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30 Money Facts That Will Blow You Away

Do you think you know a lot about money? Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. But let’s see if any of the following facts are in any way surprising to you:

1. More of our fantasies are about money… than sex.

2. If we could have any luxury in the world (and money didn’t matter) more of us would choose to spend money on a butler and a maid than anything else.

3. 90% of Americans who own pets buy them Christmas gifts.

4. Money is the leading cause of disagreements in marriages.

5. 65% of Americans would live on a deserted island all by themselves for an entire year for $1,000,000.

6. For $10,000,000 most of us would do almost ANYTHING! Including abandoning our family and friends and our church. A very high percentage of us would, for that same amount of money, change our race or sex. And, 1 in every 14, would even murder someone for ten million bucks.
What’s really strange about this is, the statistics remain the same whether it’s ten million dollars all the way down to three million. For three million bucks, most of us would do the same horrible things we would do for ten million. But, guess what? Few of us would do these things for a “measly” two million.

7. 92% of us would rather be rich than find the love of our lives.

8. Here’s a weighty one: Money (or the lack thereof) is the biggest stress inducer in the lives of Americans. We worry more about money than our marriages, our health, or even who’s going to win the Superbowl Game.

9. If you get your money out of a Hitachi ATM machine in Japan, it will be laundered. The way they do it is, they briefly press the bills between rollers at high enough temperatures to kill most bacteria.

10. Nearly half of the people who sell their houses with furniture included will take all the light bulbs out of all the lamps when they vacate the premises.

11. Most people won’t bend over to pick up money lying on the sidewalk unless it’s at least a dollar.

12. Most Americans think pennies are a pain in the ass and the U.S. Mint should stop making them.

13. There is about 405 billion dollars in circulation. Only 32 million of that amount is counterfeit. That means, the percentage of counterfeit money in America is .0079%. And, $20 bills are more often counterfeited than $100 bills.

14. Do people care if their bills are crisp? Indeed, they do. Fresh, crisp, clean bills are considered much more valuable than those which are old, wrinkled and dirty.

15. Let’s flip a coin and try to guess whether it will come up heads or tails. Three times as many people guess ‘heads’ than ‘tails’.

16. Here’s one I personally think really sucks: One out of every four Americans believe their best chance of getting rich is by playing the lottery.

17. How about this one for a shocking fact: 5% of lottery ticket buyers buy 51% of all tickets sold. (Trust me, none of these people belong to the “Einsteins of America Society”.)

18. A staggering 74% of us are influenced by how much we can win in a lottery as opposed to the odds of us winning.

19. That’s a good thing for the Government because the odds of winning a lottery jackpot are about 10 million to 1.

20. A person who drives 10 miles to buy a lottery ticket is 3 times more likely to be killed in a car accident while driving to buy the ticket… than… he is to win the jackpot.

21. Few people know it but, you can buy single-disease insurance.

22. Here’s one that’s really important: 63% of us decide NOT to buy a product advertised on the Internet… because… we think the shipping and handling charges add too much to the order.

23. Eight times as many Americans would rather use an ATM than deal with a real live teller.

24. This one’s going to blow your mind: 83% of Americans still pay with checks instead of credit cards!

25. Almost 30% of us say we would need 3 million smackaroos to feel rich. This ties in with the fact most of us would do anything for as little as $3 million… but… not nearly as many of us would do those identical things for a measly $2 million. (Hey, here’s your chance to take advantage of that situation. If you only want to pay $2 million to have something done, ask me if I’ll do it. The chances are, believe it or not, I WILL DO IT.)

26. Two-thirds of Americans say they wouldn’t let their spouse spend the night and have sex with another person for a million dollars. Many of these people are liars. There’s a big difference being asked if they would do it for a million dollars… as opposed to… handing them a paper sack containing the million fungolas and simply saying, “Here, you can have this if you’ll let me sleep with your sweetie tonight.”

