Website Magazine September 2015

4 Steps to Stronger IT Security

10 CELEBRATING

YEARS

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS SEPTEMBER 2015

MOBILE SURVIVAL GUIDE INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

Email Personalization through Segmentation How to Spot A Greedy Marketer The IoT’s Impact on Customer Lifetime Value

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YEARS

2015 Content NEWSLETTER

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

E-Commerce Express

Mastering Search

Social, Local, Mobile

Design & Development

Hot Trends

Feature

E-Commerce

Mastering Search

Design & Development

Top 50

Stat Watch

Digital Power Players Awards

Replatforming Guide

Create an SEO Plan

The Best Designs of '14

Marketing Solutions

Email

Content Marketing Strategies

Loyalty Programs

12/2

Trends in E-Commerce Design

Everyday Content Development

Data Visualization

Digital Ad Networks

Personalization

Gamification Tactics

Marketing Automation

1/1

Influence & Advertising

Affiliate Tactics for Online Retailers

Reducing Performance Hurdles

Security

Design Inspiration

Advertising

Big Brand Email Campaigns

Mobile Apps for Small Biz

2/3

Design & Usability Failures

Live Chat for Web Sellers

Modern Responsive Design

Affiliate Programs

Tech Spending

BI Solutions in Focus

Email Scheduling

3/3

MAY

Get Rich Quick (Affiliate Marketing)

Acquiring Product Reviews

Current Search Trends

Influential Design Tech

Essential Web Platforms

CRM Related

Enterprise Content Management

On-Demand Lead Generation

4/1

JUNE

Web Software Matchup

Payment Gateways in Focus

SEO Software Comparison

Advertising Design

WCMS Solutions

Collaboration & Productivity

Security Considerations

Usability Evaluation

5/1

JULY

The Local Web is Everywhere

Subscription Management Tips

The State of Structured Data

Frameworks in Focus

Domain Registrars

Web Customer Profiles

Mind Mapping

Customer Surveys

6/2

AUGUST

Essential & Edgy E-Commerce

Product Customization Tools

App Store Optimization

API Inspiration

Mobile Apps for Web Workers

E-Commerce Watch

Maximize CRM Value

Vertical Software

7/1

Mobile Growth Tactics

Lead Generation Tactics

International SEO

SEO for Designers

Essential 'Net Software

Mobile Growth

Demand Generation

Outsourcing Guide

8/4

Web Business Operations

Social Media Techniques

Local Web Optimization Tactics

Redesign Guide

Social Media Management

Big Data

Accounting & Finance

Net Customer Service

9/1

NOVEMBER

Social Tricks & Media Magic

E-Commerce KPIs

Web Design for SEO

What is Accessibility?

Email Service Providers

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10/1

DECEMBER

Analytics for Everybody

Email for Online Merchants

Today's SEO Basics

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Wealthiest Webbies

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11/3

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JANUARY

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MARCH

APRIL

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SEO Troubleshooting

Considerations

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Ad Deadlines

MOBILE SURVIVAL GUIDE Believe it or not, mobile still has not reached critical mass – at least from a business perspective. The barriers to adoption (time, money and expertise), however, are rapidly being eliminated. As enterprises take their first steps toward greater involvement in the mobile realm, they’ll need guidance on the key areas to address and some suggested practical solutions to not just survive, but thrive with their mobile presence.

THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE

Explore Website Magazine’s

DEPARTMENTS

Holiday Video Ad Strategies

Stat Watch:

Brands can deliver powerful experiences by adding interaction, personalization and additional content to their existing video ads.

Enterprise Ready:

A Warning Signal to Retailers Driving Email Relevance & Revenue

Small Business Lab:

Diagnosing Greedy Marketer Syndrome

Product Customization

While it’s effective to run campaigns based on empirical data, only watching the bottom line is a sign a marketer may be infected.

Tech Acronyms to Know

Quiz Time: Top 50: Business-Specific Software

Mastering Search:

Web Security Wake-Up Call With widely reported data breaches at top retailers, it seems inevitable businesses will be hacked, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Higher Rankings in App Stores

E-Commerce Express: Do Retailers Really Need a CRM?

Design & Development: APIs for Digital Optimization

Web Commentary:

Cloud Myths Busted!

Despite cloud adoption rates growing dramatically, ambiguous definitions and outright myths still affect the decision-making process of many.

IoT and Its CLV Impact Higher customer lifetime values lead to greater profits, and with the rise of the Internet of Things, there are more opportunities to grow both.

The Web is Shrinking

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

From the

EDITOR Quick Tips for Mobile Survival It has taken years to manifest, but mobile has most certainly arrived.

Find Website Magazine at these Internet industry tradeshows. &Then (DMA) Oct. 4-6 Boston, MA Shop.Org Oct. 5-7 Philadelphia, PA

Smartphones have overtaken the lives of consumers and are fast proving to be devices that influence users’ interaction with the world – and their entertainment, education and inspiration – from morning to night both professionally and personally.

While the “experts” have long suggested that mobile would one day overtake desktop activity, that day has finally arrived. In a much bandied-about report, serving as just one of many possible examples, Google indicated in early 2015 that mobile searches had finally overtaken desktop searches. Most businesses, however, are woefully under-prepared for this rather epic digital transition. Not only do a majority of today’s enterprises not have an established mobile presence, those that do are encountering the same problems as they did long ago with their traditional desktop presence. And that’s a problem – but one with a solution.

In this month’s feature article in Website Magazine, the focus is on all things mobile. The aim, however, isn’t just to support readers’ survival in this dynamic landscape, but also provide tools, tactics, techniques and resources so thriving in the environment is possible – increasing awareness, building consumer bonds and generating conversions for the benefit of their brand.

This issue does not, however, ignore the rest of the digital experience.

Readers will find useful guidance on establishing a more secure IT environment, tips on leveraging personalization and segmentation in email and some practical tips on how APIs are helping companies rapidly expand the boundaries of digital optimization. This issue also includes information on CRM implementations, app store optimization (ASO), product customization and much, much more.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of CELEBRATING Website Magazine and invite you to join us on the Web, where our editors and industry contributors explore the topics that matter most to your digital success.

Best Web Wishes,

10 YEARS

Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

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Continuing our year-long celebration of Website Magazine’s 10-year anniversary, join this month’s digital mission. Find the phrase “cloud adoption rates” (hint: it’s in orange and bold and the second half of the magazine), open up the digital edition of Website Magazine (wsm.co/digitalwm15), and click on that phrase. Participants will then be directed to a special landing page where they can enter to win a $500 prize. Website Magazine will be sending readers on these “special missions” throughout 2015, so keep a digital eye on this space in the months to come!

Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com Website Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 9, September 2015, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is published 12 times a year, January through December by Website Services, Inc., 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018. Periodicals Postage Paid at Des Plaines, IL and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Website Magazine, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018.

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Net

BRIEFS

QUICK HITS Sorry Millennials; You’re Not That Different This may come as somewhat of a surprise to millennials, but the group is not that much different than other age groups when it comes to how advertising influences their purchasing decisions. Seventy-five percent of those 18-34 and 73 percent of those 35-plus replied that online and/or mobile advertising influences what they purchase; 55 percent of millennials and 54 percent of those 35 and older chose online review sites as the online social medium that affects their retail purchases the most.

Click-to-Call Ads Going Unanswered Despite the fact that today’s mobile users are “always on,” brands are still struggling to connect with them in meaningful ways.

Part of the problem could be they are simply not answering their phones. Mobile advertising analytics company, Marchex, recently found that while consumers who leverage click-to-call advertisements are four times more likely to purchase a product or service than a consumer who simply interacts with an online ad, 20 percent of phone calls from mobile ads go unanswered.

? QUESTION OF THE MONTH #QOTM

If you could only have one tech tool (software, platform, etc.) to manage your Web-based business what would it be?

To answer this question and possibly be included in an upcoming issue of Website Magazine, visit wsm.co/septqotm by Sept. 7.

! COMING UP AT WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

Autumn is for Automation: Don’t Let Your Email Fall Off Track

By E.J. McGowan, Managing Director of Campaigner

As summer turns to autumn, it’s easy for anyone to get distracted by the changing colors and mild temperatures, but the cool breeze of fall should remind marketers of the upcoming winter and holiday seasons. Now is the perfect time to prepare for the shopping frenzy ahead, and at the top of a retailer’s to-do list should be setting up email automation. + Read more at wsm.co/autumnate

Where are all of the Revenue Marketers?

5 Tips for Gaining Respect in the C-Suite

By Christine Nurnberger, CMO at Bottomline Technologies

It wasn’t long ago that most chief marketing officers were disregarded in C-suites. In fact, 80 percent of chief executives expressed disappointment in their CMO, according to a 2012 study.

Eighty percent. Why? Their CMOs couldn’t prove they were, in fact, gaining attractive returns on investments. In today’s data-driven world, don’t let that be you. + Read more at wsm.co/revmarket

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BRIEFS POPULAR WITH WM READERS +

5 Best Practices For High-Performing Emails

+

Consumers subscribe to many newsletters but end up reading just a few. The game is to find out what makes those few emails readable.

Discover five essentials of email marketing that can get a campaign performing at a higher level.

The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing SEO Traffic Value with Conversion Optimization Although it is easy for Web professionals to get wrapped up in generating more traffic to a website, failing to capitalize on their current traffic would be a big mistake. Luckily, plenty of tactics are available.

Keep reading at wsm.co/5highperform

$ WHO GOT PAID? $50 Million Radius, a business-to-

business predictive marketing software company, announced a $50 million funding round led by Founders Fund with participation from Formation 8, Glynn Capital Management, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, BlueRun Ventures and Yuan Capital.

$15 Million Olapic, a visual mar-

keting content engine for turning consumer-generated photos and videos into brand assets, announced it closed a $15 million Series B round of funding led by Felix Capital, with participation from Unilever Ventures, Fung Capital, Longworth Venture Partners, Michael Lazerow, Fabrice Grinda and Jose Marin Investments.

