4 Last-Minute Holiday Email Ideas

THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS

DECEMBER 2016 WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

Amplied
Analytics
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
A Guide to
Website Redesigns
Checklist for Publishing
Quality Content
Upping Your Delayed
Conversions Game

PLUS
O P 5 0
T Analytics
olutions
S
 Amplified Analytics
It can be challenging to know definitively what the driver of conversions or
engagement events are on a digital property, but it is becoming much less
complicated thanks to the increasing experience of Web professionals and the
powerful technologies supporting them.

THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE

Digital Advertising Trends App Ideas to Forget

The New Year will usher in its own set of trends, By steering clear of these bad-app traps,
not least of which will be a move back to prin- developers will be able to create better
cipled 1:1 relationships between advertisers and software people will love to useincreas-
publishers using credible partners. ing their chances of succeeding.

CRO for Delayed Purchases
Visitors dictate the pace of conversations with
brands, ultimately deciding when its over. Mar-
keting thats optimized for converting post-visit
is more likely to increase overall conversions.
Affiliate Marketings
Seat at the Table
Many companies avoid affiliate marketing
because of its reputation. With a little bit of
work, however, it can become an effective
and targeted way to earn new business.

Last-Minute Holiday Critical Takeaways

Email Strategies
If marketers remember the best practices
outlined here, they will wrap up the sales
year with cheer and will be prepared to hit
the ground running in 2017.
from Adobe Max
An investment in creativity is good business.
So why is it that so many enterprises are
keeping it off their agendas? And what tools
do professionals really need to be creative?

EXPLORE WEBSITE MAGAZINES DEPARTMENTS GET THE

DIGITAL SCOOP
Stat Watch: Small Business Lab: Check out Website Magazines
The Future of Connectivity Surviving Economic Busts email newsletters covering search,
e-commerce, social, design and
Quiz Time: E-Commerce Express: more at wsm.co/webscoop.
Understanding the App Explosion Lookbook for 5 Email Types

Enterprise Ready: Design & Development:

The Web of Experiences A Website Redesign Primer

Top 50: Mastering Search:

Modern Analytics Content Quality Checklist
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From the
EDITOR

Analytics Matter The Magazine for Website Success

Reaching the largest audience of
Web professionals of any Internet
There has never been a better time to be a Net professional thanks to industry publication

the immense amount of data that can be utilized in the effort to improve 999 E. Touhy Ave. Des Plaines, IL 60018
enterprise performance from a business, user experience and organi- Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518
International: 1.773.628.2779
zational standpoint. Fax: 1.773.272.0920
The problem, however, is that it is easy to become overwhelmed by the
increasing number of data sources and the highly detailed metrics coming
from a rising volume of channels and technology platforms. Econsultancys
Measurement and Analytics Report 2016 (produced in partnership with
Lynchpin) for example, explored how organizations are using data strategi-
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
cally and tactically to generate insights and improve business performance Peter Prestipino
and the results were intriguing. peter@websitemagazine.com
The report revealed that the vast majority (84 percent) of marketers agree
that their understanding of the customer is increasing over time, and 64
percent say that they are currently using data-driven customer insights to MANAGING EDITOR:
adapt their marketing strategies and influence business decisions. Despite Amberly Dressler
the obvious increasing importance of data, the proportion of analytics data adressler@websitemagazine.com
used to drive decision-making within organizations dropped by seven per-
centage points compared to last years survey. Whats more, while 77 percent
of marketers believe digital analytics important to their companys digital *CONTRIBUTORS:
transformation, fewer than one in five consider digital reporting to have a Kevin Lindsay
Brian Toolan
very influential role in supporting business decisions. Daniel Bornstein
In this months feature article in Website Magazine, readers will be exposed Martin Greif
to the trends that impact the collection of data and the tactics that can be used EJ McGowan
to put the insights gathered into action. While Web analytics is a broad practice Hunter Jensen
Jamie Birch
area and can be quite complex at times, it serves each Net professional well to
have a solid foundation.
In addition to this insights shared in Website Magazines December 2016
GRAPHIC DESIGNER:
feature article, readers will have access to other helpful articles on topics
Shannon Rickson
including e-commerce, Web design, search marketing and more from some shannon@websitemagazine.com
of digital medias brightest minds. This issue also offers useful information
on conversion optimization, mobile and digital advertising as well as a list
of 50 of the most popular digital analytics solutions. ADVERTISING:
As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and en- Brian Wallace
courage you to join us on the Net where our editors and industry contribu- brian@websitemagazine.com
tors share the technologies and insights that matter most to Web success.

Best Web Wishes, SUBSCRIPTIONS:

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

Website Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 12, December 2016, (ISSN#

2017 Media Kit

1942-0633) is published 12 times a year, January through Decem-
ber by Website Services, Inc., 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines,
IL 60018. Periodicals Postage Paid at Des Plaines, IL and at ad-
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 Net
BRIEFS

MARKETING NEWS

Social Inuence to Like

It turns out that social media does, in fact, infl uence customers
on their path to purchase according to a new study from Crowd-
tap. The report found that 75 percent of consumers visit Face-
book during the pre-shopping planning stage in pursuit of rec-
ommendations and advice from friends and family. One-third
$ WHO GOT PAID
of consumers take several days to plan their purchases, while
another third plan only a few hours before.

$52 Million
Mobile Opens by Wavefront, a metrics monitoring
service for cloud and modern

Weekend Warriors
application environments, an-
nounced that it has secured $52
million in a Series B funding round.
Mobile now accounts for 73 percent of email opens for retailers Existing investors, Sequoia Capi-
according to Yesmails analysis of 3 billion email opens, with that tal and Sutter Hill Ventures, were
number spiking to 78 percent on Saturday and Sunday. This fi nding joined by new investor Tenaya
suggests those are either the best days to send e-commerce emails Capital and other equity holders.
or that people have held onto the messages until they have down-
time to read or review. $100 Million
Five-time NBA champ Kobe Bryant
and business partner Jeff Stibel

Holiday E-Commerce Still

(former CEO of Web.com) an-
nounced a $100 million venture-

Growing, Just Not As Fast

capital fund for investing in data,
media and technology companies.

While online retail sales are certainly still trending upward, they are not $25 Million
expected to have the same growth as in holidays past. Adobe predicts Baobab Studios, creators of virtual
that 2016 will see 1.7 percent less growth than 2015 but still $9.1 bil- reality animation entertainment,
lion more than 2015 for a total of $91.6 billion overall. And, for the first announced the close of $25 mil-
time, mobile will exceed desktop shopping visits for the full holiday lion in Series B funding, bringing
season (53 percent). While mobile traffic has hit a tipping point, visits total funding to date to $31 million.
from these devices will only contribute to 34 percent of online sales.
$12.4 Million
Apptimize, a company that of-
fers an optimization platform for
Access holiday predictions based on 1 trillion A/B testing of mobile apps, has
website visits at wsm.co/hpredict. announced it has secured $12.4
million in Series B financing.
 TECH UPDATES

Start Using a
Secondary DNS
Octobers epic DDoS attacks against Dyns network forced many
enterprises to examine their existing domain name system (DNS)
configurations. What they found, however, does not bode well
for the state of Internet security. Looking at the top 100 domains No HTTPS? Now
at Alexa, DNS Made Easy found that 58 percent of those out-
sourcing their DNS were still using only a single provider. The
You Should Panic
company, and many security experts, suggests that a second- Starting in Jan. 2017, Googles Chrome
ary DNS should be a standard practice among large brands who browser will begin marking any page with
value performance and reliability. a password or credit card fields as insecure
if the page is not on HTTPS. As it stands

All In a Days Work

today, more than half of Chrome desktop
page loads are now served over HTTPS.
Google also reiterated its plan to eventually
What do developers do all day? Its probably not what most peo- mark all non-HTTPS as not secure.
ple think. Results from a survey conducted by ClusterHQ shows
that 42 percent of app developers spend between 10 and 25 Access our Step-By-Step Guide for
percent of their time debugging application errors discovered in Using an SSL at wsm.co/guidessl.
production, rather than developing new features.

POPULAR WITH WM READERS

Should SEOs Guaran-
tee their Work?
+ wsm.co/seomoneyback
Over the years, businesses have
learned that any guarantee for
SEO work is the fi rst sign they
should run. This advice often
centers around the concept that
companies offering guaranteed
results are focusing on short-term,
lowquality or even black-hat tactics.
9 Questions to Ask So-
cial Media Candidates
+ wsm.co/socialhires
Handing over brand messaging to
a social media manager can be a
difficult decision, particularly when
hiring a new person for the role.
Here are nine questions brands
should be asking candidates, or
themselves if they need a refresh
of current best practices.
Gmail Promotions Tab:
Retail Friend or Foe?
+ wsm.co/wphire
Gmails Tabs update panicked
both end-users and the marketers
trying to reach them. Research after
the fact, however, paints a different
picture of the change and highlights
how recipients across generations
are using email to communicate
with brands and each other.
 Net
BRIEFS
WEB TECH WATCH APP FOCUS
Check out what has the digital community all abuzz with Website
Magazines #WebTechWatch series, a monthly roundup profil-
ing emerging and established technologies and some of the most
Adobe Magic
useful solutions for todays Web workers. Submit your own rec- in Spark Post
ommendations by tweeting us at @WebsiteMagazine.
Designers know the pain of being asked to create graphics
for every conceivable channel and social media managers
experience similar anguish when trying to generate images
on their own for all the different networks. Adobe Spark
Post provides iOS and desktop users with easy-to-tweak,
professionally designed templates that are pre-sized to fit
optimally on the top networks. Users simply pick a photo,
add some text and apply themes. To customize the graphic
Zendesk 3.0 Fuzzy.ai further, they just tap on the screen to get new layouts, color
New version built around An AI palettes, typography styles and filters. Designs can easily
customer relationships decision-making API be added to social platforms, tests or emails.

