CASE STUDIES

#1. Quiznos' Make-Your-Own Coupon Test Results

SUMMARY: Using an emailed coupon is a common marketing tactic, but could you get better redemption rates if you added a Web 2.0 element into the mix and let your customers make their own discount offers?

See how a fast-food chain combined email and a custom-built landing page that got staggering open and clickthroughs, plus download rates nearly double their average.
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(Open access until June 4th)

#2. How to Prep Your Staff for Corporate Rebranding

SUMMARY: Getting support from your own employees is critical when you're trying to rebrand your company in the marketplace. All team members need to understand the strategy and embrace the company's new identity.

A technology marketer used a comprehensive internal PR strategy to educate 7,000 employees in offices around the globe about the new name, logo, tagline and focus.
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(Open access until June 5th)

RESEARCH

#3. Special Report: New Data for Online Publishers - Which Subscription Tactics Work Best?

SUMMARY: What conversion rate are trials offers getting these days? Which marketing channels deliver the best traffic for online subscription sites? What impact is Web 2.0 having on the industry?

In our latest Special Report on the state of online subscriptions, we have those answers and more. Includes 12 new data charts and key analysis.
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(Open access until June 5th)

#4. New Chart: Shoppers Choose Different Routes to Purchase Your Products & Search for Information

SUMMARY: You need to think like your customers if you want to retain them. New research data can help you keep bringing traffic back to your site.

Multiple search options for diverse visitors with differing purchase priorities are the answer. More navigation options can help you hang onto your customers. Our latest chart, an eyetracking heatmap, tells you where shoppers' eyes look.
Click for bigger chart + Sherpa analysis
(Open access until June 27th)

HOW-TO & INTERVIEWS

#5. How to: 7 No-Cost SEO Tools to Help You Increase Your Website Traffic

SUMMARY: Want to improve your search marketing but don't have the money or the time? We talked to an expert who reveals 7 no-cost tools (plus one paid one) you can use to keep tabs on your competition, shorten research time and save money.

Includes plenty of SEO tips, descriptions and hotlinks. Plus, how to avoid the ones that aren't worth your time.
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(Open access until June 4th)

#6. PR Interview: 5 Tips to Reach Small Businesses - How to Pitch John Jantsch's Duct Tape Blog

SUMMARY: Are you a marketer needing to reach small businesses? Go no further than John Jantsch and his Duct Tape Marketing blog. Jantsch has hundreds of thousands of readers and a reputation for being the "World's Most Practical Small Business Expert." Here are 5 tips on how to pitch your product, service or news to him.
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(Open access until June 6th)

#7. Fame: 2008 AME Awards

Are you a problem-solver who's adept at creative tasks as well as at logical ones? Get some well-deserved credit for your marketing-dilemma resolutions by entering the 2008 Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness Awards; the winning entries will be added to the awards website's Showcase. This international competition rewards effective and innovative marketing, and encompasses 67 categories that range from apparel to TV. The judges want to know all campaign elements, including planning, execution and results. You can provide that background info to them via video, PowerPoint or PDF formats. Aim for one of the three Grand Trophies or for the Finalist status.
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(Deadline: June 9th)

INTERACT

#8. SherpaBlog: What to Do About Twitter: Love It, Test It or Leave It?

SUMMARY: "I'm Twittered out," one of my favorite bloggers posted last week. Like many early adopters, he got caught up on the Twitter craze, tweeting night and day for months.

And, then, the whole thing got old. Was it the inevitable cool-thing-cooled-off? Or was it just too much communication about oneself already? I'm thinking the latter.
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(Open access=permanent)

#9. Call for Speakers: MarketingSherpa's Email Summit & Expo Seeks Speakers

More than 800 marketers will gather next March in Miami, FL, for the largest email conference in the world. You could be one of the speakers on that stage at MarketingSherpa's 4th annual Email Summit & Expo '09.

We're especially looking for email marketers who can share their own experiences, campaign war stories and lessons learned. Past speakers include marketers from Dell, Nokia, CareerBuilder.com, Boston Celtics and Adobe.
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(Deadline: Friday, June 20th)

#10. Help Wanteds: 30 New Jobs & 1 Seeker Available

More than 800 marketers will gather next March in Miami, The past week's new posts including Sony, Amazon & Expedia. Plus, learn how to post your own opening.
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(Complimentary service)

#11. Book Offer: 'The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence through Blogs and Other Social Media'

Plenty of useful information about your customers is out there buried in blogs, Facebook, YouTube and scores of other social media sites. But how do you find it? Author and New School professor Robert Berkman suggests using the art of strategic listening to dig out this data. Call it a step-by-step guidebook to finding the most efficient way to gain market intelligence through blogs and other social media.

Berkman has more than 20 years experience teaching others about effective research techniques. His book touches on every relevant topic and shows you how to organize the myriad of available information, distinguish credible sources from unreliable ones and tell a trend from a fad. He also illustrates how to set up RSS feeds, choose keywords for news alerts and track buzz about your products and services.

Thinking about blog monitoring yourself? No problem - read his book. Want to find a vendor to do it for you? Might be a good option - consult Berkman's lists of pros and cons. The book offers plenty of useful screenshots and illustrations to augment his text. Appendices offer numerous suggested readings, productivity tools and URLs of key research sites.

One of the main points the author's 264-page book conveys is the importance of keeping track of the way your brand is portrayed on the Internet. If you notice that consumers perceive your company in a negative way, you can learn the reasons behind their dissatisfaction and take actions to correct the situation.

The author donated five copies for Sherpa to give away. Toss your name into the hat here to try for one.
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(Ends 06/07/08)

+ Last week's book offer: These five lucky marketers will get their own copies of 'The Age of Engage: Reinventing Marketing for Today's Connected, Collaborative & Hyperinteractive Culture' by Denise Shiffman:

• Pierre D'Souza, Samsung Canada, Mississauga, ON, CANADA
• Betsy Kervin, Ternion Corporation, Huntsville, AL
• Mary St. Mary, Independent Health, Williamsville, NY
• Monica Surfaro Spigelman, Tucson Chapter of International Association of Business Communicators, Tucson, AZ
• Jackie VanErp, CSC, Austin, TX

P.S. Did a friend send you this? Go Here for your own copy - it's award-winning, useful, and complimentary.

P.P.S. Got questions, comments, or ideas for editorial?
Email Editorial Director Tad Clarke at TadC(at)marketingsherpa(dot)com
or call Customer Service at (877) 895-1717 -- thanks!