+

#WordPressWednesday: 13 Social Plugins Whether developers are in need of a plugin to verify their site’s presence on Pinterest or a social login plugin to increase site engagement, this online list is likely to feature a solution to anyone’s social problem.

Keep reading at wsm.co/maxseocro

Keep reading at wsm.co/pluginsm

# WEBTECHWATCH See what has the ‘Net community all abuzz with Website Magazine’s #WebTechWatch series, a monthly roundup profiling both emerging and established technologies and some of the most useful solutions for today’s Web workers. If you have a digital product or service you think deserves a mention, tweet @WebsiteMagazine with the hashtag #WebTechWatch. + Kya (getkya.com): An audience insights and analytics platform for WordPress publishers. + Payable (payable.com): Platform to manage and pay contractors and freelancers. + Export Kit (exportkit.com): Photoshop plugin to convert PSD to HTML, CSS, jQuery, XML and JSON. + UserForge (userforge.com): A tool for collaborative user-persona development. + Streethawk (streethawk.com): Mobile application analytics and notifications platform.

What do you think of our new ‘Net Briefs layout?

Tweet us @WebsiteMagazine

Stat

WATCH 6 Statistics that Signal a Warning for Retailers:

ONLINE SHOPPERS BROWSING MORE AND BUYING LESS

By Brett Bair, Senior Director of Digital Marketing Insights at Monetate

As retailers continue to invest in updating their websites and mobile apps to adapt to the ever-changing preferences of today’s modern consumer, current data that online shoppers are browsing more and buying less may signal their efforts are failing to align with shoppers’ expectations.

Six telling retail-related statistics (seen below) emerged from Q1 2015 research conducted at Monetate:

At 35.25 percent, the average bounce rate was nearly 6 percentage points higher at the end of Q1 2015 than it was at the end of Q1 2014.

At $122.65, the average order value was down 2.5 percent year-over-year.

At 2.32 percent, conversion rates are down from their Q1 2014 level of 2.51 percent.

At 7.39 percent, add-to-cart rates are down from their Q1 2014 level of 8.31 percent.

Smartphone traffic now accounts for 20 percent of all e-commerce traffic.

At the end of Q1 2014, smartphone traffic accounted for just 13 percent of e-commerce traffic.

Mobile attention spans are getting longer. Since Q1 2014, average page views per session on smartphones have jumped from 5.16 to 7.61 in the U.S.

Save for a momentary spike during the 2014 Holiday season, some of the core metrics for e-commerce success have been steadily declining (like average order values and conversion rates). The good news is that online shopping sessions are up slightly (from 2.09 product views/session in Q1 2014 to 2.28 product views/session in Q1 2015) and so is revenue. Companies are just having a more difficult time converting their customers.

Not all companies are struggling, however. Microsoft, for example, beat the industry average last quarter by incorporating product recommendations into a fully personalized experience for shoppers who recently purchased a flagship product. The landing page experience was completely overhauled to capture excitement over their new purchase, and featured a product banner and specific on-page messaging along with a product recommendation grid, resulting in a huge impact – bounce rate dropped 35 percent and add-to-cart rate rose 10 percent.

Getting wins in areas such as average order value (AOV), bounce rate and conversion rate isn’t overly difficult. The solution to improving performance with merchandising tactics and product recommendations isn’t just recommending products to visitors; it’s making relevant recommendations within a variety of contexts, and using all the data retailers have to make decisions about the products that are shown.

The online marketing tactics that are in place are tempting shoppers enough to click and browse, but not enough to buy, which means retailers need to consider increasing product relevancy to drive ecommerce performance.

UK shoppers are converting at higher rates.

While statistics show that conversion rates are down year-over-year, online shoppers in the UK are actually converting at higher rates than they were this time last year. That goes for all devices, too.

SE P T E M B E R 2015

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Enterprise

READY

Levels of Relevance and Revenue A Guide to Personalization through Segmentation

By Ryan Hofmann, Chief Brand Strategist at Listrak

Retailers’ top goal for their email marketing campaigns tends to be a three-way tie between delivering highly relevant content, driving additional site traffic and increasing conversions/revenue.

Level 1: Batch and Blast

Ironically, much lower on the list of goals is segmenting their database, which is precisely what is called for to achieve the first three.

The most commonly cited barriers to achieving relevance are time, talent, creative, content and data. Retail marketers often lack the necessary human resources, skills and/or expertise, and often have challenges in creating relevant content consistently and predictably, as well as easily merging email data with other systems. What many do not realize, however, is that by strategically using automation, personalization and optimization, it’s simple to begin knocking down the barriers and start driving both relevance and revenue.

The first step is for retailers to address the shopping experience they’d like to deliver. For example, if an in-store customer tells a sales associate he is looking for a new dress shirt, the associate surely would not respond by telling him about a bathing suit sale.

That, however, is precisely what retailers do every day when they blast the same marketing email to every subscriber, ignoring the fact that, through their behavioral and purchase history, subscribers have already expressed what they are interested in.

Promotional targeting and segmentation are the building blocks to relevant, revenue-driving email campaigns. Email marketers should look at segmentation as a journey or an evolution, one that involves laying foundational building blocks that are necessary to progressing to the next level of marketing maturity and sophistication. Using the following five-stage marketing maturity framework, marketers are able to move their program from one level to the next and drive significant revenue while doing so.

Level 2: Reporting-Based Segmentation

When it comes to segmentation, unfortunately, far too many retail email marketers remain at the rudimentary, one-size-fits-all level, delivering the same content to everyone on the list.

All email marketers have reporting data at their fingertips, and it’s a great place to start. It’s easy to identify a few specific customer dimensions such as buyers and non-buyers. At first, the segments may continue to get the same content. Over time, however, the retailer will be able to begin seeing differences in how the two segments perform, and from there be able to determine, for example, whether or not to create offers for non-customers.

Level 3: Activity-Based or Goal-Based Segmentation The next step in segmentation is to divide subscribers based on their activity. New, active, lapsing and inactive customers should each, ideally, be receiving content relevant to their activity level to optimize results. That may sound like a lot of extra work, but it doesn’t have to be.

Using the four quadrants (as shown in image A), keeps it manageable, and can drive significant results.

Keeping the goals in mind for each segment, a simple change in subject may be all that’s needed.

The next step, of course, would be to tweak the email creative, which can be as simple as adjusting the copy in the primary message content area.

Similarly, retailers can do activity-based segmentation with the same groups without having to extend an offer (see image B).

Not surprisingly, retailers see the most lift from activity-based segmentation with their new and active customers – a 10 to 20 percent lift with this approach when addressing these segments. From the lesser-engaged lapsing and inactive groups, however, there is a lift, but often it is much smaller (between 3-7 percent).

To optimize activity-based segmentation, retailers can increase the complexity and look at how they might target non-customers and high-value customers as another dimension of this approach, as well.

Level 4: Behavior-Based Targeting The most mature segmentation level is behavior-based, and it requires the most comprehensive data. For retailers who have online transactional and browsing, in-store point of sale (POS) and browsing data at the category, brand and product level, there is no end to the creative ways they can segment to boost relevancy and revenue. Further, with an automated personalization solution in place, they can ensure that not only are they reaching highly targeted segments with the most relevant messaging, but also that literally no two subscribers’ emails are the same.

New

Active

Lapsing

Inactive

Get 10% off your next purchase!

Thanks for being a VIP! Take 10% off your next purchase!

Don’t miss out 10% off offer inside!

Come back and get 10% off your next purchase!

A. Retailers who segment by user goals may simply need a slight change to an email’s subject line to boost valuable metrics like open and click-through rates.

New Give these top sellers a try!

Active

Lapsing

Thanks for being Don’t miss out a VIP! You’re the latest items invited to an you haven’t exclusive seen yet in-store event.

We miss you... are you breaking up with us?

B. Retailers can segment by activity level without extending an offer.

Level 5: Predictive Segmentation While most segmentation and targeting are done with historical data, the next level of segmentation is based on anticipated behavior: when a retailer expects a customer to make a next purchase, what category that purchase will be in, what brand and even which specific product.

Inactive

As marketers move from one level of marketing segmentation to the next, they’ll find that they are indeed achieving their primary objectives of delivering relevant content, driving traffic and, most importantly, increasing revenue.

Small

BUSINESS LAB

PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION Keys to the User Kingdom

By Derek Schou, Associate Editor

Consumers, particularly on the Web, want it their way. According to a Forrester study conducted in 2011, 35 percent of consumers indicated they are interested in products in which they can customize, modify and build-to-order to fit their specific needs – and that number has likely only grown since then.

From shoes to cars to sports jerseys, many brands are now offering consumers the ability to customize products. In this month’s Small Biz Lab, get inspired by two companies offering product customization features to their users, and discover two solutions that are enabling brands to make it happen.

Product Customization in Action

Mini: Like many car manufacturers on the market, Mini offers a variety of options and packages for all of its car models. One of the ways which Mini sets itself apart from its competition, however, is the sheer amount of options consumers have for each vehicle. For example, unlike other manufacturers, where options stop after sound system packages, exterior and interior color and whether or not to add a roof rack, potential Mini buyers are able to purchase checkered side mirror caps (versus the standard ones that match the car’s exterior), a device that holds iPads to the back of front-seat headrests and much more. In fact, Mini claims there are more than 10 million possible combinations for its Mini Cooper Hardtop (see image).

Mini offers more than 10 million possible custom combinations for its popular Mini Cooper Hardtop.

M&M’s: A favorite of many chocolate lovers, M&M’s may always come in the same shape but what is printed on them, color and message

alike, can be personalized through the MyMMs.com website, where consumers can customize the candies.

Through its interactive color-wheel feature, consumers are able to enlarge and view the different color suggestions, select up to three custom colors and even personalize their candies by uploading images from their desktop or selecting clip-art, as well as add short messages (such as for weddings or other events). The final way consumers can customize their orders is through the packaging, which can take the form of a giant M&M, a heart-shaped gift box or other gifting options.

