Website Magazine July 2015

3 Strategies to Increase Organic Reach on Facebook

10 CELEBRATING

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THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

JULY 2015

The Race for the

LOCAL WEB INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

Structured Data for the SERPs Summer Email Fitness Guide People Problems in Conversion Optimization

PLUS

TOPom5ain0 D s Service

SEE WHAT THEY’RE SAYING Take a video tour of interesting people and new stuff for your website.

Neill Feather

Sam Myers

Interview with Neill Feather, President of SiteLock.

Interview with Sam Myers, Director of Sales for BrandLive.

For More Website Magazine Video Spotlights Visit:

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alidated alidatedSite K T O V E RI

The Race for the

LOCAL WEB The convergence of the online and offline worlds is causing the local Web to be more complex, yet more rewarding than ever. From the smallest of companies to the largest of enterprise brands, every business today is a local business and they are racing to win the hearts and dollars of customers looking for products and services.

THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE Organic Reach on Facebook Declines Facebook algorithm updates are once again affecting organic reach. Can brands still reach consumers without paying to play?

Explore Website Magazine’s

DEPARTMENTS Stat Watch: Shopping Cart Abandonment

Enterprise Ready: Mind Mapping in Action

Small Business Lab:

The Softer Side of Conversion Rate Optimization

Basics of Customer Surveys

The success of a CRO initiative depends greatly on a company’s ability to get diverse types of people to work together effectively.

The Evolving Online Shopper

Quiz Time: Top 50: The Digital World of Domains

Mastering Search:

Email Summer Shapeup Plan Summer months deliver extra challenges for marketers, but they also provide opportunities to get email campaigns into better shape.

Structured Data for the SERPs

E-Commerce Express: Subscription Management in Focus

Design & Development: Web Frameworks to Know

Web Commentary:

Web APIs to Tap Into The API Economy is in full effect, with vendors racing to integrate their products for the benefit of end-users and their bottom lines.

Missed Opportunities In Mobile Search Mobile searchers are ready to buy, but many brands are missing out on the valuable search and conversion insights they provide.

The Fear of Missing Out

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

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From the

EDITOR Start Your Digital Engines Discerning online shoppers are looking for relevance, speed and convenience when deciding where to spend their dollars – providing unparalleled opportunities for local businesses to use their proximity to shoppers to their advantage.

Find Website Magazine at these Internet industry tradeshows.

Joomla Day July 18 Bloomington, MN DevCon5 – HTML5 July 20-22 New York, NY Affiliate Summit East August 2-4 New York, NY eTail East August 10-13 Boston, MA

This is especially true on the search engines. Search queries on Google including the words “near me,” for example, are increasing rapidly and leading to same-day action. In fact, Google notes that 50 percent of consumers visit a store within one day after conducting a local search.

Search engines are a primary driver for local customer acquisition, of course, but as detailed in this month’s feature, “The Race for the Local Web,” no digital touchpoint exists that the local Web does not touch. Readers will find guidance on providing quick and consistent access to brands’ products and services across search engines, social media networks, mobile devices, directories and websites, to name just a few. And, since the online and offline worlds are intersecting to the point of oblivion, this month’s feature also discusses solutions to provide a seamless experience for consumers regardless of whether it’s online or in-store.

Local business is not the only area of the Web that crosses digital channels. This month’s ‘Net Advertising column addresses click-to-call paid search ads, and the importance of monitoring these calls for ways to improve website conversion. Similarly, structured data is addressed in Mastering Search, where those responsible for the search engine optimization efforts of their enterprise will discover methods and tactics to update their sites so that search engines can understand (and display) the data it contains, like local events, recent reviews and more. Other important subjects addressed in this issue include subscription management, strategies to increase organic reach on Facebook, Web development frameworks and much more.

Throughout our July issue of Website Magazine, readers will also find links to supporting articles on the Web. We invite you to CELEBRATING join us there, where we go into more depth every day on those subjects and the many others that matter to your Web success.

Best Web Wishes, Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

10 YEARS

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

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#WM10Years!

Website Magazine is celebrating our 10-year anniversary by offering the chance for our loyal readers to win a $500 prize. While reading this July 2015 issue, look for the phrase, “optimization program” (hint: it’s in orange and bold in the second half of the magazine). Once you’ve found the phrase, go to wsm.co/digitalwm15 or scan the QR code on the left and click on that phrase within the current issue. You’ll then be directed to a special landing page where you can enter to win the $500 prize. For fun, let us know you entered by tweeting @WebsiteMagazine and using the hashtag #WM10Years.

Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com

Website Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 7, July 2015, (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 2015 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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Stat

WATCH

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON SHOPPING CART 55% ABANDONMENT

More than half of consumers say they need a reward or recognition in order to write a product review.

Today’s online shoppers are a savvy group who are increasingly demanding better experiences from ecommerce merchants.

To improve these digital encounters, however, online retailers must first understand the increasingly common “non-linear” path to purchase.

Bronto Software (acquired by NetSuite in April 2015) recently shed some light on consumers’ current online shopping preferences with its “Consumers Tell All” series – providing a new perspective on shopping cart abandonment. According to the data, the majority of consumers (73 percent) are actually using online shopping carts as a research mechanism by storing items for later viewing as they navigate different shopping destinations during the purchase decision process.

“Shoppers now increasingly use all available devices to make the best decisions and enhance their shopping experience,” said Jim Davidson, head of research at Bronto Software. “Commerce marketers need to clearly understand consumer shopping and purchasing behaviors, particularly the move toward mobile, in order to maximize revenue potential and identify effective commerce marketing strategies.”

The study also shows that consumers may have an ulterior motive for abandoning purchases, as the data found 44 percent of consumers expect to receive an email reminder after leaving products in their online shopping carts. Out of these customers, 37 percent expect their email reminder to include a coupon to motivate them to complete the purchase, while 15 percent expect the reminder to include a free shipping offer.

Online sellers, therefore, must be strategic with their email marketing initiatives, as the study reveals that even though 42 percent of consumers find reminders helpful, 32 percent find these messages annoying.

(PowerReviews, 2015)

1 in 3

Retailers are planning significant increases in their customer experience budget, as 1 in 3 will increase it by more than 10 percent.

(SDL and Econsultancy, Jan. 2015)

60.6%

More than 60 percent of consumers say they would stop shopping at a retailer after a poor gift return experience.

(LoyaltyOne, Feb. 2015)

25-34

Consumers ages 25-34 are the most likely to shop on their smartphones.

(MyBuys, 2015)

58%

Just 58 percent of luxury brand executives were content with their digital initiatives at the end of 2014.

(RadiumOne and WBR, Jan. 2015) J U L Y 2015

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Enterprise

READY

Mind Mapping for Everyday Web Teams

By Derek Schou, Associate Editor

Taking an idea from a concept to a fully realized product is a long journey and just like any journey, it must begin with a first step.

Every great story or must-have technology solution begins with a single, simple idea. Once product creators have formulated their ideas, however, they must then expand them to create additional layers, identifying all of the different possibilities and features of the concept, approach or design; and many business professionals – including strategists, developers and

Mind Maps in the Hot Seat Head online where Website Magazine editors review top mind mapping solutions at wsm.co/mindmap15

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marketers – are using mind maps to make this process happen.

One of the most popular (and traditional) uses for mind mapping platforms is as a brainstorming solution, where users simply write/enter their ideas in the center of a piece of paper or document and build out the required layers and sublayers of notes or additional capabilities. By using mind maps in this way, users are able to create detailed “maps” of the different parts that will ultimately combine in order to make the final product. There is more to mind maps than meets the virtual eye, however.

While a variety of mind mapping solutions are on the market today (see sidebar), let’s look at two distinct offerings and what they can bring to an enterprise’s creative and development processes.

COGGLE One of the more traditional offerings on the market is Coggle. A simple and straight-forward solution, Coggle enables users to plan their ideas and all of the steps required in bringing them to market. Users of the free solution, for example, can share their mind

“

“

More versatile than ever, mind maps are a valuable tool for any team looking to organize its thoughts and make better decisions through planning and information.

maps with their teams, track who has completed necessary phases and even revert to previously saved versions of their maps if necessary.

