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OCTOBER 2013 | SPECIAL ISSUE

LOYALTY

FOR THE MODERN DIGITAL BUYER >> The Next 10Years of Affiliate Marketing

>> Increase Visibility on the SoLoMo Web

>> Messaging for the Customer Journey

50 TOP IhLakeErs B O M Movers & S

See What They’re Saying Take a video tour of interesting people and new stuff for your website. See Website Magazine’s interviews from Internet Retailer Conference & Expo.

George Eberstadt, TurnTo Zach Pitts, Kount Branden Jenkins, NetSuite Ed Stevens, Shopatron Howard Diamond, Rise Interactive Greg Wooten, SecureBuy Scott Allan, Rakuten Parag Mamnani, Webgility Rey Pasinli, Total-Apps Megan Higgins, Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce Ross Haskell, BoldChat Shawn Ellen, Ability Commerce Manish Chowdhary, GoECart Michael Moore, SDL Fredhopper Dennis Shiao, DNN Corp.

Jeremy Greenberg, SellerCloud Kyle Wilson, SearchSpring Fred Lizza, Dydacomp Charles Meyer, 7Search.com Ryan Morgan, Hotcakes Commerce

Jake Stein, RJ Metrics Dennis O’Malley, ReadyPulse Tom Pittman, Seller Active Andrew Pearson, Windsor Circle Brian Quinn, Kenshoo

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*Website Magazine thanks IRCE for permission for video interviews at the show.

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Cover Story

LOYALTY For the Modern Digital Buyer

As both emerging and established companies fight for their spots in the hearts, minds and wallets of today’s consumers, loyalty is a topic echoed throughout the business community. Despite the rapid rise in availability of information and how consumers are using that information to make purchasing decisions, the fundamentals of loyalty have not changed. What has drastically transformed, however, is the path modern digital buyers take to become loyal to brands.

Explore theWebsite Magazine

Departments

Great Social Media Waste Brands have restructured their marketing efforts around social media, but at what cost?

Google Analytics Unleashed Discover three things you didn’t know (or didn’t know were possible) about Google Analytics.

Find out how affiliate marketers are using the phone to monetize their Web traffic.

Hands-On List Segmentation Get on the fast track to better performance (and revenues) with these practical email tips.

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OCT OB ER 2013

Know the warning signs that it’s time to move on from your Web host.

Enterprise Ready: Feature Myopia in Marketing

Small Business Lab: Audience Messaging Strategies

50 Top: Mobile Solution Providers

Mastering Search: Visibility on the SoLoMo Web

E-Commerce Express: The Future of Affiliate Marketing

Design & Development Digest: 20 Search and User-Friendly Design Success Corner: 39 October’s Execs, Companies of Note Commentary: 40 The Elements of Trust

Get the digital scoop with Website Magazine’s email newsletters, covering e-commerce, search, SoLoMo, design and more at wsm.co/webscoop.

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F R O M T H E E D I TO R

With Peter Prestipino

Loyalty for the Modern Digital Buyer Are your current customers loyal to your brand? Do they eschew the advances of others, remaining steadfast and resolute in their dedication to your company? Are they unwavering in their support, true-blue and unfailing advocates of your products? If so, you’re one of the fortunate few to experience that state of digital bliss.

Visit Website Magazine at these upcoming internet tradeshows:

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Loyalty isn’t something that’s manufactured; it comes only as a result of being a constant, dependable and useful presence in the lives of consumers, from the initial awareness phase to conversion and retention. There aren’t any shortcuts when it comes to building and maintaining loyalty, but there are many well-established practices that any digital-minded brand can employ to maximize the value from their customer relationships. E-commerce merchants, digital service providers and information publishers must start developing a more engaged user base, and they can start immediately with this month’s feature article. Website Magazine Managing Editor Amberly Dressler provides a unique perspective on loyalty in the digital age, exploring topics including rewards and retention, gamification and personalization. This issue is filled with many additional articles that will prove valuable to Internet professionals in their efforts toward establishing deeper loyalty among users and furthering their Web success. Website Magazine readers will find practical guidance on the dangers of myopia in marketing, actionable advice for developing audience messaging strategies, detailed information on the SoLoMo Web, insights on the next 10 years of affiliate marketing, tips on search- and user-friendly design, minimizing social media waste and much more including 50 top movers and shakers in the mobile solutions market today. Enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and make sure to visit us on the Web at WebsiteMagazine.com to experience the in-depth coverage of emerging trends, best practices and industry news that matters most to your success as an Internet professional. Best Web Wishes,

Mobile Shopping-Fall Oct. 28-30 Phoenix, AZ

The Magazine for Website Success Reaching the largest audience of Web professionals of any Internet industry publication 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018 Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518 International: 1-773-628-2779 Fax: 1-773-272-0920

PUBLISHER: Susan Whitehurst susan@websitemagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Peter Prestipino peter@websitemagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR: Amberly Dressler adressler@websitemagazine.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Allison Howen ahowen@websitemagazine.com *CONTRIBUTORS: Daryl Logullo Justin Gray Alex Forsch Erik Matlick ART DIRECTOR: Janet Crouch www.grafikadesign.net GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Jesse Erbach jesse@websitemagazine.com Shannon Rickson shannon@websitemagazine.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: David Ruiz druiz@websitemagazine.com ADVERTISING: Kelly Springer kspringer@websitemagazine.com Brian Wallace brian@websitemagazine.com Andrew Walter awalter@websitemagazine.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com

Peter Prestipino — Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com Access the Oct. 2013 issue at

wsm.co/wmoct13 or by scanning the QR code below.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

Website Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 12, October 2013, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is published 4 times per year in February, May, August and November with 8 special issues (January, March, April, June, July, September, October and 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.

• Justin Gray explores the consequences of myopia in digital marketing. p. 10

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

• Erik Matlick discusses the evolving customer journey, p. 12

• Alex Forsch shares how to use call traffic to monetize affiliate traffic. p. 32 • Daryl Logullo uncovers revenue opportunities in targeting and segmentation. p. 34

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

www.WebsiteMagazine.com

OCT OB ER 2013

’’

From ons Promoti y r to Prima In a move that has email marketers in a huff, Google has introduced a new tabbed-style inbox, which automatically separates and sorts messages into five different sections â&#x20AC;&#x201D; primary,

Learn how to get your emails in front of gmail users at wsm.co/gtabs13

social, promotions, updates and forums. While this new format is welcomed by some users, email marketers are fearful that it will negatively impact their campaigns. The layout makes it easy for subscribers to ignore the promotions tab (where most marketing messages end up) if they decide to, or even worse, start unsubscribing from senders if the influx of messages within a certain tab gets out of hand.

Serve Local Ads on Google Maps App

More than 1 billion people use Google Maps every month, and the majority of these users are searching for local businesses. Thanks to a recent update to the popular map serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile app, local businesses can now reach mobile consumers via in-app advertisements. The updated experience displays relevant advertisers at the bottom of the screen after a consumer conducts

PINTEREST COZIES UP TO MERCHANTS

a search. The ads include a title, text and link to get directions. In order to

Pinterest has its sights on the e-commerce industry.

show up on the Google Maps app, however,

Not only did the pinboard-style social network launch rich

advertisers need to add pins back in May (which include the price of products from cer-

location extensions to their existing search cam-

tain websites), but it recently introduced a feature that alerts

paigns or create a new Pinterest members via email when the price drops on products

ad with AdWords.

theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve pinned. In addition to being convenient for users, this feature provides merchants with increased visibility and another incentive to have a presence on the image-based social network.

OCT OB ER 2013

Twitter Tracks Brick-and-Mortar Sales In order to show the effec-

Does Promoted Tweet engagement drive in-store sales?

tiveness of its ad platform, Twitter has partnered with Datalogix to measure the offline results of online ads. The capability, called “offline sales impact”, quantifies the impact of promoted and organic tweets on offline sales for consumer packaged goods businesses in the United States. According to Twitter, initial tests of the capability reveal that although both organic and promoted brand tweets increase conversion rates, promoted tweets (unsurprisingly) seem to have the edge. In fact, followers who are exposed to promoted tweets purchase 29 percent more from that brand than followers reached by organic tweets alone.

A SURPLUS OF SOCIAL ADS One of the only ways for

Pros to Take Over Instagram Video

social networks to monetize their services

It is now harder to outshine the competition on Instagram, because

is by selling advertisements, which is why it’s

the popular image-based social network

not a surprise that Foursquare and LinkedIn

has added video functionality to its serv-

have both juiced up their ad options. For starters, Foursquare has begun rolling out a self-serve ad solution for local businesses. The ad service leverages Foursquare’s targeting technology that powers

ice. ’Net professionals can steal the spotlight by shooting and editing their videos off the social network, and then uploading their masterpieces onto the social

its ‘Explore’ recommendation engine, and requires advertisers pay only when some-

network for the whole Web to see. This

one visits their business listings or brick-and-mortar stores. Conversely, LinkedIn has

update is actually good news for brands

incorporated Sponsored Updates to its primary newsfeed. This program has already

who can now use some of their profes-

been leveraged by big names like Adobe and Mercedes-Benz, and is open to any com-

sional video clips as content on the social network. Coincidentally, Instagram’s

pany with an official page and an account representative. Plus, the service can be used

maximum length of 15-second videos

to promote updates in 20 languages across 200 countries and gives advertisers the

matches up with the length of shorter

choice of either a CPC or CPM pricing model..

TV commercials.

OCT OB E R 2013

m o b i l e a p p wa t c h

Feedly Audio Memos There is no better way to get over your breakup with Google Reader than to move on with another news aggregator, and the editors at Website Magazine can’t get enough of Feedly. The platform comes jam-packed with organization and personalization features, and enables users to save and share articles with friends. Plus, the Feedly app syncs across devices, making the discovery process a much easier task when on the go.

DomainHole

Buffer

Find the perfect domain name with DomainHole, an iOS app that enables users to find brand worthy and valuable domains. The app offers the ability to search for expired domains, check domain availability, combine a keyword with popular word lists, generate random domains and produce alternative ideas based off a keyword.

