Website Magazine July 2014

4 Months to Better Product Pages, Page 18

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THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS JULY 2014

WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

’ Local Biz GOOGLE in a

World

INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

SEO’s Reliance on Outreach Lock Down Your Website Modern CRO for Modern Consumers 5O0P E-COMMERCE T

PLATFORMS

J U L Y 2014

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7SEARCH PUBLISHER AND FEATURE GREAT ADS ON YOUR SITE TO GET PAID.

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No other publisher network feature as many ways to generate continuous streams of revenue for your enterprise.

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A Buyer’s Guide to Affiliate Management Software

Responsive Design & The Mobile E-Commerce Revolution

Performance marketing is a costeffective channel and provides online advertisers the ability to partner with companies on a cost-per-action basis. Performance marketing relies on accurate tracking, hence tracking technology and software to manage partners is essential to the success of performance-priced programs.

Sponsored by Impact Radius

Switching to a responsive design can increase your revenue up to 34 percent while also creating longlasting customers with a higher level of satisfaction. Don’t let your brand suffer any longer with a difficult user experience. Take a look at the power of responsive e-commerce design and how it can help your business thrive.

Sponsored by Redstage

Building Your Sender Reputation in Four Steps

Q1 2014 Facebook Commerce Index

Having trouble reaching your customers’ email inboxes? You might have a poor sender reputation.

Similar to a credit score, sender reputation reflect how good or bad your company’s sending habits are.

If your reputation is lower than you’d like, just follow these four easy steps to start hitting the inbox.

Sponsored by Dyn

Facebook continually provides updates to its users, which can influence the way retailers manage their Facebook Pages. ChannelAdvisor’s Q1 2014 Facebook Commerce Index (FBCI) report tracks U.S. retailers’ Facebook Pages, analyzing their growth over the past three months and the methods they used to achieve these results.

7 Biggest Mistakes Online Retailers Make

Dangers of a “Good Enough” Marketing Automation Solution

You spend so much on AdWords that you wonder if you should buy Google stock. You’re doing the Facebook thing, the Twitter whatever and churning out content marketing. But for what? All to drive targeted users to your site. So after spending all those resources, you of course have made the buying process an intuitive experience. Right?

Sponsored by Velaro

Sponsored by ChannelAdvisor

The benefits of marketing automation are clear - automation brings incredible efficiencies to your team, making it easier to create customer relationships and drive huge results fast. In this ebook, we’ll outline the nine areas that you should consider when evaluating platforms so that you don’t end up with a solution that’s simply “good enough.”

Sponsored by Marketo

Download free at www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources

Local Biz ’ in a GOOGLE World

24

It’s a Google world, but local merchants can thrive in it.

Google’s diverse offerings include everything needed for merchants to grow their companies both online and off.

To be successful, however, local merchants and the marketers who support them must stay up to date on Google’s offerings and know how to leverage them to ensure greater awareness and more ’Net inspired conversions.

THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE Explore Website Magazine’s

DEPARTMENTS

Shoppers, 30 Modern Modern CRO

Consumers’ buying habits are becoming more sophisticated with every click. To increase conversion, brands need to adapt.

10

Everyday CRM Tactics

12

32

Meaningful Content Recommendations

13

A user’s experience with recommended content depends on how well organizations use the available technology.

14

Personalized Web Retail

Quiz Time: Test Your Tech Savvy

50 Top: E-Commerce Platforms

Mastering Search:

Digital Advertising & Artificial Intelligence

18

Design & Development:

“AI” is an advertiser’s best friend, optimizing campaigns to get them to their end goal quicker, while improving ROI.

20 40

36

The Problem With “Pin It to Win It”

Brands are telling users to pin to enter their social contests but it’s catching the FTC’s eye – in a not-so-good way.

38 Lock Down Your Website

Websites seem to be under constant threat from hackers. And in some cases, the volume of attacks can be overwhelming.

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Small Business Lab:

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Enterprise Ready:

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SEO 2.0 - Outreach Better Product Pages in 4 Months

E-Commerce Express: Check In to Check-In Apps

Commentary: The Digital Summer Lull

GET THE DIGITAL SCOOP Check out Website Magazine’s email newsletters covering e-commerce, search, SoLoMo, design and more at wsm.co/webscoop.

Influential Topics for a Passionate Audience

Newsletter

topic e-editioN/ priNt/ipad

Monday

tuesday

wednesday

thursday

Friday

E-Commerce Express

Mastering Search

Social, Local, Mobile

Design & Development

Hot Trends

Feature

e-commerce

Mastering search

design & development

top 50

stat watch

enterprise ready

small Biz

april

Web Design Trends to Watch

Product Page Design

Content Optimization

Innovative Navigation Techniques

Affiliate Networks to Know

May

Performance Matters

Retail Reviews in Focus

Emerging SERP Trends

Frameworks to Know

JuNe

Essential ‘Net Tech

Hosting for Merchants

SEO Software to Know

July

Local Web Biz Guide

Check-In Services

august

E-Commerce Growth Tactics

septeMBer

ad deadlines

Experience

Growing Global Quick

Saving Money in the Cloud

3/10

Digital Customer Service

Affiliates

Ensuring Digital Quality

User Experience Evaluation

4/4

App Builders in Focus

Essential ‘Net Tech

Hosting

Customer Service Exposed

Big Data for Small Brands

5/8

Earning Citations, Building Links

Product Page Design Challenges

Local Web Biz Guide

Local

Mastering the CRM

Marketing Automation in Focus

6/6

E-Commerce in 2024

Big Brand SEO Strategy

Educating Developers

E-Commerce Growth Tactics

E-Commerce

Optimizing the Digital Experience

Advanced Networking Tactics

7/3

Mobile Web Strategies

Merchants Go Mobile

Mobile Optimization Tips

Analytics for the UX

Mobile Web Strategies

Mobile

Fostering Creativity

Real Mobile Barriers

8/6

octoBer

Insights on Analytics

Essential Retail KPIs

Technical SEO Matters

Social Media Design Strategy

Insights on Analytics

Analytics

Choosing an Enterprise CMS

Generating More Business

9/6

NoveMBer

Managing the Social World

Social Shopping

Key Metrics in Optimization

Tools for Every Digital Designers

Social Media Management

Social

Website Security Issues Top of Mind

Building Niche Influence

10/6

deceMBer

The New Rules of Email

Merchant Email Design

SEO in 2015

Emerging Design Trends

Email Service Providers

Email

Paying the Price for Innovation

Better Email Management

11/6

Download Website Magazine’s 2014 Media Kit at wsm.co/mediakit2014 Contact 773.628.2779 info@websitemagazine.com

FROM THE EDITOR The Magazine for Website Success Reaching the largest audience of Web professionals of any Internet industry publication

Thrive In a Google World

CONNECT ON YOUR MOBILE Access the July 2014 issue online at

wsm.co/wmjuly14 or by scanning the QR code below.

WEBMAG.CO Check out Website Magazine’s new virtual pinboard highlighting infographics, videos, events and more.

What is Google? The answer of course depends on who you ask. To consumers, it’s just a search engine. To Internet professionals, it’s an omnipresent source of revenue, opportunity and frustration. To those who need Google the most – local merchants – it’s often a mystery.

Google could certainly hang its digital hat on any number of its products; its search engine alone demands a 68 percent market share. In a Google world, however, there is a stronger pull to make both paid and organic search, as well as social media complement the other, which keeps Google innovating and brands scrambling. It is certainly tempting for companies looking to grow their businesses quickly to leap into the many available third-party solutions that strengthen an enterprise’s SEO, advertising and social efforts, but that would be a mistake.

As consumers turn to Google for nearly everything – reviews, maps, listings, suggestions – a local merchant’s first step should be to develop a strong understanding of how Google’s offerings can support one another and a company’s broader digital initiatives. This month’s feature provides just that, practical suggestions on how to maximize Google to its potential and exponentially grow your businesses in the process.

Local business is also the topic of discussion in this month’s E-Commerce Express column, where Associate Editor Allison Howen discusses how location-based apps can provide enterprises with the opportunity to strengthen their mobile presence and attract more local customers. Customer acquisition is once again addressed in this month’s Mastering Search column, which dives into the power of content and relationships when visibility on the search engines is a brand’s aim.

Online retailers or the designers who support them will want to check out Managing Editor Amberly Dressler’s, “4 Months to Better Product Pages” to improve these digital workhorses before the start of the holiday shopping season. Equally as important is Associate Editor Derek Schou’s piece on website security. He provides three popular and proven solutions to keep hackers at bay.

As always be sure to visit us on the Web at www.WebsiteMagazine.com to keep up to date with all the news that matters to your online success.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:

Peter Prestipino peter@websitemagazine.com GENERAL MANAGER:

David Ruiz druiz@websitemagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR:

Amberly Dressler adressler@websitemagazine.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS:

Allison Howen ahowen@websitemagazine.com Derek Schou dschou@websitemagazine.com *CONTRIBUTORS:

Anthony Wilkey Tim Ash Charlie Reverte Or Shani Michael Kelber Kate Dennis Nye ART DIRECTOR:

Jesse Erbach jesse@websitemagazine.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER:

Shannon Rickson shannon@websitemagazine.com ADVERTISING:

Kelly Springer kspringer@websitemagazine.com Brian Wallace brian@websitemagazine.com

Barry Cohen bcohen@websitemagazine.com

Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Find Website Magazine at these Internet industry tradeshows.

Affiliate Summit East August 10-12 New York City, NY

PUBLISHER:

Susan Whitehurst susan@websitemagazine.com

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Best Web Wishes,

DevCon 5/HTML5 July 9-10 New York City, NY

999 E. Touhy Ave. Des Plaines, IL 60018 Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518 International: 1.773.628.2779 Fax: 1.773.272.0920

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Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com Website Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 10, July 2014, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is published 12 times a year, January through December by Website Services, Inc., 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018. Periodicals Postage Paid at Des Plaines, IL and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Website Magazine, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018.

Canada Post: Please send undeliverable items to: 2835 Kew Drive, Windsor ON, N8T 3B7 Copyright 2014 by Website Magazine. All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. For reprints of any article, contact the editor. *The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of Website Magazine.

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www.WebsiteMagazine.com

’’

The Authenticated Testimonials seal lets people know we can be trusted.

And trust has its advantages such as increased website conversions & sales.

’’

-Alan J. www.SupplyHero.com

How AutHenticAted testimoniAls work: We contact your customers to verify each statement.

Authenticated testimonials provides a verification seal to display on your website.

Prospects are more inclined to trust and purchase your products or services!