When asked what set apart Coggle from the other mind mapping tools available, James Crosby, the company’s co-founder, responded, “Coggle is a space that works the same way that you think. Free from the physical constraints of paper, it’s designed to redefine the way that documents work. We believe in documents that flow out from their central idea, not in reams and reams of lines of text or paragraphs confined to rectangles.”

QASymphony While a traditional solution like Coggle can prove useful for an enterprise, there are other, highly innovative, ways to use mind maps such as for data reporting.

QASymphony, a provider of testing services, for example, recently released its new qMap offering in beta. A module within its qTest product, qMap is not a traditional mapping tool. Instead of being used as a brainstorming and product mapping tool, qMap delivers “quality-related information” from applications.

While mind maps are traditionally created by manually filling out each layer and sublayer, qMap automatically records results from users’ sessions in selected applications. In order to gather the data for entry into qMaps, creators must leverage a tool called eXplorer.

According to Kevin Dunne, director of product strategy for QASymphony, eXplorer records a wide variety of data from users’ sessions including what screen or URL users are on, how much time users have spent on different screens, and which devices and platforms users reached the site from (e.g. User A visited two pages, tested the demo session and included a bug note two days ago).

Make Better Decisions with Mind Maps More versatile than ever, mind maps are a valuable tool for any team looking to organize its thoughts and make better decisions through planning and information.

Coggle serves as a shared workspace where users can invite team members to view progress, add necessary steps and more to bring a product or project from idea to completion.

As an example, this qMap screenshot shows the main branches of Apple (e.g. iPhone, iTunes, etc.) and then goes into more detail regarding their different features and functions – a mind map that product developers may want to emulate.

3 Steps to Master Mind Maps Set your enterprise on a productive path by learning how to make the most out of mind mapping technology at

wsm.co/3mapmaster

Small

BUSINESS LAB

Value My Opinion!

The Basics of Customer Surveys

By Michelle M. Wicmandy, CMO of Collective Changes

Regardless of satisfaction level, many customers are happy to discuss their purchases. Often, however, a brand never asks and when they do, they’re not making the most of who they are asking, what they are asking and when they are asking.

Who Who a company asks for feedback might be just as important as what they ask and when they ask. This is because according to a 2014 PowerReviews study, 95 percent of consumers consult product reviews before making a purchase, yet less than half of consumers actually contribute to product reviews themselves.

Since customers are investing their time to provide feedback, brands may want to encourage participation by offering an incentive, which will vary based on budget, respondents, research topic, time commitment and how the company will deliver the reward. Companies may need to offer higher incentives, for example, to improve response rates when gathering data from people, like CEOs or doctors, who might not respond quickly or at all. Incentives typically come in two forms:

+ Monetary incentives: Checks, money orders, gift cards and coupons can show appreciation, but avoid treating the incentive as compensation - doing so might offend respondents who then might not complete the survey.

Survey Incentives in the Real World See how three enterprises are incentivizing customers to respond to surveys at

wsm.co/3givegets

+ Non-monetary incentives: Tokens of appreciation can include merchandise, sales promotion items, donations to charity and even access to information, such as survey results or whitepapers.

Also, researchers must decide whether to give the reward before or after the survey. Giving it afterward might yield higher response rates but make the incentive more difficult to deliver (especially online), according to Ben

nett Porter, vice president of marketing communications at SurveyMonkey.

In any case, the purpose of the incentive must be clear. It should always be a sincere thank you. An incentive offered on any other condition than completing the survey may appear unethical, according to Sue Frost, senior vice president of Truth Consulting.

What No magic formula exists for survey design. Each business must determine how many questions to ask and which type to use. Respondents should, however, be able to answer the survey in 5-7 minutes. Give the survey to a few closely held customers and take it yourself first, suggested Dominique Shu, director of market research at Unleaded Communications.

Porter of SurveyMonkey agrees. “If you think it’s too long, your customer will think it’s too long and abandon the survey.”

To extract meaningful insights, survey designers often use qualitative and quantitative questions. Qualitative research uses open-ended questions to get in-depth answers.

This information is trickier to analyze than answers from quantitative questions, which express data in numbers such as rating satisfaction on a scale of 1-5 for example.

Some surveys focus on gathering detailed opinions on how customers use a product and whether they like it, according to Shu of Unleaded Communications. Surveys of this nature would contain more qualitative questions. An annual customer satisfaction survey, however, might lean heavier on the quantitative research.

When Customer surveys are an important communication tool as they allow a company to track trends, address problems and show customers their opinions matter.

There’s a fine line, however, between pestering customers by surveying them too often and not surveying them enough. Brands can track open rates (as survey responses are often solicited through email) and completion rates to determine the right frequency. Porter of SurveyMonkey recommends marketers survey customers at least once every six months, but advised following their instincts to determine the right frequency.

A marketer will know, for example, that a product release might be reason for a new survey, even if the same people were surveyed on a different topic just a couple months earlier.

Get Started Today It’s never too late to use surveys to clarify customer motivations, attitudes and preferences to improve their experience and a company’s bottom line. For a list of today’s top survey solutions, visit wsm.co/4bettersurveys.

Quiz

TIME

The Evolving E-Commerce Customer 1. What percentage of consumers shop online at least once a month? a. 8 percent b. 27 percent c. 60 percent d. 91 percent

2. Which one of the following is considered to be among the top 10 “worst” states for e-commerce fraud?

Technology isn’t the only aspect of the e-commerce industry that is evolving – shoppers are too. In fact, online shoppers in 2015 are much more demanding than in years past; not only expecting consistency from retailers across touchpoints, but also anticipating personalized shopping experiences.

Recent data from MyBuys, for example, reveals that 53 percent of consumers say it’s important that retailers recognize them as the same person across channels and devices, while 48 percent say they purchase more from retailers that use shopper interests and buying behavior to personalize the customer experience.

Fortunately, there are new tools and strategies being created every day that can help retailers drive conversions and deliver better customer experiences. Web professionals can stay up-to-date with these emerging technology solutions on Website Magazine’s E-Commerce Express channel online at wsm.co/ecommerceexpress.

How much do you know about today’s evolving online shopper? Test your knowledge in this month’s Quiz Time.

a. California b. Mississippi c. Illinois d. Utah

3. What percentage of consumers always expect free returns for online purchases? a. 16 percent b. 31 percent c. 72 percent d. 97 percent

4. How much does the average Canadian shopper spend online annually (in USD)? a. $1,097 b. $1,503 c. $2,002 d. $2,468

5. What percentage of consumers seek out negative reviews to validate authenticity?

Get answers to this month’s Quiz Time by scanning the QR code on the left or by visiting

wsm.co/qtjuly15

a. 7 percent b. 34 percent c. 63 percent d. 82 percent J U L Y 2015

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Mastering

SEARCH

Stand Out on the SERPs

STRUCTURING UNSTRUCTURED DATA

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

On the search engine results page, an enterprise has one chance: one chance to capture the attention of users, one chance to make an impression and one chance to earn a click.

The structure, layout and makeup for most search result pages (SERPs) encountered by average Web users (on a majority of keywords and phrases at least) are, of course, not really that much different from one another. Despite the constant testing on and gradual evolution of SERPs, what most often motivates users to click is still position (70-plus percent of Google clicks in fact occur on the first page). If a brand can stand out on the increasingly crowded results page, however, a greater volume of traffic can be the reward. So, how exactly is that done? By starting to structure the data presented on Web pages which is likely already being made available by an enterprise.

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SAY YES TO THE BENEFITS OF BETTER MARKUP While there is not any direct evidence that leveraging structured data (and specifically the shared data vocabulary supported by the major search engines via Schema.org) and engaging in such an optimization initiative results in a positive impact on actual search position, digital marketers and SEOs (who for years had postulated otherwise) have learned over time that structuring data enables the search engines to do a better job at crawling their websites – picking up additional context and relevancy cues that can ultimately be added to their sites’ listings on the results pages for specific queries (based on the discretion of the search engine).

As seen in the example on the next page for the search phrase “Gin Rickey Recipe,” not only is an image displayed, but also a rating as well as an indication of the time it will take to make the cocktail.

Structured data markup essentially provides those responsible for search engine optimization a way to showcase a richer and more meaningful

listing/result to users, and makes a site eligible to receive a variety of other benefits such as inclusion in voice search, maps and more modern experiences like Google Now. It also enables Google to promote events (and showcase local results too). Google is even piloting a feature that would allow its searchers to play music, watch videos and read critic reviews within search results (as long as the data is marked up appropriately). For the most part, and in a more practical sense, however, structured data markup helps enterprises showcase content in two important ways: by creating rich snippets (as seen in the Gin Rickey example) and exposing users to customized “Knowledge Graph” information.