Social media management app Buffer has been around for some time now, but the introduction of Custom Scheduling should put it back on your radar. Previously, Buffer automatically scheduled social updates so they posted at the most optimal times throughout the day. With the app’s newest functionality, social media managers can now also choose the times when they would like their updates to be posted if desired. The Custom Scheduling feature works with both text and image posts, as well as on desktop and mobile devices.

IFTTT The power of automation now resides in your pocket, thanks to the iOS app from IFTTT, which stands for “if this, then that.” Users can simplify their lives by combining two channels and creating automated tasks, which the service dubs “recipes,” sending triggers from one channel to the other. For example, you could set Twitter to send a “keep dry” message automatically to your followers every time it rains in your local area. The platform has 67 total channels, including Facebook, Gmail, Evernote, Etsy, Google Drive, Feedly, HootSuite, LinkedIn, Yammer, Weather, WordPress and the most recent addition, the New York Times.

OCT OB ER 2013

Don’t worry about jotting down the wrong information, instead, leverage this professional audio recorder to capture your most important conversations. This audio app can be used for interviews, lectures, briefings, voice recording and more. Recordings can be sent via email or Dropbox and can be sorted by date or title. Additionally, users can make in-app purchases to gain access to other helpful features, such as the ability to insert comments, edit recordings and add position markers to memos for easier navigation.

Elevatr Take your business idea to the next level with Elevatr. Although this iOS app includes similar features of other note-taking/ brainstorming apps, it also includes elements of traditional business plans to help users flush out their ideas. For example, inspiring entrepreneurs must describe their idea in 140 characters or less, but are then prompted to fill out other business aspects (e.g. market, competition data, product information and execution).

Loop Survey Maker Obtaining valuable customer feedback is just a download away. The free Loop app for iOS devices allows business owners to use survey templates, based on company type, in order to create custom surveys that can be shared by email, Facebook and Twitter. Likewise, businesses can have customers answer surveys directly on an iPad inside brick-and-mortar stores, which allows them to obtain feedback much faster. The app offers Feedback reports, as well as push notifications to alert users when there is new feedback available.

LET’S GET MOBILE It's a mobile world, and if you are not living it, you'll be left behind. Catch up on the hottest mobile news at wsm.co/mobileworld13.

S TAT

W AT C H

LOYALTY Numbers to Leverage Companies are increasingly motivated to implement a mobile customer service strategy according to April 2013 research from the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI). In fact, 40 percent of executives and managers say increasing loyalty is their biggest motivator for doing so. Following loyalty, improvements to customer satisfaction (36.5 percent) and customers asking for mobile support (35.7 percent) were the second and third most popular reasons to “go mobile.” The study painted a picture of how channels such as social media, mobile, and advanced self-service help shape and improve the customer experience, as well as first-contact resolution and customer engagement. "Our research shows that only 25 percent of companies feel their customers are extremely engaged with their brand,” said Sarah Stealey Reed, the content director for ICMI in a July statement. “How can you fix that? Arm the agent with the knowledge, channels and tools they require to best service customers. And take advantage of the emerging channels. Mobile, social and self-service are the perfect vessels to fulfill the higher needs of today's agents and the greater demands of the connected customers.” Find more useful data and valuable insights at WebsiteMagazine.com.

2.11%

Email intelligence company Return Path released a report evaluating Gmail’s recent Tabs rollout. According to its analysis, Return Path found that Gmail users who are routinely engaged with marketing email are reading a slightly higher percentage of their marketing email now, roughly 60 percent, a 2.11 percent increase.

37%

Results of a national survey of consumers commissioned by Campaigner, the CRM and email marketing brand of j2 Global, Inc., revealed that more than 37 percent of consumers were undecided about how mobile marketing emails impact them, and only about 6 percent of respondents made a purchase directly from a mobile device as a result of a promotional email received on that device.

90%

An Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) study found that 90 percent of consumers would recommend a brand to others after interacting with it on social media.

10%

ExactTarget released an infographic in 2013 that reveals the biases that marketers have based on their own consumption habits. For instance, 10 percent of consumers without a smartphone use Twitter on a daily basis, but 48 percent of marketers use the social network every day. Additionally, 17 percent of marketers use Pinterest daily, but 25 percent of consumers with a smartphone access the social pinboard every day. Finally, 93 percent of marketers have made a purchase as a result of an email, as opposed to only 49 percent of consumers.

Holiday Stat Watch Stay in the know at wsm.co/shopstats13 OCT OB E R 2013

ENTERPRISE By Justin Gray, CEO of LeadMD

The Dangers of

Myopia in Digital Marketing We live in an era of rapid business technology advancement. As soon as we learn how to use and capitalize on the latest platform or device, another one comes along with newer, shinier features and functionality. With all of the tools available to build and release campaigns, there’s no doubt that it’s a great time to be in marketing. Yet these expanding opportunities haven’t translated to greater ROI for everyone. Since they’re too busy to learn new technologies or simply don’t want to venture out of their comfort zones, too many marketers suffer from feature myopia – a dynamic where they become so focused on a specific feature that they ignore all others. Not only is this a terrible waste of the financial in-

OCT OB ER 2013

vestment in the technology, it’s also a sacrifice of all the potential (e.g. branding, revenue, customer engagement) that could be derived from the neglected features. While even consumers are guilty of this with smartphones and laptops, businesses are especially vulnerable to feature myopia with marketing automation. Instead of utilizing it as the powerful solution it is, most marketers treat it as a one-dimensional email platform. In addition to overlooking the multiple opportunities available in marketing automation, these marketers have antiquated outlooks. It’s about time they all get the memo that blast email marketing is declining and destructive as a strategy. Beyond this, the real consequences of feature myopia can be even more damaging. The Failure to Prepare

When marketing automation problems are analyzed, one overriding issue quickly becomes evident: There has been a failure to sufficiently prepare. Many businesses hastily purchase new

RemoveYour Blinders Given the epidemic proportions of feature myopia, how can marketers combat their own narrow views?

technology but skip the necessary homework, from defining overarching strategies to establishing benchmarks to getting the right training. Consider that marketing automation is often sold with the intention of rectifying a specific issue. While that might be the high-level strategy, all too often users adopt the path of least resistance on a tactical level and simply continue their previous behaviors. When the original issue continues, the platform itself becomes the unfortunate scapegoat, rather than the blame being assigned where it belongs — squarely on user dynamics. Typically the problem originates from a failure to define marketing automation success. While marketing automation represents a move to acquire better leads, rather than more leads, the only metric many marketers have as they go into implementation is the number of net new leads per month. Their natural tendency is to focus on trying to raise that number, which leaves them without data against which they can compare velocity and lead quality for benchmarking. It’s not hard to understand why these problems are so widespread. Many marketers lack the time needed to study all of the features. Furthermore, the guidance they need from experts on how to properly utilize the more complex aspects is often absent. The key to solving these problems is sticking to a best practices model where critical processes are refined prior to purchasing new technology. This gives marketers the time to optimize and smooth out any issues before they’re under pressure to obtain results from a platform that’s already being paid for. Unexpected Costs

As discussed earlier, these shortsighted tendencies generally result in several detrimental effects. The tendency to scapegoat the technology itself, rather than the behaviors, often leads to scrapping one or two platforms in search of the right process. Not only is this kind of turbulence a headache that’s costly in time and money, but it also takes a toll on lead generation. Energy and time that could be

1. Come prepared. Know what you must do in order to ensure success, which means refining your processes and establishing benchmarks to produce the most meaningful results possible from your new platform. 2. Train your team. This will make or break the success of your marketing automation venture. Training will ensure your team members know how fully to exploit the platform functionality; without training, their own feature myopia will set in and limit your results. 3. Invest in ongoing education. Nothing in marketing is stagnant anymore; accept that the future will continue to deliver more technological advancements, and those developments will involve learning curves. 4. Ensure your company is on board. Your reputation can take a serious hit when you hit a roadblock in your own organization. 5. Communicate. Set expectations carefully for both your team and your stakeholders. Be realistic, rather than promising the world, but also communicate wins accurately. Remember that internal marketing can be just as critical as lead generation or revenue.

spent pursuing leads and stirring up buyer interest is instead spent worrying about implementing a new platform. In addition to having a negative impact on revenue, the breach in continuity can land a negative blow to a marketing department’s reputation. Investing in an expensive solution like marketing automation means that marketers must strike gold the first time around to justify their software purchases — a total budget rarity for marketing departments. Any high-profile failures therein can drive good talent away or even cost jobs. Marketing automation is one of the most rewarding tools available on today’s marketing landscape, but only if its full capacity is understood and utilized. While feature myopia is a natural, albeit unfortunate, dynamic in many teams, ambitious marketers will commit themselves to pushing past their comfort zones, learning to maximize their platforms for ultimate success.

List ing g i B et ark ion M of omat Aut tware Sof ’s gazine

OCT OB E R 2013

Ma ebsite at See W d guide update tomation13 o/mau wsm.c

WEBSITE MAGAZINE’S

SMALL BUSINESS LAB

By Erik Matlick, CEO, Madison Logic

Consideration

Audience Messaging Strategies for the 5 Stages of the Customer Journey In Advertising Fantasyland, a single ad buy would be all that is needed to reach, acquire and retain customers. In the real world, the media landscape is constantly fragmenting, and potential consumers are harder to reach than ever before. As Web users jump from desktop computers to smartphones to tablets and from top-tier publishers to citizen journalists to social media, advertisers are faced with the challenge of not just finding, but also engaging consumers, no matter where they are. Adding to the challenge of this multichannel universe is the fact that consumer behavior is changing too, and as a direct result of digital media. For instance, Google recently introduced the concept of Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), the time between a consumer’s first exposure to advertising and the ultimate purchase decision, as well as the online research that occurs during that time. How do you win the ZMOT? First, it requires stepping away from the now-obsolete idea of a sales funnel and, instead, viewing the customer life cycle (both B2C and B2B) as a fluid, multi-touch journey, which a brand is actively a part of — every step of the way.

