F R O M T H E E D ITO R Visit these

upcoming
Internet Industry
Attract, Engage, Retain of big data, gaining fresh perspectives on the development of daily
and weekly email campaigns, debiasing design by acknowledging
Trade Shows.
cognitive limitations and much more. You’ll also find useful
What comes to mind when you think of engagement? SMX Advanced
recommendations on link building for corporate blogs, single- June 11-12
Is it diamond rings and bended knees or social media
page site design, reselling Web hosting services and other content Seattle, WA
magnitude tactics and directed gamification strategies?
created to accelerate Web success.
Enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and make sure to visit Conversion
For those responsible for the success of their digital enterprises,
us on the Web at WebsiteMagazine.com to experience our in- Conference
let’s hope engagement conjures up images of the latter, and
more. Today’s laws of digital engagement are involved and often
depth coverage of emerging trends, best June 11-13
practices and industry news. Chicago, IL
complex. Clients and consumers are connected to the brands they
love on different channels (from email and social to search and
Best Web Wishes, SES Conference
advertising), and adding to the complexity, is the use of multiple & Expo
devices to participate on and engage with those brands, products, June 12-14
services and information. To achieve digital success today, Toronto, Canada
enterprises are addressing the concept of engagement in new ways,
at every step of the sales cycle and on every platform their current Peter Prestipino —
Velocity Conference
and prospective users are on. Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine June 18-20
In this month’s feature article, Website Magazine set out to define Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com Santa Clara, CA
engagement in the context of Internet business and to delve into
the “laws” of creating truly meaningful brand-user experiences. By WebRTC Conference
looking through and beyond time-on-site, click-throughs, Likes and Expo
and app downloads as engagement metrics, Internet professionals ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS: June 25-27
Atlanta, GA
will find trust and loyalty — the keys to conversion and Web
success. Through a wide-angle view into the countless solutions • What promotion-related legal issues should
that promise to provide or deepen engagement in its many different DevCON5
your enterprise address? Pg. 10 July 24-25
forms, readers will take away actionable advice, strategies and
• Time to stop thinking short term, rethink your New York, NY
tools to measure where their enterprise stands in these important
strategy today. Pg. 14
initiatives today, and how to accelerate its growth through greater eTail East
and more meaningful involvement in the future. • Learn how to solve the biggest challenges August 12-15
The theme of engagement also carries over into many other facing modern merchants. Pg. 25 Philadelphia, PA
action-oriented articles contained in this issue. Our editors enlisted • Re-energize your email marketing efforts
the help of professionals at the top of their games for their insights with these 10 inspiring ideas. Pg 47 Affiliate Summit East
on using social login to boost engagement and registration, catering August 18-20
to responsive audiences by refining audience targets with the help Philadelphia, PA

| J U L Y 2013
| J U L Y 2013
net briefs
Google+
in Focus
Several new products and product updates were announced
at Google’s I/O event for developers in mid-May and some will
prove quite essential for Internet professionals. The company
introduced improvements to Google Maps including several search
improvements, released a streaming music service (Google Music
All Access) that competes directly with Pandora and Spotify,
retooled its still new Google Now offering, and even managed
to find time to rework Google+, as well. Google’s social network
has been redesigned to offer a multi-column,responsive layout
that emphasizes the activity stream and presents a new feature
called related hashtags, which analyze the content of posts to
suggest related items.
| J U L Y 2013
Want More Net Briefs?
Read more at Website Magazine:
wsm.co/NetBriefsJuly13
Get Amazon Certified
Amazon Web Services recently launched a certification
program to help individuals delivering cloud-based
solutions gain (and demonstrate) proficiency and skill with
cloud services on the AWS platform.
Yahoo Ads Go In-Stream
Yahoo recently announced two new native ad
unit formats that will be included within its newly
redesigned homepage news feed.
LinkedIn is Growing Up
LinkedIn has announced a handful of upgrades to
the site’s profile pages. Users are now able to add
images, videos, résumés and presentations to their
personal profiles.
No Ads for Instagram
The social networking giant currently has no plans to add an
advertising option to Instagram.
Let Me Give You My Card
Popular CRM platform Zoho has released a new Card Scanner
application for iOS designed to help users save the time it takes
to enter contact information manually.
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 w m a p p [ wa tc h ]
Discover More Applications
Within the Mobile World Channel
cloudMagic at www.WebsiteMagazine.com
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iOS - wsm.co/YCVTMG
Windows Phone - wsm.co/10lHqol color Pal converter
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to content stored on cloud-based accounts, including palettes and schemes to help professional and aspiring as well as print, share and open these files. Web pages and
Gmail, Google Drive, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, SkyDrive, designers discover the optimal hues for their next common files, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and .TXT, can also
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iOS - wsm.co/12QOFAE Keep an eye on performance data with
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real-time data from Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics, provide even closer, with the 1&1 Insights app for Android and
Turn your inbox into a to-do list. The Mailpilot
Foursquare and Microsoft Atlas from the iPad app. Users iOS devices. Users that manage 1&1 websites can log into
app lets users assign due dates to tasks, mark emails as
can also create custom, interactive dashboards with a their accounts and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs),
complete and even prioritizes messages by their deadlines.
variety of pre-defined data, as well as view social metrics including page impressions, number of visitors, most popular
Users can also set aside emails for future review and stay
like new followers, Likes, check-ins and Web-specific pages and traffic sources. The data is presented in both tabular
organized by grouping related messages. Mail Pilot works
data such as bounce rate, page views and new visits. and graph formats, making it easy to understand performance
with all IMAP email service providers and will stay in sync
trends over the past weeks, months or years.
with email servers and all of a user’s devices..

| J U L Y 2013
STaT WaTCH

SOCIAL MEDIA
Metrics that Matter

4.2
Social media is maturing before our virtual The number of hours senior executives and decision-makers spend on social media
eyes as it’s no longer just about the Like, the daily, which is 40 percent more time than those not in these positions (Source: Ipsos
retweet or the click. Ninety-three percent of Open Thinking Exchange).

respondents in a late 2012 BrandFog survey,

12%
for example, indicated that CEO participation
The percentage of users who are influenced by Likes and +1s,
in social media helps communicate company according to a 2013 iAcquire and Survey Monkey social behavior report.
values, shape a company’s reputation, and
grow and evolve corporate leadership in

74%
times of crisis. Brands committed to having The share of marketers who say Facebook is important to their lead-generation
genuine conversations with their audiences strategies (Source: 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report by HubSpot).
will reap the rewards of engagement — trust

30
and loyalty — to the benefit of their balance
sheets. The number of minutes it takes for brand posts to get half of their reach on
Website Magazine’s editorial staff aggre- Facebook, according to Socialbakers (Nov. 2012).
gates and curates interesting research and
statistics like what you’ll find in this month’s

53%
STAT WATCH column nearly every day on The percentage of Twitter users who primarily access Twitter on mobile and
are more likely to recall seeing an ad on the social network than the average
the Web, publishing the information Internet user (Source: Twitter, 2013).
professionals need to create strategies and
execute campaigns and technology initia-

25%
tives more efficiently.
The percentage of consumers who use Twitter or Facebook to complain about
brands and expect a response within an hour (Source: American Express, 2012).
Find more useful data and valuable insights at
WebsiteMagazine.com.
| J U L Y 2013
enterprise
k
ready

IS THAT
LEGAL? Promotional Marketing Issues in Online
and Mobile Media By David O. Klein

The use of promotions and contests in

connection with online and mobile marketing
can be a dynamic and cost-effective way to
increase conversions, build a database of engaged
consumers and increase brand awareness. However,
businesses must be aware that government entities, including
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and various state attorney generals,
are tasked with regulating, investigating and sanctioning
non-compliant marketing practices. So, what legal issues
surrounding the promotion-related online and mobile marketing
space should your enterprise address and be aware of?

| J U L Y 2013
enterprise
k
ready
Online and Mobile Sweepstakes Marketing
The appeal of promotional contests, games and sweepstakes is
obvious: The opportunity to win prizes attracts consumers. Despite
the allure of the sweepstakes model, there are specific state and
federal laws that apply to promotional games, as well as platform
rules for marketing on social media websites, such as Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. Enterprises not closely following these laws
and platform rules could incur substantial liability.
In assessing your liability risk, the baseline question to ask
is whether the promotion is a game of chance or skill. Games of
chance are considered illegal lotteries, unless there is a free means
of entry, with no strings attached. Alternatively, games of skill are
an enticing option, but depending on the structure of the prizes
awarded and the degree of participation of the entity running the
promotion, certain anti-gambling laws may still apply.
When running such contests, it is important that the associated
marketing approaches employed complies with other applicable
laws and guidelines (e.g. intellectual property laws). This is especially
true when an enterprise offers the opportunity to win a prize that
carries a registered trademark, such as an iPhone®, or when you
are marketing a contest within a social media environment, such
as Facebook®, and use of the Facebook® name and/or logo in your
marketing material is required.
| J U L Y 2013
Marketing
Compliant?
Find out if your promotional
campaigns are legit at
Blog and Social Media Website wsm.co/marketinglaw
Marketing
Although a slightly different approach to
contests and games, several businesses
have recognized the promotional advantages of incorporating
their branded messages within various blogs and websites. Some
have even begun creating fictitious blog/social networking pages
masquerading as review sites and posting misleading articles that
include paid testimonials.
While potentially rewarding, this conflation of marketing with
blogs/social networking media carries significant liability risk.
Because of the historical nature of the Internet as a place for the
public to voice their opinions, there is an expectation that the
blogger/site member in question is not a paid spokesperson. But
when a blogger/site member is engaged in marketing products for
a fee, or when that person is an employee of a company that is
selling products on the blog, there is an inherent conflict of interest
when these relationships are not properly disclosed. Under those
circumstances, the blog/website can amount to a form of deceptive
marketing.
In fact, the FTC recently updated its “Guides Concerning
the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”
(wsm.co/11SnXbZ) to address these issues. The essence of the
guidelines is that online marketing material must prominently
enterprise
k
ready
display a disclaimer that informs the reader of any financial interests
that the bloggers or writers have in connection with the products
being featured/discussed. Similarly, the author of a fictitious article
must disclose 1) that the article is not real, but rather, a marketing
device and 2) what the author stands to gain in connection with
writing and posting it.
The FTC guidelines also strictly prohibit fictitious testimonials,
and when using an authentic testimonial, the blogger or writer
must not alter it from the original in any material way. Finally,
what the provider of the testimonial stands to gain by providing
the testimonial, must be disclosed to the reader.
Daily Deal Website Marketing
The “daily deal” business model, which is most closely associated
with industry leaders Groupon and LivingSocial, offers a unique
way for businesses to promote their brands and attract customers
through “daily deal” coupons, discounts and other rewards.
However, many businesses are unaware that state and federal laws
may apply to these offers. Problems arise because the discount
offers expire after a certain amount of time. Because consumers
must pay a fee for these “daily deals,” the offers may be considered
gift certificates and, therefore, fall under the purview of the Credit
Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (“CARD
Act”).
The CARD Act, and its state law counterparts, requires that all gift
| J U L Y 2013
certificates have
an expiration date
at least five years
from the purchase
date. While Groupon,
LivingSocial and their
competitors maintain that the discount offers in question are
coupons, and not gift certificates, attorney generals in multiple
states have begun to scrutinize this business model to determine the
nature of the offers. Additionally, multiple class action lawsuits
have been filed alleging violation of the CARD Act and
corresponding state laws.
Email and Mobile Marketing
Games, contests and other promotional vehicles, such as those
provided by daily deal vendors, are valuable marketing opportunities,
but email and mobile marketing should not be neglected, as they
serve as another way businesses can monetize their client databases.
Many companies do not take full advantage of these marketing
options, however, because they are unfamiliar with the federal and
state laws that govern email and mobile marketing and, thus, do not
want to risk the significant penalties that may be incurred if they
unwillingly violate those laws. If a company does choose to engage
in email and/or text message marketing, or to use the services of
a third party to manage and market to its databases, the company
enterprise
Quicker, Bigger,
k
ready
should ensure that it and/or the third-party marketer is complying
with all applicable laws, as well as its own privacy policies.
Easier
Be aware that the FTC and FCC require marketers to obtain prior
written consent from consumers before sending any auto-generated now available are updated apps for Website Magazine on
or pre-recorded text messages to mobile phones. The consumer’s smartphones – both iOs and android, and yes, for android tablets.
expressed informed consent to the receipt of text message marketing
and email marketing, as well as the privacy policy and website terms
and conditions should always be obtained at the time of sign-up.
Additionally, the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 sets forth
specific requirements that must be followed when marketing to
consumers via email. Under CAN-SPAM, use of false or misleading
header and sender information is prohibited and the applicable
email subject line should accurately reflect the products/services
that are being advertised in the subject email. CAN-SPAM mandates
that when sending a commercial email message, businesses must
clearly identify the email as an advertisement, include a valid
physical postal address for the sender and provide consumers with
a mechanism for opting out of future email marketing.
• Improved usability and readability for larger and high-resolution screens
While the use of promotions, gaming, consumer reviews and blog
• Quick navigation and selection of issues and daily blogs by contents lists and images
posts in connection with online and mobile marketing can garner • Classification of daily blogs by topics of interest
great benefits for businesses, it is also necessary to be cognizant of • Quicker downloads of issue content
the associated pitfalls, which may put your enterprise at legal risk. • Live links within articles for more information

When you’re on the move, or just taking a break from desktop screens,
David O. Klein is the managing partner of Klein Moynihan stay informed on digital media strategies and Internet business news,
Turco LLP in New York, NY, where he practices Internet and discover the hottest resources for Web professionals.
Marketing and Promotions Law.