Origami Studio
A tool for designing in-
terfaces from Facebook
NeverBounce
EMERGE App
Largerio
Real-time email
Multi-channel order and inven- verification and email Shows the technologies
tory management system cleaning services used on websites

Microsoft Teams Sizzle Analytics Mailytics Parrot QA

Team communication/ Multidimensional analytics Monitor and analyze Automated

collaboration for CSV data competitor email campaigns bug testing

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

Tweet us @WebsiteMagazine
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 Stat
WATCH

Changing the Future of Connectivity:

How Pokmon & Augmented Reality are Bringing New
Life to the Digital Experience
While many enterprises are desperately just trying to
keep up with current demands from the always-on
consumer, the digital community is moving past simple
mobile optimization and omnichannel capabilities,
200.1 Worldwide sales of virtual reality head-
mounted displays (HMDs) will reach 200.1
and connecting people via technology in ways never Million million units during the period from 2015
through 2020. By the end of that period,
before imagined.
Readers of Website Magazines November issue
HMD shipments are forecast to reach 76.7
(wsm.co/wm1116) learned, for example, how Microsoft is en-
million units annually. (Tractica, 2016)
abling augmented reality (AR) video conferencing that teleports

49%
a 3-D projection of participants in real-time so that people can Nearly half (49 percent) of survey respon-
communicate as if they were face to face. Developments like dents say wearable technology will
these no doubt contribute to Goldman Sachs predicting aug-
increase workplace efficiency, and two in
mented and virtual reality will be an $80 billion market by 2025.
three want their company to pay for their
Pokmon Go no doubt will contribute to ARs growth as well.
wearable tech. (PwC, 2016)
The app brought augmented reality to the masses, even
adding in some unexpected benefi ts. According to a Microsoft
Research and Stanford report, Pokmon Go added 144 billion
steps within the first 30 days to U.S. physical activity. Those fig- 12.4 The production of new automobiles
equipped with data connectivity, either
ures are not even as impressive, however, as the five new world
records it broke according to Guinness: Million through a built-in communications module
or by a tether to a mobile device, is forecast
to reach 12.4 million in 2016 and increase
1. Most revenue grossed by a mobile game in its first month to 61 million in 2020. (Gartner, 2016)
2. Most downloaded mobile game in its fi rst month
3. Most international charts topped simultaneously for a
mobile game in its fi rst month (downloads)
4. Most international charts topped simultaneously for a
mobile game in its fi rst month (revenue)
11% When asked about when they connect to
social media during their workday, about 40
percent of respondents said during lunch
5. Fastest time to gross $100 million by a mobile game and intermittently throughout the day
respectively, and 11 percent said during
Despite all this, the effects on the local business economy bathroom breaks. (Bambu by Sprout Social, 2016)
missed the mark with San Francisco/Portland startup Womply
unable to uncover any meaningful impact after reviewing its
companys database of over 2 million merchants regardless
of reports indicating otherwise. Still, the apps overnight popu- 30% By 2020, 30 percent of Web browsing sessions
will be done without a screen. (Gartner, 2016)
larity proves were one digital step closer to having the technol-
ogy were creating now, being what will inform us in the future,
perhaps in 3-D humanoid form.

10 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016


Understanding the App
EXPLOSION
How many apps do you have on your mobile phone?
If youre like most modern consumers the number
ranges anywhere from 11-20 (Pew Research), and
the time you spend interacting with them is growing
at record pace.
Globally, time spent in apps grew by a staggering 114
percent on Android phones from 2014 to 2016 according
to App Annie Intelligence, with communication and social
apps like WhatsApp Messenger and Facebook attracting
the largest share of time spent. Time spent in media and
video apps (like YouTube) has also grown by 212 percent
over this period and is on the brink of overtaking games.
Even so, app retention remains a critical issue in this eco-
system with 75 percent of all app users churning within 90
days (Localytics).
Despite this challenge, many brands are consider-
ing tapping into this competitive yet potentially lucra-
tive market. Knowing the factors that contribute to
app downloads, engagement and revenue is a good
place to start.
Take this months Quiz Time to test your app-savvy
and see if your app idea has legs based on 2016 data
from App Annie.
Access the answers to Decembers Quiz Time 5.
by scanning the QR code on the left or visiting
wsm.co/qtdec16.
Quiz
TIME
1. The global revenue opportunity for publishers of mobile
apps is forecast to grow by 270 percent from $70
billion in 2015 to this amount in 2020:
a. $189 billion
b. $1.2 trillion
c. $250.93 billion
d. $727 billion
2. What were the top three paid apps by iOS and Google
Play revenue in the first half of 2016?
a. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Facetune and Terraria
b. Monster Strike, Clash of Clans, Game of War - Fire Age
c. Facebook, Snapchat and Selfie
d. Shutterfly, Minecraft and Pokmon Go
3. Which country recently surpassed the U.S. in iOS App
Store revenue?
a. Japan
b. Russia
c. Brazil
d. China
4. Not all apps are created to generate revenue through the
app stores or in-app advertising. Weve listed some of the
strategies of popular apps below. Which one is not true?
a. HBO Go: Allows current subscribers to stream content
on the go
b. Uber: Drives mobile transactions that are processed
outside of the app store
c. eBay: Drives online shopping conversion
d. Venmo: Uses augmented reality to let users see how
furniture would look in their homes
True or False: While there are more app downloads on
Android devices worldwide by a factor of 7:2 due to its
larger base of users, iOS leads on revenue generated from
apps by 3:2 due to its more affluent user base.
D E CE M B E R 2016 | .com | 11
 Enterprise
READY
The Experience Business
From a Web
of Pages to a
Web of Experiences
By Kevin Lindsay, Adobe
Were in a major period of transition, as
our Web of pages shifts to become a Web
of experiences. The last millisecond and
the behaviors it triggers have become less
a consideration and more the norm in this
always-on, customer-first universe.
Consumers dont just expect, they demand, more
spot-on experiences and personalized journeys from
the brands they frequent. They dont want websites.
Websites are boring necessary evils in their fully inte-
grated lives. Web experiences, though, are something
special. Thats what pulls consumers in and inspires
purchases, viral chatter and other key actions. A Web
experience is something we, as consumers, can climb
on board for, feel good about or get behind. Its some-
thing we can all relate to on a bigger level.
This shouldnt surprise us; were in the experience
business and have been for a while. The next phase is
optimizing those experiences with our collective eye
on creating perfect experiences. Its doable. Since you
have a site, you already have the data, the content and
the context three key pieces to building a Web ex-
perience. The next step is to tap into the brave new
user experience (UX), design and tech worlds to create
something even bigger and better: a true experience.
THE WORLD OF NEW UX &
THE NEW WORLD OF EXPERIENCES
Brian Solis, a thought leader in the space, unpacks
this even more in his book, X: The Experience When
Business Meets Design. He mentioned that this is
12 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
...a new era of business in which your brand is de-
fined by those who experience it.
A marketers job is to understand how customers
experience their brand and work to define those experi-
ences to benefit both sides. No longer are great products
enough to win over consumer sentiment, he explains;
instead, we all need to be razor-focused on building and
cultivating the most meaningful experiences possible
experiences that stretch across all of our brand platforms.
Why does it matter now? Because, were in a web-
site crisis, really. On the average website, nearly two
in five users dont complete even the simplest tasks.
Design and UX are issues. The simplest transaction is
loaded with steps and page after irrelevant page of info.
Its not surprising that so many people ditch their
carts before buying their shoes, downloading their
music or booking their flights; theyre just not good
experiences. Theyre not meant to be. Theyre meant to
be websites. And the average person will give a website
about 60 seconds before calling it quits that last mil-
lisecond is a powerful pull.
HOW WELL SHIFT TO A WEB OF EXPERIENCES
This goes beyond just finding (or not finding) our way
through cluttered and poorly organized pages. Once
upon a time, websites provided dazzling new ways
to communicate our brands. They were cutting-edge
methods that boasted transactional experiences with-
out the hassle things that, prior to the Internet, we
had to do in person or over the phone (the horror).
Fast-forward two decades, and now, we casually
toss around the term digital experience to describe
the exchanges that have become utilitarian in nature
(e.g., booking a flight, contacting customer support,
ordering new sneakers, paying a credit card bill).
Theyre totally transactional, but still, we assign the
term experience to them, too. Today, everything has
become a brand experience. Is it really though?
Within a typical website, theres a set construct its
a Web PAGE, after all. As technology has evolved, and
weve seen things like CSS, Angular and app-develop-
ment take center stage, a new path has begun to take
shape and its filled with opportunities for more ele-
gant experiences. A good example? We can accomplish
things on one screen that once took many gone are
the days when users had to be catapulted from one sec-
tion of a site to another to download PDFs, check size
charts, and review dates and times. We can now engage
consumers in ways that truly reflect the way they do
things in real life.
CHALLENGES BEHIND CREATING
AN AMAZING WEB OF EXPERIENCES
A large media brand recently shared its plans for
the next iteration of its websiteand its really cool.
The new visually striking homepage is comprised of
modular content blocks or tiles. Tile-based design is
growing in popularity among designers, and many
brands are testing it on their websites with great re-
sults (check out Thomas Hausteins Pinterest board,
screenshot above, to see some great tile-based design).
In this case, whats so interesting is not so much the
design or tiles themselves, but rather the engine be-
hind the experience they want to deliver.
Some design lends itself better to personaliza-
tion than others do, but something as modular
and, therefore, flexible as a tile-based UX provides
seemingly unlimited abilities to personalize. In the
case of my media-company example, there is no
shortage of tiles content with offers, stories, pro-
gramming suggestions and much more. So, how do
they decide which tiles appear when and to whom
given the context variables of the interaction (such
as device type)?
The challenge, when it comes to any kind of per-
sonalization, lies with the decision; how do we decide
which piece of content or experience variation should
manifest for a particular person in a given moment? We
compound this challenge when we increase the number
of decisions that users must make, which is why todays
companies are starting to heavily leverage data and auto-
mate personalization through machine learning. This is,
hands down, a Web experience.
Were talking so many experience permutations
that, literally, no two individuals ever need to see the
same page. My media-company friends are beyond
excited about data sciences potential to help them
deliver hyper-relevance at scale. They acknowledge
that this is the only way to figure out the right experi-
ence for their large and vastly diverse customer base.
The result of this design-meets-data-science marriage?
Theyre architecting something thats infinitely bigger,
bolder and better than just a website.
As always, testing and optimization are critical here.
Does this experience prevail over that one? Are custom-
ers more apt to apply for credit cards, book flights or buy
those sneakers within a Web pageor within a Web
experience? Is this the right thing, or do customers still
prefer the page over the experience? What wins?
Done well, the power is unparalleled. Done right,
brands will craft powerhouse experiences that are so rich,
so authentic, and so enjoyable that consumers will want
more, more, moreand, theyll travel across platforms
and other interactive experiences to fuel that desire.
START BUILDING
Take a lesson from experience pioneers like Steve Jobs
and advice from experts like Solis; then, look to your
own experiences across the incredible brands you
love: step back from the page and start building the
experience. Its where Web is going, and where you
need to be now. By tapping into your data, content
5 Brands
and context, youre already halfway there. The rest
boils down to UX and human-centered design.
Nailing UX
Learn their tricks at
Kevin Lindsay heads up product marketing for Adobe Target.
wsm.co/5nailedit.
 Top
50 RANK WEBSITE
1. google.com
2. adobe.com
3. ibm.com

