Fight the power cream of tomato soup | Walbert's Compendium

We twenty-first-century Americans are all, whether we like it or not, products of a certain amount of marketing. If we grew up with television, or even with magazines, certain notions of what we ought to eat and when are embedded in our brains, and half of them were invented out of whole cloth by Madison Avenue.

So, for example: it got cold this week, I left the windows open all night, and by lunchtime Monday the house was still cooler inside than most people would heat it in the winter ? and felt even cooler than that from the shock of the sudden temperature change. And I felt strongly that I simply must have a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of cream of tomato soup.

Why? I never even liked tomato soup as a kid. I didn?t like much of anything with cooked tomato in it, and I detested canned condensed cream of tomato soup ? still do. But I have this gnawing feeling that it is what I?m supposed to eat for lunch when I?m cold. There was some kid in a TV commercial eating Campbell?s soup, probably, and my mother always had it around, and tomato is the iconic flavor. (Thank you, Andy Warhol.)

Soup is good food, but if I give in to the marketing, I feel like a tool. (Thank you, Jello Biafra.) I could root out these notions one by one and devote half my life to the project. I could reject them by making tomato soup from scratch and make the best damn tomato soup ever, but then I?d also have devoted half my life to the project. Either way the buggers would have beaten me just as surely as if I?d bought a case of cans from the grocery store.

So what I do, instead, when I get these cravings, is to figure out easy ways to make what I want. Half an hour or less, most of it unattended, or done half-assedly while I?m answering emails at the kitchen table. Because if it?s easy, nobody needs Big Food to do it for us. And, more important, because I can get lunch on the table and get on with my life.

Easy also means that I?m not going to write you what has come to be considered a Proper Recipe, with precisely measured ingredients, because I don?t measure ingredients precisely when I make soup. Precise measurement seems frankly contrary to the whole idea of soup. Or of comfort food. Let alone of Fighting The Power or Sticking It To The Man.

And, finally, as I said last time, I?m not going to get overly picky about what?s ?from scratch.? I don?t make my own vermouth from local muscadine grapes and herbs I grow in my garden, I?m sorry. I buy Noilly Prat. I don?t can my own tomatoes, either (don?t have a big enough garden). Punk was always kind of a pose anyway.

Creative Commons-licensed photo by Flickr user shashinjutsu.

Chop a smallish onion, or half a larger one. Cook it in a little butter until it?s soft but not brown. (Not that there?s anything wrong with brown. It?s your soup.) If you like, add a little crushed garlic for the last minute, but I find that garlic + tomato makes me think spaghetti, so I leave it out.

Pour in a few tablespoons of dry vermouth and let it boil a half a minute or so. That was Julia Child?s suggestion: keep dry vermouth around for occasions when you need a little bit of white wine for cooking. It adds a layer of flavor, too, from the herbal infusion; it?s like getting seasoned salt with your wine.

Dump in a standard-sized (28 oz) can of whole or diced tomatoes, whichever you have around, or a quart of home-canned tomatoes if you have them. Or fresh tomatoes, if they?re in season, though if you don?t seed them first you may find yourself wanting to strain the soup when it?s done. The better the tomatoes, the better the soup, obviously.

Add a little salt (half a teaspoon to start if you?re measuring), and a few sprigs of fresh thyme, if you have them, or else a pinch of dried. (Fresh is easy enough to grow in a pot on your window sill.) Simmer for 15 minutes or so.

At this point you will probably want to pur?e the soup. If you used fresh thyme, fish the stems out now. They will have lost most of their leaves. You could have stripped the leaves and thrown only them in, but I can?t stand stripping thyme. If, however, you mind that fussy sort of thing less than I do, or if you fear you will forget to fish the stems out before pur?eing the soup, by all means, strip them.

Now to the pur?eing. I have an immersion blender ? not something I would buy now if I didn?t have one, but it?s nice once you have it ? and I sort of lazily half-pur?e the soup right in the pot and leave it a little chunky. A blender or food processor will work. It doesn?t have to be perfectly smooth. If you used diced tomatoes, you don?t even necessarily have to pur?e the soup; you can leave it chunky.

Return the soup to the pot and add some cream ? a quarter cup, maybe, and then taste it and see if it needs more. If you don?t have any cream, sour cream or yogurt would be good, but don?t let it boil. Or evaporated milk, I suppose.

