PSYCHOLOGYFee Rage
Have you ever wondered why you get so outraged at bank fees or even mini-bar prices? Sure, it’s a rip-off, but it’s only a couple of bucks. The reason is that the brain’s insula cortex, which is normally triggered by foul odors (and pain), has been activated and we literally feel disgusted by “unfair” transactions, writes William Poundstone in his book Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value. The flip side is that bargains make us feel good about ourselves. Even the most useless junk in the world is appealing if the price feels like a steal.
PRODUCTIVITYGet Unstuck
Feeling stuck is surprisingly common, whether we hit roadblocks at work, in our relationships, or creative or athletic plateaus. To get unstuck, says NYU marketing professor Adam Alter, author of Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When it Matters Most, spend a few minutes “pouring out” your bad ideas by writing, composing, drawing, or otherwise generating content that’s actively “bad.” That can nudge you beyond the inertia that comes from inaction, and free mental space for more valuable insights to follow, he says.
SALESMemorize Prices
Take a few minutes each day to commit the prices of a certain number of items on your displays and frame boards to memory. According to sales trainer Harry Friedman, the benefits of instant price recall are manifold and include allowing you to quickly show products in a customer’s price range, improved credibility and efficiency, and heightened security.
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MOTIVATIONWake Up Smiling
Put a smile on your face the moment you wake up. “It tricks the brain into thinking: ooh, I feel quite good about today! It’s such a simple thing and it really works,” says Gaby Roslin, TV and radio presenter and author of Spread The Joy.
MANAGEMENTTarget Delight
One of the most passionately held beliefs of many business owners is that the key to success is exceeding customers’ expectations and delighting them whenever possible. But it’s a myth, says John Goodman, vice chairman of research company TARP Worldwide. A far better policy is to aim to delight customers only when the cost is reasonable and the payoff significant. “Many labor-intensive heroics will only result in a 12% to 14% increase in customers who will definitely recommend a company,” Goodman told Quirk’s marketing newsletter. In contrast, other less labor-intensive actions, such as a friendly 90-second conversation that creates an emotional connection or a hint on how to avoid a problem, will result in two or three times more customers becoming advocates, he says.
ADVERTISINGBook Early
With the presidential campaign heating up and a record-breaking $16 billion estimated to be spent on political messages across all media this year you may be well advised to book your advertising for the whole year in order to get decent rates, recommend the marketing mavens at Search Influence. While political advertisers mostly rely on local broadcast TV, their ad spending growth is moving toward digital channels, “with politicians utilizing every medium at their fingertips, from paid search to display,” they note.
CHOICESFundamental Beats Instrumental
Make decisions for fundamental reasons — take a course or join a club because it sounds interesting — rather than for instrumental reasons — because of how that course or club will look on your resume or website. Why? It’s more fun. And it’s also smarter. Instrumental reasons rarely work! “Lots of evidence suggests that people powered by intrinsic motives achieve the most,” says business author Dan Pink in his Pinkcast newsletter.
EMAILIt’s All About the Subject Line
The more you think about it, the more it makes sense — spend as much time crafting the subject line of an email as the message itself because the subject line is usually the only thing most people read. That means being descriptive of the contents rather than clever, keeping it short, provoking people’s curiosity and — seeing as you’re going to be investing the time — doing some A/B testing, says ChimpMail.
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