10 Local SEM Dos & Donts

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS

SEPTEMBER 2016 WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

Optimizing the

EMAIL
EXPERIENCE
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
Web Design for the
Millennial Mindset
Passport to
Selling Internationally
Loss-Aversion Principles
for Product Pages

PLUS
TOP 50
e
om a in Nam
D ions
Extens
 Optimizing the

EMAIL
EXPERIENCE
Email can be the connective tissue between all marketing and customer experi-
ence initiatives. Those who avoid its regular use, however, do so at their own
peril. If enterprises are serious about Net success, then now is the time to
optimize the email experience by taking a look at the channels ecosystem and
preparing their brands for a better response from future campaigns.

THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE

Holiday Email Association Management
Metrics to Track Now Software in Focus
The gift-giving season is fast approach- Membership has its privileges for both or-
ing, and brands would be wise to evaluate ganizations and users, but the right tech-
these specific metrics to understand cur- nology is needed to manage marketing,
rent and potential performance. audience, money and more.

Mobiles Role in Tomorrows News Feed

Customer Journey Optimization Strategies
Every sensible retailer is optimizing their With ever-declining organic reach, rank-
website for mobile, but the truly savvy ing on social media networks is taking on
ones are taking advantage of emerging more SEO-like characteristics and some
innovations on the channel. of the same rules apply.

Theories of Persuasive Quality vs. Quantity

Product Pages in Website Testing
Modern life requires consumers make Its difficult to talk about testing without
hundreds of complicated decisions daily. hearing about a company that tests every-
Ease shoppers burdens by using anchor- thing. Even if that was true, they often fail to
ing and loss-aversion principles. take into account the quality of the tests.

EXPLORE WEBSITE MAGAZINES DEPARTMENTS GET THE

Net Briefs: Small Business Lab: DIGITAL SCOOP
ROI Struggles, Hiring Bots & More Content Marketing for the SMB Check out Website Magazines
email newsletters covering search,
Stat Watch: E-Commerce Express: e-commerce, social, design and
Email Experience for Everyone Fundamentals of Selling Internationally more at wsm.co/webscoop.
Quiz Time: Design & Development:
Conversions are for Optimizers UX for Millennials
Enterprise Ready: Mastering Search:
Intro to Tra-Digital Advertising Local SEM Dos & Donts
Top 50: Web Commentary:
Domain Name Extensions High-Tech Visas
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 From the
EDITOR
The Magazine for Website Success
Reaching the largest audience of

Email Optimization and Web professionals of any Internet

industry publication

the Digital Experience 999 E. Touhy Ave. Des Plaines, IL 60018

Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518
International: 1.773.628.2779
Fax: 1.773.272.0920
Theres been one constant and incredibly consistent channel in the realm
of digital marketing. While there have been significant innovations in its
virtual lifespan, and as many setbacks as experienced Web professionals
can imagine, email remains a dominant force on the Net today.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
What is unique about email is that in many ways it is the perfect bal-
Peter Prestipino
ance between the technical and the creative. Web professionals use the peter@websitemagazine.com
email channel not only to communicate essential information, but also
to engage their audience, build loyalty and drive revenue. The savviest
enterprises are well aware of its potential and are continuing to invest in it MANAGING EDITOR:
heavily even as the ecosystem itself is evolving quickly and dramatically. Amberly Dressler
In this issue of Website Magazine, readers will get a close-up look at how adressler@websitemagazine.com
email can be the connective tissue between all of their marketing and cus-
tomer experience initiatives. If enterprises are serious about Net success,
then now is the time to start optimizing the email experience, mastering *CONTRIBUTORS:
the intricacies of the channels ecosystem, and preparing their brands for a Joe Whyte
better response and improved performance from their future campaigns. Travis Bliffen
Amit Bhaiya
In addition to the insights and experience-driven wisdom shared in the Miriam Ellis
feature article of this months edition of Website Magazine, readers will also EJ McGowan
have access within these pages to important technology, tips and trends, Dan Engel
including practical guidance and insights on mobiles role in the customer Marty Greif
Jason Hickey
journey, developing persuasive product pages, social news feed optimiza-
tion strategies, website testing and more. This issue also includes useful
information on digital best practices, such as tips on content marketing
GRAPHIC DESIGNER:
for small and medium-sized businesses, selling internationally, millennial-
Shannon Rickson
focused design, local search marketing, as well as a list of 50 of the most shannon@websitemagazine.com
popular new generic top-level domains.
As always, we hope you enjoy this issue and join us on the Web where
our editors and experienced contributors share their insights into the tech- ADVERTISING:
nologies, tactics and techniques that are helping todays enterprises achieve Brian Wallace
Net success. brian@websitemagazine.com

Best Web Wishes,

SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Sandra Woods
sandra@websitemagazine.com
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

Website Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 9, September 2016, (ISSN#

CONVERSIONS FOR ALL
Whether you operate in the e-commerce, information publishing or service provider space,
1942-0633) is published 12 times a year, January through Decem-
ber by Website Services, Inc., 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines,
IL 60018. Periodicals Postage Paid at Des Plaines, IL and at ad-
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to Website Magazine, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018.

your company relies on conversions to pay the rent. With so much forethought from end-users
these days, however, actual sales can be more difficult to come by if the right steps and solu-
tions arent put into place to propel people forward during and after their research phase. Join
us next month when we cover conversion optimization tips and tech for your Net enterprise.
Canada Post: Please send undeliverable items to: 2835 Kew
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Copyright 2016 by Website Magazine. All rights reserved. Materi-
als may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written
permission. For reprints of any article, contact the editor.
*The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those
of Website Magazine.

www.WebsiteMagazine.com
 Submit to the 2016 MobileWebAwards.
Are you the best of the best? The Web Marketing Association invites
you to enter your groundbreaking mobile sites, responsive sites and
mobile apps to the 5th annual MobileWebAwards. Get started at
www.mobile-webaward.org.

DEADLINE: SEPT 30, 2016

 Net
BRIEFS

MARKETING NEWS

Horizontal Pins for the Win

Pinterest is fast becoming a network of secondary importance,
but there are some tricks that social media marketers can lever-
age to improve their performance. The once-darling of the digital
world recently published a guide on how to create better Pins by
re-purposing content from other networks. What they revealed
was that pins with taller vertical aspects performed better than
$ WHO GOT PAID
horizontal Pins. Easy enough, right?

Follow Website Magazine on Pinterest and access our

visual boards for e-commerce, search, social media and $4.83 Billion
more at pinterest.com/websitemagazine. Verizon announced in July that
it would acquire Yahoo for $4.83
billion in cash.

Marketers Still Struggling

to Measure Social ROI $9.3 Billion
Oracle has entered a definitive
Sixty-one percent of social marketers say measuring the return agreement to buy NetSuite,
on investment (ROI) of their social media efforts was their num- which its founder already had
ber-one challenge according to Simply Measureds The 2016 a majority stake in, for approxi-
State of Social Marketing report. Securing budgets and resources mately $9.3 billion.
ranked a distant second (38.2 percent), followed by connecting
social to business goals (33.6 percent). The data also revealed
less than one-tenth (9.4 percent) of the social marketers surveyed
$130 Million
User-generated content curator
were able to adequately quantify revenue resulting from social.
Olapic has been acquired for
$130 million by Massachusetts-

Mobile Catapults
based Monotype, the self-pro-
claimed company behind type.
Earnings for Facebook
One data point from Facebooks recent earnings announcement $105 Million
has everyone talking. A staggering 84 percent of the companys Enterprise social technology
revenue in Q2 was the result of its mobile advertising efforts, up solution Sprinkler announced it
two percentage points from Q1 and eight percentage points from has received $105 million in new
the same period a year earlier. Facebooks mobile advertising, which funding, bringing the companys
appears on Facebook, Instagram and its Audience Network, gener- total funding to $239 million
(with a $1.8 billion valuation).
ated $5.2 billion in the quarter.
 TECH UPDATES
Tech Workers
Take It to the Bank
Technology salaries in the U.S. saw the single largest year-over-year
increase in 2015, up 7.7 percent to $96,370 annually according to
the recently released annual salary survey by Dice. The wage hikes
paint a picture of an overall solid environment for technology pro- Bots for HR
fessionals with 62 percent earning higher salaries in 2015.
FirstJob recently launched a recruiting as-
sistance called Mya, and it could show what
Detect & Eliminate the future of hiring looks like. The human

Digital Adversaries resource bot will use machine learning and

natural-language processing to ask questions
Accenture and security solution Endgame have created a threat and verify qualifications of applicants. Mya
hunting as-a-service offering designed to help enterprises eliminate can even answer some basic questions from
cybersecurity threats in real-time. The service aims to identify and prospects about the company, its corporate
remove known and never-before-seen threats, which have evad- culture, policies and benefits.
ed traditional security methods, by providing continuous endpoint
monitoring and reporting for targeted attacks, exposing and elimi- Learn more about how bots
nating active and dormant adversaries that have infiltrated networks, are becoming increasingly
and listing vulnerabilities and procedures to remediate and prevent commonplace on the Web at
future threats. wsm.co/wmbotlist.

POPULAR WITH WM READERS

The Definitive Guide
to Local SEO in 2016
+ wsm.co/wmlocalseo
From how to find keywords to stand
out locally to the latest trends in local
SEO link building, the information of-
fered will guide you toward success
for making the most out of each lo-
cal search engaged in by current and
potential customers.
5 Reasons Social
Isnt Paying You Back
+ wsm.co/wmsocialpay
In the haste of trying to be on
every available network, brands
often lose sight of what really
matters: the results. Start earning
a return on investment by iden-
tifying common social traps and
learning how to avoid them.
8 Simple Rules
for Web Design
+ wsm.co/wmsimpledes
Just a few simple rules for a website
can increase traffic and improve
the user experience. Organiza-
tion and consistency is important
for any successful website, so the
sooner these easy techniques are
employed, the better.
 Net
BRIEFS
WEB TECH WATCH APP FOCUS
Check out what has the digital community all abuzz with Website
Magazines #WebTechWatch series, a monthly roundup profil-
ing emerging and established technologies and some of the most Pokmon Go
useful solutions for todays Web workers. Submit your own rec-
The release of Pokmon Go in the U.S.
ommendations by tweeting us at @WebsiteMagazine.
created a cult-like following, causing both
users and brands to learn best strategies for playing and
capitalizing on the game as well as avoiding any risks associ-
ated with the app. Check out our recent coverage:
How Web Developers and Marketers Can Leverage the
Pokmon Go Craze at wsm.co/wmpoke1
Is Pokmon Go Putting You & Your Companys IT at Risk
QGraph Web Amium
at wsm.co/wmpoke2
Notifications
Collaboration app for files Pokmon Go Engagement Tactics for Social Media at
Dynamic retargeting via wsm.co/wmpoke3
Web push notifications

Bot Analytics
Keplr AdStage
Zao
Conversational analytics Turn datasets into PPC advertising reporting
Employee referral for chat bots prediction engines platform
program software

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for the Web Big Marker Intouch
Prototyping tools for
Instant screen recording planning and building Design, promote and User-centric contact
and API responsive Web projects deliver interactive webinars management platform

