It’s Copycam time again – because sometimes, pictures really are worth a thousand words (unless you’re asking for a copy quote, in which case, let’s talk).

Do you Lovefilm? I do. That’s why I joined.

No more trolling around the DVD rental shop to scan the bare shelves in desperation late on a Saturday afternoon when the gannets have been.

No, Lovefilm is much more civilised. Find titles online, drop them into your rental list, and they’re shipped in the post.

I couldn’t be happier.

Well I could, actually. If only they hadn’t asked me to rope in my chums.

Now I know that asking people to recommend a friend is a great way to find new business. People like people like them (still with me?) so friends of clients are the perfect prospects.

Here’s what they sent me:

But that’s not all. At the end of the letter were two shiny credit card-sized Lovefilm gift cards:

They even said A gift from Kevin Walsh. Isn’t that nice?

No, I didn’t think so either.

To be honest, I felt a bit used. But more importantly, the company dropped a couple of notches in my estimation.

Even worse, I’d now be less likely to recommend it to friends.

Horticultural implement (aka spade)

I’ve talked about euphemisms before. At best, they can sound precious and stilted. At worst, they can completely obscure the meaning.

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking past the new Primark store in Cambridge and spotted this:

Retail operatives?

Oh right, that would be salespeople to you and me.

Remember the first rule of copywriting: write as you speak.

But this jargon is everywhere. Down the road at M&S (and camera-less, unfortunately) I bumped into a Frenchman puzzling over this notice on the toilet door:

Female operative in male facilities

Whatever could it mean, he wondered? When I translated for him he laughed, and said he was glad to see the langue de bois was alive and well in England too.

Langue de bois? Literally, ‘wooden language’. Jargon, double-speak, gobbledygook.

Touché.

Feed me

Whether you love Tesco or hate them (I do both, frequently at the same time) you have to hand it to them: they’re pretty damn good at marketing.

From green points for recycled carrier bags to schools vouchers, they get all the little things right. They may be spreading across the country faster than a Gulf oil slick, but they sure know how to keep customers happy.

I spotted this recently in my local store:

How about that? Five different ways to give feedback, including a free text and free hotline.

Pretty good.

Mind you, they don’t get everything right.

A few weeks back, they relaunched their online shopping site, and now the graphics are slow, the basket scrolls up (it used to remain static on the right-hand side while the items scrolled on the left) and I’ve been seeing my old friend the hour-glass for the first time in 10 years.

So in this instance, they’ve got it wrong. But I’ll forgive them. I might even send them a free text with some feedback.

Because when it comes to feedback, one thing is certain.

Every little helps.

Related posts:

1. How to win, even when you lose
2. Are people buying what you’re selling?

I was at a friend’s book launch the other day.

Over cocktails and canapés, I found myself talking to the marketing director of a publishing house.

How much of a role, I asked her, does marketing play in the success a book? Can it make a book?

“Putting £100k behind a bad book won’t make it a hit,” she said. “Marketing is most effective when it’s behind a good book that’s creating a buzz among readers.”

And getting people talking about a book is the key to success. But sometimes, it happens in unusual ways.

From borrowers to buyers

Reading groups in libraries are a big focus for publishers these days. You might think, as I did, that this doesn’t make sense. After all, readers borrow the books, and that means no sales.

Not so.

People in library reading groups are big influencers: they constantly recommend books to friends.

One of the UK’s biggest publishers, she told me, now has a team focusing exclusively on library reading groups. It’s a vital part of their marketing strategy.

It’s easy to see why word of mouth is so powerful. We use it every day in our own lives. If my neighbour knows a good carpenter, and is happy with his work, then I’m happy to use him. Similarly, if I know a good accountant, I’m just waiting to tell somebody.

Get the talkers talking

The key thing is to market to the people who tell other people.

That’s why the Richard and Judy book club is so successful, the marketing director told me.  The cuddly couple are the UK’s answer to Oprah, and are hugely influential in the UK publishing market.

Their relaxed, conversational style makes them everybody’s friend, and what they recommend, the public reads. In fact, the ‘Richard and Judy effect’ can increase a book’s sales by 3,000%.

So the message is simple: get the talkers talking, and you’ll create a buzz you can’t get any other way.

Meanwhile, back at the book launch, I was regaling the marketing director with the details of the one book I thought I had inside me.

“I just need a refill,” she said, waggling her empty wine glass. “I’ll be right back.”

And she disappeared into a sea of people, never to re-emerge.

Find out more:

• The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen

You’ve got to read:

• We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• Of Merchants and Heroes by Paul Waters

Related posts:

1. Free advertising is just a step away
2. What’s in your Top 40?
3. Stuff happens. Deal with it (before somebody else does).
4. What you see isn’t necessarily what you get
5. Who’s controlling your image?

Thinking of starting a blog? Then here’s some required reading.

Viral Copy by Copyblogger’s Brian Clark is a goldmine of information. It’s also very entertaining (even if you’ve never seen WKRP in Cincinnati – in which case you should).

The message is simple: blogging is about trading words for traffic. After all, if you’re blogging, you’re doing it for a reason, right? You want to get more visitors.

And this report makes a crucial point: you want quality, not quantity. Or as Brian puts it, ‘targeted traffic is more valuable than tons of traffic’ (not easy to say after three G&Ts).

Just the other day, I was chatting with a client about blogging. He’s very keen, as he’s heard it’s ‘the new newsletter’. But when I asked what he was expecting to get out of it, he was less sure.

Viral Copy brings blogging back to basics, asking:

• What are you hoping to achieve?
• What do you want people to think when they arrive?
• Are they likely to come back?
• Will the attention you get from your blog reflect well on you?

And much, much more. These are critical questions, and ones all bloggers should ask themselves before they begin.

Viral Copy is a hugely enjoyable read. From ‘eleven strategies for link love’ to dropping turkeys out of helicopters (now that was funny) it’s all there.

Catch it while you can.

• Viral Copy: trading words for traffic by Brian Clark. Click here to read.

Related posts:

1. Tell me what to do
2. Free advertising is just a step away
3. How to write great headlines and get more clients
4. You’ve got to read this!