If it needs more salt, add it, and grind in some pepper and maybe a few dashes of Tabasco.

Warm it back up and serve it.

Source: http://www.davidwalbert.com/2012/09/27/fight-the-power-cream-of-tomato-soup/

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• Basketball
• Bodybuilding
• Cricket
• Equestrian
• Equipment
• Extreme Sports
• Fishing
• Fitness
• Football
• Golf
• Horse Racing
• Martial Arts
• Muscle Building
• Outdoor Sports
• Scuba Diving
• Soccer
• Tennis
• Water Sports
• Weight Loss

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• Cable and Satellite TV
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Source: http://www.articlecompilation.com/35345/great-swimming-pool-design-can-provide-hours-of-family-fun-3/

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Live?from the Built Green Conference 2012: Keynote Speaker Denis

Wow what a great lunch

King County Green Tools staff Patti Southard and Kinney (missed the other name) made introductory remarks for Mr. Hayes. First they gave us some statistics and diversion rates for construction materials. Newest edition of the Construction Recycling Directory just came out. He suggests that builders use 2 bins on sites so the sorting is done immediately because it is very time consuming to sort it later. He also mentioned the 20/20 Refit Challenge. Rehabilitating older homes to become healthy, comfortable, energy efficient homes is a lot more sustainable than deconstructing a structure and building something new It?s all about keeping materials out of the waste stream.

Patti thanks the staff at Built Green for creating such a great model that others in the country look to. Collaboration is key. She says every day we are working on making this a beter planet it is like writing a love letter to the Earth. She says we are lucky to have the kind of leadership we have in our area ? with Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day, having joined our community. She shared her own memories of how Earth Day is a holiday not for religion or anything else, but for doing something for others and the plant.

Denis Hayes
Funny guy! Seems to be speaking extemporaneously. He said normally he gives a rousing motivational speech about becoming more green. But he doesn?t have to do that here, since everyone in the room is involved in the green building industry. He talked about how the Bullitt Foundation stat=started out in a hayloft, and since joining the organization the Board agreed to the construction of a green building. The piece of property the foundation owned called for something larger than an office for seven people, and now they have a 52,000 sq ft mixed use building. Billed as ?The Greenest Building in the World? He said there are 26 geothermal wells that are 400 feet deep. ALL of the energy that will be used in this building will be generated by the building. Net Zero is not accomplished very often. Hayes talked about trying to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. He spoke about sourcing materials for the building, finding contractors who would

Bullitt Center ? Hard costs up through TI: 17% more expensive than regular Class A office space and found they can?t rent it for any more than regular Class A office space. If you are a tenant in their building and meet ll of your energy goals, you have no energy costs, it?s free. Society needs to start placing real value on things that endure. These major investments count for something. He talked a lot oabout the features that went into this new building. I missed the last tour a couple weeks ago! So I sent an email to find out when the next tour will be. Defnitely have to get it on it.

If I had to do it gain knwoing what I know now and this will sound ridiculous ? this is the first time I have worked on a building, but it has given me a lot of humility. So he deerred t a lot of te experts, vendors, and contractors, for elements and aesthetics that if he woudl have won on if he had stuck to his guns. And he would hold out to have it his way next time.

Wendy Hughes-Jelen is a Seattle-area Realtor? who is EcoBroker Certified? and is a Earth Advantage? Broker AND Built Green? Certified Professional. She helps people find and create their own healthy home, and is trained to assist those with chemical sensitivities, asthma, allergies, or other health concerns that indoor air quality can impact. Wendy is certified to use Energy Star's Portfolio Manager for Energy Efficiency Accounting and Benchmarking (NRGbenchmarking.com). Be sure to look for Westside Green Living With Wendy on Facebook.