Phone: 1.866.904.5414 InternAtIonAl: 1.773.272.0998 AuthentIcAtedtestImonIAls.com

NET BRIEFS

Check the Menu Before You Check In Facebook Pages have become more ‘appetizing’ to some local enterprises. The social network unveiled a new feature that enables restaurant owners to upload their menus through SinglePlatform from Constant Contact and have them displayed on their Facebook Pages. Restaurants already working with SinglePlatform will see their menus automatically added to the social network. This feature, combined with Graph Search, heats up Facebook’s competition with Yelp, as the former is making it easier for small businesses to reach and attract local customers.

Pinterest Goes Ad H ppy In mid-May, Pinterest began rolling out its first paid test of Promoted Pins with a select group of brands, including Old Navy, Target and ABC Family (for more information go to wsm.co/maypromopins). Fast forward a month and the pinboard social network already expanded its ad offerings with the launch of a “do-it-yourself” Promoted Pins ad format which enables businesses to promote their pins on a cost-per-click basis. The DIY ad offering is still being tested; however, brands interested in trying the ad format can sign up for priority access.

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Cloud

TO THE RESCUE It likely comes as no surprise that nonprofit organizations are understaffed and underfunded. Box is lending a hand with its new Box.org offering, which provides technology to nonprofits to help them collaborate, share information with volunteers in the field and safely manage sensitive information about beneficiaries. More than 1,000 nonprofits are already using Box to manage their content, like the Boys and Girls Club, the American Lung Association and Teachers for America.

HOW DO YOU

RANK? Ever wondered how you stack up next to other professionals in your LinkedIn Network? If the answer is yes, look no further than the social network’s new “How You Rank” tool that enables users to see where they stand, in terms of profile views, within their networks or companies.

The tool also allows LinkedIn members to find the top profiles within their contacts, which can help inspire changes that users can make to their own profiles to get more views (like update their summaries). The tool is featured directly below the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” section on LinkedIn’s homepage.

" I found the show to be just the right size to have meaningful discussions with new partners, vendors and thought leaders. The educational sessions were very informative with several excellent speakers."

T.J. Gentle, President, SmartFurniture.com

Retailers

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L e ad Sp o ns o rs

ORGAnIzEd By

NET BRIEFS MOBILE APP WATCH

Defends Its Territory With the addition of online reservations and video reviews, Yelp is fighting hard to keep its 132 million monthly visitors.

Thanks to its acquisition of SeatMe, Yelp has taken aim at companies like OpenTable that offer online reservation services. Unlike OpenTable, Yelp Reservations is free for companies to advertise on. Additionally, Yelp’s new video reviews will give potential consumers a better idea of a business’s ambiance, for example.

Asana Keep your team on track with Asana, a mobile (and Web) application that makes collaboration easier. Users are able to attach files from Dropbox and collaborate with up to 15 people on a single task simultaneously. With Asana, all changes are synced in real-time so users never miss important information like updated due dates, comments on tasks or new assignments.

EstiBot

Move Over Ansel Adams Instagram’s filters are one driver of its success, but now the Facebook-owned social network is expanding its offering with 10 new editing features that can be used in conjunction with its filters. Through the new tools, users will be able to completely individualize each picture. The tools, which include brightness, contrast, sharpen, warmth and saturation options (to name a few), can be varied via a sliding bar to control the weight of the effects.

MORE ‘NET NEWS

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Apple gambles on DuckDuckGo. Find out more at wsm.co/duckduckago

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Square is turning digital receipts into a customer feedback channel. Discover how at wsm.co/sqreceipts

•

Is bigger really better when it comes to ads? Find out at wsm.co/adsizer .com

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If domains are top of mind, make sure to download the Estibot app for iOS devices. Through the app, users can get domain names appraised directly, access key metrics and data points (including search volume, CPC, PageRank, etc.) and research registrant information. Users can also leverage the app to access historical Whois snapshots to discover previous domain owners, view and search recent and historical domain name sales details and more.

Microsoft Files Microsoft has made it easier for Windows Phone users to manage and share files, thanks to the launch of its new Files app. The relatively simple application is a useful management tool, which allows for access to files that are stored on the phone as well as files that are on an SD card. With Files, users can create folders for better organization, as well as search, copy and share files with contacts.

Swarm Foursquare split its business into two mobile apps, and its newest app, dubbed Swarm, is now available for download. Unlike Foursquare’s traditional app, which focuses on local business discovery, Swarm connects people with nearby friends.

Users can find and message friends who are close by and even check in to venues.

STAT WATCH

GROUPON FLEXES ITS

E-COMMERCE POWER

54%

Despite the fact that Groupon – a company that ignited the once white-hot daily deal market – is valued at a third of its IPO price, the group-buying website is adapting to both the needs of local merchants and the wants of digitally savvy consumers.

As shoppers increasingly turn to their mobile devices to access local businesses, Groupon saw more than 10 million app downloads within the first quarter of 2014 and 54 percent of its transactions came from mobile in March of this year.

Groupon could gain even more steam if they truly embrace the convergence of local and mobile.

“Central to our operating plan is that in order to win in mobile, you have to win in local, as mobile and local are inherently connected,” said Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky in the company’s Q1 2014 earnings call. “Everything we do is with local in mind. While we have a significant advantage in local commerce given our scale, we have yet to truly deliver an experience our customers can’t live without.”

By all accounts, Groupon is becoming a mobile-first company — looking to deliver a better local commerce experience. One way they plan on doing so is by getting the very best merchants onto its platform and improving the redemption experience for its customers, according to Lefkofsky. Its newest product, Groupon Gnome, should help. The solution works as an all-in-one cash register, enabling merchants to log cash transactions, accept credit and debit card payments, print or email receipts, calculate multiple tax rates, manage menu items, view transaction history and issue refunds. Read more at wsm.co/ggnome14.

Find more useful data at WebsiteMagazine.com or by scanning the QR code.

35% $1.1 TRILLION Today’s digital technologies influence 36 percent or $1.1 trillion of in-store retail sales, and this number will likely increase to 50 percent of in-store sales by the end of 2014.

Consumers would buy in-store instead of online if they knew they could get the product quickly (35 percent), could get better pricing (31 percent) or were close to a store (30 percent).

(Google, May 2014)

(Deloitte, April 2014)

80%

Brands looking to access the Brazilian market must forge local partnerships, as consumers in Brazil use credit or debit cards for 70 percent of online purchases, with at least 80 percent of these cards supporting only Brazilian Real and issued by local banks.

2 Million

(VentureBeat, May 2014)

In mid-May, eBay launched new Spanish- and Portuguese-language versions of eBay.com to better serve its 2 million customers in Latin America who already shop eBay in English and pay with U.S. dollars. (eBay, May 2014) J U L Y 2014

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ENTERPRISE READY

OPEN YOUR ENTERPRISE MIND... with the Everyday, Everywhere CRM

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

Customer relationship management (CRM) software will not bring value to an enterprise if it’s not used, and used correctly, every… single… day. But what is the correct or “right” way to address enterprise-level CRM-driven initiatives? Open your mind and explore the possibilities.

A CRM is a vital system within today’s digital enterprise and is most often used for managing a company’s - and employees’ - interactions with existing and prospective customers but, increasingly as you will see, the surrounding digital (and non-digital) experience too.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CRM Solutions that are now often categorized as CRM have actually been around for a very long time, evolving from the database-driven direct marketing software of the 1980s, including such products as ACT! and Goldmine.

The acronym CRM actually emerged in the late 1990s after large ERP vendors including Oracle and SAP entered the market, at a time consequently when its biggest future competition, Salesforce, made its debut (around 1999). And as you are likely aware, Salesforce in many ways redefined the landscape entirely.

Demand for CRM today, as a result of improved technologies and perhaps certain economic conditions, has never been higher and in great part that’s due to the rather sophisticated initiatives users can now undertake with Website Magazine interwhat these powerful software platforms and viewed nearly 20 Internet solutions have become over the years - and professionals to understand businesses are spending more than ever before what they consider to be to make sure they don’t fall too far behind the the top three, must-have competition. marketing automation feaA Gartner report released in early May 2014 tures. Don’t miss this threereveals that the worldwide CRM market grew part series on the Web at 13.7 percent from $18B in 2012 to $20.4B wsm.co/maexperts. in 2013 - with 41 percent of all systems sold

Experts Speak

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in 2013 being SaaS based. (Get the inside scoop on what your enterprise - and its competitors - are spending for licensing fees and per seat usage at prominent CRM vendors at wsm.co/crmcost14.)

EXTEND CRM CAPABILITIES CRMs have been used in the past to organize, automate and synchronize sales and marketing (and it’s been very effective), but as consumers’ digital behaviors and expectations changed and matured, so have the roles that these valuable systems play within the enterprise.

Vishrut Parikh, NetSuite’s director of product marketing, believes today’s enterprises are only using a portion of their CRM’s capabilities, and suggests looking at ways to extend these systems’ usefulness. “CRM is not for just for salespeople anymore, it’s for the customer. It is (used) to manage the customer lifecycle, and companies can’t be as limited as they have been in the past.”

One of the ways that enterprises have been limiting themselves, suggests Parikh, is by not integrating CRM fully with their e-commerce systems. While CRM has been used regularly in relation to digital marketing, Parikh believes finding opportunities to more seamlessly connect with order management systems (recording transactions and interactions for example) will provide the data required to more accurately analyze a brand’s performance in general. It will also help identify possible issues (e.g. shipping bottlenecks) before they spread across the customer user base.

By understanding more about the experience of users, marketers are better able to plan (and improve) future users’ journeys with an enterprise and better leverage these systems to understand how each and every interaction directly impacts revenue.

THE STATE OF CRM CRM systems are evolving and this is evident most recently in the rise of marketing automation platforms,

Step-By-Step CRM Strategy For many enterprises, the CRM is the center of their digital universe. If your company has yet to take the leap into CRM, let the following serve as a high-level, step-by-step strategic guide:

marketing-focused databases which focus increasingly on delivering an optimal messaging experience (often through automated email, and in some cases social media) throughout the customer journey.

In 2013, there were numerous acquisitions in the CRM space that relate directly to the rising interest in automation, the consumer experience, and brands’ use of email specifically; the two most notable being Oracle acquiring Responsys and the Salesforce acquisition of ExactTarget. While these are important examples of how the CRM landscape is evolving, the best use case for CRM software may not even be on the radar of Internet professionals yet.

In many ways, the future CRM will be one component of a unified marketing platform whose purpose is to serve aa a warehouse of information about customers. It’s going to be fast (real-time, rendering in milliseconds); it’s going to access information from any and every touch point a prospect or customer has with brands (as well as every single attribute of the interaction); and then it’s going to be able to assist in the recommendation for an optimal experience during the next interaction, regardless of the format or channel in which it occurs.

LiveIntent is perhaps one of the best and most interesting examples of this evolution in how CRMs are used today. The company is the only of its kind; a programmatic advertising exchange for email newsletters that taps into the data stored in a publisher’s CRM in order to profile the user and deliver an optimal advertising format and message. (Read more about LiveIntent at wsm.co/liveintent14).