Since the Knowledge Graph (first introduced in 2012) is such an increasingly important (and interesting) aspect of search engine optimization at Google today, Website Magazine has put together a brief guide to help brands capture additional traffic from the search results available at wsm.co/guidekg. The focus in this edition of Mastering Search, however, is on creating more compelling listings and standing out on the SERPs to gain more awareness and ultimately more website traffic.

STRUCTURED DATA MECHANICS It’s easy to get overwhelmed with a lot of the terminology associated with structured data. In reality, it’s not that complicated (at least from an integration standpoint).

The only thing SEOs really need in order to include rich snippets on pages is the addition of some very basic attributes in HTML tags to assign short and descriptive names to various items and properties. The primary elements include itemscope (which indicates the element is a Microdata element and its child elements are part of that format), the itemtype (which defines the vocabulary to be used by the Microdata format), the itemid (the unique identifier of the item), the itemprop (and individual data element) and finally, the itemref (which allows a Microdata element to reference another element on the page).

Those not familiar with coding could easily abandon ship at this point, but most content management systems and e-commerce platforms provide at least some basic functionality to support merchants and publishers who may be interested in a structured data initiative.

Unless a marketer has their digital fingers in their ears, they likely know the official Google stance is that its first priority is to help users find relevant, engaging answers to search queries. Structured data provides just such an opportunity, but Google doesn’t pull any virtual punches here - indicating

Using structured data markup, this site gets user ratings, recipe overview and other information in its search listing.

that the approach must not create a misleading or deceptive experience for its users, suggesting that it should always be an up-to-date and accurate reflection of the topic and content already found on the page, including text, images and videos.

There are an infinite number of possible use cases.

For example, a recipe website could use structured data to list the ingredients and describe the cooking steps. A local business could use structured data to provide a description of the business, the exact location, phone number and hours of operation.

Google, of course, wants to maintain the quality of its search results and so it regularly performs both algorithmic and manual quality checks to ensure structured data meets its existing relevancy standards.

If there is a compliance failure on the part of websites, don’t be surprised to see Google taking a manual action and disabling rich snippets for that particular site.

DOING DATA RIGHT & WRONG TODAY Integrating schema markup on Web pages can be challenging – but only for those who do not know what they’re doing. Fortunately, many solutions exist that make quick work of structuring previously unstructured data. Get started on your own website by taking advantage of Google’s own Structured Data Markup Helper (wsm.co/googsdmh) and then check to see if it is compliant with the Structured Data Testing tool (wsm.co/goodsdtt).

Make no mistake: structured data will not cure more significant search engine optimization issues.

The aim should be to present information to users in a way that is most meaningful and with the right intent, it is relatively easy to make it happen.

Schema Creator by Raven Using WordPress for your digital presence? The Schema Creator plugin from Raven provides a form to embed properly constructed schema.org microdata into a WordPress post or page.

See how it works at wsm.co/wtwraven

E-Commerce

EXPRESS

3 Rules of Subscription Commerce

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

Subscription services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Birchbox have quickly become household names and left consumers craving unique and valuable commerce experiences from every seller.

The challenge in succeeding with subscription-based commerce, however, is that the business model is far from what is now considered traditional. Merchants must not only understand what it takes to initiate relationships with prospective customers, but also what it takes to maintain the subscriber base they acquire. As interest in subscriptions increases, consider these three important rules:

Rule 1: Provide genuine value.

Recurring Revenue Express Discover top subscription management solutions at

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Although Netflix, Amazon Prime and Birchbox are dramatically different types of subscription services, they have one thing in common; they provide consumers with continuous value. This is the best way to sustain success with a subscription-based business model according to Tien Tzuo, CEO of subscription services provider Zuora.

“We’re shifting from selling products to providing services, and in the ‘Subscription Economy’ companies are focused on generating recurring revenue,” said Tzuo. “So it’s not about the price of the product and the margin. It’s about delivering ongoing value to a stable customer base.”

Amazon Prime, for instance, provides consumers with a membership that includes benefits like free twoday shipping and early access to deals on Amazon.com.

Conversely, Birchbox provides value both monetarily and convenience-wise, as the company delivers a variety of beauty samples to its subscribers for just $10 each month.

These samples enable subscribers to avoid the hassle of traditional shopping and try products they may have not purchased otherwise. While quite different in scope, both Amazon Prime and Birchbox are successful with the subscription model because the benefits they offer provide genuine value to consumers, which in turn drives 10 YEARS

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loyalty. For example, an Amazon Prime member is likely to make future online purchases on Amazon, just as a Birchbox subscriber is more likely to purchase the full size of a sample product from the company’s online store.

Rule 2: Focus on customer retention.

It is much less resource-intensive to build on existing customer relationships than to acquire new ones. In fact, Tzuo notes that most large subscription companies generate just 15 to 25 percent of their revenues from new customers. To improve retention efforts, merchants should identify their brand’s “churn trend.”

According to CEO and Founder of subscription commerce platform OrderGroove, Greg Alvo, churn trend can be found by identifying how long the average customer is staying subscribed and why they are churning. When identified, merchants can take steps to deliver enough value right before the customer is projected to churn to get them over the virtual hump.

Merchants can also get more detailed churn insights by using cohort analysis (wsm.co/cohortwm15), a means to understand how specific groups of customers evolve over their lifetime as a subscriber. Using cohort analysis, merchants can gain useful insights by comparing trends like the churn rate of new versus existing customers or the churn rate of subscribers acquired through different channels (e.g. social versus referrals).

Rule 3: Be equipped.

Ensuring subscription-based businesses have the right tools and technologies can significantly help in a merchant’s quest for success.

Zuora, for instance, recently introduced a solution called Z-Insights that provides merchants with a complete picture of every subscriber, enabling them to identify subscriber usage patterns and interactions. Merchants can also use the solution to segment subscribers by common traits and behaviors, which can help them look for signs of churn or subscribers in need of an upgrade.

OrderGroove is another company helping merchants develop better relationships with their customers. For example, OrderGroove provides subscription offer testing and optimization tools to help merchants discover if customers will respond better to offers like discounts versus free samples. By leveraging the testing data, merchants can optimize both their acquisition and retention efforts.

Subscribing to Success The increasing popularity of subscription-based business models has given consumers even more reasons to demand unique commerce experiences. Merchants must now leverage the right strategies and technologies to meet consumer demands and make the most of these recurring revenue opportunities.

10 YEARS

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2015 Trends for the Commerce Marketer

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Download free at www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources J U L Y 2015

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Design and

DEVELOPMENT

Today’s Top Frameworks in Focus

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

WORKING ON THE UI TouchstoneJS (touchstonejs.io) is a React.js (a JavaScript library for building user interfaces) powered UI framework for developing hybrid mobile apps.

It includes form components, navigation, transitions, native touch behaviors and much more is on the way.

Another very flexible UI framework for React.js that designers and developers may also want to consider is Elemental (elemental-ui.com).

There will come a time when anyone and everyone (including kind but techinept parent-in-laws) will be able to design and develop actual, functional applications for the Web (and mobile devices, of course) with ease and, believe it or not, that time is rapidly approaching.

Some would even argue that digital day has already arrived.

In many ways, they (the digerati) are not wrong: it is actually easier than ever before to create websites and mobile applications. For example, there is a long list of DIY website building solutions (wsm.co/topdiyweb) and the soon-to launch – and potentially disruptive – thegrid.io (a scalable digital design tool that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning) promises to further accelerate and transform the ‘Net experience for millions of aspiring Web professionals. Couple that with the many available solutions to help individuals and brands build mobile applications for iOS and Android devices (wsm.co/6diyapp) and it is easy to understand how establishing a digital presence will never, ever be the same again.

In many ways, frameworks (both for the frontend and backend) are the digital precursors to this rather epic moment in the history of technology. That time is not actually here yet, of course, so what’s a Web worker to do in the meantime? Automate much of the behindthe-scenes coding and development with frameworks.