Source: http://greenspacesrealestate.com/?p=1586

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Arrest of Google Brazil head stirs debate over Web

In this Nov. 22, 2011 photo, Google executive Fabio Jose Silva Coelho poses for a portrait in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Google Inc.'s head of operations in Brazil was detained by the country's federal police Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012 after the company failed to heed a judge's order to take down YouTube videos that the court ruled violate Brazilian electoral law. The detention came as another court ordered YouTube to remove clips of an anti-Islam film that has been blamed for deadly protests by Muslims around the globe, both joining a spate of court-ordered content-removal cases against Google's video-sharing website in Brazil. (AP Photo/Carol Carquejeiro, Agencia O Globo)

In this Nov. 22, 2011 photo, Google executive Fabio Jose Silva Coelho poses for a portrait in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Google Inc.'s head of operations in Brazil was detained by the country's federal police Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012 after the company failed to heed a judge's order to take down YouTube videos that the court ruled violate Brazilian electoral law. The detention came as another court ordered YouTube to remove clips of an anti-Islam film that has been blamed for deadly protests by Muslims around the globe, both joining a spate of court-ordered content-removal cases against Google's video-sharing website in Brazil. (AP Photo/Carol Carquejeiro, Agencia O Globo)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? The arrest of a top Google executive is reviving a debate about Brazilian laws that hold services such as YouTube responsible for the videos posted on them, making the country a hotbed of attempts to stifle digital content.

Legal experts said Thursday that Google violated a judge's order to take down videos on its YouTube subsidiary that target Brazilian political candidates ? and that the judge was completely within the law in issuing the arrest warrant.

But they said the arrest of Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, the head of Google Inc.'s Brazil operations, underscores the need to modernize laws that treat offensive material on the Internet like material that is carried by newspapers, television and radio, holding platforms such as Google responsible for user-provided content.

Coelho was released shortly after his arrest Wednesday and agreed to appear before a court at an as-yet undetermined time.

"Our laws trying to govern the Internet are outdated," said Jose Guilherme Zagallo, head of the Brazilian bar association's commission focusing on information technology law. "It's not clear who is responsible for content, and that creates uncertainty for Internet companies, users and judges, who are left to interpret laws not written for the Internet."

Brazil's strict electoral laws limit what critics can say on television, radio and the Internet about candidates for office. On several occasions in recent years, media outlets have faced stiff fines for breaking the laws, but few if any officials were arrested.

Google's alleged infractions, however, are more widespread, simply because of its omnipresence. Ahead of municipal elections in Brazil next month, Google has received requests in more than 20 states to remove videos that allegedly violate those restrictions.

Google has faced a landslide of content-removal requests around the globe, including in the U.S., but Brazil makes more requests than any other nation, according to the company's summary of all the demands. Most such demands relate to legitimate attempts to enforce laws on issues ranging from personal privacy to hate speech.

Brazilian government agencies alone submitted a total of 194 content-removal requests during the final half of last year, according to a summary released by Google in June. Running just behind that was the United States, where police, prosecutors, courts and other government agencies submitted 187 requests to remove content over the same period.

Google says it complied fully or partially with 54 percent of Brazilian removal requests in the last half of 2011. Most requests involved YouTube and charges of defamation. Other requests involved the social networking site Orkut and requests to remove illegal content, such as child pornography.

Separately this week, another Brazilian court ordered YouTube to remove clips of an anti-Islam film that has been blamed for deadly protests by Muslims around the globe. Google is now selectively blocking the video clips in countries that include Libya and Egypt. Google has said it made the decision to block the video in such places due to "the sensitive situations" there.

Brazil's legal action targeting a Google executive, while rare, is not unprecedented. In 2010 in Italy, a judge held three Google executives criminally responsible for an online video of an autistic teenager being bullied. The executives were given six-month suspended sentences.

A judge in Mato Grosso do Sul state ordered Coelho arrested because the company had not removed YouTube videos making incendiary comments about an alleged paternity suit aimed at Alcides Bernal, who is running for mayor of the city of Campo Grande.

Google said it was appealing the decision. "Being a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted on its site," the company said in a statement. Requests for further comment were not answered by Google on Thursday.

Bruno Magrani, a researcher at the Center for Technology and Society at Rio de Janeiro's Getulio Vargas Foundation, said that unlike the United States and some other countries, Brazil doesn't have legal protections for online service providers that host content provided by third parties.

There is pending legislation that would provide some protection for intermediaries such as Google. Earlier this month the company joined Facebook and online retail site MercadoLivre in sending an open letter supporting the passage of the law, called Marco Civil.

"Marco Civil establishes that providers of Internet applications are not responsible for content published by users," the letter says. "Various economic, social and legislative factors justify not holding providers responsible; without that protection, the use of online applications and platforms would be limited, which would be a loss to users."

While the measure would create some protections, it would not resolve the legal tangle facing Google's Coelho or prevent the situation from recurring, Magrani said.

