Website Magazine June 2016

4 Ways to Retain Millennials in the Workplace

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS JUNE 2016

A Playbook for Buying

SOFTWARE INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

Landing Page Checklist & Solutions Earning Clicks in the Knowledge Graph Era Pre-Testing Web Page Prep

PLUS

0 5 P O T

re Softwa for ns Solutio rprises te ‘Net En

WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

A Playbook for Buying

SOFTWARE

Perhaps no industry is more susceptible to change than that of software, from the players to the products and everything in between. There isn’t any aspect of an enterprise that software does not touch and procurers would be wise to understand the dramatic shifts occurring, the role that both emerging and established vendors are playing, and how it all impacts their decisions and ultimately their bottom line.

THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE Trends in Mobile Commerce

Facebook News to Know

Mobile devices have transformed the way consumers shop, review, and search for products and services online but many companies have failed to prepare.

Facebook hosted its annual F8 Developer Conference recently, and the social network made several big announcements that could significantly impact Web professionals.

Shed Unwanted Contacts

Tips to Safeguard Against Ransomware

Good list hygiene is crucial for email marketing success. Discover best practices and strategies for slimming down and losing stubborn, unwanted email recipients.

Many companies have a false sense of security when it comes to ransomware because attackers now focus on catching a lot of little fish to make a profit rather than one big whale.

Pre-Testing Prep

Leveraging Location Data in Campaigns

Testing every site element is a common practice in digital presence optimization, but enterprises have to make sure their landing pages are worth testing first.

With ad blocking on the rise, brands of all sizes will need to provide answers to genuine consumer needs and location data is as good a place to start as any.

EXPLORE WEBSITE MAGAZINE’S DEPARTMENTS Stat Watch: Web Hosting 911

Quiz Time: Hosting in Focus

Enterprise Ready: Retaining Millennials in the Workplace

Small Business Lab: The Role of Context in Personalization

Insights on Analytics: Gaining Customer Insights

E-Commerce Express: Landing Page Checklist

Mastering Search: Earning Clicks in the Knowledge Graph Era

Design & Development: DIY App Options for Every Brand

Top 50: Software Solutions for Digital Enterprises

Commentary: Preparing for the Third Wave

GET THE

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

DOMAINS | WEBSITES | CLOUD SERVERS | WEB HOSTING

SAFEST OF THE

SAFE! INCLUDED

HOSTING? ONLY THE SAFEST! 1&1 provides the highest standard of protection available! Show your online visitors that their security is your top priority with: SSL Certificate included Geo-redundancy Certified data centers

SSL CERTIFICATE

HIGHEST SECURITY EXCLUSIVE TO 1&1!

DDoS protection

®

1TRIAL TRY FOR 30 DAYS

1

MONTH

FLEXIBLE PAYMENT OPTIONS

1

CALL

SPEAK WITH AN EXPERT 24/7

1 (877) 461-2631 Visit www.1and1.com for full promotional offer details. 1&1 and the 1&1 logo are trademarks of 1&1 Internet, all other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2016 1&1 Internet. All rights reserved.

1and1.com

From the

EDITOR Making Critical Software Decisions As any experienced Web professional knows, the procurement and subsequent implementation of software is critical to every enterprise.

Whether you are personally responsible for purchasing and onboarding new technology within your company or are tasked with software buying for the first time, know that there are important considerations to be made every step of the way. While there may have never been a better time to be in the market for new technology to help enterprises improve operations, infrastructure, or acquisition and retention efforts (thanks to increased sophistication with improved usability), it’s also proving more difficult to quiet the marketing noise from the many vendors creating content with the aim of influencing decisions.

If that weren’t enough, software buyers’ intent is being picked up early on in the decision-making process by vendors with software in use to improve their own sales efforts.

In this month’s issue of Website Magazine, we’ve identified effective ways software buyers can keep their eye on the ball, if you will, in order to make the best decisions possible based on need and budget. The feature will serve both experienced and rookie buyers well with insights into the changing industry and what offerings are worth a look.

In addition to thoughtful guidance on buying software, readers will have access within these pages to important technology, tips and trends, including using contextual clues to influence personalization, gaining customer insights to inform marketing and also earning clicks in the Knowledge Graph era.

This issue includes much more information on digital best practices, such as a checklist for landing page optimization, pre-testing advice for digital assets and social media news to be aware of.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and invite you to join us on the ’Net where our editors and industry contributors provide daily coverage of the news that matter to your Web success.

Best Web Wishes, Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

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

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

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:

Peter Prestipino peter@websitemagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR:

Amberly Dressler adressler@websitemagazine.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR:

Allison Howen ahowen@websitemagazine.com *CONTRIBUTORS:

Michael Osborne Girish Jashnani Travis Bliffen Kimber Johnson EJ McGowan Marty Greif Travis Smit Jeremy Anspach GRAPHIC DESIGNER:

Shannon Rickson shannon@websitemagazine.com ADVERTISING:

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

Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com

Free Resources for Web Professionals Whether it’s a month-long email marketing course or a downloadable

Website Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 6, June 2016, (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.

e-book on improving social media efforts, Website Magazine’s Resource

Canada Post: Please send undeliverable items to: 2835 Kew Drive, Windsor ON, N8T 3B7

Center provides compelling content – from both in-house editors as well

Copyright 2016 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.

as industry sponsors – that will move your digital enterprise forward. Get free access at wsm.co/resourcerich.

*The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of Website Magazine.

www.WebsiteMagazine.com

Resource Center SPONSORED

SCAN NOW! Access this whitepaper by scanning the QR code from your smartphone.

Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2015 FREE WHITEPAPER Sponsored by Acquia The demand to be at every touchpoint in the customer lifecycle is no longer an option - it’s a requirement. To manage and deliver experiences consistently across all touchpoints, organizations are looking to digital experience platforms as the foundation of their digital presence.

Get Forrester’s evaluation of the best vendors, including: The 10 providers that matter most How each vendor stacks up to Forrester’s criteria Six needs a digital experience platform architecture must meet

DOWNLOAD NOW: wsm.co/digexp16

Net

BRIEFS

QUICK HITS How Do Customers Prefer to Pay? PayPal is better at converting online shoppers than other payment solutions according to recent data from comScore.

The data shows that PayPal converts online shoppers at a rate of 87.5 percent whereas Visa Checkout converts online shoppers at a rate of 51.2 percent and all other payment types at 45.6 percent. Many attribute at least some of PayPal’s dominance to the release of its One Touch frictionless payment system, which is currently used by 21 million consumers.

Increase Conversions with More Product Content Ninety-four percent of prospective buyers will abandon an e-commerce site if it lacks sufficient product content or if they are unable to find the information they need according to a recent report from Salisfy. What are consumers looking for? According to the research, they want more images and reviews; 66 percent of respondents indicated they require at least three product images and 82 percent want to see a minimum of three product reviews when considering a purchase.

Just Keeps On Growing Google Chrome now accounts for 54.6 percent of the market according to March 2016 data from StatCounter. Conversely, Firefox usage dropped slightly to 14.31 percent (down from 14.67 percent in February), while Internet Explorer (all versions) saw usage dip from 13.38 percent in February to 12.52 percent in March of the same year.

Discover essential Chrome Extensions for Web pros at wsm.co/chromenow.

$ WHO GOT PAID? $24 Million

Payment technology provider Zooz closed $24 million in new funding, which was led by Target Global Ventures. The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth, develop new products, open new markets and increase its presence in existing locations.

$532 Million

Oracle has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Opower, a provider of customer engagement and energy efficiency cloud services for utilities. The transaction is valued at approximately $532 million.

$25 Million

Online customer relationship management application Insightly raised $25 million in Series C financing. When added to Insightly’s previous funding, the total capital raised by the San Francisco-based company equals more than $40 million.

$170 Million

Open Text Corporation entered into a definitive agreement with HP to acquire certain customer experience software and service assets from the company with a transaction purchase price of approximately $170 million.

Bing Plays Hard to Get

Brands the Brown Box Taking a page from the Amazon playbook, eBay is introducing its own branded supplies store. Sellers can now buy eBay-branded packaging (boxes, tape and envelopes) in bulk and use them to send/ship their products. The catalyst for the new supplies store was reportedly seller interest but one has to wonder if eBay wasn’t jealous of the free branding Amazon receives with all its shipments.

Time to Focus on Referral Marketing Eighty-five percent of respondents to a recent YA study indicated they are more likely to buy a product or service if it is recommended by someone they know. What’s more, 76 percent say a referral would cause them to choose one brand over another. Thirty-eight percent also said that when researching products and services, a referral from a friend is the source of information they trust the most – even ahead of online reviews, advertising or news reports.

Learn how to implement referral features on your website at wsm.co/nowrefer.

Bing wasn’t playing around in 2015, recently revealing it rejected more than 250 million ads, blocked 50,000 websites and banned 150,000 advertisers throughout last year. Despite Bing having relatively lax trademark usage policies, the search engine dismissed more than 50 million ads in 2015 for trademark infringements.

What’s more, Bing notes that tech support scams are still a major problem, as it blocked over 15 million ads and 25,000 sites promoting illegitimate third-party tech support services.

4.5 Arrives The launch of WordPress 4.5 brought a laundry list of new features many of which focused on streamlining workflow for its users. Highlights of the release include two new formatting shortcuts and new live responsive previews, which enable administrators to preview mobile, tablet and desktop views in the customizer. What’s more, the inline linking feature has a new and improved interface for adding links to content.

POPULAR WITH WM READERS A Guide for Going Live on Facebook +

wsm.co/goliveonfb

Live video on Facebook has become very popular, yet many brands still haven’t leveraged the feature to connect with their audiences. This is a mistake as Facebook is giving precedence to live video in its algorithm.

Why the Homepage is Not Dead +

wsm.co/homepagevalue

The homepage was once a valued website asset – the gateway to a company’s brand and a driver of customer engagement.

Then came search and social, but don’t count out this important digital real estate just yet.

6 SEO KPIs to Review +

wsm.co/6seotrack

A single metric like keyword rankings cannot wholly describe the results of a company’s digital marketing strategy. In order to see the “big picture” it’s imperative to review multiple metrics, especially those extracted from website data.

Net

BRIEFS WEB TECH WATCH

APP FOCUS

Check out what has the digital community all abuzz with Website Magazine’s #WebTechWatch series, a monthly roundup profiling emerging and established technologies and some of the most useful solutions for today’s Web workers. Submit your own recommendations by tweeting us at @WebsiteMagazine.

LinkedIn Helps Graduates Find Jobs

S OR’ EDIT ICE O CH

Recast.ai

MJML A framework for creating responsive emails. Read more at wsm.co/junepick.

Build your own conversational bot.

Cloudways Botlytics Track the messages a company’s bot sends and the conversations it has.

A managed cloud hosting platform of open source apps for developers.

Dropbox Infinite

Glot.io

A solution that enables users to access their Dropbox files from the desktop.

An open source pastebin with runnable snippets and an API.