Frameworks are essentially just collections of files and documents that enable developers to build websites

and mobile applications from scratch – and often much faster and without some of the complexity. For those not interested in actually coding every conceivable element of an application (from grid design and CSS to animation and virtually everything in between) frameworks essentially provide a viable shortcut and they can prove very useful (although they do have detractors).

Let’s take a look at a few of the most interesting frameworks available today and what they can provide both startup and established app developers alike.

Frontend Frameworks Leveraged most often for prototyping, frontend frameworks are used in production environments to ease and simplify building websites and apps. Since most websites and apps share a similar structure (e.g. they are responsive, built on a fluid grid and have similar UI components), it doesn’t make a lot of sense to repeat the design and development process over and over again. Frontend frameworks use common patterns and structures - removing or reducing much of the initial work that is involved like setting up custom templates or default browser styles.

Bootstrap (getbootstrap.com), arguably the most popular HTML5 framework today, is a powerful frontend framework that is proving ideal for designers and developers. Bootstrap (just like its many alternatives) includes all of the essential components for responsive websites (such as multi-column responsive grids, custom jQuery plugins and a rather intuitive customizer to help personalize designs). According to BuiltWith, 9.4 percent of the top 10,000 websites are using the Bootstrap framework. There are, of course, plenty

of perfectly viable alternatives including Skeleton (getskeleton.com), Gumby (gumbyframework.com) and Foundation (foundation.zurb.com).

Backend Frameworks Whereas the frontend focuses on what end-users actually see, the backend is where the digital work is really done. Essentially, the backend of a Web application is the enabler of the frontend experience, and the backend is responsible for the logic, the calculations and the interactions with the database and the performance. The code that is required runs on the server (as opposed to the client) so in order to make the backend work effectively, developers need to understand programming languages as well as optimal server architecture.

Operating on the backend code can be very complex of course. Developers build applications using serverside code such as PHP, Ruby, Python and .NET, which in turn connects to a database (using MySQL, SQL, Access, etc.) to view, save or change data and return it to the frontend. Again, it’s complicated to develop and manage these interactions but frameworks makes implementation somewhat easier. So, what are the backend frameworks that enable them to ease this obvious complexity?

Over the past few years, AngularJS, for example, has captured the attention of the development community. A JavaScript framework from Google, AngularJS (described as what HTML would have been if it were designed for building Web application) is a powerful toolset for application development that is fully extensible and highly supportive of other libraries. Starting with AngularJS, however, can be overwhelming for some. Fortunately, a few frontend frameworks have been adapted to provide support.

One of the most popular is Ionic. Offering a solid set of building blocks, each component in the Ionic framework is optimized for the mobile experience.

The framework even offers the Ionic Creator, a dragand-drop app builder which can building apps even faster and easier.

Get to Framin’ While the need to master coding (on both the frontend and backend) is decreasing, the demand for quality websites and applications has not. Individuals and enterprises turning to frameworks to ease design and development are finding they are accelerating rapidly toward Web success.

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The Race for the

LOCAL WEB

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

There has never been a better time to be a local business.

Proximity is influencing the digital landscape more so than ever before as shoppers want access to products and services as quickly as possible. Whether it’s choosing the closest brickand-mortar or the fastest delivery/pick-up option for a product they found online, Internet users are proving speed and convenience rule the digital day.

Search queries on Google including the words “near me,” for example, have increased by a factor of 34 since 2011 and, according to the search engine, nearly doubled since last year – with the vast majority (80 percent) coming from mobile.

Which search entries do mobile users tend to select the most?

Those that can lead to quick action.

In fact, Google reported last year that 72 percent of consumers who searched for local information on their smartphones visited a store within 5 miles – good news for a business with a local storefront.

Clearly mobile and the local Web are deeply intertwined (more on that below), but it’s not just mobile search that is fueling local purchase decisions. Omnichannel – strategies that are used to provide a seamless brand experience regardless of which device or channel is being used by the consumer – is dramatically changing how consumers (both in business to 24

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consumer and business to business) expect to conduct business and make transactions online and offline.

Two key omnichannel practices in e-commerce, for instance, are the ability to view in-store inventory online and the ability to buy online and pick up in-store. Little do shoppers know, however, about the complexity and expense involved in these capabilities – nor do they care.

In an Accenture and Hybris paper released last year, the two companies found that 71 percent of shoppers expect to view in-store inventory online, while 50 percent expect to buy online and pick up in-store. Much of this behavior is even happening at brick-and-mortars, with the Local Search Association (LSA) reporting just this year that 90 percent of mobile users have used their devices while shopping – typically looking for deals and comparing prices (referred to as showrooming). The savviest of companies are using these customer habits to their advantage – catering to the mobile user in unique ways.

It should be obvious to both consumers and ‘Net workers that the lines between the online and offline worlds are intersecting, causing the local Web to be more complex, yet more rewarding than ever. From the smallest of companies to the largest of enterprise brands, every business is a local business racing to win the hearts and dollars of customers looking to do business conveniently.

Location, Location, Location Check out real-world examples of how to properly display location and contact information on a website at wsm.co/sitenap

STARTING LINE Despite the opportunities, there is a lot involved when it comes to developing (and maintaining) a local Web presence.

For many, their efforts start and end on the search engines – a primary driver of customer acquisition for today’s businesses.

As mentioned, Google data indicates that consumers search with location and proximity in mind, with 4 in 5 consumers using search engines to find location information like store addresses, business hours, product availability and directions (on both mobile and desktop devices).

While this information certainly needs to be displayed accurately and strategically on a brand’s website (see, “Location, Location, Location” sidebar), there are times when users will simply never go further than the search engine result pages (SERPs) – requiring companies to leverage options that help them win conversions on the SERPs, without as much as a website visit (see this month’s Mastering Search column for more ideas on how to do so).

This is why savvy local companies have long used location-based ads to engage users. Google’s research on the subject found that 60 percent of consumers have used location information in ads, specifically indicating their preference for ads containing store addresses and phone numbers, as well as call buttons. For many, however, this is old news. Ad extensions have been a part of their paid search strategies for quite some time, using sitelink (driving consumers far into a site), call, review and location (see image on the right) extensions to get above the search results and entice users to click by adding extra information about their businesses.

For multi-location companies, however, connecting prospective customers with a company’s nearest location can prove to be more difficult, as was the case with Cottman Transmission and Total Auto Care with its 63 units nationwide. Through hyperlocal PPC and SEO marketing strategies and supporting tools, however, Cottman is now able to match searcher intent to the right Cottman location and service, according to the company’s VP of Digital Marketing Derik Beck.

“Each location runs independent marketing campaigns, all managed through corporate partnerships, so the local strat-

egies are implemented and executed,” said Beck. “Whether a searcher is looking for ‘Transmission Repair’ or needs ‘Transmission Repair in Denver,’ we are able to present the correct ad copy, the correct campaign and the correct landing page to that individual.”

Reporting for multi-location paid search campaigns can be a digital nightmare though – just ask Starwood Hotels with its 10 brands, including Westin, Sheraton and St. Regis. Its interactive agency Razorfish found a way to reduce time spent on reporting, however, by leveraging Marin Software. The Marin Software case study indicated that Starwood bids on approximately 100,000 different keywords across its range of hotels and that around 90 percent of all Starwood’s search terms are branded, but its business model demands it bids on broader, local terms such as “luxury London hotel” or “place to stay in London.” By leveraging Marin Software, Razorfish reduced time spent on reporting for Starwood Hotels by more than 80 percent, allowing the agency to focus on other areas.

LOCAL SCALABILITY Setting up, managing and optimizing local marketing campaigns is challenging, especially for advertisers with many store locations. In addition to reducing reporting time, Marin Software’s automation tools enable marketers to efficiently scale local marketing efforts by generating a set of keywords based on a few key inputs such as industry, business and location.

The benefits of localizing a paid search campaign (on any ad-driven search engine), for example, are to save on budget and to make sure ads only show to a target audience in a specific location, according to Fernando Angulo, head of international partnerships at SEMrush. In the case of paid search, a large audience isn’t a plus.

Local companies – from single locations to multiple locations – can leverage SEMrush to J U L Y 2015

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By adding multiple location and call extensions, Southern California company iTan can attract local searchers ready to act.

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analyze both their site and their online advertising activities in order to output a list of domains currently competing with theirs in paid advertising.

