Website Magazine November 2013

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Customer Engagement Meets Content,

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NOVEMBER 2013

UPWARDLY

MOBILE >> Future of SEO >> State of Web Retail >> Best Designs of 2013

P 50mmTeO rce Tech

E-Co ow Brands to Kn

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Cover Story

Upwardly

MOBILE

Being “mobile” is now an essential element in Web success, and in many ways, it is the only way to be a truly modern digital enterprise. Brands must cater to the new user — an individual that is more connected, more demanding, and more “in the know” and “on-the-go” than ever before. The digital industry is upwardly mobile and the savviest companies are strategizing and developing for this new reality.

Explore theWebsite Magazine

Departments

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32

Color in Advertising

Holiday App Performance

See if your color choices are the right ones to promote your brand online.

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Email’s Fighting Chance

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Small Business Lab: Essential Holiday Checklist

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50 Top: E-Commerce Tech

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Mastering Search: SEO in 2014 (and Beyond)

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E-Commerce Express: The State of Web Retail

Design & Development Digest: 20 Top Designs of 2013 Commentary: 40 The Gender Divide

New domain extensions will affect your business. The only question is how?

38

Thinking Beyond Yelp

Marketing to Teens & Tweens

Leverage niche user-review sites to grow your business and improve its online reputation.

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Enterprise Ready: The Rise of Customer Communities

A Real Plan for gTLDs

Discover seven essential considerations for smartphone-friendly email marketing.

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Consumers are demanding more reliable online experiences. Is your website ready?

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Advertising to these powerful consumers requires an understanding of their expectations.

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

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

With Peter Prestipino

Are We Mobile Yet? Mobile has arrived — consumers are swiping, tapping and clicking at feverish paces. But technology professionals have been told for so long that “mobile” was coming (or would soon be on its way) that many simply missed the run up entirely and today remain far behind their more progressive peers, colleagues and, of course, competitors.

Visit Website Magazine at these upcoming internet tradeshows:

Web 2.0 Summit October 17-19 San Francisco PubCon October 21-24 Las Vegas Conversion Conference October 23-24 London ad:tech November 6-7 New York SES Conference & Expo November 4-7 Chicago SMX November 20-21 Las Vegas

Mobile has been disruptive to say the least, but fortunately, there is opportunity remaining — you’ll just need to know where to look and what to do. In this month’s feature article, Website Magazine readers can set their companies on more upwardly mobile courses, discovering what “mobile” really means to the modern enterprise and how it is impacting their online businesses today. Find out how your brand will need to adjust its processes and procedures to ensure its email, search and advertising campaigns are successful, and how its design and e-commerce initiatives should evolve.

This edition of Website Magazine is filled with many and more outstanding articles that will prove immensely valuable to Internet professionals in their efforts toward acquiring greater success across the digital ecosystem. Website Magazine readers will find practical guidance on customer communities, learn how to prepare for the upcoming holiday with a checklist for e-commerce merchants, receive actionable guidance for SEO in 2014, gain insights into the state of Web retail and discover what made for the best websites of the past year. Our editors also provide insights into the psychology of color in advertising and how to prepare for the upcoming release of the more than 700-plus generic top-level domains, and much more.

Enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and make sure to visit us on the Web at WebsiteMagazine.com to experience the in-depth coverage of emerging trends, best practices and industry news that matters most to your success as an Internet professional.

Best Web Wishes,

Peter Prestipino — Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

Access the Nov. 2013 issue at

wsm.co/wmnov13 or by scanning the QR code below.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

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

PUBLISHER: Susan Whitehurst susan@websitemagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Peter Prestipino peter@websitemagazine.com GENERAL MANAGER: David Ruiz druiz@websitemagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR: Amberly Dressler adressler@websitemagazine.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Allison Howen ahowen@websitemagazine.com *CONTRIBUTORS: Dennis Shiao Klaus Enzenhofer ART DIRECTOR: Janet Crouch www.grafikadesign.net GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Jesse Erbach jesse@websitemagazine.com Shannon Rickson shannon@websitemagazine.com ADVERTISING: Kelly Springer kspringer@websitemagazine.com Brian Wallace brian@websitemagazine.com Andrew Walter awalter@websitemagazine.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com

Website Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 13, November 2013, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is published 4 times per year in February, May, August and November with 8 special issues (January, March, April, June, July, September, October and December) by Website Services, Inc., 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018. Periodicals Postage Paid at Des Plaines, IL and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Website Magazine, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018.

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

• Dennis Shiao addresses how to integrate content with customer engagement campaigns. p. 10

Copyright 2013 by Website Magazine. All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. For reprints of any article, contact the editor.

• Klaus Enzenhofer explores managing application performance during the holidays. p. 32

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

www.WebsiteMagazine.com

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

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

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

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

Visit Website Magazine’s Video Spotlight

www.websitemagazine.com/videos

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

Picture Perfect Facebook Ads There are no more excuses for poorly designed Facebook ads thanks to a partnership between the world’s most popular social network and Shutterstock. The collaboration makes it simple for businesses (advertisers) to add professional stock images into their Facebook promotions for free. The Shutterstock images are searchable and accessible from within the ad creation tool and can be used in all Facebook ad formats.

ALSO READ: Bot Traffic Affecting Ad Budgets Big Time - wsm.co/botbudgets

BING SERVES UP LOCAL PRODUCT DATA Bing is stepping up its e-commerce game,

Picture This:

announcing a new deal with Local Corporation, re-

Ads on Instagram

sulting in local product data being displayed within search results. The deal leverages Local Corporation’s Krillion shopping data platform to power Bing’s local product search results, which includes

Start getting creative, because soon your brand will

relevant retail locations, brands, categories and

be able to launch an ad campaign

product availability data. This new functionality

on popular image-based social

aims to enhance online shopping experiences for

network Instagram. The social

consumers, and conveniently comes out just in

network’s Director of Business

time for the holidays. At launch, participating re-

Operations Emily White told the Wall Street Journal that Instagram should be ready to start selling ads within the next year. The ads are

tailers include some pretty big names, such as Best Buy, Costco, Nordstrom and Walmart.

likely to appear in the Discover feature and in the search results. The challenge for White’s team, however, will be incorporating the ads in a way that does not interrupt the user experience.

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ALSO READ: Video Search Improvements Come to Bing — wsm.co/videobing

Top Tweets M-commerce is growing rapidly, with consumers spending $10.6 bil-

at Website Magazine

lion on mobile devices in the first half of 2013 alone. And while comScore reports that smartphones accounted for 63 percent of that spending, ranking in a total of $6.7 billion, the average tablet user actually spends more money than smartphone shoppers. In fact, comScore reports that when you compare smartphone versus tablet use, tablets actually drive

Android could take over the mobile market sooner than you think THE #SEO RULE IS: Stop and think, before you disavow that link

roughly 20 percent more spending per user.

ALSO READ: E-Commerce Email Sees Diminishing Returns - wsm.co/emailreturns

Compare your hourly digital #salary with this@staff #infographic — On the money or off the virtual chart?

Monetizing user generated content one hashtag at a time with Social Annex

Google+ Makes Writers More Visible Google has made it easier for writers to grow their audiences , by adding two new visibility features for Google+. First, Google integrated Google+

#Facebook allowing marketers to run promotions directly on Pages, not just apps Check out 7 real-world examples of brands doing #mobile #design right

For the summer's hottest tweets fly to wsm.co/hottweets13

BROWN BOX OR PREMIUM PACKAGING? It may be time to consider throwing your boring

Sign-In with the

brown packaging to the wayside, as new Dotcom Distri-

company’s Authorship program, which automatically as-

bution research suggests that premium packaging actually

sociates articles with a writer’s Google+ profile. This

benefits retailers in the areas of customer loyalty, marketing

means that a writer’s information will surface when their

and advertising. In fact, 52 percent of consumers are likely to

content appears in Search, News or other Google products.

make repeat purchases from an online merchant that deliv-

At launch, the Google+ Sign-In integration is only available for WordPress and Typepad, but should be expanding to more sites soon. In addition to growing its Authorship program, Google introduced embedded posts, a functionality that is already available on Twitter and Facebook.

ers premium packaging, which consists of unique brandedboxes or bags. Retailers also tend to gain awareness from branded bags or boxes, with 90 percent of consumers claiming to re-use branded packaging, and 3 in 10 consumers discovering a new brand after seeing another customer carrying

ALSO READ: Analyze Search Footprint with Google’s Paid & Organic Report wsm.co/paidorganic

the retailer’s packaging in public. Plus, the study reveals that investing in premium packaging can result in a gain of 30 percent more business for retailers.

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

The Best of

2013App Watch This has been a huge year for mobile. Not only is this channel becoming a center point in many digital strategies, but all types of business professionals are leveraging these devices on a daily basis. In order to be prepared for whatever 2014 has in store, consider downloading the top applications from Website Magazine’s 2013 App Watch column.

Adobe Edge Inspect CC

CloudMagic

This preview and inspection tool from Adobe is ideal for Web developers and designers who are working on mobile Web projects. The app enables users to pair devices and work more efficiently by offering synchronous browsing, remote inspection and debugging so that users can see HTML/CSS/JavaScript changes instantly.

This personal data engine provides a single access point to content stored on cloud-based accounts, such as Gmail, Google Drive, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox and Evernote. CloudMagic provides the ability to quickly preview material, as well as to take common actions like opening attachments, responding to emails and retweeting.

SkyDrive

IFTTT

Store your most important files in the cloud and access them on any device with Microsoft’s SkyDrive app. The app also enables users to manage files, create folders and share content with colleagues.

Automate business processes while on the go with the IFTTT mobile app. IFTTT, which stands for “if this, then that”, allows users to connect to channels and set up automated tasks that are triggered by specific actions. For example, users could create an automatic “thanks for following” message to be sent whenever they receive new followers on Twitter.

Evernote Improve your productivity with Evernote, a free notetaking app that synchronizes across devices.

Professionals can stay organized by using this app to jot down ideas, capture photos, create to-do lists and record voice reminders — anywhere and anytime.

Chartbeat The Chartbeat analytics dashboard provides real-time data to business professionals. The app displays simplified insights into the performances of Web and social channels, including metrics for top traffic sources, traffic benchmarks, and page and server load times.

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LET’S GET MOBILE It’s a mobile world, and if you are not living it, you’ll be left behind.

Catch up on the hottest mobile news at wsm.co/mobileworld13.

30/30 Stay on task all day long with the 30/30 time management app. Users can leverage 30/30 to create task lists and designate lengths of time for each item to be completed.

The app’s timer tells users when it’s time for them to move onto their next projects.

Vine It’s mind-boggling what an engaging image or video can do for a brand’s social following, which is why it is important for all Web professionals to keep Twitter’s Vine app handy on their smartphones. This popular app enables users to create short, looping videos and share them on social networks.