Setting Up Your Own Personalization For brands that are interested in implementing product customization on their own website properties, there are several solutions on the market today (see more at wsm.co/customthis).

Shopify: One of the most powerful e-commerce platforms on the market, Shopify offers a wide array of apps for brands interested in product customization to leverage on their online store. One such app that the ecommerce platform offers is called Product Customizer.

Through the app, brands are able to add a product customization interface to their websites, where consumers are able to add various lines of text and images to the product they are interested in. The app also enables consumers to save their creations so they can be accessed later.

WordPress: As the most popular content management system on the planet, used by more than 24 percent of all websites according to W3Techs, WordPress boasts numerous plugins that brands can use on their websites.

The MyStyle plugin, for example, enables consumers to design their own graphics and patterns for a variety of products including mobile device cases as well as cars.

Through MyStyle, users are able to upload their own photos, add customized text as well as visual effects like drop shadow and bevel.

While offering users the ability to customize their own products requires the right technology, the approach provides brands with more revenue opportunities by giving their potential customers the keys to the digital kingdom.

LMS

API RSS

DAM WYSIWYG

SEO P PC SDK CPL

CRM

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Quiz

TIME Need-to-Know

TECH ACRONYMS 1. What does “IoT” stand for?

It can be difficult for a newbie to become familiar with industry-specific jargon in any vertical, but it is especially challenging in the tech industry.

Aside from learning the definitions for some of the industry’s top buzzwords, like “big data” or “cloud,” newbs also have the challenge of getting acquainted with the myriad acronyms in use today, which can mean dramatically different things to different people. For instance, Web pros typically use the letters POV to reference “point of view,” while those in emergency response, government agencies and other verticals use POV for “privately owned vehicle.”

Fortunately, everyone from ’Net novices to Web pros can stay up to date on the latest tech jargon and acronyms by regularly visiting Website Magazine’s daily Weblog at websitemagazine.com/content where emerging terms and phrases are explained often in posts and articles.

Before heading to the Web, quiz yourself on some regularly seen acronyms, many of which are found in this very issue of Website Magazine.

a. Illegal online Transfers b. Initial online Troll c. Internet of Things d. Image owning Technology

2. “DAM” refers to what kind of software? a. Daily Article Manager b. Digital Asset Management c. Dynamic Ad Marketing d. Developmental Application Menu

3. What does “SDK” mean? a. Software Development Kit b. Standard Digital Keyboard c. Silly Daily Keywords d. Selling Digital Kudos

4. What does “WYSIWYG” refer to? a. Nothing, it is gibberish b. Web Yoda Sings in Weekly Yoga Garden c. Will Your Software Improve Website’s Yearly Growth d. What You See Is What You Get

5. What is an “API”?

Get the answers to this month’s Quiz Time by visiting wsm.co/qtsept15 or by scanning the QR code on the left.

a. Aptitude Performance Inspection b. Application Program Interface c. Android Programming Incident d. Advertising Paid Internally SE P T E M B E R 2015

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Top

Memberships Construction Churches

The latest information from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reveals that there are 28 million small businesses across the U.S. and those companies are responsible for roughly 54 percent of all sales each year (providing 55 percent of all jobs, too).

These businesses occupy every imaginable vertical (retail, construction, medical, entertainment, etc.) and bring an immense amount of value to the economy. For many, however, Web success eludes them and for good reason: Business owners are more interested in running their companies than spending countless hours optimizing their digital presence. Who can blame them? It is time consuming and expensive; fortunately, there’s a better way and that’s courtesy of some very specific business software solutions.

The problem is that many in the software industry treat each and every one of these enterprises the same, forcing a one-size-fits-all solution on businesses that in effect pay for functionality they may very well never use. Today’s content management systems are most certainly impressive from a technological standpoint but the guy who hangs drywall isn’t the least bit interested in optimizing for the customer experience. He wants a solution designed for him, not one that he needs to design to fit his company’s needs.

Website Magazine took a somewhat different approach to this edition of its Top 50 rankings. Instead of profiling the solutions that can be modified for every type of enterprise, this month, those solutions that cater to one specific type of enterprise are the focus. Readers will find the top software solutions for the Web-based management of membership-based organizations (e.g. nonprofits), construction firms (e.g. general contractors), churches, salons or any group hosting offline events (like a theater company). If you operate in one of these verticals, let this list serve as a guide to those solutions that have long provided an effective way to build a digital presence and run an enterprise simultaneously.

Of course, no month at Website Magazine would be complete without publishing a big list of the leading technology solutions. Our editors have profiled learning management software, project management solutions and recruiting/applicant tracking systems on the Web at wsm.co/runbiz15.

Procore.com Co-Construct.com Aconex.com e-Builder.net Newforma.com DexterChaney.com BuilderTrend.com Construction-Software.com Ribmc2.com Priosoft.com Fellowshipone.com ACStechnologies.com ChurchCommunityBuilder.com ParishSOFT.com Churchteams.com ShelbySystems.com Elexio.com IconCMO.com ServantPC.com PowerChurch.com

Salons

BIZ-SPECIFIC Software Solutions

ChamberMaster.com ActiveNetwork.com WildApricot.com ZenPlanner.com ClubExpress.com Z2Systems.com YourMembership.com MemberClicks.com MemberZone.com PersonifyCorp.com

MindBodyOnline.com Vagaro.com RevelSystems.com Booker.com SalonIris.com EnvisionSalon.com GetTimely.com SuperSalon.com Shortcuts.net SalonBizSoftware.com

Events

50

Eventbrite.com Cvent.com TicketLeap.com ShowClix.com Vendini.com ThunderTix.com Ticketpeak.com Simpletix.com CrowdTorch.com EventSmart.com

Speak Up

The focus of next month’s Website Magazine Top 50 is Social Media Management. Suggest your favorite tools on Twitter with the hashtag #Top50Social.

Mastering

SEARCH

3 Best Practices for ASO

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

With 1.6 million apps on Google Play alone (as of July 2015 data from Statista), smartphone users have the pick of the litter when it comes to which apps end up on their mobile devices – and app store-based search (both on Google Play and Apple’s App Store) is the main driver of downloads.

A 2014 survey from MobileDevHQ of app users (64 percent of respondents downloaded an app within the last week) indicated that 53 percent of of those with Android devices found their last app through app store search and 47 percent of iPhone users did the same (see image).

In order to capitalize on these marketplaces, many developers have turned to app store optimization (ASO) to top the search results.

What is ASO? ASO is defined as the process of improving the visibility of a mobile app in an app marketplace like Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Similar to search engine optimization (SEO), there are no formal rules explaining how a developer (or marketer) can win the top spot in an app marketplace’s search results.

There is, however, a set of best practices that can be leveraged to give developers the edge they need for their apps to be found.

1: Keywords are Key (But Don’t Stuff)

Just as keywords are important for a website’s SEO initiatives, they are also important when trying to 16

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achieve top placement in app marketplaces, but it all comes down to how those keywords are used.

Those responsible for marketing a mobile application must include terms and phrases naturally within titles and descriptions, as stuffing keywords into a listing can make descriptions difficult to comprehend, which makes consumers hesitant to download. Moreover, recent rumors suggest Apple will begin cracking down on keyword stuffing particularly within titles, as many developers try to rank higher by creating increasingly lengthy descriptive titles for their apps.

One way to gauge the impact of keywords is by testing different terms and phrases in app descriptions and monitoring how those changes impact the app’s placement in search results and total downloads. Fortunately, there are tools available that can help. SensorTower’s App Intelligence platform, for instance, enables users to track daily category and keyword rankings for any app. The platform offers keyword suggestions, keyword difficulty ratings and even a Predictive Rank feature that evaluates the likelihood of a user’s app appearing in the top 10 results for any given keyword.

2: Choose Categories Wisely

Not only should developers focus on constructing a comprehensive description for their apps, but they also need to select the right category classification so their apps have a better chance of appearing in relevant searches and user-browsing experiences.

It is worth noting that Apple introduced subcategories in iOS 8, which are valuable to marketers because they have less competition than broad categories. This gives apps an even better chance at ranking when consumers are leveraging the “explore” section of the App Store. For example, under the ‘Books’ category there are a variety of subcategories that developers can file their app under, including ‘Comics,’ ‘Bedtime Stories’ and more. This filtering feature not only makes the discovery process easier for consumers, but also makes it easier to increase an app’s visibility.

3: Reel in the (Good) Ratings

Enterprises can improve ASO efforts as well as their total app downloads by obtaining more (good) reviews. After all, good reviews correlate with a quality app, and neither Apple nor Google want to deliver inferior apps to their customers. Luckily, there are some tools that developers and marketers can leverage to ensure their app receives good reviews.

For starters, apps should always be thoroughly tested before they are submitted to app stores (at least

With Apptentive, developers can find out if a customer “loves” their app before asking for a review that could negatively impact their app store rankings.

those not submitted for beta). By conducting tests, developers can catch and fix bugs before consumers have a chance to complain. This minimizes the risk of bad reviews, which can be detrimental to the app’s long-term success. Read more about recent beta-testing improvements on Google Play at wsm.co/1clickbeta.

In addition to testing, developers can drive positive ratings by including prompts for user reviews directly within their app. Apptentive, for instance, offers its Intelligent Ratings Prompts tool that enables developers to ask customers to leave reviews while they are interacting with the app. For example, the prompt can be created to ask a customer if they “love” the app (see image); customers who select “Yes” are prompted to leave a rating and review in the app marketplace, while customers who select “No” are prompted to provide feedback directly to the app maker. This enables developers to target happy consumers for reviews, while also allowing them to respond to and/or to resolve any issues within the app to lessen the risk of negative reviews in the future.

Keep in mind that apps offering genuine value to consumers are those that will have the best chance of rising to the top of app marketplaces’ search results in the long term. With the right positioning, placement and promotion, however, app makers can ensure their products don’t get lost in the digital shuffle.

After the Download!