Visit WebsiteMagazine.com/apps
| J U L Y 2013
Website Magazine’s
SMall BuSIneSS laB

Rethink Digital Strategy

To Win Big
By Tom Shapiro, CeO/Founder, Digital Marketing nOW

At its simplest, a business strategy must answer three

questions: What the company goals are, how to achieve
those goals and how an enterprise will sustainably beat
the competition. Unfortunately, these responses typically
don’t drive promotional efforts, because many Internet
professionals aren’t thinking beyond their immediate
needs: more leads, awareness, traffic and revenue.

Many, in fact, are so preoccupied in the everyday

minutiae of running campaigns and reporting
results that overarching business strategies get lost in the
processes, which can decelerate growth and hinder long-term
competitiveness. Don’t let this happen to your digital enterprise;
rethink your strategy.

| J U L Y 2013
Website Magazine’s
SMall BuSIneSS laB
Rethink the Definition of “Goals”
Who is your company? Where is it going? What is it trying to
achieve? If you’re struggling to answer these simple questions,
you are not alone. When businesses think beyond their revenue,
products and services and consider the greater impact they want
to make on the world around them (digital or otherwise), they are
positioned for greater success. As a key ingredient in rethinking
strategy, you must also rethink the “bigger picture” purpose of your
business.
IBM wants to build a smarter planet. Seventh Generation wants
to inspire a revolution that nurtures the health of the next seven
generations. These are clear and passionate “bigger pictures” that
inspire and engage employees, customers, prospects and other
stakeholders. IBM and Seventh Generation’s strategies effectively
integrate goals, purposes, missions and enthusiasms. Does yours?
Improving/increasing impressions, site traffic, page views,
lead generation and cost per conversions are imperative and can
accelerate business growth. However, only when companies
rethink their strategies is it possible to increase positive results and
do so exponentially. It’s not enough to optimize what you’ve got, if
what you’ve got is mediocre.
In ex-Procter and Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley’s new book “Playing
To Win: How Strategy Really Works,” Lafley and co-author Roger
Martin highlight how Olay revived their stagnant brand, increasing
revenue from $800 million to $2.5 billion within 10 years by
changing the overall strategy. They envisioned a new future for the
brand, focusing on fighting the signs of aging and creating a new
| J U L Y 2013
market segment called “masstige” (mass market channels delivering
a prestige brand). If they had instead relied on optimization without
the optimal underlying strategy, they would have severely limited
their progress.
Plan a successful future for your company by rethinking its
business strategy, ensuring it clearly defines who your company is,
what it stands for, where it is going and what success will look like
when it arrives. This will produce better results from all marketing
initiatives moving forward.
Rethink How Goals are Achieved
Next, rethink how you’re doing what you’re doing. Just because
your team is working long hours doesn’t mean you’re maximizing
results. Dramatically increase ROI by rethinking how marketing
goals are achieved.
For example, a B2B software company, with much of its business
sourced from overseas, conducted all of its international digital
marketing in English. If it initially rethought its strategy, it would’ve
been easy to see that they should test local language marketing to
drive greater global opportunities.
Also, that same company targeted many countries simultaneously,
spreading its budget thin. Instead of trying to be everywhere, it is
now rethinking how to achieve its marketing goals, scaling back
the number of countries to a select few. By rethinking the “how”
it can focus marketing resources in the geographies that matter
most, rather than just “being in the market” across a wider range
of countries. Longer term, this more targeted approach will help in
Website Magazine’s
SMall BuSIneSS laB
scaling more profitably and unleashing new development potential.
KISSmetrics, an analytics company, also rethought the “how”
of achieving its goals. KISSmetrics aimed to be a thought leader
and rethought the business-building process, essentially building
this software company on top of its blog. Rather than taking a
standard path for building a blog, though, they developed their
own sophisticated methodology that included content creation,
guest blogging and promotional components, as well as an analysis
process using its own analytics software. The result was an increase
(0 to 350,000) in monthly blog visitors. The blog now accounts for
82 percent of the company’s site traffic and more than 70 percent
of the company’s leads.
As you consider the “how” of your implementation, keep your
strategy in mind. Then, identify the marketing initiatives that will
really move the needle.
Rethink How to Beat the Competition, Long Term
Audiences have a choice; they can buy from you or they can buy
from the competition. Developing a plan to beat the competition
continuously is critical to a winning strategy. Having a strategy like
Olay’s, provides a clear, sustainable tactical advantage over like
brands.
As competitors change tactics, optimization efforts will
need to be adjusted, continually. This is where a well-conceived
strategy positions a brand for longer-term growth, regardless of
tactics. In comparison, there’s no single optimization tactic that
can achieve that.
| J U L Y 2013
Look at the most successful companies in the world, including
Apple, IBM and Google. They’re actively aware of the competitive
landscape and make informed decisions based on the marketplace.
Steve Jobs was exceptionally effective at identifying a competitor’s
weakness and promoting Apple’s differentiation of innovative
products, ease-of-use and beautiful design.
With a strategic difference in hand, turn attention to articulating
and proving that distinction in digital marketing efforts. One flower
and gift website tested four paid search ads per ad group to optimize
results. However, all four were essentially saying the same thing,
only slightly differently, as every other advertiser. When pointed
out that 80 percent of the search results page per keyword had
the same messaging, the company quickly realized it was focusing
testing in a silo that was inherently flawed. Following best practices
doesn’t work when it’s identical to the competition.
It’s critical to build a business in a way that sustainably positions
it as the differentiated best choice.
Strategy First, Optimization Second
It is important to continue optimizing campaigns and testing
different headlines, images and calls-to-action in your marketing.
But consider starting with the strategy first, because the right
approach opens up new growth opportunities. Only by rethinking
strategy, can marketing win, and win big, consistently.
| J U L Y 2013
50 TO P
There used to be a time in the business
world when a Rolodex and a secretary
would suffice as means to keep track of
leads, prospects, customers and all those
official (or unofficial) business contacts,
like those ones met on a Pan Am flight over
an old-fashioned. In today’s digital-first
world, Internet professionals can do better.
Powerful software solutions exist that
enable enterprises to store important
information about the companies, groups
and individuals key to their success, but
also make a lot more of the data accessible
to key personnel and, more importantly,
actionable. Today’s solutions, most notably
customer relationship management (CRM)
systems, are far “smarter” than those
squeaky rolodexes and sassy secretaries
View Graphs
on the
next page
| J U L Y 2013
Digital Solutions
for Prospect, Customer and Lead Management
and help enterprises understand the past get started? Check out Website Magazine’s
behavior and current motivations of their new CRM Blueprint 2013, available at
audiences, as well as (in some instances) wsm.co/crmblueprint13, which offers a
predict what those contacts are going to do deep look at how to handle the day-to-day
next. But failure to leverage them, and use of these vital systems.
them effectively mind you, will result in
enterprises securing a permanent position
behind their savvier competitors.
Companies today can close
deals faster, generate more
revenue and deepen engagement
throughout the user experience
when they use solutions such as
those featured within this month’s
Top 50. Once you find the right
offering to help your sales and
marketing teams accelerate trust
and loyalty, how do you actually
50
BiG-MaRKeT MoVeRS
1. Microsoft.com 5. Salesforce.com
2. Oracle.com 6. Netsuite.com
3. SAP.com 7. Aptean.com

To P
4. Sage.com

Mid-RaNGe MaVeNS
1. Intuit.com 11.Govwin.com

Digital Solutions
2. Zoho.com 12.Amdocs.com
3. Parature.com 13.Worketc.com
4. BlackBaud.com 14.FutureSimple.com
5. Five9.com 15.Pega.com
for Prospect, Customer and Lead Management 6. Infusionsoft.com 16.Apptivo.com
7. SugarCRM.com 17.Commence.com
8. Oprius.com 18.Greentree.com
9. SalesNexus.com 19.Bislr.com
10.HyperOffice.com

SMall-BiZ WoNdeRS
1. ContactMe.com 13.GreenRope.com
2. OneSource.com 14.Streak.com
3. Highrisehq.com 15.Pipedrive.com
4. EssentialPIM.com 16.Nutshell.com
5. PipelineDeals.com 17.TactileCRM.com
6. CampaignerCRM.com 18.Insight.ly
7. AddressTwo.com 19.KarmaCRM.com
8. Relenta.com 20.Workbooks.com
9. Batchbook.com 21.Contactually.com
10.WebCRM.com 22.Avidian.com
11.Nimble.com 23.FreeCRM.com
12.AllClients.com 24.Rapportive.com