10 Tacti cs f Life Cyc or l Optimiza e tion

wsm .co/in vest1 3

OCT OB ER 2013

During the consideration phase, a customer may not be actively in the market for your product, or may not have even recognized their need for it yet. The objective at this point should be to present messaging that places your company top-ofmind, as well as to receive permission to send future correspondences. Display, search and content marketing are the heavy hitters in this period, because impactful, benefits-oriented messaging is required to move them along on their journey. Madison Logic’s own internal research revealed that this discovery phase is roughly five days from the original content interaction.

Evaluation During the evaluation phase is where the heavy lifting is done. Customers are weighing your product against your competitors, so your brand’s message, and the way in which it is delivered, is crucial. For example, customers in the research and consideration phase tend to respond positively to white papers. Once they move farther down the funnel, they will gravitate toward hands-on product demos and trial offers. At this stage, you have to take your display, search and content efforts to the next level, adapting the message to more targeted audience segments and nurturing those leads. This part of the journey is really the first stage of relationship building with your customer, so adding email to the mix is advisable in order to begin a dialogue and cultivate that relationship. It is here where targeted offers and incentives become extremely valuable tools in winning the sale over your competitors.

Buying Some may think the purchase is the last stop on the journey, but there is still a ways to go. Now that you won the customer, the new objective is to retain them. Messaging and targeting efforts must become even more tailored to a customer’s specific needs. Furthermore, precise audience segmentation, loyalty incentives and high-touch customer relationship management practices are what will turn customers into brand ambassadors.

Who’s Out There? Perhaps the most

Advocate Now that you’ve established an army of brand ambassadors, it is your responsibility to equip them with the proper tools to share your message. Email and social media are your most valuable assets in this phase. In addition to being ideal for communicating with a customer on a more individual level, email and social are built for easy sharing, so passing along your message is a no-brainer, especially if you make it worth the customer’s while with contests and loyalty promotions.

Bonding The customer journey never actually ends. The ultimate aim of a marketer is to build a lifelong customer, so you should never come to a point where you abandon your efforts to strengthen that bond. On an individual level, customer purchasing behaviors, and their needs in general, will

constantly shift, but it is in your best interest to maintain those relationships. For instance, once a company decides to purchase a payroll system, one could think that their need has come to an end and there is no reason for the marketer to continue making an effort. What about cross-sell and upsell opportunities like employee management programs? What about when that company is ready to renew their subscription or when it is in the market for a new payroll system entirely? Going on the customer journey means staying for the long haul and never expecting to arrive at a destination. The approach doesn’t apply only to products like cars or jeans; it’s applicable to B2B products and services as well. Regardless of what you’re selling, if you invest in your customer, they will return the favor.

OCT OB E R 2013

important element of audience messaging is knowing who you are speaking to. Check out 6 audience discovery tips at wsm.co/hearmenow13.

2013’s Top Mobile Movers and Shakers There has been no more disruptive force to the world of business — both virtual and real — than that of mobile devices (a.k.a. the smartphone) over the past five years.

MARKETING ADVERTSING PROMOTIONS

TOP

The now well-established Mobile Web impacts designers, developers, marketers and analysts — everyone really in the digital line of command — and it looks to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Over 56 percent of U.S. consumers (statistics via Google’s Our Mobile Planet) now have smartphones, and what’s more, those devices are seeing a fairly heavy share of usage when compared to desktops. In fact, according to Monetate’s Q1 2013 from 5.42 percent in Q1 2012 to 10.44 percent in Q1 2013 — while desktop usage rates continue to fall. As any savvy Internet professional will know, where there is demand there will be supply, as evidenced in this month’s Website Magazine Top 50, a profile of many

ANALYTICS

Ecommerce Quarterly report, smartphone traffic to websites has risen year over year

of the most interesting movers and shakers in the mobile industry. Google, Microsoft and Apple (as well as Amazon) have been removed from the lineup, but make no mistake; their commitment and current role in mobile is clearly massive and will only increase with time. There remain thousands of unique, viable and truly innovative companies with which your brand can align, however, from mobile design networks like Jumptap (#4) and HipCricket (#23), to app builders like Apps Geyser (#1) and analytics solutions like Flurry (#2) and Distimo (#3).

APPS

tools like DudaMobile (#1) and FiddleFly (#5), mobile advertising and marketing

The mobile landscape is a complex one and Website Magazine readers need to

isting users are doing with those smartphones at wsm.co/mobileactivity13.

Discover theTop 50 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES in Website Magazine’s November 2013 issue. Ensure your subscription is up to date at wsm.co/subscribe13!

OCT OB ER 2013

SMS/TEXT

start developing the optimal strategy. Explore what exactly your prospective and ex-

DESIGN

leverage every resource available. With the right solutions in place, you can then

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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mastering

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

AN UNCONVENTIONAL GUIDE TO

Visibility on the SoLoMo Web Consumers might not actually be buying yet, but they are certainly researching, reviewing and sharing from their smartphones.

This makes social (So), local (Lo) and mobile (Mo) vital to the success of today’s digital-minded enterprises. Despite this, many enterprises have yet to begin optimizing their SoLoMo presence, even those who it is most suited for. In a recent survey, Glogou discovered that nearly 84 percent of websites operated by Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVB) are not location aware, 67 percent are not mobile friendly and 89 percent are not fully integrated with social media. This is a real missed opportunity since travelers, especially, use their mobile devices to get online and access local information for attractions, hotels, restaurants, stores, etc., as well as to share their travel experiences across social networks.

SoLoMo Stat Watch So: 80 percent of smartphone users

access social networks on their devices Lo: 94 percent of smartphone users

searched for local information and 70 percent called a business after searching Mo: 50 percent of shoppers who used their

phones to “assist” while shopping in-store, compared to the 44 percent of retailers who haven’t optimized their websites for mobile

CREATIVE If the travel industry hasn’t adopted SoLoMo, what hope do non-brick-and-mortar businesses have? Plenty, if they get creative. Kaitlin Carpenter of Carousel30 addressed this topic in depth for Website Magazine at wsm.co/rethinkinglocal. In the article, she redefined “location-based marketing” to include brands who may not have otherwise considered SoLoMo offerings. “With a mobile campaign, you can also think of your consumer as the location,” wrote Carpenter. “Your mobile marketing campaign can designate the ‘location’ as wherever the consumer is using the product, engaging with the campaign and using their mobile device.” Carpenter details several non-local brands who are creating unique offerings to be where their customers are, including the popular Optimize your Facebook game (and retail line) Angry Birds. This franvisibility at chise doesn’t have a physical venue, but users wsm.co/fbsearch13 who played the game in a Barnes & Noble store during the campaign could access special

8 Graph ips Search T

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(Source: Montetate “Retailer’s Guide to SoLoMo”)

Check out 5 SoLoMo-minded SEO strategies at wsm.co/solomoseo13.

features. This is one way brands are building loyalty, increasing visibility, driving traffic to their digital properties and creating selling occasions through the use of SoLoMo.

TECHNICAL Visibility on the SoLoMo Web requires more than creativity. A company’s mobile offerings must also be technically sound and SEO compliant. “Earlier this summer, Google announced changes to its organic algorithm that will result in higher

rankings for sites that comply with its mobile SEO recommendations and lower rankings for sites that do not,” said Brian Klais, founder and CEO of Pure Oxygen Labs. “Until now, the search giant has been fairly forgiving if a website inadvertently sent mobile users to a desktop site or the mobile site homepage.” For brands who quickly adhere to Google’s new guidelines (e.g. don’t use app download interstitials, don’t serve mobile searchers error pages or improperly redirect them to desktop or irrelevant pages, etc.) mobile offers unique opportunities to increase search engine rankings, as well as convert searchers into socially engaged consumers.

STRATEGIC Brands looking to maximize their SoLoMo presence should look beyond creative thinking and compliant technical presences too. The companies leading the way in this new era also strategically socialize content and even look beyond Google. By giving mobile searchers ways to engage with social apps and encourage social sharing, a business, according to Klais, can drive more interaction and create a more relevant and positive connection to its mobile user. Recent studies even show a high correlation between content sharing on social networks and visibility in organic search. The more an enterprise drives mobile-social engagement, the more visible its content becomes for organic brand discovery. This is especially true concerning Facebook Graph Search. For the unfamiliar, Graph Search allows people to discover information based on data that Facebook has collected from its users over time. Once it is rolled out onto mobile, Graph Search will be quintessential SoLoMo. There are multiple location-based features already, including the ability for users to filter by location or distance. If they are not already, brands who want to be visible on the SoLoMo Web must pay attention, and act accordingly, to this feature that could shake up how consumers discover brands on the go. Discover answers for common Facebook Graph Search questions at wsm.co/fbgraphqa. Creative, technical or strategic approaches aside, the real art of mastering visibility on the SoLoMo Web is to adapt a brand’s experience to consumer demands, providing more relevant interactions. As brands embrace SoLoMo features, consumers can move from researching, reviewing and sharing on their smartphones, to converting (buying, subscribing) in one fell swoop or, rather, search.