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

Tweet us @WebsiteMagazine
 Stat
WATCH

Email Experience for $108.66

The average order value from email is

Recipients & Senders

$108.66, which has declined for
three straight quarters.
(Monetate, 2016) 55%
Over the course of 2015, mobile
opens increased 17 percent and now
12%
65%
A large majority (65 percent) of a represents 55 percent of email opens.
retailers subscriber list has never (Litmus, 2016)
purchased from them, but of the Anniversary and birthday
35 percent who have, an overwhelming majority campaigns generate an
have only purchased once according to 2016 data
from Listrak.
impressive 12 percent conversion
rate with 13 percent of clicks
resulting in a purchase.
76%
Since it is far cheaper and more lucrative to ac- Email phishing attacks cost large
tivate existing buyers, Listrak analyzed the post-pur- (Yesmail, 2016) companies (10,000 or more
chase habits of top retailers to understand the tactics employees) $3.7 million annually (due
they are using to get second sales as well as the to lost productivity, customer service
shopping habits of repeat customers who bought at
and regulatory fees), yet 76 percent of
least two times from a retailer.
Listrak found that 83 percent of second sales
30% marketers have little to no visibility into
email attacks on their brands.
Not able to leverage all data" is the (Return Path, 2016)
take place the same day as the original purchase,
top email performance challenge
which should encourage retailers to send a transac-
according to 30 percent of

205 Billion
tional email immediately after the sale that includes
marketers, followed by too much IT
order info, tracking number, expected arrival date involvement (21 percent).
and, perhaps most importantly, personal recom- In 2015, the number of emails sent
(MessageGears, 2016)
mendations of products (only 17.1 percent of retail- and received per day totaled over
ers, included in Listraks study, sent these). 205 billion. This figure is expected to
Knowing that the CAN-SPAM Act states content grow at an average annual rate of
in transactional messages has to only be primarily three percent over the next four
transactional, Listrak recommends including addi- years, reaching over 246 billion by
tional marketing messages when retailers have a the end of 2019.
shoppers full attention, such as taking the oppor- (The Radicati Group, Inc., 2015)
tunity to cross-sell or upsell based on a shoppers
browsing and purchase history.
Retailers not sending order confirmation messages
at the very least will want to get a system in place be-
fore the holiday rush to avoid a negative customer
experience, according to Listrak. The company also
recommends using a clear subject line such as, Track-
ing information for your BRAND NAME order to make
it easy for customers to find these crucial messages.
Visit Website Magazines Email Experience Chan-
nel to discover the latest tips, tricks and techniques for
senders at wsm.co/emailexperience.
 Quiz
TIME

Conversions Are
for Optimizers
Of all the possible metrics companies can track, con-
versions are by far the most important.
Conversions alone, however, do not always reveal all
the ways a users experience could have been influenced.
From the number and spacing of search engine visits
to the percentage and types of emails opened, marketers
and analysts are tasked with understanding the experi-
ence each user receives at every touchpoint and opti-
1. Gmail once tested this many shades of blue for their
mizing each to close more sales, more efficiently (faster call-to-action (CTA) color to find the highest
and cheaper). The purpose of conversion rate optimiza- converting shade
tion (CRO) is to convert more users through a variety of a. 50
b. 2
tactics such as improving or adjusting a pages calls-to-
c. 10
action (CTAs) or testing which layout works best based d. 300
on the source of a visit.
While CRO can be beneficial to companies in all in- 2. What percentage of customers are influenced to
make a purchase by hearing from other customers?
dustries, retail stands to benefit the most thanks to the
a. 10 percent
industrys historically low conversion rates. For instance, b. 25 percent
2016 data from Monetate indicates the average conver- c. 90 percent
sion rate for retail sites in the U.S. is 3.02 percent with d. 55 percent
the majority happening on traditional desktop comput- 3. Which state has the highest average order value (AOV)?
ers, followed by tablets and then smartphones. Theres a a. Illinois
lot that can be done, however. b. California
Take Johnston & Murphy as example. Using online and c. Texas
offline data to segment its VIP customers on its website, the d. Alaska

footwear and apparel retailer presented their most valuable
shoppers with a lightbox that contained a free, two-day
shipping promotion resulting in a 25 percent lift in con-
versions on desktop versus its non-VIP audience.
For help understanding the many available opportunities
to boost conversions, take our September Quiz Time!
Get the results of Quiz Time at
wsm.co/qtsept16 or by scanning the
QR code on the left.
4. When does shopper engagement (page views and
product views) peak?
a. Working hours (8 a.m.-3 p.m.)
b. Commuting hours (3 p.m.-6 p.m.)
c. Evening hours (6 p.m.-9 p.m.)
d. Weekend mornings (7-10 a.m.)
5. When are the majority of second sales made with a
retailer?
a. Within 24 hours of a shoppers first purchase
b. Within 30 days of initial purchase
c. During the following holiday season
d. After they are emailed a promotion
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Enterprise
READY
Tra-Digital Advertising
& the Future of Marketing
By Joe Whyte, Director of Digital Marketing at Colling Media
The traditional advertising realm was fun-
damentally altered when the boom of
digital advertising came about in the early
2000s. It shook the fabric of the status quo
and split the marketing world into two im-
portant segments: traditional and digital.
Over the course of the last 15 years, traditional agencies
have struggled to grasp and deliver high-quality digi-
tal campaigns. Inversely, digital agencies have had an
equally difficult time breaking into the traditional world.
This unfortunate trend has been at the expense of the
consumer, until now.
Understanding who we are marketing to
In order to fully grasp the power behind tra-digital
(traditional-digital) advertising, it is important to un-
derstand how media is being consumed across all
generations and geographies. Without any doubt, how
people purchase, consume and interact with brands has
evolved since the emergence of the Internet but tradi-
tional advertising isnt shrinking. In fact, both digital and
traditional mediums are projected to increase over the
next four years according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Back in 2014, an Experian study found the pro-
lific exposure each generation with buying power
has with traditional and digital mediums. The silent
generation, which is 70-plus, is the only generation
that consumes predominately more traditional media
than digital. They still consume a large amount of
digital too, however. What is interesting is that ages
18-69 consume almost an even amount of digital ver-
sus traditional media. Therefore, a standalone tradi-
tional-only or digital-only campaign could be missing
an enormous opportunity.
To go further down the funnel, Google recently re-
leased what it calls micro-moments (the belief that in
peoples everyday life, there are micro-moments where
they turn to Google for an answer/solution to their
problem). Typically, people use mobile devices in these
micro-moments but that power to capitalize on these
instances can be heavily influenced by traditional media
as well. Building campaigns to be optimized for these
micro-moments is the future of marketing but there are
elements to know in order to get it right.
How to start tracking your traditional media
John Wanamaker notably said, Half the money I
spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I dont
know which half. This is one of the major failures that
exist in the traditional marketing world and has for a
very long time.
Major brands may be used to buying traditional
media this way but many small- and medium-sized

Combining the power of both offline and online
marketing exposes a brand to its target audience
businesses stay away from traditional media, because
in an ubiquitous way.
they are afraid it is too expensive and wont generate
the business they need. When properly integrated with
digital tracking, however, marketers can begin to not
just track but also optimize their traditional media in a
cost effective way.
Lets recognize the elephant in the room for just a
moment. While there is no way to track 100 percent of
all offline conversions, if we can track a large portion
of the conversions we can then attribute value to each
channel and begin to optimize there. For example:
CALL TRACKING
Call tracking has been around for a very long time but
has predominantly been used for digital campaigns.
Setting up call tracking for all of a companys traditional
media is by far the best way to track leads from tradi-
tional media. Putting a tracking number on direct mail,
TV commercials, radio spots, and ads within magazines
and newspapers will allow brands to start associating
value to different traditional media channels.
DATA CORRELATION
The second way brands can connect offline-to-online
performance is through data correlation. This step is a
bit more complicated and is for advanced marketers
who have some coding and Excel abilities. Consider
utilizing a script, for example, that can automatically in-
crease bids for desired search terms based on TV/radio
run times. Marketers can expect to see an increase in
search impression share and lead volume during these
times when utilizing this tactic.
Companies can use their own database, where ana-
lytics data is stored, to query data in order to correlate it
quickly. For brands that do not have that capability, cor-
relating the data will have to be a manual process.
Brands can start by running reports based on time
of day and include conversions, and then simply export
that data into Excel and create a pivot table. Marketers
will be able to cross reference their run times with con-
versions to deduce what mediums and run spots work
better than others.
The results of a tra-digital campaign
Tra-digital advertising is not just a buzzword, its a way
of thinking. Combining the power of both offline and
online marketing exposes a brand to its target audience
in an ubiquitous way. Lets look at a case study.
Selling Jacuzzis is not an easy thing to do. They
have a high price tag and its not an impulse purchase.
Its much like selling a car, yet they are not necessary
items for most people. A local dealer had tried paid
search before with no luck and expressed concerns
about engaging in traditional media. Their cost per
lead was in the hundreds and they were not getting
the quality leads they needed. Putting together a com-
prehensive tra-digital campaign ended up delivering an
explosion of leads and sales.
The total amount of phone calls came in at 595 and
was pretty much evenly split across tra-digital. In fact,
323 were from traditional media and only 272 came
from digital media. Working with a customer relation-
ship management (CRM) system, the quality of leads
per channel could be seen (even on traditional).
This helped make the argument that traditional
media was working well in tandem with the digital
campaigns. Since data could be tracked and correlated
correctly, traditional media spend and efforts were op-
timized in order to allocate budget where the dealer
would receive the best results.
Tracking conversions for traditional media is
great but its only a part of the equation. The big-
ger picture is looking at things like direct traffic and
branded search traffic as they correlate with tradi-
tional media buys.
In this case, each time a new set of traditional
media ad spots ran, there was a direct correlation
between them and site traffic (a fine marriage of tra-
digital). There was also a correlation between branded
searches and traditional media run times.
By bidding on branded search terms while
using the TV run time script, the cost per lead was
drastically reduced while the number of targeted,
qualified leads increased.
Since integrating a tra-digital campaign, the company
more than doubled the amount of leads it was receiving.
The failure of digital and traditional media Local to Social
companies doesnt have to be every brands failure. Discover tips to get local
Engaging in a tra-digital campaign can be done on
almost any budget for any size client. The conver- audiences to follow your
gence of traditional and digital is here, are you tak- brand online at
ing advantage of it? wsm.co/streetsocial.
 Top
50 RANK WEBSITE
1. .XYZ
2. .TOP
3. .WANG
4. .WIN

Domain
5. .CLUB
6. .MOBI
7. .SITE
8. .VIP

Name Extensions
9. .LINK
10. .BID
11. .ONLINE
12. .XIN
13. .REN
14. .RED
Every enterprise will make an important decision related to how 15. .LOAN
their business will be seen on the Net: they will choose a do- 16. .CLICK
main name, and today they have more options than ever before. 17. .SCIENCE
The .COM extension, of course, has been the digital standard since the
inception of the commercial Web and it is positioned to stay that way for 18. .GDN
the foreseeable future. Verisign, the administrator of the .COM and .NET 19. .DATE
registries, recently released its latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief 20. .SPACE
on Q1 2016 and it confirms .COMs absolute dominance in the digital name 21. .WEBSITE
space today. 22. .TECH
Total domain name registrations worldwide, according to the Verisign re- 23. .KIM
port, reached over 326 million at the end of the first quarter an increase of 24. .RACING
12 million from the previous quarter (and a 3.8 million increase in registrations
25. .TRADE
over the past 90 days). Year-over-year, there was an increase of 32.4 million
names or approximately 11 percent. The .COM extension clearly remains the 26. .REVIEW
option of choice, of course, but things are (slowly) beginning to change. 27. .LOL
One of the most interesting findings revealed within the recent Verisign report 28. .PARTY
was that 4.9 percent of all current registrations represent new gTLDs (over 16 mil- 29. .WORK
lion). Expect that total (and percentage of total share) to grow as additional extensions 30. .DOWNLOAD
are introduced like .WEB (which Nu Dot Co, LLC, won the auction for at a record 31. .NES
price of $135 million, wsm.co/notcomrise). With a greater inventory of descriptive,
32. .NYC
keyword-rich domain extensions available, it is Web professionals looking to dif-
ferentiate the experience they provide that are driving adoption (there might also be 33. .REALTOR
some minor benefits to search and social marketing campaigns, wsm.co/tldserps). 34. .ROCKS
This months edition of Website Magazines TOP 50 highlights the cur- 35. .PUB
rent most utilized new generic top level domain name extensions in order 36. .WEBCAM
to showcase the myriad options available for those ready to make a decision 37. .FAITH
about their next domain name extension. 38. .CLOUD
39. .LONDON
40. .ONE
41. .GURU

WHERE TO REGISTER 42.