If conversions and monetization are your goals, check out these tips to keep your users engaged and returning often at

wsm.co/stickyapps

E-Commerce

EXPRESS

Do Retailers Really Need A CRM?

By David Trice, Co-Founder and CEO of Engage.CX

“Don’t I need a CRM before I can do that?”

This is a question asked daily by retailers around the world.

Creating strong relationships with customers is essential in the retailing industry, so it’s important to consider anything that can help drive business in order to gain even more customers. But why are they asking this question now?

The answer is simple: Retailers have never purchased a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. There was never a need for them to invest in this type of solution. Their point-of-sale (POS) system was the only system of record they needed. Thanks to everevolving technology, however, retailers now have not only a POS system but also a marketing database, a social database, an e-commerce database and a returns database. All of this change in the industry spurs retailers into thinking they also need a CRM to consolidate or streamline customer information.

Use of CRMs is on the rise — there’s no downplaying that fact. For instance, Gartner forecasts that CRM solutions will grow to be a $36 billion dollar industry by 2017, but should retailers put their dollars in this market?

CRM systems of the past, and most of the current systems today, simply measure the conversion process, analyzing one sales stage to the next. These

EXPERTS SPEAK: Retail CRM Tips from the Pros Learn how to use a CRM for the benefit of boosting conversions at wsm.co/retailcrm

tools can help businesses build strong relationships with their customers in order to increase customer communication and satisfaction, as well as to ultimately discover new customer opportunities. CRM solutions can also enable small- to mid-sized businesses to migrate from manual methods, like spreadsheets, to a robust, online database. When used effectively, a CRM can be one of the most valuable assets a business can invest in. The question becomes: Do retailers really need to implement a CRM into their already expansive collection of databases?

The way traditional CRMs work is that the company’s sales team enters customer data and information as they move the customer through the funnel.

But is this information kept up-to-date? Most likely not. Sales executives are too busy trying to land business to keep up with data entry, but companies are still depending on these employees to drive the sales process as well as update information within the sales funnel.

The problem here is that the retail industry doesn’t operate this way. When it comes to retail, the customer drives the process. There isn’t a funnel in the traditional sense – customers engage on their own terms and those terms provide the context that enables businesses to respond in real-time. Retailers may not need a sales funnel, but they do need to consolidate customer information and have it at the ready for the next time the customer engages. Unfortunately, a traditional CRM just causes more hassle for retailers, who have to implement and synchronize a database that was never created to drive better customer experience anyway.

So what does this mean for retailers? Do they actually need to implement a CRM in order to maintain and manage their customer relationships? No, not in the traditional sense anyway.

Implementing a database that is static and unresponsive to the real-time customer experience won’t work with today’s tech-savvy retailers. Retailers do, however, need an active process that allows them to cater to customers according to those customers’ needs and preferences, right at the time of engagement and not a minute after. It’s at that moment of engagement – whether digital or physical – that the interaction matters most and an empowered brand advocate, salesperson or employee can make all the difference.

By delivering a timely, positive experience to their customers, retailers can turn noncommittal window shoppers into a profitable customer relationship that extends far beyond store walls or Web pages.

David Trice is the co-founder and CEO of Engage.CX.

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Design and

DEVELOPMENT

How APIs Stretch the Boundaries of Digital Optimization

By Iwo Kadziela, Product Manager at SiteSpect

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From humble beginnings as a means to integrate third-party applications and platforms, application programming interfaces (APIs) have become the integration platform, and the glue, that connects social channels, cloud services, mobile apps and, now, even the wide array of sensor-driven devices that fall under the internet of things (IoT) umbrella.

ple A/B tests alone to make important data-driven decisions about their websites. As the practice has become more sophisticated, companies began using their investment on site-testing technologies to find new ways to build a better experience for their customers, while also seeking out methods to increase conversions and average order values (AOVs), not to mention decrease cart abandonment rates.

The popularity of APIs has exploded, tracing their success from being one of the driving forces behind creating a more open Internet and the foundation of innovation for thousands of software applications and platforms (including those for digital marketing, Web analytics, content management systems, customer relationship management and e-commerce to name a few), as well as the cloud.

Within the digital marketing category, in particular, APIs are creating unparalleled levels of integration and productivity for the purpose of website and mobile testing and optimization.

Site testing and optimization has come a long way in the last five years. Companies no longer rely on sim-

The ability for marketing and development teams to leverage APIs to automate testing programmatically is elevating the entire optimization function to a whole new level. Teams can now build tasks, manage the entire testing campaign, create dozens of test variations and preview testing data and do it all through the API. The ability to automate what was done manually in the past means that more tests can be created, launched and managed in less time.

Integrating data from testing platforms is also significant because organizations can get a 360-degree view of data and also analyze it in a more systematic way. Many companies, for example, are increasing the value of their testing platforms by using an API

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Automation is Key

script to extract report data programmatically and integrating that data with analysis systems to create custom dashboards and visualizations.

Expanding Testing to Every Corner of the Digital Experience As the successes from continual site testing and optimization continue to stack up, many companies began to experiment with testing every part of the customer-facing digital experience. Those who have accelerated their testing programs have also increased the number of tests they’re conducting on any given week. Many have quickly gone from 10 tests to 100 tests to 1,000s of tests per year. The sheer volume of tests requires a high level of automation, which can only be accomplished with the help of APIs. It’s also extremely important to preview and QA (quality assurance) the testing process before launching any test so nothing “breaks” on the site, which could degrade the customer experience dramatically. An API can be used to QA tests, create campaigns programmatically and launch these same campaigns automatically.

As important as the preview and QA process is, one of the most powerful aspects of leveraging APIs for testing and optimization is the ability to tap into other enterprise applications to extend the reach of digital marketing campaigns and increase the potential for campaign success. A customized script can automate the transfer of data from a CRM system, such as Salesforce, and essentially change the contacts being targeted, adding or removing people to specific tests automatically.

When Salesforce is updated, the test is as well.

APIs have brought high levels of customization, flexibility and third-party application integration to site testing and optimization and, as a result, have expanded their role and value in the digital marketing supply chain. The power of the API is in automating processes that in the past had to be accomplished manually, slowing down teams responsible for the success of the testing program, and limiting the number of tests that could be created and launched.

Anything you can do manually, you should be able to do programmatically, and only APIs empower companies to stretch the boundaries of what can be done with speed, agility and accuracy.

How Does an API Work?

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

An API (application programming interface) is a set of programming instructions that help developers write code that interfaces with other software applications. It essentially defines a way in which a computer program communicates with another computer program. The benefit of APIs is that they enable developers to use other services (often faster and better services) to support their own instead of building one massive core application.

With APIs, the calls back and forth between applications are managed through what’s called Web services - a collection of technological standards and protocols, including XML (Extensible Markup Language), the programming language by which applications communicate over the Internet. The API itself is a chunk of software code written as a series of XML messages, where each XML message corresponds to a different function of the remote service.

APIs are typically part of a larger software development kit (SDK) that includes the API, programming tools and other instructional documents to simplify the work of the developer. Along with XML, the following technological standards, protocols and programming languages are what make Web services work: SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): SOAP is responsible for encoding XML messages so they can be received and understood by any operating system over any type of network protocol.

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration): An XML-based directory (sort of like the yellow pages) that allows businesses to list themselves, find each other and collaborate using Web services.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language): WSDL is the SOAP of the UDDI and is basically the XML-based language that businesses use to describe their services in the UDDI.

SE P T E M B E R 2015

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MOBILE SURVIVAL GUIDE

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

People certainly love their mobile devices – some, it seems, are actually addicted.

According to a recent report by Yahoo-owned Flurry, nearly 280 million people worldwide can be classified as “mobile addicts,” launching applications on their devices upward of 60 or more times each day on average. Believe it or not, however, mobile still has not reached critical mass – at least from a business perspective.

In a March 2015 study by Endurance International Group, 78 percent of U.S. small businesses indicated they did not have a mobile solution or application, despite the fact that 71 percent felt having one would ultimately have a positive impact on their business.

The primary reasons for the lack of adoption is that it takes time, money and expertise (and often, a lot of all three). These barriers are rapidly being eliminated however.

Most of the enterprises surveyed by Endurance expected to overcome these challenges sooner than later, with half of respondents revealing they planned to begin investing in mobile solutions within the year.

As enterprises take their first steps toward greater involvement in the mobile realm, it will be necessary to focus on the wide variety of features and functionality that help resolve the obvious challenges. In this edition of Website Magazine, readers will find just that – guidance on the key areas to address and some suggested practical solutions to not just survive, but thrive with their mobile presence.

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SURVIVAL TIP: Plan accordingly by replicating the mobile success of others. Get inspired with five brands making mobile work today at wsm.co/5mobilework

Mobile Strategy & the Modern Digital Experience The cause of most brands’ mobile failure isn’t necessarily in the execution as there are numerous technologies available to ease the complexities of the transition. Rather, it’s in the strategy (or lack thereof).

“The smartphone has become a very personal device for its users, and the content interaction has become just as personal, so mobile marketers, brands and ad agencies need to rethink their approach,” said Ari Brandt, CEO of MediaBrix.

“With all of this real-time data available to us now, it’s important for us to target our users at the right moment – when they are emotionally receptive to the content, such as in times of need, reward or encouragement. Once this emotional moment is determined, brands need to understand how to not only acknowledge their customer’s current state of mind, but also make sure the content they are offering is contextually relevant.”

The problem is that many brands simply consider “mobile” a scaled-down version of the desktop presence – an approach that can limit the impact this unique experience can have on users and the potential benefits it can provide to the company’s bottom line. What this ultimately means is that the manner in which consumers use mobile is complex and it needs to be treated as such by today’s enterprises.

The experts said it would happen and they were right – the age of “mobile” has (finally) arrived and it is changing everything. Are you, and is your enterprise, prepared?

Mobile Email Performance More than 4 in 10 email opens are occurring on mobile devices (smartphones) in the UK according to recently released research from Movable Ink. Smartphones, however, didn’t quite stack up when it came time to buy. Here, desktops maintained their lead, with nearly 40 percent of all UK email marketing conversions in Q1 2015 taking place on such devices.