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OCT OB E R 2013

e- c o m m erce

express

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

PROFESSIONAL OUTLOOK:

THE NEXT 10 YEARS OF AFFILIATE MARKETING Performance marketing has had its up and downs – for

There are those ongoing taxation troubles to consider of course, not to both merchants and affiliates mention the challenge of consumers’ alike – but is there light at the increasing digital shopping sophistication to deal with (perpetual bargain end of this virtual tunnel? Will hunting and “showrooming” being the there even be a “next 10 years” norm today). Many fear that these issues could prevent, or at least limit, of performance marketing? performance-based promotions from reaching their true potential, but is it enough to end the practice altogether? “I don’t think there’s a realistic chance that affiliate marketing will be gone by 2024,” said Tom Demers, co-founder and managing partner of search marketing consultancy Measured SEM. “The fundamental circumstances that make affiliate marketing possible are that there are talented marketers with an audience who don’t have products to sell (or enough of a way to monetize their skills and influence), and that there are companies with products that have healthy margins who want more leads and sales. Neither of those realities is likely to change.” This is good news for both affiliates and merchants alike and should inspire confidence that the practice will be viable in the future. But what will the affiliate marketing landscape look like in the next 10 years and how should savvy brands prepare?

nta h erc 4 M iendly Fr liate i Aff orks w Net

The Merchant Outlook

One of the main reasons that affiliate marketing will stand the test of time is because quite a bit of growth potential remains. Liane Dietrich, chief operating officer of Rakuten Marketing, suggests

te13 o/maffilia @ wsm.c

OCT OB ER 2013

that “A lot of the growth will come through global channels because the pay-for–performance model is ideally suited for companies that want to expand their reach into new markets,” continuing, “Affiliate marketing enables them to test the waters in a new geography without incurring significant overhead by hiring additional full-time staff and renting office space until the market has been proven.” There are still other reasons that affiliate marketing will stand the test of time. Even with a more sophisticated affiliate base and immense potential remaining, merchants will also benefit in the future from deep integrations with other, complementary marketing channels such as search, display, retargeting and product listing feeds. That will greatly benefit all parties — merchants and affiliates — involved. “By bringing these elements together, advertisers will be able to better understand campaign performance across their various channels,” said Dietrich, suggesting that affiliate marketing will likely become part of an integrated digital marketing services offering. “This will result in more effective online marketing strategies, better allocation of budgets and more cohesive teams.” The future isn’t completely rosy however — particularly for the numerous affiliate networks in operation today. “It’s no secret that there’s been a Darwinism of sorts when it comes to the evolution of affiliate marketing,” said Dietrich. She and many others believe that by 2024 there will be an emergence of only a handful of networks driving the industry. These networks will be those that are global in their focus, put affiliates through a rigorous and thorough vetting process, dedicate resources to improve their technology and provide more personalized services to help drive results.

Affiliate Networks with Klout Looking for a guarantee that the affiliate network(s) you have selected will be around in 10 years? Good luck — acquisitions and closures happen regularly in the performance marketing space. There are, however, some

Even with the looming advancements to the practice itself, success is still reliant on the performance marketers (the affiliates) themselves. The Affiliate Outlook

Few argue that the actual practice of affiliate marketing will be the same in the future. The approaches, tactics and techniques employed by performance marketers to drive users to merchant websites (social, search, email and advertising) however, will undoubtedly be different — as will the style of competition. “As Google cracks down on affiliates while moving into a lot of spaces as a player and content creator themselves (paying for content creators via YouTube, making notable acquisitions in travel, car insurance, local reviews and several others) SEO and organic traffic is likely to continue to shrink and shift as an affiliate opportunity,” said Demers. “The underlying model of driving leads and sales for a percentage of revenue won’t change, but the methods used by affiliates will.” Fortunately, growing channels like mobile, Demers suggests, will become even more prolific and easier to monetize as time goes on. The affiliate marketers that are starting to see increased revenue now, and will likely in 2024 as well, are those that are actively developing custom content experiences in the form of mobile applications. The good news is that there is data readily available to inform affiliates about the most potentially rewarding mobile app opportunities. Application intelligence platform Distimo, for example, recently unveiled a new resource that provides download and revenue trends for any application in the Apple App store, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. Armed with that type of information, the affiliate outlook seems bright and it may only get brighter. Today’s consumers expect information presented to them to be acceptable to their digital pallet — accessible (mobile), information rich and meaningful. But it will likely also come down to who’s providing the most innovative, unique and interesting technology experience. It wasn’t that long ago that a strategically placed sponsored link and just a smattering of content on a social network could drive visits (and revenue), but today’s buyers are more critical of the experience they receive. It is the responsibility of affiliates to pursue the tactics, techniques and channels (like mobile) in order to compete in the future. According to Forrester, the affiliate industry is on track to reach $4.5 billion by 2016 and many, despite the plethora

reliable indicators that the networks currently aligned with your brand will be around when it counts. Take for example Klout score, a measurement of “influence” of individuals and brands. Here's how 20 of the largest networks in the world stack up:

of well-documented problems, don’t expect it to slow by 2024 (or at any point in between). In essence, there’s still significant potential for growth. The affiliate marketing landscape will change though — the only question is how. By thinking strategically about the opportunities, developing experiences for consumers that are in demand, and perpetually seeking out new markets and opportunities, the outlook for the performance industry is bright.

OCT OB E R 2013

de s i g n & de v e l o pment

digest

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

PARTY OF THREE SERVING UP SEARCH, USER AND MOBILE FRIENDLY DESIGN Designers and developers

As if that were not complicated enough, mobile websites have been thrown into the mix as a demanding focal point in digital strategy. of catering to end-users As end-users become increasingly vocal while also keeping SEO about the features they prefer, Google and Bing have also been surprisingly forthcoming best practices top-of-mind. about what their search engines expect from mobile websites. In doing so, those companies have proved that many of the same features and functionality their search engines require are on par with what end-users expect and demand. have the unique challenge

1. A speedy experience. Studies have shown that slower loading pages result in higher bounce rates and less engagement. A 2012 Walmart report, for example, found that the overall average website load time was lower for its converted visitors (3.22 seconds) compared to its non-converted visitors (6.03 seconds). Similarly, an Equation Research study found that 40.3 percent of smartphone users are unlikely to revisit a company’s mobile site after being dissatisfied with its performance, while

OCT OB ER 2013

26.8 percent of smartphone users are less likely to make future purchases from the company across any channel. Faster pages receive better search rankings (wsm.co/14y4Cmw), and mobile is no different. The problem, however, is that many responsive websites are delivering the same content that was designed for traditional desktop sites on mobile devices, which results in slow-loading mobile experiences. According to Lorenz Jakober, senior product manager of cloud computing solutions provider Akamai, developers can speed up websites by reducing HTTP requests, total page size (bytes) and accelerating rendering. There are also offerings like Akamai’s Aqua Ion Mobile platform that can help. Aqua Ion is a situational performance solution, providing an integrated suite of delivery, acceleration and optimization technologies, which work to optimize website performance across a wide range of use cases.

2. An uninterrupted experience. Many factors can interrupt website visitors’ experiences, especially on mobile devices. Among the worst offenders are app download interstitials, unplayable videos and faulty redirects. App download interstitials, for instance, are not only disruptive to the user experience, but can also be difficult to navigate. This is especially true when pop-up windows don’t have clear and large exit functions. After all, mobile screens are small and some of us suffer from "fat-finger" syndrome, making it tough to click on a small “X” to close a window. Also guilty of disturbing the user experience are unplayable videos and inaccessible content. Since most smartphones don’t support Flash, many consumers are left wondering why some websites have not adopted another technology. While they are asking themselves that, they are quickly leaving sites in search of digital properties that do cater to their current needs. In the virtual eyes of search engines, serving content that results in page errors, both on the traditional and mobile Web, can be problematic. Errors that interrupt the user experience can lead to a high bouncerate, which indicates to Google and Bing that they did

not serve the best match to the end-user query. Since search engines pride themselves on an ability to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time (earning loyalty in the process), page errors are a direct attack on their digital egos.

3. A desktop experience extension. Most end-users want their mobile experiences to rival the traditional desktop experience, and this is particularly true for consumers that use smartphones as resources during their shopping experiences. Due to this, designers are tasked with transferring the often-robust e-commerce experience on a traditional desktop seamlessly to a variety of mobile devices. As you can imagine, this can be a difficult feat. According to Bobby Emamian, co-founder and CEO of mobile development agency Prolific Interactive, a failure to provide a high-quality shopping experience will result in end-users abandoning their carts and checkout pages. To meet consumers’ expectations, merchants must provide the ability to interact with products

quickly, move through the checkout process effortlessly and access user-generated content while on the go. In the images on the previous page, Nike successfully transforms its desktop experience (image B) to the small screen (image A), providing limited, but direct ways to interact with the “hero” For example, throughout Nike’s mobile customer journey, the options to find a store or get help are consistent and available. There is also sharing functionality built in, so social shoppers can show off the product on popular social networks. The entire experience is intuitive, clean and designed for the device being used. For more brands catering to users and search engines on the go, visit wsm.co/mobilexp13. It is clear to see that all visitors really want from mobile websites are the same features and functionality that they have been expecting from traditional sites for years. Since search engines essentially work for searchers, their site rankings tend to reflect how userfriendly a website really is.

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By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Capturing the hearts, minds and wallets of today’s consumer is a high-stakes fight with clear winners. As both emerging and established companies work to increase their market share, loyalty is a topic echoed throughout the business community. Despite the rise in the availability of information and how digital consumers use it to make purchasing decisions today (e.g. user reviews), the fundamentals of loyalty ultimately have not changed. Customers, whatever they look like to your enterprise, aren’t as complicated as those involved in their company’s Web success make them out to be. Buyers are loyal to brands that anticipate and meet their wants, needs and desires and continually provide them with better products/services than the alternatives. Today’s fast-paced, multi-channel world complicates a simple “golden” concept — give customers experiences you’d want and expect.

OCT OB ER 2013

Choosing to engage with customers today, however, means companies must do so across each of the transactional and advocacy moments in each channel, according to Josh Schiffman, SVP strategy & operations at Xtify, Inc. This requires marketers to identify, map, and act upon engagement opportunities across dozens of “digital” and “physical” channels and interaction points.

THE SOCIAL SHOPPER The Pareto Principle, or the 80-20 rule, tells us that about 80 percent of effects (e.g. revenue) come from only 20 percent of causes (or customers in our case). As digital marketers, website owners and the like, it’s easy to focus only on the acquisition side to generate new business (and profits), but don’t miss out on opportunities to increase revenue over the long term through customer retention initiatives. It’s well-accepted that it costs far more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones, yet KISSmetrics reports that 63 percent of marketers believe new customer acquisition to be their most important advertising goal. To change your thinking about retention as a catalyst for business growth, it’s first essential to evaluate current customers and their sentiments about your brand. Today’s shoppers are social, and they’re actively sharing how they feel about your products/services with others. The question is, are you listening to those conversations? Addressing user compliments and concerns (as well as complaints) is paramount to not only driving conversions, but also sustaining commitment and market share. Leveraging Ratings & Reviews

Pehr Luedtke, general manager of Connections at Bazaarvoice says the best brands are looking through massive datasets and taking the voice of the marketplace as a feedback mechanism (e.g. who likes/dislikes their product the most) and then improving their products based on those insights.