Just in time for a new crop of college graduates entering the workforce, LinkedIn is bolstering its suite of mobile apps with one specifically targeting students. With “LinkedIn Students” users can search for a job that fits their major as well as look for companies that tend to hire from their school.

Discover additional apps at ApplicationMagazine.com.

Talera

Estherbot

An artificial intelligencepowered “recruiting coordinator” that screens resumes.

A personal agent/bot for answering recurring questions during the recruitment process.

Hivy App

Helpy.io

Office and facility management.

An open-source helpdesk alternative.

Have tips, stories, or funding or acquisition news to share?

Tweet us @WebsiteMagazine

Stat

WATCH

Get a Plan for a Hosting Emergency If your hosting provider isn’t top of mind, that is probably a good thing. This is because Web professionals typically only think about hosting when something is going wrong – like when their website experiences an unexpected outage.

Take 123-Reg as an example. The popular UK hosting provider has been in the news recently for a rather unfortunate reason. The company, which hosts 1.7 million sites, made an error during maintenance in April that deleted an unspecified number of customer sites. As one can imagine, those customers were not happy and were also not shy in expressing their displeasure on social media.

This outage, however, goes to show that even trusted hosting providers can fall victim to disaster, which means that Web professionals must have a plan ready in case of emergency.

A disaster plan should include up-to-date contact information for a representative at their hosting company, regular backups of the site on an alternate server and a ready-made announcement for a company’s social audience (e.g. “Our website is currently down and we are working on the problem. Thank you for your patience.”).

In an ideal digital world, this disaster plan will never have to be implemented. In the real world, however, downtime happens, and not even the biggest names on the ’Net are immune. By having a plan ready, enterprises can at least rest somewhat assured that they are prepared for any virtual challenges that come their way.

For more Web hosting coverage, visit us on the ‘Net at wsm.co/wmhosting or by scanning the QR code on the left.

J U N E 2016

|

.com

|9

Quiz

TIME

Hosting In Focus There are few things more important to the success of a digital enterprise than that of Web (and application) hosting.

The companies that provide these essential services offer up the necessary hardware, software and infrastructure (to individuals and enterprises alike) that ultimately make it possible to make a digital presence accessible on the Internet.

There are numerous considerations today’s brands must make when selecting a hosting provider, from price and features, to security and reliability. Hosting comes in a variety of forms (dedicated, shared, virtual

1. Amazon Web services (AWS) has what percentage of worldwide share in the cloud market: a. 78 percent b. 31 percent c. 18 percent d. 56 percent e. 81 percent

managed, etc.) and millions (if not billions) are spent annually to manage enterprises’ digital assets through these providers. So why don’t more of us know what’s happening within the Web hosting industry and how technological developments will impact our brands in the future? There’s no one reason of course, but it likely stems from the rapid pace of development and inherent complexity of the required systems.

To help keep Web professionals up-to-date and in the know with all the latest hosting headlines, technologies and best practices, Website Magazine regularly covers the topic within its Hosting Panel channel at

wsm.co/wmhosting. Before joining us on the ’Net to learn what’s new and how your business can make the most of its investment, discover how much you know

2. The largest website hosting company in the world is… a. HostGator b. Network Solutions c. 1&1 Internet d. GoDaddy e. Dreamhost

3. What is the average page-load speed for top e-commerce websites? a. 1.3 seconds b. 7 seconds c. 42 seconds d. 0.4 seconds e. 23 seconds

4. True or False: HTTP/2 enables servers to send multiple responses in parallel for a single client request.

right now about the Web hosting industry by taking Website Magazine’s June Quiz!

Get the results of this month’s Quiz Time at wsm.co/qtjune16 or by scanning the QR code on the left.

5. The country with the largest distribution of hosted domains is… a. China b. Russia c. United States d. India e. Australia

Resource Center SPONSORED

SCAN NOW! Access this whitepaper by scanning the QR code from your smartphone.

Cloud vs. On-Premise Sales Tax Solutions FREE WHITEPAPER Sponsored by Avalara Cloud vs. On-Premise Sales Tax Solutions Which works best for your company?

If your company is growing, you operate as part of a supply chain, or have a high volume of taxable transactions, it may be time to re-evaluate how you handle sales tax in your business. Migrating certain business functions to the cloud or outsourcing them to third-party cloud providers can be a competitive advantage over having to build custom workarounds or maintain on-premise solutions that need constant management and updating. Sales tax is one of these business functions. The evolution of cloud-based software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions has given businesses a more flexible and affordable alternative to costly on-premise installations for managing compliance.

The chart below offers a side-by-side comparison of cloud-based vs. on-premise sales tax solutions to help you weigh the pros and cons of each approach for your business.

CLOUD-BASED

ON-PREMISE

What is it?

Cloud-based sales tax solutions deliver accurate calculations from a remotely hosted tax decision engine accessed via the Internet.

On-premise sales tax solutions require use of hardware and software that is physically installed on a company’s own in-house computer systems.

Price

Most cloud solutions follow a subscription model, with pricing based on cost-per-transaction or cost-per-use.

Purchase of hardware, software, and ongoing maintenance, including updates and technical support, can require a significant investment of time and money, often costing $50,000 or more.

Management & hosting

The vendor typically hosts the tax engine. Companies effectively leverage off-premise technology to outsource their sales tax management process.

Other than software-specific technical support, the tax engine itself is typically handled and managed in-house by the IT department.

Address validation

Real time address validation that pinpoints sales tax calculations to “rooftop” levels.

Address cleansing, auto-jurisdiction to zip+4.

May require mapping of geocodes.

Data centers & backup

SaaS is multi-tenant architecture. There are no customer-specific technology requirements beyond high bandwidth Internet. Many cloud providers offer back-up data centers with fail-over capabilities.

Often requires multiple servers for backup and storage of tax-related data, development environment and production environment.

Exemption certificate management

Exemption certificate management through entire cert lifecycle includes cert requisition, approval, storage, and application to transactions.

Limited Certificate Management to enter data and tag certificates. Certificate requisition, approval, storage and application to transactions requires additional software through 3rd party.

Implementation and go live

10-30 hour average implementation with 30-60 day average go live.

6-12 month implementation.

Integrations

Leading SaaS providers, like Avalara, integrate with multiple ERP, accounting and ecommerce systems including SAP, Oracle, Netsuite, Sage, Epicor, Intacct, Magento, etc., as well as SDK for .net, Java, PHP, COM.

Usually provides few integration options with only the most common enterprise accounting programs, including Oracle and SAP.

If your company is growing, you operate as part of a supply chain, or have a high volume of taxable transactions, it may be time to reevaluate how you handle sales tax in your business. Migrating certain business functions to the cloud or outsourcing them to third-party cloud providers can be a competitive advantage over having to build custom workarounds or maintain on-premise solutions that need constant management and updating. Sales tax is one of these business functions. The evolution of cloudbased software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions has given businesses a more flexible and affordable alternative to costly on-premise installations for managing compliance.

DOWNLOAD NOW: wsm.co/wpsalestax

J U N E 2016

|

.com

| 11

Enterprise

READY

Retaining Millennials in the Enterprise

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

The only thing more difficult than finding an employee with an outstanding work ethic and vast, impressive skillset is keeping them.

Employee retention is an often-ignored topic that is increasingly becoming a problem in modern enterprises.

This is likely due to the growing number of millennials (adults born between 1981-1997) in the workplace, who have a reputation of moving from one opportunity to the next fairly quickly. In fact, a recent study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that adults born in the early 1980s average 7.2 jobs from age 18 through 28. Of all jobs held by these workers, 37 percent ended in less than six months.

Failure when it comes to employee retention not only creates a workload problem, as other employees are left to pick up an exiting colleague’s workload, but it’s also a cost issue as enterprises are once again forced to find and train new talent to fill the void. To make sure good hires stick around, many enterprises are focusing on their retention strategies. While perks like paid time off and insurance benefits may not cut it anymore, there are other options that will gain a millennial employee’s loyalty.

Encourage the Entrepreneurial Spirit Millennials aren’t jumping ship because they are fickle; many are simply looking for a new challenge or an opportunity to make an impact with their work. Data from Bentley University shows that 66 percent of millennials’ career goals include starting their own business. Enterprises can hone in on this entrepreneurial spirit by providing their workforce with in-house opportunities to lead.

Microsoft, for instance, offers an outlet for employee projects called “Microsoft Garage,” which gives small teams of employees an opportunity to embrace their inner innovator and work on projects outside of their typical duties. Many staff members have taken advantage of the program to explore ideas and create apps, which not only gives them a chance to work on something they are passionate about, but also gives Microsoft insight into what concepts are resonating with consumers of that same demographic.

Microsoft isn’t, of course, the only big-name tech company helping employees tap into their entrepreneurial spirit. Recent rumors suggest Google is offering a similar initiative called “Area 120.” According to a report from The Information, Area 120 is an incu-

bator to help employees maintain an entrepreneurial vibe. To be a part of the program, Google teams must apply by submitting a business plan and then pitch Google for additional funding.

Good Ol’ Fashion Incentives

“

“

It is important that enterprises provide the best possible working atmosphere for their employees. Doing so promotes engagement, a better work culture and loyalty.

Take FreightCenter as an example. The company has implemented employee-led committees with volunteers who meet bi-weekly to discuss how to make the workplace more enjoyable. The Culture and Community Committee, for instance, acts as the voice of the company to get new policies, events and benefits approved. The Health and Wellness Committee on the other hand, discusses ways to promote a healthier lifestyle at work.

MetroStar Systems is another company that focuses on cultivating a team atmosphere. The company hosts a variety of activities, from hack-a-thons to pizza parties to pancake breakfasts (see image).

The goal of these activities is to bring employees together and enable team building outside the typical office structure.

Incentivizing employees can sometimes be the best motivator. Snow Software, for example, rewards its workforce with an all-inclusive trip to Engelberg, Switzerland if the company meets its target profit for the year.

The four-day trip is called the ‘Gold Team’ experience. Snow’s entire staff of more than 400 employees is able to go on the trip, regardless of where they are located or how long they have been with the company.

With a reported 90 percent growth last year, the incentive appears to be working.

Every company doesn’t have the means to offer an all-inclusive trip, of course, but there are other ways to incentivize employees. Quora, for instance, recently launched a new cash rewards program called Knowledge Prizes. The program allows a sponsor to signal they think a question is particularly important by offering a financial prize for the best new answer. The sponsor can also pick the cash-prize winner – all while remaining anonymous. Since Quora can be a great marketing tool (learn how to use the Q&A service to build a backlink strategy for SEO at wsm.co/quoraqa), brands could theoretically leverage Knowledge Prizes to sponsor brand-related questions and reward the employees who have the best answers. This strategy not only motivates employees, but also helps enterprises create a makeshift native advertisement for their brand on the Q&A site.

MetroStar Systems celebrates its anniversary with a pancake breakfast for employees.

Create #SquadGoals

Meeting Expectations

For those who might not know, “squad goals” is an inspirational term – often used by millennials – for what they’d like their group of friends to be or accomplish (Urban Dictionary). In the enterprise, it is important for employees’ squad goals to be heard so that a team atmosphere can be cultivated.

