Website Magazine issue82 201409

4 Ideas to Spark Creativity in the Enterprise, Page 11 Technical SEO and the Speed Issue, Page 23
THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS
SEPTEMBER 2014
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
User Experience
Metrics to Know
D.A.T. Email
Segmentation In Focus
50 TOP
Quiz: Are You a
Data Geek? Analytics Software
.com | sEPTEMBER 2014
& BI Solutions
Follow the MOBILE
Leader
WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM

To make mobile work, strategies must be put in place that ac-knowledge
the restrictions and capabilities of the channel and
address the development, promotion and analysis of this unique
digital experience - anything less will come up short.
Explore Website Magazine’s
DEPARTMENTS
Enterprise Ready:
Creativity in the Enterprise
Small Business Lab:
Everyday Blogging Tools
Quiz Time:
Are You a Data Geek?
50 Top:
Analytics & BI Solutions
E-Commerce Express:
Retailers Winning at Mobile
Mastering Search:
Technical SEO Considerations
Design & Development:
User Experience Analytics
Web Commentary:
Making Phones Smart Again
11
14
17
19
20
23
26
57
30
Active vs. Passive Monitoring
Obtain a more detailed and accurate picture
of your website’s overall performance by
using active and passive monitoring.
User Scenarios In Focus
By walking in visitors’ shoes, website owners
can inform website optimization processes
and improve digital design.
D.A.T. Email Segmentation
Demographic, activity and transactional-based
(DAT) segmentation is a conven-tional
approach to getting more out of
your email eff orts.
Why Affi liate Programs Stall
Access to better data and smarter use of that
data can help brands optimize and energize
their affi liate marketing programs.
Analytics for Content Marketers
The key “success” indicators for information
publishers have always been diffi cult to iden-tify
– but that’s starting to change.
Behavioral Data on Social
Brands must utilize social media data to inter-pret
customer buying behaviors and engage
with socially savvy consumers.
THIS MONTH IN WEBSITE MAGAZINE
38
42
46
48
51
53
Follow the
MOBILE
Leader
Surveys: A Go-To Data Source
55
Creating, distributing and analyzing online sur-veys
is incredibly easy and eff ective with these
best practices.

Playing Follow the Mobile Leader
The rules of the mobile Web are dramatically changing,
yet some enterprises haven’t even started to play the game.
The brands that are in the second, third, fourth (or in
some cases more) iterations of their mobile strategies are
those excelling – leveraging the many best practices and
capabilities available to make their experiences as friendly,
natural and useful as possible to consumers accessing
their brands on small screens.
There is a disconnect, however, between brands that
are successful on the mobile Web and those that think
they are. Eighty percent of marketers using mobile be-lieve
their efforts on the channel do or will provide a re-turn
on investment (ExactTarget), but mobile Web users
know many website experiences leave a lot to be desired.
The same report indicates that few marketers are actu-ally
using some of mobile’s most-promising capabilities
like location-based functionality and mobile push notifi-cations
– despite the fact that consumers want to receive
messages and promotions on their phones.
This month’s feature, “Follow the Mobile Leader” de-tails
what strategies must be in place to address mobile’s
unique opportunities and the development, promotion
and analysis of the mobile Web. Readers will also discover
several mobile Web strategies that are providing rewards
to today’s most successful enterprises.
The September issue of Website Magazine fea-tures
a variety of other mobile-related articles to
get brands’ strategies off the ground, including
Associate Editor Allison Howen’s, “3 Merchants Winning
at Mobile” as well as contributor Chris Casale’s “Analyt-ics
CONNECT ON
YOUR MOBILE
WEBMAG.CO
for the User Experience,” which introduces various
metrics for companies to measure across devices. Ana-lytics
are also given some attention in this month’s Top
50 list of analytics and business intelligence software so-lutions
and in our Insights on Analytics column, which
provides content marketers with the key performance in-dicators
they need in order to measure success.
This issue is filled with advice, best practices and in-sights
from some of the top minds in Web business, so be
sure to read it from cover to cover and then visit us on the
‘Net at www.WebsiteMagazine.com to continue your
path toward digital success.
Best Web Wishes,
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com
ERA D2C Convention
Sept. 16-18
Las Vegas, NV
Shop.org Convention
Sept. 29-Oct. 1
Seattle, WA
Mobile Shopping
Oct. 6-8
Phoenix, AZ
Pubcon
Oct. 6-9
Las Vegas, NV
Luxury Interactive
Oct. 13-15
New York, NY
Access the September
2014 issue online at
wsm.co/wmsept14
Check out Website
Magazine’s new virtual
pinboard highlighting
infographics, videos and
more at webmag.co.
Find Website Magazine at these Internet industry tradeshows.
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Net BRIEFS
PLAs Get Rated
Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are becoming
even more infl uential, as Google has added
product ratings to the ad format. This new
feature means that U.S. consumers will start
seeing ratings in the form of stars and review
counts on PLAs in the paid search results.
Google will show product ratings for PLAs
where it has product review data available
through Oct. 2014. After that, merchants must
choose to share their reviews with Google in
order to leverage the feature.
Social
Commerce
Watch
Facebook, Twitter and Pinter-est
are all making headlines
when it comes to one thing
– social commerce. Facebook
is reportedly testing a “Buy” call-to-action
button on ads and in Page posts, while Twit-ter
recently acquired payments infrastruc-ture
company CardSpring to help the social
network with its future commerce initia-tives.
Additionally, a new study from Piqora
proves that merchants are directly profi ting
from Pinterest, with the data revealing e-commerce
revenue from Pinterest referral
traffi c grew an average of 67 percent from
Jan. to June 2014.
Simplifi es
the Checkout
Visa is helping online merchants sim-plify
the online checkout process with
the launch of a new PayPal-like service
called Visa Checkout, which integrates
into retailers’ existing payment processes.
Consumers simply need to sign up for a
free account and connect it to a debit or
credit card. Then, they can use the ac-count
to complete purchases (with no
fees) without having to re-enter payment
or shipping information anywhere Visa
Checkout is available (like Petco, Ticket-master,
Pizza Hut, etc.), from both desk-tops
and mobile devices.
Get Those Appointments
Squared Away
Pinterest unveiled a fl ashier follow button to help brands grow their
audience on the social network. The new button appears in a
small dialog box and includes a preview of the brand’s latest pins.
From the dialog box, consumers can follow without leaving the
websites they are browsing. Pinterest notes that brands can add
the button to their sites by copying and pasting a couple of lines of
code to their Web pages. Brands already using the original follow button
aren’t required to do anything to get the new version.