The Marco Civil is general legislation, and could still be trumped by more specific electoral laws. Those laws treat an Internet platform such as Google as if it were a newspaper or a television station, holding it responsible for its content.

"It's a very serious situation," Magrani said. "Brazil needs to change its electoral law to accommodate the nature and the characteristics of the Internet. The Internet cannot be treated in the same way as traditional media."

First, he said, an Internet company cannot evaluate all the content it carries in the same way a newspaper or television channel can because of the sheer volume.

Second, "the Internet has no editor. And we don't want an editor," Magrani said.

He said asking a company to determine what users can upload is a dangerous step that could undermine freedom of information.

"If we continue threatening to jail heads of companies who don't verify content before it goes on the Internet, we will end up living in a state of censorship," he said. "If the company is running a high risk, it'll start posting less and less material. ... If companies start to feel afraid of retaliation, they'll start censoring."

The lack of protections for Internet platforms can also have a chilling effect on the development of small- and medium-size high-tech companies in Brazil that don't have the resources of big companies like Google, Magrani said.

The federal government is investing heavily to promote the tech sector, but Brazilian legislators need to diminish legal risks for startups, he said.

Maria Clara Garcaz, a 20-year-old university student in Rio de Janeiro, expressed worries about the court action.

"It's like we live in a silent, disguised dictatorship. When we had our real dictatorship, at least you knew for certain what you could and couldn't say," Garcaz said. "Political speech can be censored at any time and it's moving into the Internet, exactly where people speak out."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-09-27-Brazil-Google/id-71791124696a48bfa68e2c631c0d42f5

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Advantages of having a Mobile Website - Q3 technologies Inc. | Blog ...

Mobile websites are a topic of high interest these days for small and medium businesses. The primary reason for this trend is the popularization of mobile computing in recent years. Mobile internet usage has increased from 6.7% of the total users in Sep 2011 to 12.5% in Sep 2012 which is an increase of 85% in one year. If the same pattern continues, mobile usage could equal desktop usage by the end of 2015.

The main motive of mobile websites is to provide quick information to mobile users who are on the go. These websites are different from full sites in that they contain only the useful information provided in the website in a compact form.

The introduction of tablets and smartphones has been instrumental in the need for creating mobile versions for different websites. Mobile devices provide a simple and a user friendly interface, smooth and fast browsing experience, and the inherent feature of mobility. This makes mobile phones more popular these days and in order to reach out to that large mobile user population, mobile websites are created.

A few features of mobile websites, which make it essential for all websites to develop its own mobile version, are:

1. Faster Loading: Mobile websites are designed by keeping the mobile standards in mind. As a website is developed after studying the various parameters of mobile data services, its size is much smaller than its desktop counterpart, allowing users to browse the website with more smoothness and fluidity.
2. Offline Media Integration: Offline applications like QR codes can be integrated for mobile websites. Smartphones are provided with the code scanner applications which scans the QR code and redirects the user directly to the website of the product or company. This provides a more flexible marketing technique for different products and companies, specially for start ups, as it wipes out the unnecessary description of a product and simply displays the QR code.
3. User Experience: Choosing the content to be added on a mobile website is a bit tricky. Since content is more user-centric, it is important to feature the important content of your website on its mobile version. It should have selected content that the user would be most interested in resulting in higher engagement between a website and its user.
4. Cost Effective: Mobile website development is more cost effective as compared to mobile application development in terms of brand awareness and brand identification. Moreover, website development is nearly compatible with all the mobile platforms while there is still usually a need to develop mobile application for each platform separately unless you are performing cross platform mobile application development. This also makes mobile websites more economical than mobile apps.
5. Less Development Time: As mobile websites have very basic functionality so it becomes easy for developers to develop mobile websites. The information and content of the mobile website is also limited to it also saves the time of designing and drafting.
6. Improves Brand Visibility: Users reaching your mobile website from any source will get the access to the website, be it a mobile device or a tablet or a computer system. This builds a reputation among the users because of the high availability and provides smooth browsing experience to users.

Once a mobile website is ready, proper redirects should be put in place according to the source of the device of a visitor. Whenever a visitor reaches the main website through a mobile device, they should automatically be redirected to the mobile version. Even if a user is redirected from some deeply located desktop version page, arrangements to redirect the user to the same page in mobile version should be made.