43.
.BERLIN
.LIVE

New Top-Level Domains 44.

45.
.OVH
.EMAIL
Now that you know what domain names are most ap- 46. .TODAY
pealing to todays enterprises, where should you register 47. .HELP
48. .SOLUTIONS
them? Check out Website Magazine Top 50 Domain
49. .ACCOUNTANT
Registrars for 2016 at wsm.co/fiftyreg.
50. .TOKYO
THE WAIT
IS OVER
Order your copy of Domains 360
Website Magazines latest book by Editor-In-Chief Peter Prestipino is
available for purchase at www.domains360book.com.

Whats Inside
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 Small
BUSINESS LAB
Content
Marketing
for the SMB
Owner
By Travis Bliffen, Founder of Stellar SEO
In the early stages of a new professional
venture, many small and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs) are content to keep
their finances out of the red while others
take off rapidly and never look back.
Either way, this is a time filled with excitement, long
days and an overwhelming amount of work to com-
plete. The last thing on the mind of many SMB owners
at this point is content marketing or SEO, which is a
common but consequential mistake.
SMBs are often forced to work within a limited
budget, yet another common excuse for not taking ad-
vantage of content marketing, but, again, not a legiti-
mate reason for most. There are some strategies you can
implement to see a more immediate return on both your
SMBs should time and money.
share the DONT OVERLOOK PAID PROMOTION
Many SMBs have been using paid advertising channels
knowledge like Google AdWords to promote products and services
they have with great success. Fewer SMBs are leveraging paid ad-
vertising to promote content though. Thanks to sites like
gained from Outbrain (or competitors like nrelate or Taboola), even
their unique small businesses can dramatically increase the reach of
their content, increasing the likelihood of gaining rank
experiences so boosting links and referral traffic that leads to customers.
Aside from content promotion on specific plat-
that others may
avoid common
learn from their
mistakes and
pitfalls.
forms, social media is another inexpensive yet produc-
tive method of generating quick traffic and potential
customers. While Facebook is a commonly used plat-
form, many sites like Reddit will allow SMBs to sponsor
their content, leading to a potential flood of traffic.
KNOW GUEST POSTING WORKS
Some small business owners are strapped for cash and
the thought of spending even $100 to promote their
content may leave them feeling stressed. Dont worry,
16 | .com | SEPT EMB ER 2016
guest posting is a free strategy that works quickly and
is extremely effective when properly executed. The very
purpose of content marketing is to reach a targeted au-
dience with information and resources that establish an
SMB as the expert in its field. Guest posting allows busi-
nesses to do so quickly by leveraging the existing audi-
ence of other popular websites.
Most people go wrong with guest posting because
they think of it as a numbers game, solely for the pur-
pose of gaining backlinks. Dont fall into that trap. Local
contractors, for instance, would want to look for local
sites where they could share some educational DIY tips
or a short training video. Business owners should forget
about links and focus on reaching their ideal audience
with the help of the hosting site.
STREAMLINE EFFORTS
Contrary to what many say, more content is not always
the right answer. Small businesses dont need to create
an enterprise-level content strategy to see success from
their efforts. Instead of trying to publish content cover-
ing every topic under the sun, SMBs should take advan-
tage of the data available within their analytics account
to discover which topics perform best on their site and
refine their strategy accordingly. Before getting started,
of course, a business should have identified its target
audience. Whenever creating content, SMBs will want
to make sure theyre writing to that audience.
CREATE CONTENT YOUR WAY
SMBs do not need to write award-winning articles for
their audience to benefit from them. Staying with the
contractor example, imagine how useful a post would
be that explained simple tips for preventing grout from
cracking as it dries. Even a simple post, written in first
person could provide great value to an audience. Shar-
ing ones unique experiences and expertise in his or her
field is really all it takes to generate content that will help
build trust with future customers.
PUT CONTENT INTO ACTION
The amount of content being created daily that does
little more than pollute the Internet is staggering. Even
worse, much of that content is created because of those
preaching continual content creation, even when there
is not a need for it.
SMBs should share the knowledge they have gained
from their unique experiences so that others may learn
from their mistakes and avoid common pitfalls. If busi-
ness owners write every article with that purpose, they
will create truly useful content that positions them as
experts in their field which can be rewarded by the
search engines and by the end-users themselves.
 E-Commerce
EXPRESS

Passport to Selling
Internationally Online
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

There comes a time in every e-commerce
companys life when its time to talk about
international sales.
Whether these discussions are driven by customer de-
mand or the need for additional revenue, cross-border
commerce shouldnt be a subject approached lightly
considering the many variables at play. Lets address
some of the key items that need to be checked off be-
fore selling internationally.
Identify Target Markets
Theres no sense in taking all the steps to sell to a coun-
try where there just isnt demand. Before any decisions
are made or actions are taken, site owners should iden-
tify target markets by looking at who is already actively
engaged with the company, across channels.
One way to spot which populations are going to a
site is by reviewing audience location reports within a
Web analytics system. Marketers can filter these reports
by the metrics that indicate the greatest demand for their
products including average session duration, number of
total sessions, pages per sessions, etc. Retail brands may
be surprised by the findings. For instance, the United
Kingdom could bring the most sessions outside the U.S.,
but Spain could have the highest time on site. For sim-
plicitys sake (since the UK and the U.S. share a common
first language), the marketer in this case may decide to
only sell to the UK and U.S. Before deciding on adding
additional countries, however, brands should look at
other data sources as well.
As the number one social network in the world,
Facebook can be used to evaluate international audi-
ences and their interactions with U.S. companies. By
going to Facebook>Insights>People, brands will get an
overview of where fans live and the languages they
speak. Companies that havent looked at this data in
the past, or even recently, may be surprised yet again
by the number of international fans they have and
where they are located.
It should be noted, that some countries ban both
Facebook and Google for various reasons and have
their own popular so-
cial networks and search
engines, so other data
sources will be needed if
selling to China, for in-
stance, is a consideration.
From there, brands
will need to research the
tentatively chosen coun-
trys revenue potential,
audience propensity to-
ward international pur- By going to Facebook>Insights>People, brands can get
chases and even local an idea of where their international fans are located to
product laws. use as a starting point of where to sell.