Analytics for
4. tableau.com
5. appannie.com
6. kissmetrics.com
7. optimizely.com

the Digital Future

8. hotjar.com
9. clicky.com
10. mixpanel.com
11. domo.com
Net professionals have never been in greater demand con- 12. adjust.com
tent is king, experience is queen, but only those with a deep 13. chartbeat.com
familiarity with the science of data will ensure their spot in the 14. piwik.org
Webs royal inner circle. 15. chartio.com
Today, analytics is simply apart of everything we as Net professionals do in 16. localytics.com
fact, there is not a virtual area anywhere that is completely untouched by the
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detailed access to data and its becoming a driving trend for enterprises looking to
achieve success in the years to come. Traditional Web analytics leaves a great deal 18. parsely.com
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pages people are visiting, how long they stay and even which channels convert 20. woopra.com
the best, the most sophisticated enterprises know that only paying attention to 21. mouseflow.com
these top-level metrics and performance indicators of this nature will never be 22. gosquared.com
enough to help them achieve genuine success in the years to come (considering 23. amplitude.com
the competitive landscape). 24. inspectlet.com
The savviest Net professionals are becoming increasingly sophisticated,
25. urbanairship.com
analyzing each unique customer journey and then determining the relevant
commonalities between them, in order to help optimize their experience. This 26. heapanalytics.com
provides an ability to go well beyond the outdated method of simply understand- 27. clicktale.com
ing unique and often unpredictable visitor behaviors. With inside-out analytics, 28. looker.com
they can pull deep insights from individual customer journeys by aggregating 29. luckyorange.com
them into meaningful audience segments and then engaging those segments 30. sitemeter.com
differently. Never before has this been possible. 31. sisense.com
In this months Website Magazine Top 50, readers will discover some of the
32. insightsquared.com
top digital analytics solutions available to Net enterprises. There are thousands
of offerings available for those looking to gather better data and put the insights 33. webtrends.com
they find to good use. Let this months Top 50, however, serve as Web profes- 34. gooddata.com
sionals starting point as they explore the opportunities they have to maximize 35. keen.io
their investment in and return from analytics. 36. leanplum.com
37. awstats.org
38. atinternet.com

Next Month:
39. birst.com
40. swrve.com

The Best of 2017 41.