| J U L Y 2013
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mastering
search
EVERYDAY LINK
BUILDING
FOR CORPORATE BLOGS
By Michael Garrity, Associate Editor
The Web is full of information about the
ways that enterprises can build links and,
ultimately, bring visitors to their corporate
websites and blogs.
A lot of the available link-building guidance, however,
is useless (if not completely misguided). Popular advice
treats every situation the same, but each company has
unique challenges.
The whole point of a link-building initiative is to
obtain a sufficient number of high-quality, Web-based
| J U L Y 2013
citations that, on their own, can drive visitors to a
website by their mere presence, earning the company
and its website some genuine credibility and authority
with Google and Bing as an ancillary result.
Yesterday’s Approach
to Link Building
Web marketers have attempted various tactics to
acquire links, including offering guest posts to industry
blogs, listing their sites in online directories, creating
and distributing infographics, using social networking
sites to raise awareness with key groups and more.
Occasionally, some marketers even turn to email and
comment spamming in an attempt to get the links they
think they need to rank on the search engines.
These somewhat traditional and generally
accepted link-building methods are not nearly as
effective as they once were, and it’s still difficult to
acquire links through these methods when the aim is
to create a truly competitive link profile, particularly
for major enterprises.
mastering search
“The real challenge is implementing these link-
building strategies at a massive scale,” said Mitul Gandhi,
the co-founder and chief architect of the enterprise SEO
platform seoClarity. “If [an enterprise has] a blog, their
content strategy drives link building for them, but they
can’t do 500 things like a small company can, sending
out press releases and email and using social media, so
they have to choose a strategy to employ and then do it
at scale.”
The Cost of Quality
The one tried and true way for SEOs to accelerate
growth is by providing content that other websites need
and want to share with their visitors. It’s essentially basic
supply and demand; there is no shortage of low-quality
(virtually useless) content on the Web, but as Internet
“ The easiest professionals become savvier there will be less demand,
because it doesn’t provide enough value.
way to determine What does this mean for the SEO-minded digital
low-quality marketers? If they’re willing to spend more time and
content is when effort creating high-quality content (which there is
greater demand for), they’ll find themselves garnering
it says a lot of better links, and ultimately, getting more out of their
things without link-building initiatives than if they’d just tried to
really saying acquire as many links as possible. But how do SEOs
know if they’re pushing mediocre content?
anything. ” “The easiest way to determine low-quality content
| J U L Y 2013
is when it says a lot of things without really saying
anything,” explains Gandhi. “High-quality content
for an enterprise will help the end-user get to the
objective that they started reading the article for; it will
answer a question and provide resources for additional
information.”
To ensure content offers actionable information,
marketers should ask themselves to name 2-3 article
takeaways. If they can’t, it’s time to rework the piece.
On a daily basis, corporate bloggers and marketers
should also assess the types of content their followers
are interested in. A company like The Home Depot,
for example, should keep its virtual thumb firmly
planted on the pulse of the many niches it serves (e.g.
gardening, construction, home maintenance, etc.).
Regularly checking high-profile websites in different
industries will also alert marketers to emerging trends
and popular topics, and paying close attention to the
comments sections can help them better understand
what kind of information readers are looking for, which
they can then use to create content for their own blog or
website. Part of this daily SEO routine should include
looking for up-and-coming blogs within each niche, as
well. These publishers are typically eager to give links to
large organizations that show interest in them (to build
their own credibility), making it mutually beneficial.
Demand in the “content market” will ultimately
mastering search
determine which websites earn (e.g. supply) those
high-quality links, because they’ll be the ones offering
the highest quality content.
Segmentation and
Customized Content
It’s a corporation’s audience that ultimately determines
what high- or low-quality content is, which is why
a link to a corporate blog from a popular site is so
important. Their audience has deemed that site high
quality through repeat visits. To figure out what these
sites are, it’s best to segment various audiences by niche,
and then identify those websites or blogs that specific
audiences visit most frequently.
There are platforms that can help enterprises identify
influencers and segments that they should be targeting,
including seoClarity, Klout and Little Bird, to name a
few. Once content marketers know which blogs to go
after, they should send tailored pitches with content that
is specific to what they cover, because it’s considered
somewhat taboo (if not annoying) to blast outlets with
pitches that are not relevant to their coverage area.
For example, consider if a soda company started to
sell a flavored water product and found lifestyle blogs
about healthy living and dieting that have authority in
that niche. Whenever the soda company writes a new
blog post about the health benefits of water, or how
| J U L Y 2013
zero-calorie flavored water is an easy substitute for
popular high-calorie drinks, they can pitch that content
to other lifestyle sites.
In turn, assuming the post is well-written and provides
valuable information, the soda company should receive
a link, additional site visits and more awareness overall.
Help is Out There
There are a number of enterprise SEO platforms that
can help corporations identify important industry
segments to tailor content and distribution to
in order to increase traffic and gain credibility and
favor with. But the important thing to remember is
that search engines and people will evaluate each
organization on the quality and value of the content
provided to end-users.
5 Enterprise SEO
Platforms to Consider
Keep up with the digital elite
at wsm.co/bigbrandseo
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e-commerce
express
SWING FOR THE
VIRTUAL FENCES
GOOGLE PROBLEM SOLVING FOR MODERN MERCHANTS
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor
If Internet retailers were behind in the count,
no one would blame them.
They’re constantly thrown curveballs, yet online
merchants, just like successful hitters, are confident,
patient and step up to the plate with proper mechanics.
“E-tailers” have no other option, but to face the
radical changes to consumer consumption habits/
demands, Google algorithm updates and anything else
pitched to them head on.
And while there are plenty of obstacles that concern
Internet retailers today, six of which are discussed
below, there are as many, if not more, opportunities
that modern merchants can leverage to generate traffic
from search engines’ natural and paid results in order
| J U L Y 2013
to win the digital marketing game. After all, problems
are only opportunities in disguise.
curveball: Hitting a Wall with CTRs
Swing away: Advertisers are still investing in paid
search, because it works, by evidence of Kenshoo’s
Q1 2013 report on global search advertising trends
(wsm.co/searchadq12013). The findings indicate
global search ad spend is up 15 percent. Global click-
through rates (CTRs) are also up 62 percent, year-over-
year, so enterprises with flat-lined CTRs should look at
their own campaigns, not paid search in general.
“The click-through rates [findings] was a big ‘aha’
moment for me,” said Kenshoo Director of Marketing
Research, Josh Dreller. “Sometimes it feels like you
e- c o m m erce express
hit a wall trying to increase your CTRs, because you
are relying on searchers and users to click on your ad.
[These findings] mean marketers are really working
their ads. They are choosing the right keywords and
negative terms and getting in front of the audiences that
will engage.”
Merchants who are not seeing their CTRs improve
should narrow their keywords to the ones customers
are responding to, utilize Google’s ad extensions and
build more creative integration, such as between search
and social. The biggest mover in the latter is Google+,
according to Michael Gullaksen the senior vice
president, managing director of Covario, an enterprise
search agency.
curveball: No Way Out of Google+
Swing away: There are multiple reasons why there
is no escaping Google+, but for merchants advertising
with Google, the top-two are sheer numbers (reports
are showing that Google+ is outpacing Twitter as
the world’s number two social network, behind
Facebook) and sophistication. For example, Google+
endorsements can support an AdWords campaign
through social annotations. When Google detects an
active and verified Google+ page, these annotations will
be shown when its system predicts that a Google+ page
| J U L Y 2013
will improve campaign performance. Since merchants
(and the rest of the Web) don’t know how Google
values this, it’s best to go all in with Google+. Social
annotations can help add a layer of credibility to an ad,
but if it increases visits to an incomplete Google+ page,
or one with incorrect or outdated information, it could
have the opposite effect. These annotations will be
automatic under Enhanced Campaigns, so merchants
who do have active Google+ pages should ensure their
pages have verified URLs, the domains of their Google
page URLs match the domain of their ads’ URLs and
that their Google+ pages have recent, high-quality posts
and a significant number of followers, which Google
says is at least 100 for most businesses.
curveball: Mandatory Enhanced Campaigns
Swing away: The most recent change affecting
e-merchants is Google’s move toward Enhanced
Campaigns. According to an iProspect 2013 whitepaper
on the subject, mobile CPCs are projected to rise, as
more advertisers begin serving ads on smartphones
(intentionally or not). iProspect provides this solution,
“Advertisers should review their current smartphone
strategy and examine how they can replicate past
successes via smartphone bid multipliers, or set their
multipliers to negative 100 percent if they don’t want
e- c o m m erce express
their ads to serve on smartphones.”
While this move by Google allows for ease-of-
campaign execution, merchants should know that they
cannot segment the tablet marketplace with Enhanced
Campaigns, because this traffic is grouped into desktop
data. Gullaksen advises merchants to invest in an
infrastructure and experience (e.g. no flash) that is
both desktop and tablet-friendly, because they will not
be able to target and track by that device type, or more
specifically, browsers used on tablets.
curveball: Google PLAs
Swing away: Anytime something is free, and
then you are charged for it, there will be plenty of
negative feedback, as was the case with shopping PLAs,
according to Gullaksen. However, frequent reports on
the subject are proving that PLAs increase visibility and
conversion rates.
Additionally, now that it’s a paid service, PLAs
are creating more insight into performance,
conversions and ROIs. Specifically, Kenshoo’s
2012 Global Online Retail Holiday Shopping
Report states that PLAs continue to generate nearly
1.5 times the CTRs of regular text ads and convert 23
percent better.
While PLAs are just one more channel marketers have
| J U L Y 2013
to track, merchants should hop on the bandwagon and
make PLAs their new best friend (wsm.co/bffplas).
curveball: Content is King
Swing away: With the rise of social media and
its integration with search, there are plenty of earned
media opportunities that are available for Internet
retailers today that weren’t accessible to them in the
past. Marketers can use organic search efforts (earned)
to reach users and advertising to push promotions.
For example, Internet retailers should use (or start) a
blog to provide the search engines with frequent fresh
content and give their consumers relevant information.
Additionally, by linking content to a Google+ business
page using rel=”publisher” tag, Google will recognize
a brand’s G+ page as its official profile, which it will
give preference to in the SERPs (for more info, visit
wsm.co/pubtags13).
Gullaksen advises that Pinterest is another avenue for
marketers to explore, because it allows an inexpensive
way to put product images in front of users to drive
awareness and demand.
curveball: Bad Merchants
Swing away: In March 2013, Google’s Matt Cutts
said, “We have a potential launch later this year, maybe
e- c o m m erce express

a little bit sooner, looking at the quality of merchants,

and whether we can do a better job on that, because
we don’t want low-quality experience merchants to be
ranking in the search results.”
What does this exactly mean for merchants and what
should they know and do to ensure they aren’t labeled
as such?
Industry experts, such as Dreller and Gullaksen, are
in consensus that merchants who can sit in a room
with Google and confidently show the company their
strategies, will have no issues.
“The thing to remember is that Google is very explicit
on their guidelines and bad practices,” said Kenshoo’s
Dreller. “They don’t want to ruin good campaigns and
de-incentivize good marketers and good retailers.”
The game plan for all retailers should be to review
and follow Google’s search, social and advertising
guidelines and swing away.

The Lowdown on Google

Ad Extensions
elevate your ads with these
popular extensions for merchants
at wsm.co/enhance13

| J U L Y 2013
design
development
ESSENTIAL RULES OF
SINGLE-PAGE
SITE DESIGN
By Allsion Howen, Associate Editor
Single-page site design is among 2013’s
hottest trends, and for good reason.
The technique essentially brings the brand experience
(including content) into a one-page website, making
it easier for visitors to find what they need, while also
giving developers the ability to incorporate unique
interactive features and creative navigational elements
(without the use of flash) for a far more interesting
digital experience.
The imminent release of new gTLDs could escalate the
| J U L Y 2013
popularity of single-page sites. These specific domain
extensions will enable brands to create “extension”
sites, separate digital destinations built to promote a
special project or service. For example, if Amazon ends
up with the .book extension, the company could allow
authors to create individual sites to market their new
Kindle-exclusive e-books. Since these promotional
pages would only require basic information, such as
book descriptions, consumer reviews and images, they
are good candidates for single-page design.
That said, the practice isn’t right for every enterprise.
While it can positively affect engagement metrics like
time-on-site (and, ultimately, conversions), it is really
best suited for projects that aren’t content heavy. A
merchant with a large inventory or a high-volume
content publisher, for example, would not benefit from
this method. Conversely, sites with less content, such
as a portfolio site or a site featuring a single product or
service, would be among the best candidates for this
design approach.
In order to execute a successful single-page site, there
are three rules that designers and developers should
keep in mind.
de s i g n &
de v e l o pment digest
1. Get to the point.
Although single-page sites don’t provide much content,
they can serve a distinct purpose, which should be
immediately revealed so visitors have a reason to keep
exploring after arriving.
A Information site Undertheweather.eu, for example,
uses large header text, along with a brief
description, to state its purpose clearly (the
impact of climate change on health). The
variance in font size between the header,
description and other sections of the site is
used to create a layout hierarchy that helps
visitors quickly identify the most important
pieces of content on the page (see image A).
Additionally, this site’s bright navigational
icons, which include obvious keywords
(heat stress, UV radiation, pollens and air
B pollution), assist visitors in identifying
relevant content throughout the page without
the need for excessive scrolling (more on that
in the next section).
2. Keep navigation
top-of-mind.
Some single-page sites are laid out vertically
and others horizontally. Regardless of the
layout choice, designers should not overlook
| J U L Y 2013
two important navigational elements: static menus and
properly labeled outbound links.
For instance, South African site teamgeek.co.za
(see image B) offers a clear path to its services with
a static menu bar. Instead of scrolling to find
content, this fixed menu bar allows visitors
to click on icons to jump to bookmarked
areas of the single-page site. The menu
also identifies which area of the page visitors are
currently viewing by highlighting that section’s icon in
the menu bar with an arrow.
Aside from maintaining compelling page navigation,
it is also important to label outbound links on single-
page sites properly. Since it is common for these pages
to link to external websites, such as to their social
profiles, blogs or payment platforms, these links
should be labeled so visitors know when they are
being directed away from the website. Teamgeek does
this in its site’s “technology” section. As visitors scroll
over icons that represent technology the company
“loves,” a pop-up window opens to provide additional
details. This pop-up window also includes an outbound
link that invites visitors to “read more on Wikipedia.”
By properly labeling this link, teamgeek doesn’t
disrupt the user experience, because visitors should
understand by clicking on these links that they are
opening third-party websites.
 de s i g n &
de v e l o pment digest
3. Be a design showoff.
The most engaging single-page sites impress visitors
with their interactive features. In fact, the interactivity
is one reason why single-page sites can foster higher
engagement metrics than their counterparts.
For example, the website created for Academy
Award winning film Life of Pi (see image C) uses
a single page to tell a story in a captivating way. The
site features parallax scrolling to take visitors through
behind-the-scenes facts, video footage and photos. The
transitions from these navigational elements include
movement, fade-ins and sliding panels, which are
visually appealing and give visitors complete control
over the story-telling experience.