In the future, expect an increasing number of enterprises to adopt a more creative approach to transforming the customer experience –from the first touch to the most recent – and CRMs will be the single most influencing variable. The future of CRM is here, but your enterprise must decide how it will define its role in the customers’ future.

1 Organize a CRM project team that will include an ex-

ecutive advocate, project manager, CRM administrator and additional key users.

2 Define the expected result which may include reducing the sales cycles, improving reporting or increasing leads.

3 Address potential enterprise risks and threats by identifying security issues and formalizing user controls/permissions.

4 Prioritize goals by setting short but firm timelines to ensure the initiative stays on track in the future.

5 Create a user adoption strategy to ensure that every department within the enterprise is contributing.

6 Review or redefine policies and processes associated with the CRM to ensure efficiency.

7 Identify important metrics by which the CRM initiative can be measured, publishing reports for key personnel.

8 Build out richer profiles by appending/importing data to CRM records fields including customer purchase history, support tickets, etc.

9 Drive additional value by integrating various applications from outside the core of the CRM’s partner ecosystem.

10 Evaluate performance and explore new technologies that are continually emerging.

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SMALL BIZ LAB

Personalizing Customers’

Web Retail EXPERIENCE

By Anthony Wilkey, VP of Client Strategy at SmartFocus

Today’s retail customers expect personalized online shopping experiences.

Marketers who implement and execute personalization strategies, promoting products and offers that are meaningful and relevant to their customers, experience a significant return on investment (ROI).

Recent research by Econsultancy found that 59 percent of marketers reported that their personalization strategies are delivering a good ROI and an average uplift of 19 percent in sales. In addition, with personalization, businesses are able to automate manual elements of their merchandising strategies, freeing up valuable time for their teams to build stronger customer relationships, increasing their customers’ lifetime value.

Let’s take a closer look at how marketers can use personalization on the Web to enhance the customer experience.

Importance of Customer Data

To create personalized experiences, marketers should leverage their customer data – injecting real-time and behavioral data, preferences and demographic information that support delivering a unique experience for each visitor. With an understanding of both products and customers, marketers can, for example, update their homepages with related blog articles based on visitors’ interests that can be dynamically merchandised with relevant product suggestions. As customers journey deeper into a website, Internet retailers can continue to enhance the online shopping experience with relevant product recommendations based on preferences, search criteria and demographics. Using a blend of crowd-based data and knowledge around each customer and his or her behavior, it is Check out how service possible to create a website that familiarizes providers can use customer customers with your brand and its products data to personalize the or services. Ultimately, by providing a meanonline experience at ingful experience, retailers easily win new wsm.co/servicepros3. customers and keep them coming back.

P ersonalization as a S ervice

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Recognize Customers

Personalizing the online experience allows businesses to recognize customers and use insights, like historic and real-time behavior, to offer relevant recommendations.

Consider Scotland-based online butcher Donald Russell and the company’s online customer experience.

When a customer shops on the Donald Russell website, the site remembers what type of meat the customer is interested in, what sizes they are looking for and what categories of meat they buy in. Throughout the customer journey, and whenever a customer returns, the site displays relevant promotions and product suggestions.

So what exactly does this mean? It means a porkbuying customer will receive recommendations for bacon, while a customer who prefers poultry will see recommendations for chicken, duck and turkey meat.

While it may sound simple, acknowledging your customers’ preferences creates stronger relationships with them.

Product Knowledge & Automated Personalization

Internet retailers are using online personalization to replicate the in-store experience and grow sales by applying their expert knowledge about their products and customers to make alternative and complementary suggestions throughout their online experiences.

Take Majestic Wine as an example, the United Kingdom’s largest retailer of wine by the mixed case. Majestic Wine has hundreds of knowledgeable wine experts within its business. In-store, each customer receives a personal experience with a sales assistant who, in turn, is learning about the consumer’s preferences and likes and dislikes to guide the shopper toward the kinds of wines and spirits he or she might like. Using personalization technology, they have replicated this experience on their website by using transparent algorithms and rules, instead of “black box” systems, which decide what content to share with customers. Majestic Wine’s product recommendations are now based on the collective knowledge of its experts, enabling the website to suggest the perfect bottle of wine — every time.

As with any emerging technology, early adopters have taken the lead in personalizing customer experiences. The increased focus and adoption of true personalization shows that businesses understand the need to be relevant to meet their customers’ expectations. Moving forward, more businesses will provide truly personalized experiences to every individual customer across multiple touch points – Web, email, mobile, social and offline. Businesses need to be forward-thinking, leapfrogging competitors instead of catching up by using lower-impact personalization tactics.

QUIZ TIME

Savvy

Test Your Tech

The amount of resources invested in creating, managing and promoting technology is mind-blowing. As someone working in the Internet industry, it’s easy to lose sight of just how many software solutions are used every day and how much money exchanges hands in the process. Take a break and test your tech knowledge in this month’s Website Magazine Quiz Time. Then, go to wsm.co/qtjuly14 to see how you did.

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What percentage of investments by venture capitalists in the first quarter of 2014 went to software deals?

What top three cities (in order) were the most active founding tech startups in the last 12 months?

a. 11 percent

a. San Francisco, New York, Palo Alto

b. 76 percent

b. San Francisco, London, Austin

c. 24 percent

c. Seattle, Mountain View, San Diego

d. 42 percent

d. Palo Alto, Chicago, Boston

e. 2 percent

e. Mountain View, San Francisco, Palo Alto

How much did Facebook acquire the global mobile messaging platform WhatsApp for in early 2014? a. $11 million b. $4 billion c. $750,000 d. $5 million e. $19 billion

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What common features can be found at all 70 of Google’s offices?

5

On average, how many marketing technology solutions do marketers at midsize companies manage every day? a. 0-4 b. 5-9 c. 10-14 d. 15-19 e. 20 or more

a. Yurts and shared cubicles b. Pool tables and pianos c. Cafes and microkitchens d. Video games e. All of the above

Find the answers to Website Magazine’s advertising quiz on the ‘Net at wsm.co/qtjuly14 or by scanning the QR code.

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TOP 50

E-COMMERCE Platforms to Know The choice that an enterprise makes about its e-commerce platform almost always proves to be an important one in relation to its digital success. With nearly 1.5 trillion dollars expected to be spent globally on B2C e-commerce sales alone (source: eMarketer), merchants can’t afford to make bad decisions if profitability is their aim.

Just as information publishers struggle with deciding which is the optimal content management system for their enterprise needs (discover many of the top solutions in Website Magazine’s CMS Roundup at wsm.co/cmsguide14) the software that is used to power the digital presence of today’s e-commerce merchants raises a similar set of questions that must be addressed, challenges that must be faced, and real and virtual hurdles that must be surmounted.

The most sophisticated solutions on the market today are truly wonders of modern technology, and they are a far cry from the legacy systems of years past that did little more than provide retailers with an opportunity to showcase products and accept payments. The leading systems on the market today are now fully integrated with platforms for ERP, CRM, email marketing, and any number of other personalization, customization and optimization initiatives. The list of necessary features is long and it’s only getting longer.

The solutions that are top of mind with newer Web retailers (as well as the enterprises that have been in operation for years that may be considering replatforming) are those that continually improve their software offerings in response to consumer trends and other key market forces. In this edition of Website Magazine Top 50, readers will find many of the most important, sophisticated and popular solutions and platforms available to improve their chance of success as Internet retailers. While there will likely be many familiar names, this list of solutions provides a valuable starting point for those seeking greater e-commerce success.

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Hop on Website Magazine’s E-COMMERCE EXPRESS Many of the companies featured here have also been making big news on Website Magazine’s E-Commerce Express channel (and weekly newsletter) - available at wsm.co/EcommerceExpress

#1 – Magento merchants can become more social with a new app from Springbot that provides suggested content ideas (based on store data analytics), multiple store/ social streams in one dashboard and revenue attribution by social channel wsm.co/magentospring

#3 – Shopify merchants that offer products with warranties can begin selling their protection plans through a new integration with WarrantyLife.com wsm.co/shopifyprotect

#10 – 3DCart recently introduced support for Google Authorship, capitalizing on retailers’ interest in content marketing as a means of attracting and retaining customers wsm.co/3dcartauthor

#31 – MarketLive released a unified e-commerce solution that may serve both B2B and B2C audiences including resellers and manufacturers wsm.co/marketlive31

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Magento.com Amazon.com Shopify.com NetSuite.com Bigcommerce.com Volusion.com Yahoo.com Vendio.com UltraCart.com 3dCart.com PrestaShop.com 1and1.com Ecwid.com Zen-Cart.com CoreCommerce.com OSCommerce.com X-Cart.com PinnacleCart.com CS-Cart.com 1ShoppingCart.com Demandware.com Aspdotnetstorefront.com AmeriCommerce.com foxycart.com Hybris.com MivaMerchant.com ShopSite.com Ubercart.org nopCommerce.com goEmerchant.com Marketlive.com abilitycommerce.com ASecureCart.net PFSWeb.com Fortune3.com Venda.com ElasticPath.com clarity-ventures.com LiteCommerce.com ablecommerce.com CubeCart.com bvcommerce.com Intershop.com ProductCart.com eCommera.com Znode.com kartris.com Avactis.com KonaKart.com Infopia.com

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MASTERING SEARCH

SEO 2.0 – Focus on Outreach

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

There are no two ways about it - inbound links are influential in achieving top placement on the search results (arguably, they remain the single most important element today). Search engines, however, are not making it easy for Internet professionals to acquire the citations they need to place in competitive positions.

The search optimization process has changed dramatically in the 15-20 years since search engines first emerged in the digital landscape. In the past, the secrets of high rankings were straightforward - the heavy use of anchor text, paying for placement of links, directory submissions (regardless of relevance), sculpting on-site links and focusing on density-based keyword content, among others. The process was haphazard at best, but couple those methods with a keyword-rich domain and it was possible to rank competitively on the search engines (and with relative ease and simplicity). Again, things have changed – and changed dramatically.

SEO today requires that citations be earned – and what’s more, earned through a useful and remarkable contribution of content to the Web and the conversations happening within it. But publishing content is only half the digital battle. Today’s best SEOs are not just skilled at developing content (and optimizing on-page elements), but skilled at building relationships through outreach. It’s a new day – it’s SEO 2.0, and the time to start aligning content development with outreach has arrived.