Feedly Many marketers use their smartphones to sort through content during downtime, and Feedly makes the content discovery process easier. This news and information aggregator comes with a variety of personalization and organization features, including the ability to save and share articles with friends or colleagues. Feedly also synchronizes across devices to streamline the discovery process.

Groupon Merchants Daily deals are still a viable marketing strategy despite the lack of recent chatter for this once hot topic. The Groupon Merchants app makes it simple for merchants to redeem Groupons and accept credit card payments.

The app provides merchants with access to redemption history, yet doesn’t require any monthly fees or contracts.

S TAT

W AT C H

Numbers that Inspire Business-to-business commerce is a rapidly expanding space. Of the B2B organizations surveyed in the U.S. for Intershop’s 2013 E-Commerce Report, 96 percent are already selling online with 4 percent making plans to in the near future. Changes to consumer expectations, however, are requiring B2B organizations to provide intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for multiple channels, just like their B2C counterparts.

This change to a more consumerized commerce approach is driven by multiple factors, according to Intershop, from customer demand and expectations (81 percent globally; 88 percent U.S.) to developing technologies (74 percent globally; 85 percent U.S.) to the fact that business buyers engage through various offline and online touchpoints with their peers and use multiple information sources to make decisions (73 percent globally; 84 percent U.S.).

“Where there is complexity, there is also opportunity,” said Jochen Moll, member and spokesman of the board of management at Intershop in a company statement. “Organizations that can develop their B2B commerce channels now and offer a consumer-like approach will be well placed to capture market share. They will need to understand how to manage the complexities around their new channels, but the effort will pay off.”

13 Million

Facebook’s Q2 2013 rise to more than 1 million active advertisers has been driven by significant growth in local businesses participating on the network. According to Facebook’s own data, in the average week, there are more than 645 million views of, and 13 million comments on, local business Facebook pages.

65%

Small businesses have generated more than 65 percent of the net new jobs since 1995, according to Docstoc research published by Forbes.

54%

More than 60 percent of new business owners use personal savings as their biggest source of funding, according to the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau. Of those companies started with personal savings, 54.4 percent of them are female owned.

66%

Of the Fortune 500 CEOs, 66 percent were appointed internally and 43 percent of CEOs make between $100,000-$250,000 annually. For more on this research, visit wsm.co/14P8VV3.

Find more useful data and valuable insights at WebsiteMagazine.com.

72%

When companies consider hiring advertising agencies, creative presentations top the list of deciding factors, according to RSW/US.

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ENTERPRISE

By Dennis Shiao, DNN Corp.

Strategic Integration Customer Engagement Meets Content We marketers spend a lot of time on our websites, assembling information architectures, defining and documenting user personas, working with designers on graphical elements and spending half of our waking hours generating the content that our target audiences crave.

The website is the center of our marketing universe, the foundation from which all other content flows. Yes, a presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. is important, but they’re higher floors that sit atop your foundation.

Your website is such a central element of your business that it should be listed as an asset on your balance sheet. There are few assets more valuable, and your website is one that doesn’t depreciate. In fact, it grows in value as your business expands.

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The Rise of Customer Communities Over the past several years, community software vendors have been successful in creating interactive and engaging online communities for businesses. Organizations can obtain valuable feedback on existing products, crowd-source ideas on new products and allow wider communities to provide user support to other customers.

The online customer community has achieved near equal footing (in business value) to an organization’s website. The website is the focal point for a company’s content, while the community is the focal point for customer content and engagement.

This begs the question, however: If the website is the center of your universe, why must your customer community exist as a remote satellite?

The answer: it shouldn’t. In other words, content and engagement should both happen at the center of your universe. Customer engagement and content should be integrated and your website is the place it can all happen.

5 Power Strategies for Effective Online Communities The most successful websites on the ’Net have one thing in common — active, engaged digital communities. Discover software solutions and strategies to drive content, collabora-

Content Alignment B2C commerce sites mastered this many years ago: As customers browse and research products, they’re provided with insights (about those products, such as the most popular items) from across the larger community. This results in more informed buyers, which leads to more satisfied customers. For B2B, specifically, there’s value in providing community content alongside product content. Instead of an un-moderated flow of customer comments, for example, perhaps you provide a curated subset of product content from the community. The point here is to give prospects and customers contextual content where they’re researching, instead of forcing them to visit an entirely separate community site.

Consistent User Experience Recall that your website is the center of the universe. You spent painstaking hours with designers, refining and iterating over colors, placement and logos. When you build a separate community site, however, much of that consistency goes away.

Integrating social interactions into your website provides your customers with the ultimate in convenience and familiarity: They can interact while they’re already engaged with your content, all in a “user journey” that’s familiar to them. You have the ultimate control and flexibility with your website elements. Shouldn’t you have the same flexibility with your customer community?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) With your website as the center of the universe, SEO provides the directional signs for visitors to visit. What happens, however, when your customer community exists as a satellite? Your satellite gets a customer.company.com sub-domain, while your website occupies the main company.com domain. When customer engagement is married with your content, then everything falls under your main company.com domain. The result is a significant boost to the SEO value of your domain.

tion and conversions at wsm.co/webcomm13.

Analytics and Business Integration Marrying customer engagement with content has numerous benefits on the user-facing front end.

As a business owner of your website and community, now consider the back-end, the area that makes your chief financial officer take notice. Because content views and customer engagement occur from a single platform, you go to one place to review data, reports and analytics. In addition, you send a consolidated view of the customer to your customer relationship system (CRM) and marketing automation platform. Think about a lead-scoring profile that combines content views with community activity.

Engagement and Gamification Community software vendors have built wonderful engagement features, including gamification. Case studies published by those vendors demonstrate that gamification creates more activity and higher levels of engagement.

But what about applying some of those neat engagement features to your website? Do I need to seek out yet another platform for that? Not if your customer engagement initiatives are integrated with d and your platform. Now, you can selectively ento buil t s ip t a ur able social and gamification features to secunity ver fo Disco ain a comm tips tions of your website. Or, you may choose t mm main o/4co to enable your entire site with these features. wsm.c Customer engagement is key to longterm sustainability. Leverage the center of your universe to help enhance these interactions. Grow your relationships. Grow your business. Grow your success.

nal o i t ven ity n o Unc mmun Co lding Bui

Dennis Shiao is Director of Product Marketing at DNN Corp. Contact Dennis at dennis.shiao@dnncorp.com.

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WEBSITE MAGAZINE’S

SMALL BUSINESS LAB

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

’Tis the Season for Holiday Prep Online merchants cannot afford to be scrooges during the upcoming holiday season.

If your company’s Web presence is not yet in the holiday spirit, you could miss this year’s share of online profits, which reached $42 billion in November and December of 2012, according to comScore.

Prepare your digital properties for the year’s busiest season by reviewing Website Magazine’s essential holiday checklist for merchants.

Test Website Performance Before you get to work on holiday marketing campaigns, there is a much bigger technical task at hand — site performance. Ensuring your website can handle influxes of traffic should be a top priority for every ’Net professional during the holidays, especially since shoppers are quick to move on to the competition if websites don’t load quickly. In fact, Asahi Technologies reports a one-second delay could result in a 7 percent reduction in conversions for website owners.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to tell if your website performance is making the grade.

“Basically, there are two things we tell customers to be looking out for,” said Archie Robbostoff, director of Borland Portfolio at Micro Focus. “One is your average response time over the course of doing updates to your website. You could possibly make a slight change in the code of your website that slows things down, which will start the beginnings of a problem. Websites rarely go WebsiteMagazine.com down because of one thing.”

In addition, website owners Discover five tools to measure website should conduct load tests that response times at wsm.co/5timetools. simulate real-life scenarios to ensure that every consumer, no

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matter what device they use or area of the globe they are coming from, has the same experience.

According to Robbostoff, realistic load testing should replicate a variety of transactions, as well as traffic from numerous device types and different network speeds. The objective is to obtain a large enough pool of empirical data so developers know what needs to be improved.

Optimize your Mobile Site Mobile devices provide consumers with a channel where they can connect with brands and products or services at any given time or place. This is why, unsurprisingly, more than half of the retailers surveyed in a recent Baynote study expect mobile transactions to account for a significant part of their 2013 holiday revenue. What’s more, 38 percent believe mobile will drive renewed in-store interest, which will lead to increased revenue. comScore predicts that mobile commerce may top $25 billion this year, so investing in mobile should prove profitable in the short and long run.

“By using mobile as a tool to drive discovery, in-store purchases and overall customer experience, retailers will increase customer connectivity and be able to provide information and incentives that will encourage customers to complete transactions and engage with the brand post-sale,” said Dan Darnell, VP of marketing and product at Baynote.

For the best results, merchants should maintain fully functional mobile presences (either standalone mobile websites or mobile-friendly versions of their desktop sites) that allow consumers to make purchases or access information including store location, directions, contact data, product descriptions, prices and consumer reviews.

Get Personal, Increase Downloads Plan Ad Campaigns The best way to begin planning this season’s ad campaigns is by revisiting holidays past.

Start digging through 2012 data to find standout performance insights, including which campaigns received the most click-throughs and what keywords drove the best (highest converting) traffic. Once these questions are answered, combine some of last year’s more successful tactics with new and improved strategies for 2013.

Retailers in particular should pay close attention to AdWords’ new Enhanced Campaigns, especially those with brick-and-mortar stores.

Google rolled out Enhanced Campaigns to everyone in July, allowing an advertiser to use a single campaign to reach people with the optimal ad based on user data like location, time of day and device type.

A merchant, for example, can use these campaigns to target mobile customers searching within a certain area (such as within five miles of his store location), and can increase bids for specific times of day (like during business hours) in an effort to offer more relevant ads to users and increase conversions. This can be very beneficial in reaching prospective buyers at the optimal time in the purchasing cycle, potentially increasing a retailer’s holiday revenue.

Small business owners can pair mobile sites with personalized shopping apps to keep the most mobile of consumers happy. See how to emulate big-brand strategies at wsm.co/perfectpair13.

“Ensuring your website can handle influxes of traffic should be a top priority for every ’Net professional during the holidays.”

Plot Promotions

If you have seen the lines outside brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday (or even on Thanksgiving night), then you know what a good promotion can do for business. On- and offline retailers have taken note (as should you), and according to Baynote’s study, many are planning to offer promotions like flash sales, buy-one-get-one free offers and free shipping at selective times throughout the holiday season.

Another strategy to take into consideration is daily deals. Although sites like Groupon and LivingSocial aren’t quite the trending topic they once were, they still receive immense Web traffic. In fact, data from Compete shows Groupon saw more than 16.8 million unique visitors in July, and this traffic is sure to increase during the holidays. Therefore, launching a deal on one of these platforms can help to not only increase conversions, but also a brand’s visibility.

