The Setup
I walked into a McDonald’s the other day and ordered a 2 Cheeseburger meal. The kid behind the counter said that they were no longer offered. I said, “well how about two cheeseburgers a medium fry and a coke?” He said “OK”, and I paid my money.

You laughed, but you get the idea – my experience with the McDonald’s brand was defined in those minutes and the many other minutes spent prior to this event.

An organization does not own a brand any more than they own the color in their logo. The brand equity is the value that a customer extends to the brand based on their experience with the organization.

An Intimate Interaction with your Brand
Automakers have led the charge with the introduction of their products in the Second Life space. “Here,” they say. “Take this Toyota Scion for a Lenning ($1) and try it on and drive it around a while.”

This fashion accessory becomes a part of your Second Life identity which creates a brand experience. If it suits you in Second Life then it extends itself directly to a purchase in Real Life.

The deal is that if I were to restart my First Life I would be a become a Scientist or Engineer and in this space I can be anything or anyone I want more inexpensively than in real life. If I want an island I can buy one and if I want a big house I can build one.

As a marketer the best part about Second Life is you CAN setup shop right beside Best Buy and sell computer parts with the big boys. The space is limitless. The barrier to entry is low and the virtual world is growing faster and richer than the real world.

Second Life 1: Does Second Life Hold “Real” Marketing Value?

Many business owners by now have tried a round or two of e-mail marketing, and more than a few of you are less than satisfied with the results.

Perhaps you’re worn out by doing labor-intensive e-zines or special offers. Staying on top of ever-changing databases also can be exhausting. Guarding against spamming new or potential customers is a concern. Then there are those dicey e-mail metrics. Figuring out what really works is a challenge.

Nevertheless, you should know this: E-mail marketing remains such an affordable and potentially cost-effective channel that it’s foolish to let the whole thing slide. If you need convincing, check out these alternatives:

• Direct mail: 1% to 2% response rates from purchased lists.
• Telemarketing: Outbound calls are being met with ballooning customer resistance. Increasingly, telemarketing is being tied to online programs.
• Banner ads: Click-through rates (CTR) have slid to less than 1%.

By contrast, permission-based e-mails average a 3.2% CTR, according to eMarketer, a New York e-business research group. Internal customer lists often result in 10% to 20% response rates and sometimes run as high as 40%.

If you feel e-mail marketing is more trouble than it’s worth, reconsider how you’re going about it. Here are some ways to revamp for stronger return on investment.

1. Offload the burdens.
   In the past few years, the options for outsourcing some of the tiresome chores of e-mail marketing have become more effective then doing it in-house. For example, Forrester Research reports that companies that outsource both delivery and list management campaigns average a 6% conversation rate, compared to about 1.4% for internally developed solutions.Offerings are flexible. You can harness software that offers customizable templates to create and distribute your content.You can outsource selected components, such as editorial services for content generation. You can hire outside providers to track visitor behavior patterns and preferences, including what kinds of messages lead to high conversion rates or which search engines lead to traffic likely to opt in.
2. Get focused on your message.
   Effective e-mail marketing usually has one of three goals:• Make special offers, such as discounts or time-sensitive deals.
   • Send invitations to events, seminars or organizations.
   • Keep in touch or make contact, for information, transactions or on behalf of a community or organization.Before drafting messages or buying lists or meeting with designers, make sure you and everyone on the team is clear about the goal. Figure out why you’re sending the e-mail. Then define success. Is it when a recipient opens the message? Or clicks onto a landing page? Or is it a conversion measurement?Slightly different messages can lead to very different results. For instance, one online retailer tested three messages, one all text, the other with the same text and an image of a young, sexy woman and the third with the same text and an image of a young man. Demographics for the marketer were young men.The result? Click-through rates for the image of the woman were highest. Not surprising. But upon investigation, the message with the man, while lower in click-throughs, had the highest conversion rate — that is, more recipients actually purchased items. Peer persuasion, I’m guessing. But the moral is: Be clear about why you’re trolling and then test, test, test.
3. Try some next-generation ideas.
   Once you know what response you want, consider these 10 tactics.

• Cut through clutter. Using Flash animation, streaming media with embedded audio and/or sound files and innovative HTML design can help you stand out. “If you can afford cable advertising, you can afford rich e-mail,” says Tony Wright, a Web specialist at publicist Weber Shandwick in Dallas.
• Make subject lines count. Don’t get cute. Don’t be familiar. Don’t trick people into opening a message — you’ll make them mad. Promise a benefit or value in the subject line. Then make sure to deliver.
• Automate metrics and act on results. Set up a seamless cycle that leverages the data you collect. For instance, New York interactive ad agency True North has a closed-loop system for each client. “An e-mail goes out, click-throughs go to a specially designed landing page that controls the flow of information and drives orders,” says creative director Neil Feinstein. “Response data is then re-introduced into the database to enrich it with specific customer data. We don’t just measure opens, click-throughs and opt-outs. We can look at conversion rates, sales and ROI. And we can tie these numbers directly to a consumer.”
• Create a call to action. Ask the recipient to do something — it’ll get you a better response. Suggestions include: Click on a link for more information. Register to receive a special offer. Go a Web site to qualify. Download a white paper. You can also offer games or other Web downloads. “Tabasco includes new downloads for special screen savers, free to Web surfers, in its e-mail newsletter,” says Katie Eakins at S&S Public Relations in San Diego. “It’s helped the company get and keep attention.”
• Personalize, but don’t scare anyone. Inexpensive software now lets you identify returning customers and stay up-to-speed on buying history, likes and dislikes, geographic region and more. All that makes customers feel special — so long as you don’t cross any privacy lines.
• Target the message. Too many marketers send out messages with misspelled words, typographical errors or just plain boring stuff. “The e-mail should be written by a professional writer who understands the principles of human influence and the psychology behind how memory and eye movement through online pages can work,” says George Seybold at iLevel, an eMedia Marketer in Boise, Idaho.
• Time the message. When customers receive your message might make a difference, depending on the business. “People often e-mail for business products on Fridays,” says Carrie Williams at FinancialAid.com, an online student loan consolidator. “But these e-mails get buried over the weekend and are often discarded.”
• Invest in viral reactions. Most markets include a group of influential users who will spread the messages you craft. Mine your customer database and spend a bit more for high-quality e-mail lists. Then test a few times to find the world-of-mouth folks who will spread your glad tidings.
• Make it easy to subscribe (and unsubscribe). Don’t ask for a lot of information on registration forms. People will click off. And make it just as convenient to unsubscribe. Then be scrupulous about keeping lists up-to-date. Never send e-mail to recipients who don’t want it.
• Test! Any or all of these techniques will help your e-mail marketing program succeed. But remember, if you don’t test before you send, with a partial sample or a test group, you’ll never know what really works.

Build Super Links and Traffic With StumbleUpon

Here’s an amazing post by Loren from Search Engine Journal.  This is one of those great ideas that I beat myself up for not thinking of myself.  Want to build great web traffic?  There’s only so much you can do to promote your own site before people start thinking of it as spam.  Why not promote the sites that link to you?  Brilliant.  You could take this same aproach with del.icio.us, Digg, or anyother social bookmarking, social community, aggregation site.