Time to design
As you can see, there are many elements to consider in a
C single-page site. While some designers choose to make
these sites simple and straightforward,
others prefer to provide an out-of-
the-box experience. Regardless of the
virtual design path you take, keep the
aforementioned rules in mind to make
the end-user experience as effortless and
engaging as possible.

| J U L Y 2013
 ENGAGEMENT
The Digital Laws of Attraction
By Peter Prestipino, editor-In-Chief

Imagine the perfect customers. They

visit or participate often, have high
average order values when they buy and
openly promote your company to each
person they meet. That’s the ideal, but
how did those users get so digitally (and
mentally) “engaged” with your brand in
the first place?

| J U L Y 2013

Digital Help
Desk & Live Chat
Strategies
Help desk and live chat
solutions are two very
different approaches to
digital customer service that
stand to give your enterprise
a genuine edge in the
quest for more meaningful
consumer engagement.
Discover effective ‘net
communication tactics at
wsm.co/commstrategies
| J U L Y 2013
Is it simply a matter of chance, or can you, an
Internet professional or Web business owner, take
steps to ensure they stay engaged in the future, and
that others are brought into the virtual fold as loyal
customers? Of course you can, but you’ll need to think
about the virtual laws of attraction to achieve a true
state of digital engagement.
Engagement Initiatives
in Your Enterprise
Worldwide, revenue for customer relationship
management (CRM) software totaled $18 billion
in 2012, up 12.5 percent from 2011 according to IT
research and advisory company Gartner.
“Competition among CRM software vendors really
heated up in 2012, as major players continued to vie
for broader market penetration internationally and
more widespread adoption within midsize to large
enterprises,” said Joanne Correia, vice-president at
Gartner, in a recent company statement.
Gartner indicated that the top-five CRM vendors
accounted for nearly 50 percent of CRM software
revenue in 2012. CRM is obviously a big and booming
market but don’t lose sight of the fact that CRM is but
one mechanism (a software solution really) that can be
used to increase and improve user-engagement rates.
The presence of those solutions alone won’t move the
virtual engagement needle. For that, you will need to
get strategic.
Website Magazine will delve into the complex world
of CRM in its Aug. 2013 issue, but this month let’s
focus on the end game of engagement, and the actual
strategies and solutions that can be employed to fill a
CRM database with quality leads that will benefit your
digital enterprise now and in the future.
Insights on Engagement Analytics
Unlike campaign specific return on advertising spend
(ROAS) or site-wide conversion rates, engagement is
loosely defined, and is thus a far more “flexible” (e.g.
hard to consistently grasp) metric. This means it can be
challenging for an enterprise to formalize a definition,
much less a strategy. But engagement should not be
seen as a single event or individual metric (as it often
is), but rather as a collection of positive, experience-
driven moments/interactions that, through some digital
magic, ultimately lead to loyalty and continued high-
value use.
So what metrics should you use to track engagement?
Arguably the most valuable indicator for the majority
of Website Magazine readers is that of “new versus
returning visitors.” What better immediately available
indicator exists to show whether a brand is engaging
enough to bring digital users back to a website or
 The Most
Engaging
Advertising
application repeatedly? Of course, that’s not the only ultimately result in a poorer
way to understand how engagement initiatives are overall experience. The …Ever
performing. Page depth (average pages viewed per smartest and savviest brands
session) and visit duration are two other valuable know this and leverage Thanks to brands’ near
indicators that you’ve created an immersive experience solutions to ensure that the insatiable appetite for
engagement, there is an
from the virtual ground up. Are you measuring these experience they create for users immense amount of demand
key performance indicators over time? If not, you is the best one. for retargeting/remarketing
solutions. There are many
should be. Web and mobile application advertising and technology
To increase engagement with a digital audience, Evernote provides a good solutions on the market today
capable of driving huge
and in turn improve engagement metrics important to example. The company’s increases in engagement,
your enterprise (which tend to vary per industry), it customer adoption and while resulting in more efficient
campaigns for advertisers.
is imperative for you to address the lifecycle of users retention efforts rely heavily on the popular app’s user Rakuten MediaForge provides
and identify opportunities where your brand can play experience across multiple devices, OS versions and one of the best examples.
Its dynamically retargeted
a supporting role. And it starts at the very beginning. platforms. ads serve as a personalized
“Our goal is to provide the best user experience extension of the shopping
Creating Ideal Foundational Experiences possible on every platform, from mobile to desktop experience on a merchant’s
site for visitors that have had
The goal of a digital enterprise should be to create the to browsers,” said VP of Product at Evernote, Philip previous interactions with the
brand. What makes the ads
optimal user experience. Consider for a moment the Constantinou. “It’s critical that our product teams so appealing is that by their
best product you have ever used. What made it that are independent, can iterate quickly and can build very nature, they’re interactive
(users can search, scroll product
way? Chances are it wasn’t luck; it likely required a fair natively.” lists, participate in games,
amount of testing to ensure that it offered an ideal and In order to understand how customers interact with watch videos and more). It’s
a smarter and savvier display
seamless user experience. the service, and to remove any potential stumbling ad that’s driving engagement
The role of digital product testing and available blocks their users encountered, Evernote turned to and garnering the attention of
Internet professionals.
solutions are covered frequently at Website Magazine UserTesting.com to ensure its user-experience teams
See more examples of
(check out the “Master List of Testing Tools” at have the data and insights they need to improve the interactive digital advertising
wsm.co/wmsitetestinglist). Failure to test websites discoverability of functionality for its users, as well as in Website Magazine’s “Guide
to the Most Engaging Ads…
in general, and more specifically new features, could to deepen engagement. Ever,” available at

