Where'd you get that?

One of my favorite time sucks (although I like to refer to it as "research") happens to be RSS feeds of my favorite blogs. There's a plethora of information out there to help you with whatever it is you want to do or know--whether it's price out your collection of McDonald's Happy Meal toys, or learn a new career. I guarantee there is some sort of blog out there with an RSS feed just waiting for you to subscribe to it and become more well-informed (and hopefully inspired!) than you ever imagined you could be.

Here are just a few of the blogs I subscribe to that I find useful and like to pass on to others:
Lifehacker
Copyblogger
Bittbox
All Graphic Design
Soul Shelter
Unclutterer
decor8

But really, the best thing is to explore. See where they take you. See what people are writing and reading. See what appeals to you and what is appealing about those blogs that are popular and learn from them.

Coke's Online Loyalty Program a Success

Coke's highly successful online customer loyalty program, My Coke Rewards, allows customers to enter codes from Coke product bottle caps and fridge packs to accrue points (3 points per bottle and 10 points per fridge pack) that can be redeemed for rewards (ex. t-shirts, movie tickets, kitchen tools, magazine subscriptions...). Since my household consumes a significant amount of soda and I like free stuff, I've been using My Coke Rewards for years.

Some of the criticisms of the program include only allowing you to enter 10 codes a day and rewards often being out of stock. Of course, from Coke's point of view, it's good that you have to keep coming back--every time you visit their site, it's another exposure to the Coke experience. And it works.

If not for My Coke Rewards, I would probably buy generic soda more often and every time one of my rewards arrive in the mail, I "feel" like I'm getting something for free. I'm pretty excited about trying out the free Proctor Silex Sandwich Maker (750 points) that I'm going to try out this weekend. I got the sandwich maker after drinking 75 fridge packs worth of Diet Coke (approximate retail value at sale price of $2.50 per pack=$187.50).

Retail value of my new sandwich maker=$14.99.

THE Copywriting Resource You'll Want if You're Ever Stranded on a Desert Island

When people ask me if there's a book that will help them write great copy, I always recommend the classic guide to copywriting, The Copywriter's Handbook by Robert Bly (Get your own on amazon).

This book is fantastic because it gives you tons of practical information and examples to help you write effective copy in every format. Below are 10 of my favorite tips but this book is chocked full of useful information, so I recommend you get your very own copy and read it.

1. Keep your copy clean and omit needless words. Use contractions and sentence fragments.
   
2. Understand what keeps your customers up at night and address that. Don't confuse what you care about with what your customers care about.
   
3. Five times as many people will read your headline as read the body copy so make sure your headline has sales appeal, connects to your readers' self interest or gives news.
4. In an email, the subject line is your headline. Don't let it be an afterthought.
   
5. Sentences should range between 6 and 16 words long.
6. Tell the truth.
7. Advertisement: Buy this product and you will receive this benefit.
8. Answer what makes your product unique or advertise a feature that isn't unique but that your competition hasn't advertised.
9. Be specific.
10. Don't use visual techniques that look cool but that make the copy hard to read (reverse type, slanted type, type set in wide margins, type smaller than 8-point).
    

Sugarmama Keeps Me Coming Back for More

We recently switched cell phone carriers from a traditional two-year contract with Verizon to a pay-as-you deal with Virgin. The nail in coffin with our relationship with Verizon was when they told us we'd have to extend our contract another two years if we wanted to get a new phone after the old one was made squeaky clean by the washing machine. So far we really like Virgin. And I enjoy not having to make a commitment.

A really fun feature of Virgin's is Sugarmama. Sugarmama allows Virgin customers to watch up to five one-minute online advertisements in exchange for receiving five minutes of free phone minutes. Every day I log into my Sugarmama account and watch ads for brands like Ford Focus and Dr. Pepper, answer a few questions (i.e. "How cool was this ad?), and cash in for air time. Of course I feel like I'm beating the system cause I never really watch the ads.

The part that I think is really smart about Sugarmama is that they get to make money by selling advertising and I get free airtime, which is a solid benefit to me, the customer. And I've noticed that even though I don't watch the ads, these brands have gotten into my head. I've thought about the products that Sugarmama advertises. I'm not going out to buy a Ford Focus anytime soon (or most likely ever) but I've been thinking about the car cause I see it every day when I press play on the ad. So if their goal was to generate buzz and more brand awareness, then I say nicely done Sugarmama.

Here it is...our brand new blog. It's a little scary staring into this little blank box knowing someone might actually read this. But, that's the point, right? The purpose of this blog is to discuss marketing in a real way...in a new way. With technology changing so much every day, the opportunities are endless: blogs, eBooks, video, podcasts, social networks, anything viral. (At what point did the word viral become good??) There are so many options. Where do you spend your time and your efforts and how do you keep up the creativity level so that everything you do is jaw-dropping spectacular? (What? It isn't always?)

Anyway, this is an open invitation to anyone interested in Web 2.0 marketing and, well, anything marketing. Personally, my background is in print. I love the smell of fresh ink on crisp paper! (Too much information?) With all of these new marketing options available, it's important to remember that traditional marketing is still going strong. How do you incorporate those efforts into the entire marketing mix? So many questions, so little time!

Give us your thoughts and ideas. We certainly will give you ours...for better or worse. In future posts, I’m sure you’ll start to see our sparkling personalities shine through. We’re marketing geeks (and I mean that in a good way), so welcome to our brand new blog. We hope to take marketing to A Whole ‘Nother Level!

-Temple