Net BRIEFS
LinkedIn
Connected
LinkedIn is bolstering its mobile
app portfolio – which already includes the Linke-dIn,
Job Search, Pulse, SlideShare and Recruiter
apps – with the addition of the LinkedIn Con-nected
app. The new iOS app aims to help pro-fessionals
build better relationships by providing
relevant and timely reasons for users to reach out
to their connections on the social network, such
as congratulating a connection on their work
anniversary or new job.
.com | SEPTEMBER 2014
Is Snapchat
Ready for
Ads?
Foursquare
Foursquare’s updated discovery
app was offi cially launched in Aug. 2014. The
app no longer features check-in functionality
(which has been moved to its new Swarm app),
but now delivers a more tailored experience as
it learns from each user’s “tastes,” social con-nections
and preferences over time. With this
data, Foursquare is able to deliver personalized
recommendations to users based on their spe-cifi
c locations and preferences.
Unsubscribing Has
Never Been Easier
It now just takes a click for end-users to unsubscribe from your email list,
thanks to a new feature from Gmail that automatically surfaces an “un-subscribe”
link next to the sender address within an email. The feature
appears when senders include an unsubscribe link in their emails, and is
only displayed on messages within the promotions, social or forums tabs.
The feature should prove to be a win for subscribers and senders alike,
as it offers a hassle-free way for consumers to unsubscribe and will likely
reduce the number of spam complaints senders receive over time.
Amazon Seller
List items for sale on Ama-zon
zon and respond to customer messages
while on the go by downloading the
Amazon Seller app for iOS. The app also
enables merchants to manage inventory,
update product pricing and estimate the
profi tability of items before putting them up
for sale. Merchants can even leverage the
app to contact Seller Support and obtain
secure access to their accounts.
Bolt
Instagram aims to take a bite out
of rival Snapchat’s user base with the release of
its spin-off app Bolt. For the unfamiliar, Snapchat
has a primarily Millennial audience and is at least
30 million monthly active users strong. Instagram’s
latest foray into the mobile market allows users to
send pictures and videos with overlaid text to any
member of their contact list by touching an overlaid
circular photo of a contact for a picture or holding
for a video.
A new feature from Snapchat has many wondering if the popular
ephemeral messaging app is about to begin actively monetizing its plat-form.
The new geo-fi lter feature, which is currently only available for
special locations in Los Angeles and New York, enables users to include
unique, location-based image fi lters to their snaps. A broader rollout
could eventually turn into an advertisement opportunity for brands. One
of the examples within Snapchat’s announcement video shows a fi lter
for Disneyland Resorts.
MOBILE APP WATCH

MobileWebAwards
2014 Call for Entry
Deadline for entry:
September 30 2014
Enter today and win the
recogniton you deserve:
Responsive Websites
Mobile Websites
Mobile Apps

Stat WATCH
Mobile Madness 7.7 billion
Few trends have ever been as hot as mobile is today; consumers just can-not
get their eyes off their portable devices. With consumers so enamored
by their smartphones, brands have an incredible opportunity to reach cur-rent
and potential consumers nearly 24/7.
In a report published by Nielsen, 87 percent of smartphone and tablet
owners are using their mobile devices for shopping-related activities. This
means that in addition to actually purchasing products on their mobile
devices, consumers are price checking, conducting product research, and
reading and writing reviews.
While tackling the mobile market may be intimidating for many busi-nesses,
the risk is worth the reward. According to a case study from
Google’s “Think with Google” resource, savings.com saw that by covert-ing
to a mobile-fi rst model and launching all marketing campaigns with
a responsive mobile counterpart, it received a 200 percent higher click-through
rate (CTR) on mobile devices than on desktops, as well as a 1,000
percent increase in year-over-year revenue from mobile devices.
To have any hope at succeeding in the mobile e-commerce market (see
this month’s E-Commerce Express column for three examples of com-panies
succeeding on the mobile Web) brands must have a mobile opti-mized
site that not only works fl awlessly but is also aesthetically pleasing.
In fact, research from WebDAM, a provider of digital asset management
software, reveals that 57 percent of users will not recommend companies
with poor-performing mobile websites.
Change is never easy but it is inevitable. Mobile is poised to become
one of the main revenue generating channels by 2018. In order for
companies to cash in on the mobile market, they must start preparing
now before the competition leaves them in the digital dust.
6 seconds
The average person
looks at their phones
110 times a day as well
as up to every 6 sec-onds
in the evening.
(Daily Mail, Oct. 2013)
$8.4 billion
58%
Apple’s total mobile
e-commerce sales from
2013 amounted to $8.4
billion in the U.S.
(E-consultancy, Jan. 2014)
30%
Nearly one-third of all eBay
purchases in the world include
some type of interaction from
a mobile device at some point
in the transaction.
(Econsultancy, Jan. 2014)
This year, the number of
mobile devices in circula-tion
(expected to be 7.7
billion) will outnumber the
total world population of
7.1 billion.
(PennyStockslab, Apr. 2014)
Mobile has hit its tipping
point as 58 percent of
Americans now own a
smartphone and 42 per-cent
own a tablet.
(Pew Research, Jan. 2014)
$626 billion
In 2018, Goldman Sachs
estimates that $626 billion
in online sales will come
from mobile devices.
(The Atlantic, Mar. 2014)

12 MONThs
Of WEB SUCCESS
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Enterprise READY
4 Recipes for
ENTERPRISE
Creativity is a fi ckle thing – it can strike at any mo-ment,
and just as fast as it comes it can disappear.
This inconsistency poses a challenge for enterprises, as creativity
is an essential ingredient for innovation and everyday tasks like
blogging and social media. Even though enterprises can’t manu-facture
creativity, they can produce an atmosphere and culture
that is conducive to it. Check out three recipes for workplace
creativity that can motivate even the most mundane workplaces.
Cooking up a Creative Environment
To create an environment that inspires, enterprises should start
by getting rid of white walls and cubicles in favor of bright col-ors
and open work spaces.
Luis Salazar, co-founder and CEO at Jobaline and a former
executive at Yahoo and Microsoft, notes that a unique environ-ment
can have a positive impact on creativity inside an offi ce.
“I am a fi rm believer in open spaces at work and mixing di-verse
functions in common work areas,” said Salazar. “This has
3 Creative
Offices to Envy
worked very well in the past and in the present time at Joba-line.
com. We even have large screens, all with cameras where
we can start a video conference at any given point, including
our team members in NY, Argentina or Uruguay.”
Salazar also notes that Jobaline has whiteboards
everywhere, and the company even provides desks that
have glass tops so employees can quickly jot down ideas
at any workspace. (Offering employee access to mind-map-ping
solutions like Mindjet, Coggle, MindNode and others may
work to encourage and improve this brainstorming process.)
Even though brainstorming is an effective strategy when
done individually, it can sometimes be more effective when
done as a team.
Catering to Camaraderie
Bringing together a mix of employees is essential for most proj-ects,
as a variety of skills and talents (from design to marketing)
are usually required to get a new project off the ground. This is
why team-building activities should not be overlooked.
By Allison howen, Associate Editor
Check out three other
companies boosting
employee creativity in
innovative ways at
wsm.co/3creative
Creati vit y