Social networking, which is the most popular activity on the internet these days, is getting mobile at a much fasted rate than any other type of online activity.

Tags: mobile compauting, mobile websites, social media, website designing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 at 3:33 PM and is filed under Web development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://blogs.q3tech.com/2012/09/26/mobile-website-advantages/

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7 Social Psychology Studies to Help You Convert Prospects into ...

Posted on 26. Sep, 2012 by Gregory Ciotti in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Featured, persuasion, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

When it comes to converting more prospects into paying customers, it all boils down to how well you understand your buyer?s mind and what they want from your business.

The thing is, your time can?t scale in every circumstance, and there may come a point where you aren?t able to know each and every one of your customers personally. When that?s the case, what?s to be done?

The answer is to turn to rigorously tested research in social psychology.

We?re all different, but in many instances our brains are prone to respond in a very similar manner, and understanding these common elements in the human mind can help you find more ways to ethically move more buyers towards saying ?Yes!? to your products or services.

Below you?ll find 7 such studies that will help you understand what makes many of your customers ?tick?, and what you can do to create a more effective selling experience.

1. Play the devil?s advocate

Are you familiar with how the term ?devil?s advocate? came to exist? It?s actually from an old process the Roman Catholic church used to conduct when canonizing someone into sainthood.

A lawyer of sorts was instructed to be the devil?s advocate for the candidate, taking a skeptical view of their character in an attempt to find holes in their arguments for why they should be considered.

The marketing world has an important lesson to learn from this process.

According to research by social psychologist Charlan Nemeth (and his colleagues), the role of devil?s advocate certainly plays a part in persuasion, but it is not one of creating dissent.

Nemeth concluded that when people are confronted with someone who truly appears to oppose their position (true dissenters), they begin to try and understand their perspective.

Those playing devil?s advocate? They actually increase the effectiveness of the original argument! This is because group members do not take the critiques from the devil?s advocate as seriously, and since the group is now bringing up (and dismissing) possible alternatives or flaws, they are more confident in their original stance.

For marketers, this offers an opportunity: playing devil?s advocate for your own products can actually enhance your persuasive efforts as people see their concerns addressed (and dismissed) before they buy.

The Takeaway: Playing the role of devil?s advocate has been found to increase people?s resolve in their decision making, not hinder it. Be your own devil?s advocate and back up typical objections with solutions for your offerings.

2. Use urgency ? the smart way

Creating a sense of urgency in your copy is one of the oldest tricks in the book ? and still one of the smartest. To top it off, Cialdini lists ?scarcity? as one of the 6 pillars of influence, and it?s easy to see why: great demand leads to great sales.

In spite of this, I have some research that explains how urgency can completely backfire on you and ruin your meticulously written copy.

How can this be? More importantly, how can you prevent it from happening to you?

The research comes to us from a classic study by Howard Leventhal where he analyzed the effects of handing out tetanus brochures to subjects.

Leventhal handed out 2 different pamphlets to participants, both sparing no detail on the horrid effects that the tetanus disease can have on the body.

The difference was that the control group received a version of the pamphlet that had the effects of the disease ? and nothing else.

The second group received a similar pamphlet, but theirs had minimal information that indicated where they could schedule an appointment to get vaccinated.

The results?

Those who had the second pamphlet (with the sparse follow-up info) were much more likely to take-action: the rate that they followed through to get vaccinated was vastly superior to the first group. They were also more engaged with the tetanus information they received.

Why?

Even though the follow-up information provided in the second pamphlet wasn?t at all comprehensive, Leventhal concluded that our minds are susceptible to blocking out information that evokes a sense of urgency if there aren?t any instructions regarding what to do next.

Those in the first group were prone to convincing themselves that, ?I don?t need to worry about this because it won?t happen to me anyway,? whereas those in the second group had less incentive to feel this way because they had a plan to take action and couldn?t put it aside as easy.

The Takeaway: Urgency can be ?blocked? by your customers minds if you don?t give them specific instructions on how to solve the problem that you?ve identified. Don?t give vague instructions, tell your audience exactly what to do when the time comes.

3. Highlight strengths by admitting your shortcomings

Is it ever a good idea to admit to your faults? After all, people don?t really want the ?real? you, right?

Research from social psychologist Fiona Lee would assert that it is, and in fact, it may be the best strategic decision to highlight your strengths.