| J U L Y 2013
wsm.co/engagingads
 “Inthepast,weusedbetatestingtogetherwithforumsto
gather early feedback, but UserTesting.com gives us high-
fidelity audio/video feedback much more quickly. Also,
UserTesting.com lets us try out experimental versions
of our applications, which is something we could not
do with traditional beta testers,” said Constantinou.
“The end result of leveraging UserTesting.com panels
for Evernote is improved user retention at a rate of over
15 percent, along with an increase in user engagement.”
Creating the Immersive
Content Experience
Most Web professionals will have a difficult time
understanding how something as seemingly mundane
as keyword research can play a role in engagement, but
when you consider just how long the customer lifecycle
can be in some instances, it starts to become clear.
5 Barriers to Engaging Web Design
Web pages that have been specifically targeted and skillfully
developed and designed should not prevent users from
converting, but sometimes they do. To ensure that each page
published on your Web property is meeting customers’ high
standards, avoid the “5 Barriers to Engaging Web Design,”
available at wsm.co/designbarriers.
| J U L Y 2013
Content marketing has been the digital term du jour for
some time now, but how to leverage it — particularly as a
means to deepen engagement — is still a relative mystery.
If that sounds like your marketing team, remember that
engagement is about the whole lifecycle of customer
relationships, of which can potentially influence the
return on investment, but only over time.
Keyword research is clearly important to the success
of an SEO campaign, as you need to know what content
will attract users. But those prospects aren’t static (they
don’t search the same things repeatedly). They’re
dynamic and your brand’s approach to keyword
research, as well as content development strategies
should match that.
Bing suggested a rather unique approach to keyword
research recently that search engine optimization
professionals may seriously want to consider. It suggests
supplementing the keyword research you’re currently
engaged in and enhance it with what it’s calling “session-
based keyword research” (instead of query-based).
While Bing repetitively (if not aggressively) suggested
that no keyword tool exists (from any search engine)
that enables marketers and advertisers to do this. It
doesn’t take a visionary to see that Bing is obviously
working on something for this implicit purpose.
Bing provided the example of a user who on one day
searches for “adopt a dog” and the next day queries
MASTER LIST of Retargeting & Remarketing Solutions
Advertisers looking to jump into the retargeting space would be wise to
understand the varied and diverse landscape of providers. Some vendors
offer email retargeting, some offer search and display retargeting and some
just do it all. Which is right for your digital enterprise? Find out with Website
Magazine’s “Master List of Retargeting Solutions for the Modern Digital
Magazine
Business” at wsm.co/remarketingmaster.
“puppy training.” This example presents an obvious
progression in user behavior. The question is, does
your keyword research inform your content marketing
in this way? When marketers can expand their vision
about the broader and longer experiences of users,
they’ll be better able to position their products, content
and services to users when and how they might want
them.
The suggestion also has advertising ramifications.
Brands that fit quite neatly in a particular category,
a pet store for example, might soon see a tool (a
Bing Ads keyword tool) that suggests a more
comprehensive keyword flow for advertisers to
consider advertising upon.
CreatingSafe&DependableInteractions
Companies, whether they know it or not, give cues
to consumers about their viability. Imagine you’re in
a tavern and you see a good looking person across
the room. The cues you pick up there are not unlike
the cues consumers use to know whether you’re an
| J U L Y 2013
ideal candidate to serve their needs. Having a website
that builds trust provides the digital property (and
supporting company) with the ability to improve the
visitor’s attitude and leave him or her with a level of
comfort that its site (and products or services) can
indeed be trusted.
There are, of course, numerous ways to position
a brand as an “ideal” candidate. While the most
important element is to obviously have a professional
website designed for an engaging and immersive
consumers just won’t drive visitors away. The next
opportunity, but arguably a more essential one, is to
highlight the business’s credibility. The best
way to do that is to avoid some things and
showcase others. Let’s call it digital peacocking,
emphasizing the brand’s expertise and experience,
profiling relationships and associations that convey
a positive image that consumers associate with ideal
candidates.
Trustmarks and Web privacy seals are essentially
small images or logos that show a guarantee of sorts
by an external party, which indicate to consumers that
it is safe to shop and use the site, in general. Some of
the more popular trustmarks come from Network
solutions, McAfee, Verisign, BBB, TRUSTe,
GeoTrust, etc — see WM’s “Big List of Trustmarks”
at wsm.co/trustmarks13. Accreditation certificates,
 such as these, give customers a sense of security and the
confidence needed for when it is necessary that they
share private information. Essentially, website visitors
are more inclined to make a purchase if they know that
their payment details are safe from prying eyes.
There are likely diminishing returns from
trustmarks, particularly in the case when returning
visitors far outweigh new visitors. These sites don’t
need to pass security and privacy tests to confirm
reliability or security, because they already have
a good reputation. Consider trustmarks for your
website only should engagement metrics reveal
that trust in products, services or information is low
and needs improving. Apart from trustmarks, a
clear design, convenient menus, detailed product
descriptions and user reviews are also important for
creating a better online reputation. Trust plays an
important role in a customer’s willingness to part with
their money. One mistake and you’re out. For that
reason, making the most of the time consumers spend
on (and near) your website is the next law of digital
engagement to consider.
Creating Actionable Experiences
If there’s one group of Internet professionals
that are real believers in digital engagement, it’s
e-commerce merchants.
| J U L Y 2013
In a recent report from Econsultancy and Monetate,
more than nine out of 10 marketers agreed that
personalization is critical to their brands’ success.
However, 47 percent of surveyed respondents say IT
roadblocks prevent them from improving the user
experience on their sites. Website personalization is
a pathway to higher revenue streams and long-term
customer loyalty, but why aren’t more Web workers
actively exploring the possibilities? Perhaps it’s because
there is some confusion about what it all means.
Internet retailers were the first adopters of
recommendation technologies, but those e-commerce
features alone (which are now quite ubiquitous among
popular e-commerce platforms) were only the gateways
to the far more personalized digital experience of today.
Vendors, including RichRelevance and Strands, have
produced solutions that are used by brands
across the globe to increase conversions,
reduce cart abandonment, increase
DON’T MISS: Top 50
Engagement & Loyalty Solutions
Website Magazine featured 50 leading engagement
and loyalty solutions in different categories that warrant
exploration by Internet professionals. Access the
complete list by visiting wsm.co/top50june13.
 average order size, improve customer retention and
create new occasions to purchase — but more can be
done.
These recommendation services were excellent
additions for those merchants looking to upsell
consumers based on the behaviors of others (for example,
Amazon’s “People that bought that, also bought this”
feature), or clear out their inventory by profiling popular
items. But these approaches stopped short of selling
directly upon the activities of individual users. For that,
merchants needed to turn to personalization
solutions that weave into the customer experience.
Today, that’s most often achieved through remarketing
and retargeting users. For example, EmailVision’s
Campaign Commander offering empowers
marketers to reach audiences with messages
“ Essentially, leveraging customer data across email, search and
gamification social channels.
Even with all the advancement in personalization
needs to and recommendations based upon user behavior,
encourage sometimes what brands really need is a few perks and
particular incentives to keep the engagement flowing.
pre-defined Creating a Loyal User Base with Perks
behaviors. ” & Incentives
You might be confident that your prospective and
current users are receiving the best experiences and all
| J U L Y 2013
your existing feedback mechanisms indicate you’re the
market leader, but it’s often necessary to take a few extra
steps. Consider implementing technology solutions
and marketing practices that will guarantee your brand
stays top-of-mind when it matters most — when users
are ready to buy.
Today’s most competitive enterprises are exploring
and leveraging loyalty, incentive and gamification
solutions to kick up digital engagement a few additional
notches. Make no mistake, without products people
actually want to consume, these solutions can prove
quite wasteful. But if you’re confident your goods are in
demand and services are exceptional, programs of this
nature are quite a powerful way to keep users coming
back.
Information publishers likely have the toughest
go when it comes to deploying loyalty and
engagement campaigns, but over the past few years
gamification has emerged to help keep interested
users involved. Publishers need to keep their
users in mind when deploying these solutions,
understanding which game mechanics in particular can
drive users toward the things they already value
or educate them on sections of your site that will
more fully satisfy their requirements and your own.
Essentially, gamification needs to encourage particular
pre-defined behaviors.
 Users who we want to engage aren’t always
positioned firmly in front of their desktops, often,
they’re on the go and if you can get in front of them,
the rewards can be immense. Mobile loyalty programs,
including those provided by Perka, are the solutions
for those that want to bridge the gap and leverage
technology in the offline world. Perka, for example, lets
its business users create offers and send them directly
to their customers’ phones. If you’re anything like your
average modern consumer, it’s not hard to see how
this practice can be used to increase engagement over
and over again.
(Editor’s Note: For more ways to reach local consumers on
the go, visit page 41.)
Creating Helpful Information-Based
Experiences
Most of the queries conducted on popular search
engines aren’t transaction or navigation focused,
but rather information-based. Essentially, users
aren’t necessarily looking to go to your website
(unless they actually enter in your company name
into the search box) or buy something immediately
from your particular brand, but rather to research
products and services so they can make prudent
| J U L Y 2013
decisions when the time comes. That quest for
information however doesn’t, and shouldn’t stop at the
search engines. It’s the brand’s responsibility to educate
their users.
Self-defined guidance and engagement platform
WalkMe, for example, enables its customers to guide
and engage prospects, customers, employees or partners
through any Web experiences, such as the release of a
new software feature.
WalkMe client PlanetSoho, which boasts more
than 1 million users, previously supported clients
with service tickets, but turned to WalkMe to create
virtual walkthroughs of its offerings. It’s not just service
providers that can use the platform. Retailers, such as
Element Bar, use it to enable users to customize their
own health bars with a step-by-step guide.
The information that companies can gather
from WalkMe includes how many people
started the walkthroughs, how many completed
their goals and the number of faulty walkthroughs.
But that’s not even remotely the most interesting
aspect, that honor is given to WalkMe’s condition
builder. While it’s not right for every implementation,
the feature enables advanced system users to
understand parameters on the page or in an account,
and serve up customized prompts that support users’
 specific needs, presenting information personalized to
them.
WalkMe’s service can help reduce bounce rates and
increase conversions and average revenue per user
by directing them to higher value areas. The basic
WalkMe package is free (three walkthroughs and
used up to 300 times) and the more views, the more
expensive the service is.

Be Magnetic to Drive Engagement

There’s no single approach an enterprise can take
to deepen engagement. It’s a commitment
that you must make to creating positive
design experiences, acknowledging
just how important consumer
perception is, serving users content
and displaying advertising that is
both appealing and immersive,
motivating them when necessary
and supporting them throughout
the digital lifecycle. Engagement,
for the digital enterprise, is a way of
life — make yours count.

| J U L Y 2013
 SoFTWaRe eveRYWHeRe

Local with They’re also, with the help of the myriad software solutions available,
an easy platform for companies to cash in on all the advantages of
local marketing. Just ask Elements Frozen Yogurt in Washington

LOYALTY
By amberly Dressler, Managing editor
Consumers love their loyalty programs and crave their cell-
phones, making mobile loyalty programs a win-win for users
and marketers.
state.
Perka, a loyalty program that lets merchants recognize repeat
customers with increasing tiers of “perks,” helped this company
capture local attention and build a valuable (e.g. local and engaged)
customer marketing database by offering a limited-time special
to increase initial Perka sign-ups. Elements Frozen Yogurt now
has more than 1,000 Perka participants active at every level of its
program. Additionally, this company and others can use Perka to
level the playing field, because this software empowers businesses to
run virtually the same mobile marketing programs as major brands,
while standing out from local competition and keeping pace with
industry leaders.

| J U L Y 2013
 SoFTWaRe eveRYWHeRe
Location-based marketing is not dependent on a
loyalty program, however. By using a phone’s location
and messaging abilities, companies can deliver relevant,
personalized communication wherever a person is —
no such opportunity has ever existed before.
Urban Airship, a mobile marketing solution, has
both written extensively on this subject and is a strong
advocate of location-based engagement. It offers a
location-targeting add-on to its Push Messaging Suite,
which enables marketers to target neighborhoods,
legislative districts, cities, counties, landmarks, venues,
time zones and many more specific local boundaries.
Brands can use this information to create detailed user
profiles that combine in-app behavior, user preferences,
location data and device/system information to deliver
highly targeted push notifications, according to Urban
Airship. And, at the end of the day, this high-value
messaging can increase app engagement and loyalty,
because it offers an immersive, relevant experience
based on who a user is, where they are and what they
like.
Additionally, Urban Airship offers a Rich Push
product that creates opportunities to deliver coupons,
movie tickets and more based on the aforementioned
user data, with the goal of driving brand loyalty.
NextBee, a referral program and loyalty rewards
software, can also benefit both SMBs and enterprises by
| J U L Y 2013
Loyalty
Leaders
See what brands are
conquering user engagement
offering localized coupons, through social, local and
sweepstakes and Facebook mobile offerings at
wsm.co/solomoloyalty13
apps. Local is more than a
buzzword for NextBee, as it
helps companies tap into the
reach of local influencers,
boost campaign success and ROI that
go beyond simple coupon offers to include tiered
points rewards, matching charity donations, cash-back
rewards, sweepstakes, leaderboards, etc. Additionally,
NextBee offers specialized, user profile-centered
metrics to get insights into user engagement, direct
sales impact of promotions and social buzz. After all,
in today’s metrics-centric world, campaigns that do
not have tracking in place are unworkable. Companies
need to be able to measure campaign performance to
test and tweak variables.
We’ve just started to scratch the surface of the various
local loyalty software solutions available. PunchTab,
which powers more than 12,000 sites and reaches
20,000,000-plus users, works as an on-demand
engagement platform that enables companies to
easily offer rewards and incentives when users “show
up,” share and shop. Among its many offerings, is its
location and event promotion solution, which builds
engagement online and off, before and after an event,
continues the conversation post-event, and increases
 SoFTWaRe eveRYWHeRe

attendance and participation. For example, the popular

“Companies should look for
band Green Day targeted and encouraged social software solutions that are adapting
media engagement with an audience that would be to consumers, not making consumers
receptive to its messaging. Using PunchTab, the band
rewarded fans for tweeting, tagging and checking-in
(a.k.a. local engagement) with weekly chances to win
adapt to them.
”
tickets and band swag. These band-specific rewards
discourage participation from people not interested in
Green Day beyond incentives, because a band T-shirt
is meaningless to a non-fan. As such, the number of
entrants (approximately 20,000), actions (181,937)
and unique users reached on Twitter (4.1 million)
netted $1.7 million in earned media value across social Get Web Tips
channels.
In today’s push toward social-local-mobile Delivered
(SoLoMo), brands must meet customers where they · Design & Development
are and provide a rich experience to encourage long- · E-Commerce Express
term engagement. And while the loyalty matrix will · Mastering SEO-SEM
continue to evolve, so will the offerings that support · Social-Local-Mobile
them. Companies should look for software solutions · Web Success Weekly
that are adapting to consumers, not making consumers
No Gossip. No celebs. No stock
adapt to them. reports. Just Web tips and trends
from Website Magazine Editors. And
sometimes a prediction.