27. More than one-third of American women consider money more important than good sex to the success of a marriage.

28. According to Employee Benefits Research Institute 96% of all people who have jobs right now won’t be eligible for their full Social Security benefits when they reach age 65.

29. One of the best ways to raise money for a charity is to have a free dinner for a lot of people and have an empty envelope tucked under their plate… for the express purpose… of making whatever size donation they want.

30. People tip more on sunny days than they do on dreary days.

Mindblowing Lego art

Mindblowing Lego Art

Nathan Sawaya is so much obsessed with Lego that he left his lawyer job in NY to become a master lego builder. Sawaya now has a studio in the big Apple with over 1.5 million Lego bricks which he uses to create jaw dropping structure like these.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Will It Blend Video

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Marketing Mindset When Times are Tough

By Karen Scharf

Email Marketing Success Is All About the Value of Content

By: Steve Adams

A great-looking email template is important for establishing credibility and brand recognition with readers; but, as the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover.

The same mentality should always be applied to email campaigns. A nice-looking template means nothing if subscribers aren’t engaged and interested in what you have to say. The content of your email or newsletter is vital to the success of your campaign.

Whether creating awareness, generating sales, or building customer loyalty, it’s important to remember what keeps customers coming back for more.

Why is content so important?

The first thing readers will do when opening an email is ask themselves, What’s in it for me? You have about seven seconds to answer that question.

Layout and template play a big role here. At first glance, your brand should be clearly visible and the content easily accessible, but that alone won’t capture your readers’ attention for long. No matter how good your email looks, the real magic for lasting beyond that seven-second mark lies in the content of your email.

Content should always be relevant and engaging. If either element is lacking, your reader will close out, hit delete, and move on. If that happens once too often, your subscriber may go one step further and block future emails from you or, worse, report you as a spammer.

The relevancy of your email answers the “What’s in it for me?” question, ensuring that your subscribers stay interested and keep reading to find out more. The engaging aspect promotes activity within your email, such as drawing readers to your Web site for a call to action, ensuring click-throughs to additional content, or encouraging readers to forward your newsletter or promotion to friends and colleagues who might also find value in what you have to offer.

What can I do to improve my content?

1. Know your audience

One of the most important steps to take toward providing more-relevant content is knowing whom you’re writing to. Are you writing to a 70-year-old retiree who enjoys golf or a stay-at-home mother of three? You could have a wide array of customers, and it’s important to target and segment your content based on their interests.

To determine those interests, use email marketing tools that offer reporting functions that allow you to learn more about your subscriber base, such as their open and click-through rates. You can also analyze past campaign reports to get a better understanding of what gets their attention and what prompts them to act.

2. Create a personal voice

Brand perceptions are established through the tone and personality of your communications. Instead of sending generic emails, personalize them to reflect who you are—to start, that might mean simply signing your name.

Establishing a personal voice in your communications not only helps the customer feel a connection but also fosters a relationship with your readers. Such a voice is crucial to gaining their trust in you and your email content. They will be more apt to open an email from you and more likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

3. KISS (Keep it short and sweet)

With only seven seconds to capture your readers’ attention, you can’t waste time on wordy sentences or fluffy content. Get to the point. Make sure your content is strategically planned to convey your messages in a clear and concise manner. Make it easier for your customers to sort through what they don’t care about and find what really sparks their interests. A helpful rule of thumb: The more frequently you send your emails, the shorter the email should be.

If you’re having a hard time coming up with ideas, try using a campaign-ready template. Such templates provide not only a format and a layout but also pre-populated content—the perfect solution for those who are struggling with what to say.

4. Add links and use themes

Adding links to your email campaign or newsletter helps to engage your audience and drive traffic to your site. Don’t limit yourself to buttons and banners. You can add strategically placed hyperlinks throughout the email. Have these links connect to more in-depth content and a call to action throughout your e-newsletters, and you’ll notice higher click-throughs, response rates, and increased sales.

Also, try using themes—whether holidays or seasonal changes—within your emails to get your creativity flowing. Planning content around a theme helps keep the audience engaged and makes it easier for you to figure out what to say. Be prepared and plan ahead, mapping out when you’ll send your emails based on events throughout the year.