Without taking outreach as seriously as content development, search engine optimization efforts will likely wallow in digital mediwsm.co/googwebtools - ocrity – a few qualified visitors will arrive over The most powerful weapon time, of course, but not nearly enough to fuel in your digital fight to (or sustain) digital marketing efforts. Links are top the search results is an important element in search engine’s siteGoogle’s Webmaster Tools, ranking algorithms and that won’t change in which offers up insights the foreseeable future. (Don’t Miss: SEO Without into areas of potential imLinks - wsm.co/seowithoutlinks). provement – none more so Outreach is the only way to build relationthan the information it proships capable of providing linked citations, the vides about meta descriponly way to become established as an authortions and title tags. ity or build a following of influential advocates,

Webmaster Tools 101

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and maximize the amplification of a message (and content) through social media. This, in essence, is SEO 2.0; taking advantage of relationships that are methodically culled and leveraging content that is both useful and remarkable. Search engine optimization professionals, those ultimately responsible for building links, must engage in outreach if their aim is to rank in competitive positions on Google and Bing.

Consider the following outreach plan to acquire the ‘Net citations your enterprise needs to place on popular search engines.

STRATEGIZE: The purpose of outreach is for SEOs to create a network of prospects capable of bestowing digital citations. The focus should be to acquire as many potential link partners as possible, but marketers must first understand the actual strategy that has been set in place by the brand. If the goal is to generate more leads, for example, the strategy might focus more on educational or informational content (in a thought-leadership manner), whereas if the aim is to increase awareness and page views, a strategy could focus more rigorously on producing regular, fresh and timely content (like a blog article commenting on a trending news item) to maximize the available marketing opportunities.

RESEARCH: Just as you wouldn’t depart on a cross-country trip without the necessary provisions, neither should you engage in an SEO campaign without the necessary information – information that will fuel the outreach initiative. The first step is to identify the verticals, niches or categories that carry the potential to ultimately provide a relevant citation. That means engaging in research that reveals relevant bloggers, potential partnerships and perhaps even competitors (direct and indirect). Don’t stop there however – there’s more information to collect than you might think. Discover five data points to start collecting for your SEO Research at wsm.co/5seoresearch.

PRIORITIZE: Many of the link targets identified in the research phase will be valuable – and others, well, not so much. When you prioritize prospects, you’re gaining more value with less work. Working top down, from the most influential to the least, optimizing outreach time

carries the potential to yield the greatest result as one link from an authority site in almost every case, for example, will outweigh the value provided by 10-20 sites with little or no value. Consider using a CRM database to keep track of link prospects, or one of the many SEO software solutions referenced in Website Magazine’s June ‘14 issue - wsm.co/4seosoftware.

absolutely necessary to maintain the relationship – and sometimes, that can be exceedingly difficult. The time and attention of those capable of bestowing a link/citation is often limited so relationship maintenance ensures that the opportunity remains viable in the future as new opportunities emerge.

DELIVER: After becoming familiar with whom it is you’ll be in contact with, and are following the outreach prioritization principle you’ll be one step closer to acquiring links – but only one step. The next phase is to actually deliver the messages that will ultimately earn your website the citation it needs to compete. Most often the outreach comes in the form of an email. Since there are so many different ways to reach out to prospective link partners, Website Magazine has put together a guide to writing the ultimate direct link request (for various scenarios) at wsm.co/ask4links.

ANALYZE: It’s possible that your strategy

MAINTAIN: Once you have a connection with an influential information publisher or customer advocate, it’s

SEO Data with MozBar wsm.co/mozbarseo –

(and all the succeeding phases) will be misguided – e.g. you might have had better luck publishing informational, thought-leadership style content over short-form briefs on trending news items. Ideally, digital marketers will be tracking their performance and determining if the strategy that was put in place is meeting expectations. If not, don’t be afraid to pivot.

SEO 2.0 has arrived and the savviest digital enterprises are signing on to the power of content and relationships. Don’t be left behind – start reaching out today.

SEO software solution Moz has released a new version of its browser extension MozBar. The extension provides on-page access to Moz’s link metrics and website analysis tools, focusing on SERP and link profile analysis, and site and competitor research.

MASTER AFFILIATE MARKETING Affiliate 360: Fundamentals of Performance Marketing provides a foundation for understanding the challenges and opportunities in affiliate marketing, so you can shorten your road to Web success.

Affiliate 360, published by Website Magazine, is an action plan for achieving success as an affiliate marketer. You’ll find yourself highlighting and earmarking the pages, as you discover practical tools and effective strategies from top minds in performance marketing.

To learn more, visit

WebsiteMagazine.com/Affiliate360

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DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

4 Months to Better Product Pages

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

As the holiday retail push seems to start earlier each year, many savvy online retailers are preparing now.

Since November and December sales could represent as much as 40 percent of their annual revenues, improved product page design should be one of their top priorities.

Discover several design-related challenges that merchants must address in the upcoming months and a few actionable tips from one smart digital storeowner to get you through the end of the year and put you in a festive, money-making spirit.

Product Page Prep

A. CountryClubPrep.com boasts four of the five must-have product page elements.

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Every retailer struggles with deciding what information to put on the product page and what to leave out. Including too much info can overwhelm customers, according to Benjamin Utterback, the lead community manager at PrestaShop, but not having enough information can worry a customer due to fear of the unknown.

What is left of July is the perfect time to create a product page wish list, like Country Club Prep, a company experiencing massive growth and aspiring to be the Zappos for preppy clothing, did in its early days. Founders Matt Watson and Stephen Glasgow – classmates in law school – drafted product pages on paper with color

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pencils and images cut out from other websites (check out a list of wireframe tools at wsm.co/wiref2014). This strategy is on par with advice from PrestaShop.

“The best advice I can give any online store owner is that the next time you are doing your own online shopping, consciously note down in your head or on paper what works for you,” said Utterback. “You’d be surprised how similar you are to your own customers. Don’t be afraid to test out something new, and always remember that design and content go hand in hand.”

August is Content Awareness Month Since design and content need to work together, including high-quality product images and unique product descriptions are the first to-do items on a retailer’s holiday countdown list. Adding high-quality images can be expensive, but retailers can learn a valuable lesson from Country Club Prep, which uses a collection of both manufacturer product images (when they have white backgrounds for consistency purposes) and photos taken in-house (the majority of the model shots, like the one used in image A, are shot in-house). What’s particularly unique – and useful– is that under the sizing tab they include that the model is 5’8” and wearing a size small. This may seem insignificant, but we know that product reviews are extremely influential in purchasing decisions (more on that later); one of the reasons is because shoppers like to compare what their experiences might be like to those who have worn, felt, tried or seen the product. Since Country Club Prep includes the model’s height and clothing size, a discerning female shopper would be able to compare her own body type to that of the model’s and determine if it would be a good fit/style for them. Of course there are more technical ways of doing this with virtual fitting room solutions (Fits.me is a popular solution as is PhiSix which was recently acquired by eBay), but retailers who take in-house product or lifestyle images can add their own commentary about the model’s height, size and weight

to help move holiday shoppers toward purchase.

Another way to improve product imagery is by integrating features such as 360-degree spin, slideshows, zoom-in, hover, etc., which can often be used with existing photos. Magic Toolbox, which provides image tools for websites, is a viable option that integrates with BigCommerce, Magento, NetSuite, PrestaShop, Shopify, Volusion, Zen-Cart and other popular platforms (check out its drag-to-spin feature in image B).

With more detailed photos in hand, the second half of August should be dedicated to creating unique product descriptions (ones that aren’t copied from manufacturers and ones that tell consumers a product’s story).

Once again using Country Club Prep as an example, its product commentary is so witty and informative that its customers routinely spend time on the page reading them and sharing them with friends.

A Super Social September To allow their shoppers to share their products, retailers must include social sharing buttons on product pages, which can provide them with feedback (like what’s popular) before holiday shopping even begins. Robust solutions like AddThis can monitor shares (and the messages included in them). Alternatively, retailers can simply get the “button” code from a service like AddtoAny. More direct feedback, however, can be obtained through customer reviews, just one of the many reasons this feature is a must-have for all e-commerce websites.

“In this day and age of massive social sharing and customer curated content, consumer reviews are imperative,” Utterback. “That said, if you don’t have customer reviews because you are just starting your store, keep them lower on the page until you have enough to prominently display.”

While Country Club Prep has certainly come far from its basement beginnings – like opening up two brick-and-mortar locations this year – its product pages are missing this very valuable feature. Knowing that Country Club Prep uses Magento, it could easily add any one of the Magento Connect product review options such as Yotpo.

October Means Mobile Equally important as social sharing functionality and user-generated content is mobile responsiveness, as consumers want to shop on whatever device they choose. Failing to optimize e-stores, let alone product pages, for mobile shoppers is a costly mistake according to Utterback. Need proof? Monetate’s 2013 holiday roundup indicated that mobile traffic was responsible

for almost 40 percent of Black Friday online traffic.

The majority of store builders and e-commerce platforms offer mobile-friendly solutions or responsive Web design, but merchants who need a little more nudging (or help developing) should check out Website Magazine’s, “Retailers. How to Get Mobile Now” at wsm.co/mobilenow14.

B. Magic Toolbox helps retailers increase conversion through 360-degree product imagery.

November Needs Shipping Info Regardless of device being used, there’s nothing that will turn off users more than high or hard-to-find shipping fees. In fact, a UPS study reports shipping and handling fees are the number one cause of shopping cart abandonment, which is why shipping and return policies should be displayed on each product page.

In November, online merchants must strongly consider offering free shipping even if it’s for purchases over a certain amount, depending on margins. Alternatively (although not as effective), merchants can provide a shipping fee calculator on the product pages. UPS offers Developer Kit Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which allow customers to calculate shipping charges, track packages and verify addresses.

The Countdown The holidays will be here fast but improvements to ecommerce sites take time. Retailers should maximize the next four months by focusing on improving their all-tooimportant product pages. Most of the five must-haves included here (high-quality product images, unique product descriptions, social sharing buttons, user reviews, and shipping and return policies) are standard to the top Internet retailers’ product pages, so your customers are expecting them on your site too.

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B2B Product Pages Insite Software shares the unique product page challenges and opportunities for B2B sellers at wsm.co/b2bprodpg. .com

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ECOMMERCE EXPRESS

Checking In To Location-Based Apps

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

Before the days of smartphones and tablets, people planned out every last detail of their trips – whether long or short.

After all, no one wanted to stop at the nearest gas station for directions or take a gamble on the local diner’s meatloaf. In 2014, however, it isn’t necessary to plan ahead nearly as much – and technology is to thank.

In fact, Pew Research reveals that 74 percent of adult smartphone owners use their mobile devices to get directions or other information, like business reviews, based on their current locations. In addition to the search bar, many consumers are leveraging mobile applications to learn more about their surrounding areas.

Location-based mobile apps empower users to discover nearby businesses and relevant/important information about them including descriptions, hours of operation and contact details. The challenge for merchants is knowing which apps consumers are using and then establishing a presence on these apps to drive foot traffic to their brick-andmortar locations. Although there are many of these applications available for download (for a list, go to wsm.co/checkinlist), merchants should consider focusing on these three robust solutions.