SE P T E M B E R 2016 | .com | 17
E-Commerce
EXPRESS
Plan (Legal) Product Use
Once target markets have been selected, brands will
need to consider how products will actually work in
other countries. Will it need an adapter to charge? If
so, will that be included in the price or added on as an
upsell? Will it need to connect to Wi-Fi and will that
be compatible elsewhere?
Similarly, are there any local laws preventing
this product from being used in the target market?
For instance, baby walkers are illegal in Canada (see
image). Believing they cause developmental delays
and injuries, the country banned them. Possession
of a baby walker could lead to fines up to $100,000
or six months in jail. Who knew? Anyone selling
baby walkers has to. Investing in product law re-
search in the beginning will save retailers plenty of
time and money later.
Retailers selling baby walkers would have a dif-
ficult time with their shipments passing customs in
Canada, as they are banned there and possession
of them come with a hefty fine.
Choose a Shipping Partner(s)
About five years have passed since many of the larger
retailers (Macys, Crate & Barrel, eBay) started shipping
overseas. Their globalization efforts established the
groundwork for smaller merchants ready to expand.
Both FedEx and UPS provide international shipping
solutions before (e.g., showing prices in local currency,
displaying total landed costs so there are no cash-on-
delivery surprises), during (e.g., custom compliance
tools, export documentation) and after the shipment
(e.g., fraud protection for sellers).
In addition to the shipping carriers themselves,
there are countless solution providers working with
them to improve efficiency and experience. Aptos
(which acquired ShopVisible and is a spinoff of Epi-
cor), for instance, integrates with Pitney Bowes to help
retailers ship to 200 countries in much of the same way
they would domestically.
With Pitney Bowes (a company offering informa-
tion management, shipping, mailing and more), both
consumers and retailers benefit. Shoppers not only ex-
perience a localized version of a retailers global site, but
they are also able to use their local currency. On the
merchant side, fulfillment seems to be as easy. Retailers
ship their goods to Pitney Bowes (just like a domestic
order) and then Pitney Bowes becomes the merchant
of record, handling all payment processing and fraud
management (preventing any bad debt or chargebacks).
Return Policies
Even with all the work that has gone into localizing a
website for global audiences and shipping products
around the world, customers may not be satisfied with
their order. Its a mistake not to establish a returns proto-
col and process, according to Charles Dimov, marketing
director of OrderDynamics, whose company provides an
order management system that connects to different data
sources, consolidates a retailers information and inven-
tory and provides a real-time routing solution. When con-
sidering what to include in an international return policy,
Dimov advises that retailers keep in mind that the order
management and omnichannel retail experience can be
more or less mature in certain international markets.
Dimov believes U.S. firms selling internationally
will need to place focus on returns management in
order to differentiate their retail offering against market
incumbents in the future. Marks & Spencer custom-
ers in Europe, for instance, can click and carry, ac-
cess real-time inventory for the delivery option of their
choice, return items via the most convenient method
for them (e.g., in store, postal, InPost parcel lockers,
etc.) and in many other ways enjoy a true omnichannel
experience that some U.S. retailers have yet to offer.
Even M&S has strict international return guide-
lines, however. It prohibits returns in several cat-
egories like furniture, electrical, beauty and pillows.
To get an idea of what other brands are doing for their
international return policies, check out our roundup at
wsm.co/wmreturns.
The above checklist is certainly a good place to
start when weighing the benefits and drawbacks of sell-
ing internationally online. With so many moving parts,
however, theres a lot more to consider including pay-
ments (check out how people pay around the world at
wsm.co/wmworldpay), U.S. and international taxes (check
out solutions that simplify these processes at wsm.co/globetax)
and customer support (discover some best practices at
wsm.co/worldcs).
 Resource Center
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Design and
DEVELOPMENT
UX Design that Connects
with the Millennial Mindset
By Amit Bhaiya, Co-Founder & CEO of DotcomWeavers
From the teenagers contemplating future
careers to those in their mid-30s settling
into family life, millennials are entering
their prime spending years.
As Americas largest generation 83.1 million strong
(U.S. Census Bureau) millennials represent 26
percent of the U.S. population but contribute to 35
percent of retail spending (PFSweb). By 2020, the an-
nual spending among millennials in the United States
is projected to grow to $1.4 trillion (Accenture).
Millennials shop online more than any other
generation spending 1,200 hours and nearly
$2,000 annually (Forrester). Multiply that by 83
million American millennials and it translates to
good news for e-commerce, but only for the retailers
who provide an exceptional user experience (UX).
Millennials have a high affinity for technology,
which leads to a low tolerance for anything that
doesnt work as expected. According to Statista, 54
percent of the millennials consider ease of use the
primary reason why they preferred a shopping app
over a website.
Is it any wonder that nearly 68 percent of on-
line retailers (survey by Boston Retail Partners) rank
improving customer experience and engagement
among their top priorities for 2016?
To bring in millennial dollars and, just as im-
portantly, their brand loyalty and social following,
online retailers must provide a seamless UX that re-
ally grasps their unique mindset.
CAPTURE MILLENNIAL ATTENTION
Contrary to their reputation of being impulse buy-
ers, tech-savvy millennials know exactly how to
navigate the highly competitive online marketplace
to find the best quality, lowest prices and quickest
availability. Once they find what they want, they are
ready to purchase.
A websites visual appeal and ease of use is a
game-changer for millennials, especially as they
browse on their preferred device: the smartphones
that never leave their sides. The most recent data
shows that almost 90 percent of millennials pri-
marily access the Internet from their smartphones,
which makes designing with a mobile-first approach
a no-brainer. Graphics and images must be visually
engaging and large enough for users to tap, swipe,
hover and select on small mobile screens.
The next step involves creating a consistent look
and feel in everything from design to content
across all platforms and channels. Millennials want
to know what they can expect to experience if, and
when, they shift from their phones to a tablet or
desktop. It allows them to pick up wherever they
left off and continue on their purchase journey.
Content is also critical in creating a scanner
format, which quickly informs at-a-glance decisions.
The material has to be clear and concise so that its
easily understood, but it also needs to be complete
in order to satisfy millennial shoppers. If any aspect
is missing, theyll move on to a competitors site.
CONNECT THE MILLENNIAL WAY
Millennials love new things, especially new tech-
nology. They literally line up in anticipation of
new products, such as wearable devices, and are
even thrilled to participate in beta testing. Then,
they share their experiences in real-time using ev-
erything from social media to product ratings and
reviews. Connecting the millennial way requires
engaging them on every platform and through vari-
ous channels.
Social media is the primary means by which
millennials hear about products, sales and shopping
news. They expect product information, reviews and
price comparisons at their fingertips. Marketers will
want to ensure their company, products and services
have a positive presence on social media. Customer
reviews speak loudly to this generation, so compa-
nies shouldnt be shy about spreading the word.
Millennials, however, will quickly dismiss a review
that doesnt appear to be authentic, natural or
organic. Once that credibility is lost, regaining it is
next to impossible.
Personalized communication also resonates
with millennial users. Theyre looking for a custom-
ized experience, which makes them feel special to a
company. If theyve purchased a product, a follow-
up thank you email with their name
actually means something to them.
Brands looking to cater to millennial
audiences shouldnt neglect the details.
CAPITALIZE ON MILLENNIAL DOLLARS
Nothing botches an enjoyable shop-
ping experience like a dysfunctional
checkout process. Say, Goodbye, cus-
tomer, and watch the abandoned carts
stack up.
Investing in a UX that
captures the millennial
mindset looks beyond
the first purchase.
A websites overall ease of use
must seamlessly transition from purchasing and
order fulfillment right through customer service.
Millennials have no tolerance for things that dont
work as expected on the first try. That said, if its
logical, straightforward and easy, then guess what?
Theyll be back again, and maybe bring some
friends along, too.
An easy checkout process, one that includes up-
front shipping estimates and multiple payment gate-
ways, etc., does more than improve conversions. It is
also a subtle and effective way of creating repeat busi-
ness, and returning customers breed brand loyalty.
Investing in a UX that captures the millennial
mindset looks beyond the first purchase. It extends
to creating a long-standing relationship with a smart,
savvy and upwardly mobile customer who can give
a business their valuable endorsement.
Mastering
SEARCH
10 Local Google
Search Marketing
Dos and Donts
By Miriam Ellis, Moz
With all of the marketing noise out there
on the Web, it can be tough to sort fact
from fiction.
With Googles guidelines tucked safely under your
belt, several local search-marketing practices are
no-brainers.
Just follow the steps and rest assured there is mini-
mal risk for a Google takedown. However, it can be easy
to get tripped up when practitioners:
Incorrectly interpret gray areas in the guidelines
Lack necessary experience or skill set
Recommend bad practices, careless of what they could
cost their business or their clients
Even if local SEO is new to you, or youre trying to hire a
provider and arent sure whether they know their stuff,
understanding these 10 things should not only help you
sort wheat from chaff, but could literally save your busi-
ness from a costly mistake.
5 LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING DONTS
These five factors are widely believed to have the most
negative impact on a companys hopes of achieving
high local rankings:
1. Incorrect business category
When a business creates its Google My Business listing,
it gets to choose categories from Googles category base.
Picking the wrong categories can make companies invis-
ible in the local pack results.
2. Listing detected at false business address
The best local business advice one may ever hear? Fire
anyone who suggests a company falsifies its business lo-
cation to Google. Google reads street level signage and
has become increasingly sophisticated at understanding
the difference between a legitimate address and a virtual
office, P.O. Box or other fake address. Any business lo-
cation a company lists with Google must be a genuine,
real-world location of its business, even if its a service-
area business or home-based company.
3. Mis-matching NAP or tracking phone num-
bers across data ecosystems
Google and other search engines dont assume a mar-
keter or business has entered a correct name, address
and phone number (NAP). They will investigate by
combing the Web, and gathering multiple mentions
of these vital pieces of business data about a com-
pany. If most sources match, Google feels trust and
will reward brands with firmer rankings. But, if a
company has variants in its name, address or phone
number out there, or a proliferation of indexable,
mismatching call tracking numbers, Googles lack of
trust can doom its best ranking efforts.
Marketers or SEOs should take one minute to do a
quick check of their local business listing health using
one of the many free listing tools out there (discover some
options at wsm.co/gotolist). If they discover mismatch-
ing NAP info, its time to start weighing both manual
and paid solution options for cleaning up a companys
traditional listings plus all other references to its business
on blogs, news sites, social media, etc.
4. Presence of malware on site
Nothing can drive customers (and subsequently, rank-
ings) away from a business like Googles warning, This
Site May Harm Your Computer. An infected or hacked
website represents an emergency for any business, re-
quiring immediate resolution.
Get Googles suggestions for recovering from this dreaded
scenario at wsm.co/harminfo.
5. Reports of violations on GMB account
Google is far from perfect at policing its own local
business listings, but customers, competitors and civic-
minded marketers can lend them a helping hand in
the fight against spam, reporting guideline violations
directly to Google. Some spammers skate on the idea
that Google is too slow or lazy to catch them, but never
underestimate how a competitor may respond to any
perceived guideline infraction.
5 LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING DOS
These five factors are believed to have the most posi-
tive impact on local search rankings. Some of them
a company can directly control, while others are the
luck of the draw.
1. Physical address in city of search
Unless a business is physically located in a given city,
it is highly unlikely to be included in Googles local
pack results relating to a city other than its current
address. Exceptions to this could include having a
unique business model (the only vegan doughnut
shop in a 100-mile radius) or being located in a very
rural area (just three hotels serving a community of
eight towns). SEOs should not pin their hopes on
ranking locally for any city the company on hand
doesnt physically occupy. Rather, go after organic
rankings with content the business develops for these
location-less cities, or spring for paid advertising.
2. Consistency of structured citations
Structured citations are designated as those that exist on
traditional search engines and core local business direc-
tories (think Google My Business, Facebook Places, Bing
Places, Yelp, YellowPages, Superpages and Citysearch).
Experts agree that having consistent NAP info on these
sources matters most. Marketers shouldnt forget, how-
ever, the unstructured citations (mentions on blogs, online
news, social media and small local directories).
3. Proper GMB category associations
Covered above, do not pick incorrect Google My Busi-
ness categories. If companies have the wrong categories,
they should definitely take the time to research better
alternatives and edit their listing. Google wants brands
to choose the fewest, most specific categories as possible.
4. Proximity of address to the point of search
This is one of the positive factors over which businesses
dont have direct control, but can indirectly influence.
Search engines like Google know exactly where a user
is searching from and strive to show him the results
nearest to his physical location. This is observable on
desktop devices and even more so on mobile devices.
While marketers cant, of course, control where cus-
tomers are searching from, they can ensure the content
on their website makes maximum effort to prove their
local-ness to each searcher. Local landing pages are an
effective approach to ensuring that each of a companys
locations is represented by a unique, high-quality, acces-
sible page on their website.
5. Quality/authority of structured citations
A local business listings (a.k.a. citations) on Google,
Yelp, Facebook, YP and other major players should
have more positive impact than citations a company
gets from weak, little-known sources. While inclusion
in small, hyperlocal directories can prove a genuine
boon to local businesses, devoting a lot of effort to get-
ting listed in low-quality general directories is unlikely
to yield meaningful ROI.
SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
Local SEO is an area of marketing that is still very
much ruled by getting the small details right, be-
cause, in the end, they can have the greatest impact
on the ultimate goal of increased visibility. By reading
the fine print and carefully implementing core local
search marketing decisions, you are setting up your
business for lasting success.
Miriam Ellis is part of the Moz Local team. When shes not
writing the monthly Moz Local newsletter and answering ques-
tions in the Q&A forum, shes helping her clients master their
local SEO strategies at her own firm, Solas Web Design.
 Optimizing the
EMAIL
EXPERIENCE
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief
Most digital enterprises routinely underper-
form in one very important digital area email.
What many brands dont realize is that email
can be the connective tissue between all mar-
keting and customer experience initiatives.
Those who avoid its regular use, however, do
so at their own peril. If enterprises are serious
about Net success, then now is the time to
optimize the email experience.