Enterprise READY
Like many tech companies, one of the ways mobile website
solution Duda gets employees to work together is by hosting a
hackathon, where, in this case, teams have two days to come
up with an idea to improve the company’s offering and build
out at least a rough version to show that it could work.
“Some of the best features we have in our product today came
out of previous hackathons,” said Duda CEO Itai Sadan. “Giv-ing
employees the ability to be creative with some guidelines can
lead to amazing results.”
In addition to holding events to foster creativity, enterprises can
also hold gatherings for employees to celebrate creative success.
TouchCommerce, for example, recently held an ice-shaving so-cial.
According to Director of Product Marketing Marina Kalika,
this event allowed the team to “cool off” after a successful product
launch.
Team-building can defi nitely impact workplace creativity,
however, so can competitiveness.
Stirring up
Healthy Competition
There are a variety of ways
enterprises can produce
competition in their offi ces,
from launching a serious sales
contest to hosting an easy-going
challenge, like a trivia
game.
Duda opted for the
easy-going recipe when the
company decided to launch
a sneaker design competition
(see image). The competition
asked employees to use a DIY
tool from Converse to create a
sneaker that included the company colors and logo. Then, em-ployees
voted on the winning design.
“Every employee got a pair of the winning sneakers. Some
might have expected that the winning design would come
from one of our graphic designers or marketers, yet the winner
actually belonged to one of our developers,” said Sadan. “This
coincides with one of my beliefs that creativity can come from
any person within the company and should not be the task of
a specifi c individual or group.”
When competitions, team-building exercises and modern
workspaces aren’t fostering creativity, enterprises may want to
look for ways to improve individual employee happiness.
Keeping Chefs at Their Best
Sometimes creativity can only be encouraged when employ-ees
are satisfi ed in their own lives. TouchCommerce recognizes
this, which is why the enterprise puts an emphasis on employee
health and happiness.
According to TouchCommerce CMO George Skaff, the com-pany
offers free gym memberships to all employees, provides a
gym inside the company and hosts employee volleyball games
each week.
“At TouchCommerce we put the health of the employees
fi rst,” said Skoff. “We believe that healthy employees are a
good thing for both the employees and for the company,
which will lead to fostering creativity.”
In addition, Skoff notes that employee volleyball games are
a great way to get people from different departments to meet
and work together – ignoring departmental divides.
The Secret Ingredients
At the end of the day, there are thousands of ways enterprises
can boost employee creativity. The challenge, however, is fi nd-ing
what clicks with your employees.
The winning
sneakers from
Duda’s design
competition.

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Small BUSINESS LAB
Harness
the Power of
Blogs By Derek schou, Associate Editor
Blogging is one of the most e ective ways for busi-nesses,
especially smaller ones, to communicate with
existing and prospective customers.
Among other benefi ts, blogging allows a company to communi-cate
its brand messaging and share valuable information to the
digital public at large - while increasing visibility on the search
engines and establishing authority within a niche.
Blogging, however, can quickly cost companies
a lot of time and money, so in order to get the most of
their efforts, businesses should turn to some proven tools
that can improve processes and amplify reach.
Simplify Collaboration
and Workfl ow Problems
The days in which blogs were just supplementary content on
websites are long gone. Today, blogs are a valuable part of a
website that educate and persuade visitors at every stage of the
sales journey.
Unfortunately, many small businesses do not have the means
to hire extra employees to develop and promote these digital as-sets.
Instead, they have to rely on their existing team members
whose responsibilities are likely already pushing them to the lim-its,
which can cause several workfl ow-related issues, including
employees needing to put in overtime or even working on the
same topics. Luckily, there are many content production and
development tools available to remedy this problem.
DivvyHQ, for example, is a comprehensive con-tent
planning and production tool that aims to quell
the problems that arise with collaborative blogs. With
DivvyHQ, small businesses can organize their content produc-tion
processes by storing yet-to-be written post ideas as well as
creating different categories for every stage of the process.
Another similar content production tool is Kontera. This tool

allows small businesses to
discover valuable insights on
what is trending, which allows
them to produce more rel-evant
posts as well as publish
posts to multiple platforms.
One of the more interesting
features of Kontera is its con-tent
discovery functionality
(see images), which allows
publishers to understand what
content is currently popular,
as well as surface and rank rel-evant
articles, social updates
and images to create blog
posts that will resonate with
their audiences.
Other noteworthy content development tools include
Kapost, Curata and InboundWriter. See how these tools compare
at wsm.co/3compare.
Spread Your Message to the World
While having quality content should be the number one focus
of any blog, it is also important that small businesses plan how
they are going to share their messages.
PaperShare is a content distribution tool that enables its users
to simultaneously publish their posts on many platforms includ-ing
websites and social media. PaperShare also collects analytics
on who is accessing content through social media login features
and how they are interacting with that content. Businesses can
even respond and engage with customers through the tool, help-ing
to build stronger customer relationships.
Similar to PaperShare is Percolate. This tool provides a range
of useful features to its users with some of the most actionable
being its publishing features. Through Percolate, businesses can
publish content in a variety of ways including through social
media and email, as well as track how their posts are performing
and engage those who are interacting with their posts.
Similar content distribution tools include Zemanta, Outbrain
and SimpleReach. Check out Website Magazine’s BIG LIST of con-tent
distribution tools at wsm.co/cdistribute.
Laborious But Rewarding
The truth is, running a successful blog is diffi cult – even for tra-ditional
information publishers. Through powerful distribution
and workfl ow tools, however, small businesses can maximize
the potential of their blogs and increase the likeliness they’ll
become staples in their customers’ online routines.
Small BUSINESS LAB
Using Kontera, website
owners can quickly ana-lyze
what kind of content
audiences are reading
and searching for to cre-ate
blog posts that will be
popular from the start.
“ “The truth is, running a successful blog is diffi cult –
even for traditional information publishers.