Sign up for newsletters at WebsiteMagazine.com/email

| J U L Y 2013
 Social Media MavenS

How to Leverage

Social
Login
to Boost Engagement
By Bill Piwonka, vP of Marketing at Janrain

Think about a time when you’ve been really engaged in a social

setting. What made that experience stand out? Most likely,
whatever you were doing had personal meaning. The people
you were sharing the experience with probably held a common
interest or passion, knew some, or a lot, of your personal
characteristics and perhaps had insight into your past. These
combined into a situation in which you were able to laugh, argue,
share, emote, and derive meaning and satisfaction.

| J U L Y 2013

A prevailing theme over the past few years with regard
to online success has been to “engage” with clients
and prospects. But as you likely know, you can’t
just manufacture authentic, personalized and
meaningful engagement.
This type of interaction has been
difficult to achieve online, primarily
because it’s been a challenge for
marketers to really know their
online visitors. It has been possible
to infer certain things based on
page views, past purchase history,
IP addresses and the like, but
these techniques all suffer from
significant hurdles (e.g. deleted
cookies, access from multiple
devices, gift purchases, etc.).
One way marketers have
attempted to overcome these
obstacles is through forms
(registration and site login). These
elements have been used as a way
to both identify online consumers
and learn more about them. However, a
recent study commissioned by Janrain
(wsm.co/janrainstudy) confirms that consumers
have become weary of this approach. No one wants to
| J U L Y 2013
Social Media MavenS
fill in a bunch of fields or have to create and remember yet
another unique username and password combination.
The study found that the use of registration forms may
be costing companies, as 92 percent of respondents
reported leaving a website during sign-on versus taking
the steps to reset or recover their password information.
As such, it is more important than ever for websites
to utilize social login. An alternative to the traditional
registration and sign-in process, social login allows
website visitors to use an existing ID from a social
network such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.,
to log in or register on their favorite sites. Social
login technology enables users to securely and easily
sign-up on a site often in two clicks or less. During this
process, consumers can choose to share information
(e.g. verified email address, marital status, birthday,
location, interests, work history and more) from their
social profile data with a brand site. This data is highly
accurate, as it is declared, first-person data, meaning
marketers don’t have to infer anything about the user,
they just have to ask their permission to collect it.
The data can then be used to pre-populate sign-up
forms if additional data fields are needed, which
eliminates the need for users to enter redundant
information, improves data quality and increases
registration conversion rates. And once the data
has been collected, it can then be leveraged to help
 Social Media MavenS

drive engagement through personalization and Another leading online brand, Dr Pepper Snapple
recommendation engines, loyalty and rewards (game Group, also recognized the opportunity to better
mechanics) and other applications. interact with their consumers by streamlining the very
Samsung is a great example of social login success. process that initiates engagement: registration.
The company deployed social login to simplify the The first deployment of social login for the company
account creation process was on Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s
that customers utilize to “Every Bottle Wins!” campaign, which
register products, which helps is a popular, ongoing engagement
Samsung identify and learn promotion on Facebook. Using their
more about their customers. social login ID, consumers could
The company was also redeem codes and deposit credits for
able to use the social profile Users who chose social brand drinks. More than 90 percent
data to maximize their email of new fans participated, enabling
marketing, a key element login to create or access the brand to earn permission-based
in its broader digital plan. an account were high- access to social profile data to improve
Emails drive recipients to a future marketing initiatives.
value customers.
“ The kicker “Shop Now” link that helps
them find a retailer to make a
The kicker here is that your
customers and prospects build
here is that your purchase. After five months, more brand preference when social
customers and it became apparent that login is offered. Sixty-five percent of
customers who chose social login to create or access an consumers, according to Janrain’s study, agreed they
prospects build
account were high-value customers; approximately 34 are more likely to return to a website that offers social
more brand percent more likely to open email, 63 percent more login, and 60 percent agreed that companies offering
preference when likely to click through a link in an email and, perhaps social login are more up-to-date and innovative than
most interesting, 506 percent more likely to leave companies that don’t.
social login is
a product review.
offered. ”
| J U L Y 2013
 eMail eXPeRIenCe
EMAIL
ENERGIZED
10 WAYS TO GENERATE POWERFUL EMAIL IDEAS
By Pam neely
When you send out weekly, if not daily, email
messages, you’re bound to run out of ideas, even
bad ones, sooner than later. The good news is
that by opening your mind (and sometimes your
inbox), the next effective approach could be just
a few clicks away.
If your engagement metrics are getting weaker — fewer
click-throughs, increases in unsubscribes, etc. — use
these ideas to re-energize your email marketing efforts.
1) leverage social media assets. You’ve
worked hard to get all those likes and followers. These
individual brand and messaging validations, as well as
ongoing interactions, can serve as insights into what
customers want.
Ask yourself: What do they respond to? Which
questions or contests receive the most response? What
| J U L Y 2013
questions do they ask the most? What are they sharing?
What do they discuss with you in direct messages? How
could those interests morph into an email message, or
better yet, messages?
For instance, perhaps your Facebook fans are posting
photos regularly, could you create an email profiling
customer photos? A regularly emailed collection of
fan photos will receive plenty of attention and click-
throughs, as recipients will feel like they’re part of your
brand experience.
Also consider what customers are commenting on.
What updates or shares get the most likes, tweets and
pins? Can you make more of those content assets? Will
it work in (translate to) an email message?
2) offer an exclusive discount or sale.
The primary reason people sign up to email lists is
to get access to special sales and discounts. Have you
 eMail eXPeRIenCe

made good on that promise lately? 4) Know everything about your niche.
If you haven’t given your subscribers a really good Check online forums and groups, join networking
sale (e.g. 20 percent off their next purchase), then that’s organizations and participate actively in everything
the first email you should send. related to your brand’s product or service.
Another technique is to partake in inventory But remember, you’re there to listen, and maybe ask
clearance. If there is product stock that needs to move 1-2 questions. Never pitch products at this point; you
(to make way for new inventory), consider offering want to look for common problems that exist and what
a limited-time discount or discounting it heavily, the newbies’ questions or experts’ concerns tend to be.
offering it to subscribers until it sells out. This “scarcity Pay particular attention to the problems that
marketing” technique has been overused, but in this are hardest to solve and the information that is
case, your shortage is legit. most difficult to find. This is where your emails can
make the most difference and generate the best
3) Use customer insights. Employees in your results. As you know, there is a glut of information
service or support department know an enormous available on the Web, but sometimes, there’s almost no
amount about your company’s customers. They not information available on how to solve the toughest
only know what the most common complaints problems. That’s where your emails could become
are, but they also know what generates valuable and viral treasures.
compliments, which can serve as additional
t e an ideas for your next email. 5) ask them. You have that Facebook page, use
a l
Cre ditoria Try to engage in regular discussions it. Ask your customers what they want to get in their
a il E r with your customer service team to emails. Even offer to let them develop some of the email
Em n d a
C a le pe nt find out what they know about content. Social media has put customers in the driver’s
s
the time n by your customers that you don’t. seat, so if you’re sick of driving, give them the wheel
z e tio
imi rea
Max ontent c success You might even ask them for a while.
n c o r le13
o ing f edu how they would take their
plann m.co/sch
at w
s knowledge and put it into an email. You may 6) Sniff out the competition. Don’t steal
not be able to use everything they suggest, but ideas, but do read your competitors’ content. Do they
there’s sure to be some gems. have dozens of popular videos, a vast on-site how-to

| J U L Y 2013
 eMail eXPeRIenCe
Pam Neely is a copywriter
and email strategist. To
download the free report,
“50 Ways to Grow Your Email
List,” visit pamneely.com.
| J U L Y 2013
section or a popular Pinterest account?
Follow your competitors closely. Sign up for their
email lists, subscribe to their YouTube channels,
follow them on Twitter and Pinterest and Like them
on Facebook. Set up Google alerts for their brand and
product names.
All that listening is NOT to steal their content.
It is to seed your own content creation with
good ideas and show you what not to cover.
You don’t want to publish a blog post on the same topic
that one of your competitors published a week ago,
right?
Also consider addressing the gaps in their content
and for openings/opportunities in the content your
niche has produced as a whole. Capitalize on those
opportunities and your subscribers will benefit, as will
your email metrics.
7) Set up a listening station for your
product names and top keywords. This will
actually be several sites, plus the strategic use of a few
tools, like TweetGrid.
This is similar to listening in on social media sites
and learning all you can about your topic, but creating
a listening station may lead you to sources that you
didn’t know about before. For example, maybe your
company is all over Quora, but you have only been
checking LinkedIn.
8) Play around with a keyword tool. This
becomes even more effective if you use several tools.
See how keywords are related. There may be a related
topic that no one has ever writen about that would be
perfect for your audience.
9) Borrow from other industries or
mediums. Take what works from another industry
and apply it to your own. Not everything will work,
but this is the kind of out-of-the box thinking that
can generate a sharing domino effect. For example, a
“Monster Truck Fashion Show” is sure to capture the
attention (and clicks of users) out of curiosity alone.
10) Seek an expert. There are hundreds of
experts, in any given niche, who would love to show
off their knowledge. Authors are especially hungry for
attention.
An interview usually makes for interesting,
promotable content. The email can be a summary or an
embedded video. It could link to a transcript, a podcast,
a longer video or an article on your website.
Utilizing other professionals’ expertise is especially
good for tight marketing budgets, as experts regularly
work free in exchange for some promotion (e.g. a short
pitch at the end of the interview or a byline). This way,
they get exposure, you get content and your subscribers
get a great email. Everybody wins.
Master the
Web Fundamentals
Web 360: Fundamentals of Web Success is the one-and-only
guide to mastering all the elements critical to Web success.

Here’s what subscribers are

saying about Web360:
“A must-read for any level of Internet
marketer.”
“Very impressed with both the journal as
well as the no-nonsense book.”
“So much insightful information I had to reread
the book, highlighting all over the place.”

To learn more, visit

WebsiteMagazine.com/Web360
| J U L Y 2013
Does Cognitive
Bias Kill
Creativity?
By Paul Ralph, PhD, Lecturer in Design
Science at the Lancaster University Management School
When you aim for a creative solution — not simply
an incremental improvement, but a real innova-
tion — you pick a fight with your own brain. Vast
arrays of systematic deviations from optimal
reasoning, which psychologists call “cognitive
biases,” conspire to subvert your creativity. Here
are six bias-infused errors you may recognize.
1. it’s not my fault, it’s default...
Defaults matter. Just ask Facebook about default
privacy settings. But the tendency to choose the
default option, called default bias, goes far beyond
| J U L Y 2013
leaving the checkboxes checked. When you design,
you unconsciously accept myriad default patterns
you learned in school, at work or developed on
your own, without thinking about more creative,
appropriate solutions. How long were sites still
organized as hundreds of nested tables after better
approaches came along?
2. Thinking is what they made
me do in school...
It’s no wonder today’s design looks strikingly similar
to last year’s portfolio. Creative thinking is hard
work. In fact, thinking is so enervating that we have

Bias-Free
Design
Outsmart your brain with
these resources available
at wsm.co/biasfree13
Designers are
invested, and when
evolved a tendency to avoid all but the most superficial output of conceptual
cognition — a tendency called Miserly Information design,” according you get invested in a
Processing. MIP drives us simply to replicate our to a Design Studies decision, reversing it
previous ideas with minor tweaks, to provide only paper out of Texas
the minimum number of acceptable mock-ups and to A&M. Innovation
feels terrible.
take the client’s words as fact, even when we know we demands willingness
should question the so-called “requirements.” to revisit, change or
abandon every aspect
3. if this is the wagon, i want of the design. Creativity
to fall off... demands that we question exactly those principles,
Todayit’sparallaxscrollingandiconfonts.Yesterdayitwas technologies and approaches that are most sacrosanct.
frames and image maps. The design arena is so saturated
with fads that discerning fundamental rules or patterns 5. Weaknesses?
is nearly impossible. That’s the bandwagon effect — a What weaknesses?
kind of groupthink where the desire to adopt something When you look at a website, you do not see every pixel
increases as our peers adopt it. The problem is that the equally. Your attention is drawn to one area or another
bandwagon effect can lead us to apply our shiny new based on both the site’s design and your purpose in
toy to inappropriate situations and to overestimate the viewing it. So it is with life in general. We perceive
silver bullet-ness of new technology. reality selectively, attending to some things more than
others. The issue is that we pay more attention to things
4. one step forward, three steps that support our ideas, values and beliefs than things
back, invent jetpack... that refute them. This Confirmation Bias obscures the
Great designers pour their emotions, their egos and weaknesses of our designs to our own eyes and hinders
their very identities into their work. Designers are critical reflection.
invested, and when you get invested in a decision,
reversing it feels terrible. This inconceivability of 6. if it ain’t broke...
revisiting previous decisions leads to design fixation, “a When Facebook (a free site, in case we have all
blind adherence to a set of ideas or concepts limiting the forgotten) moves something, anything, even from

| J U L Y 2013
 Get Social with
one side of the window to another, the outcry is
overwhelming, seemingly regardless of the functional
Web Pros
or aesthetic implications of the adjustment. People tend
to irrationally prefer and defend the status quo — an
Join Website Magazine
entwined pair of phenomena known as status quo bias editors, writers, and readers
and system justification. These biases not only underpin on these social networks:
users’ irrational resistance to change, but also explain
designers’ unthinking replication of similar interface
patterns. Why, for instance, are we still storing “files”
in “folders,” or more fundamentally, data in tables?
LinkedIn Facebook Google+ Twitter
de-Biasing
The worst of it is that these biases act collectively to
shut down our creative and critical thinking. We
end up solving the wrong problem using
popular, but ineffective, approaches,
ignoring or downplaying faults and then
replicating the same toxic patterns in
the next project. Fortunately, software
engineering researchers are developing
a host of simple practices for de-biasing
designers, but that’s another list.