Time is of the essence, which means getting your brand holiday ready should be a top priority. After all, an increasing number of retailers are beginning their campaigns prior to Black Friday; with Baynote’s study revealing that 30 percent Finish your holiday prep with the will actually start their promoentire holiday checklist that includes tions before October.

Wrap Up Loose Ends

Assemble Email Campaigns Email accounts for nearly 3 percent of website visits. Get the best performance from your campaign by reviewing the 2013 holiday email-marketing checklist at wsm.co/holidayemails13.

on-site navigation, customer service, social marketing and more at wsm.co/smbtodolist13.

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50

E-Commerce Focused Tech to Know

ADVERTISING & PROMOTION

TOP

Ready for a Platform Switch?

The best e-commerce technologies in the world won’t matter much if the retail platform you’re using doesn’t provide a best of digital breed experience. Check out Website Magazine’s list of the “Best Shopping Carts and Commerce Platforms to Start 2014 on the Web” at wsm.co/topecarts14.

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OPTIMIZE OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Customer experience solution provider Baynote released results from its inaugural Holiday Predictions survey in mid-August (wsm.co/13HolidayPrediction), which revealed that retailers are “cautiously optimistic” about the upcoming holiday shopping season, with 60 percent forecasting revenue growth in excess of 10 percent. For those that have yet to “flip the switch,” accelerating promotions to drive traffic and optimizing the shopping experience to drive conversions, fear not, this month’s Website Magazine Top 50 showcases technology solution providers to help savvy Internet professionals do just that.

The e-commerce technology space is diverse, offering solutions to fit every need and demand of even the most discriminating buyer of Web-based services for retailers. The technology solution providers and platforms featured here are helping Internet-based merchants large and small solve complex digital challenges, successfully differentiate their brands and products, and create greater (and better) opportunities to achieve higher revenue than ever before.

Readers will find solutions for advertising and promotion, marketing and improving the customer experience, enhancing operational performance and for nearly every conceivable type of analytics — from pure business intelligence to mobile (as well as Web of course). That diversity in the scope of solutions can make understanding the broad e-commerce landscape a rather cumbersome undertaking, often leading merchants into projects that aren’t nearly as rewarding as previously believed. Those listed are some of the best and “those to know” so to speak, for retailers whose aim is profitability.

There are, of course, hundreds of other e-commerce technology providers that Web workers should know. Website Magazine editors have put together an additional, supplementary list of e-commerce focused technology vendors to know at wsm.co/ecomtech14 — 50 more companies that can take your online retail presence to the next level.

MARKETING & EXPERIENCE

With the holiday shopping season rapidly approaching, may your digital marketing initiatives (as well as your broader Web and business presence) be well established and performing efficiently, because 2013 is likely going to be one the best years yet for Web retailers.

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Yext.com AdRoll.com Criteo.com Appnexus.com Turn.com Chango.com BrightRoll.com ShopIgniter.com MyBuys.com ReTargeter.com Fanplayr.com myThings.com HookLogic.com InLocal.com SeeWhy.com ReachLocal.com Bronto.com Shoutlet.com 500friends.com Needle.com nanoRep.com ReferralCandy.com OpinionLab.com Monetate.com OwnerIQ.com Chirpify.com xplusone.com TellApart.com Invitebox.com BloomReach.com Sailthru.com Adometry.com uTest.com QubitProducts.com Perficient.com Invodo.com Bongous.com Avalara.com Rapleaf.com Tealium.com Liveclicker.com BrightTag.com Fits.me ChannelIQ.com Knotice.com Fluid.com OrderDynamics.com Cloud-IQ.com TrueFit.com Retailops.com

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mastering

search

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

SEO in 2014 2013 was a turbulent year for search engine optimization professionals, but many expect 2014 to be equally, if not more, challenging.

Organic traffic is declining significantly for many brands, suffering at the expense of presentation shifts on the search results pages as well as the rise in paid traffic. E-commerce platform MarketLive, in fact, confirmed what many search marketers have already seen or long suspected was occurring, releasing mid-year performance data in early September that showed a 30 percent increase in paid search traffic and a 3 percent decline in organic traffic. That is troubling in and of itself, but couple the issue with the ongoing Keyword Not Provided issue from Google, and it is not so difficult to believe that it will be increasingly challenging to acquire any substantial level of natural traffic through your website’s digital doors in the coming year.

With an understanding of the broader trends, putting in place a formal strategy, and using a few key and time-tested tactics however, organic or natural SEO can still be the main source of traffic for digital enterprises and their websites. Brands must be more strategic and more tactical when it comes to their content and relationship efforts, be more open and emphasize their authority, and never, ever forget what is good for the consumer when it comes to design is often good when it comes to search engine rankings too.

In a perfect 2014, the search engines would just tell marketers exactly what’s keeping their websites from achieving top rankings. Don’t hold your virtual breath though, the algorithms that rank Web pages are more closely guarded than the secret recipes of Coca-Cola or KFC — and they’ll stay that way. Unique and interesting content and engaging digital design experiences are what will separate your brand from the competition and what will earn your website the rankings you want and need.

Strategic and Tactical The future of SEO will increasingly be reliant upon the “go-to-market” strategy, not just the individual tactical approaches that have been put in place or are routinely espoused by industry mavens. SEO professionals will likely worry far less about including a variety of

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Comparing SEO Software There is no software in the world that an enterprise can purchase that on its own will increase rankings; no magical digital pill if you will that can be taken to earn the citations websites need to secure top positions on the search result pages. What SEO software can provide however, is an opportunity to understand where your SEO initiatives might be falling short and to expose sites that make good targets for link building. Discover some of the top vendors in the space at wsm.co/seosoftware14.

keywords on each Web page or the structure of their title tags, and more about the meaning and depth of the messages they are distributing on the Web. There will be less discussion of on-site optimization in general, and more about the relationships that need to be established to move the virtual needle and help your enterprise secure its rightful place high on the search results pages.

Perhaps the best example of this strategic and tactical approach to SEO (while it may not scale perfectly for every enterprise) is how Google recently aligned with Nestle’s KitKat for the release of its new Android operating system of the same name. While the arrangement likely was not intended to improve SEO efforts, it is certainly one effect that it had for both brands. The coverage generated links for Nestle, which on its own

Keeping an Eye on Google Not a month goes by where some change at the Web’s most popular search engine (that would be Google with a consistent 60-plus percent command of natural search activity) does not send digital marketers into a virtual whirlwind of activity. Below are just a few of the more important insights and intriguing developments that have emerged since the last issue of Website Magazine was released: would have been quite difficult to acquire. While most enterprises won’t have the resources to align their brands with a Google or Nestle, reaching out to enterprises that complement your own, ideally in some clever and creative fashion, could help your website in its link acquisition efforts and even manage to drive website traffic and new business if done correctly.

Transparent and Authoritative

■ Webmaster Tools Offers Up Better Backlink Data: wsm.co/backlinkdata ■ NoFollow Links on Blog Comments Will Not Hurt Rankings: wsm.co/nofollowranking ■ Use Disavow Backlinks Tool with Caution:

Web users for too long have been subject to fly-by-night search optimization professionals, who, with a network of ready-to-link websites could find themselves high on the results pages in competitive positions. As users become more sophisticated, refining their queries and evolving their understanding of what a quality website and what quality content is, so are the search engines. Increasingly, savvy brands are opting to invest in those opportunities that help them establish authority.

This is no better exemplified than in Google’s release of its In-Depth Articles feature, search result listings that feature “high-quality” content to help users learn more about a subject. The feature is based on algorithmic signals suggesting that it will be helpful for SEOs to implement both authorship markup (a program Google recently expanded — wsm.co/authormark), as well as aspects of the schema.org article markup including headline and alternativeHeadline, image (which must be crawlable and indexable), description, datePublished and articleBody.

While those elements alone likely won’t secure an InDepth article designation for your website’s content, it won’t hurt. Focusing on the quality of content, however, is always the best way to ensure your brand and the people behind it are perceived as authoritative sources.

brands to focus on creative ways to convey meaning through design while creating highly engaging experiences simultaneously.

The problem is that it is not always easy to balance SEO practices with good design techniques. Often Web designers are charged with cramming as much information as possible onto a page, but the drawbacks of hiding text are well documented. One of the ways designs can incorporate more content without making it look that way is to include tabs and expandable sections. The good news is that the tactic/approach will not negatively affect SEO initiatives if done in a non-spammy way according to Google’s Matt Cutts (wsm.co/exptext).

Experience-Driven Design

SEO in 2014 and Beyond

In much the same way a rapid increase in inbound links could raise virtual question marks for search engines, so does the experience that is created by brands through their designs and site structures. Search engines know exactly how long users stay on websites if they return to the SERPs and likely log that information as a factor in determining a website’s quality. In 2014, expect the savviest

The search engine optimization industry is evolving and the savviest SEO professionals are replacing quick tweaks for practices that help establish their brands as authorities, are beneficial in a strategic business sense and are good for users too. SEO in 2014 won’t be easy but the rewards will be immense for those that take quality and experience seriously.

wsm.co/disavowwarning ■ Google Keyword Planner Places Keyword Tool: wsm.co/googkeywordplanner ■ Keyword Not Provided Issue Worsens: wsm.co/knpcontinues

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e- c o m m erce

express

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

THE CURRENT STATE OF

WEB RETAIL The e-commerce industry is In addition to keeping up with the Web’s constantly fluctuating array of ’Net is always offering faster technologies, online retailers must also stay current with the latest technology, newer software trends in online marketing and conand better plug-ins. sumers’ ever-evolving digital shopping habits. In addition, the looming tax laws and temptations to expand businesses overseas further complicate the daily duties of Internet retailers.

All that said, the e-commerce industry shows no signs of slowing down — with comScore reporting that online sales increased 15 percent in 2012, reaching a grand total of $186.2 billion. And with 2013 shaping up to be an even better year in terms of profits, online retailers should look closely at the most vital topics in the current state of Web retail.

not a stranger to change; the

1. Internet Tax Legislation Perhaps the most taxing issue for online merchants (pun intended) is the uncertainty surrounding the legislation of Internet tax. For a long time now, online retailers have generally had the competitive advantage over their brick-and-mortar store counterparts, because they were only required to charge sales tax for purchases made by in-state ts ess in a po Find succ e Fairness residents. This could be changing very c Marketpla rld at soon, as the Marketplace Fairness Act Act wo 13 made its way past the Senate in May p webtaxpre wsm.co/ 2013 and (at the time of this writing)

net l r e Int urviva S Tax uide G

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is still waiting to be voted on by the House of Representatives.

Although the legislation is currently in limbo, it certainly won’t be there for long, which is why it is important for merchants to be prepared in the event that the bill does pass.