It is important that enterprises provide the best possible working atmosphere for their employees. Doing so promotes engagement, a better work culture and loyalty. Plus, by meeting millennials’ expectations, companies will be better prepared for the next generation of professionals.

Drive into the Garage Check out seven cool apps from Microsoft Garage at wsm.co/7garage.

Small

BUSINESS LAB One on One:

Why Context is Key for Fueling Personalization

By Michael Osborne, CEO & President of SmarterHQ

The majority of consumers prefer to do business with brands that use personal information to customize their shopping experience.

Despite this widespread desire, most brands are struggling to use personalization consistently. Many marketing teams charged with tackling personalization feel they lack the time and resources to effectively scale and deploy personalized communications in a way that meets the needs of millions of customers. This disparity between businesses and buyers results in consumers being inundated with daily promotional emails, which ultimately leave them worn out and ready to unsubscribe.

In the increasingly competitive e-commerce landscape, how can retailers determine which move to make in order to deliver a scalable and improved experience? The short answer is context.

By using behavioral and transactional data about customers, companies can enable automated experiences that deliver personalized communications.

Here are three tips on how to use context to immediately fuel personalization:

1. Act on Abandonment Any time someone does not complete the intended callto-action (CTA), abandonment occurs. For example, purchase abandonment happens when a consumer begins the buying process but doesn’t convert whereas site abandonment represents anyone who visits a website and leaves without purchasing.

A retailer might think that both types of abandonment require the same email experience, but that’s not always true. A shopper who adds something to their cart but abandons the site without purchasing should be re-engaged in near real-time with an email featuring the specific products they viewed and a CTA. For website abandoners, brands should consider automating an email program that re-engages these shoppers a day after abandoning and includes the product(s) they engaged with, as well as complementary offerings based on that engagement.

After establishing these basic but essential programs, retailers can amplify them by adding new elements, such as notifying someone when an item in their cart has dropped in price.

2. Pay Attention to Products and Price Brands can also automate a campaign that recognizes customers who engage with a product multiple times but do not purchase. For example, if a customer continues to visit an out-of-stock item, the retailer can create a triggered alert to that shopper when the item is available. Brands that are collecting behavioral data and retaining it can even create an automated campaign that identifies customers who routinely shop at certain price points. For instance, using both behavioral and historical data, retailers can identify buyers who appear to only purchase products that are on sale. They can then use this knowledge to target these individuals more specifically.

3. Bring Personalization to Your Website Because a consistent customer experience is crucial to conversion and loyalty, retailers can leverage multiple customer behaviors to tie the email and website experiences together. For example, if someone browses a category on a site and then abandons, they should receive a follow-up email featuring the products they browsed alongside potential products of interest. If that customer clicks through an email, retailers can transform homepage assets, like the hero image or ad tiles, to display similar content to what was featured in the email (tying these experiences together is known to increase conversion).

Brands that are thriving in the cutthroat retail space are finding ways to automate personalized experiences using technology that uncovers context about customers’ shopping experiences. This practice is known as “contextual marketing,” and allows retailers to use customer insights to quickly drive relevant and scalable communications.

Successful brands are actually reducing the frequency with which they contact many of their customers, while increasing the relevance of the emails they’re sending. When using contextual marketing, brands not only see customers who are less annoyed and more loyal, but also an actual uptick in revenue.

In fact, a recent study by Forrester found that retailers using contextual marketing technology can increase revenue by 15 percent.

Overall, shoppers are eagerly awaiting an increasingly personalized buying experience. Context is the key to success in a market where margins are often slim, competition is dense and everyone is trying to keep up with Amazon.

Resource Center SPONSORED

SCAN NOW! Access this whitepaper by scanning the QR code from your smartphone.

Digitalization is Shaping the Future of Web Content Management FREE WHITEPAPER Sponsored by Acquia Digitalization is dramatically changing the role of Web content management (WCM).

Digital leaders are looking at WCM as a strategic imperative, to not only drive their Web strategy, but their overall digital strategy.

Gartner’s report covers the trends that are shaping the WCM market and how you can leverage these trends for your digital transformation strategy. You’ll learn: The trends driving the WCM market The impacts that digitalization is having on WCM How to approach selecting Web content management software

DOWNLOAD NOW:

wsm.co/wpcontent16

Insights on

ANALYTICS

How to Gain Customer Insights in Digital Marketing

By Girish Jashnani, Founder of Flosum.com

Digital marketing does not focus on selling products but rather on bringing to light a solution that addresses customer needs. This is the golden rule of marketing and you have probably heard several variations of the same.

As the practice evolves, marketers have an added responsibility to acquire valuable insights into customer behavior, which can help enterprises refine strategies, products and services while simultaneously helping them better anticipate customer needs. This can be done by following a few key steps.

Set Specific Goals To gain insights form customers, marketers have to identify a specific goal. Wanting to learn something “new” about customers is not a goal, however, as it is too general. Teams must be much more focused or else risk missing out on acquiring truly actionable information. To set a specific goal, marketer must ask themselves this question: What do you want to learn from the target customers and why?

If a company recently started offering a new service, its goal could be getting customer response by looking at who likes it and who dislikes it. Alternatively, it may want to learn how it can improve the product. In this case, a marketer’s goal will be looking at the issues that customers have and what they wished was changed. The goal could be more complicated such as identifying how customers interact with different marketing materials (e.g., customers who click on an ad online but ultimately buy in store).

Identify the ‘Who’ To gain insight from customers, marketers have to pinpoint who specifically they want to learn from.

For example, a company may want to gather infor-

mation from customers in a certain geo-location or target customers who consumed a specific product and have not come back for more. The “who” will be influenced by the goal.

The next step is to evaluate where and how these shoppers will be targeted (e.g., social media, the website email, etc.) and figure out how to market across channels with a consistent brand message while keeping tabs on them too.

Make Keen Observations The key to success when searching for customer insight is to be objective in observations. Marketers must look at the data for standard metrics on various marketing channels. In the case of emails, focus on the number of opens as well as top-clicked content. With social media channels, brands can look at which posts or tweets were shared the most and the type of comments the audience left. What is the ratio of positive to negative reviews?

The goal here is to look at the overall number of responses from the target audience. How many positive comments are there and to what effect? On the other hand, what are customers bitter about?

Analyze The aforementioned tips will help marketers know what their numbers are in relation to customer satisfaction. Once they have these numbers, it is time to focus on what they really mean. If a certain social media post garnered the most positive sentiment or conversions from one audience but not another, what does that say about the audience or the message itself?

The goal here is to identify a correlation between marketing materials and consumer behavior.

Be Daring The worry that most people have when it comes to digital marketing is the fear of failing. This should not stop marketers considering that most of the methods he or she will try will not bear as good results as projected.

Marketers should run small pilot programs to limit their losses – not putting too much faith in an untested strategy.

Don’t Stop Asking Questions Digital marketing is dynamic. Most of the strategies that were considered invaluable a few years ago are completely impractical today. It is up to marketers to keep up with customer demands (by surveys, social listening and behavioral analytics), stay on top of trends, and learn from their peers and audiences to refine marketing strategies accordingly.

Resource Center SPONSORED

SCAN NOW! Access this whitepaper by scanning the QR code from your smartphone.

The Complete Guide to Lead Nurturing FREE WHITEPAPER Sponsored by Pardot by Salesforce Lead nurturing, also called drip marketing, is one of the most powerful and soughtafter features of a marketing automation system. With the ability to drive revenue from a database of leads that you’ve already built — with minimal investment on the part of sales and marketing — lead nurturing has the potential to transform the way you do business. Want to learn more?

DOWNLOAD NOW: wsm.co/wmleads

E-Commerce

EXPRESS

Landing Page Checklist (and Solutions) for Every Digital Experience

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

There’s quite a bit of misunderstanding about what a landing page is because they take on so many different forms.

Some landing pages are “short and sweet” while others “detailed and data rich.” Is there one best way to create the perfect landing page? Of course not; only you (hopefully) know your audience and only you will know what works best to motivate them to continue their digital journey and move further through the conversion funnel.

That being said, there are a few essentials that belong on each and every landing page and the following checklist not only identifies what they are, but also shows how they can be used.

If you have spent any time at all developing landing pages then most of the best practices should be well known. Essentially, you don’t want to overwhelm users and you want to maintain a single aim or focus for the user to follow. Too many options won’t drive an increase in conversion, but rather abandonment of the page itself – and that just won’t do at all.

What’s important to remember is that if the aim of landing pages is to get visitors into the funnel, then you need users to provide information with which you can use to market to them in the future.

18

|

.com

|

JUNE 2016

Formulate an Offer There are an endless number of promotions (discounts, coupons, upgrades, free stuff, etc.) that can be used as the landing page theme, but the art of landing page development is not in what is being offered, but rather how. Poorly conceived offers, or those that simply aren’t in demand, will produce meager results even when every other element on the page is perfect.

State the Case with Headlines Headlines are what draw people in, they are the first element of the landing page that users experience and as a result, need to be incredibly engaging. The best way to achieve that is to be very specific, in some cases very dramatic or surprising, and always benefits driven. What is a visitor going to receive?

Include Subheadlines While headlines describe what is being offered, subheadlines can go into greater detail about the specifics while still making the case to the visitor about why continuing is a good idea. It’s the first, but certainly not last, way to showcase the specifics of the offer and why moving forward benefits the end-user.

Go with Images & Graphics Landing pages help end-users visualize the benefit of completing the offer; they make whatever is being offered relevant to them, providing the necessary social

proof and capturing their attention. Landing pages can even draw users’ eyes closer to the calls-to-action (CTAs). Getting visitors to follow those CTAs is really the ultimate aim of this valuable real estate, and images and graphics make experiences tangible (an essential part of the visual Web).

Consider Calls-to-Action If marketers are not going to concentrate on a landing page’s CTAs, they might as well not develop a landing page at all. CTAs are the single most important element of the digital experience. So much so, in fact, that a great deal of research has been conducted on the optimal colors, placements, size, wording and more about what motivates users to actually take the immense step of hovering their mouse over it, and ultimately clicking that buy now, learn more or download button (for 100-plus CTA options, go to wsm.co/ctason100).

Explore DIY Options Often when Web professionals talk about building websites, what they’re really talking about is developing an entire, whole digital presence. Sometimes however, that’s just overkill. Companies don’t really need a content management system (CMS) for every single project, aren’t going to deploy a customer relationship management (CRM) system for a small audience and they sure as heck aren’t going to need anything more than a landing page in most instances.

Fortunately, there are quite a few good solutions out there that can take your dormant domains and put them to good digital use. Two of the most popular are Instapage and LeadPages. Let’s take a look at what separates these solutions and which might be a better fit for your next landing page project: Instapage: A very popular offering that enables users to build and deploy rather complex landing pages, through a drag-and-drop interface, without any coding experience. The solution features some 20-plus integrations (e.g., CRM, email, social and optimization), and can be deployed on WordPress, GoDaddy and others with ease. Instapage even provides the tools to conduct A/B tests, track visitor behavior, compare conversion rates and pick the best-performing landing page. Pricing ranges from $29 to $79 per month.