In this months feature article, lets take a look at the email
ecosystem and help prepare your brand for a better response
from future campaigns.
Making The Case for Email Today
One of the many reasons that email has become such a virtual
Email Revenue Strong,
Data Access Not So Much
Email still generates the highest revenue of all marketing channels
according to a recent survey from MessageGears. Discover more
about how satisfied companies are with various aspects of their
email marketing program and how they are executing campaigns
today at wsm.co/messagegears.
24 | .com | SEPT EMB ER 2016
workhorse for brands is because it is possible to customize
each and every experience and know an incredible amount
about the performance of campaigns down to the user level.
Not only do we know what type of content is driving action
and when the optimal moments are to generate engagement,
but we also know how users are accessing the emails that
brands send, providing a powerful opportunity to optimize
the entire experience (and improve) in the future.
In a report released by VentureBeat last year, 84 percent
of marketers said email is important or critically important
for loyalty. Similar high percentages show how important it is
for sales, retaining customers and lead generation. The result?
Fifty percent of marketers anticipated their companys spend
on email to increase during 2015 according to the Direct Mar-
keting Association.
If marketers need more convincing that email is a vital
marketing channel, Website Magazine has put together a
special supplement online (wsm.co/emailstats16), which
provides access to numerous data points that highlight the
power of email and the investment marketers are making in
its optimization.
The potential of email, however, often outweighs the per-
formance. Recent MailChimp research revealed that open rates
vary between 17 and 26 percent, with click-through rates rang-
ing anywhere from 1.3 percent for restaurants to 5.36 percent
for those in the hobby industry (everyone else fell between that
range with the average click through-rates somewhere between
2.5 and 3.5 percent). That all amounts to far less activity with
brand messaging than many senders anticipate.
 Like other promotional channels online (search, social,
etc.), of course, email is evolving and it benefits marketers to
know how if they want to better optimize its use.
The Trend Toward Mobile
The one trend that dominates the headlines when it comes
to email (as well as other channels) is, you guessed it, mobile.
Over the course of 2015, according to the Litmus State of
Email Report for 2016, mobile opens increased by 17 per-
cent and now represent 55 percent of email opens (iPhone
leads with 33 percent of mobile opens, with Android at 10
percent). Web-based email opens decreased 13 percent con-
sequently, while desktop decreased by 17 percent. As any
good Web professional will attest, that means concentrating
efforts on design and the experience that results.
The nuances of mobile email design can be complex.
With so many different mobile devices, it becomes essential
to follow some best practices to ensure you start out on the
right virtual foot (discover some key considerations for mobile
email design at wsm.co/emaildev).
Once the case has been made for email, its time for
brands to turn their collective attention to the more serious
matters of email optimization.
Forming a Strong Technical Foundation
When it comes to email, reputation is everything. The better
that senders treat their recipients, and the more trustworthy
they position themselves before the Internet service providers
(ISPs), the better chance they will have to see their messages
arrive at their destination the inbox. And the best part is that
by following just a few simple practices and understanding
how it (delivery) all works, optimization and improvement
of email campaign is most certainly achievable.
If senders want recipients to open their email, they have
to get past the spam filters first. That means avoiding some
practices and adopting others (primarily related to design as
well as reputation). Spam filters are somewhat rudimentary
but use a long list of criteria (access a detailed list of variables
at wsm.co/spammylist) when making their assessment (the
spam score). If the score exceeds a certain threshold, emails
get flagged as spam and end up in the junk folder.
Optimizing Deliverability
New research from Return Path reveals that just 79 percent
of legitimate commercial emails worldwide reach their in-
tended target with the remaining ending up in spam folders
or blocked entirely.
Email marketers in the U.S. are not exempt, experiencing be-
low-average inbox placement, with just 73 percent of messages
reaching subscribers six percentage points below the global
average. U.S. inbox placement was relatively strong in Q2 and
Q3 2015 (78 percent and 80 percent, respectively), however,
but dropped below 70 percent in the first half of 2016.
Brands are waking up to deliverability issues and solu-
tions are emerging to help curtail the problem. Data solutions
provider Return Path, for example, announced the next gen-
eration of its Certification solution, which will enable email
senders to join a certified whitelist based on their sending
domains reputation. According to Return Path, Certification
provides an average lift of 18 percent in overall placement.
While Return Paths existing IP address-based whitelist
caters to large enterprise senders, the new Domain Certifica-
tion solution will extend the benefits of Certification to small
and mid-sized senders on shared IP addresses. Adding Do-
main Certification will also benefit senders that already have
certified IP addresses by giving them greater flexibility to
monitor their email streams.
With a strong technical foundation established, enter-
prises should turn their attention to other aspects of opti-
mizing the email experience.
The Art of Acquisition
It doesnt take a digital genius to see that email marketing re-
mains one of the most powerful and effective ways to increase
any number of important indicators of performance from
unique visits to revenue and ultimately growth.
The benefits of having a large email list are immense of
course, but getting to that point is challenging for those just
starting out. Many simply dont really realize the investment
of effort and creativity (not to mention time and money) re-
quired to grow an email list and what it takes to acquire the
email addresses of those potentially interested in a brand and
its products and services.
Its not just the cost of sending but all the digital bells and
whistles as well, such as the variety of testing and optimization
solutions or personalization features that can be added on. That
makes it more important than ever to optimize what can be
controlled from the forms being used, to the incentives for
subscribing as well as determining what headlines and calls to
action work best. Lets explore some of the acquisition methods
being used by Net professionals today.
EXIT-INTENT POPUPS: A majority of first-time visi-
tors will exit a website after their initial visit. By using an
exit-intent popup, marketers have one final chance to
make their case for the visitor to subscribe. While many
consider them over-used and annoying they do work quite
Email Workow Matters
Litmus and Movable Ink teamed up to create an infographic
wsm.co/emailflow on how to optimize a marketers email work-
flow and offers some sound advice for every serious sender.
 well as they are true attention grabbers. The trick with exit-
intent pop-ups is to ensure that the benefit being provided
is clear and concise, worthy of the attention of readers. For
some inspiration, visit wsm.co/5notsofast to find some well
executed exit-intent popups.
TIME-TRIGGERED LIGHTBOX: Interrupting a user
as they are in the process of leaving a site may not always
be the best fit depending on an audience. Those looking
for an effective alternative may want to consider a light-
box with controls over when the popup should display.
For example, perhaps a marketer could elect to trigger a
lightbox with a subscription offer when the user is on a
site for a specified amount of time or upon arrival at the
second page of their session. Its less intrusive (as the user
has shown some level of interest) and can be as effective as
any other means to acquire subscribers.
EMBEDDED FORMS: Perhaps the most common
method to acquire subscribers is that of the embedded
form. All email marketing service providers (as well as
marketing automation and customer relationship man-
agement systems) provide embedded forms to help their
clients acquire subscribers, but even the best executed
forms can fall short in terms of catching users attention.
The best practice is to use a form with high contrast to
the background of the site (so that it stands out) and use
a catchy and compelling headline to capture interest.
STATIC/STICKY FOOTER/HEADER BARS: One of
the newer approaches to email subscriber acquisition is to
show the subscription area in a fixed (static) position so
that it is always in the users field of vision. Subscription
bars can be placed at the bottom or top of a Web page and
perform quite well on average depending on the size, loca-
tion and other factors.
Adding subscribers and recipients is important, but planning
for success is what will matter most in the future.
Long-Term Email Success Strategies
Email is a powerful tool in the digital marketing toolbox, but
like most other promotional mechanisms, it can be misused
and abused by brands. With an eye to the future, however, and
a commitment to ensuring a useful and positive experience for
recipients (the audience of users being sent email) it is possible
to ensure a greater level of success over the long term. Lets take
a look at a few of the best practices that should be leveraged
by email marketers and the enterprises that employ them.
DOUBLE OPT-IN: Its the simplest way to ensure
those who marketers are sending to actually did request
communication. Double opt-in is essentially a two-step
process where a user completes a signup form and then
receives an email that includes a link to confirm their sub-
scription to the list. Using a double opt-in prevents mar-
keters from adding bogus subscribers to their list, which
can have a positive impact on deliverability and overall
campaign performance.
LISTS: Some experts will argue that it is never a good
idea to buy a list, but others will suggest this belief is
somewhat naive. It can take years to build a substantial
list. If marketers are under pressure to grow, sometimes
the only way to do that is to get a head start. Lists often
contain out-of-date and incomplete information, how-
ever, so brands need to develop a strategy that will weed
out these users after the first or second send.
HONOR UNSUBSCRIBES: The beauty of technology,
and email tech specifically, is that most of the work can
be automated. Its not necessary, for example, to remove
each and every user manually from a companys database
as most email service providers offer the ability to manage
those that want to unsubscribe. Many senders ignore this
step as they wrongfully believe that a bigger list is better,
but not honoring unsubscribe request can damage sender
reputation and wreak havoc on performance metrics.
ELIMINATE INACTIVES: Perhaps the most difficult
process when it comes to email marketing is when the
time comes to remove inactive list recipients. If a user has
not opened an email from a brand over a specific period of
time, its unlikely they will in the future. It may be shocking
to learn, but it is likely that well-over 50 percent of the aver-
age list falls into this category, which can present a num-
ber of problems; not only are companies likely paying to
distribute email to those inactive recipients but ISPs keep
a close watch on bounces and open rates. Brands should
do themselves a digital favor and eliminate recipients who
have been inactive for six months (no open, no clicks, etc.).
Its not easy to follow these rules, but they do pay off in the
form of better performance and stronger perception of the
sender in the future. Thats reason enough to be in compli-
ance with these best practices.
Up to this point, youve learned why email is important
and many things you should avoid (or simply not engage in).
Email, however, is a creative practice as much as it is techni-
cal and strategic and as a result, brands must also concentrate
their attention on the content experience.
Content Emphasis
The question most marketers have about their email initia-
tives is what content resonates most with recipients. The an-
swer is relatively simple the content that motivates them to
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 take action. Lets take a look at how enterprises can empha-
size content and keep performance metrics rising.
Develop Hyper-Personalized Content; use demo-
graphic and location data and target offers based on past
purchase behavior. Doing so will encourage readers to
open messages, click through to Web pages and convert.
Test Content Approaches: Use A/B and multivariate
testing to determine which subject lines, content and images
are working and worth using for future email campaigns.
Get Experimental: Consider the addition of video,
polls or emojis in the subject line and measure the engage-
ment that results.
Cross-Promote: Email is just one marketing chan-
nel so make sure to promote the availability of exclusive
content within email on search engines and social media.
Clearly, content is everywhere, and its getting personal
in unique ways. Personalized email provider Bluecore
and user-generated content (UGC) collection and man-
agement platform Olapic, for example, have partnered to
help email marketers deploy more authentic and person-
alized campaigns. The partnership can enable marketers
to include this real-time, relevant, socially sourced content
into their campaigns without any significant investment of
time or resources.
Billions of user-generated photos are posted and viewed
across social networks each day, and Olapics platform will
help Bluecore senders streamline the collection, curation and
showcasing of that potentially engaging content to use in their
campaigns, including those triggered by certain behaviors.
The Practical Side of Retargeting
It is the responsibility of enterprises leveraging a practice such
as retargeting to provide a path for these users (and users clas-
sified under any identified buyer persona) that avoids potential
resistance points like failures in identifying a buyers priorities,
decision criteria and success factors and supplements and
improves the overall digital experience to achieve the conver-
sion. Email retargeting can be complex, of course, so consider
a rules-driven, multi-touch approach that speaks to each users
unique situation and desired experience.
Beyond Open & Click-Through Rates
Explore the many ways to measure email success at
wsm.co/emeasuresmb.
Establish a rule that if a shopper fitting a specific buyer
persona has not converted in the past month, they will be
served an email promoting new information or products
from their most frequently visited categories.
On the second interaction, present content/offers on the
homepage (or sidebars, footers or headers throughout the
digital experience) highlighting recently viewed products,
sorting products based on the shoppers historical product
price range or displaying info popular with similar users.
On the third touch, highlight the cart contents and re-
mind the shopper of any promotion he or she might be
eligible for, such as free shipping.
Even with the most powerful machine learning and artificial
intelligence tools ever developed at their disposal, however,
it is often still not enough to enable the majority of enter-
prises to optimize the digital experience if there is no formal
plan in place first to surmount any potential challenges that
arise on the users path to conversion.
The Email Evolution
In much the same way that consumers are shifting their
email consumption patterns, the email technology industry
is evolving as well and it is very much for the better. Email
and online marketing platform GetResponse, for example,
recently announced a beta release of its own marketing auto-
mation solution.
Marketers will be able to build automated campaigns
using simple if, then logic, tag and score leads to build au-
dience profiles, and access visual workflows in order to view
the entire communications path, and even leverage tools to
track and respond to customers e-commerce journeys.
Email service providers are becoming more than just
platforms marketers use to hit send on their campaigns in
order to communicate with their audience. Email marketing
provider Campaign Monitor, for example, recently unveiled a
new App Store and certified partner program, which includes
tools and resources for partners and developers to build apps
that work with Campaign Monitor including APIs, guidance,
certifications and co-marketing opportunities.
There is a seemingly endless lineup of technologies that
marketers use to execute and track their email marketing
efforts, and initiatives like Campaign Monitors App Store
provide the best of the best to simplify and optimize the tech-
nology stack and this essential marketing channel for senders.
Whos Ready to Optimize?
Email is an essential practice for todays digital brands. By estab-
lishing a strong technical foundation, concentrating on the user
experience and continually looking for opportunities to im-
prove, brands can dramatically accelerate their Net success.