“Right now merchants are only responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax in the state where they have a physical presence,” said Daniela Saunders, SVP of sales and marketing at FedTax. “So for many merchants, that’s just their home state. [Merchants who don’t have tax solutions in place] should probably start investigating what options they have for sales tax automation.”

Although some shopping carts include tax tables that allow merchants to enter the necessary rates manually, this method could get complicated in the event that merchants are required to charge varying sales taxes in all states. Luckily, there are already certified service providers available to help retailers achieve compliance, including Avalara, TaxCloud, AvaTax, Exactor and TaxWare.

2. Overseas Expansion Another hot topic in the e-commerce sector is that of

international expansion, as extending brands to overseas markets like China, the U.K. or Brazil can significantly boost bottom lines.

Moreover, Frank Lavin, chief executive officer at Export Now, says brands that expand to countries like China not only have opportunities for greater revenues, but also avoid ceding a major market to competitors.

However, many retailers are still apprehensive in growing their brands across the globe due to the “fear of the unknown,” including a limited understanding of a specific market, as well as cultural and languages differences.

That said, there are a variety of platforms that can help brands with their expansion efforts, assisting with everything from logistics to market research. Discover five platforms that can help with your global aspirations at wsm.co/goglobalnow.

3. Mobile Mania ComScore predicts that mobile commerce could top $25 billion this year, which means that merchants who are lacking mobile strategies are essentially shutting the door to this lucrative channel. In order to profit from mobile, however, an Internet retailer needs a mobile-optimized site with functioning checkout pages, as well as a mobile app that makes the product discovery process easier for small screen end-users.

(Jump to this month’s feature story for an in-depth, actionable look at mobile commerce strategies.)

4. Product Listing Ads There are many channels where merchants can advertise online nowadays, however, most retailers still focus their energies on Google, and for good reason. The tech juggernaut’s commerce search ads, dubbed Product Listing Ads (PLAs), have consistently seen higher click-through rates (CTR) than standard text ads since Nov. 2012, according to a recent study from Marin Software.

In fact, Marin Software’s Google Shopping Ads 2013 Annual Report reveals that in June and July 2013, PLAs had a 21 percent higher CTR than text ads. This data

suggests that shoppers are finding PLAs to be more relevant to their product searches than standard text ads.

“PLAs are experiencing continuous success, and retailers will undoubtedly allocate additional budget toward this richer ad format going forward,” Marin states in the report. “For search marketers looking to build on the momentum of PLAs, optimizing the product feed, leveraging a granular campaign structure, and testing promotional text will be the key to long-term success. As more retailers enter the PLA landscape and competition increases, search marketers will need to continue investing in new technology and establish best practices to effectively execute on their PLA strategies.”

5. The User Experience Today’s online consumer is demanding. They expect fast, interactive, informative and memorable experiences — across all channels. When retailers fail to meet these expectations, customers aren’t hesitant to move onto other virtual shopping destinations, meaning there is little room for error.

Typically, merchants glean insights into the performance of their sites by scouring through analytics (discover six analytics platforms at wsm.co/6analyticsplatforms). Yet, sometimes it is also imperative to leverage customer feedback platforms and/or testing solutions to learn even more about your site’s usability.

“There are many analytics tools that will tell you what is happening on your website, but very few companies are using tools to help them understand why those things are happening,” said Chris Hicken, COO of UserTesting. “So it’s really important as an e-commerce manager or a marketer that you’re looking at both the ’what’s happening’ and use tools to help you understand why.”

Testing platforms like UserTesting and Usabilla, along with customer feedback solutions like OpinionLab and iPerceptions, can be leveraged to learn how and why certain features or design elements affects the user experience, providing merchants with a unique look into their site’s user experience.

The Future of Web Retail With every passing day, a newer technology, better strategy or controversial issue threatens to shake up the e-commerce industry. Fortunately, online merchants are a resilient bunch. Those that stay up to date with today’s passing trends will be better prepared to ride out the changes that the future will inevitably bring to this industry.

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

digest

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

GET INSPIRED

THREE TOP WEBSITE DESIGNS FROM 2013 Like a fine wine, Web design

Playing tribute to many 2012 trends (e.g. responsive design, expansive background images, etc.), 2013 design foThere’s strong evidence that cused on user experience, balancing the digital design industry aesthetics and function to appease the most refined digital palates. This year, deis raising its standards, signers worked diligently to meet and exmoving from boxed design ceed user demands and preferences, while improving their brands’ bottom lines by (or wine) to experience-driven leveraging design elements to build trust, send users deeper into sites and convert approaches where ease and at increased rates. elegance matter.

The top websites featured here are, of course, not the only digital properties that top our virtual list, but their uses of flat styles and responsive approaches, as well as polished parallax navigation and merchandising presentation tactics make them three that kept users top-of-mind and ones that pushed the digital envelope in their own right. is getting better with age.

and the use of video — as well as subtly animated images — in creative and unique ways. One brand that nailed flat design and subtle animation was DIY website building platform Squarespace. The hand shown at the bottom of Image A scrolls through the tablet as a user views the landing page (similar animation can be seen throughout the website). The fact that Squarespace places the animation in the same location on every page keeps the experience consistent, manages user expectations and puts them atop our list for one of the best service provider websites of 2013. Additionally, Squarespace uses a parallax content slider so users have a “presentation deck” like experience, which walks visitors through what services they provide in a compelling and informative manner.

(Editor’s Note: See what Website Magazine’s own Creative Director Jesse Erbach has to say about the current use of flat design, design trends for 2014 and how Apple is changing everything at wsm.co/jerbach.)

SERVICE PROVIDER Matt Basham, a visual designer at 99designs, believes the most popular trends of 2013 have been flat design

A

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E-COMMERCE MERCHANT The RoomPlace, a Midwest furniture retailer, did a total re-launch of its website in 2013 with the help of MarketLive. It’s a solid example of using design to improve the user experience and key business metrics. Within three months of the re-launch, revenue was up 20 percent, average order values (AOVs) increased by 25 percent and conversion rates improved by 26 percent. Let’s explore some of the design features that made this possible. MarketLive Director of Commerce Strategy Scott Compton credits the new bundling option for the higher AOVs (see Image B). Showing the complete set of furniture available helps shoppers see how a finished room would look and inspires them to purchase more.

Cross selling is also presented at the bottom of each product, suggesting additional accessories and room décor to complete the look of any given piece or bundle. The add to cart button is located directly below these cross sells, as well, encouraging placement in the cart immediately, according to Compton. As for conversions, MarketLive added zoom features to product

B

images, enabling customers to get a closer look and increase buying confidence. It should also be noted that since furniture is unique in that customers like to touch, feel and, well, kick the tires a bit, according to The RoomPlace Director of ECommerce Todd Williams, the 100-year-old brand provided many purchase options to complete a sale (e.g. research in store and buy online, research online and buy in store).

INFORMATION PUBLISHER Traditional media publishers (e.g. newspapers, magazines) typically follow similar design layouts when publishing online, often limiting the creativity of designers and cluttering pages with stories, ads and suggested articles. USAToday.com’s 2012 redesign broke the digital design and media mold by creating a truly interactive site that was responsive and organized. A year later, their traffic is up 26 percent, according to Compete.com data.

USAToday.com is similar to using an iPad as stories are presented in an overlay of the homepage (almost like a modal box or popup — see Image C). Similar to how a user would scroll to a next page on a tablet, readers click through to the next article, which slides in horizontally.

The user experience is different than most would expect from a news website, but it’s easy to familiarize yourself with the concept. Additionally, USA Today provides strong social integrations with Facebook, Twitter, email and comment features on every story. Oftentimes, media publishers can also fall into the trap of including too many social widgets, which USA Today avoids with this minimalistic approach.

In the end, experience matters. Just like upscale restaurants have to cater to wine connoisseurs with options and presentation, designers have to design for a discerning user who expects function and aesthetics to work effortlessly, whether they know it or not.

C

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Upwardly

Mobile Being “mobile” is now an essential element in Web success, and in many ways, it is the only way to be a truly modern digital enterprise. Users (consumers) are always on, actively leveraging their devices for information and entertainment, clicking and consuming at record levels. They are engaging with messages and interacting with brands in ways that are as unique to them as it likely is to your enterprise. The digital industry is upwardly mobile – in more ways than one – and the savviest enterprises are strategizing and developing for this new reality.

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

The mobile Web is different from the desktop Web and those enterprises that understand the differences (as well as the opportunities and the challenges) are those that will stand the digital test of time. Today’s enterprises must think outside the desktop box and cater to the new user — an individual that is more connected, more demanding, and more “in the know” and “on-the-go” than ever before. In fact, recent Jumptap/comScore research into cross-screen behavior revealed that more than half of all time spent on the ’Net is now through a mobile device (12 percent on tablets, 39 percent on smartphones).

Defining “Mobile” Today Let’s change direction ever so slightly and first answer an important question: What does “mobile” really mean? The term can present quite the quandary for anyone attempting to capitalize on the trend. Smartphones (and Web-enabled dumb phones), tablets and the increasing number of wearable devices muddle the digital water for Internet professionals, leaving many of them wondering where they should focus their attention. For the purpose of our discussion in this edition of Website Magazine, consider mobile anything that is not plugged into the wall, those technologies that restrict access to information and the ability to communicate digitally when away from connected devices (e.g. desktop computers). Smartphones are really what has changed the landscape so dramatically (Google’s Our Mobile Planet indicates that more than 56 percent of U.S. consumers now have smartphones) and as such will be the focus.

The State of Mobile Fortunately for those interested in capitalizing on the now prevalent mobile trend, there are numerous examples of enterprises in both the business to business (B2B) and business

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The Always On, Everywhere INTERNAL User There likely have only been a handful of years in your professional career when a mobile device of some sort was not an integral part of the workday. As the business world evolves and organizational mobility becomes a greater priority within enterprises, bring your own device (BYOD) is a trend that is increasingly top-of-mind. Discover the secret to success with BYOD policies and three tips to make the transition seamless at wsm.co/byodsupport.

to consumer (B2C) verticals that have gone mobile and are reaping the rewards. Not all marketers can lay claim to that distinction, however.

Results from email marketing solution StrongView’s new survey indicate that many mobile marketers don’t stack up in the sophistication department; 44 percent in fact are still strumming their virtual banjos in the digital backwoods when it comes to mobile, and more specifically, mobile with crosschannel components.

“It’s clear that the vast majority of businesses understand the value of using mobile marketing to drive customer engagement and lifetime value, but they are struggling to implement sophisticated, cross-channel approaches that can fully leverage the strengths of this emerging channel,” said Katrina Conn, vice president of marketing services, StrongView.