5. Ensure the layout and design complement the content

Now that you have relevant and engaging content, make sure the look and style work in its favor. Keep your emails looking clean with white space between your paragraphs, graphics, and table borders. Be consistent with the look and feel throughout your email or newsletter. Maintaining a high contrast between font colors and background colors keeps your content readable, and columns or sections help readers with quick on-screen reading.

* * *

Remember, the content you provide is the main reason your customers subscribed to your email or newsletter in the first place. Make your content valuable! It is the key to executing successful campaigns, growing your subscriber following, and getting them to keep coming back for more.

Three Steps to Making Valuable Customer Connections on Facebook

by Kimberly Smith

Facebook is by far the most trafficked social-networking site on the Web, with more than 1.19 billion monthly visits and nearly 68.56 million unique visitors in January 2009, according to Compete.com.

MySpace, in the No. 2 position, registered some 810.15 million visits and 58.56 million unique visitors in the same month, and No. 3 Twitter received 54.22 million visits and 5.98 million unique visitors.

In fact, Facebook, which continues to grow, trailed only Google, Yahoo, MSN, Live.com, eBay, YouTube, and Amazon in terms of unique visitors in January, Compete found.

But what Facebook provides marketers that few of those online giants can offer is the ability to directly connect with customers, and potential customers, on a deep and personal level.

If you’re not leveraging that opportunity to cement relationships and differentiate yourself in the mind of the consumer, you’re opening the door to competitors who are.

To get you started, we’ve outlined the first steps to take, along with considerations to keep in mind, for building your Facebook fan base and ensuring that your customer connections and interactions remain both positive and enduring.

Step 1: Establish a presence on the network

Begin by setting up a Facebook page, complete with a logo or other image to represent your brand, a brief company overview, and contact information.

As you fill out your profile, be sure to…

Keep it user-centric

Users on Facebook are there to socialize and have fun, not research products or tune into ads. Accordingly, your page content should add value for them by focusing on their interests and promoting the advantages they can gain by engaging with you on the site; it should not simply serve as another sales pitch.

Whole Foods Market, for example, dedicates much of its page content to general food-related topics, including information on special diets and a series of video recipes, which users can appreciate regardless of whether they visit the company’s stores.

Real estate marketing specialist Jenna Ryan recently offered advice that can benefit any company attempting to win over customers on Facebook: “Think of social networking as a way to add value to the community which will in turn increase your value and cause people to flock to you,” she wrote.

Make it personable

Social media is also about making friendly connections with real people, not corporate institutions. Take this opportunity to showcase the company’s soft side in ways that users can relate to. For example, use a casual and authentic tone, as you would when emailing a friend, or include candid company photos so users can associate real faces with your brand and feel like they’re getting an insider perspective.

Encourage user interaction

Provide the platform for users to share and engage with your brand, as well as with other interested users. Facebook makes this easy by embedding features such as photos and videos, user reviews, and discussion boards into its page templates—use them! The more your customers interact with your page, the more you’ll learn about their specific interests and needs.

Step 2: Make friends (and fans)

Once you have a profile in place, you can go about building your fan base in several ways:

Leverage your networks

Invite contacts from your email database to visit your page and connect as “fans”; when they do, the connection will be posted to their profiles for their friends to see, and it will be announced via their friends’ news feeds.

Also encourage your employees to become fans and to share the page with their contacts. Serena Software, for example, has given this type of activity a dual purpose by turning it into an internal team-building exercise: Employees are rewarded for bringing in the most fans.

Seek out influentials

Find new contacts within your target market who may be willing to help spread your brand. “Believe it or not, most influentials with under 5,000 friends (that is the limit on Facebook) are more than happy to add people that ask to be friends,” said Jesse Stay, CEO of SocialToo.com and coauthor of I’m on Facebook—Now What??? “When those influentials become fans, their up-to 5,000 friends also have the potential of seeing it and becoming fans themselves.”