Holiday Frenzy Ahead?
Review Email Marketing
Metrics for Success
This Season
By EJ McGowan,
General Manager of Campaigner
While Thanksgiving and Black Friday
may seem months away, now is the
time for retailers to make modifications
to their marketing campaigns for the
hectic holiday season ahead. How can
retail marketers best prepare them-
selves for the coming frenzy?
During this calm before the storm, retailers should take a
step back and evaluate their email marketing metrics to
obtain a better sense of their past campaigns performance
and prime this years initiatives for success. Keep in mind
the following so you are ready this holiday season.
Evaluate conversion-worthy
content with click-through rates
The first metric marketers should evaluate as they plan for
the holiday season is click-through rates from past cam-
paigns. How often subscribers click through is a good indi-
cator of interest in email content. If past holiday campaigns
have seen high click-through rates, consider recycling (and
refreshing) some of that content for this years campaigns.
For email marketers, content with a proven performance
record is the gift that keeps on giving.
Additionally, use click-through rate as a criterion
for A/B split testing to determine which content reso-
nates most with customers. Distribute test emails with
varying messages, subject lines and graphics to select
groups of recipients. The content variables that drive the
most traffic to a website will be the best ones to use for
larger campaigns as subscribers start shopping.
Determine top shoppers
through conversion data
Marketers will want to keep a close eye on their con-
version rates to not only determine the health of their
campaigns but also get a pulse on customer loyalty. Ad-
ditionally, consider building a nice list with subscrib-
ers most likely to fill their stockings with the companys
products. Identify those customers who regularly pur-
chase products and spend the most in stores, and group
Email
EXPERIENCE
them as a brands best customers so promotions can
easily be sent to them when the holiday season is here.
As companies start to segment holiday campaigns,
theyll want to consider a staggered approach to manage
traffic volume increases to their website and call centers.
By referencing conversion data and sending the first
batch of holiday messages to their best customer list, this
will ensure top customers get the first look at products
and promotions while inventory is at its highest point
and also reduce the risk of running out of products they
would be interested in buying.
Additional factors to keep in mind as marketers
plan their campaigns segmentation are matching pro-
motions, geolocation and time zones:
If running multiple promotions, identify the audiences
that best match each offer and distribute in batches
accordingly.
Look at geolocation data to distribute offers for
particular stores to customers located nearby.
Segment for different time zones so that messages
arrive in customers inboxes at an optimal time of
day, regardless of whether theyre on the East Coast,
West Coast or somewhere in between.
Look at long-term metrics
for holiday cheer throughout the year
Beyond immediate performance metrics like click-
through and conversion rates, keep track of long-term
metrics for insight into the overall health of campaigns
and a marketing program. Brands should review con-
tent that has triggered unsubscribes to determine where
messaging could use a refresh, and spend time accord-
ingly to give messages extra cadence as they ring all the
way to readers.
Companies must pay special attention if they start
to notice an uptick in hard bounces or if their deliver-
ability rate is taking a hit as they are warning signs that
a subscriber list may be outdated. Brands should take
a close look at their contacts and move any invalid ad-
dresses to a naughty list so their holiday promotions
arrive under all the right trees when its time to deliver.
The holiday season will be here before you know it,
so make sure youre taking full advantage of this current
lull period. Look at short- and long-term metrics includ-
ing click-through, conversion, unsubscribe and deliver-
ability rates to get a pulse on todays performance and a
better sense of how holiday campaigns will perform in
the next few months. Use this data to drive A/B split test-
ing and segmentation during the holidays to maximize
performance during that pivotal time of year.
Mobile
MATTERS
How Mobile
Builds the Multi-Channel
Customer Journey
By Dan Engel, CEO of Mobile1st
Mobile is madly mutating, becoming
ever-more central to the consumer
lifestyle and the customer journey.
Under the pressure of always-on, always-connected
technology, our rituals of shopping have shape-shifted.
Now customers leapfrog from websites to social media
to stores and onto in-store online chat as they embrace
the convenience and choice offered by a multi-channel
shopping experience. At the hub, linking all the chan-
nels, is mobile.
Already by 2014, the majority of time shopping on-
line (62 percent) was happening on mobile according
to comScore, while smartphones and tablets account
for close to 70 percent (Moovweb) of all interactions
with brands today. Thats no surprise, as consumers are
spending, on average, up to three hours each day (eMar-
keter) using their mobile devices.
Mobile is now central to the customer journey,
whether it ends online with the click of a mouse or the
Ka-ching of a store cash register (or the scan of an iPhone).
Every sensible retailer is taking the minimal step of ensur-
ing a mobile-friendly website, but the more strategic are
planning how to exploit the next innovations in mobile
and its centrality in the multi-channel customer journey.
No one is certain how far and where this mobile gig
will take us. The only sane strategy is to buckle up and
hang on for digital the ride.
THE EMPOWERED, SAVVY CUSTOMER: INFORMATION
The customer journey commences with the savvy
shopper gathering information. Even before stepping
through the doors of the local glittering product empo-
rium, we have done our research, consulted the reviews
and narrowed our choices. Among American shoppers,
73 percent (PwC) have already studied up on their pre-
ferred product and brands, whether deciding on run-
ning footwear or tax software.
No wonder 80 percent of consumers labeled
themselves expert savvy shoppers in 2015 ac-
cording to PwC. And as IBM tells us, 52 percent of
in-store purchases have been influenced by prior
online interactions.
Yes, shoppers definitely appreciate the power,
choice and convenience provided by the Internet.
Whether pinpointing stores, browsing reviews, check-
ing prices or learning product details, they are hunting
for information and deals online. And if businesses cant
meet and greet their mobile shoppers with a website,
online advertisements, or even push notifications,
then it stands to lose out big time.
This doesnt necessarily eliminate the visits to the
physical brick-and-mortar store, but alters its purpose.
Having gathered key information on price, performance
and functionality, in-store shopping is less about trial
and exploration and more about validating assumptions
and hypothesis, reports eMarketer.
LOCAL SEARCH:
WHERE ART THOU, OH WALGREENS?
When a prospect identifies a wondrous object enticing
their desires, be it steaming hot pizza fresh from the oven
or a gleaming trinket for a wedding anniversary, the next
step in the customer journey is often local search.
Of course the yellow pages are dead. When shoppers
hunt for local services, store hours and locations nowa-
days, they are consulting Google. Moreover, since 2011,
search interest in near me stores, restaurants, services
and retail outlets has jumped 34 fold (source: Google).
Among shoppers conducting an online search for local
information, more than a third enter the retailers doors
within a day. Indeed, fully 18 percent of those who con-
duct a local search for retailer information end up mak-
ing a purchase. Online local searches are almost as good
as cash in a merchants hands.
Merchants need to command a clear presence online
with a mobile-friendly website to ensure they are catch-
ing that online traffic that turns into their stores foot traf-
fic. And the website needs to be optimized to ensure a
first-page local search ranking.
SHOWROOMING? NOT!
JUMPING ONLINE IN YOUR STORE
Increasingly online commerce and in-store sales are two
connected, not competing, endeavors. Consumers come
armed with data and seek to test their preliminary conclu-
sions with up-close inspections. Moreover, when viewing
merchandise in a product showroom, customers often
build their confidence toward making that final purchase
decision by taking out their phone and going online.
The most common in-store activities accom-
plished with a smartphone according to SessionMs
2015 survey are:
Price comparisons: 54 percent
Looking up product specs: 48 percent
Checking reviews online: 42 percent
And, seeking coupons or deals
comScore adds:
Taking a picture of the product: 25 percent
Texting or calling someone: 18 percent
Knowing shopper habits, merchants can facilitate
their progress to a purchase and build loyalty. Retail-
ers can present bar codes that enable customers to
jump online and check product details as well as pro-
vide access to both Wi-Fi and their own website with
a full range of product information. In fact, 61 percent
of customers say they are more likely to visit a store if
they can inspect the stores inventory online.
ATTRACT CUSTOMERS (AND MAKE THE SALE)
WITH PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
A major technique to incentivize the customers shopping
and to potentially close the sale is with push notifications.
Push notifications are messages (or emails) delivered
to the phones of shoppers who show an interest in services
or are inside or in close proximity to a retail outlet. Such
notifications can highlight a deal or offer a
discount one tailored or personalized to
the customers individual shopping history.
Fifty-seven percent (SessionM) of in-
store customers declare they are more
likely to shop at a store that delivers in- Already, beacons
store deals with push notifications.
Todays advancing technology means
push notifications. Soon, sending a special
offer to in-store shoppers wont just be a
commercial weapon possessed only by hance the customer
big brands and nationwide retailers. Tra-
ditionally, such notifications were pushed experience.
are delivering on their
all retailers can entice shoppers with online promise to engage
prospects and en-
to customers who had downloaded an
app. Now, Google is rolling out physical beacons, which
can be placed in a store to broadcast attractive offers to
consumers on their phones.
Already, beacons are delivering on their promise
to engage prospects and enhance the customer experi-
ence. Innovators, like the Golden State Warriors, offer
upgraded seats to those rooting in the nose-bleed sec-
tion. And Samsonite vows to always let customers know
where their luggage is with its built-in beacons.
THE JOURNEY
As mobile continues to disrupt the business of retail, ad-
vancing technology is leveling the playing field among
companies small and large. Retailers need to take full
advantage of these new possibilities by establishing their
prominent online presence, delivering mobile-optimized
websites that ensure a seamless friendly user experience
and by exploiting the emerging potential of mobile as
the central hub of the omnichannel customer journey.
Conversion
CORNER

