Found this article the other day:
http://triad-inc.com/blog/best-internet-marketing-techniques-a-case-study/

An online presence is becoming more and more crucial for business' of any size to stay afloat.  Triad, Inc., a marketing firm put together a case-study of various online marketing tools for a start-up summer camp to see what worked and what didn't.

To paraphrase their results:

Blogs were the greatest investment in terms of directing traffic to your site.  The more you blog, more people will find your site.  Blogs with titles or topics about things customers are looking for improve your odds a lot.  Articles example: "How to choose a camp for your child."

Online Directories were great too.  Some of them are free and some of the expensive ones don't necessarily lead to larger hits.

Google Ads worked better than a lot of other online advertisers, and charged only when customers actually viewed the site.  As opposed to Facebook which charges flat rates whether or not they actually drove traffic to the sites.  Furthermore, Facebook and Twitter didn't bring in much traffic on their own.  Yet they were undeniably effective as a means to keep in touch with previous customers.  So not so great to hook people, but great at keeping them hooked.

Targeted Emails, not unsurprisingly, were not so effective.  Regarded as spam by most people, probably best to be used with established customers.

Groupon is a discout service (?).  Sell products/services at discount, (this case 50% discount to customer, 25% Groupon, 25% to the camp).  Didn't work.  Their quote "Unless you plan on artificially  inflating your prices, Groupon is a quick way to self-cannibalize your company, devalue your product, and will probably not produce return customers willing to pay full price the next time."

Linked-in brought in zero customers.

A Spam email company supposedly sent 1 mil emails out, promising 1% (10,000) leads.  I guess only 5.83% were real email addresses and of those only 21 folks made it to the website.

Anywho, its a short read.  My paraphrase isn't much shorter.  I laughed when I read the linked-in part.

Cheers

Frank Luntz strikes again.  This time with the NHL.

http://deadspin.com/5951872/inside-a-secret-nhl-focus-group-how-a-top-gop-strategist-is-helping-hockey-owners-craft-their-lockout-propaganda

If you get beyond the fact that deadspin.com is a sleazy sports blog/smorgasboard of BS, they have some interesting articles.

Anywho, the NHL is going through a lockout currently, with team owners and players bickering about where all the money goes... blah blah blah.  But it was interesting to read an article on our buddy Luntz again, that GOP PR guru we saw a video in class on do his thing again.

I came across this link while doing some research on "Nudge" earlier this week and got a kick out of it.

Its an ad for a violent video game depicting mothers watching a trailer in complete disgust... at the end of the ad it lists a website URL www.yourmomhatesthis.com which takes you to the video game publisher.

Heres the URL to the ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKkPFDEiC6Q

..and www.yourmomhatesthis.com

Not really sure what the game is about, but it the ad seems to effectively use behavior economics to influence consumers.

Also a neat quote from John Kenny, author of "Marketing to Crazy People," an interactive guide to behavioral marketing..."For guys the best way to persuade them that a video game is cool is to tell them their mom hates it. Really simple insight, but that’s the power of behavioral economics...."

umm, does this work?