“One of the strongest features of our service is the ability to perform keyword research,” said Angulo. “With paid or organic search, it becomes easier to find related or exact-match keywords you can use for your campaign. But I think the most useful report is the Ad Copies report. It displays a list of chosen competitors’ websites’ AdWords ad copies shown exactly as they appear in search results. What’s more, you can also use the Ad History report to further analyze how your competitors have changed their ads to make them more relevant for their audience.”

After reviewing the analysis conducted by these tools, brands will not only get a list of ad copy with the highest positions, buy they’ll also know which keywords their competitors are using for ad campaigns – helping them develop and improve their own initiatives.

For a list of solutions to discover the right local keywords, visit wsm.co/lokeywords.

For example, HardRock.com hosts location pages for its many operations. Not only does www.hardrock.com/cafes/san-diego have hours of operations and an interactive map, but it also displays special promotions, events and social media content for that specific location. Further, including fresh social media content does not require much of Hard Rock’s time, as users upload their pics directly to the site and its social media service Olapic pulls users’ Hard Rock photos from networks like Twitter and Instagram (see image).

For large, multi-location retailers being able to push down this kind of localized information at scale can be difficult. SIM Partners offers its Velocity platform, providing a way for brands with multiple locations to have a centralized place to store, manage and publish data. Here are some key features of the Velocity platform:

MULTIPLE RACES

+ Creates custom location pages that integrate location content

In the same way that multi-location companies bid for location-based keywords, brands with several locations must “act small” – creating location-specific websites and landing pages to attract consumers looking for their closest brickand-mortar. The latter, according to Adam Dorfman, SVP of product and technology for SIM Partners, has long been a recommendation from Google, preferring any business with multiple locations to have unique and useful location pages associated with each.

What Google doesn’t say, and what SIM Partners has found, however, is that it’s not enough to have a location page with a map and name, address and phone number (NAP) data. Rather, having hyperlocalized content on these pages is extremely important and can have a significant impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion.

HardRock.com’s location page for San Diego includes information patrons would need to visit or call the location, as well as fresh content specific to Hard Rock Café San Diego, which can have a significant impact on SEO and conversion.

+ Reports and publishes local data (think name, address, etc.) across the Web, updating clients’ information on a nightly basis on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Foursquare and other online directories to ensure searchers with local intent find accurate business information. with brand specific items such as logos, colors and messages (so there is consistency across brand location pages).

+ An extension of the Velocity platform, Velocity Social helps large brands effectively manage social communities for multiple locations (see sidebar on the next page).

+ Assigns call tracking numbers to each individual location, so when a consumer “clicks to call” brands can track offline conversions, listen to the calls and see other call analytics.

+ Helps manage localized promotions, such as automating coupons for Los Angeles customers and different ones for Illinois customers - good for seasonal sales.

These capabilities have been taken up a digital notch, however, with SIM Partners’ recent alliance with Vibe, a mobile marketing company. The partnership will allow SIM Partners to take the Velocity platform and engage consumers in the “near-me” moments on mobile devices.

For example, once searchers click on a fast food restaurant’s location page, they can opt in to receive promotions on their mobile devices (stored in mobile wallets like Google Wallet or Apple Wallet).

The coupon can be triggered when the mobile device owner is driving by that location (using GPS detection), a certain point in the day or even when a customer is at a more specific location within the business (using iBeacons).

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with SIM Partners and bringing together two extremely effective marketing tools — location and mobile wallet technology,” said Jack Philbin, co-founder and CEO of Vibes. “SIM Partners is just one example of how Vibes’ mobile wallet APIs can give technology companies seamless and instant access to the leading mobile

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wallet applications in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. We are seeing in-store redemption rates of 30 percent once offers are saved to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, so partnering with SIM Partners’ location marketing platform is a natural and smart fit for both of us and our customers.”

With the SIM Partners and Vibe partnership, local brands can add mobile offers to their individual location pages which can be stored in a shopper’s mobile wallet and continually re-served as a brand decides to push notifications to nearby customers.

From both a marketer and technologist’s standpoint, location-driven mobile notifications are a digital dream – brands get unparalleled access to consumers not only on their phones (which are typically on-person or within arm’s reach) but also wherever they are.

Just how willing are consumers when it comes to giving up anonymity for a discount? Well, that might depend on the device they are using.

There are two things happening right now in the world of mobile notifications, according to Dorfman of SIM Partners. One, mobile users are learning how to turn down/turn off app notifications, which makes them more willing to accept them. Two, the onset of wearables has made notifications less intrusive.

“With wearables like Apple Watch, you don’t have to reach into your pocket and wonder if it’s a text or an app notification, you just glance at the notifications on your watch,” said Dorfman. “Then you can decide [when you’re out and about, for example] to make a left turn instead of a right to redeem a free coupon [at a local business].”

PAYMENT PLATEAU Apple may not only be changing consumers’ attitudes toward mobile notifications, but also their willingness to use

Content for Locals Only Check out top examples of creating content for location-based marketing at wsm.co/onlylocals

mobile payment options in general. In fact, Walker Sands’ “2015 Future of Retail Study” found that only 4 percent of consumers have used Apple Pay – that gives users the ability to pay with their devices rather than their physical credit cards – but 18 percent say its introduction makes them more likely to make a purchase with their smartphones in the future.

What is it about Apple Pay that makes consumers more open to using a mobile payment system?

“Apple already had a great brand reputation and amazing consumer penetration, so Apple Pay quickly turned into a trusted and widely accepted mobile payment solution,” said Dave Parro, retail practice lead at Walker Sands. “This established confidence in the brand helps ease consumers’ apprehensions of using mobile payment providers (8 out of 10 consumers report some hesitancy about using mobile payment services), with the biggest concerns being security (57 percent) and privacy (48 percent), according to [our recent future of retail study].”

Consumers’ security and privacy concerns are likely why 56 percent of them (according to the previously mentioned report) view cash as the most secure form of payment, ahead of credit cards (22 percent) and debit cards (16 percent) with mobile wallet/phone applications named by only 1 percent of consumers. Even with Apple’s name recognition, it will still have a significant hurdle to overcome for widespread adoption.

In the tech savvy crowd, however, adoption might rise quicker than most expect. The reason is that according to Q1 2015 data from DeviceAtlas, iPhone 5 (both S and C versions) is currently the most popular model out of the latest Apple iPhones. iPhones – like iPhone 5s that do not support Apple Pay without Apple Watch – will eventually be upgraded and it appears merchants will be ready.

According to Kount, 68 percent of merchants will accept mobile payments by year’s end.

For further reading, check out, “Should Your Company Transition to Mobile Payments” at wsm.co/mobilepayqa.

PICK-ME-UPS As customers become even more reliant on their smartphones for search, promotions and even payments, the expectation that they can access a global brand at a hyper-local level will grow to be even more cumbersome for enterprises.

This is because customers will begin to think even less about channels and expect the same level of service and inventory in-store and online.

Brands are doing what they can to not only offer buy online and pick up in-store options and the ability to view in-store inventory online, but also offer same-day delivery.

For the latter, services like Deliv are popping up to offer same-day delivery in existing checkout processes, whether online, mobile, phone or in-store. Customers can choose

when and where their purchases are delivered. In this case, services like UPS and FedEx are replaced with drivers who, using their own vehicles, are rated by the enduser and then assigned deliveries based on their ratings. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s very similar to Uber, which disrupted the taxi industry.

Personal delivery drivers cannot be a fulfillment possibility for brands, however, without seamless communication between their on- and offline channels.

Fortunately, vendors are also competing to win the local Web. This competition among technology providers is a good thing, even for smaller local businesses.

“Large retailers are setting the stage and have been influencing shoppers’ expectations for some time,” said Shopatron Founder and CEO Ed Stevens. “This includes an expectation to access local product availability online with the option of same-day in-store pickup.”

How do brands and smaller retailers compete?

“Shopatron’s new technology in Local Product Search levels the playing field, allowing brands and retailers of all sizes to provide shoppers a complete view of local product availability on the first day they launch their product locators. This is the

Social Strategies for Local Business Owners From local Facebook groups to local events, check out social strategies for the everyday local business owner at

wsm.co/sociallocalbiz

only technology that can find products at local retailers with or without store inventory feeds. Brands and retailers can now meet and exceed shoppers’ expectations by offering local, sameday in-store pickup.”