Stay suggests politely inviting them with a brief description of why you’re interested in connecting and what you have to offer. “If influentials know you and who you are, they are more likely to spread your brand to their followers,” he said.

Then, Stay continued, use those connections to your advantage by “carefully and tactfully tagging them in things you think they might be interested in (but be aware that many others are doing this as well, so do so sparingly!).” Tagging will help demonstrate to these influentials the value you provide, while also generating awareness for your brand as those tags are broadcast to the influentials’ groups of friends.

Some more ways to make friends and attract fans:

• Join related groups: Search through the index of Facebook pages and groups, make a connection with those groups that complement your product/industry or relate to your target market’s interests, and get your name out by interacting in group discussion board posts. These interactions should aim to add insight and value to the group, not simply tout your business, since blatant selling is a turn-off for other users and group administrators can easily delete your posts or ban you from the group if your interactions are regarded as spam.
• Offer incentives: Motivate users to associate with you on Facebook by offering something tangible, such as a giveaway or access to special deals they can’t get anywhere else.
• Launch an application: Facebook applications are a great way to engage users and get them to interact with your brand.
• Champion a good cause: Sponsoring charitable causes via Facebook’s “Causes” application can engender page traffic and brand awareness, in addition to goodwill, as users associate themselves with the cause and encourage their friends to do the same.
• Run an engagement ad: In addition to linking to your page, Facebook engagement ads enable users to become fans of your page directly within the ad, so there’s minimal interruption to their regular activities. Facebook also allows you to target very specific demographics, so you can ensure your message cost-effectively reaches the right folks.

Step 3: Keep the relationship alive

Don’t neglect your fans once the connection has been made. “The biggest mistake companies make with social media is that they slap it up and forget about it,” said social-media marketing maven Amber Naslund. “Facebook users expect engagement and interaction, and if you’re not out there talking to them regularly, they’ll want to know why.”

Rather, instead of asking, they may simply snub you altogether, which would be a waste of the time and effort you’ve put in, not to mention a potential black mark on your brand.

So how do you keep them engaged? The more creative your approach, the better; but here are a few tips to get started:

• Spark conversation: Encourage your fans to come back to your page and interact with both your company and other fans by initiating discussion-board topics that speak to their interests, launching surveys and polls directly on your page, and encouraging users to upload their own photos or videos. You can also ensure a constant flow of new and interesting content by syncing your company blog.
• Offer additional incentives: Sponsor events, contests, and giveaways that encourage users to regularly return to your page and further interact with your brand in a fun way. In addition to posting these features on your page, alert your fans to their existence by sending out friendly announcements and event invites.
• Avoid being “spammy”: Although it’s important to maintain a frequent flow of communication, avoid overwhelming your fans with nonstop alerts. “Be careful how you share information with those you have networked with on Facebook,” offered Stay. “First, you can be banned from Facebook by [spamming], and second, those you’re spamming will start to ignore you. Keep in mind that anyone can mark ’show less of this person’ in their news feed and never see your posts again.”

What Makes Email So Sexy?

by Cynthia Edwards

Beauty, the proverb tells us, is in the eye of the beholder. As someone who loves the flexibility, variety, potential, and business benefits of email, I am grieved at the many industry articles I read that lead off with a reference to email as being “not sexy.”
 
Email IS sexy, and I can prove it. My argument turns on the definition of “sexy,” which, in an advertising and business context, calls to mind attributes such as “enticing, enriching, versatile, artful” and so on. I hope the following descriptions will get your heart pounding just a little faster when you next think about email.

Email is intimate. Many forms of advertising are impersonal by default — you really can’t personalize a billboard, print ad or a commercial. Email, however, is very personal, as (a), it arrives in the recipient’s private, password-protected inbox, and (b), almost any message can be customized with the recipient’s name, account information, shopping history, preferences, lifecycle-related messaging, and a host of other variables. As much unique information as you can store about your list members, you can drop into your emails one by one, creating a one-on-one experience of your brand and message.