Trending: Yelp Yelp is one of the most downloaded location-based apps, and businesses who aren’t managing their presence on this platform are definitely at a disadvantage. In fact, approximately 61 million unique visitors accessed Yelp via their mobile devices on a monthly basis during Q1 2014.

From the Yelp app, consumers can find and check in to a variety of local businesses, leave written and video reviews and upload photos from their experiences. Merchants must do their parts by claiming their listings on Yelp.com in order to optimize it with data like descriptions, hours and contact infor-

What about Google?

Visit the feature on page 24 to learn why a presence on all-things Google is necessary for local businesses.

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mation. Plus, business owners can add photos, track user views with Yelp analytics and reply to customer reviews both privately and publicly.

To increase the chances of conversion, merchants can leverage Yelp’s advertising, deal and check-in features. Advertising on the Yelp platform, for instance, enables merchants to place their business listings atop relevant and local search results on both desktop and mobile devices. Conversely, merchants can create a “deal” or “check-in offer” to entice customers to visit their brick-and-mortar businesses. Both of these features are discoverable from the mobile app, allowing consumers to search specifically for nearby locations with deals or special check-in offers (see image A).

App to Watch: Foursquare Although a pioneer in the location-based mobile app space, Foursquare isn’t as popular as it once was.

This likely sparked the company’s recent gamble to split its business into two separate mobile apps with different functions. The previous Foursquare app will concentrate on business discovery, while the new app, called Swarm, aims to connect users within local areas.

It is still uncertain how this new business model will perform since the revamped Foursquare app won’t be released until later this summer. That said, Foursquare noted that its overhauled app will feature an updated discovery feature, include more personalized search and offer new ways to recognize and reward users.

Regardless of how these changes are embraced, Foursquare has more than 50 million members and 1.7 million companies listed, which means merchants should definitely have this app on their radar. Currently Foursquare offers a mobile app for businesses that enables users to manage their listings while on the go, but the simplest way to optimize a listing is on business.foursquare.com.

From this site, merchants can claim their venues,

MASTER AFFILIATE MARKETING A. The searchable “cat-

egory” menu within Yelp’s iOS app.

Affiliate 360: Fundamentals of Performance Marketing provides a foundation for understanding the challenges and opportunities in affiliate marketing, so you can shorten road to Web success. postyour business updates, reward customers, advertise the app varies. Merchants and monitor analytics.

that want to ensure their businesses can be found can email Up-and-Coming: Citymaps Affiliate 360, published by Websitethe company to add or edit Citymaps is quickly carving out a space for itself in the their listings, or can submit Magazine, is an The action plan for achieving location-based app market. app essentially offers their businesses through the a “social map” that enables users to explore their local settings tab on the mobile app. success as an affiliate marketer. You’ll find areas, create personalized maps and share maps with However, merchants should yourself earmarking friends.

Plus, usershighlighting have the ability to and collaborate with keep in mind that Citymaps friends to create group maps. Although currently only currently doesn’t offer busithe pages, as you discover practical tools available for iPhone, an Android app is expected to ness engagement tools or advertising options like Yelp and Foursquare, which might actually make it more roll out eventually. and effective strategies from top minds in According to the company, Citymaps covers 15 appealing to some. performance marketing. million locations throughout the United States and is working to expand across the globe. Each business is Don’t Check Out represented on the map with a logo (see image B) to Once a presence is established on location-based apps, make it easy for users to findvisit nearby places. Moreover, it is important for merchants to maintain their listings.

To learn more, the app offers turn-by-turn directions, store finders, It’s always a good idea to add fresh content, even if it WebsiteMagazine.com/Affiliate360 menus and user comments on location listings. is just updated photos. In doing so, merchants will It is important to note that Citymaps is still grow- strengthen their mobile strategies and attract more ing, which means that consumer engagement with local customers in the process.

B. Each business is represented by a logo on Citymaps.

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

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Local Biz ’ in a Google World

By Allison Howen and Amberly Dressler, Website Magazine Editors

Most business is local business. As the Web becomes a more traditional element in consumers’ daily digital lives, brands must know the places to be and the methods to get there to ensure greater awareness and more ‘Net inspired conversions.

For many, that journey begins with Google. After all, its search engine alone accounts for roughly 68 percent of the market share with its nearest competitor, Bing, accounting for just about 19 percent according to comScore’s most recent search engine ranking study.

Google could certainly hang its virtual hat on its search business, but instead has diversified its offerings to include nearly everything that brands today need to grow their companies online and off, not to mention for consumers to access information. The countless thirdparty solutions that support a brand’s efforts on Google are of course important too (think SproutSocial for Google+ management, HubSpot for search engine optimization, etc.), but before local merchants think about complementing their Google efforts, they must first get right with

Google’s Supporting Cast Get a gigantic list of companies, products and solutions that can support your efforts on Google at wsm.co/gbackups.

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Google. In other words, a strong understanding of how Google’s offerings can support one another and a company’s broader digital initiatives should be a local business’s first step.

Google’s Glare Aspiring and established local business owners crave information about Web success, particularly anything related to Google. The question many of them start out with is, “how do I get my website higher in Google?”

As an Internet professional, you know that answer is complicated and lengthy, and can’t all be covered in passing. That’s the reality of where many local businesses are starting though. They know Google is important, and they may have even set up AdWords or Places accounts but have no idea where to go from there. Luckily, the local businesses that have opened their doors in the last couple years seem way more advanced than those who came before them (and are just now launching a digital presence long after they framed their first dollar).

EXPERT TIP:

How much do you or your clients or colleagues really know about Google?

Take our quiz by the same name at wsm.co/googlequiz14.

Let this month’s feature of Website Magazine serve the audience of local business owners, or the marketers who support them, who crave more information and are willing to put in the work to maximize Google to its potential and exponentially grow their businesses in the process.

Google My Business A Local Think Tank Google’s affinity toward local businesses should be obvious, as it practically rewards companies that publish NAP info (name, address, phone). For Google, it’s just smart business. What Google found in its May 2014 report, “Understanding Consumers’ Local Search Behavior,” backs up its theory that consumers search with their location and proximity in mind. In fact, Google found that four in five consumers use search engines to find local information.

What’s more, 50 percent of consumers who conducted local searches on their smartphones visited stores within one day and 34 percent who searched on computers/tablets did the same. Those are figures that Google can take to the bank because local searchers take action and businesses are willing to pay to get in front of this ready-to-buy audience.

EXPERT TIP:

If you’re stuck when it comes to creating mobile ads that convert, check out these four examples at wsm.co/4adexamples.

Advertising Insights Users who are searching for local information have different needs than someone looking to, say, shop online. Four in five consumers from Google’s report indicated they want ads customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings, but the device itself is equally important.

EXPERT TIP:

Draw “zones” around where your prospective users live, work and play to maximize conversions by leveraging “geofencing.” Learn how at wsm.co/geofencing101.

The difference is that 51 percent of smartphone users are on-thego searching for local information, while 76 percent of computer/tablet users are researching at home.

The questions become how do local business owners make the distinction between users on different devices and what does that mean for ad content?

Local businesses that have used Google Places for Business or the Google+ Pages dashboard to manage company information were automatically upgraded in mid-June to the Google My Business dashboard.

The platform aims to make it simpler to manage local business information so customers can find brands across Google properties, including on Google Maps, Google Search and Google+. Learn how to accelerate your success with Google My Business at wsm.co/gmybiz.

Enhanced Campaigns In early 2013 all Google AdWords campaigns became enhanced campaigns, which gives advertisers the ability to reach people with the “right” ads based on their specific location, the time of day and device.

For example, a health spa in Chicago could create a campaign to promote its local offline business and its online store. In a single campaign, the owner could create ads with headlines, messages and landing pages that are tailored to customers searching on their mobile devices for spas in Chicago. At the same time, and in the same campaign, the merchant can create ads that will appeal to people who want to shop for facial creams or body wraps from their desktops, laptops or tablets. One way to deliver different messages to different shoppers is through extensions.

Extensive Extensions Local businesses should utilize ad extensions in order to have more control over the ad appearance and to maximize click throughs and conversions. In a whitepaper on the subject, ChannelAdvisor recommended that every advertiser use sitelinks, which are simply links to specific parts of the advertised website.

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sitelinks have seen their ad click-through rates improve by 30 percent.

For example, Ulta uses the sitelinks extension to include a link to their store locator in the paid search ad, which is particularly useful for a mobile searcher (see image below).

A local business can visit its AdWords account to see how many clicks and impressions the ad extension has received, its related costs and other metrics to decide which types of ad extensions work best and when it’s time to add or remove an existing ad extension.

The goal of sitelinks, according to ChannelAdvisor, is to be very specific. They provide this example.

A merchant using keyword destination URLs and whose campaign includes keywords that are quite specific, like “Brand+Item Category+Model Number+ Color” wouldn’t want to include a sitelink that goes back to a Brand+Category page. This is because the consumer made a specific search and the brand would essentially be broadening the query by sending them to the category page instead of the product page, which could result in a higher bounce rate and a lower ROI. When done right, local businesses can expect a dramatic increase in click-through rate and increased conversion rate overall while still being charged the same as a standard cost-per-click text ad.

Since we know that 51 percent of smartphone searchers are on-the-go searching for local information, local businesses will also want to utilize the Call Extension (offering click-to-call functionality from the search results) like Ulta did in order to display a clickable phone number within the text ad, which can increase click-through rates and conversions.

EXPERT TIP:

For other common ad extensions, visit wsm.co/commonext.

Riding the Carousel Along with switching all AdWords advertisers to enhanced campaigns in 2013, Google also redesigned local search 26

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results with the introduction of its Carousel format.

Essentially, Google Carousel provided a new way to showcase local organic results on Google’s search results pages, according to Adam Dorfman, SVP of product and technology at SIM Partners. Dorfman says the biggest benefit is it allows more businesses to appear above the fold than the traditional seven-pack results (see image above).

Additionally, when a searcher clicks on one of the results, they are taken to another search results page with information about the business that was clicked on (typically the company’s website, social pages, local listings, etc.).

EXPERT TIP:

Sure, local directories don’t have the SEO importance they once did, but merchants need to ensure the information they contain is accurate. See how to make list management easier (with the likes of Yext, Moz Local and more) at wsm.co/betterlistings.

One drawback, however, is that results are very imagebased, and controlling which image is displayed is not currently possible, according to Dorfman. Businesses will want to upload high-resolution images to their Google+ pages to help their companies stand out in Carousel results.

Additionally, they’ll want to update contact info, business descriptions, hours, website URLs and more from the new Google My Business dashboard.