Mid-level enterprises also have a racing partner in NetSuite, which recently launched its SuiteCommerce InStore solution, a mobile-first, point-of-sale offering that gives in-store associates access to online data and vice versa, websites access to in-store information and customer history.

As NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson described it at the company’s recent SuiteWorld conference, “This isn’t coupled with the website, it is the website in-store.”

For instance, an online shopper visits a retail website and abandons his shopping cart that contains a plaid shirt and a camping chair. That shopper can see where his items are in-stock locally. He then visits the store, and the associate helps him, seeing his online shopping cart, his average transaction total, orders and even returns (see image). Knowing this information, a sales associate can better personalize his in-store shopping experience and even offer more relevant upsell suggestions based on previous sales.

What’s more, using SuiteCommerce InStore, the sales associate can complete the transaction for the plaid shirt but then simultaneously offer to ship him the camping chair that he chose not to purchase because he didn’t want to carry it around the mall.

Using SuiteCommerce InStore, NetSuite customers can benefit from having their website data in-store, which can provide a more seamless and memorable buying process for local customers and more conversions for the business.

THE FINISH LINE

Using SuiteCommerce InStore, NetSuite customers can benefit from having their website data in store.

The local Web is just one example of how everything that consumers touch – mobile, search, social, payments, promotions, deliveries – is influenced by the other. As brands race to win the local Web, it’s a good reminder to think about outside influencers because winning local hearts and dollars is a team effort.

Social Media

MAVENS

HOW BRANDS CAN STILL REACH CONSUMERS ON FACEBOOK

By Joe Matthews, Co-Founder and CEO of Tagkast

As organic reach on Facebook continues to decline, standing out on the social platform is more challenging than ever.

At its simplest, Facebook’s most recent News Feed algorithm update makes content shared by users’ friends appear higher in a given News Feed and promoted content appear lower. Facebook warned that post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline – and many expect that is exactly what will continue to happen.

As a result, brands fear they will no longer reach their desired audiences or be able to foster relationships with new customers – at least in an organic fashion. Despite what they may think, however, marketers can still increase brand awareness on Facebook if they consider the following:

1. Leverage Peer-to-Peer Sharing

By pairing a question with images, Subaru encouraged users to respond with pictures of their own, increasing its organic reach.

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Facebook’s new algorithm encourages peer-to-peer sharing, emphasizing content shared by users’ friends and family. Now more than ever, retaining customers is more important than acquiring new ones on social media, because companies will rely on current customers to increase their brand reach. If current customers share their brand experiences on Facebook, chances are very high that friends and family will see their posts and possibly comment on or share them.

Marketers may want to consider sponsored and promotional events to provide their brands a perfect platform to encourage peer-to-peer content sharing, like capturing photos of consumers experiencing a product in a hands-on way and encouraging guests to share those photos with their social networks. By doing so, they increase a brand’s reach and maximize impressions – helping broaden their networks and build new relationships.

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2. Integrate Visual Content Visual content takes peer-to-peer sharing one step further. Photos and videos have proven to be one of the most effective ways to communicate on social channels.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that social platforms like Facebook continue to modify their layouts to highlight photos and graphics. Marketers can generate up to 100 percent more engagement through imagebased posts (rather than those that are text-based) according to the social network itself (see image).

3. Implement Tags Brands shouldn’t forget the importance of tags to increase reach, vitality and engagement on Facebook. They should encourage groups of attendees to tag themselves in photos for optimal reach. The more people tagged, the more chances a photo will be shared, which will increase a photo’s impressions and overall brand awareness.

While peer-to-peer sharing, visual content and the use of tags will help brands extend organic reach, to become a social marketing superstar, it is necessary to add in branding to user-generated content (as well as their own).

Let’s return to the event example. If a company brands event photos with a name or logo before guests post them to their own Facebook accounts, this will boost recognition of the sponsoring company, not just the event.

Think about how often sports photos are shared on Facebook for either a contest or out of pure excitement for the win or a new player. Often, one photo is shared by hundreds of fans with a congratulatory message. If this photo is branded with a logo, this sharing doesn’t just spread news of the player or the game – it spreads the brand’s involvement as well.

In fact, marketers that facilitate peer-to-peer, branded photo sharing directly from a promotional event have helped grow their social reach by up to tenfold. At the 2015 Philadelphia Auto Show, for example, Subaru received more than 400,000 word-of-mouth impressions on Facebook through consumer-shared, branded photos.

Each branded photo that was posted to Facebook by an event attendee was seen 200-plus times.

ORGANIC REACH STILL EXISTS New Facebook algorithms will affect organic reach once again, but brands can still reach consumers without paying to play. By using branded photos and encouraging tagging and peer-to-peer sharing, brands can continue to leverage Facebook to reach both current and new customers and to positive effect. To see these strategies in action, visit wsm.co/orshare.

Joe Matthews is the co-founder and CEO of social advertising platform Tagkast.

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Conversion

CORNER

The Softer Side of CRO: Avoiding People Problems

By Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a diverse discipline. What we are really talking about is persuading human beings to act – a very complicated and nuanced task under the best of circumstances.

CRO is an unusually broad field that touches many areas: psychology, behavioral economics, neuromarketing, user experience, visual design, Web development, testing and statistics, direct-response copywriting, content management, system administration, quality assurance, analytics and reporting.

The success of a CRO program, however, hinges on a company’s ability to get diverse types of people to work effectively together.

Here are some common “people problems” a Web professional will likely face on the CRO journey, and some helpful tips to avoid them.

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Overall test project – Without someone who is specifically responsible for moving a project forward, it will fail. Typically the person who “won” the project is either the product manager in charge of the website section (or landing page) being tested, or the head of the optimization team. Project managers should try and let go of their need to control everything – remembering that the optimization team is made up of temporary assistants who are only there to help. Alternatively, the head of the optimization team needs to go out of their way to reassure the product manager that they are there to make them look good, and are not laying permanent claim to their real estate.

Identification of website problems – Often, the very people who created the site are asked to diagnose the problems with it. Coming up with ideas about what’s broken should involve a wide array of people and

techniques. This often includes user experience specialists (conducting user research and observing people completing key tasks on a site), customer service reps (who deal with complaints and problems), Web analytics specialists (who can spot underperforming pages), sales people (who deal with prospect objections) and traffic acquisition managers (who decide how to message the upstream ads and content). It is important to not only be inclusive, but also to encourage all of these people to contribute. Stakeholders should not reject or qualify the ideas at this stage, or many people will shut down and not contribute in the future.

Brainstorming of alternative content to test – Just like in the problem identification stage addressed above, it is important to give everyone a voice. This includes copywriters, visual designers, user-experience specialists and IT staff members who will support the implementation of any technical ideas. An important nuance at this stage is to make sure that the contributors understand that all ideas are welcome, but that they are being taken in an advisory capacity only.

In other words, most of them will not survive into the final test plan. This helps to manage expectations upfront and minimizes future disappointment (and negativity that may follow).

Drafting of test plan – Optimization team members’ roles up to this point should have been purely supportive – gathering ideas and facilitating contributions by others.

Now the optimization team should meet and prioritize the most promising alternative content versions. This will involve considerations like the amount of steady traffic available, the complexity of implementation and other resource requirements, as well as the politics of the content and people involved. They need to make sure that they are proactively including the IT people at this stage to make sure that there are no surprises when it comes to implementation later. The optimization team also needs to make sure that the personal opinions of whoever is in charge do not heavily sway the test content. Their ideas should be given due consideration, and not much more – optimizers need to insist on their editorial independence.

Reviewing and approving the test plan

– Team members should not get too attached to their test plan, but at the same time, they need to fight for the fidelity of their ideas during the approval process. This is often the time that conservative branding and legal compliance people will enter the picture. Their main function and orientation is to minimize risk. In other words, their default position is to say “no” to most change. Many optimizers will settle for the radically weaker test alternatives that

can often emerge from such reviews. Therefore, optimizers have to decide which fights are worth fighting, and when to just scrap the test because the remaining ideas are too incremental and feeble.

Approving the budget and allocation of staff resources – To run a proper optimization program, a well-defined prioritization process for tests must be in place. An important part of this is to build the return on investment (ROI) case for each project, enlisting help to quantify the longterm value of a successful test, and understanding why it justifies the required resource investment. At the same time, optimization teams need to make sure that the expectation is properly set regarding the success of any individual test; there needs to be support for the notion that over time the testing program will produce results.