Email is a cheap date. Email is the best marketing value around — you can get great results for a small spend, relative to other channels. While only taking up 10% of the average media budget, email generates 21.6% of total revenue from campaigns. (Direct Marketing Association, “The Integrated Marketing Media Mix,” 2008.)

Email keeps on performing. Email has been proven to give a helpful lift to brand perceptions and sales in other channels, which means its impact goes far beyond the immediate clicks and conversions it generates every day. Fifty percent of consumers surveyed say they’re more likely to buy products from companies who send them email, whether their purchases are online or at a place of business. (Epsilon Interactive, “Beyond the Click: The Indirect Value of Email.”)

Is your pulse starting to quicken yet?

Email is expressive. It beats me how anyone can think email is dull, when it provides a canvas to convey every emotion known to man and woman. Sequester your writer and designer and watch them come up with emails that are cheeky, cheerful, deadpan, hilarious, animated, or serious, as the occasion demands.
 
Email has a thousand charms. Email is the Swiss Army Knife of marketing: a tremendous tool for a wide variety of applications. Branding, sales (including upsell, cross-sell, resell), customer service (you to them), customer feedback (them to you), advocacy, news, site traffic building — email does it all. It even does the housekeeping; it’s ideal for transactional messaging.

Email brings home the bacon. Admit it — we all love a good provider. The Direct Marketing Association pronounced last year that email delivered an ROI of $45.06 for every dollar spent on it. In another study, from Marketing Sherpa with Con Agra Foods, consumers who subscribed to email newsletters generated 34.25% more product sales.

Email is a movie star. Email design comes in many forms: text only, full-on graphics — and, with the advent of Goodmail’s CertifiedVideo, email has Lights! Camera! Action! Meaning, now you can send emails that will play video right within the inbox.
Be still, my beating heart.

Email is also sexy under the hood. The strategy, mechanics, and analytics involved in email program planning, delivery and evaluation are complex enough to make any left-brained person feel dizzy with delight. If you are the type that likes to slip between the spreadsheets and play with pivot tables and macros, email is your perfect companion.

In summary, if you don’t think email is sexy, fun, versatile and rewarding, you simply aren’t doing it right. Start feeding your email team chocolate and enjoy the response.

SMBs And SMS (And Email) Are Meant For Each Other

by eydie

Last month, Bredin Business Information put out a study about the marketing goals of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). What’s particularly striking about the report, though, is how digital messaging can help these companies reach their goals.

Here’s a look at some of the data offered in the study, and how digital message marketing–emails and text messages that consumers choose to receive–fits into these objectives.

Marketers said their biggest challenges in 2009 include growing business with limited resources (15 percent) and increasing awareness (15 percent). Email and SMS marketing can be very cost-effective, especially with a do-it-yourself system that can tackle several message types with one platform. So marketers from smaller businesses with limited budgets can easily afford these types of campaigns. Meanwhile, both email and text messages increase brand awareness because they are extremely viral. That is, they are often and easily forwarded from the initial recipient to several new ones–especially if they contain valuable information such as a limited sale or a space on the VIP list for a one-time party.

Retention and acquisition of customers: 48 percent said they are balancing their acquisition and retention efforts this year, 32 percent are concentrating more on acquisition, and 20 percent are focusing more on retention. Digital messages help marketers both acquire and retain customers. A multi-channel campaign draws consumers in–that is, it uses other media to advertise the short code and keyword, or the Web form, for consumers to contact in order to receive texts or emails, respectively. These consumers can be converted when the messages offer coupons, new product announcements, or other information that encourages the sale. Then once these customers see these benefits, they’ll likely continue to patronize the company in question.

Marketers will spend less on market research in 2009 than in 2008. Because of this, marketers will want to do their own research. The right marketing platform will let them do so. It can sort message subscribers according to geographic, demographic, and eve”n psychographic” categories. It can also let the marketer know which campaigns were the most–or least–effective, so that they can improve future campaign efforts. Marketers can thus arm themselves with home-grown research that lets them cater specifically to their own customers, as well as consumers like them who they want to reach.