Quiz TIME
.com | SEPTEMBER 2014
In the tech world, it is an honor to be labeled a
“Geek,” and the ‘Net’s interest in big data has given
them more status than ever.
Today, data scientists (and data geeks) are an elite
class of digital professionals that are in high demand
by enterprises across the globe. In fact, Gartner pre-dicts
that by 2015, there will be 4.4 million global IT jobs
created to support big data, with only one-third of
those jobs being fi lled.
Even though many of us don’t spend our entire
days mining for meaningful insights like data scien-tists
do, most professionals do spend a signifi cant
amount time looking at a variety of performance
analytics throughout the typical workweek. To fi nd
out if your knowledge of digital numbers makes you
a data geek, take this month’s Quiz Time.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Find the answers to Website Magazine’s data quiz
on the ‘Net at wsm.co/qtsept14.
What percent of marketers feel pressure to
become more data-driven?
a. 10 percent
b. 91 percent
c. 54 percent
d. 35 percent
e. 78 percent
What new social metric did Vine introduce
in 2014?
a. Loop Counts
b. Engaged Second Meter (ESM)
c. Infl uencer Grade
d. Replay Total
e. Partial Watch Sum (PWS)
What is the top reason small businesses
conduct market research?
a. To keep up with competitors
b. To optimize social media initiatives
c. To gather data about ideal customers
d. To monitor trends
e. To discover the best pricing for new
products or services
How many retailers, who are active
analytics users, actually leverage their data
to a great extent?
a. 77 percent
b. 40 percent
c. 13 percent
d. 25 percent
e. 52 percent
On average, how much data does Google
process each hour?
a. 58 Megabytes
b. 1 Petabyte
c. 3 Yottabytes
d. 20 Terabytes
e. 18 Zettabytes
Are You a
DATA GEEK?

The world’s leading
online marketing conference
Pubcon, the premier social media and optimization
conference and expo, will hold its multi-track Las Vegas
event on October 6 - 9, 2014 at the Las Vegas Convention
Center South Halls in the sunny entertainment capital of
the world. Pubcon Las Vegas 2014 - named a Forbes must-attend
conference and an Inc. top conference for growing
your business - features the industry’s leading businesses,
start-ups, speakers, keynotes, exhibitors, and sponsors
involved in social media, digital marketing, search engines,
and online advertising, and will offer a week-long look at
the future of technology presented by a vast array of the
world’s top innovators, along with being the exclusive host
to the second annual U.S. Search Awards.
Las Vegas 2014
October 6-9, 2014
Top Five Reasons To Attend Pubcon:
1) High Level of Content - Each Pubcon track or sub-conference is focused on a specific aspect of marketing
featuring topics that are important to your marketing and traffic-acquisition strategies. We focus on some of the
hottest trends and topics by asking speakers to prepare part of their presentation just prior to Pubcon, resulting
in discussions that cover the very latest trends.
2) Networking - The WebmasterWorld community started Pubcon in an English Pub where attendees got
together to learn from and interact with others in their market space. Networking is readily available at breakfast,
lunch, during session breaks, and well into the night at Pubcon’s many cocktail hours and parties.
3) Prime-Time Speakers - Pubcon attendees will hear and talk with the earlyadopting who’s who of Internet
marketing, at the conference widely recognized as the speakers conference, where speakers come to learn as
well as to share their vast knowledge.
4) Post-Conference Networking Resources - Pubcon attendees receive a bound printed manual of the show,
and a download full of all Pubcon presentations is made available for all full conference attendees.
5) Takeaways - Pubcon presentations always end with at least one specific takeaway that you can apply to your
business’ own projects.
For More Information Visit: www.pubcon.com/las-vegas-2014
Media Sponsor

Analytics
Software
BI Solutions – Cloudera is expand-ing
Top 50
Measuring, managing and analyzing performance
metrics allows digital enterprises to be more e cient and
ultimately improve their return on investments. It has never
been more at the forefront of our professional lives than it
is today.
The Moz 2014 Industry Survey (which examined changes in the online
marketing industry and how those changes impact jobs, clients and tactics)
revealed that of the top fi ve marketing activities, “analytics” topped
the list – for both in-house teams and agencies.
Despite the well-documented benefi ts (read “5 Benefi ts of Better
Analytics” at wsm.co/5analytics) most still fail to maximize the
time and money spent on analytics initiatives and that may be what’s
holding their enterprises back from achieving their digital objectives.
The problem for most is the range and depth of data available to
enterprises, which can at times seem overwhelming. Moz’s industry
survey revealed that of the 12 metrics it listed, 10 were rated as “im-portant”
or “extremely important” by more than half of respondents.
Fortunately, there are solutions available that can easily reveal
these key insights and put an enterprise on a path to immense
digital success. In this month’s Website Magazine Top 50, readers
will fi nd 50 popular analytics software and business intelligence
(BI) solutions. While the majority of the digital population of ‘Net
professionals use Google or Adobe’s solutions, there are many
other perfectly viable, and incredibly powerful, offerings to set your
enterprise on a course to better business performance.
Check out Website Magazine’s Analytics Insider channel on the
Web at wsm.co/netanalytics or explore these companies (and
many others) in greater detail in the Digital Resource Directory at
WebMag.co.
10
its partnership with
Caggemini, off ering cus-tomers
18
40
the Enterprise Data
hub Accelerator service,
which is basically a big
data deployment roadmap
for enterprise customers,
and also its Data science-as-
a-service feature, which
off ers big data support.
– Yahoo acquired mo-bile
analytics and advertis-ing
company Flurry and
has plans to provide it with
increased fi nancial backing
and technological support
so Flurry can continue to
develop and nurture new
and existing relationships
with developers.
– BI platform
Chartio has added cloud
communication vendor
Twilio as a data source.
Twilio customers will now
be able to manipulate and
interact with phone, VoIP
and messaging data in
addition to other business
data from Google Analyt-ics,
MysQL and Oracle.
Google.com
Adobe.com
TableauSoftware.com
AppAnnie.com
StatCounter.com
Mixpanel.com
Appcelerator.com
Piwik.org
CrazyEgg.com
Cloudera.com
KISSmetrics.com
comScore.com
StatsCrop.com
Teradata.com
Informatica.com
Pentaho.com
Tibco.com
Flurry.com
SiteMeter.com
Sysomos.com
WebTrends.com
Autonomy.com
SimplyMeasured.com
OpenTracker.net
Distimo.com
Clicky.com
HaveaMint.com
Actuate.com
GoStats.com
W3Counter.com
Parsely.com
Gaug.es
HeapAnalytics.com
Adjust.com
MarkLogic.com
LucidWorks.com
Chartbeat.com
RJMetrics.com
GoSquared.com
Chartio.com
OpenWebAnalytics.com
Clicktale.com
Actian.com
Alteryx.com
Panorama.com
Woopra.com
Bottlenose.com
Cyfe.com
Localytics.com
WebStat.com
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E-Commerce EXPRESS
3 Merchants
Winning
with Mobile
In just four years, the mobile commerce industry grew
at a dramatic rate – from a $2.2 billion industry in 2010
to a $42.8 billion industry in 2013 – and it shows no
signs of slowing down.
What’s more, the market is predicted to reach $50 billion in
sales by the end of this year. To get their share of this revenue,
merchants across the globe are competing to deliver the best
mobile experience possible.
Internet retailers whose mobile
presence scores points with consum-ers
are those that satisfy their customers’
needs and deliver consistent experiences
across screens. Discover some effec-tive
techniques from three well-known
digital merchants that are winning in mo-bile
today:
Walgreens
Assist the
Customer Experience
Even though mobile users
spend signifi cantly more time interacting with apps than
they do with the mobile Web, MarketLive’s Founder
and CEO Ken Burke advises that the vast majority of
retailers should not spend resources on creating native
apps. That is, unless there is a demand for them – as is the
case with Walgreens.
While the U.S. drugstore chain offers a mobile site that
enables users to complete a variety of common tasks (in ad-dition
to actually shopping), the retailer’s branded app is the
real star of its mobile presence. The Walgreens app, for ex-ample,
offers a plethora of features that assist shoppers with
recurring tasks, like refi lling their prescriptions, collecting
coupons and printing photos.
For instance, a Walgreens shopper can refi ll his or her
prescription by simply scanning the label’s barcode with
a phone’s camera (Image A). That same shopper can then
view weekly ads and virtually “clip” coupons and save
them to his or her loyalty card (Image B). The Walgreens
app also enables a user to print images from a phone’s photo
library or from Facebook and Instagram accounts. Once the
photos have been selected to print, the photos are available
for pick-up in about an hour.
By Allison howen, Associate Editor
A
B
Walgreens’ app helps
users complete recur-ring
tasks like refi lling
prescriptions and col-lecting
coupons.