EXPERT TIP:

More recently Google started testing products in Carousel, and it will be interesting to see how its new acquisition of Rangespan, a provider of a product listing management and big data services, will impact how products are displayed both organically and through paid ads. Learn how to optimize your listings before it’s too late at wsm.co/gprepared.

Embracing Google+ On the surface Google+ seems like a social wasteland that is scattered with random and inconsistent content, leading many local businesses to quickly abandon their efforts or ignore the social network altogether. But despite Google+’s lack of activity, the social network is actually more important to a business’s digital strategy than some of social’s biggest powerhouses.

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In fact, having a Google+ profile can help local businesses strengthen their visibility in Google Search. For example, branded searches trigger a company’s Google+ profile (and latest post on the network) to show in the right-hand column of the search results. For this reason and others, overlooking the influence Google+ can have on a company’s visibility is a huge mistake.

are more likely to see content in their personalized search results from the brands they have added to their Circles, a feature that enables Google+ members to sort their followers into specific groups.

EXPERT TIP:

Getting Started To reap the rewards of Google+, merchants must begin by optimizing their profiles. For starters, they need to select the “Local Business or Place” category when creating their business profiles, as this will allow their brick-and-mortar locations to show up on Google Maps. Once the location is verified, it is crucial that a merchant fills out every field on the profile, including contact information, website address, hours of operation and business description. It is also important to add categories to the page, as relevant categories will ensure that the business shows up in appropriate search results.

Setting up a Google+ Local page, however, is just the beginning of establishing a business presence on the social network. Once pages are created, merchants need to start posting content on a regular basis to help grow their audience base. Similar to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, business owners should aim to post a variety of content that is engaging and tailored to their audience’s interests.

EXPERT TIP:

Writer’s block doesn’t discriminate – everyone gets it. Marketers can use apps like Help Me Write, Write or Die, Prompts or others to overcome it.

Matthew Zajechowski, outreach manager for marketing agency Digital Third Coast, notes that merchants should not underestimate the power of using the hashtag on Google+ to obtain visibility.

“I think the first important step in going local would be to use locally based hashtags in your posts that include the name of the city your business is located in, along with any other local communities your business serves,” said Zajechowski.

Although growing an audience on Google+ may take longer than other social networks, it is definitely worth the time investment. In fact, Chris Long from SEO and Web design company ProFromGo notes that Google+ members 28

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The right hashtags make a big difference.

Everypost created an insightful infographic on the Dos and Don’ts of hashtags on Google+ at wsm.co/ghash14.

“When customers add you to their Circles, this means that the articles you post and share on Google+ are much more likely to show up when they perform Google searches,” said Long. “For instance, if you’re a local plumber and you write a blog post about ‘Choosing the Right Plumber,’ your post will naturally rank higher when your followers type the word ‘Plumber’ in the search engines.”

Long has also found that businesses are capable of ranking with their followers for broad and competitive keywords, all because of Google+. Once a strong presence is established on the social network, merchants can even tailor their content strategies to include keywords they know their followers will search for.

Just as consumers add companies to their Google Circles, merchants should spend time growing their Circles too. Since Google Circles allows users to segment people they follow, merchants can leverage this feature to organize people into different groups, like brand advocates or industry influencers. In doing so, merchants can focus on building relationships and interacting with specific groups of people, which can eventually lead to greater visibility and new business opportunities.

EXPERT TIP:

See what circles every business should create at wsm.co/circlethis.

Turning Up Engagement When it comes to engagement features, Google+ offers more than most of its social network competitors. This is good news for local businesses that can leverage these features to better connect with niche audiences and drive brand awareness.

In fact, one of the best features for local businesses to take advantage of is Google+ Communities, which enables users to create private or public communities for a specific group of people. For businesses just starting out on Google+, participating in Communities

can help them increase visibility and grow their audience base. Shannon Cole of Shannon’s Pet-Sitting, for example, quickly discovered the value Communities has.

“We have found the Communities to be a huge part in the outreach of our business,” said Cole who started a business presence on Google+ in 2013. “You could have lots of followers but that doesn’t mean you’ll get any interaction. We are a member in a lot of Google+ Communities (65). We are in groups for local Chicago, dogs, cats, pets, pet sitting, pet business etc.

Currently we are in the process of figuring out which ones are the most popular and interactive. A community can have 1,000+ members but it really does a business no good if the members aren’t active and don’t share content.”

In addition to participating in niche Communities, local businesses can also create their own Communities to foster better relationships with their most loyal customers. Within its Community, the business can interact with their audience members, spark conversations, market specials and ask for reviews.

Actually, one of the best things local businesses can do for themselves on Google+ is obtain reviews, as these pieces of user-generated content can influence rank in the search results. At the risk of sounding repetitive, reviews can also be managed within the new Google My Business dashboard. Jon Clark from Internet marketing company Fuze SEO says that reviews are a big driver behind Google’s local algorithm, and that the frequency of reviews is deemed as an indicator of relevance.

“If a business has received multiple reviews in the previous month, Google will likely prioritize that business over another that received multiple reviews in the past year,” said Clark. “With that in mind, focus on soliciting customer reviews any chance you can - invoices, newsletters, social networks, face to face, window stickers, etc.”

EXPERT TIP:

Reviews can also help local merchants become a Google Trusted Store, which gives shoppers confidence when doing business with a new company. As of the last holiday season, businesses needed to have at least 30 unique reviews within the past year and an overall rating of at least 3.5 stars to participate.

Communities and reviews, however, aren’t the only engagement features that merchants should focus on. Other features worth testing include Google Hangouts and Events. With Hangouts On Air, for example, merchants can create live video broadcasts and host conversations with up to 10 people.

Conversely, Google+’s Event feature enables businesses to create and promote events on Google+. This feature is especially useful for brick-and-mortar stores that have the opportunity to merge their online and offline communities by hosting events at their physical stores and inviting their digital customers to attend.

Knocking on Google’s Door Facebook and Twitter meet every Google+ advancement with one of their own. Check out their local offerings at wsm.co/mustuselocal.

A Google+ Future Google+ may not have the massive audience of Facebook or the real-time intrigue of Twitter, but remember that its user base is still growing and the social network offers many benefits outside of vanity metrics like followers or likes.

Businesses should leverage Google My Business to monitor and track notifications and updates, view the top searches for their brands on Google, discover the locations from where customers are getting directions to their businesses from and view Google+ post insights. By analyzing this data, store owners can optimize their marketing and engagement strategies for better performance on the social network over time. After all, the businesses that maintain a presence and interact with other members on the social network will not only be able to develop their following, but will also be rewarded in the search results.

A Google World As Google continues to dominate the online landscape in terms of how Internet users access information both on the go and at home and work, local businesses should allocate much of their resources to improving their Google presence. After all, it’s a Google world but local businesses can easily learn to thrive in it.

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CONVERSION CORNER

Modern Conversion Strategies for Modern Consumers

By Tim Ash

For most of the 20th century, mass communication was controlled by big media companies that determined not only the message and the medium, but also the timing. Consumers had little control.

?

If something newsworthy happened you had to wait until the nightly news or tomorrow’s morning paper to find out about it. If you wanted to hear a certain song, you had to sit by the radio until it came on. And when you watched TV there was no fast-forward button that let you skip the commercials.

Today, technological developments have put unprecedented power into the hands of buyers, who now control their own information and feedback channels. Information of all types is abundant and easily accessible whenever we want it, which has had a profound impact on consumers’ buying behavior. Here are some ways to make sure your conversion optimization strategy is keeping up with your evolving customers.

They use many devices and channels

Did You Know? · 46 percent of Americans

have showroomed – the act of looking for lower prices online while in-store.

· 59 percent of showroomers identify Amazon as the online retailer they most frequently purchase from after visiting a store.

(Harris Poll Holidays 2013)

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According to the Pew Research Internet Project, back in 1995 a measly 14 percent of American adults used the Internet at all – many of them at work. Today, that adoption has mushroomed to 87 percent, and it is not uncommon for people to use multiple devices – work computer, home computer, laptop, smartphone and tablet – in a single day. In short, consumers want and expect to be able to access the Web wherever and whenever they want. And that means you need to provide a seamless and predictable experience regardless of what channel or device your visitor is using.

JUL Y 2014

The way in which people choose to interact with your company online will likely be driven by the amount of time they have, the goals they want to accomplish, their physical location and their emotional state of mind.

What’s more, a visitor may start a visit on one device and then return later from a different device. Prepare for this reality by developing a cross-channel strategy that understands the transitions that users will need to help them jump between devices and channels and still enjoy a consistent experience with your site. And if you’re a retailer with a physical store, don’t forget the influence that mobile is having on in-store transactions. Instead of fearing showrooming, explore ways to facilitate crosschannel interactions such as in-store wayfinding and barcode scanning.

They want helpful content, not loud advertising The days when a business can talk only about their product and how wonderful it is are long gone. Oldfashioned “outbound marketing” is easily tuned out, as today’s consumers are more likely to seek out content that’s helpful and satisfies a need. In his book “Youtility,” Jay Baer emphasizes that “smart marketing is about help not hype.” He gives the example of Geek Squad’s approach to marketing through helpfulness: Geek Squad makes their money by providing customers with tech help, and yet they post dozens of how-to videos on their site, giving step-by-step directions on how to accomplish some of the most common technical tasks. When Geek Squad’s founder was questioned about whether this approach would decrease sales, he explained that the videos have actually increased conversions: “At some point, many users get in over their heads and need to call for help. At that point, who will they call? We’re betting it’s the company whose logo they looked at for eight minutes when we gave them free video help.”

Take a look at your social media efforts, your paid search, your emails and all your promotional efforts. Are they more hype than help?

Shift your editorial strategy and start providing useful, relevant and unique content to your prospective customers, gently pulling them toward your brand rather than pushing yourself on them.

They want to be recognized as individuals Consumers also want their online experiences to feel personal. Spoiled by the customized suggestions offered by Facebook, Amazon and others, consumers have come to expect a highly customized experience everywhere they go on the Web. In fact, a 2013 study by IBM found that 90 percent of customers want better personalization and are actually willing to spend the time to provide retailers with information so that they can have a better experience.

Sites that understand the power of personalization in building online customer relationships are delivering tailored Web and email experiences to each customer based on a combination of known attributes (referral source, search keywords, etc.), personas, past behavior or purchases and other data you may have available.

With personalization, you can offer a custom homepage image, targeted offers, page/product recommendations, and other custom content to increase engagement and conversion. You can even push out an email or SMS offer when you know a customer is in a retail store. Perhaps best of all, you can stop bombarding your customers with one-size-fits-all email blasts and start sending messages to each customer based on their unique interests, shopping behavior and even buying times.

They have endless choices In those long-ago days before the Internet, it was difficult and time consuming for consumers to comparison shop.