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Companies (and their designers) must create mobile experiences that cater to how users actually consume content on their smartphones. That means understanding that users rarely, if ever, engage in “deep dives” into content, and will almost always avoid lengthy purchase or engagement paths (arguably one of the reasons for the seemingly perpetual problem of mobile abandonment). Knowing this, what approach should developers, and the brands they represent, take?

When mobile websites and applications are built around very specific experiences (for example, with targeted user flows for purchasing products or retrieving information), they are better positioned to acquire revenue for their business and provide better service to customers.

Most, however, fail – sometimes miserably – in the realm of mobile, and there’s no hope of survival; they focus on mobile advertising revenue instead of engagement, provide experiences lacking significant context or that simply do not provide any genuine value whatsoever.

Those who identify and address the new revenue and service opportunities that mobile offers are those positioning themselves to better serve and retain customers in today’s digital world. Anything less and enterprises will fail to survive. native mobile application or a mobile website? Check out this infographic (via Usablenet) which guides businesses through this important decision at wsm.co/usableapp

Thanks to a recent integration of the Ionic SDK into mobile app development environment Appery.io, for example, developers no longer have to compromise when creating apps and can build HTML5/hybrid applications on a single code base – apps that offer a native user experience across all platforms – and do so with relative ease. The technology solution should also prove compelling for those that find themselves challenged by this important decision as the platform lowers the required skills barrier considerably, empowering a broader base of developers and business analysts to create effective and rather intuitive mobile applications. Appery.io is not the only solution of its kind, of course; find three alternatives at wsm.co/3appbuilds.

Mobile apps may not be the best choice for every brand, however; often, a mobile website satisfies the demand from the increasingly mobile audience of users. Fortunately, most of today’s top content management systems and ecommerce platforms have been retooled for the mobile age.

There are, of course, numerous considerations that must be made in relation to mobile Web design. Check out an infographic on the top nine features consumers want on mobile websites at wsm.co/mobilewebfeatures.

The right strategy and approach to a digital presence are important first steps, but they are far from the final ones today’s brands will make if they aim to survive (and thrive) in the future.

They will also need to think about what users will experience on their smartphones – and that means thinking about content.

Mobile Design and Development

Mobile Content

Developers have long had to make an important choice when it comes to their “mobile” presence (specifically their mobile application presence).

They can either create apps that work on multiple device types – Android, iOS and Windows – with an HTML5 or “hybrid” mobile app, or publish native apps (those specific to each platform) for each device and operating system (which can be expensive and take time to build). Fortunately, technologies are available that are making this a veritable non-issue.

Regardless of whether digital interactions are occurring on mobile devices or desktops (or tablets for that matter), one thing is certain – content is what will make a positive (some would argue, the ultimate) difference to the user’s experience.

Many of today’s digital-minded companies understand the value of content for this new mobile age and have been quite active in terms of delivering on that expectation and its corresponding reality. In many ways, that is the result of some very powerful offerings like Adobe’s Digital Publishing Solution (DPS). Adobe’s latest release (July 2015) shows that the company has its sights set squarely on marketers and their future in the realm of content development.

The former version of DPS was already quite well received by the digital community. Thousands of apps have, in fact, already been created with the platform (including those from some big name brands, like Audi). Seventy-five million unique visitors engaged with these apps, spending upward of 173 million total hours interacting according to Adobe.

The new version of DPS, however, takes digital publishing to an entirely new level for those looking to create immersive apps without being forced to write code.

Some of the new features and capabilities include continuous publishing (pushing new content in real-time and integrating with content management systems including Drupal

SURVIVAL TIP: Should your enterprise develop a

Content Tips for Mobile Content means different things depending on whether a company is an information publisher, service provider or e-commerce merchant, but with nearly half of all activity occurring on mobile devices it is imperative that more than just the design is optimized for users – the content itself must also be optimized for that same experience. Discover a few content formatting tips for mobile at wsm.co/formatmobile

WEBINAR SERIES

SERIES

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Website Magazine’s Resource Center presents whitepapers and webinars from our sponsors that provide information, specifics and metrics to help you make decisions for website success. www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources.

12 Strategies for Improving Online Conversions

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We’ll discuss how to maximize conversion drivers, minimize conversion barriers, and how to test the elements that are either helping or hindering the online customer experience.

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and WordPress, as well as EM – Adobe Experience Manager – which is part of DPS), push notifications, in-app messaging, social network integration, built-in analytics (powered by Adobe Analytics Essentials for Publications) and a new accounts control system that enables organizers to assign permissions to each person involved in the app creation process.

SURVIVAL TIP: Discover three tactics for prioritizing content for mobile users at wsm.co/mcontent3 As ‘Net professionals might imagine, however, there are numerous other technology solutions available that are helping brands optimize users’ content experience in whatever form it may come and in whatever environment (offline too).

Shoply Labs, for example, recently announced several new partnerships with beacon-based proximity marketing companies in the U.S. Through these partnerships, the Shoply app will be able to deliver hyper-contextual content and promotions to shoppers. The partnerships enable Shoply to cover 300 malls, 3,700 storefronts, 1,200 in-store placements, and 1,200 standalone and big-box retailers. Consumers will have access to exclusive content and discounts through the app from top retailers including Ann Taylor, Kohl’s and Lord & Taylor.

Shoply is doing more than just delivering on the promise of a better shopping experience with time and location-relevant coupons, content and promotions. By onboarding beacon-based proximity marketing partners, Shoply is positioned to take it to the next level, potentially enabling brands to remarket to the users they’ve interacted with in the offline, brick-and-mortar realm. This may not be too far off in its future, either, as many other ad tech companies have already optimized their remarketing solutions for the age of mobile.

Marin Software, for example, recently introduced a new and rather innovative solution that will make it possible to retarget the high-value users that stop using (or abandon) mobile applications.

Mobile SEO A recent study from BrightLocal found that local businesses are being pushed out of organic results for high volume head terms (although they do receive a larger share of voice for long-tail and geo-modified terms).

It doesn’t have to be that way. Access detailed information on some of the biggest barriers (mistakes) to the practice of mobile SEO including blocking files (Javascript, CSS and image files), faulty redirects, irrelevant cross linking and interstitials and site/page speed in Website Magazine’s “Mobile SEO Guide” at wsm.co/mguide15

The offering, dubbed Perfect Audience Mobile Retargeting, identifies users’ in-app actions, and then automatically serves them ads across smartphones and tablet devices to bring them back. The product is an expansion of Marin’s existing cross-device retargeting program and by the looks of it, should help app developers address (and hopefully resolve) issues such as mobile monetization and user retention.

Marin’s solution will provide advertisers transparency into the applications where their ads are served, insights into the in-app audiences that drive the most revenue, access to impressions from mobile advertising exchanges, and control over ad recency and frequency to guard against fatigue.

Retargeting users is certainly one way to keep users coming back to the mobile presence that has been developed, but often, advertising to those consumers directly is a more effective way to ensure a brand’s future survival.

Mobile Advertising There are numerous complaints about mobile advertising – mostly related to the negatives associated with the experience for consumers – but ad tech companies are innovating.

Google, for example, introduced several new mobile advertising formats this year including those specifically for automotive, insurance, mortgage and travel brands. The automotive ads feature a carousel of images that users can swipe through and also include a link to a list of nearby car dealers, while the travel vertical ads feature “book a room” functionality for hotels and online travel sites. Consumers can also now search more easily for nearby businesses, which will return a pack of up to four local business ads with directions and/ or click-to-call capabilities. Google’s Call-Only ads now even display a phone number in the headline and clicking anywhere on the ad prompts a phone call, which can be counted as a conversion.

There are some ad formats, however, that just don’t work very well on mobile. A Google study of its own Google+ site and app found that while 9 percent of visits to an interstitial page resulted in the “Get App” button being pressed, 69 percent of visitors abandoned the page when presented with the app interstitial. Google then ran an experiment to see how removing the interstitial would affect product usage – and the results were impressive.

Google replaced the interstitial with its Smart App Banner and found that one-day active users on their mobile website increased by 17 percent. As a result, Google said it was eliminating the use of interstitials as a practice and was suggesting others do the same.

As Google’s research reveals, there is clearly a better way to approach advertising on mobile devices, and as an industry, it is slowly being revealed. Mobile ad platform Ubermedia, for example, recently released a new system that helps marketers boost the relevance and performance

SURVIVAL TIP: Start measuring mobile;

of their local mobile ad campaigns. The Location Visit Optimization (LVO) system leverages real-time data of people physically visiting locations (much like the aforementioned Shoply Labs). With its machine-learning capabilities, advertisers’ mobile ad campaigns can be optimized for what matters most – real-time, real-world location visits.

LVO integrates with UberMedia’s proprietary “Place Context Learning System,” which makes sense of where the mobile consumer has been. In addition, the system integrates with Uber Media’s programmatic bidding tools and mobile ad serving. Together this data is leveraged to automate and accelerate decision-making and deploy the right ads to the right audience, reallocating ad spend to maximize foot traffic. According to Uber Media, brands that have already leveraged LVO, including national fastfood chains and automotive advertisers, have seen location visits more than double.

What advertising provides is an opportunity to get users, mobile users in this case, closer to the end of the purchase funnel, and that’s not always an easy task.

The recent Purchases with Google experiment, offered to a few dozen retailers across a number of industries, will make these companies eligible to display “Buy on Google” ads next to the product image in Google’s PLAs (product listing ads) on mobile devices. Users will be able to click on the ad and buy from a gateway page using payment information stored in their account.

Google is far from the only contender in the space of course. The Google Buy Button follows a trend with Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest all in various stages of testing how to make mobile shopping easier, better for consumers and more profitable for advertisers. Learn more about this exciting trend and some useful tactics for leveraging social commerce at wsm.co/socialbuynews.

Mobile E-Commerce

Thriving, Not Surviving, in the Mobile Age

It’s been a long time coming but mobile buying is by far one of the most interesting developments of the past few years.