InstaPage reports it has helped build 1 million pages with an average conversion rate above 25 percent.

Leadpages: Another strong option for those looking for an easier way to create landing pages. Leadpages enables users to build attractive pages (or use one of the many available templates) that work on desktop and mobile. The solution also stands out with its LeadBoxes (popup boxes) feature and LeadDigits offering, which allows enterprises to capture email addresses and phone numbers through SMS text messaging. Pricing ranges from $25 to $199 per month.

Get Developing There are numerous alternatives of course including those from Kickoff Labs, SumoMe and Unbounce.

Keep the aforementioned advice on landing page development in mind, however, and you’re sure to generate the response you’re looking for from the assets you end up developing.

With Leadpages, retailers can choose from hundreds of mobile-responsive landing page templates designed to convert more customers to buy products, sign up for email newsletters or register for events.

Mastering

SEARCH

Smarter SEO:

Earning Clicks in the Knowledge Graph Era

By Travis Bliffen, Stellar SEO

Google’s algorithm updates are not intended to keep businesses with highvalue content down. Instead, these are designed to ensure that Web users continue finding what they need and that they find it as quickly as possible.

Google is constantly working to boost its efficiency even as it compiles and organizes data at a mind-boggling rate. Panda, Pigeon, Penguin and Hummingbird were all launched with two primary goals: (1) to build the world’s largest and most impressive knowledge databank and (2) to organize this information for optimal and universal accessibility. Rank brain is the next natural evolution in achieving this goal.

This has been a massive undertaking for the search engine giant and a goal that Google has valued and prioritized since its inception. A push for change, however, can often result in collateral damage. As a business owner, an update by Google can be cata20

|

.com

|

JUNE 2016

strophic but Google is willing to create that damage in a quest for the betterment of their search engine result pages (SERPs). Fortunately, there are several, simple strategies that can help companies start earning clicks in the Knowledge Graph era so that even Google’s efforts to build the world’s biggest databank don’t slow them down.

Beware of the Dreaded Preview One of the biggest complaints that site owners and marketers have about the most recent version of the algorithm is its tendency to preview the highest quality content in such a way that users never actually need to visit related Web pages. Looking for an easy recipe for banana bread? Google will post the entire recipe right in its preview, especially if it’s short, concise and projected by the algorithm to be best in line with the Web user’s query.

In effect, Google is cheating people, who have done all the hard work of crafting quality content,

Go Beyond Giving the Facts Another way to start earning clicks in the Knowledge Graph era is for marketers to make sure their site is always landing on the preview spot when they need it to. Getting to the top of first page results could be their best chance at being seen; but what if they’re sharing static data that’s been shared by other site owners such as a recent statistic or calculation? How can Google’s search bots know that one website has the most user-relevant data over another? Surprisingly, this one is fairly easy.

Sites simply need to enhance the value of the information they’ve supplied with the addition of charts, graphs and other high-interest additions that enhance the usability of the information provided. At the end of the day, marketers are really just working to convince robots that their site deserves to be at the top of the page.

If these “robots” see a site has answered the query in the greatest number of ways, then marketers should top the competition. Of course a page needs to offer a great user experience, but marketers need to get visitors to the page first.

Be Critical The information brands value most should always be at the top of the page. This should also be the very same information that Web users are likely to submit queries for. When reviewing a site and touching it up, SEOs will want to make sure that it’s ordered and organized much like a résumé. High-interest information goes up high, as marketers only have a split second to capture user attention, so they should make it count. SEOs will want to order their pages and posts from high-interest content on down to low-interest material that’s still worth including. If brands supplement this strategy with plenty of cliffhangers or teases, people will start clicking through in short order.

Pride Yourself on Originality

“

In effect, Google is

Some aspects of the SEO process never change. Unique content always trumps cheating people, content that can be found in countless who have done all other places, assuming companies have a good link building strategy in place. the hard work of Brands should find their voice and use crafting quality conit. Google’s massive databank is largely an exercise in the ever-changing sci- tent, out of the clicks ence of semantics. Companies need to say what people need to hear, but write they deserve. This it in a way that hasn’t been published is especially true for before, as well as pay attention to how human users are speaking about an sites that only have industry and communicate in the way ‘bite-sized’ content. that they’re likely to talk rather than flaunting industry jargon. Not only will this give content a more personable feel, but it will also better match a company’s tone to that of search queries.

Like all aspects of optimizing and getting clicks, driving traffic to sites in the Knowledge Graph era is a process that remains in a constant state of flux.

What works and what doesn’t is guaranteed to change. The good news is that there will always be ways for industrious marketers to make the latest system work to their advantage.

“

out of the clicks they deserve. This is especially true for sites that only have “bite-sized” content.

Although the preview method works great for would-be bakers searching in the kitchen via their mobile phone, it does nothing for the recipe writer who likely has silicone baking utensils or another affiliate product to sell (and needs those clicks to do so). The solution? Always end bite-sized content (or content that’s likely to get previewed), with a cliffhanger. While the content creator still answers the question in the initial search query, he or she lures readers back to the site by piquing their curiosity on another topic entirely. For instance, the recipe writer can finish each recipe with the hook, “There’s only one way keep your loaves from going flat at high altitudes.”

Tidbits like these can be peppered throughout the content so that no chance to snag a click is ever missed. Google can give away the content that site owners have labored to create in a commitment-free preview, but marketers can still make Web users come to them. Call it a cliffhanger or call it a tease, just know that it works.

Travis Bliffen is the founder of Stellar SEO, a Web design and marketing firm equipped to handle any size SEO project.

Design and

DEVELOPMENT Small, Medium & Large:

Creating Custom Apps for Businesses of All Sizes

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

There is no denying the influence mobile apps have on where (and how) consumers spend their time, but deciding whether or not to compete in this environment with a custom application can be difficult at best – and recent data isn’t all that encouraging.

Do It for Me Beyond some of the DIY options mentioned here, companies may want to consider a marketplace like 99designs or Crew to meet developers or teams that can build their apps. For more doit-for-me options, visit wsm.co/notdiyer.

22

|

Of the top nine apps (by unique visitors), eight of them are owned by Facebook or Google according to 2015 data from comScore. What’s more, only four categories represent the top 25 apps, including utilities like maps and weather (which make up nine of the top 25), social like Facebook and Instagram (seven), entertainment like YouTube and Pandora (six), and retail like Amazon and eBay (three).

Many brands, however, are not deterred. They are finding apps to be a more accessible channel to reach customers, according to Amir Ghodrati, data analysis manager at App Annie; and often a more rewarding and convenient experience than the mobile Web or Web itself.

“App Annie knows from speaking to several U.S.based retailers that their mobile app users represent a very loyal segment of their total customer base and also have higher-value baskets than their Web counterparts,” said Ghodrati. “We believe that mobile apps are a critical platform for retailers to continue to invest in to engage their most loyal customers, drive stronger sales and deliver a more frictionless experience than the Web.” With a smartphone never too far away from its owner, custom mobile apps present an incredible opportunity for companies to position their brands on a .com

|

JUNE 2016

person’s home screen but they need to develop their asset first. How are companies building custom apps today?

Website Magazine explores a few popular options below:

Small Business Offerings: Appy Pie With more than 1 million apps created on its platform, Appy Pie is a popular do-it-yourself (DIY) app builder for those without much (or any) technical expertise. Its drag-and-drop functionality is easy to use thanks to precreated themes and templates; its pricing plans are accessible as well with costs ranging from free (supported by in-app ads) to $50 a month (depending on the operating systems, app store submission, push notifications, etc.).

It’s important to note that while Appy Pie provides functionality that modern users expect (social integrations, reviews), it should primarily be used for small-business purposes (e.g., food delivery, churches, lawyers, etc.) as it does not offer enterprise-level features (like workflows or approval processes or customer lifecycle tracking).

+ Other small business DIY options include Como DIY, BuildFire and instappy.

Mid-Sized Companies: Adobe PhoneGap Free and open source, PhoneGap is an application framework that enables developers to leverage HTML, CSS and JavaScript to produce custom mobile apps. The workflow is designed to get apps built in the quickest way, but eventually companies will need to move out of this testing environment to create, package and distribute the mobile app either with PhoneGap CLI or in the cloud with PhoneGap Build. The latter will take those assets already created and then provide a download URL for all mobile platforms.

+ Trigger.io, appery.io and Mobile Roadie are other options worth exploring for mid-sized companies.

Enterprise Solutions: Appcelerator (Part of Axway) With Appcelerator companies can build native mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows, using JavaScript.

Its “team” pricing tier is $259 per seat/monthly (with enterprise plans available) and includes pre-built connectors for Salesforce, MS Azure, Box and others. Users will appreciate Appcelerator’s robust lifecycle and performance analytics as well as its marketplace to extend app capabilities and reduce the time and costs associated with development. Nearly 3 million apps have been created using Appcelerator, including those for PayPal, Avis and Cisco.

+ Appcelerator competitors include OutSystems, IBM MobileFirst and Verivo.

Top

50

Software Solutions for ’Net Enterprises There is not a digital presence in the virtual world whose success (or failure) is not, in some way, reliant or as a result of, software.

Not only does it power the forward-facing features and capabilities of a digital presence, but software also makes it possible to optimize the experience for users, deepen engagement and ultimately increase conversions.

Software is increasingly essential to businesses on and off the Web and billions are spent each year on the acquisition of it and education for it. In early 2015, in fact, Forrester analysts indicated that SaaS software spending would top $100 billion in 2016 and experience growth upward of 20 percent or more. Most of that spend will go toward analytics, “as-a-service” type offerings, and enterprise process applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), but mobile too will continue to see increased spending and experience double-digit growth this year according to Forrester.

There is simply no denying that software runs the world – real and virtual – and those enterprises that identify their most pressing needs, choose wisely and make the most of their software investments will be those best positioned for success in the immediate present and the future. But where should today’s brands begin?

Website Magazine’s feature article this month reveals an incredibly useful – as well as practical – playbook for those enterprises looking to improve revenue, drive more positive interactions with users and optimize their digital presence through software, whereas this month’s Top 50 features some of the most popular and most powerful offerings for Web businesses; exploring eight distinct software categories for e-commerce merchants, information publishers and Web-based services providers to help them develop a digital presence as well as optimize important facets of their virtual presence – from the search results to the social media networks and beyond.

There are, of course, numerous other categories and thousands of other vendors that could have (and perhaps should have) made the list, so Website Magazine has created a supplemental Top 50 this month with additional software verticals and vendors important to ’Net success. Learn more at wsm.co/extrafifty.