This is an increasingly challenging feat though, as consumers are regularly switching digital channels (from websites to social media to review sites) to obtain, consume and share information, and are using a variety of devices to do so (from desktops to tablets to mobile devices). Working with Bazaarvoice's Conversations solution, is one way to analyze the flood of ratings, reviews, questions and answers around a business. In a visual dashboard, the platform identifies feedback patterns to help companies make smarter decisions in every area of their businesses. The Land of Nod, an upscale children’s furniture store, was an early adopter of using ratings and reviews to uncover potential product improvements. Using Bazaarvoice, they analyzed customer reviews and acted to address problems on products that customers commented on. For example, The Land of Nod customers liked an activity table and rated it 4.8 out of 5 stars on average, with 90 percent of reviewers saying they’d recommend the product to a friend. Once The Land of Nod dug into specific customer comments, however, they learned that the surface of the table had a tendency to get scratched easily. The Land of Nod designers went back to their vendors and through a thoughtful process, re-engineered the tables for greater durability. The Land of Nod contacted reviewers who mentioned the table’s soft surface and offered them a new and improved table — free of charge. The key takeaway from this example is that The Land of Nod makes the most of their brand advocates by acting on their suggestions, further improving customer loyalty. The real shocker is that this took place in 2008. Five years later, most brands are struggling to respond to customer feedback — even those with the resources to do so. The trend is most evident in social media. Making Social Feedback Work

While 97 percent of the Top 100 Interbrand Brands were active on Twitter as of June 2013, only 32 percent had dedicated customer service handles, with 19 percent sending 10

OCT OB E R 2013

Facebook Shopping More than 1 billion consumers are active on Facebook, which could make the popular social network an option to host your e-commerce store. StoreYa is a social commerce platform designed for automatically importing Web stores onto Facebook, having them fully customized to fit both the Facebook arena and the original brand's look and feel. StoreYa’s solutions are designed to take full advantage of Facebook’s social features, as well as to add unique engagement and gamification tools in order to gain more fans, purchases and data. Additionally, StoreYa’s marketing tools are designed to reach out to the fans’ newsfeeds and encourage them to visit the brand’s store, promote specific products virally and convert Web store’s traffic into Facebook fans. In the

or more customer service tweets a day, according to Simply Measured research. Using indicators like average response rate and response time, Simply Measured named the top customer service brand performance, which included @UPSHelp, the Twitter handle for UPS customer support. The UPS approach to social media support is three-fold and can be quickly adapted by almost any brand. First, UPS includes the hours when their customer service Twitter account is staffed. This helps manage user expectations, as for the most part, Twitter users expect real-time responses, regardless of the time of day. Another Twitter tactic to follow that can turn brand detractors into advocates is including pictures and names of the customer support team. This attaches an actual identity to interactions, personalizing an otherwise detached experience. Lastly, UPS responds to feedback, even if it’s just moving the conversation to email. For example, this tweet “It shouldn’t be this difficult to have a package delivered. @Nordstrom and by association @ups are making their way into my bad works” got this response “What’s going on? Email twitter@ups.com with the tracking #, your contact information and the details.” Responding to customer concerns is not a new concept, of course, but in the past, brands could only interact and create memorable experiences at the point of purchase and through product consumption. The opportunities to expose customers to a brand in their purchase lifecycle was limited — but that’s no longer the case. “Now brands have limitless opportunities to interact with consumers through the entire buying decision process via multiple channels and mediums, whether it be in-store, online, via mobile or on social media,” said Alex Gonzalez, CEO and co-founder, Chatalog.

image above, you’ll see AIRWALK’s Facebook store powEncouraging Collaboration

ered by StoreYa. For three f-commerce solutions to like, visit wsm.co/socialstore13.

OCT OB ER 2013

Loyalty is the result of long-term relationship building, and while social media interactions are a good start, savvy brands know it goes beyond that. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer. What questions do they have? Who do they trust? How do they make decisions? What’s important to them?

Give ‘Em a Sale The main point around any flash sale site is words like “exclusive” and “invited.” There’s a membership WebsiteMagazine.com Three flash sales sites to set the bottom line on fire at wsm.co/salesonfire13.

type perspective that users are on a “special” list, so a brand is asking them to come back. Andrew Walker, VP – AtlanticTerritory Practice Lead at Acquity Group says brands can amplify this experience with a personalization element, directing shoppers toward

“Answering these questions pre-digital age was hard, timeconsuming and expensive for brands,” said Gonzalez. “Today all of those answers are out there. Brands can provide resources that answer these questions for their customers and provide tools that enable conversations that help get to the answers.” That’s where alternative social networks like Chatalog come in. The collaborative shopping technology mimics the experience of walking into a physical store (alone or with a friend) and the conversation that occurs with that friend and/or brand representative. Through user-created pages, users can invite friends, family, experts or brands for an open (but private) discussion, share ideas and make informed decisions about online purchases with the people they trust the most — delivering a rewarding and memorable experience.

RELEVANCY MATTERS Rewarding Behavior

The move toward digital engagement with a brand and other users at every step of their purchasing path has also changed what loyalty programs look like today. Discounts and highvalue rewards are effective, but costly. Today, the same result (increased purchases), can be achieved through rewards focused on status and recognition. This, according to Luedtke is because the advent of social gaming has introduced customers to the idea of using gaming to receive incentives. Small wins — e.g. a new level, an extra feature — feel good for consumers. Luedtke says it’s a virtuous cycle where brands create a non-financially based reward system to encourage engagement among users. This is how Step2, a seller of children’s toys and home and garden products, encourages repeat visits. Step2’s “BuzzBoard” rewards parents, typically moms, with points for reviewing products, having followers, getting their reviews voted on as “helpful”, sharing and more. There are different levels of status on Step2.com, including queen bee, super bee, honeybee, busy bee and new-bee, which enables customers to see how their rewards (and loyalty) compare to other users through leaderboards, badges or self-promotion.

areas of the site that are part of their interests. For example, product detail pages and apparel that is similar to what they have purchased in the past. By doing so, the visitor has a sense of “I know this brand. This is familiar and exclusive to me.”

This tactic also gives consumers reasons to return and re-engage with the brand, because they want to know how they are doing compared to their peers. Step2’s strategy works particularly well, because it is audience relevant. A PunchTab study (wsm.co/loyaltymoms13) revealed that 81 percent of moms will engage more with a brand when offered some type of incentive. In addition, the study found that some non-financial compensation, like elite status or early access to products, can also work as behavior motivators for moms. Streamlining the Experience

Many brands are overwhelmed by the demands of digital buyers who expect a shopping experience that is fluid from start to finish and from device to device. Often referred to as “omnichannel,” the strategy touches all of a company’s systems, from marketing and training to order fulfillment and customer service. C. Wonder, a lifestyle brand and retail concept for women, is an early-stage company that has seen the successes and failures of those trying to integrate digital and real-world touchpoints with 20-year-old legacy systems. Its advantage is that its overall ecosystem was built to be cross functional from the beginning. Katherine Bahamonde, CMO and EVP of global ecommerce for C. Wonder has heard that for most companies, omnichannel is a 2016 initiative, realistically. With C. Wonder, the company is addressing omnichannel through its culture, down to employee training. When a new employee is hired on, they are “hit over the head” with omnichannel, including

OCT OB E R 2013

a video on it, as well as training on capturing emails, compensating brick-and-mortar stores for Web sales, etc. There is more to loyalty than streamlining the experience, C. Wonder is also building brand loyalty through traditional techniques like offering gifts to big spenders, creating hand-written notes for regular customers and other “surprise and delight” type gestures. They also plan on rolling out a loyalty card program to incent purchase, but much of their efforts are engaging in local influencer relationships and ties with the blogger community. They have a huge local push with hypertargeted Facebook and Twitter efforts and local events. Concerning its more advanced digital customer experiences, C. Wonder recently moved its site to the hybris e-commerce platform, enabling C. Wonder to provide users with a collaborative, social-driven shopping experience. For example, if a shopper liked a purse on Facebook, then came back to the site in two weeks, and logged in with their Facebook credentials, C, Wonder can display that purse on a home page image. “The social aspects don’t drive loyalty in my opinion, but what is most important is that integration with social media allows the retail to speak directly to a customer,” said Steven Kramer, executive vice president of sales — Americas, hybris. “And that’s what drives loyalty.” While this is one way brands can speak to buyers based on their preferences, there are others. Hybris’s commerce suite offers targeted and relevant content to engage and create brand advocates by automatically segmenting customers. For instance, retailers using hybris can segment by a user’s Platforms that gender, income or past purchase history to personalize their shopPersonalize ping experience. To explain this Check idea further, if a female shopper behigh-pow out these tween, say, 25-35 years old arrived ered pla tforms and start at a site, the products (and even the speak

ing to your cu at wsm.c stomers o/shopp er1

OCT OB ER 2013

Hitting Send on Loyalty PunchTab recently launched its new loyalty application for ExactTarget’s HubExchange, allowing marketers to reward engagement and create loyalty within email. PunchTab App for ExactTarget HubExchange expands the company’s ability to integrate consumer behavior across Web, social, mobile and retail with ExactTarget email, giving marketers a more complete picture of the consumer with information from all components of engagement.

navigational elements, images, prices, etc.) that are shown to her would be different than a male shopper in the same age group. These hyper-personalized experiences can even include a shopper’s interaction with an attendant at a call center, as was the case with hybris customer 3M. For example, when 3M sold plastic surgical gloves, the way they described that product to a nurse versus someone in the construction business who needed plastic gloves had a very different product explanation.