E-commerce platform MarketLive recently released results from its Performance Index report, measuring the buying behavior of consumers shopping online during the second quarter of 2015, and it provides evidence that now is the time for retailers to focus on mobile.

The Q2 data showed that small-screen shopping experiences are finally engaging enough for mass-market consumers, who purchased 335 percent more via their smartphones than they did in Q2 a year ago. Surprisingly, the retail sectors that showed the strongest uptick in sales from smartphones are catalog (+374 percent), brick and mortar (+207 percent), and furnishings and housewares (+163 percent) indicating that traditional retailers are beginning to effectively leverage the digital ecosystem.

“Consumers have shifted their buying patterns to mobile commerce faster than many retailers realize,” said Ken Burke, founder and CEO of MarketLive. “We’re now seeing merchandise traditionally purchased in-store, such as home furnishings, are increasingly being purchased online from smartphones.

And, shoppers are seeking out their favorite brick-and-mortar brands online and expecting their websites to work on any device. We’re calling this trend ‘Commerce Anywhere the Customer Wants it,’ and the more agile retailers and category leaders are outpacing their competitors by constantly adapting to - and embracing - a retail landscape where technology, consumers and markets are evolving at breakneck speed.”

There are many other examples of platforms helping enterprises capitalize on mobile, but networks like Google are also making a digital impression.

To excel in the mobile landscape, brands must understand how users want to interact, develop experiences that speak directly to that need, and position their brands and companies in a way that is both engaging and easy to consume. Mobile can change everything for today’s enterprises, but they must be ready and willing to invest in the future of their companies and the success of their users.

discover some of the top mobile analytics solutions, and many other popular mobile resources, in the August issue of Website Magazine at wsm.co/top50mobile

Mobile App Watch + Thrive

Inventory management and retailer optimization solution Shopventory released a free mobile application for retailers. Its new app, called Thrive, is available now with an Android release scheduled to follow and will enable retailers to monitor data on sales, social media performance, user reviews, financials and email marketing campaigns. The system even includes several mobile point of sales vendors including Clover, PayPal Here and Shopify.

+ Sense

Social media intelligence platform Unmetric launched a mobile app that enables marketers to monitor their competitors in real-time. The new Sense app, available for both iOS and Android, provides a stream of campaign images, videos and hashtags produced by Unmetric’s database of more than 35,000 brands, easing the challenges of monitoring competitors’ social media activity. The app pulls data from networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and will add YouTube over the next few months.

Net

ADVERTISING

MAKE HOLIDAY VIDEO ADS A SHOPPABLE EXPERIENCE

By Ashley Eckel, Senior Director of Marketing at Innovid

Every year it’s the same story: The looming holiday season brings equal parts magic and tension. Between finding the perfect gift, juggling travel plans and preparing mentally for the inevitable family drama, consumers don’t need another reason to be stressed.

VIDEO MARKETING TRENDS 65% of video viewers watch more than 3/4 of a video 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI Read more at

wsm.co/videotrends15 30

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As a marketer, the mission should be to use brand assets to create awareness of holiday offers and make audiences’ lives easier by providing an engaging, seamless and relevant shopping experience.

The goal is to use what has already been designed and developed to give customers the opportunity to take action in the moment, instead of being just another passive viewer. One way to do this is to transform video content into a “one-stop shop” for all things holiday related this season — gifts, recipes, travel reservations and anything else that streamlines the planning process.

This can be accomplished by adding interaction, personalization and additional content to brands’ existing video ads. Approaches including personalized gift recommendations, access to additional video content or even allowing customers to “try out” the product before purchase — by viewing different colors or styles — result in another layer of connection with audiences. They are essentially converting user “interest” into a tangible outcome such as a sales, loyalty and an increased cart size.

Here are a few ways brands can turn their basic video ads into shoppable holiday experiences:

Provide Personalized Gift Recommendations

During the holidays, advertisements serve two primary purposes: (1) they reinforce what users already know they

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want to do (such as buy gifts or make travel plans), and (2) they give people ideas for the things they want to buy or do, but are undecided about. Both of these can be supported through personalized gift recommendations.

In order to get personal, use the information that customers have already provided to make recommendations for other products they might like or to simply remind them of things they’re already interested in. For instance, if users have been searching for specific gifts for their families, but didn’t commit to purchase, a shoppable video ad could serve up the same products from their search history with a special discount code that could prompt audiences to buy then and there. This approach saves time and helps audiences build their holiday shopping momentum.

Marketers might also consider an alternative creative approach to personalizing video ads, such as including a gift-finder survey that helps customers narrow down ideas by just answering a few questions. Consumers could list the relative they’re shopping for, how much they’re looking to spend and other qualifying information, which the ad would use to generate gift suggestions without ever leaving the video. This kind of personalized journey would take product recommendations to the next level.

Take Shoppers from Awareness to Purchase

Consumers have so much on their minds during the holidays that giving them too much time between learning about brands’ offers and taking action might result in them not following through. By adding “buy now” features to interactive videos, however, retailers enable audiences to make the purchase immediately. Customers have less free time during the holiday season, so making that connection to instantly purchase takes out the lag time and encourages users to complete the transaction immediately and move on.

This approach also works for food and beverage brands that can help alleviate the stress that comes with planning big family holiday meals by providing timesaving recipes and “buy now” features for purchasing all of the ingredients to make a successful meal. Including a special discount code for audiences to use at checkout can also drive the final sale and keep consumers coming back for continued savings.

Whatever the contents of audiences’ holiday shopping lists this year, brands can lend a hand in making the season stress-free and special for shoppers by streamlining their purchase processes and saving them precious time. These positive brand interactions can feed those warm and fuzzy feelings that people experience during the holidays and make audiences more likely to return for their next purchases in the New Year.

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

Neill Feather

Sam Myers

Interview with Neill Feather, President of SiteLock.

Interview with Sam Myers, Director of Sales for BrandLive.

For More Website Magazine Video Spotlights Visit:

www.websitemagazine.com/videos 10 CELEBRATING

YEARS

Conversion

CORNER

Stop Being A Greedy Marketer!

By Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners

Is pushing so hard for the close actually costing you money? The answer may be a difficult truth to accept. Is it counterproductive to squeeze the sales funnel in the hope that more dollar signs come out?

How to Tell if You Are a Greedy Marketer Let’s start with the assumption that you are already infected with “greedy marketer syndrome.” The following will serve as a quick diagnosis: Do you care only about money?

It’s great to run campaigns based on objective data and “by the numbers,” but if the only number a marketer watches is the bottom line, this will warp and color his or her thinking. Much like a publicly traded company, the focus often gets narrowed to measurable shortterm results. This usually happens at the expense of longer-term, more strategic, initiatives that could have a longer timeframe for pay-off.

A profit focus also makes marketers risk-averse, and unwilling to innovate and try new unproven initiatives (which have risk associated with them). It also leads to an underinvestment in launching new campaigns, since even out of the gate they are trying to keep costs low (instead of maximizing the chances of having a “win”).

Are you a one-trick pony?

Many greedy marketers are also lazy. They have pioneered a single successful tactic and think that they are successful. Examples include PPC (often brandsquatting and not really creating new value), SEO (sometimes relying on gray- or black-hat tactics), email list buying (and deploying them in spammy ways), tweeting (relying on automated bots and a barrage of 32

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low-quality content) and remnant ad buying (from disreputable and shady sources).

They often jealously guard their knowledge of their single trick and do not share the details with others because they view it as a competitive advantage. As long as the tactics are working, they also neglect to get training in other areas of online marketing, and will not invest in hiring in-house or outside experts in other disciplines.

Is your message the same for everyone?

Greedy marketers have no need to empathize with their visitors. In fact, they view them as undifferentiated cattle or “eyeballs” parading past their website.

They also mistakenly believe that they are similarly motivated, refusing to cultivate a deeper understanding of their audience and to glean insights from psychology, behavioral economics or neuromarketing.

As a result, marketers continue to crank out off-point, “on-average” content that serves their view of visitors as generic and interchangeable.

Are you lazy?

Once a program is working, chances are greedy marketers ignore it, and simply cash the check. The greedy marketer manages by exception, and pays attention if profitability or program scale decline abruptly. They pride themselves on paying the minimum possible for supporting marketing technology and tools, and they also don’t invest in their own (or their teams’) online marketing education – preferring quick, surefire hacks and tricks to a deep understanding.

Do you expect people to “go big or go home”?

This single sign is probably the most tell-tale of all.

Greedy marketers actually expect them to always desire to take their bottom-of-the-funnel conversion action. In fact, they try to railroad people into doing what they

want even if they are not ready (by removing alternative calls to action and stripping away “distracting” content).

At best, they want to cherry-pick the people who are ready to act right now, and ignore the rest of them.

The Road to Recovery The good news is that there is hope for greedy marketers, but it will take real effort to change their perspective and practices, because the focus should not be on them in the first place – it should be squarely on the needs of their visitors. Being of service is at the heart of real conversion-focused online marketing.

Let’s take a look at what this means in practice: Created from the needs of the visitors – not the business Does not ignore early stage prospects Must be of excellent quality Durable and laser-focused Integrated with marketing technology Measured to the ultimate downstream conversion Here are some other key ways to recover from the dreaded disease.

Help your visitors to accomplish their goals Marketers need to understand their visitors and how to best support them. They shouldn’t ignore the full lifecycle of the customer journey. Engage with them from their earliest stages of uncovering their problems to their detailed resolution of them. The key to this is to take people as they are. Marketers must always imagine that their website visitors are impatient, misinformed and acting out of their irrational primitive brain centers.

Conducting a detailed content-for-conversion audit can help. This includes a complete touchpoint analysis (Web, email, store, call-center and packaging), conducting user research and user testing, and defining mission-critical roles and tasks to focus on visitor intent. Marketers can then identify gaps in the Web experience and the supporting content that they have available. After that, they can develop a prioritized list of what needs to be created, with particular attention

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Being of service is at the heart of real conversion-focused online marketing.

paid to the connective tissue (flow, hand-offs, calls-toaction and “gating” of information behind appropriate forms if necessary).