42.
43.
openwebanalytics.com
grow.com
count.ly
Website Magazines January 2017 issue will feature 50 of 44. goingup.com
the most important technology solutions and platforms for 45. usabilitytools.com
Net professionals like you including tools and offerings 46. webalizer.org
for every field of endeavor. Do you have a recommenda- 47. dundas.com
tion? Share it with a tweet to @WebsiteMagazine, using the 48. haveamint.com
hashtag #WM2017. 49. statpedia.com
50. gaug.es
 Small
BUSINESS LAB
How Your Business Can
Survive & Then Thrive After
an Economic Bubble Bursts
By Brian Toolan, The Plan Collection
Remember Pets.com in 2000? What
about Lehman Brothers in 2008? While
eight years apart, both of these compa-
nies experienced impressive growth
during a bubble the dot.com bub-
ble and the housing bubble, respec-
tively only to ultimately collapse
and fail once those bubbles burst.
Failure, however, isnt the only option. Some compa-
nies caught in the downdraft of a market collapse do find
paths to great success. Left for dead by public investors
after the dot.com bubble, Priceline.com today is a multi-
billion dollar corporation. While not every business is
destined for such levels of success, plenty of companies
do survive and a number of them subsequently thrive
beyond expectations. How? Weve identified five critical,
common traits among those who succeed.
Manage Debt Wisely
Debt is a core element of any business and potentially
one of the greatest tools for fueling growth, when
used responsibly. Companies should avoid becom-
ing too reliant on credit for regular operating costs,
even during a strong market, otherwise they could
quickly find themselves dealing with unhappy credi-
tors during an economic downturn.
As a general rule, its important to balance the use
of short-term credit and revolving loans with other
forms of more stable capital, including long-term
debt which can offer greater financial security. This
may help companies avoid exorbitant interest rates or
penalties, as well as maintain their existing debt long
enough to ride out a recession.
Embrace Equity, Consider Partners
Building equity can be expensive and challenging, but it
can often be far more beneficial to the long-term success
of a business than relying on banks to provide loans. Out-
side investors who have faith in the business will often still
be there when times get tough or when new opportuni-
16 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
ties arise. An experienced investor can bring years of ex-
perience and insight that can do more to help businesses
get through the burst than just access to capital would.
Cash Flow, Cash Flow, Cash Flow
Cut unnecessary and discretionary spending and take this
chance to redefine what core spending really means. A
business owner can often identify projects or spending
that is not necessary for their business, which can translate
into major long-term savings.
If an owner concludes that she needs to conduct lay-
offs or close satellite offices or branches, she should do so
as soon as possible instead of dragging it out and sowing
doubt among her employees. Dont focus just on expense
cutting. Consider alternative ways to improve cash flow,
such as negotiating longer payment terms with vendors.
Another option is offering a small discount for early pay-
ments of invoices, which can help you improve cash flow
and reduce outstanding receivables.
Lead with Confidence
While its important to brace for rough times during the
burst phase of any bubble, its imperative that business
leaders dont use a hunker down mentality with their
employees or clients. This attitude can send the signal that
they arent prepared for whats happening and dont think
the company will make it through. Instead, they should
lead with confidence and show everyone that they believe
in the company and are actively making changes to guide
it through the storm. Actions like taking a salary cut show
that they are committed to the success of the business and
value the efforts of every employee.
Be Ready to Take Bold Action
In almost any field, new opportunities present themselves
all the time and sometimes a down market is the ideal
time to acquire a competitor or even branch out into
something new. The key is not to overextend or push
beyond available means. An opportunity might be in the
form of a major client looking to leave a competitor who
cant adapt to the changing climate or a new niche among
customers created as a result of larger economic struggles.
Whatever it is, business leaders have to be ready to act
quickly to make the most of the opportunity and translate
it into a lasting benefit.
As Warren Buffet says, Be fearful when others are
greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.
Brian Toolan is Co-Founder & CEO of TPC Interactive, a
Web-based business focused on growing a digital media
platform in the home construction, remodeling and design
sectors. The company currently operates under The Plan
Collection and Houseplans. He is also a partner at Araquot
Partners, an investment firm.
 Resource Center
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 E-Commerce
EXPRESS
Lookbook for
5 Email Types
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor
Hundreds of billions of emails are sent
each day, and sometimes it can feel that
we as individuals are receiving the major-
ity of them.
Deleting promotional emails in our inboxes is a daily
task and one that senders (retailers in particular) hope to
eradicate. Lets look at five email types worthy of opens
and why they routinely catch the eye of digital consum-
ers as well as who should be the recipients of them.
The Timely Send
Whether its the World Series or the
Presidential Election, more often than
not there is a way to tie current events into email
marketing messaging in hopes of higher opens
and better click-through rates because the message
speaks directly to what recipients are currently in-
terested in. Brands should be careful to stay neutral
if they are engaging in a sensitive topic, however. In
this instance, Shutterfly was smart to send two free
gifts to recipients on the day after the 2016 Election
when people were either celebrating or in mourn-
ing. Shutterflys email would be good for recipients
with high average order values (AOVs) because it
would serve as a thank you and recipients would
likely spend more than just the free gifts allow.
18 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
The Apology Statement
Those responsible for marketing messages
within an organization often schedule
campaigns (within both email and social
media channels). Doing so eliminates work later on
and ensures campaigns are sent at the optimal time,
but its difficult to predict what could happen between
the moment a message is scheduled and when it is
delivered. In Aug. 2016, for example, World Market
sent an email with the subject line, Summer like an
Italian with 2 for $12 Torani, Salute! Typically that
message would be innocent enough, but it happened
to be delivered the day a devastating earthquake hit
central Italy, which prompted World Market to send a
statement of apology in a follow-up email and donate
proceeds from the promotion to those affected. The
coincidence likely went unnoticed by most recipients
but World Markets apology was in line with the advice
that many public relations professionals would offer:
admit fault quickly and be sincere. When brands make
a blunder (whether its an insensitive remark, a mis-
take in the copy or a broken link), the follow-up email
should go to everyone receiving the original email.
The Expectations Email
Consumer expectations have the potential to
make or break an experience. When someone
expects A, B or C to happen and it doesnt they will
view a brand negatively. On the other hand, when expecta-
tions are met or exceeded, buyers wont soon forget. Con-
firmation emails are multipurpose in that they confirm a
transaction has been officially processed and then they set
expectations as to what happens next (building anticipa-
tion). Fabletics confirmation email is particularly impres-
sive in that it offers a visual progress bar of sorts to convey
this is the confirmation email and the person should expect
a shipping notification email next (likely contributing to
higher open rates for the subsequent email as well).
The Cross-Channel Push
If the last couple years have taught retailers
anything, it is that customers do not think in
channels. They expect to access local inventory through
a brands website, the ability to buy online and pick up in
store and get near real-time help to customer service is-
sues on social media. So, it is not a stretch to ask engaged
email recipients to follow a brand on social media or en-
gage in a contest on the page. Carters knows its audience
well in that its social media sweepstake asks parents to
tag Carters in pictures of their sleepyheads for a chance
to win a gift card. As they do, Carters not only improves
social media engagement and creates brand advocates
but it is also able to leverage all of that user-generated
content for more relatable campaigns.
The Feedback Request
Consumers are asked to provide feedback
nearly everywhere they go, from restau-
rants and retailers to dentists and doctors. So many
requests over the years have made them insensitive
to the plight of businesses trying to collect valuable
feedback. Macys, however, does a couple things
right with its feedback-request email shown below.
For starters, the subject line, Special invitation from
Macys is alluring. Secondly, the body of the email is
personalized to the recipient by name (greeting) and
by location (where the person recently purchased
items). Adding personalization is likely to improve
Macys click through and completion rates. Brands
should take into account the journey a buyer goes
through when deciding on timing for these emails.
3 Email
A person purchasing a high-ticket item, for example,
may not be fully able to review the product until they
get it home and try it for a lengthy amount of time.
On the other hand, if purchasing experience is being Types You
surveyed, that email can be sent right away as the
transaction is fresh in the recipients mind. Arent Sending
There are hundreds of email types to choose from
when scheduling campaigns this holiday season and But Should
beyond. Understanding what the competition is doing
well, however, is a good way to narrow down the Get in the know at
emails that should and shouldnt be sent. wsm.co/3etypes.
 Design and
DEVELOPMENT
DIGITAL
CHANGES
Practical Solutions for Overcoming the Inherent
Challenges in Website Redesign Projects
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief
In the course of an enterprises digital
lifespan, the time will inevitably come
when the redesign of a website be-
comes necessary.
Whether it is to take advantage of the latest trends, freshen
what has become a stale brand or to simply keep pace
with the competition, there are plenty of reasons to en-
gage in a redesign project and it can be both exciting and
terrifying for those responsible for the projects success.
Website Magazine regularly addresses the reasons
that Web design (and specifically a redesign) should
top the list of an enterprises priorities and the content
readers find each month in the print edition and daily
on the Net within our Design & Development channel
(wsm.co/desdevdigest) provides an excellent start-
ing point for those in the process of determining if the
redevelopment of a digital property makes sense.
While there will undoubtedly be companies satis-
fied with the current look and function of their website,
redesigns often end up being necessary. For example,
savvy Web workers know that faster load times means
lower bounce rates, but the only way to achieve better
Know Thy Users
A poor understanding of a websites intended audience will quickly turn a
website into a depreciating asset. Develop data-driven personas and cre-
ate experiences that satisfy the needs of users.
performance is to start with the right architecture in the
first place. So too can the right color palette lead to
significant increases in conversion, and the placement
of calls-to-action (CTAs) literally make or break an en-
terprise, but changing even a few elements of a website
likely wont be significant enough on their own. As a
result, a redesign from the virtual ground up is almost
always a better course of action. That, of course, requires
a great deal of investment and effort.
Establish a Plan & Process
Perhaps the best advice that Web professionals re-
sponsible for a redesign project will receive (impor-
tant if they are a designer or an enterprise employing
one) is to learn from the successes and failures of
others and the aims and objectives of the finished
product. Even if the processes seem to be somewhat
over-the-top, it is important for those ultimately
responsible for a redesign project to do what they
can to understand the scope of the project and the
expectations for it. Conducting interviews with key
stakeholders (discover several possible questions for a
design-related interview at wsm.co/redesqs), devel-
oping detailed project briefs, performing competitive
analysis, keeping the lines of inspiration open and es-
tablishing feedback loops, is simply the optimal way
to approach a website redesign project. Employing
these approaches at each and every state of the pro-
cess will improve the chances for its success.
There are, of course, numerous other consider-
ations that enterprises engaging in a redesign project
today and in the coming year should address. Lets
take a look at what should be top of mind before,
during and after a redesign and explore what makes
such a project successful.
Ensuring Responsiveness
There once was a time when Web professionals had
to choose between a dedicated mobile website or a
responsive one, but once Google indicated its prefer-
ence, it was responsive all the way. Website designs
that are responsive adjust to the screen size of the dif-
ferent devices they are being viewed upon increas-
ingly important as mobile devices are overtaking the
desktop (and in some industries, like visits to retail
sites, surpassed it). Hundreds of rules can be at play
depending on the complexity of a website however,
so consider regularly monitoring how each and every
change impacts the design/aesthetic experience. Check
out three ways to check the responsiveness of websites at
wsm.co/3check.
Branding Consistency
Agreeing upon the color palette, fonts/typography and
other design elements will ensure that a digital experi-
ence is consistent and will create trust among visitors
and strengthen a brands credibility. Consumers are
often willing to pay more for a product if the brand
delivers a positive branding experience, making the
consistency of key elements an absolute imperative in
a website redesign. There are challenges to achieving
this consistency, but solutions do exist (digital asset
management, or DAM, solutions for example) that aim
to help brands prevent problems from arising. Learn
more about why DAM is essential to marketing, design and
the user experience at wsm.co/damrole.
Access to Image Assets
Pictures are worth a thousand words and the im-