Gaining SMS Subscribers Is Easier Than You Think

By Eydie Cubarrubia

To those who are avid texters, it’s obvious that consumers are for the most part eager to get SMS messages that contain coupons, sales announcements, or other important information about the products and services they like. But for someone just getting into texting, to say nothing of SMS marketing, the idea of gathering text-message subscribers can seem daunting: “How do you collect phone numbers?” “What if message recipients get angry at being contacted?” “I don’t want to be an SMS spammer!”

The one thing newbie SMS marketers should understand is that they need to let go and put control in the hands of consumers. As long as they stick to that one rule—which, formally, amounts to an “opt-in only” strategy—they’ll be sure that the numbers they get are of customers who truly want those messages.

To use a term that marketers with either traditional or digital experience can understand: It’s all about multi-channel marketing. You don’t want to just buy a list of phone numbers and start sending texts with abandon. Instead, you have to entice the consumer to sign up to receive your messages. This is where the different marketing channels come in.
• Put your shortcode and keyword (which can be related to one’s company or one’s business, like PEPSI or COLA) in print ads in the local newspaper, on billboards, or in national magazines.
• Include the shortcode and keyword in a TV or radio ad.
• Have the shortcode and keyword displayed prominently on your website, preferably within a call-to-action like a “house ad.”

The next thing to keep in mind? Patience. You’re not going to acquire an entire database overnight—but you will see a steady stream of interested consumers subscribing to your marketing texts. In our Planet Funk case study, for example, it took just a couple of weeks for customers to sign up for holiday sales coupons, resulting in big revenue during an otherwise dreary season.

Finally, make sure that the information you’re offering is something that your target customer wants anyway. People want to save money! But if your business relies on generating interest in a line of perpetually-new products or services, then it’s good to send SMS messages that tout a “new item/service” as soon as it comes out. For example, I’ve been getting the Lego catalogue after buying block sets for nephews for last Christmas. Imagine a Lego fiend’s excitement at learning about the latest Star Wars or Indiana Jones kits as soon as they’re available—especially if they’re at the mall and get the message on his/her phone right then and there.

Email Open Rates: What Marketers Need To Know

By Patrick Knight

Whether or not emails are opened consistently is largely based on sender reputation, relevancy, and other factors. Although open rates render inconsistencies, email is very much about building a relationship with your subscribers. As you achieve this through relevant content, setting and honoring expectations, creating trust with your brand, and following best practices, email open rates tend to increase.

An increasing email open rate is indicative of a campaign’s success, even if it’s not absolute. A number of factors can increase open rates, which are the starting point of determining the true impact of your campaign. Increasing email open rates can depend on a variety of factors. For example, open rates only account for HTML emails, not plain text.

Other things to consider: Is the origin of your list in-house or not? Have you emailed these people before? Are you sure this is the content they want to receive? The more you follow best practices and keep up list hygiene, so too will open rates be more optimal. At mobileStorm, we have experienced professionals who can provide guidance on best practices and offer strategic services to ensure that you stay whitelisted as a sender. With our constant monitoring of deliverability statistics and relationships with ESPs like Google, AOL, and Yahoo!, you have the best chance of getting delivered.

Four of the most important factors a marketer can control in terms of increasing open rates are:
• To build ongoing relationships.
• To develop a trusted “from address.”
• To create relevant subject lines and content.
• To encourage recipients to add you to their
safe senders list.

True, by itself an open rate can’t serve as a complete gauge of the impact of the campaign. It is only a starting point, because an “opened email” doesn’t necessarily equate to a “read email.” Moreover, it doesn’t tell you whether or not the recipient completed the marketer’s desired action. Other metrics such as the render rate can help create a more complete picture, with data such as click-through information, delivery failures, conversion data, etc. Having said all that, however, it’s important to know that along with other metrics, the open rate gives you a starting point to determine how your campaign performed.