Don’t ignore the power of self-service During the Internet era (and especially with millennials) people are much more comfortable doing things in a self-service mode. In fact, they prefer it because self-service leaves them in control. They do not want to talk with a representative, or get “sold” by a marketer.

They are informed and autonomous, and increasingly adept at finding the information that they need. That means that marketers have to design landing pages and websites from a user-centered perspective. Each part of the customer journey needs to be addressed on the site, even if marketers do not directly support the earlier parts. Think of it this way – if they don’t find the information they want on a site, they will probably find it elsewhere – never to return.

Marketers need to learn to ask without asking. The site architecture can serve as additional content marketing research. If the navigation is based on roles and tasks, marketers can see how many people are taking each path through their sites. They can also come up with very targeted downloads to identify key customer segments (e.g. “The single parent’s guide to going back to college,” or “The 7 biggest mistakes when applying for a jumbo mortgage”).

Don’t be satisfied with your current capabilities Invest time and money to continually improve. Add value beyond just optimizing traffic sources. Learn new skills at conferences and through online courses.

Hire smarter co-workers, use outside specialist agencies when existing staff is out of their depth and invest in a company’s marketing technology stack to really turbocharge a brand’s knowledge of their visitors (through analytics, split testing tools, marketing automation, predictive modeling, lead scoring, and real-time behavioral targeting and personalization of a site experience).

If this all seems like a lot of work, you are right. If you follow the advice outlined here, however, the good news is that you will continue to thrive long after all of the greedy marketers are gone from the scene.

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

SE P T E M B E R 2015

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Infected Brands See which campaigns have signs of the greedy marketer syndrome at

wsm.co/4greedy 10 YEARS

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Security

CENTER

Don’t Fall Victim to a Hack Attack

By Farokh Karani, Director of North American Sales and Channels for Quick Heal Technologies

It has been a couple of rough years for the consumer retail market.

High-profile “hacks” of major brands such as Target, Michael’s and Home Depot, to name just a few, have shaken consumers’ trust and the sense of security they have in using their debit and credit cards to make purchases.

According to a 2014 report from LexisNexis, the “True Cost of Fraud Study,” retailers lost $11.1 billion in 2013 overall due to fraud. Even more alarming is there is no sign that this trend is slowing down. In fact, retail fraud is growing at a rapid rate, with the percentage of revenue lost to cyber thieves increasing 70 percent, from .080 percent in 2013 to 1.36 percent in 2014.

Investing in IT security solutions that shut down hackers and cybercriminals before they take advantage of flaws and vulnerabilities in a retail website and network during the holiday shopping rush is an important first step in protecting company revenues. Small business retailers who go the extra mile to make sure their customers’ private financial data is protected bolster their reputation as a retail brand that can be trusted.

Not only will the investment in complete endpoint protection, network/gateway security and 34

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mobile device management pay off in customer loyalty and secured sales revenue, it is also much less expensive in the long run. A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute showed the average cost of cybercrime for U.S. retail companies more than doubled from 2013 to an annual average of $8.6 million per company in 2014.

Although major retail brands are more lucrative targets for cybercriminals, most large retailers have extensive security policies and multilayered IT security solutions in place, leaving cybercriminals to turn their sights on smaller online retailers, which they know may not have the time, resources and IT personnel to successfully thwart attacks.

Small to mid-sized etailers must invest in building customer trust, and the most effective way to accomplish this is to do as much as possible to make sure customer transaction data is safe and secure. It takes just one data breach for a business to lose longtime customers, along with potential customers, their hardearned reputation and market momentum.

Surprisingly, it’s possible for small- to mid-sized retailers and etailers to compete with their larger competitors by creating a safe and secure shopping environment for their customers. There are four key tips to keep in mind.

1. Be Proactive Defend against even the most sophisticated cyberattacks that pummel operating systems, applications and servers by regularly evaluating for suspicious behavior, or out-of-the-normal behavior. Smaller enterprises can defend proactively by staying up to date with the latest threat intelligence and applying this knowledge as appropriate. This includes keeping all software updated and ensuring that patches and bug fixes are applied in a timely manner.

loss prevention (DLP). Rather than purchasing individual solutions from various vendors, small- to mid-sized retailers are better served by choosing an IT security package that provides cross-platform support for mobile endpoints, servers, networks and gateways. By choosing one complete endpoint security solution that has everything from AV to DLP included, retailers can focus on protecting data assets rather than worrying if multiple software licenses have expired, leaving their data and their customers’ data exposed and ripe for theft.

2. Bolster Anti-Virus Protection

4. Future Proof Your Security

Although not the only way to protect a network and customer data from attacks, anti-virus (AV) protection should remain a top priority and not be taken for granted. AV software is designed to prevent, search for, detect and remove software viruses as well as other malicious software like Trojans, adware, worms and much more. By some estimates, there are 60,000 new pieces of malware created daily. The basic Windows Defender AV software that is built into the latest versions of Windows has been shown in industry tests to only stop about 80 percent of the malware that is out there; and its signature files are updated only once a day. AV alone is not enough to protect against many of these new threats, yet it is still extremely important to overall system security. With added heuristic functionality, which looks at the behavior of a file in addition to its signature to determine if it is malware, today’s AV is much more advanced than it was just five years ago. As a result, modern AV is now very effective at blocking a wide array of malware, including spyware, adware, keyloggers, remote access Trojans and root kits.

Keeping up with trends is as important to SMBs as it is to large big box retailers. The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is one trend that is picking up steam daily. From an IT security standpoint, it should be evaluated as another potential risk to business and consumers alike. As more sensor-driven systems, such as refrigerators, cars and even smartwatches, connect to the Internet, cybersecurity protections must also step up to prevent data breaches and compromises. IT security will need to keep up with this new era of “Everything connected, all the time.” Retailers must also be aware that this may impact secure payment methods, and adjust their IT security strategies as a result. The retailers that keep up with quickly evolving technology like IoT will be three steps ahead of the game.

3. Go Comprehensive Most security experts recommend that companies of all sizes take a comprehensive approach to IT security.

While keeping AV software up to date is extremely important, providing multiple layers of security to all endpoints should be the goal. These layers can include AV, application monitoring, content/Web filtering and data

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“

By some estimates, there are 60,000 new pieces of malware created daily.

Farokh Karani is the Director of North American Sales & Channels for Quick Heal Technologies, a leading global provider of IT security solutions.

The Best Defense Against Three Types of DDoS Attacks Learn how to protect your digital properties at wsm.co/3denialdos.

Hosting

PANEL

Cloud Myths:

BUSTED!

By Robert Hoffmann, CEO of 1&1 Internet, Inc.

Ten years ago the term “cloud” had an entirely different meaning than it does today.

The term was previously used to describe a rather complicated and wholly mysterious concept, which no one but very experienced IT professionals could explain (and even then, not very well in most cases).

Cloud adoption rates over the past decade, however, have grown dramatically as the ideas and concepts have been simplified and better explained to those within the mass market. Now it is welcomed not only by businesses but by consumers too.

There are still skeptics, however, who have let ambiguous definitions and cloud-computing myths affect their decision-making processes, but there is little to no truth in any of these claims (three of which are dispelled below).

The Cloud is Just a Fad Even experienced Web professionals may not realize it, but we have all been using cloud offerings for years.

Email, social media, Web-based file storage – these are just a few examples of the solutions that consumers use on a daily basis to accomplish tasks and objectives.

The only difference is that such cloud-based tools are becoming more mainstream for business operations.

With more tech companies introducing simplified cloud offerings to help customers achieve their goals, its growth shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, Computerworld’s 2015 forecast predicted that 42 percent of IT decision-makers plan to increase their cloud spending this year.

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The Cloud isn’t Secure Perhaps the biggest hesitation of new adopters, the security of the cloud has been a concern since its inception. Consumers often believe that local servers and computers can be better protected than a cloud-based solution. This is simply not true, as experienced cloud providers have the ability to invest in high-level security and availability measures that often exceed the budgets of businesses with in-house servers.

While they may face the same threats as traditional environments (malware, denial of service attacks, etc.), cloud technology can actually be one of the most secure server solutions on the market. When investigating cloud for a business, decision-makers need to be sure to understand how the provider ensures the safety of its customers. For example, there should be anti-malware technologies like a firewall and anti-virus, intrusion detection and prevention systems and real-time analysis of security alerts. Together, all these components can deliver maximum security against cyberattacks and hackers.

It’s Just Too Complicated Technically speaking, yes, the cloud backend can be complex. However, cloud providers work to create solutions that simplify management of their products.

It is understood that not every user is a tech expert, so it is important to make the incredible benefits of the cloud accessible to all types of users. Dashboards, for example, have reduced complexity across the tech industry, and the cloud is no different. They are created for the average user to jump right in without formal training.

Furthermore, many cloud options even deliver the ability to scale resources up or down by the minute. With simple sliders or other visuals, this can be accomplished just as easily as changing the volume on your mobile phone.

Like with all investments, in the end it comes down to choosing the right partner. So, take time to thoroughly investigate what security measures a cloud provider delivers and how their features help to manage the server.

A 2015 survey from MeriTalk of 150 federal executives indicates 57 percent of these professionals are worried about migration challenges, suggesting they’re not sure the data can be moved at all.

Get migration advice from professionals who have made the move at wsm.co/tips4migration.

SE P T E M B E R 2015

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Insights on

ANALYTICS

3 Ways IoT Can Grow Customer Lifetime Value Brendan O’Brien, Chief Evangelist at Aria Systems

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is an important metric as it captures the revenue potential of each customer relationship over their lifespan with a company.

Higher CLVs lead to greater profits for the enterprise, and now, with the rise of potentially billions of cloudconnected sensors and smart devices collectively known as the Internet of Things (IoT), there are more opportunities than ever before to grow both.