StrongView’s survey revealed that mobile marketing adoption has increased 22 percent over the past year and is now being leveraged by more than half of all businesses (56 percent) in the form of mobile websites, mobile apps and mobile optimized emails. The problem, according to StrongView, is that a lack of strategy and associated resources are slowing the growth.

The good news, particularly for companies like StrongView, is that the more than 80 percent of businesses that do not currently conduct any mobile marketing initiatives plan to do so in the future, with at least half doing so in the coming year.

When these enterprises do come around to implementing mobile marketing initiatives, they will be best served by putting their users first.

Email & The Roots of Mobile One of the more common activities of mobile consumers is email. Experian Marketing Services recently revealed some

interesting results from its Q2 email benchmark report: 50 percent of all emails are now opened on mobile devices. If that is not a catalyst to start moving in a mobile direction, nothing is.

“With half of all emails opened on mobile devices in Q2 2013, we noticed that people who open email on more than one device, two or more times, have a greater propensity to buy or buy more,” said Peter DeNunzio, general manager for crosschannel marketing at Experian Marketing Services.

“Insight like this helps marketers plan the timing of their email marketing, and it’s best to include reminders to customers to engage them when they are less busy and are more inclined to purchase. As such, it is important for marketers to leverage platform preferences and engagement metrics to identify key subscribers for future targeted offers.”

It’s not just the strategic plan or the increasingly large data layer that will prove vital in the success of mobile initiatives.

The design and user experience that is presented will also play a role, and there are technologies aplenty to make it a reality.

Email marketing service GetResponse recently announced an upgrade to its platform, which provides a feature that enables senders to design responsive emails with the solution’s built-in Email Creator.

“Up until now, designers were faced with the daunting task of creating a separate mobile design for each newsletter using HTML specifications or pre-designed mobile-friendly templates, typically offered in a limited selection” said GetResponse Founder and CEO Simon Grabowski.

The GetResponse feature essentially adjusts the design for the recipient’s device; resizing and rescaling elements including images, text and even column layout. All of the provider’s 500plus templates are already responsive, but GetResponse believes

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The GetResponse Email Design Creator enables designers to accommodate desktop and mobile devices simultaneously through a split-screen interface.

that giving email senders greater design freedom will be even better received.

“Responsive email design is no longer optional; it’s a necessity,” said Grabowski. “Today’s busy consumers are quick to embrace new technologies and quick to develop strong expectations of how they should work. So unlike other providers, we made this feature available as a standard feature rather than a paid add-on.”

Those that don’t take the recommendation to develop mobile-friendly, responsive emails will likely see their success metrics suffer as a result.

Mobile email warrants the attention of all Internet professionals — e-commerce merchants, service providers and information publishers. While every email marketing platform worth its virtual salt enables its users to send responsive emails, it’s important for each member of your marketing and design team to know the basics. Review Website Magazine Associate Editor Allison Howen’s considerations for smartphone-friendly email campaigns in the Email Experience column, starting on page 34 of this issue.

Email alone, however, will prove insufficient for many brands. The majority will need to turn to the variety of mobile advertising options to raise awareness and drive conversions, selling their products and filling user databases with customers to which those brands can ultimately send email messages.

Mobile Ad Issues Mobile advertising is big business. In fact, U.S. mobile-local advertising revenues alone are expected to grow to $9.1 billion in 2017 from $1.2 billion in 2012 according to a forecast from BIA/Kelsey.

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This rapid growth is likely due to merchant desire to reach mobile customers in hopes of bringing them into their brickand mortar stores — and technology providers are offering solutions to do just that. For example, Bing announced a deal with Local Corporation in which products from its Krillion shopping platform will appear in Bing’s local search results. Participating retailers include some big names in offline retail, including BestBuy, Costco, Home Depot, Kmart, Nordstrom, Walmart and many others. Indexed products and some supporting data (a layer showcasing in-store availability, comparison pricing, current discounts and images) from these stores will be available on Bing — likely before the holiday shopping season kicks off in a few weeks' time.

Today’s mobile advertising can be used to send customers to brick-and-mortar stores, to digital properties or entice them to download apps — the options are seemingly endless. So where else can marketers turn when they want to get mobile with their advertising?

While the first platform that will come to mind is typically Google (review a tutorial on getting started with Enhanced Campaigns at wsm.co/1campaign) there are many other ad networks that cater exclusively to mobile advertisers, providing access to larger audiences, robust targeting options and a diverse number of mobile ad formats. For a list of the leading mobile advertising networks in operations today including Smaato, Millennial Media, Jumptap, Zumobi and others, visit wsm.co/mobileadnets.

Smartphones and tablets provide advertisers with a challenging, but potentially rewarding channel to promote their brands, services and products, but they’re paying for the privilege. According to Covario’s Q1 Paid Search Spend Analysis, advertisers saw a 7 percent increase in costs-per-click prices, driven likely by mobile CPC inflation and Google’s Product Listing Ads. The good news is that advertisers have some creative ways to capture visitors’ attention and clicks.

Performance marketing network Tradedoubler, for example, has joined forces with mobile ad placement company Freespee and will use the vendor’s technology platform and API to offer clickable phone numbers and analytics to both its desktop and mobile display advertisers.

Learn to Build iOS Apps in 8 Weeks Discover how Chicago’s Mobile Makers Academy is turning everyday Web workers into mobile app development mavens in as little as two months in an intense training series at wsm.co/appsin8weeks.

“For services with local offices, like insurance, education, finance, health, beauty, travel, telecom and other utilities, 70 percent of consumers want to talk to someone before opening their wallets,” said Carl Holmquist, Freespee founder and CEO. “Especially when advertising on mobile phones, a call is the natural next step after seeing the ad, and we make that call just one click away and totally trackable for conversion optimization.”

The rise in consumers’ mobile activities is obviously making click-to-call technology an important, if not mandatory, element in the digital advertising mix. Those networks and agencies that realize the immediate benefit of the technology for users are signing on (as evidenced in the TradeDoubler/Freespee partnership).

Google reports that mobile users are 6-8 percent more likely to click on ads that contain a phone number. And, even when mobile users click through mobile landing pages instead of phone numbers, Google’s research found that 52 percent of those people go on to call the advertisers.

“The beauty of Freespee is we don't have to reinvent the wheel; we can add clickable, trackable phone numbers to our desktop and mobile ad formats with just a couple of lines of code,” said Rob Wilson, CEO of Tradedoubler, whose network includes 140,000 website publishers and 2,000 advertisers. “For a large segment of our advertisers this is incredibly valuable because these ads on average convert six times better than a traditional online or mobile display ad.”

To further accelerate their mobile advertising strategies, many brands are turning to solutions such as Drawbridge. The cross-device platform recently added a mobile-to-mobile retargeting solution (wsm.co/m2m13) that serves ads to users that fulfill criteria set by the advertisers. For example an ad can be served to consumers who have turned off mobile app alerts or prospects that have not yet made a purchase.

Mobile advertising isn't limited exclusively to display of course — video provides another viable option; and by most accounts it is working exceedingly well. New findings from video ad provider TubeMogul show that click-through rates for pre-roll ads shown on mobile devices were 4.9 percent on average, compared to just 0.6 percent on PCs. Advertising, whether mobile or otherwise, won’t be the focus of many digital enterprises. Natural and organic search

tops the list for most Web professionals as a means to acquire traffic for their websites.

Searching for Mobile Success Seventy percent of mobile searches led to action on websites within one hour according to a recent joint iAcquire/Survey Monkey report on user behavior. That’s an opportunity your brand likely cannot afford to miss. Thanks to soaring smartphone usage, mobile SEO is proving more important than ever before. There are barriers that exist, however, which could negatively affect the impression and traffic volume that result from pages already positioned on the search listings.

Responsive design, which is the recommended approach for websites considering going mobile today (more on that trend follows), has quickly become the default choice for most digital enterprises and their designers. The result is that most of the work done on desktop SEO initiatives will carry over and benefit mobile visibility as well (although there will likely be a need for some mobile-specific keywords somewhere along the line). If you’re currently using a responsive design, congratulations, your enterprise is ahead of the game. If you’re a holdout to the responsive design trend and have decided to stick with a separate mobile website, there are methods available that can put you in the good graces of the mobile-minded search engines.

Websites that use separate URLs to serve desktop and smartphone users are most prone to having trouble with redirects, directing users from desktop pages to incorrect mobile URLs. As Google noted in June 2013, faulty redirects are one of the most significant barriers to success with mobile SEO. Fortunately, there’s a rather simple solution. If you’re using separate mobile URLs, make sure to use the rel=”alternate” tag on the desktop version of your site when pointing to a mobile URL, and the rel=”canonical” tag on the mobile version when pointing to the desktop version of your site. For those websites serving content dynamically or depending on the user agent, consider using the Vary HTTP header on those URLs that serve redirects automatically. Using this approach provides a hint to Google, in particular, about how to understand a website’s configuration.

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App Stats Mobile websites (those that are either responsive or standalone) aren’t the only options – native applications can also serve as a powerful way to drive engagement. Driving revenue, at least directly however, may just be a virtual dream.

According to a mid-summer report from Flurry Analytics, paid mobile app downloads are dwindling. Flurry analyzed the percentage of free versus paid iOS apps and found that in 2013, 90 percent of apps were classified as free. It’s even worse for Android, where users are even less likely to pay.

As of April 2013, the average price for paid apps (including free apps) came in at $0.06, considerably less than the average app price for iPhone ($0.19) and iPad ($0.50).

Source: Flurry Analytics and the Apple App Store.

Note: Data is for iOS apps using Flurry Analytics in April of each year, and is weighted by monthly average users.

Monetizing apps is difficult, but getting users to download apps in the first place is arguably even more complex.

Zumobi’s new App Promotion and Monetization Best Practices Playbook indicates apps promoted through email marketing receive 34 percent more downloads, while app ads run on other apps receive 82 percent more downloads.

Apps promoted within newsletters obtain 41 percent more, showing developers that a marketing plan must be in place if the aim is to increase downloads and revenue. Discover some addition app download secrets at wsm.co/zresource.

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There are several other important elements to successful mobile SEO campaigns. Read through Website Magazine’s new comprehensive “Guide to Mobile SEO” at wsm.co/mobseo.

The mobile advertising landscape is certainly not in trouble by any means, and there’s no shortage of interest in achieving high rankings with organic SEO, but to develop an effective holistic experience for users today requires that the destinations upon which users arrive be mobile as well.

Mobile Web Design Discussion surrounding mobile design and development is not lacking and it’s important that every ’Net professional consider the impact their mobile traffic is currently having on their enterprise. Designing for the mobile experience is no longer an option, but a genuine necessity.

Popular grid-based, front-end development framework Bootstrap recently unveiled a new version that is proving appealing to both the aesthetic of the modern design, as well as their increasingly smartphone wielding audience. Version 3 is now “mobile first” and responsive by default, forcing designers and developers to think about how mobile websites will expand to larger screens, instead of paring desktop sites down for the mobile experience.