ages (and the quality of those assets) that brands use
on their websites have been shown time and again
to influence the digital experience. The impact on
conversion rates are significant and while investing
in custom photography can be outside of the allot-
ted budget for a redesign project, investing in image
assets that help convey the quality and essence of a
brand is critical. Designers not only need access, but
they also need guidance as to the appropriate use.
Providing designers pre-approved image assets will
go a long way toward ensuring a redesigned website
meets expectations.
One of the cardinal sins of redesigning a website
is failing to provide a vision for the structure. Formal-
One Thousand Words
Discover the top three image sources for todays professional
Web designers at wsm.co/sourcepic.
izing the essential navigation options in primary loca-
tions in the users field of vision will help accomplish
the goals and objectives of the enterprise. Invest in a
proper wireframe solution or sit down with a pen-
cil and paper and formally sketch out exactly what
needs to be the key pages of a website experience.
Take every page into consideration from the home
page to a blog post, a product page to the privacy page
and determine what users need at each point in the
digital experience.
Conversion Elements
It is not always the obvious elements that impact con-
version rates and degrees of engagement; its often the
subtle things that make the greatest difference. Agree-
ing upon the visual and contextual style of elements
including headlines, sub-headlines, calls-to-action,
interactions, etc., can make the difference between
design success and failure, between a user-friendly
digital experience and one that is so overly complex
that it negatively impacts the enterprise.
The famous David Ogilvy said that five times as
many people read the headline as the body content so
placing key conversion elements above the fold (the
visual area that can be seen without scrolling) is es-
sential. Take advantage of the Serial Position Effect,
which suggests that people tend to pay more attention
to and retain information better, to those things that
appear at the beginning and end.
Undertaking a website redesign project can be re-
warding, but theres a lot of work to be done to get it
right. Visit Website Magazine on the Net to discover
brands that have recently redesigned their digital
properties and see what theyve done right, or
wrong along the way.
SEO from the Get Go
SEO must be addressed in the early stages of a website
redesign. Understand the trends that are influencing the
market today and will likely do the same in the future, con-
centrating on ways to add greater value for consumers.
 Mastering
SEARCH
Rinse & Repeat:
Quality
Content
Checklist
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor
These days, everyone is a publisher, or
so it seems with the creation of blogs,
graphics, videos and similar material to
persuade audiences to buy, try or like a
companys products or services.
Content marketing has impacted nearly every indus-
try and its adoption is simply incredible.
Aberdeen Group recently found that 83 per-
cent of its marketing respondents practice content
marketing, and, guess what? Many of their efforts
benefit enterprises with increases in site traffic,
lead generation, customer acquisition and reten-
tion, social media engagement and search rank-
ings (check out must-know content marketing stats at
wsm.co/statscm).
After so many years of publishing content to achieve
these rewards, however, a natural decline in quality can
occur. With many efforts, practice does indeed make per-
fect but thats not always the case with content. Sure, the
more one writes the more confident they become as a
writer, but if they arent careful, publishers (whether thats
a blogger, an SEO, a journalist) can become out of touch
with what his or her audience really wants, how to ef-
fectively analyze efforts, the best ways to produce content
and the optimal channels to share it. Lets check off items
from this quality content list for, well, everyone.
22 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
Conduct a Monthly/Yearly Content Audit
Reviewing past content successes and failures
is a smart way to understand what has worked
and what hasnt in order to make more effective decisions
going forward. Unfortunately, not all content producers
have access to analytics other than page views and social
shares, but reviewing and documenting even these basic
metrics and then sorting them in Excel by most-viewed
and most-shared, respectively, is a valuable practice (if
their content management system doesnt already offer
access to more meaningful data or provide some integra-
tion to do so through a third-party provider).
SEOs may start to notice trends in the topics that
are high performers and under performers, sparking
their creativity to repackage (like turning a popular
blog post into an infographic or a slideshow into a
video) or update (e.g., version 2.0 or 2017 edition)
content that was previously popular. Once an audit
system is established, they can start to add other attri-
butes like most-used keywords to analyze even more
trends in performance. Merging two popular topics
into one could be a hit like, Virtual Realitys Impact
on SEO. Likewise, if ones CMS doesnt create word
clouds for them, using a tool to generate their own,
like Wordle, WordItOut or Tagul (based on the key-
words that most-often appear within highly viewed/
shared articles) may be just the spark because of its
visual representation they need to complete an edi-
torial calendar (more on that below) that fuels great
content all week/month/year.
Establish a Cadence
Like in email marketing (wsm.co/6automate),
establishing a regular content publishing sched-
ule can prepare readers/viewers to expect when new mate-
rial will be out helping to increase traffic and read rates
while reducing bounces for those hosting content on their
sites. A person, for example, who expects a software com-
panys blog to have daily posts because that has been the
case in the past, will be disappointed when there is no
fresh content to meet their expectations. The likelihood of
them revisiting older content or diving deeper into the site
is slim while the probability of them leaving for a competi-
tor is much greater.
Companies need to evaluate how much content
they can reasonably create without impacting other
key areas of business (if hiring additional creators,
taking on freelancers or opening up publishing to
guest contributors is not an option). Treating content
creation as an afterthought or as an annoyance will
not bode well for the companys rankings, reputation
or revenue. Readers reward thoughtful content by
recommending it and spending time with it signals
the search engines will reward too. The frequency at
which a company publishes isnt as important as cre-
ating the right content for their audience and deliver-
ing it based on their expectations.
Create a Calendar
Traditional publishers dont conduct busi-
ness without an editorial calendar a docu-
ment outlining their coverage for a set amount of time
and SEOs, bloggers and the like shouldnt either.
Planning content whether its for the week, month
or year supports the previously mentioned cadence
by keeping writers on task and advertisers, for the
case of many, privy to publishing plans to meet their
own agendas.
Using the previous two checkpoint items can help
creators with their calendars: what has been popular,
what hasnt worked, how often should publish and
what does our audience expect from us? It is wise
to look at editorial with both a short- and long-term
view. During the week, this content is published on
this day (e.g., Mondays are devoted to makeovers
whether thats a local landscaper or a beauty salon,
Tuesdays are focused on tip-based content, Wednes-
days are how-to videos, and the list goes on). Website
Magazine, for instance, breaks down the week by our
channels, devoting Mondays to E-Commerce Ex-
press, Tuesdays to Mastering Search, etc. By doing so,
we hope our audience knows what to expect from the
content on the site and the content being delivered
by email. Whats more, it makes it easier to schedule
from an email administrative perspective, allowing re-
cipients an opportunity to self-select the content they
want and providing advertisers a targeted audience.
A more high-level view of the year should also be
recorded which is particularly timely considering
the New Year is now just weeks away as it allows
for content creators to tailor material to their industry
(e.g., e-commerce software providers may provide
research around reasons to replatform in November
and December knowing that retailers will take on
these projects immediately after the holiday season).
Likewise, popular topics could be revisited each year
as they are likely to change in some ways.
Be Consistent
Local merchants, software vendors, airlines,
hotels, retailers and other verticals are all
keeping writers employed relying, in many cases, on
those with journalism backgrounds to give their content
initiatives life. With that, however, enterprises must be
willing to adapt to their experience where calendars are
created and style guides are adhered to. If a style guide
doesnt exist within an organization, it should be created
for consistency. It can be difficult, for instance, for some-
one not familiar with the Associated Press Stylebook to
forgo their Oxford/serial commas or understand when to
spell out numbers (e.g., one, two, three) versus using the
figures (10, 20, 3 million). Whether its AP Style, Chi-
cago Style, a homegrown guide or a hybrid of different
Top B2B
approaches, being consistent is key and allowing content
creators to establish that consistent style, as well as edit
Content
for it, is part of quality control. Marketing
Metrics
Read More
Theres perhaps nothing more writers like doing than
to write about writing, so our editors have compiled
What they are and
more to this checklist (including the importance of vet-
ting guest bloggers, improving scan-ability, investing how to track them at
in education, etc.) online at wsm.co/cqcheck. wsm.co/b2bmetric.
Amplified ANALYTICS
Trends for the Digital Future
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief
It can be challenging to know definitively what
the driver of conversion or engagement events
are on a digital property, but it is becoming
much less complicated thanks to the increas-
ing experience of Web professionals and the
powerful technologies supporting them.
What the digital realm makes possible is to know what
strategic efforts, promotional initiatives and design ex-
periences are most effective, providing an opportunity
over time to identify the elements that encourage users
to engage and those that prevent greater levels of suc-
cess in general.
The insights that can be gathered from the vast pool of
available data today, not only informs brands about where
their resources are best invested to acquire new custom-
ers, but how to plan and project for future growth (and
revenue) as well.
In the digital decades past, marketing and advertis-
ing as well as user experience (UX) initiatives lacked
the finite measurability that allowed those responsible
(the campaign managers) to determine return accu-
rately. Most professionals are familiar with the famous
John Wanamaker quote, Half the money I spend on
advertising is wasted; the trouble is I dont know which
half. Fortunately, this clever phrase is quickly becom-
ing irrelevant.
The good news for todays enterprises is that the
digital realm is incredibly data-driven. In addition to
the nature of track-ability inherent in digital, there is
an abundance of solutions available that provide im-
pression and conversion costs included at their core,
and that has made it easier than ever before for Web
businesses to determine the return so many desperately
rely on, providing access to the data and insights re-
quired to drive growth.
 In this months edition of Website Magazine, explore
the trends shaping digital as well as the tactics and tools to
make an investment in analytics generate a positive return.
TRUST THE DATA
Master the Complexities of Analytics
There are some significant challenges facing those inter-
ested in understanding more about the performance of
their promotional and optimization initiatives. Todays
digital experience, for example, is incredibly fragmented
users are on multiple devices, visit different channels
with regularity and hop between these experiences fre-
quently. That creates a terrible mish-mash of data that
is almost impossible to make sense of and measure at
least for the uninitiated.
What makes matters even worse is that even as com-
panies are investing in analytics most simply do not
trust the data (and insights) they discover. In fact, only
38 percent of respondents, according to a survey by
KPMG and Forrester Consulting, have a high level of
confidence in the insights they gather, and only one-
third trust the analytics they generate from their busi-
ness operations. That, of course, does not change the
fact that brands are aware of the importance of analytics
and are actively using it. Half of those surveyed, in fact,
reported using data and analytics tools to understand
their existing customers, 48 percent reporting using
them to find new customers, and another 47 percent
use them to develop new products and services.
As analytics increasingly drive the decisions that
affect us as individuals, as businesses and as societ-
ies, there must be a heightened focus on ensuring the
highest level of trust in the data, the analytics and the
controls that generate desired outcomes, said Christian
Rast, the global head of data and analytics and a partner
with KPMG in Germany, in a statement. Organizations
that continue to invest in D&A without determining
its effectiveness could likely make decisions based on
inaccurate models, which would perpetuate a cycle of
mistrust in the insights.
Success with anything requires a plan and in the realm
of analytics the same holds true. And when enterprises
know their audience and their preferences, it becomes
easier to turn data into dollars.
START WITH THE ANALYTICS ESSENTIALS
Those enterprises that are content to only measure the
basics, confident in their ability to spot both macro and
micro-level insights on their own without much digging,
have a long list of metrics to monitor on an ongoing basis
including: those related to traffic generation (overall site
traffic, traffic sources, mobile traffic, click-through rate
and cost-per-click); conversion (conversion rate, cost per
Stay Up to Date on Data
Visit Website Magazines Analytics Insider channel to learn
more about current trends and important developments about
leveraging Web and mobile data at wsm.co/affiliate16.
lead, bounce rate, average page views per visit, average
cost per page views, average time on site, rate of retuning
visitors); and yes, of course, revenue metrics (return on
investment and the cost to acquire a customer).
For those just getting started with analytics, review
Website Magazines Guide to Getting Started with Digital
