting to learn more about improving web results.
As usual, feel free to share your own “pick” in a comment!