Today’s consumers hold a world of unlimited choices in their hands, so you must provide easy-to-use tools to help visitors refine their selections, consider alternatives and

“

“

The way in which people choose to interact with your company online will likely be driven by the amount of time they have, the goals they want to accomplish, their physical location and their emotional state of mind.

ultimately feel confident in making a purchase decision.

Advanced tools that are helping move consumers toward purchase include virtual dressing rooms, videos showing a product in-use, visitor-controlled 360-degree product views, product comparisons and, of course, customer reviews. Even less advanced features, like a robust search-and-sort capability that allows the visitor to filter multiple features, and a semantic search function that “predicts” what the visitor is looking for even when the query is typed incorrectly, are also conversion boosters.

In short, anything that helps your users find what they want, explore other options and feel comfortable with their decisions is likely to improve conversion rate.

In addition to having endless options of what to buy, today’s consumers also have myriad choices when it comes to deciding where to buy. If you’re in the office supply business, for example, what would make a customer purchase from you rather than your competitors, assuming your product selection and pricing is about the same? Offering options like free shipping, ship-to-store, store inventory checks and even same-day shipping can all be differentiating factors. And if you think that mobile commerce is the domain of B2C retailers, think again.

According to Deloitte’s “Fifth Annual E-Commerce Assessment,” 77 percent of the top B2B retailers are servicing their customers through mobile. Innovations like barcode scan-to-order features and one-click reordering are some of the ways B2B companies can create a competitive advantage with mobile technology.

Tomorrow is a new day Technology is driving innovation faster than marketers can adopt it. Consumer habits are changing so rapidly that the only thing you can be sure of is what your customers expect today, will likely evolve by tomorrow.

While it’s not possible – or even practical – to adopt every new trend that hits the digital landscape, you do need to change your mindset as a marketer. Modern consumers expect you to leverage your data and knowhow to provide them a delightful and intuitive online experience, and your conversion strategy depends on you to do just that.

Tim Ash is the CEO of SiteTuners, Chair of Conversion Conference and bestselling author of “Landing Page Optimization.”

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RECOMMENDING CONTENT WITH PURPOSE

By Charlie Reverte

Web publishers and marketers have invested millions of dollars and resources building sites with fresh, engaging content. Yet many still struggle with getting visitors to stop and engage with content for a significant length of time.

The average time a user spends on a site continues to decline, which means brands need to be faster, smarter, and more flexible in how they present content and connect with both loyal and first-time visitors.

Incorporating content recommendation technology into a website is an effective way to monetize a digital property and keep visitors on-site. So why is some recommended content spot on while the rest feels so off?

The answer is often within the strategy and not the technology. There are many types of technologies out there, all viable. But, if you don’t align the technology with your strategy, the end result will be disappointing at best. Most website owners have not taken the time to think through their content strategies to make sure these solutions are applied in ways that will help them reach their goals. Too often, publishers simply throw up engagement tools, resulting in irrelevant and often irritating content suggestions, or worse, non-relevant advertising.

The first step in executing a successful recommended content strategy is to clearly define objectives.

Are you trying to make money quickly or, over time, in-

Choose Your Algorithm!

Is trending, contextually relevant or behavior-based content recommendation right for your site? See them in action at wsm.co/crstyle14.

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crease page views, recirculation and time-on-site? That’s a very important distinction and the answer is key to selecting the right solution.

If you’re trying to make money, recommending content found on other sites can be very effective. These sponsored content solutions typically take traffic away from your site but pay out on a cost-per-click basis. The more clicks driven to the sponsored content the more money publishers can make. Increasing the number of sponsored content units on the page as a user reaches your site’s average pages-per-visit can help to strike the right balance. So, for example, if you see, on average, three pages per visit, you’ll want less sponsored content on the first and second pages and more sponsored content on the third page. This will help maximize revenue from sponsored content.

If money is not the end-goal and you want to increase page views and recirculation, choose a recommended content solution that keeps traffic on-site.

These tools allow website owners to surface the best content or recommend content from within a site that’s most relevant to visitors. Recommending popular and relevant content will boost page views and time spent on-site; and if you can get a user to view more than one page, that individual is more likely to follow your site and share your content.

Another thing to consider is the underlying algorithm in the technology making the recommendation.

There’s so much data out there being tracked about online users that it seems like it would be a no-brainer to recommend the right content for every visitor, but not all solutions use this type of information, typically called behavioral data. Each solution has its own secret formula when it comes to algorithms. There are algorithms

Master Web Fundamentals Web 360: Fundamentals of Web Success is the one-and-only guide to mastering all the elements critical to Web success. that recommend trending content, algorithms that recommend contextually relevant content, algorithms that recommend content based on the browser’s past behavior, even algorithms that take a combined approach (see sidebar). While they all recommend content, each works differently.

Brands should also consider where to place recommended content features. To not distract users (or be overlooked), place contextual recommendations at the end of articles as they offer related content to engaged users as soon as they’re ready for more. Realize, however, that not every user will get to the end of an article for different reasons; try placing a recommended content widget above the fold using behavioral recommendations to attract users who didn’t engage with the content. Recommendations can also be effective on a homepage to help users find something fast. For many sites, the homepage is usually the least specific so make sure to use behavioral data to personalize trending content recommendations.

A viewer’s experience with recommended content is a reflection of how well or poorly an organization has used the right technology to execute against its content strategy. To be successful, marketers and website owners must clearly define their goals and and select the technologies to help them achieve better engagement with their audience.

Here’s what subscribers are saying about Web360: “ A must-read for any level of Internet Marketer.”

“Very impressed with both the journal as well as the no-nonsense book.”

“So much insightful information I had to reread the book, highlighting all over the place.”

To learn more, visit:

WebsiteMagazine.com/Web360

Charlie Reverte is the vice president of engineering at AddThis.

Charlie and his team build core platform features at AddThis related to tracking and analytics, recommended content widgets and personalization API. J U L Y 2014

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NET ADVERTISING

Artificial Intelligence:

An Advertiser’s Best Friend

By Or Shani, CEO and Founder of Adgorithms

Artificial intelligence (AI) tends to conjure up images of HAL in Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” or, more recently, Samantha in Spike Jonze’s “Her.” What was once relegated to the chronicles of science fiction is now a reality for advertisers who want to maximize ad spend ROI. In basic terms, AI is essentially self-learning technology that automates decision-making based on relevant customer data – just don’t expect it to develop a consciousness any time soon. For advertisers, this means that AI can more quickly respond to market dynamics than manual optimization to continually build on what’s working and move away from what’s not. There is no shortage of opportunities for AI to elevate the strategic value of advertising campaigns, making it an industry mainstay in the immediate future. Here are three reasons to consider AI for your next advertising campaign.

A Hands-Off Approach While it may seem counterintuitive, it’s okay to relinquish control to AI in terms of where ad dollars are spent – in fact, it’s encouraged. There are billions of possible combinations an advertiser can choose from to reach a target buyer – from age to gender to geographic location, and so on. This is nearly impossible for any human to resolve. As long as you know what your end goal is, AI will get you there. It does everything an advertiser would do manually, but faster and with less money wasted on testing to find the magic combination.

To drive a successful campaign manually, you need either a massive budget for trial and error, or a large team to dedicate the time and brainpower to analyze and optimize strategy. Even then, there are limitations to what a human being is capable of processing. And even enterprises (with many resources) may miss out on large-scale opportunities. But AI can help See what brands and level the playing field by providing a cost-efproviders are leading the fective advertising tool that does this work on artificial intelligence way its own, with little need for human involveat wsm.co/aimovers. ment beyond establishing campaign goals.

Who’s Who in AI

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Self-Learning Technology Almost as bad as a poor-performing campaign is a goodperforming campaign on a limited scale. This tends to be the natural outcome of manual optimization through process of elimination – you start by casting a wide net, and gradually cut out the elements that aren’t working.

But while you’re left with a highly targeted net, the number of fish you can catch is now limited.

With a good AI system that learns and evolves over time, not only will your campaign net become more targeted, but it will also build on the most effective campaign elements to enable you to catch even more fish and get you to your goals faster. That’s because AI scales ad campaigns up, not down – and it won’t make the same mistakes for future campaigns. Human error, on the other hand, can result in the same mistakes being made over again – especially by marketers who may not fully grasp the intricacies of advertising and don’t understand the root of their mistakes.

Fraud Reduction Ad fraud has become a serious concern as of late. Studies show that nearly 30 percent of ad impressions are fraudulent. That’s a lot of wasted money. AI can significantly reduce ad fraud by using big data analysis to determine what aspects of each campaign result in conversions. It can also apply this same analysis to identify fraudulent patterns or plain bad performance from poor-quality leads. When integrated wisely, AI can not only minimize this activity in real-time, but also put itself on alert for future incidences by learning consumer behavior patterns.

By measuring this data over time, AI is continually selfimproving, resulting in better campaign performance.

When used effectively, AI is an advertiser’s best friend, optimizing campaigns to get them to their end goal quicker, while improving ROI. Through self-learning technology, AI expands the pool of qualified leads, sales and users, significantly reducing the incidence of fraud by evolving over time.

In the market to hire top-tier marketing talent for your firm?

Look no further than the Website Magazine Job Board!

Place your openings on the Website Magazine job board and reach a pool of quality candidates made up of tech-savvy individuals that come to WebsiteMagazine.com to stay up to date on the latest trends in the Internet industry.

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jobs.websitemagazine.com Website Magazine is the “Magazine for Website Success.” As the leading publication dedicated to improving the Web experience, our readers know a thing or two about marrying Web trends and quality technology to create profitability.

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

J U L Y 2014

©2014 Website Magazine

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SOCIAL MEDIA MAVENS

Rolling the Dice:

Social Promotion Disclosures

By Michael Kelber and Kate Dennis Nye

Social media’s rapid rise to ubiquity has led brand owners to leverage networks like Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram and Pinterest to market and promote their brands.

Notably, social media has significantly lowered the barriers to running sweepstakes or contests, and more brands are using these promotions more often, despite the fact that the regulatory and legislative guidance governing these promotions has been murky.

Most brand owners are aware of state contest laws, which generally prohibit running an “illegal lottery.”

Lotteries are defined as having three elements: chance (entrants may or may not win), consideration (entrants pay money or give something else of value) and a prize. In order to avoid running afoul of these laws but still give away prizes, brands are faced with a choice: eliminate chance, whether by allowing everyone to win or by structuring the promotion as a contest of skill or eliminate consideration by offering a truly free method of entry. While lottery laws vary between states, a wellstructured promotion that eliminates one of these two elements is generally legal across the U.S.

Ambiguous T&Cs

4 Social Contests to Copy Get ideas for your next social contests at

wsm.co/4copycontests.