Making Product Pages

Persuasive with
Kahnemans Principles
By Marty Greif, Executive Vice President of SiteTuners

If youre looking for ideas to prime your
product pages for conversion, your
go-to resource probably isnt going to
start off with questions about Gandhis
age. Lets go with that anyway.
Scholars Fritz Strack and Thomas Mussweiler were
testing something, and they started doing that by di-
viding people into two groups, and then asking them
at what age Gandhi died. They didnt just ask that
question though. They prefaced the question a little
bit differently between the two groups:
Group 1: Did he die before or after the age of 9?
Group 2: Did he die before or after the age of 140?
Keep in mind that both of those statements seem, logi-
cally, useless. People who are tangentially aware about
Gandhi know he lived to be over 9 years old. People
generally dont live to be over 130 years old. Rationally,
the statements shouldnt influence the guesses about
Gandhis age, but heres what actually happened:
Group 1 Guess: 50.
Group 2 Guess: 67.
If the first question doesnt have any logical value, then
why did it cause a gulf between the responses between
group 1 and group 2?
The answer lies in the way our faulty, irrational,
short-cut-loving brains work, and its love for anchoring.
He and Amos Tvesrky once asked two groups of
participants to estimate the result of a computation.
They were given five seconds to answer one of these
two questions:
Group 1: 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8
Group 2: 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1
The answers should be the same, but the participants
didnt have time to compute. Heres how they responded:
Group 1 Guess: 512
Group 2 Guess: 2,250
Note the first numbers the participants saw, and
then how high their estimates ended up being. The
second groups guess is over four times larger than
the first groups guess, but keep in mind that the
second group started thinking about multiplying 8,
7 and 6, rather than 1, 2 and 3.
Thats anchoring at work; were primed, more
than wed like to admit, by what we see first. What
we see first has an incredible amount of impact on
how we estimate or perceive value in the things we
see. Now hold that thought, and look at this Amazon
page for an iPad.

