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13 Business Books That Will Blow Your Mind

By Rich Brooks 05/18/2013

Looking for the best business books? These 13 books will inspire, educate and completely blow your mind.

I never took a business class while at college. The closest I came was running a typing service for other students…$1.50/page which was perfect for beer money.

These were back in the days where most people wrote the rough draft in long hand (that means with your fingers, for my younger readers) and then typed a final copy on a Mac in the computer lab.

I would type out a lot of business papers, and I’m sure I picked up something through osmosis. However, when I started my own business I always felt like a complete fraud for never having taken any business classes, so I started a diet of business books.

Now, I’m sure there are plenty of good business books on finance, or managing resources, or human resources.

These aren’t those books.

I’m a marketing guy, and I tend to be fascinated by anything tied to psychology–why we do what we do–so my choices tend to lean that way. Regardless, these thirteen books will open your mind and make you think of your business in a brand new way.

Pick them up at your favorite local book store or follow my Amazon affiliate links, but definitely pick them up. Keep reading! →

How to Create Content That Addresses Your Ideal Customer’s Biggest Pain Points

By Rich Brooks 05/13/2013

Do you want to motivate your ideal customer to do business with you? Then you’ll need to create content that addresses their biggest pain points. Here’s how.

In Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he tells the story of researchers who conducted a study where they sent two different ads to homeowners in the same neighborhood.

One ad said, “if you insulate your home fully, you’ll save 50 cents every day.”

The other said, “if you don’t insulate your home fully, you’ll lose 50 cents every day.”

When all was said and done, the “loss language” people were 150% more likely to insulate their house than the other group.

Note: the savings didn’t change. The only difference was that when the researchers tried to persuade via pain (the loss of money) vs. pleasure (the gain of money), they were much more successful.

More often than not, people are motivated by fear of loss. We’re wired to avoid pain even more than to gain pleasure, with few exceptions.

If you want to attract and convert your ideal customers, you’ll need to create content that addresses their biggest pain points, and more often than not, solves them. If people aren’t experiencing pain–physical, emotional, or spiritual–chances are they won’t be motivated to switch providers or choose your services. Keep reading! →

Why Offering Choices on Your Website Is Killing Your Conversion Rate

By Rich Brooks 04/29/2013

We’re Americans, so we demand our freedom of choice!

(If you’re not American, please grab an oversized plate of nachos, a made-in-China American flag and pretend for a moment.)

Yet there’s something we desire over choice and if you’re not providing it to the visitors at your website, you may lose them–and their business–forever.

But first, a word about why giving people more to choose from is killing your conversion rates…

Keep reading! →

Looking for the best business books? These 13 books will inspire, educate and completely blow your mind.

Do you want to motivate your ideal customer to do business with you? Then you’ll need to create content that addresses their biggest pain points. Here’s how.

Twitter is now offering targeted advertising options make sense for small businesses. Here’s how it works.

We’re Americans, so we demand our freedom of choice!

From there to here, from here to there, lame Facebook pages are everywhere.