Implementation – As optimizers implement their test ideas, it is critical that the test plan is followed faithfully. In other words, do not let a bunch of little deviations creep in during implementation by visual designers, Web developers and IT support staff. This can lead to “death by a thousand cuts,” and undermine the clarity of test ideas.

Quality assurance – Brands should also make sure they have someone independent of the implementation actually view and validate all test versions for correctness on the appropriate devices. Also confirm that everything (including analytics and test tracking) works properly after the move from “staging” to the “live” environment. It is critical to make sure that the data in analytics and testing software agree.

Having significantly different numbers may be a sign of incorrect tracking or test implementation, and optimizers want to find this out and restart the test as soon as possible. They should work with Web analytics to “watch the pot boil” until they are confident in the numbers coming through.

Data collection & analysis – Optimization teams should also review their data on a weekly basis. Regardless of what their testing software dashboard indicates, fight the urge of some people on the team to peek at the results early. Until a site has a large number of visitors, the data can be very misleading and put a team on an unnecessary emotional rollercoaster.

The softer, human side of CRO projects can be a source of great advantage if handled properly. Optimizers should start paying attention to the communications and relationships among team members – then they will truly be an optimizer in the full sense of the word.

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

The A-Z Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization Get 26 CRO tips at

wsm.co/atozcro

Email

EXPERIENCE

Summer Fitness Guide:

6 Tips to Shape Up Your Email Marketing

By EJ McGowan, General Manager of Campaigner

Summer is finally here and, like those working on their summer fitness, it’s time for marketers to re-examine email regimens and tighten up routines.

Traditionally filled with long trips and time off, summer brings unique challenges for marketers to break through the “off” season and reach their intended targets. With many consumers hitting the road or relaxing on the beach, marketers must fight for mobile attention and break through overflowing inboxes.

Though this season may deliver a few extra challenges for email marketers, it also provides a great opportunity to try something new and get a brand’s email campaigns into better shape. With the right preparation and plan of attack, summer revenue can be better than ever.

Here are six key best practices that any marketer can leverage to ensure summertime success.

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1. Map Out Email Fitness Goals

Just like with any well thought-out fitness plan, it’s critical to set email marketing goals before getting started. Marketers need to think about what they are trying to achieve and determine a specific objective for each campaign. However, they need to be careful not to take on more than they can handle. It’s essential to be realistic, so marketers should aim for 1-3 specific goals to focus on this summer.

2. Get Everyone Involved

The reason why fitness buddies and weight loss groups work is because there’s a certain level of accountability, not to mention competition. To ensure everyone is staying on track, brands should consider coordinating with other departments to create the most comprehensive plan possible. For example, if a company is planning an email campaign that references a new landing page on its website, the email

marketer will want to ensure that all links and related content are working properly, which could require some coordinating with the design team. This will guarantee that all marketing components such as email campaigns, social posts, website updates, new product or service offerings, etc., are aligned for an all-inclusive strategy, rather than a stand-alone email blast. Additionally, by getting everyone involved, the better chance off-time can be coordinated internally during the summer months.

3. Avoid Fatigue: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Once goals are set and team members are on board, then the heavy lifting begins. Marketers will want to plan strategically about how they’re going to accomplish their goals in a timeframe that works for them.

Think about it this way: Someone who isn’t a seasoned runner wouldn’t push himself to run a marathon his first time out. Likewise, marketers shouldn’t take on more than their time will allow. This could mean that marketers consider sending out emails in segmented batches to achieve their goals. Otherwise, they risk burning out their list or generating more leads than the company’s sales team can handle.

By strategically segmenting a contact list in tiered groupings for priority distribution, marketers can generate the right leads in quantities that their teams can manage.

4. Trim Down the Fat on a Contact List

Streamlining a contact list is essential for email marketing success. This summer, marketers must take the time to ensure they’re only sending to active users and not wasting resources on spam or false accounts. Of course this is different for every enterprise, but marketers can do so by scanning lists for addresses that clearly aren’t individuals, such as support@ or info@ emails. It’s important to remember that although these contacts might not bounce back as invalid, they may not be the users a company wants to target, as non-personal addresses won’t improve a brand’s deliverability score or generate the ROI required for profitability. They’re essentially empty calories, so why waste the time?

Once unnecessary contacts are identified, marketers will want to get rid of the extra baggage. By removing them from all available lists, companies will have a toned strategy they can be proud of.

5. Target Problem Areas

Just as beach season motivates people to rebuild long-forgotten muscles, it’s also a great time to revisit one’s approach to disengaged users. Companies should consider executing a revival campaign to re-engage inactive contacts and salvage previously positive relationships. Start by targeting non-openers and non-clickers and reach out with something of value to stimulate activity. Also note that a valuable offer doesn’t have to be a sale or promotion. Brands should use this opportunity to offer informational content or other resources that their contacts might find helpful.

Before distributing a campaign, companies will need to analyze all available data and identify contacts that have long trends of non-activity. This will reveal the users that a company is at the biggest risk of losing, giving it a chance to reignite lackluster relationships and wrangle in potentially loyal customers.

6. Diversify Routine

Having the same routine every day at the gym can result in static results and bad habits. Similarly, it can be useful to periodically re-examine an email regimen and change it up when necessary. Likewise, it’s important to revisit automated workflows and autoresponders to make sure they’re working properly. Marketers will want to double check to ensure autoresponders are not continuing to run after the call-to-action has been completed by their contacts. For example, if the objective is for subscribers to follow a brand on Twitter or visit its website, marketers need to make sure their workflow ends once the subscribers have done so. Not doing this can result in spamming contacts, as well as a loss of goodwill and potentially valuable customers.

Summer is the perfect time to dig into the email marketing features marketers have available and optimize them for a successful season. Although they should be working hard to break through summertime challenges, marketers shouldn’t overwhelm themselves. Realistic goals are the ones that get results – in any season.

EJ McGowan, general manager of Campaigner, has more than 25 years’ experience in the software industry with expertise in building highly available, scalable SaaS-based solutions.

3 Goals for Summer Email Campaigns Discover how to optimize these months for digital success at

wsm.co/summeremail

Software

EVERYWHERE

6 New APIs to Tap Into

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

which provides type-ahead, location-based predictions like the search on Google Maps (see image). Read more at wsm.co/gooplaceapi.

In-App Forms Do-it-yourself app-building platform Appy Pie recently launched its new API to give developers the ability to build custom in-app forms with text fields, checkboxes, photo upload and other ways to collect information and gather feedback. Read more at wsm.co/apipie.

Social Advertising In the early days of application programming interfaces (APIs), most marketers and C-Suites didn’t pay much attention to what their development teams were doing, at least in regard to how software components should interact.

The API economy (as it is often referred), however, is growing. ProgrammableWeb, for instance, has seen its API directory grow, from roughly 9,000 in April 2013 to more than 13,000 in June 2015. This is likely because those responsible for brand reach, client/partner acquisition and relationships, revenue and even customer service have found that by essentially sharing information and functionality with other providers, bottom lines can be improved across departments as offerings are extended through others’ capabilities.

Development teams have certainly gotten to work; Website Magazine is contacted in regularity for coverage of new APIs for both the Web and mobile devices. For the sake of time (and space), we’ve detailed six new APIs to tap into based on their functionality but more can be found online in our software and design and development channels at WebsiteMagazine.com.

Bitcoin While Bitcoin has not hit mainstream adoption by businesses or consumers, APIs could help speed up its acceptance. Developer API platform GEM recently announced its multi-signature wallet API, which is now out of private beta and available for developer use, as detailed online at wsm.co/bitcoinapi.

Location

With Google Places API developers can use its features like autocomplete.

Using the new Google Places API (now offering native support for Android and iOS devices), developers can make their apps more robust with detailed information about 100 million places across a variety categories from the same database as Google Maps and Google+.

With native support, some of the new features include the ability to leverage a user’s contextual information about where he or she is, as well as autocomplete,

Instagram continues to follow in its parent company’s footsteps, as according to its blog post it wants, “to leverage the best of Facebook’s infrastructure for buying, managing and measuring the success of ads on Instagram.” Instagram will start by opening the Instagram Ads API to a select group of Facebook Marketing Partners and agencies, with plans to expand globally throughout the year.