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS

WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

| J U L Y 2013
 WeB HOSTInG PaneL

Software Matters:
Get Platform-iliar
By Peter Prestipino, editor-In-Chief

There will come a time as an Internet professional when you are ready to spread your digital
wings and expand your Web business to leverage all those mad skills you’ve developed
over the years. One of the best opportunities to do that, particularly if you’re a Web designer/
developer, is to become a reseller of Web hosting services.

So what are those mad skills? What should you know about, and be exceedingly good at, right now
to ensure that your digital efforts as a Web hosting reseller aren’t in vain? Above all else, you’ll need
to become an expert in platforms (or at least platform-iliar), understanding what they are, how
they work, their best features and biggest flaws and how they can be used within
individual scenarios for your clients and to your benefit.
Make no mistake, there’s much to master when it comes to being a successful
hostingreseller,anditdoesnotstopatplatformsalone.
To attract clients, you’ll need to be able to explain
| J U L Y 2013
 WeB HOSTInG PaneL
hosting in practical terms (and market your services efficiently).
You’ll also need to know how to evaluate different providers (on
technology, cost, functionality and support), understand how to
use the myriad essential tools and services available (DNS, email,
FTP, databases), manage security and access and a whole lot more.
Read Website Magazine’s “So You Wanna Be a Hosting Reseller” at
wsm.co/resellerhandbook to learn more about the practice in
greater detail.
It’s also valuable, however, to think about the specific platform
that you’ll be hosting — the software packages and server-based
scripts that your clients will use as the actual foundation of their
website. It’s what the buyers of hosting services are actually looking
for in the first place, whether they know it or not, at the outset of
your experience with them.
Web hosts on the whole do a rather poor job of expressing
what it is they actually offer and the genuine value they
| J U L Y 2013
can provide to users. If you, as a hosting reseller, can manage
to capture a particular niche (or least gain some traction within
it), your enterprise will be much better off for it. Consider the
suggestions below for the next, or first, big marketing campaign of
your reseller hosting business, and you’ll be on your way to greater
profits in no time.
Select a Hosting Niche
The problem with many hosting providers is that they are generalists,
not specialists. They essentially just provide the infrastructure,
the disk space and bandwidth, and fail to market features that
users really want, differentiating their offerings from that of the
competition in the process.
The Internet is full of hosting
providers that cater to bloggers and
information publishers (those using
content management
systems) and
WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are leading the way in those (be it microblog hosting or learning management system hosting),
categories, at least in the open source market. Each of those solutions you’ll be better able to plan for success, minimizing the amount of
is well-liked and heavily utilized by the broader Web population. support and maximizing your marketing opportunities.
As a hosting reseller, however, it’s a crowded market niche and
one that you might be wise to avoid. So, what other options are Grow Slowly & intentionally
available? Reselling Web-hosting services has been challenging in the past.
How about hosting image galleries exclusively? At the right Rethinking your approach, becoming more of a hosting specialist
price point, artists and designers could flock to a user-friendly than generalist and pricing your hosting product accordingly will
offering which enable them to set up and store their creative assets. ensure that you can take your mad digital skills to the bank.
Or perhaps host wikis, where your reseller hosting clients could
develop collaborative, topic-focused Web destinations with your
support. Another option would be to host forums (Vanilla, bPress or
phpBB), microblogs (Status.net or PageCookery), social networks
(Dolphin or Elgg) or even learning management systems (Moodle,
.LRN, eFront, Dokeos, Sakai and others).

offer the Right Packages

One of the benefits of reseller hosting is that you can control the
hosting packages. Often Web hosts offer packages that just aren’t
ideal for your needs. But when you resell hosting, you’re allotted
a certain amount of bandwidth and disk space to do with as you
wish. Say you’re given 50 GB of bandwidth and 50 GB of disk space
to resell as you see fit. In this instance, you could set up 50 hosting
packages with 1GB of bandwidth and 1GB of disk space, or two
accounts with 25GB of bandwidth and 25GB of disk space. The
advantage of having control over how hosting packages are set up is
that you’re in control and can customize individual accounts to suit
your personal revenue needs. If you know your hosting specialty

| J U L Y 2013
 Catering to the New

B2B/B2C
Hybrid Consumer
By Tjip Sugijoto, Managing Director of Americas, Intershop

The “consumerization” of B2B commerce is here. Consumers have

become savvier when shopping online, and so have the retailers that
compete for their dollars. Consumers expect e-commerce sites to be
intuitive, easy to navigate and simple to use. So, when these
consumers turn their attention to their day jobs, they
understandably expect the same level of online shopping
functionality for their business requirements. B2B
organizations need to embrace the lessons learned
in the consumer market to better service their
professional customers.

From transitioning direct customers to an online portal

to continuing to provide personal service and support,
best practices are emerging to help companies make
the most of their e-business initiatives.

| J U L Y 2013
 1. Focus on the Customer Experience
Consumer-focused retailers have invested heavily in
mapping the customer journey to ensure their websites
drive sales and build brand loyalty. Understanding the
B2B customer journey is an equally wise investment
for companies courting the corporate buyer. To
provide a customer experience that creates loyalty
requires a site that is not only visually appealing and
offers streamlined navigational elements, but also one
that presents relevant information to the customer.
Tailoring the content of the page (with recent products
purchases, customer’s contract pricing or last delivery
address) will enhance the customer’s experience. The
checkout process must also be intuitive, including
B2B retailers offering a variety of payment and delivery methods,
need to harness providing a one-click checkout, and offering phone
and chat support.
insights learned
from B2C 2. Combine Merchandising
retailers to offer and Search
Alongside managing complex product categories and
e-commerce assortments, B2B retailers now need to create and
experiences deliver relevant content that is appropriate to each
channel, drive value-added multichannel pricing and
that support offer packaging/bundling at appropriate points in the
new corporate purchase cycle, while executing relevant and targeted
consumers. marketing campaigns.
B2B sites must also have robust search capabilities,
| J U L Y 2013
which allow customers to find the preferred product
easily and in multiple ways, such as simple text search,
attribute search, and search result refinement or search
filters. Combining merchandising with search can
boost order value and generate higher repeat activity.
Better yet, combining search with accurate and up-to-
the minute inventory by integrating e-commerce with
the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system will
ensure customers are not devaluing the brand when
the products are not available.
3. Offer Promotions
It’s commonplace for consumers to receive
email promotions highlighting the latest sales or
offering percent-off coupons, daily deals and buy
one, get one free offers. B2B buyers should expect
the same. Promotional discounts of free shipping and
reduced pricing should be offered in the same way
to B2B consumers.
4. Make Recommendations
Alongside an advanced search, you can take
lessons from the consumer-site playbook to make
recommendations based on what products the end-
user has reviewed. Say they are looking at purchasing
100 desks, recommendations for chairs might be
appropriate. Or if they are stocking up on toilet cleaner,
maybe they need toilet bowl brushes. Just as a retailer

will suggest complete-the-look clothing advice, B2B
retailers need to do the same.
Return customers should also be offered suggestions
based on what they have previously purchased and
offer promotions based on these recommendations.
5. Support Repeat Visits
Customers want to place orders quickly, so creating
compelling experiences that allow access to things
like preferences, re-order templates and order
history between visits is vital. This requires access to
information contained in the backend ERP systems.
Because ERP systems have been built to allow expert
internal users within an organization to do their jobs
efficiently, they lack the inherent ability to provide a
Master
Affiliate
Marketing
Affiliate 360: Fundamentals of Performance
Marketing provides a foundation for
understanding the challenges and
opportunities in affiliate marketing, so you
can shorten your road to Web success.
Affiliate 360, published by Website Magazine, is an action
plan for achieving success as an affiliate marketer. You’ll
find yourself highlighting and earmarking the pages, as
you discover practical tools and effective strategies from
top minds in performance marketing.

compelling customer-facing experience. By ensuring

the e-commerce platform links to the ERP system,
B2B organizations can support repeat visits similar
to consumerized sites by incorporating preferences
and order history between visits. Supporting “expert”
buyers will strengthen brand loyalty.
B2B retailers need to harness insights learned from
B2C retailers to offer e-commerce experiences that
support new corporate consumers. Complex
sales processes aside, usability, insightful
recommendations, inventory availability and
appropriate merchandising will all help to support
repeat business and brand loyalty.

| J U L Y 2013
To learn more, visit WebsiteMagazine.com/Web360
aFFiliaTe InSIDeR

Niche Marketing
That Works
By Amie Marse, Founder of Content Equals Money

It’s a data-driven world, and Internet pros are just living in it.
Those truly thriving in this new era are using big data to
refine audience targets to reach the most responsive
segments. This is why marketing smaller and smarter,
is so appealing today to brands of all sizes.

How Niche Marketing Works

Niche marketing represents a shift in marketing tactics from the general
to the specific. An effective niche-marketing plan will be hyper-focused
on satisfying a particular need of the prospective consumer base. A niche
market could be a creative new product that fills a market void, or it
could just be a fresh spin on a classic product. For example, say a wheat
farm has been in a family for generations and sells its bread products
to national grocery store chains. A farm employee discovers that its
Buckwheat grain can be part of a gluten-free diet. With the current

| J U L Y 2013
 aFFiliaTe InSIDeR
Adopt Data
Analysis
a recent report indicates
only 11 percent of market-
ers are focusing on data. at
this rate, robotic algorithms
will overtake marketers in
just a few short years.
| J U L Y 2013
prevalence of Celiac disease (gluten intolerance), the
farm begins producing gluten-free, Buckwheat bread
and markets it to people with this very specific need.
This niche marketing highlights the farm’s innovation
and tangible worth. This can not only make the brand
more competitive, but its marketing messages should
also foster a word-of-mouth environment (as minimal
gluten-free breads are available), which can lower
marketing costs.
Implementing an Effective
“Niche” Strategy
A successful niche marketing strategy will also serve
as an authoritative voice in the market. As a company
develops a product, it must be aware of the interests
and desires of the niche market in order to connect
with them.
Utilizing data is the surest way to develop an
understanding of a niche market. Let’s go back to the
farm. By gathering data on those with Celiac disease
(e.g. age group and gender most likely to have it) and
who purchases gluten-free products (e.g. moms for
their children, Californians, etc.), the farm can market
to an even smaller audience. In turn, it can optimize
the display ads they deliver, the social media posts
they share and/or the terminology they use in email
campaigns to address these specifics.
Identifying groups to target is the primary motivation
for studying data. Different types of targeting are more
effective for various markets, so concentrating on the
appropriate targeting style will generate a higher rate
of response. For instance, a company might engage in
whole human targeting, which means that it takes into
consideration occupation, demographic, personality,
social affiliations and interests. Alternatively, the
marketers might find that literal targeting is more
productive for them, meaning that they market their
product to obvious clients (e.g. gluten-free bread to
those with Celiac disease).
For a traditional marketing specialist, the transition
to relying heavily on data can be a challenge. Many are
prone to following their instincts. In many cases, this
approach is fruitful, but without data to back it up, the
marketing strategy developed in this fashion is likely
to lose potential clients it never even knew it had. To
create the most profitable niche marketing campaigns,
it is essential for professionals to increase their use of
data analysis. A recent survey by Infogroup Targeting
Solutions and Yesmail Interactive shows that only 11
percent of marketers are focusing on data. At this rate,
robotic algorithms will overtake marketers in just a few
short years.
However, data cannot run word-of-mouth
promotions on its own, which is an essential element
for niche markets. Marketers must create messages that
foster environments where word-of-mouth can occur.
 “ ...marketers must bring to the
table a winning combination of
One example of productive word-of-mouth data evaluation and usage, as
marketing is AHI Travel. The niche travel agency
is listed with alumni associations and provides an
well as demand-driven
alternative take on traveling that is highly focused on products that inspire word-of-
immersion with people and culture, instead of just mouth sharing.”
tourist attractions. The founder’s innovative idea to
target alumni expanded his consumer base and initiated
a word-of-mouth marketing strategy that continues to
grow.
What marketers should learn from this example is
that the most effective niche marketing campaign will
include unusual tactics that connect with its consumer
base on a personal level (e.g. the school they graduated
from), as well as the insight gleaned from data
Niche analysis (e.g. the median salary of particular school’s
marketing alumni or travel destinations that are
popular with certain groups). In order to
campaigns avoid becoming obsolete, marketers must
must connect bring to the table a winning combination of data
with its evaluation and usage, as well as demand-driven
products that inspire word-of-mouth sharing. Together,
consumer these tools will be able to produce highly profitable
base on a niche marketing campaigns that will continue to grow
as the niche market expands.
personal
level.