Analytics at wsm.co/startics. Those with more a more
advanced expectation of analytics, however, have plenty
to concentrate their efforts upon.
GET IN THE USERS MIND
Know Every Audience Segment with Analytics
In terms of user experience, analytics makes it possible
for brands to become hyper-aware of behavioral triggers
from something as simple as a click to something deeper
such as loyalty.
While many Web workers will be content to measure
website traffic, engagement and conversions (and there is al-
most always a sufficient amount of data to do so), its also pos-
sible to analyze website visitors. Fortunately, there is plenty
of information that professionals can gather from even the
briefest glance and many analytics solutions makes it incred-
ibly easy to do so, providing insights for example on the ge-
ography, demographics, interests, technology, behavior, and
level of engagement of an audience or customer base.
Customers dont have identical characteristics and they
most certainly dont behave in the same way. As marketers
increasingly employ different marketing tactics for each
group, however, segmenting should be a core practice in
their digital strategy.
While its actually quite common for some basic seg-
mentation to occur, the abundance of data today makes
it possible to move beyond the traditional (age, gender,
etc.) to a far more sophisticated break down of audiences.
Thats a good thing for ROI-hungry Web workers.
At Adobe Summit, Adobe introduced Segment IQ
and is now announcing the first live feature within that
category: Segment Comparison for Analysis Work-
space. In what is expected to be a first in a series of
audience analysis and discovery tools within Segment
IQ, the new capability essentially makes it possible to
discover the differences between sets of target audience
segments through automated analysis of all known met-
rics and dimensions.
 In speaking with customers, we saw analysts spend-
ing an incredible amount of time comparing various
segments with each other in order to understand the
actionable differences between them, wrote Trevor
Paulsen of Adobes Analytics team. Segments often
overlap with each other or have non-obvious differences
lurking deep within the data, and uncovering these in-
sights is like picking a needle out of a haystack sifting
through these cascades of data manually to find the most
significant differences is often impossible.
Use Analytics to Prioritize Business Opportunities
Empowering marketers is the name of the game for many
of todays technology platforms, whether it is the ability to
make changes on the fly with minimal or no IT support or
a way to transform data into actual strategy.
The latter is exactly what a new product from Bright-
Edge hopes to provide, particularly when it comes to cre-
ating content that matters to individuals in their moment
of need like when they are searching for answers.
BrightEdges DataMind is a deep-learning engine that iden-
tifies important search trends, competitive threats and market
shifts in real-time and works with other BrightEdge products
(like the recently announced Content IQ and Intelligence Ex-
periences solutions) to provide accurate and actionable insights
to drive better content strategies and avoid guesswork to iden-
tify potential content topics with high demand.
Personalization platform Bloomreach announced im-
provements to its Compass application as well that are
worth a closer look for digital merchandisers. The Bloom-
reach innovations leverage algorithmic intelligence, which
prioritizes content opportunities while predicting the im-
pact on revenue.
Digital merchandisers can face hundreds if not thou-
sands of content and product decisions daily; what Com-
pass now provides is insights and suggestions into what
they should do with their products, categories, navigation
and site-search queries, and even ranks the opportunities
by their potential monthly revenue impact.
Compass represents a market shift toward role-based
analytics that are immediately actionable, said Raj De
Datta, co-founder and CEO of BloomReach. All too com-
Explore Attribution in Analytics
The savviest digital enterprises measure the impact of mes-
sages and channels at every step of the user journey. Discover
how greater familiar with attribution modeling can provide sig-
nificant returns at wsm.co/attlytics.
monly, analytics platforms crunch a bunch of data and
then spit out pages and pages of reports, making the user
determine what they should do. We redesigned Compass
to bring together data from every consumer interaction to
one place, and give digital merchandisers and site-expe-
rience managers a prioritized list of opportunities to ac-
complish their goals.
Bridge Conversion Gaps with Analytics
The overarching trend for those in e-commerce/retail is to
explore analytics to find answers to user-experience ques-
tions, retention problems and conversion issues.
Magento merchants, for example, will soon be able to
analyze their retail businesses better thanks to the com-
panys acquisition of RJMetrics, which was picked up for
an undisclosed amount. Types of information that can be
gleaned from RJMetrics include improved segmentation
and personalization abilities, better insights into merchan-
dising decisions (like promotion, placement), customer
lifetime value info, churn analytics and more.
For the latter, as more retailers look to take advan-
tage of a subscription economy they can identify when
a shopper is ready to cancel their membership leading
retailers to miss out on that valuable recurring revenue.
Not only are subscription-born companies like Stitch Fix,
Fabletics and others leveraging monthly programs, but
also retailers like Amazon and Target for items shoppers
purchase on a regular basis (e.g., household goods, baby
items, beauty products).
The Simplification of Analytics
One of the reasons there are not more digital analysts
available to do much of what is described above is
because it is very complex and involved but that is
starting to change thanks to the trend toward the sim-
plification of analytics solutions.
Google, for example, rolled out a new Google Analyt-
ics app (iOS and Android) that offers machine-learning
powered insights that will be very attractive to brands. The
insights can point out the good (e.g., increases in sales or
new users) and the bad (like decreases in average session
duration or conversion rate). Thats a big step up from
analytics solutions of the past, but there are still other pro-
viders that are also doing much of the analysis on their end
to the benefit of Net professionals.
Visual Analytics for VoC Data
If marketers are going to improve the customer experience it
is imperative they understand the story behind the metrics.
Audience research solution iPerceptions released a rather
interesting solution recently that will enable its users to
dig more deeply into their voice of customer (VoC) data in
order to better understand the customer experience.
 The new Advanced Exploration feature allows market-
ers to leverage the power of visual analytics and business in-
telligence solution Tableau to perform analysis of their VoC
data to uncover insights. Customers of iPerceptions will
now be able to create reports (with 24 different chart types
to choose from and custom colors to match branding),
share unlimited viewer licenses, subscribe to automated
emails and get insights tailored to their specific needs.
Another way that enterprises are beginning to simplify
their analytics initaitives is to develop workflows to opti-
mize their internal tasks, projects and processes.
Content intelligence platform Conductor has launched
a new solution designed to improve the workflow and
productivity of digital marketers by surfacing important
business insights through a live feed of personalized and
very plain-English recommendations.
Conductors new Insight Stream aims to surface rel-
evant information that will offer marketers suggestions
to manage, optimize, and measure their content mar-
keting and SEO efforts. The solution will leverage data
found from Web crawling, competi-
tive intelligence data, Web analytics
Without knowing systems and search engine marketing
metrics. Additionally, the platform de-
what needs to be livers combined insights from third-
measured, there party tools like Google and Adobe
tunity to optimize marketers
Analytics, Google Search Console, and
will be no oppor- site-audit tool Deep Crawl to provide
anything. organic performance.
with that much discussed
and highly coveted holistic view of
Theres been an increase over the
past few years of companies wanting to
provide those simple human insights
and brands are reaping the rewards.
As a manager overseeing multiple teams, its criti-
cal that I get a full view of how our marketing channels
are performing, said John Schulenburg, group leader of
content marketing and SEO for Intuit Quickbooks. With
Insight Stream, I have a proactive understanding of the im-
pact of our organic marketing activities and have a single
experience where I can effectively manage and collaborate
with my team.
It is often easy to miss the point of analytics and invest-
ing in these initiatives. What professionals are really after
of course is the discovery of something that will move an
enterprise in a positive direction and for content marketers
the opportunity is immense.
Embedded Analytics
In this age of cloud-based software, many tools and prod-
ucts employ outside platforms for specific functions that
complement their core, such as Stripe for electronic pay-
ments, Twilio for communications or Amazon Web Ser-
vices for cloud computing services.
San Francisco-based Keen IO is making a bid to be-
come the analytics equivalent of those services, with the
release of its Native Analytics. It is a white-labeled platform
that, via a software development kit and API, offers ana-
lytics and advanced visualization that can be customized,
branded by the client company, and embedded natively
into an app, website or service.
Nobody else offers this analytics-as-a-service, KEEN
COO Will OBrien told Website Magazine. Point solutions
like Mixpanel, Amplitude and Google Analytics, he said,
have specific capabilities, while Native Analytics is highly
adaptable. The chief competition, he continued, comes
from developers who choose to take months to build their
own analytics stack.
Previously, Keens platform was designed for integra-
tion by developers, but now its been productized, ex-
panded and white-labeled.
E-commerce automation platform Bluecore, for in-
stance, white-labels Native Analytics to provide real-
time dashboards and shopping cart data, customizing
the platform for clients, while visual marketing plat-
form Pixlee offers a Keen-powered analytics dashboard
that describes user engagement and conversion. Like-
wise, online publication Mic.com employs Native Ana-
lytics to integrate user engagement stats with its content
management system (CMS).
Invest in Analytics Solutions
As digital marketers continue to accelerate the pace of
their content development and customer experience
initiatives and take advantage of more channels and
Web-based promotion opportunities, the amount (and
variety) of data can seem overwhelming at times. Layer
on personalization and behavioral data, and the situation
becomes far more complicated.
Fortunately, there are many data-related solutions avail-
able that make quick work of not only aggregating all the
information, but also processing it to a point where actual
insights can be gained and, of course, put into action. Web-
site Magazine published some insights (wsm.co/smblytics)
back in the Aug. 2016 issue on a few of the more interesting
options available for startups and small and mid-size enter-
prises today (although these can also be used on the large,
enterprise level as well).
Start Measuring, Optimizing with Insights
Analytics is an essential element to Web success. With-
out knowing what needs to be measured, there will be
no opportunity to optimize anything. Get started with an
amplified analytics plan now and greater revenue and a
better user experience is just around the virtual corner.
 Resource Center
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 Net
ADVERTISING
2017
Digital
Advertising
Trends
By Daniel Bornstein, Demand Media
The digital advertising space is complex
and oftentimes opaque. Its functionary,
ad tech, is a conduit intended to drive
transactions within milliseconds, provide
valuable data, and piece together a nu-
anced Web of prospective partners and
technologies. Things move fast and are
always changing.
The New Year will usher in its own set of trends,
not least of which will be a move back to principled
1:1 relationships between advertisers and publishers
using the strongest, most reliable and credible part-
ners. With that as a barometer, lets unpack a few
trends likely to be salient in 2017.
Opaque Transactions,
Take Rates and Middlemen
PWC and the IAB teamed up to analyze the ineffi-
ciency in digital advertising spend. The subsequent
report they published posits that only 45 cents of
every dollar spent makes its way to a publisher, the
entity that actually owns the assets. The above illustra-
tion from Ad Tech player AppNexus clearly illustrates
the issue. While this is not a new concern, revelations
from influencers such as Hamish Nicklin (CRO of the
Guardian) that as little as 30 percent of spend sees its
30 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
way to the desired location will fuel heated debate and,
for the first time, action in 2017.
There are several things that are likely to happen:
(1) demand-side platforms and supply-side platforms
will become more transparent in their pricing; (2)
SSPs will have to lower their take rates to compete;
(3) rates will start to shift from percentages to flat rates
per transaction; and (4) larger platforms will consoli-
date smaller niche players within the value chain and
provide all-inclusive offerings that are priced more ag-
gressively. Both advertisers and publishers will stand to
gain when the moat separating them recedes.
Ad Blocking and Page Speed
This was the year the topic of ad blocking hit fever
pitch. The common sentiment seemed to find all
players in the ecosystem guilty of degrading the user
experience. Its important to note that publishers are
not the only ones to blame; an influx of vendors sepa-
rating advertisers and publishers have heralded in too
many pixels that cause latency resulting in overbur-
dened advertising experiences.
According to eMarketer, more than 15 million
more Americans are expected to layer on blockers in
2017. Even more alarming is that according to Page-
Fair, 22 percent of the worlds smartphone owners are
blocking ads. At the same time, consumers, by in large,
prefer free content, and content sites need to keep the
lights on. With so much money at stake, 2017 will be
the year that we reach the point of inflection and the
large platforms (Google and Facebook) that account for
the lions share of global digital revenues will lead the
way by further articulating their positions and leading
the industry with tangible solutions.
In todays fast moving and mobile world, page speed
is a key barometer of user experience. Both Google and