Mobile
Best
Practices
for Retailers
Party City
Aim for Frictionless Navigation
Despite its expansive inventory (ranging from Hal-loween
costumes to wedding supplies), Party City offers a
mobile website that any shopper can navigate with ease.
The site greets shoppers with a menu bar that offers a sign-in
option, a location fi nder, access to the shopping cart and
a more detailed sliding menu. The sliding menu is defi nitely
the strength of this retailer’s site, as shoppers can use it to
fi lter Party City’s massive inventory to fi nd specifi c products.
For example, if a visitor selects the “Halloween” category,
he or she is directed to choose a subcategory like “Boys’ Cos-tumes,”
“Girls’ Costumes,” or “Women’s Costumes.” Once
a category like “Women’s Costumes” has been selected,
visitors can further fi lter their searches with options like
“Unique Costumes” or “Exclusive Looks.” Although this may
seem like a lot of steps, the fi lters are intuitive and provide
shoppers with a limited set of results, which is a much better
experience than delivering hundreds of listings on a small
screen – and may also lead to greater in-app engagement
(Read: “Image Overload – Consumers with Too Many Choices
Buy Nothing” at wsm.co/imgoverload).
It is also worth noting that Party City makes it sim-ple
for shoppers to add items to their shopping carts. The
retailer uses “-” and “+” icons (Image C) instead of the tra-ditional
“quantity” fi eld, which typically offers a drop-down
that can be diffi cult for shoppers to interact with on
small screens.
Skinny Ties
Be An Early Adopter
Although responsive design is Google’s recommended
approach to mobile,
many retailers are still
either not designing for
mobile at all or opting
for a separate mobile
website entirely. In fact,
Forrester reports that
just 3 percent of retail
sites have adopted re-sponsive
design.
One merchant that
took heed of Google’s recommendation, however, is Skinny
Ties (Image D). The retailer is a veteran of providing a user-friendly
experience on small screens, initially unveiling its
responsive site (designed by Gravity Department) back in
2012. Immediately after implementation the retailer saw im-provements
in conversions, including a 71.9 percent conver-sion
rate increase for iPhones.
By offering a responsive site, Skinny Ties is able
to deliver a website that automatically adapts to
any device size, making it a consistent experience across
channels and future-proofi ng the site for new screen sizes
entering the market. Responsive design isn’t the cure for all re-tailers’
mobile woes, however, for further reading check out the
feature in this month’s issue on page 30.
Don’t Foul Out
When adding techniques to your mobile playbook, it is im-portant
to keep your customers and their experience top of
mind. In doing so, your mobile presence will be in position
to attract more customers, score more conversions and win
when it matters the most.
E-Commerce EXPRESS
C
D
Party City’s mobile
website gives shoppers
the ability to add items
to their shopping carts
easily on small screens.
Skinny Ties o ers a
responsive website,
providing a consistent
experience across
devices.
From guest checkout to PayPal
integrations, see what makes up
a winning mobile retail strategy
at wsm.co/yourmobilegoto

Mastering SEARCH
Technical
SEO the
SPEED Issue
The technical health of your website is as important
to your brand’s search engine optimization success
as its content development, link acquisition and mar-keting
distribution e orts.
Few digital enterprises, however, spend much time on what
may ultimately matter most – the technical issues that can
often prevent an optimal interaction from occurring for the
search engines and the users they refer.
Fortunately, surmounting the most common barriers is
easy when you know what you’re looking for – and in this
edition of Website Magazine’s Mastering Search, one of the
most important technical SEO matters - SPEED – is the focus.
If your site suffers from low (or no) rankings, commit to fi nd-ing
ways to accelerate page rendering and your brand will
likely be on the fast track to digital success.
Google – which accounts for upward of 70 percent of all
referred search engine traffi c - has long been a proponent
of fast-loading websites (just like conversion optimization
and user experience specialists are) as the experience that
results for website visitors is simply far better than the alter-native
(60 percent of respondents in Limelight’s recent State
of the User Experience report were not willing to wait more
than 5 seconds for a Web page to load). So what is respon-sible
for slowing down your website? While there are many
opportunities for optimization in this regard, it often starts
with the number of requests that are made between the user
and the server.
MINIMIZE THE NUMBER OF HTTP REQUESTS:
Most end-user response time occurs on the front-end, down-loading
images, scripts, etc. If you can reduce the number
of these HTTP requests, the resulting experience will be
faster. To do that, consider combining fi les (a single stylesheet
for example), avoiding plugins when possible, and/or using
CSS Sprites (which combine background images into a single
image and use the CSS background-image and background-position
properties to display the appropriate image segment).
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