Content Management Adobe.com Weebly.com Oracle.com IBM.com Wordpress.com Squarespace.com Drupal.org Sitecore.net Sitefinity.com OneHippo.com

Social Media Management Hootsuite.com SproutSocial.com AgoraPulse.com HearsaySocial.com Sendible.com

Web Customer Support Zendesk.com Zoho.com Desk.com Freshdesk.com Livezilla.net

Search Optimization Moz.com SEMrush.com BrightEdge.com AdvancedWebRanking.com

WebCEO.com

E-Commerce Platforms Shopify.com BigCommerce.com Magento.com Prestashop.com Volusion.com 3dCart.com Demandware.com Miva.com Mozu.com Marketlive.com

Marketing Automation Hubspot.com Marketo.com Pardot.com Act-On.com Eloqua.com

Customer Relationship Management Microsoft.com Salesforce.com Infusionsoft.com Nimble.com Pipedrive.com

Business Intelligence Tableau.com Domo.com Chartio.com Sisense.com Dundas.com

A Playbook for Buying

SOFTWARE

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Whether it’s a face-to-face interaction or a digital one, business software buyers are the MVPs in any room – especially one filled with software vendors peddling their products to them.

From conferences and content to pitches and promotions, those responsible for purchasing software for their online enterprises have to quiet the crowd to make impartial decisions (supported with significant research and an in-depth understanding of its real-world impact). Often, however, they come to the plate with a full count – caught in highly sophisticated sales processes including software companies knowing their intent (via Web searches, whitepaper downloads, social conversations, etc.), whether their emails have been read (and even forwarded and to whom), and other tactics and technology used to reveal buyers’ motivations and allow vendors to approach their leads in more relevant ways to close more deals.

Maybe that’s why software buyers have tried to disguise their intent, avoiding outside influences by completing most of their research – SiriusDecisions says by as much as 70 percent – before ever reaching out to a sales representative. However the buying process occurs, it should be clear that purchasing software is a critical endeavor in every enterprise.

In this month’s feature in Website Magazine, readers will be provided a playbook for finding the most direct route for accomplishing their goals – all while educating themselves about new and emerging software, identifying needs, setting a budget and maintaining their investment.

24

|

.com

|

JUNE 2016

STUDY THE GAME Anyone interested in software today must understand – at least in a general sense – the dramatic shift that has occurred in the industry over the last several years. The catalysts have been the software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud software markets, which are outpacing traditional software delivery and consumption. IDC recently reported that SaaS is growing nearly five times faster than the traditional software market and becoming a significant growth driver to all functional software markets. By 2019, IDC projects the cloud software model will account for $1 of every $4.59 spent on software (up from a $48.8 billion market in 2014 to $112.8 billion by 2019) – and forward-thinking vendors are feeling the pressure to stake their claim.

By all accounts, Magento appears to be locking in one of those leadership roles in the e-commerce space. Mostly known for its free open-source community edition, Magento has recently began focusing on solutions for larger companies with its Enterprise Edition. Both offerings have always been traditional on-premise software, but Magento announced this spring at its annual conference that it would begin offering an Enterprise Edition for the cloud – decreasing some of the burden of hosting costs and operations – a move reportedly a direct result of customer demand. According to Peter Sheldon, head of strategy at Magento, this offering allows retailers to grow their businesses while Magento worries about complexities like how many servers it’s running on or uptime during the holidays (or other peaks).

That’s really the name of the game these days in software: giving businesses (and the professionals they em-

ploy) tremendous sophistication without the headache – just think of how many SaaS providers give marketers dashboards and drag-and-drop capabilities so they can be more hands-on than ever before (reducing IT or developer involvement in the process). In part, these capabilities are leading business buyers to consider new software that will provide greater operational sophistication with less manual work and technical support, fewer steps to completion and additional transparency across the enterprise.

Let’s review some of the software offerings that are in greatest demand today.

KNOW THE PLAYERS As more companies look to not only acquire and retain customers on the Web, but also digitize every touchpoint of their business, the need for software to support those initiatives has never been more important. There are myriad software categories and types to choose from, of course, but the following overview will get software buyers up to speed about some of the systems in use by their competition.

Acquiring & Retaining Marketing Automation: Companies are turning to marketing automation software in droves to automate tasks that nurture each part of the customer journey, from awareness to conversions to retention. In fact, Salesforce reports that high-performing teams are 6.7 times more likely to be using marketing automation than their under-performing counterparts; and marketing automation use is expected to grow 37 percent in the U.S. over the next 12 months.

+ Discover the top 50 marketing automation solutions at wsm.co/top50ma.

Content Management: The advances made in Web content management rival any in the software industry – giving users access to easy-to-use testing capabilities, personalization features (recommended content, location, behavior), engagement opportunities (gamification, interactive content, communities), performance insights (page, overall site) and document management (approved material, previously used content) to name but a few. According to BuiltWith, WordPress is by far the most-used CMS with Drupal, Blogger, Joomla, Adobe and DNN also taking top-10 spots, among others.

+ Explore the top 50 content management and Web experience solutions at wsm.co/top50cms.

Social Media: Thanks to increasing use by audiences around the globe, brands continue to commit time and budget to acquiring and retaining customers on social. With dramatically decreased organic reach and an increase in customer service type inquires within these channels, however, enterprises have

to be savvier about how they approach their efforts on the popular networks, which has led to software solutions that provide social listening, analytics and influencer outreach.

Sprout Social, for instance, reports that despite incoming social messages up 53 percent in the last year, brands only respond to an average of 11 percent of inbound messages – pushing Sprout Social to launch its Suggested Replies offering. Comparable to Gmail’s Canned Responses, the machine-learning algorithm makes engagement easier for social media managers by suggesting replies to frequently asked questions.

+ Access a list of the top 50 essential social media solutions at wsm.co/top50social.

Customer Support: As end-users demand near real-time responses from companies (thanks to the previously mentioned outreach on social media), the customer support software industry has grown to include live chat, helpdesks, advocate outreach and in-app service. Enterprises must explore options that will allow them to know who the customer is (and their intent and buying history, as well as past interactions) in order to provide a higher level of service that omits the customer having to explain who they are, what they need at that moment and, worst of all, making them switch channels (like from email to a phone call or live chat to a phone call) to accomplish their goals. In fact, Walker Information predicts that by the year 2020, customer experience will be more important in business strategy than products and price.

+ Check out some of the most innovative customer support solutions available today at wsm.co/6support.

Analyzing & Optimizing Web Analytics: Data has never been more important and enterprises of all sizes are looking to analytics software to inform decisions, test for better outcomes, and improve both the user experience and key performance metrics (KPIs). If understanding audience behavior and intent is the goal, they’ll be better off for leveraging one of the many Web analytics software solutions available today.

+ Find out some of the Google Analytics alternatives in use at wsm.co/otheranalytics.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): With organic search serving as the number one driver of website traffic for most companies (BrightEdge research shows organic search drives 51 percent of website traffic and 40 percent of website revenue), it’s no wonder SEO software remains in high demand – running the spectrum from on- and off-page analysis and competitive research to link management and keyword research.

+ Read, “Top 50 Search Engine Optimization Solutions” at wsm.co/top50seo.

Infrastructure & Reliability E-Commerce: Savvy retailers are leveraging software that not only helps them create their digital storefront, but also helps them sell more. With the right platform (and extensions), merchants can deliver experiences that are personalized, modern, mobile and flawlessly executed across channels in a secure environment.

+ Get a rundown of some of the most intriguing ecommerce platform extensions at wsm.co/dozenext.

Web Performance: Unavailable or under-performing digital assets are a conversion killer. Identifying, monitoring and reacting to any performance issues is the role of many Web performance software solutions and there is an abundance of them.

+ See a roundup of top resources for monitoring and optimizing Web performance at wsm.co/webspeedy.

IDENTIFY WEAK SPOTS While it is the goal of every enterprise to get the software it needs to succeed, the combination of today’s many available solutions, the connectedness of the Web and all the content that vendors are publishing to persuade their prospects has created a FOMO-based buying culture (or fear of missing out). This is especially true for Web-based companies trying to stand out on the many available marketing channels while providing a seamless experience across them. With so much information coming in, however, the chances of making an inaccurate decision increases.

Deloitte published a report recently giving stakeholders ideas about how to use FOMO to drive organizational change, but in it, Deloitte stated there is a correlation between information load and decision accuracy, writing: “…there is a peak amount of information a person can take in that improves decision-making ability; any additional information added past this point results in a decrease in accuracy. Therefore, the superfluous information can have negative effects on a worker’s accuracy in the workplace, resulting in poorer products, and have potentially expensive and/or detrimental consequences.”

So, how can business buyers not only obtain the “right” amount of information to base their decisions on but also identify a real need? It’s complicated, but before listening and engaging in the chatter that is outside of their enterprise, software buyers should turn to internal data.

Rapid-Fire CRM Buyer’s Guide Discover insights on some of the most important talking points in the realm of customer relationship management and sales force automation at wsm.co/crm2016.

For instance, a B2B company whose sales team is struggling to close leads, in large part because its prospects are more informed about its offerings than those pitching them, may want to look into sales acceleration software like InsideSales.com; this software not only gamifies product education (increasing rep performance) but also provides scores to help sales representatives prioritize their leads based on how likely the prospects are to purchase and to be contacted at all. Other solutions to help companies prioritize leads (and sell more) include Velocify, Accent Technologies and KiteDesk, among others of course, as well as a company’s CRM (e.g., Salesforce, Oracle, Zoho, SAP) and marketing automation solution (e.g., Marketo, HubSpot, Act-On).

+ For a top 50 list of customer relationship management and sales force automation solutions, visit wsm.co/top50crm.

Another example of a need-based software investment is that of CRM. If a company has no way to track a user’s lifecycle through their company and share that information across departments (resulting in poor user experience, low conversion rates and general overall annoyance both in house and out), an investment into CRM could certainly be justified (see sidebar).

Analyzing the information already at a company’s disposal is certainly the best and first step to take when purchasing software, but if companies get the feeling (from competitive research or direct feedback) that competitors are moving past them at lightning speed, they should explore the options that will get them where they need to be and the quickest. It’s important, however, to keep one’s head on straight when they start diving into marketing collateral and begin being contacted by vendors; luckily, plenty of people have come before and have both success and failure stories to share.

STICK TO THE GAME PLAN Software procurers are a sought-after group and individually and with their team will need to become experts in the market they are entering in order to know which vendor to select, seeking out their own unbiased reviews and support system.

“Sales pitches always sound great, but sometimes those pitches don’t translate to real-life workflows,” said Ty Cameron, direct or information technology at Christopherson Business Travel. “If software providers would more easily connect us buyers to actual users of their solutions – who could speak honestly and without bias – we would have a better idea of their product and what our experience will be after the purchase. You can sometimes accomplish this by trolling forums and user communities, but it’s not always possible.”

Looking for the BEST Web talent?

Reach a pool of qualified ’Net professionals by posting your open positions on Website Magazine’s job board at wsm.co/jobswm.

1.800.817.1518 |

| info@websitemagazine.com

Cameron recommends putting the vendors to work as well, making sure they are doing their due diligence to know and understand the business environment and providing a completely custom solution that meets the company’s needs and budget.

Similarly, Joe Nutinsky, CEO of Ruvna (an online tool that allows schools to locate and account for their students in realtime during emergencies) recently purchased Pipedrive as the company’s CRM and recommends leveraging free trials.