Bootstrap is growing dramatically in popularity, with source code search engine meanpath announcing recently that 1 percent of the 150 million websites in its index are now using the framework. Bootstrap is not the only responsive framework available. Zurb’s Foundation is also earning its fair share of attention and use by designers and developers, as are the Gumby Framework, Blueprint CSS Framework, 960.GS, and Responsive.GS. Compare these responsive frameworks and their features on the ’Net at wsm.co/respoframeworks.

Of course, not every enterprise is going to want to spend the time or resources necessary to transform existing desktop presences into mobile ones with responsive design. Many are eschewing the draw toward the mobile-first responsive site, opting for standalone mobile properties, leveraging tools including those listed in Website Magazine’s recent list of “50 Top Mobile Movers and Shakers” (available at wsm.co/mobilemovers).

Companies including DudaMobile, MoFuse and FiddleFly are just some of the vendors that are supporting website owners’ mobile initiatives. Website builder Jimdo has even released a native iOS app that makes it possible to create and edit websites on an iPhone or iPad (wsm.co/jimdo13).

There’s more to a successful mobile Web presence than just using a framework or a DIY website builder. Find out which brands are doing mobile design right at wsm.co/mobilexp13.

E-Commerce After the Click Well-designed, mobile-friendly emails, mobile advertising and mobile-minded SEO certainly play an important part in your organization’s success, but what happens after the click obviously warrants some attention as well.

According to Baynote’s Holiday Predictions survey, it is mobile that retailers hope will lead them to a happy holiday season in 2013. Baynote research indicated that 53 percent of retailers expect mobile transactions to account for a significant part of their holiday revenue, and 38 percent believe mobile will drive renewed in-store interest that will lead to increased revenue.

Statistics abound about the proliferation of smartphone and the subsequent rise in transactions. Business Insider indicated that 29 percent of mobile users have made purchases. So what is keeping the remainder of the ‘Net population from using the mobile Web as a means to purchase products or services? According to a 2012 Forrester report, the answers are safety and security — upward of 50 percent of online shoppers worry about these issues and it’s driving merchants to consider solutions which alleviate those concerns.

The process of — and platforms for — accepting payments are top-of-mind with Internet professionals. So, what should you know?

“Shopping Cart abandonment is one of the biggest problems for online shops,” said Andrea Anderheggen CEO and founder of Shopgate. “There are many reasons for a customer to interrupt his or her shopping process: the price, the bad user experience, or trust.”

The mobile commerce platform recently announced they have partnered with Trust Guard, a provider of website security,

Measuring & Optimizing Mobile The mobile Web isn’t just changing how websites are designed, developed and promoted. How digital brands

Monetize the Mobile Experience The drive toward going mobile would likely be much more compelling if there were well-defined methods to monetize the mobile experience. The industry is only nascent, however, and digital media workers and ‘Net strategists are still testing ways to drive revenue from the mobile experience. Discover five ways to monetize the mobile experience at wsm.co/mobilemonetized.

privacy and business verification seals, hoping to correct at least some of the issues surrounding users’ purchasing behaviors. It is well documented that offerings provided by Trust Guard and others prove useful in reducing consumer anxiety over the credibility of digital enterprises, which leads to some serious problems for merchants — like abandonment.

But how do payments made on smartphones differ from payments from the desktop for end-users?

“Most smartphone owners have used their phones while in a store to compare prices, search for coupons, research product features and read reviews,” said SheerID CEO Jake Weatherly.

“Consumers who shop from their smartphones are comparison shopping in the same manner that they would at home on their desktops, but the evolution of secure, trusted mobile payment technology has empowered them to complete their purchases on their smartphones instead of waiting until they get home to place orders from their desktops or driving to other stores to get the best prices or ideal products.”

Weatherly suggests that payments made from smartphones need to be based on stored information, using loyalty accounts or customer accounts established previously online. Weatherly provides Uber, Hotel Tonight and Amazon as apps that provide an ideal experience for mobile purchases, making it almost easy to buy. Discover more mobile retail insights from SheerID’s Jake Weathely at wsm.co/sheeridqa.

measure performance is also changing — and changing

Are You Upwardly Mobile?

dramatically. Discover the best ways to measure mobile

The future of mobile is here, right now, and is an integral part of every single aspect of digital success, from design and development to marketing and analytics. To be truly upwardly mobile, brands must deliver experiences to users that are as valuable to them as the desktop Web has been. That’s not always an easy task but the digital rewards are immense.

and the leading tools on the market to optimize the mobile experience at wsm.co/4bettermobile.

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Website Magazine

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INTERNET

A DV E RT I S I N G

Multi-Colored Web Brands

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

There has been a resurgence in display advertising over the past few years thanks in great part to ”retargeting” emerging as a viable opportunity for promoters of digital brands. This unique approach to advertising makes it more important than ever for enter-

YELLOW: An optimistic and youthful color, yellow is mentally and visually stimulating and often used to grab the attention of viewers. Its inherent cheeriness and warmth make it ideal for brands including IKEA, as it conveys personal power and self-esteem. This is just the sense that brands, such as IKEA, want their buyers to have when shopping.

prise teams to ensure the creative assets they're using to promote their products and services are doing their job, establishing awareness while driving action (including both clicks and conversions).

When promoting products through display advertising, it is essential brands realize that consumers place visual appearance and color very high on the list of important factors when performing their virtual shopping and browsing. It doesn't just extend to the actual products themselves, but also to individual elements within the creative asset (the ad).

The reason that color choices are so important is because they increase recognition, which links to consumer confidence (and we should all know that ultimately leads to more conversions). In fact, data from KISSmetrics has revealed that color actually increases brand recognition by a whopping 80 percent; it’s hard to deny that color plays a role, but that's not all. Colors also make consumers “feel” a certain way. As a result, advertising needs to be designed to capitalize on those feelings. While strong calls-to-action and compelling imagery are important, the actual colors used in advertising carry great influence, presenting significant opportunities for advertisers to turn browsers into buyers.

So what do different colors actually mean to end-users; what feelings do they convey that marketers can leverage? Let’s take a closer look at the general available color palette and what designer of ads or managers of campaigns should consider during the development stages. Also, keep in mind that the meaning of color can vary by geography, so make sure to test different combinations to achieve the optimal result.

RED: The most energetic member of the color palette, red creates a sense of urgency and is frequently seen in tandem with sales messages. Evoking strong emotions, the color red increases heart rate and proves ideal for marketing to impulse shoppers thanks to its inherent intensity. These are a few reasons Pinterest may have chosen red for its now recognizable logo.

BLUE: A color that elicits trust and safety, blue is often used to create a sensation of security, which is why financial institutions use it so frequently. The color blue is used regularly in the corporate world as it carries a sense of productivity and movement. Blue is also commonly used by brands involved in communication and self-expression, and can be seen in use by brands such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype.

GREEN: Most associated with wealth and money (as well as nature), green is one of the easiest colors for the mind to process. The human eye is most sensitive to green and can discern the greatest shades from it, making it ideal for processes that are more complicated. Green can be seen in logos including Android and Spotify.

ORANGE: A highly aggressive color on the whole, orange is often used in calls-to-action.

Orange forces users to emote excitement and enthusiasm, typically representing friendly,cheerful and confident brands such as Home Depot, as well as within the FedEx logo (which it wisely uses in tandem with blue).

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

By Klaus Enzenhofer, Compuware

Naughty & Nice Managing Application Performance This Holiday Season The 2013 holiday season will be here before we know it, and it’s always a time for retailers to reflect on what worked — and what could have worked better — last year.

The 2012 holiday season was considered a letdown for many in-store retailers. Nationwide, retailers saw in-store sales between Oct. 30 and Dec. 24 grow by less than 1 percent compared with 2011, according to MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report. That is considered the weakest growth since 2008, when the economy was in recession, and was attributed largely to Hurricane Sandy and “fiscal cliff” uncertainty.

In spite of this, retailers’ online operations and online-only merchants rang in another stellar year.

A report by Chase Holiday Pulse, a publication of credit card processor Chase Paymentech, estimated that national holiday online sales were up 15.2 percent over last season’s. This follows a 16 percent increase from 2010, according to IHS Global Insight. For several years now, online sales have been emerging as a bright spot in the retail industry. It’s no wonder many retailers will be focused on creating the richest, most satisfying and high-quality online experiences this holiday season.

“There are so many potential points of failure and so many interdependencies that trying to identify the root cause of an application performance problem can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

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For Customers, Instant Gratification is Key In the online realm, customers want to get in and out of virtual stores quickly. For the average user, 0.1 seconds is an instantaneous, acceptable response. As response times increase, dissatisfaction rises and the impact of a slowdown can be devastating. Amazon calculated that a one-second page load slowdown could cost it $1.6 billion in yearly sales. In addition, Google found that slowing search response times by just four-tenths of a second would reduce the number of searches by 8 million per day.

Consider another everyday scenario of what could happen when online retailers fail to deliver high-quality interactions. Drawn by a manufac-

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turer’s sale on electronics, an online customer tries to buy a new device. The website is slow, performs inconsistently and then actually locks. Not wanting to miss the price, the shopper phones a call center for help (a higher cost channel), but even it is jammed. The customer, originally intrigued by the sale, abandons the idea to buy.

Not only do customers want their interactions to be faster, but retail is one of the few industries where users also want their experiences to be richer, featuring functionality like online product tours, product catalogs, and ratings and reviews.

These features can make Web pages “heavier,” which is at odds with the goal of achieving speed.

Complexity in the Application Delivery Chain Delivering fast, reliable experiences has also been made more difficult due to increasing complexity in the application delivery chain. First, there’s the data center. The growing use of multitier architectures, virtualization and other new technologies makes it difficult for IT to ensure optimal application reliability and speed. There are so many potential points of failure and so many interdependencies that trying to identify the root cause of an application performance problem can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Second, there’s the Internet, which is also making things much more complicated. Third-party components are assembled by the browser and can include functions like content delivery networks (CDNs), ad networks, video, news feeds, shopping carts and Web analytics. A slowdown for any one of these services can degrade performance for an entire Web page. Today, there is significant complexity that online retailers didn’t have to deal with back when applications ran solely in data centers that they controlled. What’s more, mobile is forcing retailers to ensure strong performances across a variety of carriers and devices, including smartphones and tablets. Greater desktop browser diversity only exacerbates the challenge.

Finally, it’s not just the data center and the Web that are more complex. The cloud also impacts application performance. Cloud providers rate themselves on availability but that does not necessarily translate to high performance for your customers.

With so many points that can result in a sluggish or unreliable website or application, how can you ensure rapid application performance and reliability? The key is to adopt a new generation of application performance management (APM) centered on an understanding of the true end-user experience.