Mastering SEARCH
“ “First-time visitors to a Web page are forced to make
several HTTP requests, but by using the Expires
header, those components become cacheable.
ADD AN EXPIRES, or CACHE-CONTROL HEADER:
First-time visitors to a Web page are forced to make several
HTTP requests, but by using the Expires header, those com-ponents
become cacheable, which avoids making unneces-sary
requests on any page views that follow. Expires headers
can be used on any component including images, scripts and
stylesheets. SEOs with an eye on user experience could im-plement
a “never expire” policy for static components, and
for dynamic components, use an appropriate Cache-Control
header to help with conditional requests.
GZIP WEBSITE COMPONENTS:
Many variables come into play in relation to total site speed,
but compression is a powerful method to reduce response
times as it reduces the actual size of the HTTP response. Gzip
is arguably the most popular method and it can reduce re-sponse
size dramatically (often between 70 and 90 percent).
The aforementioned issues are far from the only ones likely
slowing down your website and negatively infl uencing the
user experience and your brand’s search result positions
(discover what else might be preventing your digital brand from
achieving a faster loading website at wsm.co/cdnblame). Ad-dress
these issues fi rst however and your enterprise will likely
see notable gains in position and provide a better experience
for users along the way.
Search Security in Focus
Speed, of course, is far from the only variable in your website’s techni-cal
success. Most recently, the importance of security has taken center
stage as Google indicated that sites using SSL would receive a rankings
boost. Read more at wsm.co/searchsecurity

Website Magazine delivers cost-efficient leads while building your brand. Generate
leads from a targeted audience with interest in your product or service as they
learn, research and make purchasing decisions.
Reach Web professionals active in key strategies and tactics
that all work together to make websites successful.
• Design Development
• Search Engine Optimization
• Search Marketing
• E-Commerce
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• Tools Trends, etc
THE MAGAZINE FOR WEBSITE SUCCESS
WEBSITEMAGAZINE.COM
.

Design DEVELOPMENT
Analytics for the
Digital User
Experience
By Chris Casale
Digital enterprises face the challenge of staying rel-evant
and familiar in a constantly evolving world – just
think about today’s Facebook becoming yesterday’s
Myspace. Companies unable to change with their
users face the risk of being left behind.
The good news is it’s a challenge that can be met. Traditionally,
analytics have been utilized by organizations to infl uence mar-keting
and sales strategy. It’s not enough anymore. Companies
need to analyze and test their entire business model and the
most logical place to start is the digital user experience – and
designers can play an integral role in this process.
Getting Started
User data can be captured through a collection of tools or us-ability
testing. Organizations that employ both of these meth-ods
will have a larger and more balanced data set to help
infl uence their decisions.
Data collection tools come in all shapes and sizes, so businesses
will have to experiment to fi nd the one that’s right for them. Free
resources such as Google Analytics and Flurry (recently acquired
by Yahoo - wsm.co/yfl urry) are relatively straightforward to
implement and provide a wealth of reports. Premium services
such as HubSpot and Adobe Analytics also provide detailed
reporting, as well as options for testing and customizing the
user experience.
Usability testing is the act of putting an application in
front of users and monitoring their interactions to see
how easy (or diffi cult) it is to use. This type of testing
can be performed in-house or by employing third parties
such as UserTesting.com, ClickTale, Five Second Test and
others (for more, check out “Big List of Usability Resources” at
wsm.co/usability14). Some implementations can be more
cost intensive than others, but designers should insist on
usability testing being a part of the analysis process. Watching
users interact with a product or service can provide valuable in-formation
that can shape the future direction of a user interface.
Once data analytics have been integrated, the next step is
to sort through the reports and fi nd the information that is
most valuable.

Metrics
It’s easy to get inundated with the number of metrics avail-able
today. Unique visitors/uses, time-on-site/task, bounce rate,
new versus returning – where does one begin? For starters,
organizations need to avoid vanity metrics - anything that
can be easily manipulated and does not generally cor-relate
to the data that really matters. To analyze the user
experience, enterprises need to look at engagement.
Simply put, engagement is the quality of the user experi-ence.
Do customers use the application, and in the manner it
was intended, to successfully complete their tasks? Engage-ment
will look different across various applications and
services. Here are some metrics organizations can use to
analyze their engagement:
Visitors / Unique Visitors
This may also appear as new versus returning
visitors or sessions/users in tools like Google Analytics.
The goal with this metric is to try and determine whether
or not customers return to use the product or service. Vis-itors
should be analyzed as a trend rather than a simple
count. This becomes especially important to track as
changes are made to the user experience. Designers need
to know, are changes increasing the return rate or having
a negative impact?
Length of Session
The length of a user’s session will need to be measured for
each application’s particular goal (only that company can de-fi
ne what that goal is) – depending on how fast or slow a site
owner wants to move a user through his or her site. If the in-tention
of the application is for the user to watch videos, play
a game or something similar, for example, a longer session
length is indicator of better engagement. If, however, the ap-plication
is a search engine and the intention is to help the user
fi nd something quickly, success will be in the form of shorter
session length.
Regardless of the goal, the length of a session should be ana-lyzed
as both an average and an individual count. Trends in
the average session length may show the direction a company
is headed, but a signifi cant split in longer usage versus shorter
usage may also indicate a problem. Organizations won’t notice
those discrepancies until they start segmenting the data.
Session Interval
The length of a session measures how long a user is actively
using the application, while the session interval measures how
long between uses. Clash of Clans, a freemium mobile video
game developed by Supercell, for example, uses a reminder
icon when certain game actions are complete to persuade the
user to return to the game (see image on previous page).
A very simple email or push notifi cation may make a big
Design DEVELOPMENT
Developers could see an
increase in return usage
by including a small icon
that reminds users about
the app’s existence.
“
“ Trends in the average session length
may show the direction a company
is headed, but a significant split in longer
usage versus shorter usage may also
indicate a problem.

Design DEVELOPMENT
difference in return usage, but organizations need to know the
average session interval before improvements can be made.
Bounce Rate or Exit Rate
The goal of measuring bounce or exit rate is to fi nd out where
in the process users are exiting. Are they viewing one page
and “bouncing” off the site? Are they leaving halfway through
the checkout process? Pages or screens with a particularly high
exit rate may indicate a problem. These areas may also be great
targets for user testing.
These are just some of the many metrics designers and orga-nizations
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
alike can use to track engagement. Once data analysis
has started, it’s time to coordinate a plan.
It’s About the User
In the end, it always comes back to the customer. Usabil-ity
testing and data analytics can help organizations de-termine
if their application is being used the way it was
intended. They can also help enterprises decide where to
make changes to improve the user experience.
As a designer, you should be involved in the analysis and de-cision-
making process from the very beginning. It’s imperative
that any decisions made are based on actual evidence about
how the product or service is being used and not based on
personal opinion. Creativity is a vital part of the design process
and, when infl uenced by user-data, designers can craft a truly
great experience for users. That’s a win for everyone.
Compare Session Length By Device
The analytics tool Flurry allows developers to compare session length
between devices (iOS and Android) as well as across di erent categories.
This can help fi nd problems with user experience across devices as well
as help identify the category where the longest engagement occurs.
Chris Casale is a software engi-neer
with more than 18 years’
experience architecting web-sites
and applications. He is a
regular contributor to the blog at
www.araxam.com.