SoLoMo Loyalty Program Leaders Rewarding consumers for positive behaviors (e.g. purchases, social activity, etc.) is a win-win for brands and customers. To take advantage of the many benefits of loyalty and engagement programs, however, companies must transcend paper punch cards to Hybris is one viable option for companies (both B2B and B2C) looking to personalize and streamline their user experience, but far from the only one. OpenText Web Experience Management also helps brands differentiate their market presence from competitors by further personalizing and improving the overall customer experience on their websites. OpenText can facilitate positive relationships with customers before, during and after interactions with persona-based segmentation, as well as its real-time customer insights and analytics functionality to ensure content is compelling for an individual user. If you’re not on the personalization bandwagon quite yet, consider this. Consumers get confused (and irritated) when a mobile website they frequently visit isn’t personalized at all while the desktop site seems to “speak to their needs”. “With little effort, brands now have the opportunity to bring value to their customers when the customers want it most,” said Shiffman. “Personalized brand experiences for websites, apps, and passbook/wallet concepts — using location, customer history and preferences, wrapped in insight, and more — each allow your brand the opportunity to be more relevant and appealing to the consumer. Those brands that stand out in a good way will win the ongoing loyalty battle.” That granular level of personalization is defining today’s loyalty building. By driving relevancy, brands are turning onetime purchasers into repeat ones.

WebsiteMagazine.com

Don’t Miss... 50 top mobile solution providers on page 14 of this issue.

offer comprehensive SoLoMo (social, local, mobile) offerings, as do the four big-name brands discussed here: wsm.co/SoLoMoLoyalty.

ON-THE-GO CONSUMERS Although previously mentioned, it cannot go without repeating that today’s consumers have access to the entire world at any time (via the Internet) in their pocket. Any brand looking to foster a customer journey that builds loyalty better incorporate a strong mobile strategy. Consumer brands can communicate around the clock through email, text, and more importantly, through their apps and mobile websites — making the opportunities for driving loyalty endless. “Mobile is central in this discussion because every channel that was previously ‘digital’ or ‘physical’ has been subsumed or given a different context because of mobile,” said Schiffman. “For example, your customers are now visiting your brand’s website and reading your emails while they wait in line for coffee in the morning. When your customers are in your store, they likely have their smartphone in hand and are multi-tasking. They do the same thing while watching T.V., Netflix or Hulu. “Loyalty used to be about siloed marketers empowered by digital data trying to understand the impact of their own campaigns. Loyalty marketing has since evolved such that brands are thinking about engagement attribution across the multiple channels.” Pushing Notifications

To this end, Xtify has built a platform that allows brands to engage intelligently in each channel and take advantage of the specificities of each. Using Xtify’s push notifications platform for

OCT OB E R 2013

Best Western, Loyalty to Go Investing in today's loyalty programs means bringing compelling content to the user experience through social integration and next-generation mobile offerings. Best Western did both Web and native applications, brands can provide value to their most loyal customers further moving them to advocacy. Creating a great experience for your customers when they visit your mobile websites is an excellent way to create brand loyalty. Xtify’s Web-based push notifications provide marketers with the ability to use what they know about their anonymous (and credentialed site visitors) in conjunction with other cues to dynamically present contextually relevant content and offers in real time. “Web pushes” that convey meaningful information are a key component to creating a Web experience that your advocates will cherish and promote.

when it leveraged Usablenet - learn more at wsm.co/bestwloyalty.

Digby, which helps retailers achieve their omnichannel goals, has its own take on real-time engagement, using real-world locations from a consumer’s mobile device. Digby Localpoint pairs location detection with a contextual engagement engine and best-of-breed notification capabilities to help make branded mobile applications more intelligent, relevant and engaging. We are at a turning point in mobile marketing, suggests David Sikora, Digby’s CEO & founder. “Before, rich apps were treated as an extension of mobile commerce and the capabilities for personalization were limited. Now, industry leaders are providing right place, right-time engagement that is triggered by activities of the app user in the real world. This next generation of mobile marketing will bring relevancy and value to marketer and consumer alike.”

THE DESTINATION

Burger King Delivers Food, Loyalty Initiatives Burger King’s technology, mobile and loyalty programs are fueling its growth and relevance in the digital age — learn more at wsm.co/bkloyalty.

OCT OB ER 2013

Building loyalty is truly a rewarding approach where the journey does matters. “Brands build loyalty by developing meaningful and memorable relationships with their customers,” said Gonzalez of Chatalog. “It’s the feeling of importance when you walk into a store with your friends or family and a brand representative goes out of his or her way to provide you with a great experience. It’s the time she took to listen to you, built a relationship with you and personalize your overall experience based on that conversation. This collaboration can now be taken online and enhance the relationship between the brand and the customer — ultimately driving long-term brand loyalty.”

SOCIAL MEDIA

M AV E N S

3 Ways to Battle the

GREAT SOCIAL MEDIA WASTE By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

Coca-Cola has 61.5 million-plus fans on Facebook, but despite winning the social media popularity contest, the brand found that the online chatter it receives produces no measurable impact on short-term sales. What makes your company any different? Many companies are increasing the amount of time and resources they spend engaging with fans and followers via their social channels. The problem, however, is that their efforts typically fall short in meeting performance expectations, as fan numbers and post-engagement metrics don’t necessarily correlate to website traffic and sales. In fact, a recent Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report reveals that email and search still drive far more conversions and referrals than social media. It would be irresponsible, however, to simply let all of your social planning and efforts go to waste. After all, there are still a few things that social networks are still good for, including: 1. Marketplace Insights

Many of the social tools that brands are already using can actually reveal a lot about the wants and needs of the audiences that they are targeting. Listening platforms like Visible Intelligence, for example, analyze hundreds of thousands of online conversations in order to deliver unique insights to the brands leveraging their services. These insights can be used for a variety of business purposes, including competitive analysis, market research, crisis identification and marketing measurement. “Our solution is about business impact,” said Visible Technologies CEO Rich Pasewark. “It’s wonderful to know where things are trending on Twitter, but it’s more important to know what those trends signify for a brand and what decisions can be made about spending, marketing or communications to support business goals.” For instance, if a pet store merchant discovers that most petrelated social conversations revolve around the topics “puppies”, “training” and “dog parks”, the merchant can leverage this information to shape his or her advertising and content strategies. One example could be a merchant who decides to run a special on training classes and invest more resources into a marketing campaign to promote this initiative. Likewise, the merchant could focus more blog content on puppies, which will not only resonate better with the audience, but also help SEO initiatives. 2. Brand Awareness

It’s a good idea to closely monitor the time you put into social, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect having a presence on these sites altogether. According to Andy Price, founder of 1000tshirts.co, social posts can still increase your brand’s visibility, despite their lack of impact on immediate conversions.

“Companies are spending time in social media because it’s a way to generate awareness with your clients,” said Price. “It's probably not the best way to convert potential clients to actual paying customers; nevertheless, there are always a number of followers that are interested in what you have to say.” Think about it this way, it is ideal for merchants to place their brick-and-mortar stores in high-traffic locations. You can’t expect the majority of cars that drive by to stop into the store, but most of the cars will at least see the store as they pass by, and therefore know a little bit about it — such as its name, industry and location. Thus, having a presence in a high-trafficked digital area (like Facebook) increases brand awareness, too. 3. Customer Service

The greatest aspect of social media is that it provides brands with a direct connection to their audiences. That said, many brands don’t take advantage of this benefit. In fact, Socialbakers reports that companies on Facebook are ignoring 70 percent of their fans. According to Charles Meadows, assistant professor of public relations at St. Andrews University, the fact that social media provides a symmetric (two-way) channel for brands to communicate with their audiences on, is what sets it apart from marketing channels like email and search. “One of the top reasons companies engage in social media is that it provides a unique opportunity to establish dialogic communication between company representatives and various publics,” said Meadows. “Unlike other forms of marketing, social media provides a great platform for connecting with consumers, maintaining positive relationships and strengthening brand loyalty.” Minimizing the Waste

Looking at the big picture, the only way to minimize the waste of social media is to redefine the role it plays in your business. While it is still okay to nurture your leads through this channel, it will likely better suit your company not to make social your sole marketing focus. After all, optimizing channels that are proven to provide a better ROI is surely a better use of your enterprise’s valuable resources.

OCT OB E R 2013

A F F I L I AT E I N S I D E R

By Alex Forsch, U.S. Country Manager at Affiliate Window

and rewarded for sales generated via phone. Thanks to new vendor partnerships existing within the performance channel, this is no longer the case.

Money Talks

Money Talks Using Phone Calls to Monetize Affiliate Traffic It is easy for e-commerce specialists to forget that more than 9 in every 10 dollars in the U.S. is spent offline. Forrester estimates that online sales account for only 7 percent of all retail sales, yet consumers recognize that better deals are available online. Choosing between myriad retailer offers is now just simpler and quicker online.

Fortunately, call-tracking solutions (not a new concept in the affiliate space but certainly under-utilized) may provide the answer. These solutions offer digital marketers with opportunities to bridge the often-massive gap, making their performance-based online marketing efforts a meaningful channel for offline conversions.

From Leakage to Leverage Affiliate networks have traditionally advised advertisers not to display phone numbers on their sites, wary of affiliate traffic “leakage” and lost recognition for driving sales. Call-tracking solutions, whether managed by an affiliate network or by the merchant directly, will dynamically serve telephone numbers unique to the affiliate who refers a customer to a retailer’s site. These numbers direct a potential customer to the advertiser’s call center, and the affiliate is credited either for the call itself (on a cost-per-call basis, with a call duration specified as the condition for the call to become payable) or the resulting sale (on a standard CPA). What’s unsurprising is the demand for such a solution among those selling more complex items. Cruises.com’s research indicates 85 percent of its cruises are booked over the phone. But it’s not just big-ticket items. A Harris Interactive poll found that 40 percent of shoppers wanted help even when buying smaller products like software and electronic equipment. Where this assistance is not available, the impact on the bottom line is significant, with Harris also finding 52 percent of basket abandonments attributable to customers having difficulty contacting someone about their purchases. The good news is that most retailers have the necessary infrastructure in place. In fact, the IAB estimates that 64 percent of advertisers already use telephone and call centers to convert leads. Unfortunately, affiliate marketers have traditionally lacked a technology solution allowing them to be recognized

OCT OB ER 2013

The versatility of a call-tracking solution makes it relevant for all publisher activity, whether the numbers are used in paid search ads, site abandonment-triggered remarketing emails, or to boost conversion from blogs and other content-based sites. These tactics have significant influence over purchase decisions, but can never answer each particular customer question. Call tracking also gives affiliates the opportunity to convert ROPO (research online, purchase offline) consumers before they step outside their front doors.