(Discover three important points to address this important issue for your Web application at wsm.co/modwebapps.)

A New Generation of APM in Action Consider the case of a leading retailer using a new generation of APM to optimize the performance of business-critical, customer-facing applications across the most popular Web browsers and mobile devices. By monitoring the true end-user experience for all applications, 24/7, this retailer can be proactive instead of reactive.

More specifically, the challenge this retailer faced was that the vast majority of their online ecommerce content was being served by CDNs, a necessary step to serving the 25 million daily requests. “Server-side only” solutions didn’t highlight any performance problems end-users might experience due to a CDN or other third-party service. These solutions only monitored a very small subset of overall traffic that was actually delivered to the retailer’s data centers. If there was a performance problem with a CDN, it would take hours until they received log files to start triaging the problem. At that point, the retailer could have already lost revenue or received complaints.

By moving from a “server-side only” solution to an end-user focused approach that sits in – and captures data from — real end-user browsers, this retailer has been able to monitor all their website traffic and lower problem resolution time from several hours to minutes. The retailer now has complete visibility across their application delivery chain, versus a “blind spot” to a huge percent of potential problem hot spots. By monitoring all

applications, this retailer is also better able to quantify the business impact of application performance problems. Finally, as additional benefits, an end-user focused approach to APM allows the retailer to get a realistic sense of overall site visitor volume. The merchant can also gauge the most frequently visited landing pages, which is useful for evaluating the success of various marketing campaigns.

Flawless Customer Interactions Reliable interactions are absolutely critical to an online retailer’s success. So why are so many ecommerce businesses vulnerable in this area? The simple answer is, there are so many connection points and points of potential failure standing between the back-end of the data center and customers’ browsers. Any one of these areas along the application delivery chain can experience problems and take customers from satisfactory experiences, to complete frustration.

As modern applications execute more code at the very edge of the Internet, retailers must have a granular view of this experience. Only a new generation of APM can overcome all of the complexity of modern application delivery chains and deliver this view. When combined with deep dive diagnostics spanning the complete application delivery chain, retailers can proactively identify, pinpoint and fix the source of application performance problems, before damage is done.

Klaus Enzenhofer is a Technology Strategist for Compuware.

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EMAIL EXPERIENCE

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

A FIGHTING CHANCE 7 Essential Considerations for Smartphone-Friendly Email Marketing

If the goal of an email marketing campaign is to reach an entire subscriber base (as it should be) then senders must think mobile.

Fifty-two percent of emails were opened on mobile devices in the first half of 2013 according to data from Inbox Marketer. This means that marketers without mobile-ready campaigns could be alienating more than half of their audience base with every send. In order to give your email marketing campaigns a fighting chance, it is imperative that your company commits to mobile, keeping these seven considerations in mind:

1

Design for the Small Screen Since email campaigns now need to be designed for consumption on mobile devices, many digital professionals echo a “mobile first” sentiment. This makes sense, as it is easier for designers to expand content to appear nicely on a desktop rather than compress it to fit a smartphone, but this ideal is not always easy to implement.

“One challenge is in the creative process. You have to think ahead keeping mobile in mind,” said Travis Buck, creative director at Listrak. “When you’re designing without concern for responsive design, your options are limitless when it comes to the creative vision. When you’re designing a responsive layout, you have to consider how elements of the layout will shift and change when viewed on a mobile device.”

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2

Keep Content Short and Sweet Today’s users access emails on various devices, with varying screen sizes. With readability and function top-of-mind, email marketers must put a premium on shorter, yet still effective copy. This is a general best practice of email, but it is even more crucial when it comes to mobile. Long-form content doesn’t resonate on mobile screens the same way it may on desktops. In addition, larger fonts are needed for emails being read on mobile devices (more on that below), leaving not as much space for less important content.

3

Use a Readable Font Size The font size for mobile devices should be larger than traditional desktop campaigns, which is why Listrak’s Buck suggests using HTML to control font sizes for emails on both desktops and mobile devices. By doing this, marketers can keep the body copy at 12 pixels for desktop recipients, while also using the recommended minimum 14 pixel font size for mobile devices.

That said, sometimes designs use text as images within messages. In this case, it is not possible to control an image’s font size with HTML text, which means that designers must ensure the font size used within the image is a size that is readable on mobile devices.

4

Accommodate Fat Fingers It is vital for marketing teams to pay close attention to calls-to-action (CTA) when creating responsive designs, as these clickable areas draw consumers out of inboxes and onto checkout pages.

A

Buck suggests that touchpoints on a mobile device be at least 44x44 pixels. However, it could be beneficial to make touchpoints even larger to eliminate any potential obstacles consumers may have when clicking on CTAs. “If you have a hero image with a CTA included, it often makes sense to link the entire image. This ensures that a miss-tap of the CTA will still result in a click through,” said Buck. “It’s also important to keep white space in mind. If you have more touchpoints near each other, it’s important to include padding between them to avoid unintended taps.”

B

5

Make Contact Info Accessible Smartphones make it very easy for consumers to call businesses or get directions while on the go, which means that these types of contact items should be made actionable within messages.

GoDaddy (Image A), for example, includes its phone number in just about every message the company sends.

Not only is the company’s 24/7 support number typically displayed prominently with a colorful CTA (in this case an orange background), but it is also available (and clickable) in the upper right-hand corner of the message. By linking items like phone numbers and maps, a consumer can take action on their phone with just a simple tap.

6

Rethink Navigation Implementing navigation that works well on mobile devices is part of the aforementioned strategies of designing for the small screen and including minimal content. Since it is common knowledge that consumers don’t like to scroll, marketers might want to restructure their responsive emails to keep the most important content closer to the top of their messages.

For example, moving a menu bar from the top to the bottom of an email will allow important content, such as calls-to-action, to be positioned higher in the message’s layout. Notice the navigational differences in ModCloth’s email for desktop users (Image B) compared to its email version (Image C). Although the clothing retailer leaves its menu bar intact, the company removes the free shipping text under its menu bar for emails sent to mobile devices, which keeps the main message near the top of the layout and makes the CTA more prominent.

7

Test, Test, Test The array of mobile devices available makes testing imperative, as a message that appears properly on an iPhone may end up looking distorted on the Samsung Galaxy Note.

C

“Making sure an email renders properly without responsive design can be a challenge. This challenge only increases when you throw responsive design in the mix,” said Buck. “You’re adding extra code and requiring the layout to display properly in more than one way, so it’s extremely important to test your email thoroughly in multiple inboxes, browsers and devices.”

Most email service providers (ESP) that provide responsive options should include some type of testing solution so that marketers can view how their messages appear on small screens.

Staying One Step Ahead By committing to mobile, you’re not only keeping up with the Joneses, you actually become the Joneses. According to eConsultancy, only 25 percent of marketers are currently optimizing their email for mobile devices. So making the switch to responsive design gives your brand the ability to stand out from the competition, increase engagement with campaigns and, most importantly, boost conversions.

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DOMAIN MASTERS

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

A Real Plan for the

gTLD Boom Internet professionals are always looking for ways to present their digital brands better.

And, despite the complexities and misconceptions surrounding the 700-plus domain extensions that will be available in the coming months and years, the new gTLDs can be such an opportunity, if planned for accordingly.

Know the Players In the past, digital media professionals were restricted to roughly 20 domain extensions, with companies nearly always aiming for .com ownership. With the new extensions however, Web workers can classify their companies using descriptive identifiers like location (.nyc, .boston), offerings (.blog, .shop) or industry (.restaurant, .hotel), providing their brands significant new awareness opportunities. More than half of small and mid-size business owners believe, however, the new gTLDs are only going to make the Internet more confusing to navigate (source: Sedo, wsm.co/smbgtld).

The adoption of the new gTLDs will likely come down to the successful efforts of domain name registrars, like GoDaddy, 1&1 and 123-reg, to name a few. Each is currently helping its customers plan for the imminent releases through recommendations, news, watchlists or pre-reservation portals. With the 1&1 platform, for example, brands can check gTLD availability, get updates and choose to purchase prior to activation (see sidebar). Likewise, GoDaddy users can search for or browse categories of the pending extensions, save them to watchlists and receive registration alerts. If you are ready to put some of the new gTLDs in your digital basket, check out “5 Domain Players to Know” at wsm.co/GetGTLDs.

Hoffmann hasn’t seen any registries demanding $50 or more.

“With 700 domain endings being available, there is also competition among them, so price setting will also be part of their marketing strategy,” said Hoffmann.

SEO Impact In 2012, Chitika reported that nearly half of searches on Google had local intent. With mobile usage rising since then, Bing and Google increasingly look to deliver locally relevant results to searchers. This is one reason new local extensions (think .nyc or .paris) are predicted to have an influence on search engine rankings (although nobody can say to what extent). While even non-location based extensions (e.g. .film, .bank) can help fuel relevancy for search results, Google’s Matt Cutts has stated that the search engine will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but he doesn’t expect them to get any kind of initial preference over .com. He wouldn’t bet on that happening in the longterm either. Exact-match domains (EMD) are another layer of the gTLD and SEO relationship. Companies looking to purchase cheapmexicanfood.nyc solely for SEO purposes, for example, should think again, as Google has devalued EMDs with low-quality content in the past.

Understand Costs As major brands and registrars prepare for the new gTLDs, many resource-conscious SMBs will still need convincing. Website owners are already encouraged to secure multiple extensions of their names (.net, .co, .info), but the new gTLDs add another digital wrinkle. How much will this actually cost?

The discussions that 1&1 has had with other registries gives its CEO of Hosting Robert Hoffmann the expectation that generic TLDs will be very much comparable to the existing price ranges seen for .com Underst and the ($10-$20 per year). Although he expects to gTL applicatio see specific domains like .music or .nyc to n proces D s at wsm.co/ be a little more expensive, because they have 4tldstep s a specific value to the customer, they should still be priced about $30-$40 U.S. annually.

Sunrise, Landrush, What?

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Put a Plan in Action The evolution of the new gTLDs may take years, but Thomas White of The CEO Network, who will be using the .ceo extension to build a social community, believes over time they will serve as a new way to think about domains. To be a part of the progress, however, important questions will need to be answered. As the extensions roll out over the next few years, White suggests that business leaders follow the news, monitor ICANN and ask, “How does this community matter to me? Do these people matter to me?”

When SMBs begin connecting the dots between the communities, SEO value, associations and protection these new gTLDs may bring, adoption and awareness should increase. It will be up to them, however, to build their plan to include marketing of their new URLs and the redirecting of extensions.

SOCIAL MEDIA

M AV E N S

Digital Blueprint 4 User-Review Sites Web Marketers Should Consider

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Consumers are making their own decisions less and less, relying on the reviews of their fellow users to determine where to spend their dollars. In fact, the results of BrightLocal’s 2013 Local Consumer Review survey found nearly 70 percent of shoppers are more likely to use a local business after reading positive customer reviews, an increase from 2011 and 2012.