Follow the
MOBILE
Leader
The mobile channel is redefi ning digital initiatives.
In fact, 80 percent of marketers using mobile be-lieve
their e orts on the channel do or will provide
a return on investment, according to the 2014 State
of Marketing report from ExactTarget, a Salesforce
company.
Despite marketers’ optimism, the same report indicates that
less than a third of marketers are actually using some of mo-bile’s
most-promising capabilities like location-based function-ality.
Far fewer are utilizing mobile push notifi cations – failing
to capitalize on 48 percent of U.S. shoppers who would be re-ceptive
to receiving messages and promotions to their phones
based on their in-store browsing behavior, according to data
from Usablenet.
To make mobile work, strategies must be put in place that
address mobile’s unique possibilities and the development,
promotion and analysis of the mobile Web – anything less will
come up short. In this month’s feature article, discover several
mobile Web strategies that are providing rewards to today’s
most successful enterprises.
HEAD OF THE LINE
The mobile Web is hyper-competitive. When looking at the
application market alone, of the world’s 19 million software
developers, 8.7 million are now writing apps for mobile de-vices
(read more at wsm.co/mobileminded). Many of the en-terprises
who have already gotten to the front of the digital line,
per say, are those who have been working on their mobile Web
strategies for years – designing, analyzing and optimizing for
smaller screens.
Just like in the children’s game Follow the Leader,
By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

savvy marketers, designers and business owners are mim-icking
these leaders’ actions. Brands not following in-line or
adding to the mobile industry can quickly fi nd themselves out
of the game.
Design Reliability
If there were ever a time for companies – retail businesses
in particular – to think about their mobile design, it’s now.
Mobile site traffic accounted for 38.2 percent of web-site
visits in March 2014; more than double that of March
2012. As a result, in its 2014 U.S. Online Retail Holiday
Readiness Report, IBM predicts mobile will account for 20-plus
percent of site sales and more than 43 percent of site traffi c in
Nov. 2014 – the offi cial start of the holiday shopping season.
Knowing this, IBM advises retailers to pay attention to both
device type and operating system, to better focus their mobile
app and analytics investments, while ensuring a fl awless cus-tomer
experience between devices and operating systems. Easy
enough, right?
The Three Amigos:
Optimized, Responsive and Adaptive
When designing a mobile experience, some popular ad-vice
is to focus on the user, not the device. That said, a us-er’s
experience is affected by the type of device he or she is
using – requiring attention be given to the device that is in his
or her hands.
This has, of course, given responsive Web design
(RWD) digital legs, as the approach allows Web pages to
adapt to a device’s screen without compromising func-tionality
or aesthetics (read: “Responsive Web Design
Simplifi ed” at wsm.co/simplerwd ). To add to its benefi ts (see
10 plus reasons to go responsive at wsm.co/10rwdreasons),
RWD is strongly recommended by Google as the search
engine can crawl one URL rather than multiple. (For example
Nordstrom.com also has an m.nordstrom.com URL for its mo-bile
users.)
Experts like Joelle Kaufman, head of marketing and partner-ships
for BloomReach, and Carin van Vuuren, chief marketing
The Need for Speed?
The mobile Web needs to be faster. According to Google, all
above-the-fold content should render in less than 1 second; any-thing
more will result in a poor user experience.
Despite this, some of the most well-known brands take much,
much longer to render completely. Keynote’s Mobile Commerce
Performance Index shows Sears’ mobile site loading in 2.33 sec-onds,
Walgreens in 4.95 seconds, Walmart in 10.9 seconds and
so on. Since Google and your users may not be as forgiving with
your site, check out, “5 Ways to Speed Up the Mobile Web” at
wsm.co/speedup5.

offi cer at Usablenet, warn that businesses need to understand
that responsive design isn’t going to answer all of their mobile
issues.
What responsive Web design often lacks is a focus on cre-ating
an experience that is based on the goals of users per
each device. For example, through its data, a company could
see a large portion of its mobile traffi c converting (whether
that’s phone calls or directions) and customizing its mo-bile
experience based on particular goals would be much
more complex with responsive design. The reason is be-cause
RWD minimizes many Web page elements and doesn’t
necessarily “optimize” them. The same could be said of tab-lets.
While mobile phones are often used to research prod-ucts
and for on-the-go searches with local intent, tablets are
primarily used when connected to an at-home Wi-Fi net-work
(earning the couch-computing label). In fact, in a 2014
whitepaper on the subject, Usablenet indicated that 72 per-cent
of consumers use their tablets primarily at home, either
while watching TV or in bed at night. It should be obvious
by now that at-home users require a different experience than
on-the-go ones.
In the same report, Usablenet advised that, “It is a mistake
to treat the tablet as a large smartphone or a small desktop
computer; the tablet environment must be understood and ex-ploited
on its own merits.”
Creating device-specifi c experiences can quickly cost a com-pany
– in both time and money – but the path toward Web
supremacy is likely including a bit of both responsive and adap-tive
design based on a company and its users’ goals and expe-riences.
For the unfamiliar, when Econsultancy approached
the subject, Stuart McMillan, deputy head of e-commerce at
Schuh, defi ned adaptive Web design like so, “In many ways,
adaptive is not dissimilar to a mobile specifi c site, in that the
server delivers different content to different devices. Where
it differs is in the logic used to determine which devices get
which content.”
Perhaps, only when more companies realize the benefi ts of
using both responsive and adaptive approaches will users stop
switching from device to device because of user-experience
shortcomings.
“Can retailers have their cake and eat it? They absolutely
can,” said van Vuuren. “They should approach responsive as
they see fi t but remember to build with fl exibility in mind.
Bring adaptive pages into their sites and go for the tools that
enable marketers to do what marketers do – changing content
as many times as they need to.”
J. Crew is a good example of a retailer that offers the best of
both worlds. Its mobile site is 100 percent designed for mobile
users. They do not use a responsive solution, but they do offer
responsive checkout. What does this mean for the end-user?
It means mobile users can have an experience that is uniquely
optimized for their devices – everything from navigation to
calls-to-action to store locator – but if they get interrupted and
aren’t able to complete their purchases, then the checkout ex-perience
on their desktops (when they log on later) will be
consistent with what they encountered in their earlier shop-ping
experience. This is because even though the website itself
is optimized for the particular device being used, the checkout
Test
the Best
Experience
Use tools like Browser-stack,
Browsershots or
CrossBrowserTesting to
make sure even custom-ers
using unpopular de-vices
are getting the best
experiences.