“It makes my life so much easier to try something out before spending money, especially when I’m straying away from a name-brand tool (like Salesforce),” said Nutinsky.

“Also, phone support is incredibly valuable. When we’re thinking about new tools, I love being able to call the company and ask them questions.”

Of the many software purchasers Website Magazine has interviewed, integrations are also a major selling point and should always be considered before signing on the dotted line. When Nutinsky ultimately chose Pipedrive as his company’s CRM, integrations with his existing software were required.

“Thankfully, Pipedrive made it super easy,” said Nutinsky. “They have instructions for integrating with any of the other software they know startups already use (things like email tracking, lead generation, phone systems, etc.).”

Today’s software sellers often lead with the high volume of companies and systems they integrate with – extending core functionality with software already in use by an enterprise or solutions they’d like to explore.

Integrations are an important ecosystem to understand, so Website Magazine put together an “experts speak” article highlighting real-world integration successes and failures at wsm.co/expertint, which is worth exploring by anyone in the market for software today.

What’s included and what’s not in an initial software package not only makes the difference in how it will operate and be implemented, but also how much additional it will cost from what was expected.

SET A CAP It’s not often a software buyer has access to pricing information – this is particularly true of systems that are more complex by nature – which can be frustrating to eventual buyers.

“It’s very common to have to call to find out the price of a piece of software and remarkably the final price you pay, is often around what your stated budget is,” said Ian Wright, CEO and founder of MoverDB.com.

Vendors certainly have their reasons for this tactic, but setting a budget and adhering to it (assuming it was made with reasonable considerations) is a factor in whether a software purchase can be considered a success; is what it cost worth what it returned? Wright suggests there are two steps buyers must take to stay on budget:

1. For any complex products that do have advertised prices, make sure to get quotes from as many vendors as possible selling that software.

2. Ensure buyers understand what is included when purchasing. For example, is support included or not? Can they add extra users for free or are they charged a per-user license fee. Failing to understand all the costs is the easiest way to end up over budget.

Researching alternative options that may be outside the box is also suggested advice for maintaining a budget.

“Many times, open source projects will do 90 percent of what you need to accomplish, and while this is sometimes adequate, there are other times when you need ongoing professional support for maintenance of critical systems, and you usually get what you pay for,” said Cameron of Christopherson Business Travel. “Research the vendor and see what users are saying. If vendors can’t stand up to their service-level agreements (SLAs) move on to one that can. It will save you money in the future when things go wrong, which is inventible with technology.”

NAME A CAPTAIN There’s only so much data that can be analyzed, research that can be conducted, and pros and cons that can be discussed before a decision needs to be made if moving a company forward is the aim. Executives who have done their due diligence, however, should feel confident that they are entering into a partnership that will be to the benefit of their enterprises.

This may be the time in some organizations where the bulk of the responsibility is passed on to someone who can be the champion for onboarding this new technology, setting realistic goals (and metrics to track) for the project and seeing that ongoing maintenance is tended to.

Not doing so is the number one reason for failure according to a paper published by Quorum Business Solutions, Inc., which recommends identifying the highest level line person who will gain the most (from his/her personal perspective) from a successful software implementation.

What’s more, this person will want to be comfortable taking the lead across departments and pay grades.

PLAY BALL The risks of making a bad software decision certainly exist, but those charged with researching, budgeting, deciding, and ultimately choosing how and who will implement the technology for their enterprise are chosen for a reason. Software buyers will need to be confident in their ability to sort through all available information and offerings to identify what will propel their business forward – keeping up with both external and internal demands.

Mobile

MATTERS Upwardly Mobile!

Key Commerce Trends to Prep For

By Kimber Johnson, Co-Founder of ASPEN App Design

One of the most profound paradigm shifts that the business world is facing today is the steady transition from ecommerce to mobile commerce. Mobile devices have transformed the way consumers shop, review and search for products and services online.

There are more than 3.6 billion unique mobile users globally, according to GSMA, and mobile device penetration in the world market will also continue to rise steadily. With a huge percentage of total sales coming from mobile devices, companies are now doubling their efforts toward building apps to cater to their customers on the go.

Mobile commerce is any kind of commerce, such as buying and selling of goods and services, which is done on a mobile device. These include smartphones, tablets, wearables and any other Webconnected devices. Since these devices have become a necessity for billions of people globally, it is time Web professionals start monitoring the mobile trends that are changing consumer demand.

App domination

With users continuing to spend more time on mobile apps than on websites, the way users interact with businesses will soon be dominated by applications.

Though a well-designed mobile website can be optimized to make it look and feel like a mobile app, it still cannot do the things a native app can (e.g., location features, push notifications). An app lets developers put their businesses at the fingertips of current and potential customers.

For example, sending push notifications allows consumers to read messages without even having their phone unlocked. If marketers enable a push notification for their business application, the application will provide news and updates about the brand, such as latest coupons, promo codes or events. The notification will send a message and if a customer chooses to interact, they will be directed to the app for additional information. One of the deficiencies of mobile sites is that they lack push notifications, which have proven to effectively re-engage customers.

A mobile app can also help users provide instant feedback, which will help the business owner analyze her marketing strategy. With mobile apps, the gap between businesses and customers is narrowed, removing limitations of how and when end-users can reach a company (and vice versa).

Mobile wallet use

The number of consumers using mobile wallets to pay for goods and services at the point of sale will continue to rise with 2016 being a year of significance for the technology. In a study by Retale, more J U N E 2016

|

.com

| 29

Mobile

MATTERS

than 50 percent of consumers in the United States indicated they prefer the convenience of paying with mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet. A survey on digital wallet usage from Walker Sands in 2016 found that Google Wallet has been adopted more than Apple Pay, but leads Samsung Wallet (which came in third place).

A digital wallet works like a traditional leather wallet in that one person pays for something using what the wallet contains and the other person receives that gain. The digital wallet, however, is based on encryption software that replaces physical credit cards or cash during monetary exchanges, which many argue makes transactions more convenient and secure for both parties.

A mobile digital wallet will help consumers pay for products, as well as store their credit card info, bus passes, gift cards concert tickets so there is Consumers are will- and no physical exchange, but mering to use a store’s chants can then reward their customers’ loyalty by offering Wi-Fi connection instant discounts, coupons and freebies applied straight to the to search for prod- digital wallet.

“

professionals. Here is a high-level view of improving search rankings for mobile: First, remember that user experience is most important. If users are impressed, they will personally ask and request to learn more. Today, user experience is in part defined by how responsive a site is to the device on which a visitor is accessing it on.

After a mobile-friendly or responsive site has been invested in, brands need to turn their attention to creating quality content that is relevant to their mobile audience. From there, they may want to consider asking local associations to link to them.

Lastly, it is important to bear in mind that mobile SEO differs from desktop SEO, as it is specifically targeted to the mobile search environment. Brands should prioritize their site based on what mobile users are searching for (e.g., directions, phone number, reviews, etc.) in order to lower bounce rates and help visitors accomplish their goals.

Use of ad blockers will increase

Users and developers are becoming increasingly mobile. Businesses must therefore keep pace and maximize their efforts with this growing trend. Advertising in mobile apps and mobile sites is not difficult provided retailers make the most of every opportunity available.

In addition, ad blockers will be a threat to campaigns served to mobile users. Brands will want to explore new advertising formats and channels such as native advertising or social media campaigns to bypass this software.

uct info, so retailers In-store shoppers would be wise to le- are online Mobile devices not only enverage technologies hance in-store shopping experiences, but can also boost that will complement revenue. Nielsen reported, for Video will be king that there is a world- When it comes to content marketing, the role of vidthat experience. instance, wide demand for in-store mobile eo is becoming increasingly important. Companies

“

options provided that brands offer them. Consumers are willing to use a store’s Wi-Fi connection to search for product info, so retailers would be wise to leverage technologies that will complement that experience.

Search is not dead

The majority of consumers use search engines to find information on products and services before making purchases. Therefore, when it comes to planning online marketing campaigns (and budgeting appropriately), providing information that is easy to access for both the search engines and website visitors should be a main focus for Web

should explore what channels they can publish these assets on to increase engagement and the likeliness mobile users will respond to their marketing. Retailers, for instance, need to add videos to product pages in order for the mobile user to feel more confident about buying an item from their phone, which typically offers limited ways to view products.

What “they” want

Now is the time to ensure that your business is connected with consumers, because 2016 is the year of seamless connectivity. From advertising considerations to search optimization, brands will need to approach their commerce strategies with a mobile-first mindset.

Email

EXPERIENCE Summer Slim Down:

Best Practices for Shedding Unwanted Contacts

By EJ McGowan, General Manager of Campaigner

With summer comes beach season, a time when many warm-weather vacationers hope to shape up and slim down in order to look and feel their best when all eyes are on them.

Regardless of whether they have any pounds to lose, email marketers can take a cue from these fitness-oriented folks to focus on slimming down contact lists.

Good list hygiene is crucial for email marketing success. Major email service providers (ESPs) are constantly trying to prevent undesirable or irrelevant email from reaching users’ inboxes, and they do so by monitoring which messages sent from specific senders have the most and least subscriber interaction.

If emails linger unopened for too long by too many people, providers begin to flag anything from that sender as immediate spam, preventing even engaged contacts from receiving that company’s messages.

Therefore, it is crucial that Web professionals have lean-and-clean lists of contacts who are at least somewhat likely to interact with campaigns. Read on for some best practices on how to approach slimming down contact lists and shedding those stubborn, unwanted contacts.

Provide Motivation

Everyone needs a little motivation to get active once in a while and email contacts are no exception. Marketers should launch re-engagement campaigns for contacts who have been minimally responsive to their messages in the last six months with the goal of winning them back. After these efforts, they’ll want to remove anyone from the list who is still unengaged.

Don’t Add Extra Weight

As tempting as it may be to add large groups of new

contacts, marketers can get burned by this bad behavior if they don’t know specifically where these lists came from. Purchased lists are rife with honeypots – decoy email addresses that ESPs set up just to catch habitual spammers. Maintain lists comprised of only contacts who opted in one way or another.

Exercise Different Areas

As important as hygiene is across a company’s entire master list, marketers need to analyze deliverability rates within specific email domains. Brands should use reporting features to look at domain statistics and see if their messages have higher open and click-through rates from recipients with email addresses at one provider (Yahoo, Gmail) over another. Then, they can leverage these insights to approach certain segments more cautiously.

Encourage Custom Diets

Quality subscriptions are the key to quality contact lists, so marketers should confirm any new email subscribers with a double opt-in. Additionally, brands should let contacts choose the type of content they want to subscribe to — from blogs or newsletters to quizzes or promotions.

This specialized content diet will ensure that contacts who opt-in will remain engaged as they’ve chosen the content that suits them.

Monitor Progress

Just as dieters regularly hop on the scale to check progress, companies will want to consistently review feedback loops for complaints. Anybody who is actively denouncing a brand’s messages should be immediately removed from all lists, as these are the most dangerous recipients for deliverability rates.