| J U L Y 2013
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 >>> Success Corner
WEB 100 CAN’T MISS RESOURCES TO ACCELERATE YOUR WEB SUCCESS

Website Magazine’s Web
100 Guide is available
NOW! Current Website
Magazine subscribers can
discover the digital tactics
of leading enterprises at
wsm.co/getweb100.
“
QUOTED
POPULAR ARTICLES ON THE WEB
Andrew Slattery, Web Developer at Iron First Design 65
Joanne Correia, Vice President at Gartner 33 Website Magazine’s print edition is only the
Josh Dreller, Director of Marketing Research at Kenshoo 25
Matt Cutts, Head of Webspam at Google 27
beginning of our coverage on emerging
trends, best practices and news that
Michael Gullaksen, Senior Vice President, Managing Director
of Covario 26 impacts your Web success. Here are three
Mitul Gandhi, Co-Founder and Chief Architect of seoClarity 22 popular articles you might have missed at
Philip Constantinou, Vice President of Product at Evernote 34 WebsiteMagazine.com.

Web 100 NOTED The Web’s Most Gorgeously Designed Websites

Features Stagnant websites simply can’t keep up in the
1&1 8, 65 Groupon 12 PlanetSoho 39
Amazon 6, 29, 38 HubSpot 9 PunchTab 41
continually evolving online world. Those that update
Content-Rich Rankings often and experiment bravely with an eye on
American Express 9 iAcquire 9 Quora 49
Exclusive Interviews With the Web’s Apple 16 IBM 15 Rakuten MediaForge 34 gorgeous, yet functional design are sure to grab a
Biggest Influencers BBB 36 Infogroup 61 RichRelevance 37 visitor’s attention.
Bing 21, 35 Instagram 6, 11 Sakai 56
Best Practice Takeaways From the bPress 56 Intershop 57 seoClarity 22 Read more at wsm.co/strikingdesign13
Digital Elite BrandFog 9 iProspect 26 Socialbakers 9

Lists of Third-Party Providers Captain Dash 8 Ipsos 9 Status.net 56 5 Reasons Your Search Traffic is Declining
Cisco Meraki 24 Janrain 44 Strands 37
Used by the Web’s Best CloudMagic 8 Kenshoo 25 Survey Monkey 9
Slowly, but surely, you’ve been watching your traffic
Color Pal 8 KISSmetrics 16 teamgeek 30 numbers decline, despite not having changed much
Content Equals Money Klein Moynihan Turco 13 TRUSTe 36 of anything about the way you publish content or
60 Klout 23 Tumblr 8 optimize your website for the search engines.
COLOURlovers 8 Lancaster Univ. Mgm’t TweetGrid 49
Converter 8 School 51 Twitter 8, 9, 11, 26, 43, 49
Read more at wsm.co/upswingseo
Digital Marketing Now 14 LinkedIn 6, 49 Urban Airship 41
Dokeos 56 Little Bird 23 UserTesting.com 34 6 Super Calls-to-Action (Plus Tips)
Dolphin 56 Living Social 12 Vanilla 56
Whether it’s completing a project or taking an action,
eFront 56 Mail Pilot 8 Verisign 36
Elgg 56 McAfee 36 WalkMe 39 people will take as long as you give them to do it.
Facebook 8, 9, 26 Moodle 56 Yahoo 6, 8 This is why in business, deadlines (enforceable ones)
42, 45, 47, 51 NextBee 30 Yesmail 61 work and why, on the Web, calls-to-action (good
FCC, FTC 10 PageCookery 56 Zoho 6 ones) are integral to a website’s success.
GeoTrust 36 phpBB 56
Read more at wsm.co/bestctas2013
Free to Website Magazine Google 6, 8, 16, 21 Perka 39, 41
25, 45 Pinterest 27, 49
Subscribers & Available at
wsm.co/getweb100

| J U L Y 2013
 iNSiGHTS On anaLYTICS
Starter
Insights
for Aspiring Enterprise Statisticians
By Kelly Meeneghan, Manager at 1&1 Internet, Inc.
Businesses often question why website traffic
is lower than expected, and what their most
effective online marketing efforts are. Without
properly examining website data, however,
conclusions are only speculative. It may seem
that this valuable information can only be collected
through sophisticated software solutions by
skilled external agencies, but savvy Internet
professionals know to investigate options
already available. For example, marketers can
leverage the analytics features that are included
by many Web hosts. Why not start there?
| J U L Y 2013
Some of the most valuable questions that such analytics
data can answer include: How many visitors the website
attracted in a given period, what are the most popular
pages, how visitors are finding the site, and which days
or times advertising generates the most traffic.
Web developer and game entrepreneur Andrew
Slattery of Iron Fist Design learned firsthand how
much value website analytics hold for his business by
focusing on four areas.
Optimizing for Search
Landing on the first page of search engines’ result pages
is often the ultimate goal for companies, and formal

5 Mobile
Apps for
Analytics
Awareness
Metrics no longer confine
Internet professionals
to their desks. Mobile
analytics apps make
it possible to measure
performance
metrics (and success)
around the clock and
on the go. even a
quick glance at one’s
smartphone is enough
to see if running an
advertisement or posting
on Facebook directly
influences the behavior
of website visitors.
Check out five awesome
apps for analytics
awareness at
wsm.co/5analyticsapps
| J U L Y 2013
SEO campaigns are a way to achieve this. Analytics
can reveal how visitors are finding a site, be it directly,
through referrals or from search engines
“We launched a large keyword-based campaign
where we would track a visitor’s progression from
landing page to account registration,” said Slattery.
“We were able to narrow down which keywords were
generating the best conversion rate and focus only on
those terms. By focusing on those specific terms, we
generated an average rate of $0.37 per user account.
A good portion of this went on to purchase in-game
content, making it a very profitable campaign for us.”
Preventing Potential Issues
Technical glitches can affect every website. By paying
close attention to negative metrics (e.g. bounce
rates, shopping cart abandonments, etc.), businesses
can identify more substantial issues that are worth
investigating.
“Our company looks to see what pages
might be generating errors, not rendering correctly or
are just ‘not working’ in terms of content delivery and
impact with potential customers,” said Slattery. “The
ability to track click-through rates from start to finish
and establish goals or potential revenue is an invaluable
asset. This is especially true when planning and revising
online marketing campaigns we conduct for our
clients and ourselves.”
iNSiGHTS On anaLYTICS
Addressing Geo-Location
Depending on the enterprise, there may be an
unexpected need for a presence in additional states
or even countries, because the Internet gives any
business the opportunity to have global visibility. With
the capacity to see the different geographic locations
visitors are coming from, businesses are able to make
better marketing decisions.
“The ability to log a visitor’s geographic location can
prove to be incredibly useful,” said Slattery. “A few
years ago, we noticed a large spike in traffic and in-
game purchases from the Netherlands. Therefore, to
appeal to visitors we would lose due to a low bounce-
back rate in that region, we worked with a few
volunteers to translate images and core game elements
into Dutch. The feedback was immediate and traffic
continued to grow.”
Scaling on the Fly
Regularly checking the most important information
about a website’s overall performance is fundamental to
success, from what’s working in a marketing campaign
to what website elements need improvement. Properly
evaluating the statistical data and strategically adapting
a company’s online presence based off the numbers
will allow website creators to best position their sites
on the Web.
 WeB COMMenTaRY
DON’T BELIEVE THE
DIGITAL
HYPE
(At Least Not All of It) By Peter Prestipino, editor-In-Chief
The Web is definitely bigger and certainly a heck of
a lot faster than when I started out as a newbie Web
worker nearly 15 years ago. Somehow, however,
it feels as if it’s a less meaningful experience and
(certainly) at times, a less honest one. Perhaps it’s
the development of a more cynical side of me, but
I don’t believe the hype.
I’m still surprised, of course, at how creative and intelligent
people can be. I’m dazzled, captivated, engaged and,
sometimes, even energized by brands large and small
and the information, data and products they create and
| J U L Y 2013
publish that answer and solve complex questions.
With the “real-time” nature of the Web, however,
even digital media veterans are easily distracted. Perhaps
the dial-up speeds of the past provided an opportunity
for users and Web workers to collect their thoughts
between page loads, resulting in fewer bad decisions,
more conscientious communication and thoughtful
analysis. So why, even with greater access to information
and more powerful technology, are we still quick to
believe the digital hype?
It can take many forms, be it a specific traffic source
that always provides a good experience for advertisers,

or that certain types of software can consistently provide a
positive and more engaging experience for users or increase
efficiency.
It seems, at least from my vantage point, that Web and
digital media workers spend far less time focusing on
whether we’re having genuine, meaningful interactions,
or if the information and products we consume and
experience are rooted in little more than hype. The demand
for immediate results makes it easy to believe what’s in
front of us, but Internet professionals need to analyze the
information and data to know for sure that the decisions
they make today are the right ones for their enterprises
tomorrow.
I cut my digital teeth in some aggressive topic forums
and message boards back in the digital day. What I
learned from spending my Internet time in and around
those virtual places was that brands and individuals were
rewarded most (more loyalty, more engagement and,
seemingly, more conversions) when their participation
was genuine and meaningful, honest and transparent.
But it’s not enough just to avoid advocating the hype (as
a publisher or marketer); to be successful, you also must
refrain from believing it.
The performance marketing space has always been
one that the entire Web seems to look down its virtual
nose at and sometimes for good reason. While the vast
majority of affiliate marketers are fine, upstanding Internet
professionals, there remain a few that continue to abuse
the model. Two well-known affiliates (Shawn Hogan and
| J U L Y 2013
WeB COMMenTaRY
Brian Dunning), who eBay is claiming bilked them out
of millions of dollars using nefarious tactics like cookie
stuffing, are the latest accused perpetrators of fraud in the
performance marketing space.
But where were the advertisers? Were they too busy
buying into the hype and inflated promises of “quality,”
calmed by the sufficient volume of clicks and the occasional
conversion, to notice that they might have been the victims
of fraud? Did they buy into the hype?
Today, thanks to all those edgy real-time technologies,
brands and users alike, are drawn more toward the quick
click and the quick buck than the involved experience
and the slow and hard-earned dollar. They shun involved
communication, opting for self-directed Q&A and support
desk platforms. While there’s no denying these systems
save money, and users are having positive experiences
with them, there still seems to be less true engagement
now, and as a result, there is less trust and loyalty. Without
trust and loyalty, what hope do you have of ever obtaining
a conversion?
We’re mesmerized now by each meme from across
the Web, each new software offering and website
metric, but they don’t always move us, our campaigns,
our projects and our enterprises forward. Do you create
and publish meaningful experiences, or simply more
and faster experiences? Take time to question the
information and data you receive, and you’ll avoid the
hype and the negative consequences of it, and position
your digital enterprise for success.
Meet The Staff
999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018
Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518 | www.websitemagazine.com

PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Susan Whitehurst Peter Prestipino
susan@websitemagazine.com peter@websitemagazine.com

MANAGING EDITOR ART DIRECTOR

Amberly Dressler Janet Crouch
adressler@websitemagazine.com www.grafikadesign.net

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CONTRIBUTORS
date on the latest trends,
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www.websitemagazine.com/email

| J U L Y 2013
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