Making the Most of Mobile There is a particular opportunity for publishers with access to mobile traffic: an audience of consumers who increasingly turn to their mobile phones to search for products/services. Despite the increase of mobile-driven traffic, too few retailers have alleviated the friction associated with mobile purchases by developing m-commerce sites in order to overcome below-network average conversion rates and cart values for mobile-driven transactions (with the exception of the iPad). Particularly for those merchants who still rely on desktop sites to translate to mobile phones, call-tracking solutions help to mitigate this problem by avoiding the need for a customer to transact onsite via a smaller screen device. Mobile consumers display an especially high level of purchasing intent, because their location is a key factor in determining where they purchase. Additionally, placing a call to purchase is usually a sign of urgency, as a customer is demanding further consultation on a service or seeking order confirmation. Finally, call-tracking solutions enable performance marketing to expand to the offline environment. Using unique phone numbers, affiliates can explore opportunities to monetize billboard, TV or radio ads by directing their audience to call rather than click. Again, in the offline world, placing a call is easier to do than taking out a Web-enabled device, navigating to a site and clicking-through to buy. Despite certain challenges in the use of call-tracking solutions (particularly in tracking orders from cashback and loyalty affiliates back to the individual member), the major advantage of integrating call tracking into an affiliate program is that it monetizes more traffic. At the current rate of growth, online sales will remain only a fraction of those generated offline for years to come, but call-tracking solutions provide online shoppers with another way to transact, and online marketers another route through which to run performance-based campaigns.

INSIGHTS

O N A N A LY T I C S

What You Don’t Know About…

Google Analytics

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

It’s not uncommon for ‘Net professionals to gravitate to the features most useful or appealing to their specific role when it comes to the use of software — particularly analytics solutions. Periodically exploring the new, or perhaps less-used, features of these software systems could ensure that the one data point that could change the course of a campaign, a brand or a business for the better, doesn’t escape notice. Google Analytics is hands down the most popular (in terms of usage) Web analytics system on the market today (BuiltWith reports that nearly half of the top 1 million websites use the solution), but millions of Web workers likely aren’t getting the full value from the insights it contains about their digital initiatives. In this edition of Website Magazine’s Insight on Analytics column, follow along to discover a few recent (and important) updates that you may not yet know about Google Analytics. Content and Conversion in Real-Time: A relatively recent addition to the analytics platform, Google’s Real-Time data is a content marketer’s dream. Accessing the feature provides an immediate indication about the pages users are currently active on, where users are geographically located, and how many are accomplishing both events and goals. It’s realtime and it’s real important that ’Net professionals keep an eye on this feature moving forward, as that data will likely be accessible in any number of marketing optimization and automation platforms in the near future. Google recently introduced a Real-Time API that enables developers to make queries about the real-time data it provides, using that information in ways that offer some direct and immediate benefit to site owners. For example, since it’s possible to obtain the top-visited URLs, it’s possible to build a widget showing where readers are on a website at any given time. Google provided the example of Twiddy.com, a vacation rental company that tested adding a real-time metric like active visitors to landing pages in order to impart a sense of urgency and demonstrate demand for a product (integrating with an e-commerce cart through a custom implementation). Using the tactic resulted in increased revenue of 18.6 percent, an average order value (AOV) boost of 11.9 percent and a conversion rate lift of 7.9 percent. It’s hard to ignore that paying real attention to real-time data proves beneficial. Connect and Optimize: Another interesting aspect of

Google Analytics that often goes unnoticed is its deep integration with other Google services — namely, Adwords. Google’s recent release of enhanced campaigns serves as only the most recent example as the advertising offering’s data has long been integrated with the analytics platform. Enhanced campaigns leverage signals like location, time of day and the device (as well as

its capabilities) to deliver users context-friendly advertising and make campaigns more successful for advertisers. What Google Analytics can reveal thanks to a deeper integration, and rather easily, is data on the performance of specific bid adjustments. For example, an advertiser may notice that conversions increase on the weekends, and through analytics, will be able to understand on what specific day and on what device — all the way down to the keyword level. Using the new feature over time will provide advertisers an opportunity to spend less on customers and instances that don’t convert and more on those that do. Separate and Segment: Likely one of the most common

activities for Google Analytics users is exploring specific sets and even subsets of user traffic — for example, organic traffic or visits with conversions. The previous segments available in Google Analytics served users quite well but the capabilities have recently been amped up and the “reimagined” approach will likely be well received by both analysts and marketers alike. In addition to a fresher and more logical UI, major changes to Google Analytics segmentation capabilities include the ability to create custom segments to track users and their behaviors across multiple sessions. It is a very robust feature that warrants greater attention. Google Analytics is by far one of the most popular solutions on the market today to help ‘Net professionals understand what’s happening with users and on their websites. These new features are certainly powerful and will prove useful to the sophisticated digital enterprise: those that care about what specific groups of users are doing, how/when they are doing it and to what effect.

WebsiteMagazine.com Stay up to date on all the latest Google Analytics features, and discover strategies for measuring the digital performance of any type, in Analytics Insider channel at wsm.co/InsightsOnAnalytics.

OCT OB E R 2013

EMAIL EXPERIENCE

By Daryl Logullo, Kellyco Metal Detectors

DRIVING EMAIL REVENUE

Through Dynamic Targeting & Segmentation Email marketing, and the revenue that ultimately results from it, is one of the most overlooked areas of online performance. Just like in life, sometimes the best solutions are the most obvious. Let’s open the email marketing hood, identify and execute the strategies that will drive major revenue increases. The days of pressing send for bulk-and-blast email to support your online sales are over. The practice damages deliverability, increases complaints, raises bounce rates and can cripple an email program overnight. This is where dynamic targeting and segmentation save the virtual day.

mail merge. The biggest benefit is that tailored messaging almost forces subscriber engagement, invoking natural human curiosity by speaking directly to a subscriber’s interests. With the bulk of email people receive today, dynamic content is proving crucial. 2. Utilize Personalization vs. Bulk Blasting

1. Leverage Dynamic Content vs. Static Creatives

Email Testing Showdow n

Comp are tw strate o testing wsm.c gies at o/em easur e

Nearly every email service provider (ESP) allows dynamically generated content on an individual subscriber level rather than static messaging. With a recipient list of 100,000, for example, marketers have the ability to deliver 100,000 custom-tailored creative messages. Until recently, of course, this required complicated programming within the ESP’s platform. Today, most ESPs have robust UIs with drag-and-drop visual associations that make it as simple as a

OCT OB ER 2013

Dynamic content, coupled with subscriber personalization, lets brand campaigns be more relevant. For example, if an opt-in form collects first name, last name and email address, marketers could add a new zip-code field to use this for savvy messaging like, “Daryl, how’s your gift shopping in South Charlotte?” That’s a highly effective subject line with practically guaranteed engagement. 3. Create Deep Segmentation

Segmenting recipients is not only one of the fastest ways to drive additional sales from house file lists, but the practice also turns average email administrators into in-demand marketers. It takes tactical thinking and planning, but once it’s done, you can set it and

forget it. Automation features inside an ESP such as data filters, triggers, APIs and auto-refresh functionality put this on autopilot, and make it far simpler than five years ago. Consider segmenting your list by: a. Heuristic Behaviors: New-to-File Names, Last Open, Last Click Each of the aforementioned behaviors/actions (when did they opt in, last open or last click) merit an entirely different plan to increase engagement. For example, a new subscriber hasn’t had the chance to engage by opening a message yet. As a result, the send frequency needs to be different for new-to-file subscribers versus those who recently opened. Similarly, the sending pattern would be entirely different (more frequent) for someone recently clicking an email.

holdout testing come into play (see email testing showdown on page 34 for a more in-depth explanation). What about all the names acquired that did not produce revenue, or resulted in low clicks or opens? This is when reactivation should be used. Reactivation initiatives — or reengagement campaigns — should be done separately from your current ESP. For example, hire a small ESP and park aged and unengaged names with them to avoid potential inbox deliverability issues. Via API programming, determine whether the names re-engage by querying opens or clicks on the subscriber level and then automatically move the name from the “reactivation ESP” to the main ESP. This compartmentalization gives precise data to analyze without the risk of ruining your deliverability with your main ESP and is especially important with the proliferation of spam traps and honey pots with aged names.

b. Segmenting Buckets: Leads vs. Current-Year Customers vs. Prior-Year Customers Three separate segments or “buckets” of subscribers could include: (1) Subscribers who opted in but haven’t converted are tagged as “leads” (typically acquired via a homepage opt-in form or lead-gen landing pages). (2) Current-year customers are subscribers who bought/transacted within the last 12 months. (3) Prior-year customers are subscribers who last purchased prior to the previous 12-month window. These individual segments let marketers create three unique mail streams (but obviously require three different creatives and demand separate send frequencies). The advantage, however, is that it provides an opportunity to set strategy by managing a promotional calendar, controlling inbox frequency, and cutting unsubscribes and complaints so the contracted email volume with an ESP does not go over the limit — saving your enterprise both time and money.

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What’s the value of one email address? This info reveals what your enterprise is willing to spend to acquire another. This valuation is most commonly done using lifetime value modeling (LTV), where the name is forecasted over a time horizon collecting future cash flows (sales), and then discounting in today’s dollars to determine allowable cost per acquisition (CPA). However, is a name acquired for $0.25 versus $5 less valuable? This is where comp segment analysis and

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OCT OB E R 2013

S O F T WA R E E V E RY W H E R E

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Share-Worthy Tools for Content Marketers Content marketing took the digital world by storm but few ’Net professionals are able to determine how it actually differs from what they’ve been engaged in their entire career. The Web is also creating a new group of enterprising Web workers who know the value of content but aren’t sure how to start.