Anchoring
Psychologist, author and Nobel Prize winner Daniel
Kahneman studied the anchoring effect quite a bit.
Why is the list price there? $499 has no meaningful
impact to the user. Its not what he or she is going to
pay for the device. Its not what others are going to pay
for the device. The only reason its there is so visitors
can anchor against $499 and make the actual price,
$294.15, seem like a steal. It works for Amazon, and it
should work for other product pages too.
Prospect Theory and Loss Aversion
Kahnemans Nobel Prize on prospect theory con-
tained the notion of anchoring, but it also included
theories about loss aversion, and how people deal
with potential gains versus potential losses. Loss aver-
sion would end up being just as important to online
marketing as anchoring.
To understand just how powerful this is, think
about how you would decide things in these situations.
Scenario 1
You have two options.
You can win $940 and have a 100% chance of winning
You can win $1,000 and have a 95% chance of winning
In most observed situations, the first option would be
the preferred one, despite the second having the higher
yield. Did your answer match up with common results?
Now, lets switch it up.
Scenario 2
You start with $1,000. You have two options.
You can choose a 100% chance to lose $950
You can choose a 95% chance to lose $1,000
Those two things are roughly equal for 100 people
based on probability (100 percent chance to retain $50,
versus five percent chance to retain $1,000). Despite
this, most people would choose the second option.
So in scenario 1, people would be risk-averse, but in
scenario 2, people would tolerate risk because they would
be loss-averse. There are two key principles at play here:
Low probabilities are over-considered by
people for losses
Fear of loss motivates people more than
potential for gains
This is why insurance works. Paying a small pre-de-
termined price mentally taxes us less than potentially
paying a larger price down the line. We tend to view
tiny risks related to losses as larger than they actually
are. Now, lets look at that Amazon page again.
Only 1 left in stock is there to motivate people to act soon.
The idea is that the imagined savings are already at risk;
that the $204.85 in savings is something the users can
lose, if they dont act quickly. Thats loss aversion at work.
Making Kahnemans
Observations Work for You
Like everything else in online marketing, its possible to
overplay those cards.
Making the anchor price larger than the call to
action? Probably a bad idea.
Making the stock or time left on the offer push critical
information below the fold? Not going to work.
Still, it pays to understand the underlying mechanisms
within our brains. We are nowhere near as logical as
we like to think we are, and that affects how online
marketing messages reach us.
Thats the thing a lot of people dont realize; our
brains have essentially not changed for thousands of
years, but modern life has made it so there are hun-
dreds of complicated decisions we need to make daily.
The brain, not being very equipped to deal with this,
relies on the one thing it can: shortcuts.
Anchoring and loss aversion are very much shortcuts
for daily life. The important thing for online marketing is,
they are shortcuts that are relatively predictable.
Anchoring biases toward the first thing users see, so
you can improve perceived value by showing a high
figure users will benchmark against.
Write More
Prospect theory biases toward fear of loss, so you can
reframe your message to make users act soon.
Compelling Copy
If you apply anchoring and loss aversion principles and Learn the tricks
test away, youre much, much more likely to convince of the trade at
more of your visitors to convert. wsm.co/sellstory.
 Software
EVERYWHERE
Membership Has Its Privileges
Association Management Software in Focus
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief
Fifty years ago, heck, even 20 years ago,
the benefits of being a member of an
association were pretty limited when
we look back on them today. You might
get a quarterly newsletter about the lat-
est trends, a few job announcements,
perhaps some periodic discounts for a
trade show, and hey, maybe even a tote
bag. Things have certainly changed.
Member-based organizations and trade associations
have realized the power of digital and are now fully
accelerating their efforts to acquire new, younger and
more tech-savvy audiences those with far different
demands than their predecessors. As a result, these as-
sociations are turning to software to develop better ex-
periences, and better they most certainly are.
Cloud-based software provider YourMembership,
for example, announced strong growth of more than 20
percent over the same time period in 2015 for its solu-
tions, which extend far beyond traditional association
management features to provide career centers, learning
management and advertising solutions.
Were seeing the results of a concerted, ongoing
effort to retain our customers and keep them growing,
while our sales productivity is on the rise, said JP Guil-
bault, CEO of YourMembership in a recent company
announcement. The numbers support our leadership
role, vibrancy and relevance throughout the industry.
With the completion of the first phase of our platform
integration strategy, we anticipate it will contribute to
our continued growth.
Features of the integrated platform include single
sign-on and one profile for administrators across the dif-
ferent LMS (learning management system), AMS (asso-
ciation management system) and job board offerings, a
member profile synchronization between each (so only
one profile needs to be created), the ability to share data
between those systems, and of course the management
and tracking of enrollments and purchases in one system.
This integration makes the efforts of organizations
more efficient, said Dan Gaertner, chief product officer
+ There are hundreds of solutions that provide associations the ability to manage their members, fundraise and, in general, provide
a more meaningful experience. Learn about how solutions including WildApricot, StarChapter, MemberPlanet and others are helping
associations build audiences, create more engaging and meaningful experiences and grow at wsm.co/tech4assoc.
of YourMembership. With member data hosted on a
single platform, it gives associations an opportunity to
cross-promote their products. Inevitably, the more we
integrate these products and the more organizations
learn about their users, the more often they can cre-
ate greater value for their members by putting relevant
content like events, courses and career opportunities in
front of their users.
This convergence of systems and offerings certain-
ly isnt unique to YourMembership; it extends, in fact,
far beyond.
AMS provider WebLink, and Connectik, an en-
terprise collaboration platform and app, for example,
recently announced a partnership that will leverage
Connectiks collaboration features and social network
tools to help WebLink customers increase productiv-
ity and streamline their internal communication efforts.
Connectik will integrate its enterprise communications
solution into WebLinks platform, which is now being
used by more than 800 membership-based organiza-
tions and Chambers of Commerce across the United
States and Canada.
A self-described social-first communication plat-
form, Connectik offers high-powered engagement
features that allow organizations to create groups, pub-
lish updates, run polls, distribute messages and analyze
engagement data. Group members can even interact
based on shared interests, as well as keep up-to-date on
the latest organizational news and information. In the
future, organizations will be able to find and collaborate
with business partners using these tools. Other capabili-
ties for internal staff include collaborative calendars, task
lists, event pages, file storage, market places and pay-
ment processing. Far more sophisticated than the quar-
terly newsletter sent through postal mail in the past.
We are constantly seeking ways to help our cus-
tomers find the best ways to recruit, retain and engage
their members, said DJ Muller, CEO of WebLink. We
are excited to partner with Connectik to offer collabora-
tion and communication capabilities to our customers,
which will improve their internal productivity, as well as
increase user retention and engagement.
What association management and related sys-
tems provide is an opportunity to boost member
engagement and internal productivity. By taking
advantage of the best technology solutions available
to engage users, build community and improve
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 Social Media
MAVENS
News Feed
Optimization
Strategies for
Better Organic Reach
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor
Facebook has delivered another blow
to brands looking to organically reach
their social media followers on the
network, further limiting reach to even
people who have indicated their inter-
est by liking a companys Page.
This summer, Facebook announced that friends come
first, ultimately ranking friends posts higher than
Pages. The social network took a somewhat unprec-
edented approach in that it directly stated this update
may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some
Pages whereas with other updates, Facebook reacted to
Page owners dismay after the fact.
With already dismal organic reach (some report av-
erages of 6.5 percent while others indicate its closer to
1-2 percent), any updates decreasing that figure even
more is, simply put, not good news. Whats more, other
networks tend to follow Facebooks lead when it comes
to filtering business posts (especially Facebook-owned
Instagram), so its important to solidify a social strategy
here because elements of it can be used elsewhere.
In a way, brands have to start thinking of social
media optimization (SMO) or news feed optimization
(NFO) in the same way they approach search engine
optimization (SEO). Both search and social are vital
36 | .com | SEPT EMB ER 2016
parts of a consumers day-to-day life and companies will
want to do what they can in order to be top of mind on
both channels. Not only does social media engagement
bring traffic to a companys website (where conversions
can happen), but it also known to impact search rank-
ings and customer loyalty while increasing brand reach,
so lets figure out how to get ranked.
INCLUDE IMAGES
By far one of the best tactics to improve engagement on
social media is to include interesting and relevant im-
ages. On Facebook, its reported that posts with images
receive 2.3 times more engagement than text-only posts.
When including an image, marketers will want to make
sure they follow copyright laws, consider subscribing to
a stock photo service, ask customers for photos or, even
better, create unique images with the help of a designer
or a free- to low-cost service like Canva or Pagemodo.
CONSIDER TIME AND DAY
While there are benchmarked best times to post on
Facebook (HubSpot says 12-1 p.m. on Saturdays and
Sundays, 3-4 p.m. on Wednesdays and 1-4 p.m. on
Thursday and Fridays), brands will want to look at
Facebook Insights to (1) see when their fans are most
active and (2) evaluate how posts preform historically
on certain days and times. Its also important to con-
sider where the majority of an audience lives so there is
some individual guesswork to examine all the sources of
information about best times and then understanding
individual audiences and their behaviors due to location.
ADVERTISE
Countless studies have been conducted that prove or-
ganic search rankings are influenced to some degree
(even slightly) by a companys paid search efforts, mean-
ing the two go hand in hand. While the evidence is just
emerging, there are some indicators that Facebook oper-
ates in a similar fashion when a company pays to boost
a post that organic reach starts to increase even before
the budget starts to get used. Even $5 a day could help
to increase organic reach, and its a no-lose situation be-
cause that budget is being allocated to an audience that
is very targeted to the companys business as Facebook
offers pretty advanced, yet easy-to-use targeting options.
GO LIVE
When Google talks, people listen and the same should
be said of Facebook, which has been talking a lot about
its Facebook Live feature. The social network is prioritiz-
ing Live content in its algorithms and some Pages are
even enjoying a 34 percent organic reach on the videos
they are posting. This is likely due to not only the algo
boost they receive but also that fans are notified when
a Page goes Live. As a reminder, typical posts receive
anywhere between 1-16 percent depending on the Page.
RESPOND TO CUSTOMERS (FAST)
As many know, Google takes issue with companies that
dont offer a good user experience (UX) and that comes
in many forms, from website bounce rates to reviews to
incomplete Google+ profiles. With the similar UX pri-
orities, brands would be wise to ensure their custom-
ers are being responded to on the network. Facebooks
emphasis on social customer service can easily be seen
in its release of badges, which reward Pages that have
a response rate of 90 percent and a response time of 15
minutes within the last seven days. Not only that, but
Facebook even offers Instant Replies, so brands can set
up an automatic reply when someone messages them on
their Page such as, Thanks for contacting us! Our team
is reviewing your inquiry and will respond within 12
hours. Since customers expect near real-time responses
on social media, 12 hours isnt ideal but at least expecta-
tions are being established.
While its not set in stone (or anywhere for that mat-
ter) that customer service on Facebook impacts organic
reach, its likely that a brand will (if they dont already)
have some sort of quality score that impacts their ranking
and how their posts will be delivered to their audience.
BE MORE ACTIVE
Brand mentions are happening more and more on
social media networks (inside a companys posts and
outside) and businesses would be smart to monitor
those mentions with a social media management tool
like Sprout Social, Hootsuite or Buffer (for Twitter
and Instagram). By responding to public compliments
or complaints, brands are investing in their social UX
and theres no doubt that Facebook will reward that
in some way as consumers consult social to search for
products and services.
ASK FOR REVIEWS
Once again, similar to Google, brands will want to en-
courage their social followers to include reviews on their
Pages. This may not have a direct impact on organic
reach but Facebook algos could take into consideration
how highly a brand is rated when deciding what per-
centage of fans should see their posts.
CREATE SHARE-WORTHY CONTENT
The way that Facebook phrased its news feed an-
nouncement clearly indicates that shares are very
valuable. The shares metric is mentioned multiple
times throughout the announcement, so market-
ers should understand that shares might be most
important to track in this updated news feed. To
increase shares, create content that is relevant to an
audience, is timely and accounts for the kinds of
topics that have been shared by a Pages audience
in the past, which requires a little manual effort
since shares are lumped into engagement in
Facebook Insights.
THINK POST-CLICK
With the majority of Facebook users accessing the
network on their mobile devices, brands must ensure
that when a person actually engages with a post and
clicks through, that the page is friendly to their device
as well as relevant to why they clicked. Bounce rates
could absolutely be taken into account in Facebooks
evolving news feed algorithms. Similarly, brands will
want to consider what their actual posts will look
like on mobile devices. Facebook offers a mobile and
desktop preview function for those scheduling their
posts on the network directly (rather than through a Capture &
third-party app).
GET RANKED
Convert
Like SEO, social media optimization stands to get even Four ways to get
more complicated but a focus on user experience and consumer attention
authenticity is key to success on both channels, so con- and keep it at
tinue growing your Pages and delivering great content. wsm.co/keepatt.
 Insights on
ANALYTICS
When It Comes
to Testing, Its
About Quality
Not Quantity!
By Jason Hickey,
Senior Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Target
Its difficult to talk about testing with-
out hearing a statistic that comes
across as truly ridiculous like, Com-
pany XYZ runs a zillion tests a year
no, really! Even if these statistics are
true, they fail to take into account the
most important thing: whether the
tests themselves are high quality.
If you are running tests just to run tests, youre miss-
ing the mark. Running a certain number of tests per
week, month or year does not mean that you are
testing in the best ways possible. In fact, it does not
even guarantee youre running the right tests at all.
Organizations should first focus on developing and
running only high-quality tests. Once they have ac-
complished that, they can increase the quantity to test
a wider variety of factors.
QUALITY TESTING METRICS
Its not uncommon to attend a quarterly business review
and be asked to provide facts and figures that prove a
business is doing better than it was in the previous quar-
ter. Too often, people rely on proving their companys
progressions simply by showing that theyve run three
times more tests than they did in the previous period.
Just increasing the number of tests, however, doesnt
take into account the results of those tests at all.
Instead, marketers should look at what tests are
telling them. Tracking records of return on investment
(ROI), win rate and implementation rate can guide
brands in understanding whether they are running tests
that actually matter to their business.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Testing can help companies understand if they are ac-
38 | .com | SEPT EMB ER 2016
tually seeing an ROI. Whether an investment of time
or dollars, it is immaterial. Its crucial to use testing to
understand what brands are getting out of their cam-
paigns. Optimizing any campaign is an iterative process,
and testing is a key component of understanding what
works and what doesnt.
WIN RATE AND IMPLEMENTATION RATE
Win rate helps marketers understand what percentage
of tests was statistically significant as well as conclusively
positive. This is not the case with every test. Sometimes a
test might be run to help determine whether A is better
than B, but the test does not give a conclusive answer.
It happens, and organizations should be aware of how
often it is occurring with their tests. If it is happening
frequently, it could be an indication that tests arent dif-
ferentiated enough or they are testing too many varia-
tions for a propertys traffic and conversion levels. Not
every test is going to be a winner, but every test should
be an opportunity to learn. If no tests are winners, it may
be time to evaluate the ideation strategy. The bonus is
that tracking win rate lets marketers measure how much
better theyre getting at testing over time.
Imagine an online retailer who runs 10 A/B tests in
a quarter, six of which showed statistically significant re-
sults. This is a pretty good rate of success. Knowing that
recommending related products in the checkout page
like, say, a shirt to go with the jeans a customer bought
(test A) is better than no up-sells (test B) is only half of
the battle. To reap the rewards, checkout upsells must
become the new default site experience (where it be-
comes the new control to be tested against and the cycle
goes on and on). If the IT team only implemented three
out of six winning experiments, the business is only get-
ting to take advantage of half of their potential ROI.
Implementation rate, on the other hand, is the
rate at which marketers actually do something about
the tests that have conclusively positive results. One
could argue that the implementation rate may be the
most important metric to track with regard to testing.
Implementation can often be lost in the testing cycle.
Lets say, for instance, that an online retailer runs an
A/B test and finds that having the product price and
purchase button on the left (version A) is better than
having those details on the right (version B). That re-
sult is not worth very much if they dont take the time
to implement the winning version.
Without using newly discovered knowledge to im-
prove the customer experience, marketers are testing
only for testings sake. Tracking implementation rate
can help marketers understand which tests they acted
on, why they acted on them, and what the results were
of their actions in both the short and long term.
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 Web
COMMENTARY
Zuckerbergs
Pony in the
Immigration
Reform Race
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor
Most Americans agree that the immi-
gration system in this country is broken
but to what extent, how it should be
fixed and how it has anything (whatso-
ever) to do with the technology indus-
try is up for debate.
Last year, Pew Research found that strong majorities
of both Republicans (89 percent) and Democrats (79
percent) think the immigration system needs major
change or needs to be rebuilt, and thats what the
Mark Zuckerbergbacked fwd.us initiative (with
support from Bill Gates, Marissa Mayer and other
prominent tech leaders) wants to draw
attention to particularly around three
Increasing the num- areas: border security, visa reform and
ber of H-1B Visas for creating a pathway to citizenship for
the 11.5 million undocumented immi-
tech, specifically, grants in the U.S.
In terms of how that will all be
could be a short-term achieved, fwd.us is self-reportedly
fix for Silicon Valley. agnostic about the details, but the
initiative may serve its own interests.
Website Magazine learned more about
fwd.us at an event hosted on its behalf
in Yorba Linda, Calif., where a panel
of politicians and tech executives dis-
cussed immigration reform.
Michael Dubin, for example, founder/CEO of Dol-
lar Shave Club (recently acquired by Unilever for $1
billion), jumped at the chance to get involved with
fwd.us after witnessing how losing the lottery for
highly skilled workers uprooted one of his top techni-
cal employees. For the unfamiliar, H-1B Visas allow
employment of foreign workers in occupations that re-
quire highly specialized knowledge like in science, en-
gineering and computer programming, but acceptance
40 | .com | SEPT EMB ER 2016
is competitive and random (the U.S. received nearly
233,000 petitions last year but only 65,000 were cho-
sen from a computer drawing for the general-category
cap and 20,000 for advanced-degree exemption).
Zuckerberg and his lobbying group want to
increase the caps for H-1B Visas, because if theres
one area tech cares about, it is competition. Theres
a widely reported skills gap in tech, of course, leav-
ing the unemployment rate of IT professionals much
lower than state or national averages (in many cases
about half according to Upp Technology). Increasing
the number of H-1B Visas for tech, specifically, could
be a short-term fix for Silicon Valley.
Long term, one has to imagine that access and
affordability of science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) education has a better outlook.
Some fwd.us panelists, however, want assurances that
when the country invests in education, those who re-
ceive one can stay, innovate and employ here. Fwd.
us, for example, reports for every foreign-born STEM
graduate, 2.62 jobs are created for Americans.
Regardless, plenty of tech companies believe the
current skill gap is to their disadvantage, so they have
started coding camps, worked more closely with col-
leges, empowered young women, etc., but kids only
grow so fast and Election Day is looming so candi-
dates have their opinions on the matter too.
Donald Trump has taken a direct aim at the tech
industry stating, More than half of H-1B Visas are is-
sued for the programs lowest allowable wage level, and
more than 80 percent for its bottom two.
Therefore, Trump proposes to raise the prevailing
wage paid to H-1Bs forcing, companies to give these
coveted entry-level jobs to the domestic pool of unem-
ployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead
of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will im-
prove the number of black, Hispanic and female workers
in Silicon Valleywho have been passed overin favor of
the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerbergs personal Senator,
Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would deci-
mate women and minorities.
While most of us wouldnt say it like Trump, its clear
there is no one answer to immigration reform. Most of us
ourselves are walking contradictions on how to fix a bro-
ken system (calling for competition but not more visas or
calling for better border security but definitely not a wall).
As far as tech in the U.S. goes, the industry can
create jobs and keep us competitive on a global scale
regardless of where a person is from who is initiating
it. On the other hand, we need a better long-term ap-
proach to get under-served communities empowered
and involved in tech with or without visa reform. No-
body has all the answers, but fwd.us is starting the
conversation even if its complicated.
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