The study she conducted looked at companies who admitted to missteps and examined what effect (if any) these admissions had on stock prices. Lee and her colleagues had experimenters read one of two fictitious company reports (both reports listed reasons why the company had performed ?poorly? last year).

The first report placed emphasis on strategic decisions. The second placed emphasis on external events (economic downturn, increased competition, etc.).

So what were the results?

The test subjects viewed the first company far more favorably than the second.

Interestingly, Lee found (after examining hundreds of these types of statements, over 14 real companies) that the companies who admitted to their strategic faults also had higher stock prices the following year.

Her conclusions were that admitting to shortcomings in areas like strategic thinking showcased that a company was still in control, despite their faults. Blaming external forces (even if true) created a sense that the company didn?t have the ability to fix the problem (or were creating excuses).

The Takeaway: Customers still don?t want you to overshare irrelevant details. But admitting to honest errors helps your customers understand that you are in control of the situation and not prone to making excuses.

4. Embrace the power of labels

You might think I?m referring to brand labels, but far from it: I?m telling you to label your customers!

Sounds like bad advice, right?

WRONG!

As it turns, the research has shown us that people like being labeled, and they are more likely to particpate in the ?group?s? message if they feel included in it.

The study examined the voting patterns of adults to see if labeling them had any effect on their turnout at the polls.

After being casually questioned about their normal voting patterns, half of the particpants were told that they were much more likely to vote since they had been deemed to be more politically active.

(This wasn?t actually true, these people were selected at random)

The other half of participants weren?t told anything.

Despite this random selection, the group that was told they were ?politically active? had a 15% higher turnout than the other group!

Our brain seeks to maintain a sense of consistency (even if it?s artificial), and this is why the foot-in-the-door technique works so well even on prepared minds. We enjoy being consistent so much that if we feel apart of a group by being told that we are, it?s still likely to affect our response.

For instance, smart people are obviously going to be interested in an internet marketing course that?s made for smart people, right? The label is at work to make you realize you?re part of a desirable group.

The Takeaway: Even when given an artificial connection, people tend to take action in order to maintain a consistent image if they are labeled as being apart of a group. Don?t be afraid to label, people like being members of groups that they approve of.

5. Make their brain light up ?instantly?

There are few things that our brains love more than immediate stimulation.

As a matter of fact, research has shown that instant gratification is such a powerful force that an ability to control against it is a great indicator of achieving success.

Wow!

In terms of your customers, you?re actually looking to do the opposite: in this case the gratification is about getting instantly rewarded by doing business with you, and your copy should remind customers of this benefit at every turn.

When your customers are on the verge of purchasing a product from you (or about to sign up for your email list), they are heavily influenced by how quickly they can receive their desired outcome.

Several Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies, including one on nicotine addiction, have shown that our frontal cortex is highly active when we think about ?waiting? for something.

On the other hand, our mid-brain is the one that lights up when we think about receiving something right away (that?s the one we want to fire up!).

Words like ?instant?, ?immediately?, or even just ?fast? are known to flip the switch on that mid-brain activity that makes us so anxious to buy.

Researchers have noted that the key to these words is that they allow us to envision our problem being solved right away; whatever pain point we are seeking to fix by buying becomes more enticing if we know we won?t have to wait very long.

The Takeaway: Our brains love ?instant gratification? and light up when thinking about eliminating pain points instantly. Let people know that they will be rewarded quickly and they will be more likely to make the purchase.

6. Know how to sell to your 3 types of buyers

Every business (no matter the industry) is going to have to deal with the 3 types of buyers out there.

All other aspects aside, these 3 groups are defined by the ?pain? that they receive when purchasing something. Neuroscientists have defined human spending patterns as a process of ?spend ?til it hurts!?, so understanding these different levels of paint points is essential to increasing your sales.

According to the research, all customers are grouped into the following categories:

1. Tightwads (24%) ? people that spend less (on average) before they hit their limit
2. Unconflicted (61%) ? average spenders
3. Spendthrifts (15%) ? people that are able to spend more before they hit their limit

Guess who the hardest group of people to sell to is? Since they take up nearly a quarter of your potential customers, you should learn some of the smart techniques to minimize buying pain for your ?tightwad? customers.

Fortunately, the secret boils down to utilizing well-written copy.

According to some remarkable neuroimaging studies, minimizing buying pain for ?tightwads? (and everybody else) can be accomplished successfully by incorporating the following strategies?