Facebook have already broached this issue with the
launch of Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP (Google)
and Instant Articles (Facebook). While both these solu-
tions greatly decrease latency they have not been able
to match rates of monetization for publishers. In 2017,
we will witness a wider adoption of these protocols and
users will begin to notice. Moreover, both Google and
Facebook will likely release lightweight advertising solu-
tions within their frameworks to solve for monetization.
Publishers both large and small will follow suit.
Data
Big data will continue to be a focal area ushering in
meteoric change for both consumers and businesses.
To date, the pace of change has felt glacial as piecing
together and deciphering massive data sets for concrete
application has been a challenge. Large, well-capital-
ized organizations such as IBM (the promise of Wat-
son), Salesforce (the acquisition of Krux) and Oracle
have both the resources and the foresight to substan-
tially innovate on faster timelines. On the digital ad-
vertising front, data management platforms (DMPs)
should continue to innovate, moving past somewhat
unreliable third-party data to more reliable data. In ad-
dition, transacting on second party data should start
to move into the mainstream. Reliable and trusted
DMPs will act as credible arbiters in the brokering of
incisive non-personally identified information data be-
tween marketers and publishers. Although a platform
is needed to execute on this effectively, this bridge will
allow these primary parties to transact directly and cre-
ate new, meaningful links that will foster enhanced and
multi-faceted cooperation.
Header Bidding
For the uninitiated, header bidding is a snippet of code
placed within the header of a publishers site that allows
multiple demand sources to compete for an impression
simultaneously (also known as pre-bidding), thus serv-
ing the highest priced bid and enabling the publisher to
realize the true value of its inventory.
In late 2015, the stage was set as Tom Shields
from AppNexus and Jonathan Bellack from Google
debated the merits of header bidding. Shields spoke
about the democratization of bidding and creating an
even playing field, while Bellack spoke about latency,
degraded user experience and ad blocking. Publish-
ers, for their part, adopted header bidding in droves
(according to OpenX, adoption increased 300 percent
over the past year) and many publishers have quoted
significant yield gains as a percentage.
As possibly the most talked about programmatic
trend in 2016, expect 2017 to offer a definitive an-
swer to the question of yield versus latency. Googles
announcement that they are rolling out Exchange
Bidding will get us one step closer to the answer. With
multiple exchanges having the ability to bid within
the Google ecosystem, the democratization of bid-
ding could surface via the ad server thus decreasing
latency. In tandem, it is likely that more sophisticated
publishers will measure latency not only as it relates
to user experience but also as it relates to overall
yield (e.g., higher CPMs v. the ability to load more
ads with incremental page views). From an advertiser
perspective, this brings inventory one step closer as
it promotes access to premium first look inventory,
further separating the good inventory from the bad
and shining the light on quality publishers with qual-
ity audiences.
Programmatic
Programmatic advertising continued to be the unequiv-
ocal buzzword of 2016. To deny its ascent as the domi-
nant force in digital media buying would be obtuse.
Growth is currently being driven by mobile and video.
With platforms like Google and Rubicon leading the
way, direct buying will gain a transactional efficiency
(programmatic direct) but will also lead to discover-
ability. The discoverability aspect is of paramount im-
portance to buyers as IO-based request for proposals
(RFPs) tend to be biased and highly subjective.
While programmatic platforms will take part of the
margin when utilized in these transactions, their mar-
gins will be small relative to the data-based rigor theyll
provide in this particular instance they will add value An Update on
by further uniting the respective parties directly.
Click Fraud
Daniel Bornstein is the senior vice president of media mon- See how much of your
etization and operations for Demand Media, which owns traffic is fake at
and operates a host of content-rich sites like eHow and
LIVESTRONG.com. wsm.co/clickfake.
 Conversion
CORNER
Upping Your Delayed
Conversions Game
By Martin Greif, SiteTuners
Theres a working model in the user expe-
rience (UX) field that states, roughly, Your
website is a time-delayed conversation
between the site owner and the user.
The site owner provides potential answers in the sites
pages the user arrives, asks their questions and de-
cides when the conversation ends.
Exactly when that dialogue stops depends on sev-
eral factors:
Maybe the user has converted, and bought something
from the site.
Maybe the site just isnt right for a particular visitor.
BOTH HAPPEN ALL THE TIME
There is, however, a third possible outcome: a visitor
who teeters in between those two states, neither con-
verting nor wanting to end the conversation then and
there. That can happen for a lot of reasons. The user
may like the websites offer, but still wants to compare
prices. The visitor may almost be ready to buy, but
will only decide after one last round of research. Most
websites are unprepared for this in-between state, and
basically give up on the sale. If there was any doubt,
that cant be you.
32 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
If the visitor wants to have an extended conver-
sation with a brand, it should have a game plan. An
enterprises delayed conversions effort should be as
good as their overall conversions game anything less
is leaving money on the table.
Dont be the one to end it
Before making sure a marketer is ready for extended
conversations with users, they first must make sure they
dont shoot themselves in the foot and end it too early.
Likewise, brands need to ensure they know which types
of conversations tend to do well for the company.
Have funnel-focused plans
Many sites lose out because they are built solely for
people who are ready to convert. Thats a terrible ap-
proach, and one that is likely to make the user want to
leave if he or she is in the research phase. A site should
have educational content for top-of-the-funnel visitors
and sale-optimized pages for those in the bottom-of-
the-funnel.
Know high-conversion terms
This is tougher to see now that Google blocks visibility
into organic search engine traffic, but marketers need
to check Google Webmaster Tools for very specific
product searches and AdWords for sale-leaning terms
that lead to their site.
Not all conversations have the same shot at con-
versions, and brands need to be able to identify which
conversations are likely to end in a win.
FIX LOW-HANGING ENDERS
If a marketer is ready for the different types of conver-
sations and is collecting data about which ones tend
to do better for their business, the next step is to make
sure they do not make basic mistakes when talking to
people who are ready to convert.
Shipping cost revealed too late
This is a conversion-killer, plain and simple. Brands
must show shipping cost early in the process say up-
front how much they need to order for shipping to be
free, and dont lose sales to this.
A shipping calculator that shows costs even before
the customer starts checkout helps considerably.
No phone number
Marketers cannot stand to lose credibility when trying to
make a sale, and phone numbers are critical to establish-
ing user trust. It assures customers that a site is a legitimate
business, and that they can reach them if they hit a snag.
GATHER DATA ALONG THEIR VISIT
As a brand converses with the user, it needs to provide
enough value to ask for permission to contact the visi-
tor down the line.
Use progressive disclosure for forms
Instead of having very long forms on one page, brands
will want to consider having multiple pages for the
form, broken out into easy to fill fields.
They will be less intimidating to the users, and after
theyve completed one page they are more likely to fill
out the rest thats the psychological value.
On top of that, though, even if they dont complete
the fields, they will have given marketers enough to
potentially keep the conversation moving.
Ask for the users email address when value has
been shown.
Another reason progressive disclosure can increase
conversions is if, after providing the user something of
value, a marketer can get his or her email, then theyll
have a shot at restarting the conversation with that user
at some point. This is one of the things marketers need
to get good at post-visit conversions.
DONT END THE CONVERSATION YOURSELF
Now lets say that a companys sales funnel isnt espe-
cially leaky, and its converting at a decent rate. That
still doesnt mean that brands can afford to give up on
people who almost converted.
There are a few ways to ensure that brands dont
end the conversation with the user the moment they
leave their site:
Save the users cart state
Some users add things to their cart, then do not com-
plete the checkout. What usually happens is they
compare prices, or they just forget to come back and
complete the purchase.
Brands will want to do themselves a favor, and
make sure they save the state of the cart all the
items users added to the cart should still be there if
they come back.
If brands lose the cart state between visits, theyre
basically telling the user to go take his or her busi-
ness elsewhere.
Use AdWords remarketing
After people leave the site, various sites consider the
conversation ended but that does not necessarily have
to be the case.
Marketers can use AdWords retargeting to adver-
tise to people who viewed an offer on the site. And
because they have shown a deeper interest in the offer
than the standard visitor, a brands conversion rate with
that crowd should be higher.
Use email special offers
That email they filled out from on a sites form? Market-
ers can use that to present visitors with special offers.
Brands should be careful with this tactic and observe
the data so that they dont overdo discounts. Essentially,
someone who viewed a particular product is more likely
to respond to special offers about that product.
Marketers need to get the technology right and
match the user to the product, and also, to not send
the same email to people who viewed the product and
bought it thatll just be annoying.
Test emails - Needless to say, brands need to test
their email open and click-through rates for special offers.
Test offer pages - Likewise, the page users get to
when they click through need to be tested, and they cant
be the same product page shown to everyone else.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Visitors dictate the pace of the conversation with brands,
and they ultimately decide when its over. It is impos-
sible to convert everyone every site has a ceiling.
That said, those that give themselves an opportunity
at converting after the visitor has left the first time
are more likely to increase overall conversions in the
20+ Tips to
long run. Speed Up Sales
Martin Greif brings 25-plus years of sales and marketing ex- Get customers
perience to SiteTuners where he is responsible for driving rev-
enue growth, establishing and nurturing partner relationships acting faster at
and creating value for its broad customer base. wsm.co/swiftsales.
 Email
EXPERIENCE
Last-Minute Email Boosts
to Keep Retail Sales Strong
Through the Holidays
By EJ McGowan, General Manager of Campaigner
December is here, and the long-
awaited holiday season is upon us at
last. This month represents the busiest
time of year for promotions and the big-
gest sales season for many retailers.
Its also the last month of the financial year for retail busi-
nesses operating on an annual fiscal calendarmeaning
its their last chance to turn their bottom line from nega-
tive to positive and close out the year on a high note.
In these final weeks of the year, retail marketers
should fine-tune their email marketing tactics with
some last-minute modifications to wrap up the holi-
day season. Consider the following tips to be a holiday
giftone that will help retailers achieve email market-
ing success through the holidays and into 2017.
Test and tweak for standout subject lines
Toy manufacturers dont ship new holiday toys to
children without testing them for product faults and
market interest first. Nor should retail marketers send
holiday campaigns to their subscriber base without first
testing elements of the email messages. Shoppers will be
receiving a larger than usual amount of email during the
holiday season, so marketers should use whatever tac-
tics will give them an edge. A/B split testing, for exam-
ple, can help determine which subject lines, email body
content and images will be best received by customers.
Marketers can also test subject line emojis and person-
alization tactics to determine what helps messages stand
out in customers crowded inboxes.
Inbox Spirit Drum up interest for ongoing interaction
Learn how non-retail The next few weeks will be filled with holiday event af-
ter holiday event, and retailers certainly dont want cus-
brands send holiday tomers to miss theirs because it slipped off their radar.
email campaigns at Throughout the month of December, marketers should
wsm.co/inboxspirit. build awareness of and excitement for their holiday pro-
34 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
motions and events with ever-increasing volume of teaser
emails. They should steadily increase the cadence of these
messagesfrom once a week early in the month, to every
day of the week while the promotion runsto generate
hype early on and keep the momentum going through-
out an email campaign. Even after the holiday promo-
tion has passed, marketers must maintain a regular flow
of content to customers so they are used to seeing the
messages in their inboxes and engaging with the brand.
Shift to suggestions for last-minute shoppers
Many holiday shoppers aim to have their gift-getting
done well in advance of the holidays, but those plans
often go awry as the holidays sneak up. Retailers can
make it easy for last-minute shoppers to give great gifts
by focusing promotions on items that can be down-
loaded or shipped quickly. The closer the holiday is,
the more the content should highlight giftswhether
e-books that can be downloaded or hardcover novels
that can be shipped next-daythat will arrive in time
for the holidays.
Simplify the purchase process
Consumers can have long holiday shopping lists and
may be overwhelmed with their holiday preparations.
Marketers should make the purchase process as quick
and easy as possible so customers can cross off shopping
from their lists and move onto their holiday planning.
If possible, they should implement buy now buttons
or one-click purchasing into their email marketing con-
tent so shoppers can take action and purchase products
without even leaving their inboxes.
If marketers remember these best practices in