The IoT relies on sensors and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications to produce data on a variety of subjects. Translating that data into more rewarding customer experiences is one of the most significant opportunities that comes with the IoT. Here are three ways any enterprise can mine IoT data to cultivate deeper customer connections and generate higher per-customer revenues.

1. Monetize IoT Data

by Expanding Offerings One way to improve CLV is to use data created by IoT devices to give existing customers new ways to consume products and services — and more reasons to remain loyal. Adding IoT-driven services to an existing product catalog can help marketers meet fast-changing customer demands and keep competitors at bay.

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For example, in the offline world, auto insurers like Progressive are accommodating their cost-conscious customers by offering them new pay-as-you-drive policies where rates are based on the miles actually driven.

Mileage is tracked and sent to the insurance carrier through a small IoT-connected dashboard plug-in.

Consumption-based policies such as these can lower premiums by as much as 50 percent – a powerful incentive for insurance customers to stay put.

Cable TV providers are especially adept at the repackaging game. It’s how they fend off subscriber churn.

Years ago, they expanded beyond TV with triple play packages that added Internet and phone services to the mix. With the advent of IoT, they’ve now added another: smart-home monitoring. These systems combine motion sensors, cameras, smart locks and brainy thermostats that allow cable customers to remotely manage hearth and home from anywhere. Subscribers who sign up for these services view them as a convenience they can just add to their existing bill. That’s exactly the mindset companies want their customers to have if the objective is to increase CLV. In the online realm, MyFitnessPal, the world’s top online health and nutrition membership community, is embracing IoT to make it even easier for its more than 80 million members to reach their goals. They

can now add personal data from their favorite wearable IoT fitness gadgets like Fitbit and Jawbone to the other health information they track on MyFitnessPal. Providing an in-demand service like this pays off for the website, even though its CLV is difficult to pin down because the site is free to join and ad-supported (even though it is still a big financial hit).

Earlier this year, sportswear maker Under Armour purchased MyFitnessPal for $475 million. Clearly, its goal is not only to monetize the site, but also to tie it into its own sales of IoT trackers, including computerized performance wear.

An expanding universe of smart sensors and devices generate continuous streams of personalized, real-time data on just about anything people want to monitor and manage — from heartbeats, footsteps and sleep cycles to inventory levels, shipments in transit and medical diagnostic equipment.

Consider online streaming TV pioneer Netflix. It’s made a science of personalization, due in part to its reliance on intricate M2M processing. For example, each day, it tracks millions of viewing streams from its customers. From this data, it not only offers customerspecific viewing recommendations based on predictive analytics, but also shows individual subscribers 2. Improve your website exactly what they’ve already watched and even where experience to deepen engagement they paused a particular show, no matter what device For any company that sells they use when they return. online, one of the most obviPersonalized experiences like ous means for growing CLV these are a key reason behind is to improve how visitors Netflix’s outlandish success. engage with the website.

Indeed, endless digital rivData gleaned through the ers of IoT data hold a veritable IoT can provide a clue. Sevtreasure trove of information eral vendors offer sophistibrands can harness to transcated analytics that can help form customer satisfaction and brands identify site issues that increase CLV. That’s because may be causing lost sales and most IoT products and services missed connections. leave a digital trail that reveals Of these firms, Reactful is details about the way customparticularly innovative. The ers use and interact with them. company uses IoT advanceConsumption data provides ments in M2M learning and an unprecedented view into powerful algorithms to assess customer behaviors, preferthe way visitors interact with ences and usage patterns. With With the ability to order favorite websites. The solution tracks these insights, it is possible to household products through Amazon subtle variations in customer produce perfectly timed, spotwith a push of a button, Dash has game-changing loyalty and data opclicks, scrolls and mouse on offers and incentives that portunities that are detailed at movements in real-time so customers increasingly expect. designers/marketers can betKeep in mind that using wsm.co/amazondash411 ter understand both behavior customer data in this manner and intention. requires two things: permission and respect. Intrusive, What are they drawn to? Are they hesitating for an unsolicited promotions or sharing data with third parinstant before taking a particular action? Exactly where ties without authorization can undermine even the beston a page do they go dark? intended CLV efforts.

With such insights, it is possible to hone in on precisely which aspects of a website need work in order to Embracing Disruption improve conversions.

The Internet of Things is poised to usher in disruptive change on a scale unmatched in the digital experience, 3. Get personal to boost but some things will never change. In order to expand customer satisfaction and loyalty CLV and increase profits in the age of IoT, companies Relying on the IoT to make a website more personal is still need to win their customers’ hearts and minds at only the beginning. The truth is, the technology serves every turn. Savvy use of IoT technology can help make up personalization opportunities in spades. that happen in a heartbeat.

How Amazon Dash Will Change Everything

Web

COMMENTARY

The Consolidation of the Web

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

With acquisition after acquisition, today’s leading tech companies are seemingly trying to be everything to everyone.

Is Yahoo’s Polyvore Buy Misguided?

Not all acquisitions are created equal.

Read more at

wsm.co/yahoopoly

E-commerce platforms are acquiring marketing automation systems (NetSuite/Bronto), review sites are gobbling up food delivery services (Yelp/Eat24), B2C sites are buying their competition outright (Expedia/ Orbitz and Travelocity) and the list (which is quite lengthy) goes on and on. While those on the acquiring end are certainly flexing their muscles to get the people, products or proficiency they need to take their offerings to the next level, it’s really their customers who are winning and that is in great part because of the dramatic change to what is expected of Web professionals today, particularly marketers.

Software systems are increasingly catering to non-tech professionals with drag-and-drop features, easy reporting and streamlined dashboards (1&1’s new cloud offering read more at wsm.co/1and1cloud - is a good example of taking a complex offering like the cloud and providing a dashboard to simplify what a company wants to do, like adjusting hosting resources).

With the power to view and optimize resources that were previously only managed by IT, marketers are getting access to – and control over – features, metrics, testing scenarios, etc., which can help them make more informed decisions. This also means, however, that they are inevitably managing more and more systems – adding complexity to their positions.

A new study from Yes Lifecycle Marketing found that nearly a quarter of marketers surveyed spend at least 15 hours every week coordinating and managing their tech vendors and 15 percent indicated they need to consolidate those vendors to achieve company goals.

An often-cited 2014 report from DNN also found that 53 percent of the marketing executives surveyed use five or more discrete marketing technology solutions, such as marketing automation, customer relationship management (CRM), email marketing, social media tools, etc. About 10 percent, however, use 10 or more different technologies for their daily activities.

Web professionals are clearly relying on a variety of solutions to tip the digital scales in their favor, which presents an opportunity for vendors to both build out their product offerings (often through acquisitions) and better support customers by enabling them to reduce the number of vendor solutions they use.

NetSuite, for example, recently made headlines with its $200 million acquisition of Bronto, but it’s the string of moves made by the company over the last few years (acquiring Venda, OrderMotion, Retail Anywhere and Tribe HR) that we are likely seeing in effect today. It’s this consolidation through acquisition that is helping customers like Elite Model Management replace 13 separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with NetSuite.

Designers and developers are also reaping the rewards of consolidation from Adobe’s $800 million Fotolia acquisition, as Adobe Stock was born from it shortly thereafter.

What benefits do Adobe Creative Cloud customers receive? By using the service (which does have additional monthly fees), designers can work with stock photos more efficiently within a variety of Adobe offerings.

From Adobe’s own research, approximately 85 percent of those already buying stock content are users of Adobe tools. What’s more, more than 90 percent of all stock created was created with Adobe tools. Basically, Adobe customers are already the number one consumers and contributors of stock content around the world.

Pending the actual integrations, customers of the technology providers participating in the race to consolidate the Web are the ones winning, as deeper or even native integrations between systems that once did not talk to each other, only gives Web professionals the chance to work with less vendors, improve their user experience, get to know their customers more, and have non-siloed information and systems.

10 YEARS

Resource Center FINELY FOCUSED INFORMATION FROM INDUSTRY SPONSORS Scan to visit our Resource Center at www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources

Website Magazine’s Resource Center presents whitepapers from our sponsors that provide information, specifics and metrics to help you make decisions for website success. Download free at www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources.

Satisfaction Guaranteed: Why A Little Reassurance Goes A Long Way In E-Commerce

Trust Or Bust: How To Make Summertime Shoppers Feel Safe Online

In the world of online retail, you need a targeted marketing strategy to ensure you’re offering customers the reassurance and guarantees they need to browse and buy confidently. Symantec’s Norton Shopping Guarantee gives you just that. Online stores are seeing a dramatic return on investment when they use it.

Sponsored by Symantec

Behind the convenience of online shopping lurk some unpleasant truths that haunt people’s purchase decisions. According to Symantec research, one in eight legitimate websites has a critical vulnerability and 38 percent of mobile users have experienced cybercrime in the past 12 months.

Fortunately, there are ways retailers can earn shoppers’ trust and business.

Sponsored by Norton Shopping Guarantee

Measuring the ROI of Responsive Design

Back in the Hopper: The Marketplace Fairness Act

Automated Replenishment Guide

Mobile Payments and Fraud

Read this two-page overview of the three bills in circulation to learn why and how passage of a federal Internet sales tax law could impact your business, and why you may already be affected by this legislation.

Sponsored by Avalara

Mobile shopping is soaring, making responsive design seem like an obvious choice for taking advantage of the growing opportunities and complexities of mobile shopping. Download this guide to understand the costs and benefits of going responsive.

Sponsored by MarketLive

By the end of 2015, 68 percent of merchants will accept mobile payments.

How do they (and you) plan to deal with the extra costs and security concerns?

Download this 2015 report to compare your mobile strategy to what’s trending in the industry today.

Sponsored by Kount

By leveraging predictive analytics, powered by Windsor Circle, you can ensure your customers never miss an order and you get recurring revenue.

Download this free guide to learn how to set up automated, data-driven replenishment emails.

Sponsored by Windsor Circle

Download free at www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources SE P T E M B E R 2015

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