Domain Reseller To update its previous API (based on outdated protocol), GoDaddy teamed up with StrongLoop, a provider of solutions for APIs developed in Node.js, to make its new GoDaddy APIs easier for business partners to buy and sell domains and associated GoDaddy products.

“We are excited to be collaborating with StrongLoop on our Reseller API,” said Elissa Murphy, chief technology officer at GoDaddy. “Co-developing a solution with StrongLoop has allowed us to accelerate the delivery of solutions to our reseller partners and drive revenue growth for them. Our external API is an incredibly important aspect of our overall technical strategy.” Read more at wsm.co/apigodaddy.

Global Shopping Campaigns IgnitionOne, a cloud-based digital marketing technology, and Lengow, a developer of a feed management solution, has partnered in Europe and Latin America by creating a native API to connect their two platforms in order to better meet the needs of online retailers — saving time and improving e-commerce performance.

Advantages of the partnership include:

+ IgnitionOne’s technology can be easily integrated into a merchant’s Lengow account, thus giving users the best of both solutions.

+ Intuitive Google Shopping campaign management and the benefit of IgnitionOne’s predictive optimization bidding.

Vendors integrate through APIs for a variety of reasons but mostly to fill a mutual need - to the benefit of both them and their end-users.

10 YEARS

12 MONTHS OF WEB SUCCESS Don’t wait, subscribe FREE at wsm.co/subscribe15 Join the largest audience of Internet professionals of any industry publication by claiming your FREE subscription to Website Magazine today.

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Net

ADVERTISING

MOBILE SEARCH IS CONVERTING, Do You Know Why?

By Mark Sullivan, Director of Analytics for CallRail

The proof is in. Mobile searchers are ready to buy. They are taking action from the local search engine result pages by making in-store visits and calling businesses near them to find out more.

Measure, Listen & Optimize In-Bound Calls See a list of popular call tracking platforms at

wsm.co/trackscalls

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Many retailers and other local merchants and service providers are missing out on valuable search and conversion insights, however, by not tracking numbers to follow the source of inbound calls. This is discouraging when a marketer considers that adding a phone number to paid search ads increases clickthrough rates by 6-8 percent, according to Google.

Getting Started The first item enterprises need to consider when determining whether mobile search is converting for them is their overall search strategy. Makes sense, right? Marketers, of course, need to target the right keywords that will attract customer attention. They can do so by (1) making sure different variations of key phrases are included and (2) by using Google 10 YEARS

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AdWords’ geographic targeting capabilities to control costs and focus on sales that are in the correct proximity to the business being advertised.

When bidding on targeted keywords within a specific region, brands should also consider raising the mobile bid modifier in order to increase the chances their ads will be visible on smartphones.

Since mobile search results contain less ad space than desktop results, it is necessary to compete aggressively for this limited space to increase mobile traffic and in-store visits.

Click to Call It is important to remind users that the devices they use to view websites and ads are (still) phones.Clickto-call links are one way. They are highly effective calls-to-action (CTAs), which instantly connect prospects and customers to businesses (see image). To drive call traffic higher and open the opportunity for over-the-phone sales, advertisers need to optimize click-to-call CTAs, and their placement on mobile Web pages, by making sure that CTAs are highly vis-

ible, and placed in locations that empower users to make the switch from mobile search to direct call.

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“

By rooting marketing and design practices in data, it is possible to refine tactics and convert a larger portion of mobile visitors into customers.

Once advertisers know where sales are coming from, they should work backward to find out where consumers are getting lost in the conversion funnel and make changes to keep them online. By rooting marketing and design practices in data, it is possible to refine tactics and convert a larger portion of mobile visitors into customers.

Call Analytics are Critical

When click-to-call extensions are tracked appropriately, brands can gather meaningful insights about their paid search efforts.

Available data proves this strategy works. According to Econsultancy, 48 percent of mobile searchers find it extremely important to be able to call a business when they are about to make a purchase. Consumers simply love the opportunity to connect with companies.

Boosting Conversion To generate higher conversion rates, advertisers need to explore what will increase traffic and conversions for their businesses. They should use available data to answer these questions including how the customer who ultimately converted found them, what keywords they used (important particularly when it is through search), what landing pages they visited and the path they ultimately took to convert.

A/B testing is an effective and popular method to get the data needed to answer these questions.

By creating two versions of a landing page and funneling a percentage of visiting users through each, for example, it is possible to isolate what works best for customers. This method is useful for deciding the best landing page designs, CTAs, messaging and more.

When targeting smartphone users, tracking inbound calls is imperative. Similar to measuring online conversions, call analytics enable enterprises to measure exactly what makes callers pick up the phone and find out how they discovered the website. Call tracking platforms (see sidebar on previous page) will define exactly where leads are coming from, including Google AdWords, click-to-call CTAs, banner ads, organic search, or other online or offline campaigns.

This provides the power to optimize mobile marketing by increasing spend on advertising channels that are working, reducing spend on those that are not and deciding which CTAs work best.

According to a recent report published in Geekwire, the average American spends 162 minutes per day staring at the screen of their smartphone, which gives advertisers plenty of opportunity to increase brand reach, engagement and conversions. As the percentage of smartphone users climbs and the rate of searches taking place on desktops computers shrinks, mobile-optimized marketing delivers even more value. Businesses that take advantage of the direct + 25 percent of overall search queries are happening on mobile devices link from smartphones to active customer conversations are the + Q3 2014 saw an 88 percent clickones that stand to see their revthrough rate increase on smartphones enue grow exponentially as the rate of mobile devices in use con+ 73 percent of mobile searches result in tinues to increase. additional actions and conversions, like

?

Did You Know?

Mark Sullivan is director of analytics for CallRail. He is passionate about arming small business owners and agencies with the right tools to create exceptional sales success in an extremely tough and often treacherous online environment.

visiting a store or calling a business

+ 55 percent of these conversions occur within an hour of the initial search (Source: Google)

Web

COMMENTARY

Are You Part of the Problem?

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Web professionals have a serious FOMO epidemic on their hands. In fact, FOMO, which stands for “fear of missing out,” leads many enterprises to spend valuable dollars on initiatives and technology that may not always (or ever) be the best fit for their individual business.

Take social media use for example. On a personal level, Web professionals are part of the 70 percent of users who log on to Facebook daily (including 45 percent who do so several times a day) to ensure they see the latest “news” articles, as well as posts from their friends and family. Similarly, 49 percent of Instagram users are on the platform daily, with 32 percent indicating they go on the social network several times a day, according to Pew Research.

What are they getting in return?

The real-time nature of social media ensures users don’t miss a beat – never wondering if they are missing out on something that could make them smarter, faster, stronger. Perhaps top social network users are the ones fueling this FOMO problem.

The same could be said of social media for business use. While there are countless social media solutions that can truly propel a brand’s online acquisition and retention efforts forward, the majority of companies participating in social are getting little in return.

In fact, 92 percent of marketers indicate that social media was important to their businesses last year (SocialMedia Examiner), but a new TrustRadius report found that measuring social media’s return on investment is still a top challenge for marketers (well over 50 percent). In other words, brands are not getting back what they are putting in (time and money). Why are they still bothering?

Marketers are fearful they’ll miss out on what they presume others are getting – loyal, engaged customers/users by the boat load.

Companies must evaluate their social media investments through actual data – people reached, website visits, actual conversions – anything short of that is simply participating for fear of missing out.

Regardless of how businesses are profiting from social networks, they are (in some fashion of their current selves) here to stay, as the FOMO problem will only deepen with Internet users expecting real-time access to information, brands and peers.

Not only should Web professionals evaluate (and evaluate quickly) what they are getting out of their social media initiatives and find ways to update accordingly, they should also avoid jumping on every new social network’s bandwagon – even if that means proving ROI on one social network before moving to another and being considered “uncool” in the process.

After all, those brands flocking to emerging social media networks have yet to prove they are doing so for more than just the fear of missing out. Those that have, however, are ones that are following the new networks because that’s where their audience is. Taco Bell, for example, is a digital pioneer when it comes to using Snapchat for business. Snapchat, with its mostly millennial user base, is a fit for the audience Taco Bell has and wants to pursue – also millennials.

Before chasing the next-best greatest solution, social network or even strategy, be sure to take a step back and look at data that will drive ROI to determine whether the decision is FOMO based or bottom line based.

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