1. Re-frame the value

If I told you that my product costs $1,000 a year, you?d definitely approach with a little hesitation, right?

Right. That?s because $1,000 isn?t peanuts.

What if I told you instead that my product costs $84 a month? Not bad right? If you got enough utility out of it for your business (or for yourself) every month, it would be a very worthy purchase.

The thing is, that?s the same as $1,000 a year!

If you?re offering something that has a recurring cost or that could be broken down into smaller increments, look into how you might be able to incorporate this into your pricing.

2. Reduce pain points through bundling

Neuroeconomics expert George Loewenstein has noted that all customers (but especially conservative spenders) prefer to avoid purchasing multiple accessories if there is an option to complete their purchase in one swoop.

He cites our willingness to upgrade from different car packages, but how difficult it is for the brain to justify each individual upgrade (?Yes, I will pay extra for the navigation? and leather seats? and??, etc).

Lowenstein would assert that these individual purchases create individual pain points, whereas a bundled purchase creates only one pain point, even if the price is much higher.

3. Sweat the small stuff

We know that ?don?t sweat the small stuff? isn?t all that applicable to copywriting, but just how small of a change matters?

In what I?ve named the goofiest bump in a conversion rate that I?ve ever seen, research from Carnegie Mellon University University reveals to us that even a single word can affect conversions.

Researchers changed the description of an overnight shipping charge on a free DVD trial offer from ?a $5 fee? to ?a small $5 fee? and increased the response rate among tightwads by 20 percent!

Has the word ?small? ever felt so big? With a single added word increasing conversions by that amount, I think it?s safe to say that the devil is definitely in the details.

The Takeaway: No matter what business you?re in, you will always have 3 types of customers. Know how to sell to tightwads, they make up a large base of your potential buyers and you can reduce their buying pain with the right choice of words.

7. Make an enemy

In the business world, meaningful connections are paramount to your success.

That being said, you still need an enemy.

Why? When could this ever be a good thing?

Turns out, it?s a great thing if you?re looking to achieve a cult-like addiction for your brand.

In a hightly controversial study entitled Social categorization and intergroup behaviour, social psychologist Henri Tajifel began his research trying to define just how human beings were able to engage in acts of mass hatred (such as the Holocaust).

His findings were shocking to say the least.

Tajifel found that he could create groups of people that would show loyalty to their in-group and outright discriminate against outsiders ? all with the most trivial of distinctions!

In the tests, subjects were asked to choose between two objects or people that they had no relation to (one test had people picking between 2 painters). Despite these trivialities, when it came time to dole out REAL rewards, subjects had a huge bias towards their in-group and avoided handing out rewards to the so-called ?other guys.?

Sounds an awful lot like big companies going toe-to-toe, doesn?t it? Like the Mac vs. PC commercials or Miller Lite taking potshots at un-manly light beers.

The thing is, you don?t need a physical enemy, you need to be against a belief or an idea. Copyblogger would assert that real publishers are self-hosted and that well-written content is the centerpiece of the web.

Solidifying your unique selling proposition is as much about deciding who your ideal customer is not as much as it is about defining who they are.

The Takeaway: You?ll never find your brand?s true voice without something to stand against. This doesn?t have to be another brand, but in order to divide your ideal customers into your ?camp,? you need to be against some ideal, belief, or perception, the way Apple was against ?boring? PC users in their ads.

Bonus Tip: Keep ?em on their toes

You know that the social construct of reciprocity is a powerful force, but did you know that further research has showed that surprise reciprocity works even better?

Since you?ve made it all the way to the bottom, I?d like to surprise you with a beautiful, free e-book revealing more insightful data on your audience and customers.

All courtesy of the Help Scout team, we hope you enjoy it!

Click here to download it instantly.

Thanks for reading, I?d also love to hear your thoughts, specifically: which of the above studies did you find the most surprising?

See you in the comments!

About the Author: Gregory Ciotti is the marketing guy at Help Scout and the founder of Sparring Mind, where he takes psychology + content marketing and makes them play nice together. Get more interesting customer data by downloading this free e-book.

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Tags: Small Business Internet Marketing

Source: http://www.frontlinemarketingsystems.com/blog/small-business-marketing/7-social-psychology-studies-to-help-you-convert-prospects-into-paying-customers/

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