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Adding a layer of complexity in the social media context is the fact that these outlets have their own terms and conditions (or “brand guidelines”) that govern a company’s use of those platforms. Particularly for brands that would like to run a promotion spanning two or more social media sites, or even would like to cross-promote a promotion running solely on one site, the ambiguity in these terms and guidelines sometimes leave uncertain whether a proposed contest would fit within the rules.

Pinterest presents additional challenges as a plat.com

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form for brand owners given that it functions by allowing users to “pin” a copy of what may be copyright-protected materials. The Pinterest brand guidelines prohibit a contest that would “require people to add Pins from a selection,” including possibly the brand’s own Pinterest page or website. However, allowing contest entrants to add pins from any site creates potential copyright risks for the brand in that it is arguably inducing users to make copies of what may be copyright-protected photos. One way in which those risks might be mitigated is to only allow entrants to pin photos from sites that include a specific “Pin it” button, on the theory that such a button is essentially an implied license to pin.

Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently weighed in on the application of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to contests on social media. Section 5 requires disclosure of any “material connection” between an endorser and the advertised product where consumers might reasonably not expect that connection. Both the advertisers and the endorsers may be liable for failing to disclose a material connection.

For example, in a 30-second television advertisement, consumers reasonably expect that the celebrity featured is probably being paid by the brand.

But, if a blogger recommends a product, consumers might not know whether he or she has been paid or otherwise incentivized to endorse it, and therefore must be disclosed.

Same Rules, New Platforms The FTC has regularly said that the rules regarding disclosure of endorsements haven’t changed—advertisements must be truthful and non-deceptive, regardless of form—but it has been aggressive in its application of Section 5 in the online context.

Using the #WanderingSoul hashtag as a way of entering a contest caught the FTC’s attention.

Recently, the FTC has issued its first official position on a Pinterest promotion. The FTC was concerned that a Cole Haan contest in which users were asked to pin images of Cole Haan products with the hashtag #WanderingSole (see images), in exchange for a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree may have violated Section 5, because the pins were endorsements of the products, and the #WanderingSole hashtag failed to adequately communicate the fact that the contest entrants were incentivized to endorse them by the shopping spree sweepstakes.

The FTC decided not to pursue enforcement action because it had never before addressed the question of whether entry into a contest is a material connection between the advertiser and endorser that triggers a disclosure obligation, nor had it addressed whether a pin on Pinterest constitutes an endorsement.

Many brands had appropriately anticipated the latter point — paid endorsers of their products on Pinterest should be disclosing that relationship as they would on Facebook, Twitter or other platforms. The FTC guidelines were updated in 2013 to be more explicit about disclosures on Twitter and other character-limited spaces (which, presumably, would include Pinterest). These revised guidelines specify that disclosures, even in these space-limited formats, need to be in “understandable language.”

Establishing a Connection The more interesting take away from the Cole Haan Wandering Sole promotion is that in the eyes of the FTC, entering a contest is a “material connection” between the entrant and the brand which requires disclosure. From the FTC’s perspective, the relevant question is: what would the consumer want to know about why this material has been posted?

If a friend posts a photo of a pair of shoes with a

caption that the shoes are great, it would be relevant to the viewer if the poster got the shoes for free, was paid to post that, works for the brand or, according to the FTC, whether the friend is making the post as a condition of entering a contest.

From a brand owner’s perspective, this means that extreme caution will be necessary in structuring social media contests and promotions going forward.

Any contest that requires posting of content to a blog or social media site should be designated as a contest entry, whether by hashtag or other disclosure method.

Thus, the official rules of the relevant contest should require that, in order to be a valid entry, such a disclosure needs to be made in whatever format the brand specifies.

To take the Cole Haan example, if they had required #WanderingSole and #sweepstakes or #WanderingSoleContest on each Pin in order to enter, they may have escaped the FTC’s scrutiny.

The Gamble Given that so many consumers have embraced social media whole-heartedly, and their ranks continue to grow, it is inevitable that companies will likewise gravitate to social media platforms to promote their brands.

However, these companies are faced with a shifting and complex landscape, and must take care to ensure that their promotions comply with the patchwork of requirements formed by state sweepstakes laws, copyright law, social media platform guidelines (if any) and the FTC Act. Michael Kelber and Kate Dennis Nye are intellectual property attorneys in the Advertising, Marketing and Social Media Group at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP (Chicago).

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HOSTING PANEL

LOCK IT

DOWN

By Derek Schou, Associate Editor

Cybersecurity is a very real concern for enterprises today.

Websites seem to be under constant attack from hackers. And in some cases, the volume of attacks can be overwhelming. Utah’s state government network alone, for example, faces 20 million cyberattacks daily, according to Mark VanOrden, chief information officer and director of Utah Department of Technology Services. In order to stay ahead of attackers, enterprises (regardless of their site or focus) need to be proactive when it comes to protection.

There are a number of different options that businesses can employ to lock down their websites; three popular options come from vendors like SiteLock, Entrust and Blue Coat. Take a closer look at these solutions and discover how they might help your enterprise improve website security.

SiteLock

Need More Options?

Discover three more powerful website security solutions at

wsm.co/3websecure.

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A website security platform, SiteLock offers a variety of useful tools including its Secure Malware Alert and Removal Tool (SiteLock Smart) and its TrueShield Web Application Firewall (WAF).

The purpose of malware (short for malicious software) is simple: to disrupt and damage computers and the networks they are connected to. Malware is an umbrella term that includes viruses, trojans, worms, spyware and zombies (computers that hackers have complete control of). SiteLock Smart scans subscribers’ website code daily and alerts them to any changes that have taken place. If the tool detects any malware it will automatically remove the harmful code.

Another SiteLock tool is TrueShield WAF, which essentially acts as a computer’s first line of defense. It protects subscribers’ computers by filtering out viruses, hackers and worms that try to infect their computers via the Internet. Additionally, this tool will protect users from The Open Web Application Security Project’s (OWASP) top 10 threats.

ENTRUST For enterprises today, mobile is one of the most important aspects of business. With an estimated 1.75 billion people expected to use a smartphone in 2014 .com

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how could it not be? While this additional channel has the potential to boost revenue, it also has the potential to be very costly if something goes wrong. In a study conducted by Ponemon Institute, the research company deduced that the average cost of cybercrime in the U.S. during 2013 was $11.56 million.

One of the ways that IT security company Entrust helps protect mobile users is with IdentityGuard. The tool protects enterprises and users by encrypting emails so that only the recipients with the “public key” can read them. The public key decrypts what the message says and allows the recipient to see the message as the user wrote it.

IdentityGuard also comes with pre–integrated mobile device management (MDM) capabilities which enable enterprises to grant mobile users secure access to their corporate networks.

BLUE COAT If enterprises elect to go with a more old school approach and opt for a piece of hardware to monitor the health of their websites, then Blue Coat may be the way to go. The security and networking solution provider offers six different versions of its ProxySG appliance, each with a different amount of hard drive (HD) and RAM (Random Access Memory) space.

ProxySG allows users to control Web traffic through methods such as, but not limited to, Web filtering, data loss prevention and user authentication. Data Loss prevention allows enterprises to detect and block data leaks before they start hemorrhaging information. Web filtering enables enterprises to block potentially harmful websites from within their networks that employees are trying to get to. User authentication is a way of identifying the user and verifying that they are allowed access to the network.

There are dozens of options to help fortify an enterprise’s website security so choosing the right one will take time, but making sure your business and its customers are safe and secure is worth it.

Resource Center FINELY FOCUSED INFORMATION FROM INDUSTRY SPONSORS Website Magazine’s Resource Center presents white papers and webinars from our sponsors that provide information, specifics and metrics to help you make decisions for website success.

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Did Google Just Penalize Me? Thursday, July 31, 2PM EDT / 11AM PDT FREE WEBINAR

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COMMENTARY

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Lull.

#WhatLull?

It’s summer, which means the temperature is rising and with it, so are time-off requests. For many, productivity tends to drop from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Tell us your “downtime” plans by tweeting us @WebsiteMagazine with the hashtag

#WhatLull.

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As companies – particularly those providing solutions to e-commerce sites, information publishers and service providers – typically race to launch new products or upgrades around industry tradeshows in the spring and fall leaving the summer and winter for their clients to actually implement their offerings.

For Website Magazine in particular, this provides a continuous cycle of extreme busyness followed by a catch-up period followed by extreme busyness and the cycle continues. Of course there is no rest for the weary, so Website Magazine typically spends its summer starting new content-focused projects that keep readers like you informed and engaged.

Last year it was Web 100, which named the top brands on the Internet and included household names like AT&T, Chase, The Food Network and 97 others.

This summer, Associate Editors Allison Howen and Derek Schou are reviving Application Magazine, as data from Nielsen shows mobile apps account for 89 percent of consumers’ mobile media time. This clearly means Internet professionals need more information about applications, and our associate editors are up for the task.

There isn’t enough room to include all of EditorIn-Chief Peter Prestipino’s projects (and I’m not just brown-nosing), but be sure to check out his baby (err…our most recent digital project) webmag.co, which highlights content that our readers can’t get enough of like infographics, videos and events.

Prestipino also launched InternetRating.net, which allows Web workers like you to rate other websites’ design and even submit their own. We think you’ll have fun critiquing others’ sites, but also learn a lot in the process. As if that weren’t enough, he’s nearly finished with his third book, which I’m excited to provide .com

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feedback and plenty of props on.

As for me, I’m preparing for Natural Products Expo East taking place in Baltimore in September and interviewing top brands regarding their social media strategies to provide an hour-long presentation on the popular topic. Attendees will be surprised to find out how much global enterprises are struggling with the same issues regarding social as they are (lack of organic reach, lack of conversion, etc.). Personally, I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to improve on my first presentation at the Natural Products Expo West last March. On the side, I’m growing a human being inside me (I win) and formally strategizing and implementing how to get some of the most well-known names in new media to more regularly contribute to Website Magazine (make sure to check out Prestipino’s article on Outreach SEO in this issue).

As a group, Website Magazine’s editorial team (and our design, subscription and sales colleagues, of course) is always looking for new ways to capitalize on the growing Web. We encourage you to use your “summer lull,” or whenever that time is for you, to reflect on what’s working, what isn’t and what could be done to increase engagement, retention, sales and even personal growth.

Even if your company doesn’t follow the same patterns as we do (for example retailers experience the exact opposite cycle), the lesson can be learned that there is never such a thing as a lull if you play your cards right.

Ideas can range from updating a homepage to focusing on gathering client or customer reviews to finding interns to create quality content for your blog to finally taking Google+ serious – the list is endless.

If you have some downtime (we won’t judge you if you say you do), tweet us @WebsiteMagazine using the hashtag #WhatLull to let us know how you plan on maximizing a typically slow season for your company.

We’d love to hear about the projects you’re working on to achieve greater Web success.

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