Find the Perfect Regimen

No one diet or exercise routine provides the best results for everyone, and, in the same way, every marketer will have to discover which list hygiene practices work best for his company. It’s important to test different combinations of segmentation to see how to most effectively trim a contact list to reach business goals. Once a company discovers a routine that works well, it will want to leverage automation to ensure that this perfect regimen is strictly adhered to.

By using the practices outlined above, marketers will be able to identify and shed unwanted contacts and encourage healthy email campaigns with high deliverability rates.

J U N E 2016

|

.com

| 31

Conversion

CORNER Gated Split Testing:

What Pages Need Before Testing

By Marty Greif, SiteTuners

There’s a fraction of the conversion community that actively asks marketers to test everything. You should adhere to that advice if you meet the following criteria: You don’t have the technical savvy to find a core set of pages to test.

You have a shortage of projects on the backburner, and too much time on your hands.

You don’t care whether the projects you undertake actually have an impact on the bottom line.

In reality, the belief that marketers should test everything is probably a deterrent to testing in general.

People who might have started get intimidated by the daunting thought of testing all changes.

What is really needed is a rational entry point for split testing. If marketers want split testing to cover areas that matter, they can start with this process:

FILTERS: MEET THE RED BOXES It’s time to get familiar with the elements that should be checked before running a test.

Criticality: Improving this page will move the needle

A roadmap for testing website elements.

32

|

.com

|

JUNE 2016

Each split test usually takes weeks to run. Optimizers don’t want to skimp on statistical significance; 90-95 percent is the threshold conversion professionals use, and that means weeks running a test on a page with moderate traffic.

That said, the first thing a company will want to know is how critical the page is for the website.

If improving a page will not result in significant gains, brands are better off testing other pages.

Criticality can be thought of as a function of two things: the amount of traffic a page receives, and how high the page’s bounce rate (especially if it is a page designed for navigation).

If optimizers find just the high-traffic pages, those pages may be perfectly fine from an engagement standpoint. If optimizers find just the pages with high bounce rate, the page may not be a common pathway for visitors.

If they find the pages that have both a significant amount of traffic, and a high bounce rate, (visitors don’t stick around), however, then that means marketers have found their trouble areas. Those are the candidates for pages that need to be fixed.

If you use Google Analytics, there’s a hidden gem called “Weighted Sort,” which makes finding those pages 10 times easier.

Baseline Functionality: All the functionality on the page works It’s not time to fire up Google Content Experiments, VWO or Optimizely and run a test just yet.

Before then, optimizers need to learn what devices and browsers get used to access candidate pages to test. Once that data is in hand, optimizers can check if those pages function properly.

Remember, this isn’t how convincing a page is yet, or whether the call-to-action (CTA) is the right size or color.

This is “can the users technically get to the next step?”

A significant amount of the time, what brands will find is that they need a fix at this stage. For instance, maybe the form’s “submit” field doesn’t fire

on mobile, maybe the JavaScript being used doesn’t play well with IE8 and a lot of the site’s visitors still use the browser, or maybe they’ll find any of a dozen things that are actually broken.

Enterprises need to fix those BEFORE they think about running split tests.

Visual Load: Everything a user needs on the page can be seen At this stage, optimizers will want to check the visual load. That is, can visitors actually read the page, and can they “see” what items they can interact with? Any marketer worth his or her salt will ensure that, at minimum, the CTA is present and looks clickable, and that most of the audience can read the content without issue.

Cognitive Load: The page doesn’t overwhelm visitors Next, optimizers will want to make sure they don’t set off what Daniel Kahneman calls “system 2.”

Let’s back up a bit.

Let’s assume that most of a day, a marketer runs through a set of automatic actions. He eats breakfast. He takes a bath. He brushes his teeth. He gets to work on time. All of those actions he can pretty much do without any mental effort are “system 1.”

Then, at work, let’s assume somebody asks him details about a report he made four months ago.

He’s likely to remember the details, but only after significant thought. That’s “system 2” and it means conversion death if triggered.

Optimizers want to make sure their pages avoid these before testing begins: Significantly deviating from the convention, as established by other sites Presenting too many options without clear differentiation

Motor Load: It’s easy for visitors to take the next step B.J. Fogg, of Persuasive Technology fame, likes to say that you should put “hot triggers in front of motivated people.”

Making a trigger “hot” is usually a function of how easy something is to interact with.

What marketers can test, then, comes down to a few items for ease of use: Different sizes at which buttons/mechanisms can be manipulated properly by a site’s visitors Grouping of tasks to minimize switching costs between actions Types of interaction people can accomplish on the site Broadly, these affect motor load; how much of an “interaction tax” visitors need to take to do what they need to do. Marketers should be testing pages to minimize that “tax.”

Motivation: Visitors are persuaded to convert Robert Cialdini, author of “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” discusses six things that affect how persuasive you are. The CliffsNotes version, modified for Web marketers, goes like this: Liking - Is the content written in the user’s language?

Scarcity - Are you using persuasion elements like timed offers to push visitors to act?

Commitment - Are you getting visitors to commit smaller actions before asking for bigger ones?

Authority - Are you borrowing “trust” from logos of known clients and security symbols, and are they above the fold?

Failing to reduce the number of elements on a page

FILTERS: ABOUT THAT GREEN BOX

Reciprocity - Are you offering PDF guides for topof-the funnel visitors, so they’ll “return the favor”?

If the page fails any of those four items, it’s time to hit the reset button. However, if the pages passed all four, it’s time to figure out exactly what should be tested.

Social Proof - Are you displaying reviews, testimonials, or number of clients served?

A significant amount of a marketer’s test plans “live” here – persuading people to act. Motivation and interaction mechanisms are perfect items to test against, you just need to make sure your pages are worth testing first.

After deciding elements are testable, it is time to see what triggers people and how much interaction consumers need to accomplish goals.

Martin Greif brings 25-plus years of sales and marketing experience to SiteTuners, where he drives revenue growth, nurtures partner relationships and creates customer value.

Social Media

MAVENS Like This!

Facebook’s Most Recent Developments

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

Facebook hosted its annual F8 Developer Conference recently, and the social network made several big announcements that Web professionals should know about.

Thousands of people attended both days of the event and more than a million people watched it online according to Facebook.

The popularity of the event shouldn’t be surprising to Web pros, as the conference has been home to numerous big developments in the past, including in 2015 when Facebook unveiled Businesses on Messenger and in 2014 when it unveiled its Audience Network. This year, however, the focus was on connectivity.

Learn more about some of the conference’s headline-making announcements below:

Profile Expression Kit – This update enables people to use third-party apps to create profile videos that show off their personality. When someone makes a profile video with a supported app, the video can be shared in their Facebook News Feed and showcased at the top of their profile. What’s more, the News Feed story includes a link to install the app that was leveraged for the video.

The feature is currently in closed beta, however, and is kicking off with support for just six apps, including Boomerang by Instagram, BeautyPlus, Cinmagraph Pro by Flixel, Lollicam, MSQRD and Vine.

Account Kit – Developers can better grow the audience for their apps with Account Kit, which gives people the choice to log into new apps with just their phone number or email address. Facebook notes that this service is complementary to Facebook Login and doesn’t require people to have an account on the social network. This is an important development as many predict that the traditional username-password combo will soon be replaced for more convenient options.

Facebook Live API – The success of Facebook Live (real-time video posts) has led the social network to open up its API so developers can design more ways for people and publishers to interact and share videos in real-time.

Bots for Messenger – Facebook announced bots for its

Developers can leverage an API to include multiple calls-to-action within Facebook Messenger.

Messenger platform at F8. For those that are unfamiliar, bots have become a popular tool in messaging apps for simulating conversation and automating tasks.

Facebook notes that as part of the new Messenger platform, bots can provide anything from automated content like weather and traffic updates to customized communications like receipts, shipping notifications and live automated messages.

Businesses can also leverage the social network’s Messenger Send/Receive API to build a custom bot for Messenger that supports everything from sending and receiving text to images and interactive rich bubbles containing multiple calls-to-action (CTAs).

More modern identification methods are slowly replacing traditional username/password combos.

Save Button – Facebook is making its Save button available to sites off the social network. With the button, people will be able to save articles, products and videos from across the Web into a private list on the social network.

Artificial Intelligence – At F8, Facebook’s Applied Machine Learning team gave some insight into the AI backbone that powers a variety of Facebook experiences.

The team also shed light on its research efforts to enable better ways for people to connect, including new capabilities like language translation, image understanding that allows photos to be searched for and classified better, as well as ways to classify videos in real-time to help people navigate the increasingly popular content type being shared every day.

Hosting

PANEL

Keep What’s Yours:

Tips to Safeguard Against Ransomware

By Travis Smit, Tripwire

Ransomware has been increasingly leveraged by cybercriminals over the past few years to fund their criminal activities.

Historically, cybercriminals would have to steal their target’s data, as well as find an avenue to re-sell the data and/or use it in fraudulent ways to make cybercrime profitable. Each individual illegal activity increases the risk of getting caught by law enforcement, especially those that involve converting digital assets into hard currency. With ransomware, criminals can receive anonymous digital payments via Bitcoin almost immediately. The profit margins for each attack are somewhat reduced, but so is the risk of getting caught.

This means that attackers using ransomware will have to rely on catching a lot of little fish, rather than one whale, to obtain a good return on their investment.

Vulnerabilities

Previously, ransomware code would infect specific file types. The typical infection path would come from a phishing attack that would entice a victim to 36

|

.com

|

JUNE 2016

open a malicious document. Today, attackers are beginning to target websites in addition to end-users.

Attacks against websites leverage vulnerabilities in the code hosting the website in order to gain access to the underlying operating system. The most common attack vector here is via remote command injection. An attacker will attempt to run arbitrary commands on the Web server with the end goal of downloading and executing their malicious code. The attack surface that could potentially allow for command injection is quite large. Attackers can get in via any combination of operating system vulnerabilities, Web server vulnerabilities, Web application vulnerabilities, or vulnerabilities in website plug-ins or extensions.

What’s Infected?

Once attackers are able to infect a machine, the ransomware will attempt to encrypt whatever it deems important for the intended target. For websites, this can include Web pages, images and scripts. Once encryption is complete, a message will be displayed to visitors of the Web page stating that the web-

site has been infected with ransomware along with instructions for the Web administrator on how to purchase the decryption key and return the website to normal operation.

Protecting a Site & Its Users

The ransomware samples available publicly so far appear to be opportunistic in nature, meaning they take advantage of well-known vulnerabilities to exploit websites. To protect against such an attack, it’s advised that all code running on public-facing websites be patched as quickly as possible. It’s not uncommon for an exploit to be announced along with a “proofof-concept” code to test if the vulnerability is present.

Attackers can then “weaponize” the proof-of-concept code into an exploit in as little as a few hours.

The Needed Investments

Since not all security vulnerabilities will be patched, particularly in-house Web applications, website owners should invest in security testing of the public-facing website. This should include both vulnerability scanning as well penetration testing.

Vulnerability scanning will test the website and wellknown Web applications for known vulnerabilities.