What is needed for both groups is an in-depth look at what content marketing is (and isn’t), the issues companies are facing when leveraging it, the tools available to increase productivity, production and promotion of said content and what to expect in this rapidly changing space.

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

Flying Blind

Managing Time — Available for Web, desktop or mobile, the Toggl time-tracking application lets users type in what they are working on and start a timer. When they are finished with that particular task (e.g. content research), they simply hit stop and start the next task (e.g. content production). Users can be as specific as they want to be, for instance, “Interview for Software Everywhere Column” or simply “Article Interview.” Employees can see a daily breakdown to see how their time was spent. Similarly, freelancers can assign billing codes/rates and create invoices with Toggl’s integration with FreshBooks.

The concept of providing consumers with branded messaging that puts their needs, wants and desires before the brand, is not new. “While content has been a factor of marketing endeavors for quite some time, the term 'content marketing' hasn’t really entered our vernacular until the last few years,” said Karen Budell, chief content officer at Imagination, a custom content agency. “Content marketing is about providing informational and educational content designed to help solve a customer's or prospect's pain points, and distributing it in a way and in channels that meet a user's needs and preferences.” Companies clearly understand the importance of using branded marketing material to influence users and drive response across channels. According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than 85 percent of B2B and B2C brands use this tactic. Many, however, are flying blind. Digital marketing company iMakeNews, Inc. (IMN) reported in July 2013 that less than half of businesses have set formal content marketing strategies. “Putting channel-specific strategies in place, having adequate resources to develop content that marketers will be proud of and utilizing basic program tools, such as editorial calendars, are key for marketers to work on as they fine-tune their content marketing programs,” said IMN Editorial Director Craig Fitzgerald in a company statement. The digital world is overflowing with offerings (e.g. software, tools, platforms, etc.) to help novice and pro content marketers stay productive and produce and promote content.

OCT OB ER 2013

Creating content can be time intensive, from conducting research and interviews to writing (and rewriting), and editing. What’s more, content can always be “better” — more informative, more clever, “tighter” — resulting in hours of, sometimes, unnecessary tweaking.

Collaborating — Content creation is a team sport,

which is why Yammer, a private social network acquired by Microsoft in mid-2012 is a viable option for content creation teams. It can help coworkers connect to each other, share information and organize projects to improve efficiency. Website Magazine editors use Yammer to alert each other when an article is ready for the other’s review, when there are certain coverage areas to focus on, when there are changes to our style guide (a set of standards for editing) or an editor needs inspiration/help with a headline or topic. Taking Notes — Inspiration can happen while

watching the morning news or taking an evening stroll and it's important to “take note” when inspiration strikes. With Evernote, content marketers can create and edit notes, as well as record audio messages to store content ideas for future inspiration. They can also be synced across devices and integrated with If This Then That (IFTTT) to set

“recipes,” allowing Evernote to automate tasks (e.g. if a user saves an article, then it’s automatically sent to a notebook in Evernote for future reference).

PRODUCTION SOLUTIONS Limited resources is a problem for many companies looking to produce content for acquisition and retention purposes, because they don’t have the staff or the knowledge in-house to do what can seem like an overwhelming task — creating unique, thought- and actionprovoking material. Luckily, there are myriad tools to help in the production process, many of which are free. Researching — The Google Keyword Tool has been a mainstay in content development, as it allows writers to recognize good opportunity keywords that can be incorporated within content to maximize visibility. Google, however, is phasing out the external Keyword Tool in place of its new Keyword Planner, which is only accessible through an AdWords account. For alternatives, see Website Magazine’s “Big List of FREE Keyword Tools” at wsm.co/keywordtools13. Writing — A blank document can be a writer’s best friend or his or her worst enemy, depending on how fast or slow their creative juices are flowing. An application like Prompts, can spark inspiration with its more than 1,000 starting lines and writing prompts. Or, if creating titles is a problem in your organization, the Web-based title maker from Portent Interactive can turn a drab headline such as “Content Marketing Tools” and make it share-worthy, “How Content Marketing Tools Make the Web a Better Place”, “How to Build an Empire with Content Marketing Tools” or “What the World Would Be Like If Content Marketing Tools Didn’t Exist”. Editing — Establishing an editing workflow so that at least two sets of discerning eyes are on each piece of content is an integral part of content development. In addition, companies should consider letting solutions such as InboundWriter be part of their editing processes. Users simply copy and paste a document into InboundWriter and add a few descriptive phrases. Then, InboundWriter scans the Web and analyzes hundreds of websites that contain relevant content about the topic. Marketers can edit and improve their content with InboundWriter’s suggested terms and follow certain tips to improve their score (the value InboundWriter assigns to a document to determine how well it’s optimized for readers, search engines and social media).

Go Organic Discover 11 SEO tips for content optimization at wsm.co/contentseo13

Content Marketing Toolbox

PROMOTION OFFERINGS The production stage is generally where the bulk of a writer’s time is spent, but a promotional strategy is equally important. After all, the only way content counts is if your target audience sees it.

Forty-plu support s solutions to conten are avail t initiatives wsm.co/ able at cmtoolb ox

Getting Coverage — When busi-

nesses develop thought-leadership material, including in-depth research papers with sharable statistics, media outlets may notice and repurpose the content. Press release wires cast a wide net. Check out 10 free press release distribution sites at wsm.co/prwires2012. Recommending — Marketers can drive engagement and acquire traffic with Outbrain, which recommends their articles, mobile and video content on their sites and on premium publisher sites to expose it to highly engaged audiences. Encouraging Discussion — Give a reader a comment section and someone is sure to leave their opinions (good or bad). Disqus and IntenseDebate are commenting systems, which provide website functionality to increase visitor engagement and encourage additional user-generated content on each post. Find out if Disqus or IntenseDebate is the better choice at wsm.co/WPComment. Managing Links — It may not seem daunting, but

link management is a manual and often laborious task. LinkSmart can automate link management and help increase page views per visit and reduce bounce rate by driving readers to high-value content. For example, Website Magazine has 12 main coverage areas (wsm.co/wmchannels). With LinkSmart, anytime mobile is mentioned, an in-content link automatically appears, linking that word to our Mobile World channel (wsm.co/mobileworld13), which has similar news and content.

Hold on Tight In just the last year alone, content marketing has accelerated at a pace many enterprises are struggling to match. Budell, of Imagination, believes there is more to come. “I think marketing automation tools will continue to increase our ability to personalize messages, making content more relevant and useful for the user,” said Budell. “I see marketers relying on data even more to inform their decisions about content topics, type and distribution. I also see user-generated content becoming a bigger part of the story as there are rich insights to be mined from those comments and conversations, and that can inform not only future content opportunities but also things like product enhancements, line extensions and even branding.”

OCT OB E R 2013

W E B H O S T I N G PA N E L

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

It’s Time to Dump Your Web Host Most Internet professionals don’t give their choice of Web hosting a second thought — at least not until something goes wrong. A rather severe outage at several popular Web hosting providers including HostGator, BlueHost, JustHost and HostMonster in July 2013 brought the issue into greater focus, but there are often subtle warning signs that it may be time to dump your Web host well before your digital heart gets broken.

IT’S SLOWER THAN SLOW

fact asking my Web technician if she would recommend we switch ISPs.” And that’s just how quickly Web hosting companies can find themselves without clients. “We’ve had to move hosts before just because pages took much too long to load there, compared to other hosts,” said Tom Bowen, founder of Web Site Optimizers. “This can be due to their Web server or because of their database server. If a host has issues only rarely, that might be one thing, but if it seems to be happening repeatedly, it's time to start looking for something better.” There’s little tolerance for slow response times — whatever the reason. Jeff Kear, co-owner of PlanningPod.com had a nightmare scenario a few years ago when his hosting provider didn’t take five Check out action to fix an outage until 14 hours after the fact. easure “We run a software as a service for creative tools to m e spons re e it s b e professionals and have global clients, so if our w times at service is down any time, our customers can't run e brespons e /w o their businesses,” said Kear. “On this occasion our .c m ws server went down at 1 a.m. mountain time. We started calling our hosting company shortly thereafter, and after multiple calls and emails we reached someone who could not fix the issue until the day shift came in. So we waited and waited until it was finally fixed.” Kear and PlanningPod fired the hosting company a few weeks later and made sure to hire a company that had true 24-hour support. Accord“Overall, I have been extremely pleased with HostGator availability, support and price but ing to Kear, “They are more expensive and worth am disappointed they do not have some kind of server backup or redundancy set up so every penny.” that sites can be up and running within minutes of an outage while the issue is being fixed.” A better support experience in this scenario — Stan C. Kimer, president of Total Engagement Consulting might have kept Kear and his websites as clients of the hosting company, emphasizing just how im“People that signed up for their Web hosting years ago and continue to pay high prices have portant a knowledgeable support team can be. no idea that they could pay far less, somewhat less or a similar amount and get a huge leap There are obviously other signs that it’s time to in performance. They have been paying a recurring subscription and didn't realize price switch your Web host, but measuring website repoints had shifted so much.” sponse times should be the first practice you en— Annette Walker, co-founder of Astonish Inc. gage in if you’re thinking about making a switch. Downtime happens — it’s a digital fact of life — even for those with a five-9 assurance in their service level agreement (SLA). In many ways today it is actually expected by Web hosting consumers (e.g. in the case of planned outages for maintenance) and you can tell quite a bit about a company just by watching how they handle those situations. Most often however, hosting customers suffer from something that while less noticeable is equally (if not far more) damaging to a brand. The most common complaint from those considering breaking up with their Web hosting provider is that the response time, the length of time it takes to fully load a page in a user’s browser, is simply too long. “While my current provider offers very high levels of customer service and the rates are competitive, my page load times have been terrible since a recent change to their network,” said Realtor Karri Flatla of RE/MAX Real Estate in Alberta, Canada. “As a busy real estate agent whose key competitive edge is a modern and interactive Web presence, I simply can't afford to annoy even a handful of my online viewers. Just today I was in

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OCT OB ER 2013

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QUOTED

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