the last few weeks of the holiday season, they will
wrap up the sales year with cheer. Not only will a
strong December help marketers finish strong in
2016, but it will also prepare them to hit the ground
running in the New Year.
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 Mobile
MATTERS
Stay Away From
These Six App Ideas
By Hunter Jensen, Barefoot Solutions
There are 2.2 million apps in the Google
Play Store. Apples App Store features 2
million of its own. With more than 4 mil-
lion products between Android and iOS
alone, there are some great apps out
there and some really bad ones, too.
Weve all experienced bad apps like ones that never
load properly, or are difficult to use because of the
many built-in ads that interfere, are poorly designed
or try to do too much.
Mobile app development is a competitive indus-
try, which means users are not quick to forgive apps
that dont meet their standards. To make your app
one of the greats, steer it away from these pitfalls.
THE MORE COMPLEX, THE MORE FUN
A developer has an idea for an amazing adventure game,
and he knows bigger equals better. He decides to throw
in every feature he can think of and a few most users will
have never seen before. It will be so much fun for users
to explore every aspect of the app, right?
Think again. Complexity is more likely to lead
to frustration than fun. There are fewer things more
frustrating than taking the time to download an app
only to find it difficult to use. The most popular apps
are typically the easiest ones to use.
36 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
To help their users, developers must pay close
attention to their apps onboarding steps. A well-
planned onboarding process gives the user a solid
understanding of an app right from the start. After
that, the app should be simple enough to use to avoid
frustration and deletion.
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS
MODEL ON LOTS OF ADS
Its OK if some ads appear in an app. Its not OK
when they start overwhelming the app itself.
Advertisers usually pay mobile app developers
per view or click. Each time someone who uses an
app and views or clicks on an ad, thats money that
comes to the development company. If a brand is
thinking its a good idea to include as many ads as
possible, theyll want to resist that impulse. Being too
trigger-happy with ads could result in them becom-
ing intrusive and irritating to the user, which means
fewer views and clicks and less ad revenue.
Rather, developers will want to tastefully integrate
ads into their app. They can do so by thinking about
the ads design and placement and not making it obvi-
ous that ads are ads by looking into native advertising.
As a rule of thumb, app builders will want to
focus on quality over quantity when it comes to
in-app advertising.
 Mobile app development is a competitive indus-
try, which means users are not quick to forgive
apps that dont meet their standards.
BASE YOUR BUSINESS
MODEL ON CHARGING FOR YOUR APP
People are not going to be willing to buy an app if
the developer charges too much for it (or possibly if
they charge for it at all). Nearly half of all app revenue
comes from in-app purchases anyway (Microsoft,
2015), and in most cases, developers want to lower
an apps barrier to entry in order to make it easier to
get those in-app purchases.
The average price of mobile apps and games is
going down. The general market is moving toward
freemium apps apps that are available for free with
additional services or ad-free versions available at a
premium. This, combined with the integrated ads dis-
cussed above, is more likely to increase a companys
revenue than charging $6 for the app. Unless an app is
offering something of huge value, six bucks wont fly.
MAKE THE APP YOU WOULD LOVE
It seems counter-intuitive, but its a bad idea to build
an app solely based on how the developer wants it
to look and what he or she wants it to do. Its not
what they want that matters, its what their audience
wants. If a developers favorite color is red but the
audience finds it too aggressive, it shouldnt be the
primary color of the app, regardless of how much the
developer or other stakeholders like it. On the other
hand, one person of a development team may hate
a particular feature, but if the apps target audience
loves it, they need to consider including it.
Of course, companies wont know anything
about what their audience likes without proper mar-
ket research. Without market research, all they can
do is make assumptions. Market research tells stake-
holders who their target audience is and what their
needs and wants are. Developers shouldnt assume
they know whats best for them; they should take the
time to find out.
IGNORE YOUR COMPETITORS
With 4 million-plus apps in the marketplace, its pos-
sible someone is already offering the great idea a de-
veloper only has plans to act on. While it shouldnt
stop them from developing a similar appthere
are more than 28,000 health and fitness apps in the
Google Play Store, for examplethey do need to fig-
ure out what makes their app idea unique.
Again, its important to conduct market research be-
fore developing an app. Stakeholders will want to identify
their competitors, see what theyre offering and focus on
ways to make their app a bit different or a bit better.
CREATE A MOBILE VERSION
OF YOUR WEB APP
Dont do it! A mobile app cannot do as much as a
Web app can, and thats okay. Users want their mo-
bile apps to have one specific purpose, not 10. Theres
a reason Google Drive and Google Calendar are sepa-
rate apps. Even Facebook has taken to splitting the
functionality of its website into distinct apps, such as
when it created Messenger as a messaging app sepa-
rate from its regular mobile app.
Developers will want to take a cue from Google and
Facebook. They can create separate apps if necessary,
but each one will be better if it does one thing and does
it well rather than doing lots of things poorly.
YOUR TOP-CHARTING IDEA
Set Your
By steering clear of these six bad-app traps, you will
be able to develop stronger, better software people
will love to useincreasing your chances of seeing Creativity
your app climb to the top of the charts.
Ablaze
Prior to founding Barefoot Solutions, Hunter Jensen spent Get seven ways to
years wearing every hat imaginable in the software develop-
ment process including programmer, designer, marketing generate new ideas
specialist and janitor. at wsm.co/7ablaze.
 Affiliate
INSIDER
How to Sell Affiliate
Marketing to Your Peers
By Jamie Birch, CEO of JEBCommerce
Whether youve been managing market-
ing efforts for a decade or are new to the
scene, odds are youve personally experi-
enced the frustration of being left out of
key decisions within your enterprise.
The affiliate channel has experienced just this prob-
lem for the entirety of its existence, with a repu-
tation that precedes it. Since the early days of the
Internet, affiliate marketing has always been a part
of the marketing mix. Its biggest selling point, on the
side of the affiliate publisher, has been the low bar-
rier to entry. Create a website, post links, build traffic
and the checks will come. To this day that hope of a
full-time check with part-time work is still a highly
cited promise.
THE ARGUMENTS
That strength quickly turned into one of the main weak-
nesses of the channel, however. Along with the solid
business plans and strategies came an onslaught of poorly
designed websites that did nothing more than annoy the
channel managers and create more work to turn them
away. Add to that the history of many bad apples over-
writing other affiliate publishers commissions, dropping
cookies on advertisers other campaigns (in effect taking
credit for sales that wouldnt otherwise be attributed) and
using additional nefarious means to earn commissions,
and its easy to see why many have viewed affiliate mar-
keting with a skeptical eye.
Theres another trend in the affiliate channel that
lowers its likelihood to be considered a top channel, and
One bad thats the tendency among different players in the space
apple really to consider the channel as unique and somehow above
should be one
bad apple,
not a bad
channel.
the scrutiny advertisers place elsewhere. This sort of ar-
rogance hasnt helped the affiliate industry earn its rightful
place among the many digital marketing options.
THE REALITY OF THE CHANNEL
The affiliate channel has been one of the pioneers in the
areas of display, search, retargeting and every other mar-
keting tactic available with no signs of slowing down.
In 2016, Commission Junction by Conversant, a major
affiliate network, surveyed its 4,200 advertisers globally
38 | .com | DECEMB ER 2016
and reported that 72 percent responded they were likely
or extremely likely to increase their spend on the affiliate
channel in the years to come.
The affiliate channel has a few characteristics no other
channel can claim. Within any well-managed affiliate pro-
gram exists tremendous expertise, experience and years of
demonstrated success. Its the only channel that offers this
breadth and depth of experience. It is also proven to be
cost-effective and targeted, so lets look at five steps to get
its rightful seat at the table.
EDUCATE
As with any channel, education within an organization
is key. The other departments and channel managers
need to know what it does, how it does it, how it helps
the company achieve its goals and how it can help them
achieve theirs. Too many times emerging channels, as well
as long standing ones like affiliate, refrain from shouting
their successes within the organization. Leaders of these
channels need to inform and educate across the board.
SCRUTINIZE
Affiliate programs need to be measured with the same
metrics in mind as the other marketing channels. Too
often the channel is grouped together as one entity,
but each partnership needs to be evaluated on its own
merits. One bad apple really should be one bad apple,
not a bad channel.
BOAST
The affiliate channel does a horrible job of sharing each
others successes as an industry. When it is done, data is
limited and a theme of protecting ones secret to success
is always apparent. For any digital channel to be viewed
in the proper light, our broader industry must be able to
see real successes.
COOPERATE
All too often digital marketers get isolated within silos, and
the affiliate channel is no different. This breeds a hesitance
to work with other departments in an organization. This
isolation leads to misunderstanding of the channel, its
strengths and weaknesses and is a huge part of why it is
marginalized within many organizations.
EXPLAIN
The affiliate industry has always had a familiar tone in
how it talked about itself. It has done the channel a dis-
service and kept the outside world from understanding
the true power and skill of the affiliate industry.
This lexicon needs to change internally before the
greater digital community fully understands and appre-
ciates the unique skill set and abilities the affiliate space
brings to digital marketing.
 Resource Center
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Web
COMMENTARY
Critical Takeaways
from Adobe Max
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor
Todays marketers are given drag-and-
drop interfaces to quickly create every-
thing from social graphics to landing
pages, analytics are dissected and given
priority over time to create, and websites
can be built with templates and even ar-
tificial intelligence all advancements
that have the potential to put creativity
and collaboration at risk.
Creativity was the topic of conversation at Adobe
Max in San Diego recently where a crowd of more
than 10,000 professionals hung on every word from
keynote presenters like fashion designer Zac Posen,
film director Quentin Tarantino, photojournalist
Lynsey Addario (who covered many of the major
military and human conflicts of the last two decades)
and artist Janet Echelman (who is responsible for epic
art sculptures in cities across the globe).
To say each was inspiring in their own right would
be an understatement. How many of us can say our work
was worn by award-winning actors; our creativity will go
down in filmography history; we were kidnapped on as-
signment; or we displayed our art from skyscrapers?
Our day-to-day responsibilities for creating con-
tent, landing pages, applications, images, promo-
tional materials, presentations, reports anything
requiring opening a document and starting from
scratch may not match that scale but every element
counts in the broader scope of delivering product to
stakeholders and, more importantly, providing value
and genuine engagement.
With so many external and internal influences,
however, our creativity is impacted by everything
from budgets and deadlines to processes and people.
All of these influences play to the natural self-aware-
ness, scrutiny and showmanship that creative types
notoriously struggle to balance.
Even Echelman, whose sculptures transform
cityscapes like London and Singapore and establish-
ments like SFO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-
dation in Seattle, says, Every project I have no idea
how we are going to get there.
Get there she does, collaborating with everyone
from local fisherman and computer systems to sky-
scraper owners and city planners noting that our
colleagues are our biggest assets.
With such high priority on purchasing technol-
ogy that allows more people to conduct more tasks
outside of their skillset, however, were cutting out the
wrong people, which is a disservice to our audiences
who will grow tired of uniformity. Some systems, for
instance, are allowing marketers to build apps, Web
pages, graphics, sites (you name it, really) without cod-
ing knowledge, IT or designer intervention.
Technology cant be stopped nor should it, but
our goal shouldnt be to isolate ourselves or work
with less departments in the name of saving time and
money, but rather improve collaboration processes
so that the people who know how to solve problems
A through Z are trusted, allowing us all to be more
creative within our niche. After all, creativity pays.
Adobes State of Create 2016 global survey found
that a business that invests in creativity is more likely to
increase employee productivity (78 percent) and have
happier employees (76 percent). The customers feel
the impact of creativity as well with businesses invest-
ing in creativity having more satisfied customers (80
percent) and being more competitive (79 percent).
Despite the positive impact of creativity on soci-
ety, Adobe states, theres a gap in execution. Only 41
percent of survey respondents describe themselves as
creative and 69 percent report they are not living
up to their creative potential.
An investment in creativity and design is simply
good business, said Mala Sharma, vice president and
general manager of Creative Cloud at Adobe. Creativ-
ity and productivity go hand in hand, but investing
in creativity isnt on the agenda for enough of todays
leaders. This survey provides a big wake-up call to
businesses that they need to think differently and give
employees the tools and freedom to be creative.
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