If any patches are missing or any configuration is known to be insecure, a vulnerability scan will prioritize what’s important to fix based off the potential impact to the system scanned.

For custom apps, a Web application scanner with a non-transparent proxy, which allows interaction with the security, is ideal. This type of vulnerability scanner can interact with the website, as well as manipulate fields, cookies and other session data to look for common vulnerabilities in Web applications.

Testing Differences

Penetration testing is different than vulnerability scanning. While it’s important to know if there are any vulnerabilities, a penetration test will answer the all-important question: What’s the impact of any vulnerabilities that exist? A penetration test will determine if a specific vulnerability is actually exploitable. If the vulnerability can be exploited, the penetration test will determine what the potential impact will be. For example, if a specific vulner-

ability is successfully exploited, an attacker might be able to access personally identifiable information for customers or employees. Penetration testing requires a human behind the keyboard to perform the testing. Automated scanning can complete a lot of legwork initially, but pen testing using real humans is required to provide in-depth security testing.

“

“

Follow the 3-2-1 rule of backups: Keep three different copies of the data, in two different formats, with one of the copies off-site.

3-2-1 Rule

The final component of protecting against ransomware is knowing what to do if an attacker is somehow able to bypass every security control in place and encrypt critical data. To avoid paying the ransom, recent backups are required. There aren’t any known examples of ransomware attempting to encrypt data residing within databases, so in the short term it’s important to start backing up critical website files; for example, everything within / var/www directory should be backed up frequently.

Since ransomware will search the entire file system, and potentially network locations as well, website administrators should follow the 3-2-1 rule of backups: keep three copies of the data, in two different formats, with one of the copies off-site.

By keeping data in different locations, the chances of the ransomware encrypting all of the locations are significantly reduced. Storing the data on different media also reduces the risk that ransomware can infect and encrypt every copy of the backup. For example, backups to a CD-R (not CD-RW), will prevent any ransomware from encrypting backup data.

Finally, having a backup copy off-site and offline will completely eliminate the chance that ransomware will destroy all backup data.

Don’t Become a Victim

Ransomware is a real threat to many different types of organizations, and the successful business model pretty much guarantees that these types of attacks won’t slow down anytime soon. Fortunately, there are effective options to mitigate and remediate ransomware attacks.

Make sure your business has these safeguards in place so you don’t become the next victim.

Travis Smith is a senior security research engineer at Tripwire, where he brings more than 10 years’ experience in security.

High-Profile Ransomware Attacks See which brands, governments and other entities have been targeted at

wsm.co/webpayup.

Net

ADVERTISING

How to Use Location Data for More Targeted Campaigns

By Jeremy Anspach, Co-Founder and CEO of PureCars

Thanks to mobile, consumers and brands are more connected than ever before.

In fact, it was reported that in 2015, 68 percent of Americans owned smartphones and 45 percent owned tablet computers (Pew Research Center).

What’s more, shoppers are increasingly comfortable making purchases on mobile, even for major lifetime products with greater financial risk. For example, about one in five consumers are likely to use a mobile or wearable device to research or buy vehicles online according to eBay Motors.

While mobile usage and commerce are on the rise, it has become more difficult for retailers to connect with shoppers online. Ad blocking technologies continue to outperform digital marketing strategies as consumers increase privacy settings due to mistrust of branded content.

Retailers, however, can still leverage mobile activity to generate ads that win. Not only do insights from digital behavior allow marketers to create ads that are relevant, but these ads are also real-world contextual and timely. Location data tied to online browsing behavior is the future of digital marketing as it allows brands to reach shoppers with ads that reflect genuine consumer needs.

Use Online Behavior to Determine Preferences Consumers lack the patience for generic ads, no matter the industry. Inundated with a great deal of branded content every day, shoppers need to feel like ads are speaking directly to their individualized needs.

To personalize ads, brands must first learn more about customers. Enterprises can monitor shoppers’ online activity to see what users are researching and purchasing. For example, if a consumer is browsing brown boots on her phone, ads across all devices should reflect this behavior. Across any number of product categories and attributes (e.g., size, price), retailers can generate targeted ads based on customer browsing history.

38

|

.com

|

JUNE 2016

Second, marketers must focus on where shoppers are. Even if an ad is perfectly targeted and offers the added value necessary to avoid being blocked, digital strategies are fruitless when shoppers cannot proceed to purchase. For retailers that sell across multiple sales channels (e.g., website, marketplaces, brick-andmortar location), advertisements must align with realtime inventory statuses. If, for example, a shopper is researching a new smartphone online and then goes in store to purchase only to find the product is out of stock, this severely hurts that retailer’s reputation.

Leverage Location Data to Meet Shopper Demands In addition to marketing strategies like retargeting and display advertising, location-based mobile behavior will help retailers achieve both their personalization and location goals. Desktop marketing efforts are limited by users’ permanent locations, and retailers can only advertise based on where a computer is. However, this is not an accurate representation of shoppers’ lives, and brands miss out on key sales opportunities when relying solely on desktop.

Location-based mobile advertising is more powerful, as it allows brands to interact with shoppers from anywhere, at any time.

A wide variety of real-world scenarios exist for retailers to connect with shoppers on the go. For example, if someone has expressed need for an oil change via his search behavior, marketers can employ location data technologies to reach that consumer with an ad for a discounted oil change when he drives past a service station. Similarly, if a shopper has been researching red Nikes, a retailer can send her an ad with this style as she passes by the store.

Popular retailers like Walmart are already finding success from location-based targeting on mobile. The company recently shifted print advertising dollars to invest in its Saving Catcher app, which reaches shoppers via geo-location technologies. As app users walk by the store, Walmart sends them hyper-relevant mobile alerts for on-the-spot deals.

With ads like these, marketers can push personalization and location in real-time. As brands begin to learn more about shoppers and their routines and habits, it becomes easier to reach them with ads that offer real value and stand out from marketing noise.

By applying digital behavior to real-world context, marketers can better help consumers and generate immediate ROI from their digital campaigns.

Mobile usage is only going to continue to grow, and purchase on devices like smartphones and tablets will become more popular as well. Marketers need to leverage this trend, but must do so in the right way to avoid ad blocking online.

CONNECT WHEN “THEY” UNCONNECT Print captures and keeps the attention of today’s millennial business buyer more than any other medium.* Reach these motivated ’Net professionals by exploring Website Magazine’s many acquisition opportunities.

Reach millennial business buyers now at wsm.co/printsells.

1.800.817.1518 | *Quad Graphics, 2016

| info@websitemagazine.com

Web

COMMENTARY Preparing for

The Third Wave

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

My first exposure to the Web, like many millions of others, came thanks to a shiny compact disc from America Online. Only a handful of very forward thinkers knew at the time what access to the Internet would provide the world.

Suffice it to say, pretty much everything changed with the rise of the Web; entire new industries emerged (and many established ones were fundamentally and forever changed) and as a result fortunes were made and lost. If you or your enterprise were not an early adopter of the ’Net and believe you’ve fallen behind as a result, however, you’re likely interested in ensuring that doesn’t happen again, right? There is, of course, dramatic change coming (as it always does) to every industry, career and facet of existence – and those ready for it will be those positioned for the greatest success in the future.

One of the most intriguing characters during the last wave of true technology and business innovation was AOL Co-Founder Steve Case (now founder and partner of investment firm Revolution Growth). In many ways, it was Case’s vision and drive that helped develop the ’Net as we know it today. And when an entrepreneur/technologist like Case speaks, it’s not a bad idea to listen.

I was fortunate to receive an early copy of Case’s new book “The Third Wave,” which addresses what the super successful billionaire expects from the future and the technological changes that he believes will ultimately reshape the economy and the world. If you, like I, are intrigued by what’s next, Case provides both an informed and rather enlightening collection of insights and stories as well as some experience-based context for the years, decades and perhaps centuries ahead for those looking to build transformational businesses and change the things that truly need changing (from healthcare to education).

Part manifesto and part history book, Case argues in the “Third Wave” that success in the future, particularly for entrepreneurs, will increasingly demand focus on three areas: partnerships, policy and, as much or more

than ever, perseverance. While the book is somewhat safe in its prognostications, it does offer some practical insights for those looking for the next big idea that can change the world.

After discussing his book at the Union Club in Chicago, I had the opportunity to speak personally with Case about the book, discuss the opportunities he sees, and receive some valuable guidance for those seeking partnerships and expertise on policy. Case also had some interesting things to say about how the next generation of workers should prepare for the inevitable shift.

One of the major issues that entrepreneurs have, according to Case, is whether they have a truly big idea.

That wasn’t necessary a core part of the “Third Wave,” but it does reveal just what’s at stake – those “ideas” that are genuine game changers will transform the way business and people do things (and what venture capitalists want most to invest in). For those looking for a big idea or to confirm they have one, Case suggested to focus on the fundamental problems and try to figure out if and how it could be solved, how broad of an impact is required, and whether the right team, the right technology and the right timing is in place – sound thinking for any enterprise in any wave or age.

When it comes to forming partnerships, Case had another interesting perspective to share – make sure you have diversity in perspectives. It’s not uncommon for founders to be specialists in a particular area but with so much required to thrive in industries that need transformation, it is essential to have a team with expertise in areas that were once, if not unnecessary, at least less important than they are today (for example in education or healthcare policy). Enterprises with a broader level of expertise will only be those capable of success in this third wave.

Make no mistake, Case’s book can be somewhat unsettling – bringing to light all those fears that you may ultimately be replaced by a robot and showing how that future might come to fruition. So how should the next generation of workers prepare?

“Everyone will need to be more independent, managing their own career path and destiny,” said Case.

“Think differently and to the future.”

That’s not very comforting and perhaps Case himself worries about what’s next – emphasizing that the world is changing and business as usual simply won’t work. Case provides a compelling playbook for the third wave that provides a strong foundation, but, of course, no guarantee, of success. For that, you’ll need a big (and good) idea, diversity in perspective and dedication to partnerships and policy, persevering until change manifests. Sounds like a reasonable place to start every project.

THE WAIT

IS OVER

Order your copy of Domains 360 Website Magazine’s latest book by Editor-In-Chief Peter Prestipino is available for purchase at www.domains360book.com.

What’s Inside Domains 360?

Readers will discover...

+ A Brief History of Domains + Details on the Technical Landscape + Guidance on Mastering Domain Management

+ Tips for Establishing Domain Portfolios + Insights on Buying & Selling Direct + And Much More!

To order your copy, go to: www.domains360book.com J U N E 2016

|

.com

| 41

Actively Searching?

Find new users not accessible through Google or Bing!

Deliver your advertising to a targeted audience of prospects who are looking for your product or service and only pay if your ad is clicked.

Real Customers: Quality traďŹƒc vetted by the latest technology.

Best Value: Better bang for buck with a better return on your investment.

Save Money: Low cost per sale with low keyword bid prices.

Success: Expert advice with award winning customer service.

$25 Free Advertising Visit 7Search.com/WM

Use Promo Code: WEBMAG 800.577.1165 | | Sales@7Search.com