Customer criticisms and compliments can happen anywhere. Since users are in control, their comments about businesses are not restricted to Yelp, Google+ Local or Facebook (see sidebar).

Niche review sites, like those listed here, are becoming increasingly popular destinations on the Web. They offer service providers, online merchants and information publishers new ways to promote their businesses and build their online reputations.

AngiesList.com (Service Providers) Catering to local service providers (across 700plus categories), paying members grade companies on an A to F scale at AngiesList.com. To ensure trustworthiness, all reviews on Angie’s List are from identified members and are checked to prevent companies from reporting on themselves or their competitors. That said, its members add most businesses on the List, but service providers can also create free accounts to appear even without existing ratings. For its participating businesses, Angie’s List offers tools to connect with active consumers, including the ability to post deals, pay for premium placement and respond to customer feedback.

MerchantCircle.com (Merchants/Service Providers) With 1.5 million-plus member merchants, MerchantCircle.com is the largest online network of its kind in the U.S. Consumers can use the website to find local businesses, get advice from

nearby merchants and obtain competitive quotes from providers. Merchants will want to confirm their identities by completing MerchantCirlce’s verification process (offered on both free and paid levels), so a badge appears on their listings and next to their businesses on search results.

This verification not only increases brand trust, but also search rankings on the site. MerchantCircle continually adds new features for both the consumer and merchant experience; in 2012 the site did away with anonymous reviews, although users don’t have to be members to rate businesses.

Strategies for the Big 3 User-Review Sites User reviews can happen anywhere, but there are three websites that consumers overwhelmingly flock to and trust for recommendations.

These networks also cater to business needs with tools to add, update and enhance listings, as well as engage in online conversations in meaningful and productive ways. See how experts from Surefire Social, Main Street Hub and Cybermark International advise merchants and service providers to tackle the Big 3 at

JudysBook.com (Merchants/Service Providers) The first website mentioned here that will cost businesses to claim and enhance their listings (from $29.99 to $99.99 a month), Judy’s Book might also offer merchants and service providers the richest experiences in terms of optimizing profiles for search and social findability. Judy’s Book not only automatically syncs profiles up with most leading directories, but also sends listings and reviews to all major search engines and partners and includes social site links and buttons. As for the reviews, all pricing tiers include the ability to be notified of and respond to reviews.

PitchingNotes.com wsm.co/reviewsplan.

(Information Publishers) Pitching Notes is a free service where registered users can share their reporter experiences with other public relations specialists. Guests can browse the site and add media members, but only registered users can see reviews, comments, links and contact information.

Conversely, reporters, bloggers and editors can use the site to connect verage with expert sources and ow to le t h n r a e L sites a even tell PR folks how they review iewtips want to be pitched, as well /rev wsm.co as to improve their relationships with the folks helping to fuel their content.

our Y w o r G al Biz Loc

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PERFORMANCE INSIDER

MARKETING TO

TEENS & TWEENS

By Amberly Dressler & Allison Howen, Website Magazine Editors

Under- or unemployed, living with their parents and spending hours of their day on social media…Sounds a bit like “20 somethings” we all might know, but unlike their older counterparts, Generation Z members haven’t racked up credit card or student loan debt and are in the good buying graces of their parents. This audience segment is a win-win for marketers.

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Since the growing tween (8-12 years old) and teen (13-17 years old) market represents an extremely engaged community, as well as one that quickly acclimates to new channels, it’s a no brainer to vie for this audience’s attention and dollars. Marketing to this valuable segment, however, requires insights into its persuasions, limitations and expectations.

Underage, Not Underfunded From movies and makeup to apparel and apps, tweens and teens are active, impulsive spenders.

In fact, 80 percent of teenage girls identify shopping as one of their “hobbies and activities,” (source: wsm.co/statbrain), yet the same research indicates that only 26 percent of teens have placed an online order in the past three months. It’s safe to assume those even younger (tweens) have made fewer online purchases. Limited payment options are likely to blame. The cash-fueled environment most teens and tweens find themselves in doesn’t bode well for online merchants.

“Retailers who have products that are designed for tweens and teens tend to have very high shopping cart dropout rates,” said Dr. Jo Webber, founder and CEO of Virtual Piggy. “They have engaged the teen or tween with their brand, the consumer then goes to the site and loads up their cart, but then has to try to get a payment method. This delay leads to cart drop off.”

There are also legal issues. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection (COPPA) dictates that websites cannot ask for personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 (tweens). This makes it challenging for websites to engage with tweens and almost impossible for websites to accept transactions from them.

“Virtual Piggy is the only company to date that provides merchant e-commerce websites with a COPPA-compliant solution for tween spending,” said Webber. “Our solution safeguards the teen or tweens’ identity while providing a mechanism to allow parent-approved spending.”

This parent-controlled youth wallet allows young “unbanked” teens and tweens to shop at their favorite retailers and gaming sites. Virtual Piggy offers plugins for the major e-commerce systems including Demandware, Oracle ATG and eBay’s Magento platform.

Fathead, which sells wall decals and cutouts of entertainment and sports stars, leverages Virtual Piggy. It has found that the payment platform allows its young fans to make their own buying decisions, while Fathead remains in control of privacy components.

“We take our customers’ privacy very seriously and that’s particularly important if advertising is directed at minors,” said Joanna Cline, chief marketing officer at Fathead. “What’s great about Virtual Piggy is that the payment system is so secure, we have confidence we’re connecting with teens and tweens in an appropriate way, which is also a great experience for the young people, the parents and us.”

Visa, PayPal and other financial heavy hitters have also released products over the years that make it easier for teenagers to purchase items on the Web. For teenage-friendly online payment options that merchants should consider promoting, visit wsm.co/teenpay.

Channels Count Generation Z members have never lived in a world without the Internet, cellphones and social networks,

Marketing to Teens and Tweens Checklist See if you’re m aking the grade at wsm .co/genzlist

WE’VE MOVED Website Magazine’s “Success Corner” has moved online. To see which executives — from companies like Experian, Baynote, Listrak, StrongView, GetResponse and others that can directly affect a website’s success — were included in this packed issue of Website Magazine visit wsm.co/sources13.

albeit those technologies have evolved. Wikia published a 2013 study (wsm.co/teensandtech) that explored the behaviors of teens and technology and found that half of GenZers spend almost every waking hour online, connecting 10-plus hours daily.

Comparatively, TNS & McAfee’s 2013 research discovered 67 percent of tweens are using a social network despite age requirements.

So what does this mean for marketers? In short, brands need to find innovative ways to reach this target demographic across channels — like FPgirl does.

With its gift card program, parent participation and “girl-driven” community, FPgirl is a brand to watch.

Girls ages 5-12 can design their own clothing, order the items and have them shipped. By also partnering with brands GenZ girls love, FPgirl has driven registered users from 35,000 at the end of 2011 to nearly 1 million by May 2013. (For more information on FPgirl’s engagement model visit wsm.co/fpgirls.)

Mobile ad network MobiGirl Media also helps brands connect with young girls through this demographic’s most-used apps, while Brandwatch, a social media monitoring and analytics tool, can reveal teen and tween sentiment about brands or trends. Marketers can use the latter to help tailor their messages to these attitudes. For instance, by using Brandwatch to listen to online conversations about going back to school, ads can be tailored to the overwhelmingly use of the sad face emoticon by teens and tweens.

Editor’s Note: Unsurprisingly, teens love using social media to share things, but revealing research into where and what they are sharing can be leveraged in future marketing campaigns. To find out more, visit wsm.co/socialteens13.

In the end, however, messaging to teens and tweens needs to be transparent and age and gender appropriate to appease users, COPPA and parents.

“The key is that it resonates with the teenager without alienating the parent,” said Cline. “It’s also good to have an authentic marketing message that resonates to both groups. Parents are very cautious with who messages directly to their children and teen/ tweens are a very discerning group. They can spot corporate hype a mile away. Be real with your message.”

N OV E M B E R 2013

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W E B C O M M E N TA R Y

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

THE GENDER DIVIDE The world’s digital divide was an important and serious discussion many years ago. The term was used to describe the discrepancy between people who have access to — and the resources to use — new information, communication and media tools (e.g. the Internet), and people who do not have access to those resources and technologies.

The world of course has changed since that phrase first entered the lexicon, but while the digital divide has lessened somewhat, it’s still present. Facebook’s recent initiative with its Internet.org partners including Qualcomm and Ericsson has put the technology disparity in its sights, hoping to bring Internet access to the 5 billion people that are still not yet connected, as well as addressing the necessary technologies required to accommodate the 1,000 times more Web traffic (of which there are many) that will result. Yet another, perhaps more insidious, divide remains.

I started thinking about the digital divide — as well as the concept of division in general — in another context recently. It’s not only access that separates some from technology, it can also be gender. The technology industry has, at least historically, been predominantly male (although it’s most certainly shifting). Only 2 percent of open source developers and only 28 percent of B.S. degrees in Computer Science were women. Why exactly? A study from the Level Playing Field Institute found that workplaces like tech startups can be “hostile or unpleasant environments” leading to those employees seeking out other companies or even other industries to work.

The divide was well highlighted and illustrated with quite the hullabaloo in early September 2013 when a

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presentation at an event for tech startups featured a mobile application that was, shall we say, if not salacious in nature, then certainly sophomoric. It’s not necessary to go into the details of what that app actually did, but let’s just say that it objectified women, surely making the females in attendance uncomfortable, which included a 9-year-old girl presenting at the event. Who would want to subject themselves to that and what does it say to that 9-year-old girl?

The lone positive result of that now regrettable presentation was that it refocused the attention of many within the sphere of technology (and elsewhere) on the ongoing gender divide in the technology industry. That focus is, of course, a very good thing as I believe that this damaging divide is keeping the industry from reaching its true potential.

More women are entering technology industries — as well as its supporting industries like online advertising, Web design and Internet marketing — and more women are making their digital marks than ever before. That shift will undoubtedly continue in the future — but are enterprises ready? It will require a cultural shift within enterprises, one that values the content of the résumé and the completeness and quality of work, more than a worker’s default anatomy.

Closing the gender divide just doesn’t fall on the shoulders of the men in tech. Women in the field need to commit themselves to speaking to groups like Women in Technology or breaking out of their comfort zones to present at — or even organize — career days in underprivileged areas. Young girls in poverty are even less likely to know what technology careers are available to them or the roads they have to take to get there. When they don’t have access to technology, it’s even more difficult to imagine building a future around it.

There is still a battle raging between the digital have’s and have not’s, and there is still a shortage of women in the technology sector — at least those that feel respected and confident enough to participate, compete and innovate.

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