is responsive and the handoff between the two is made very
easily, according to van Vuuren.
Whether a business chooses optimized, responsive or adap-tive
Web design (or a combination), the important thing is to
make a decision. Companies not offering any sort of mobile
Web experience will lose out on signifi cant revenue. Want to
know how much? Check out the SkavaOne Calculator which lets
users input data to calculate how much revenue a bad (or non-exis-tent)
mobile site is costing them at wsm.co/mrevenue.
Not Sophisticated - Just Smart
Part of offering a smart design is ensuring the mobile
Web experience is as natural as browsing in-store
with a sales representative. This, according to Kaufman
of BloomReach, means businesses should make
personalized suggestions and navigation intuitive as op-posed
to having a bunch of rarely used bells and
whistles – focusing on smart mobile experiences, not sophisti-cated
ones.
Neiman Marcus provides the second example of a mobile
leader whose mobile Web development, promotion and analy-sis
is one to mirror because it identifi es users across platforms
and is able to tailor an experience for each shopper – meaning,
even if a shopper follows the typical cross-device purchase path
(research on mobile or tablet and purchase on desktop), Nei-man
Marcus will provide a seamless and consistent experience
from start to fi nish – even if he or she isn’t signed in.
Using BloomReach Search, Navigation and Personaliza-tion
(SNAP) service, the luxury retailer is able to identify a user
across platforms by algo-rithmically
analyzing and
matching with statistical
certainty behavioral pat-terns,
geo-data, time of day,
products viewed and other
factors. (Other companies
offering predictive analysis
include Custora, SAP, etc.)
For example, say a
consumer is a semi-regular
online shopper of Bloom-
Reach customer Neiman
Marcus - often shopping
for men’s shoes and ties. He was browsing on his phone one
evening on the Neiman Marcus mobile site for men’s Gucci
loafers. Often gravitating toward black-colored size 10 shoes,
he clicks the “More Like This” and sometimes clicks other
product pages. Then, that week he continues the experience on
his desktop, visiting similar pages. BloomReach SNAP would
recognize this user and begin coupling the experience across
devices to further “test.” This would result in personalized
navigation and fi lters, product suggestions and ranking, etc.,
specifi c to that consumer. If the coupled experience indicated
that the users were unlikely to be the same (which is a low
probability), the experience would be decoupled, according to
Kaufman of BloomReach.
J. Crew and Neiman Marcus are two solid exam-ples
of how a smart and reliable mobile design can help
Mobile
Ads: The
Same But
Different
Take a brief refresher on
best practices for design-ing
and serving mobile
ads at wsm.co/adrefresh
As a signed-in user switches from
mobile to desktop, his shopping bag
follows him, and he is presented
with a responsive check out despite
J.Crew’s website being optimized
for mobile specifi cally.

with an organization’s acquisition and retention efforts, as, ac-cording
to Paige O’Neill, chief marketing offi cer at SDL, it is
vital for organizations to ensure channels are so connected that
they become irrelevant, placing the focus on delivering true
omnichannel engagement. (Read more about SDL’s report, “5
Truths for Future Marketers” at wsm.co/5truths2014.)
Acquisition Retention
Internet professionals don’t even need to look far to know the
infl uence that mobile has on everyday users – they just need to
look for their own smartphones, which are likely within arm’s
reach. An International Data Corporation (IDC) research re-port
(sponsored by Facebook) found that 79 percent of smart-phone
users have their phones on or near them for all but up
to two hours of their waking day – that’s in stores, at work, in
the car and so on.
There may never have been a greater time to be in the ac-quisition
and retention business than now, because mobile
phones are a near-constant connection to end-users, for those
Web-based businesses willing to try.
Beacons to the Rescue
As previously mentioned, mobile Web users are more than
willing to get notifi cations from businesses if it means more
personalized experiences or discounts on items they are al-ready
considering purchasing. For the fi rst time, accord-ing
to van Vuuren of Usablenet, retailers are embracing
mobile in store. Last year around this time, merchants were
scared of showrooming – the act of consumers research-ing
an item in-store and buying at a discounted price online
– but now they are understanding it’s something to em-brace
not run from, because the practice can improve both
acquisition and retention efforts. Serving up an irresistible offer
that feels personalized will be a big conversion mover this holi-day
shopping season, predicts van Vuuren, and that may start
with beacons at physical store locations - complemented by
mobile Web technology.
Swirl is a leader in the beacon space and the way beacons
work for its clients is a simple process. Swirl’s mobile client
SDK can be added to existing mobile apps and then in-store
indoor positioning beacons (some look like ordinary rectangle
boxes while others look like smoke detectors) are set up in any
store location. The Swirl platform leverages Bluetooth Smart
and Apple’s iBeacon technology to deliver targeted content and
offers to consumers based on their specifi c in-store locations
or in-store behaviors (like a person is spending a lot of time
in the dress department or standing in front of a store display
Mobile’s Top
Movers
Shakers
From design and reliability
to analytics and optimiza-tion,
see 50 companies
that can propel your mo-bile
strategy at
wsm.co/50movers
With Swirl, retailers like Lord
Taylor, Alex and Ani and
others are delivering more
relevant and personalized
mobile experiences based
on shoppers’ exact loca-tions
– like entering stores or
standing in front of in-store
displays.

and using his smartphone to browse the Web – see image for
more detail).
Powered by Swirl, Hudson’s Bay and Lord Taylor
became the fi rst major department store chains to roll
out beacon technology in North America. Just in time for
the holidays, the two retailers will automatically deliver
branded content and personalized offers to in-store
shoppers through an array of company-owned and third-party
mobile apps.
Feeling App-Y
Perhaps with the exception of Target’s Cartwheel app (read
more about it at wsm.co/tcartwheel ) a lot of retailers haven’t
hit it out of the park with experiential apps, but that doesn’t
keep many companies from trying as Flurry reports that apps
command 86 percent of the average U.S. mobile consumer’s
time, or 2 hours and 19 minutes – leaving just 14 percent of a
consumer’s time spent on the mobile Web.
Van Vuuren of Usablenet says that as mobile sites become
more complex with more functionality, there are fewer reasons
why a company needs a branded app. There are some com-pelling
use cases for apps when users want to come back and
experience something again and again like, for example, Hard
Rock’s app which focuses on its Hard Rock Rewards program.
Retailers see higher conversions when they specifi cally detail
the use case that they will deliver – knowing what they are ask-ing
customers to do on their mobile sites versus what they are
asking them to do in their apps.
An alternative is to create a presence on already-established
apps, like TheFind, for example. TheFind delivers a compre-hensive
shopping experience, putting 500 million products
from 500,000 stores at a user’s fi ngertips – they call that the
entire shoppable Web and users can easily access it whether
they are on their desktop computers, mobile phones or tablet
devices.
For retailers, TheFind is one of the largest indepen-dent
shopping traffic sources available. In June 2014,
TheFind launched its retailer advertising program, which pro-vides
merchants with options to improve search rankings as
well as increase and diversify qualifi ed shopping search traffi c.
The new program enables retailers to increase conversions and
visibility for promoted products and supports both cost-per-click
and revenue share based models.
Additionally, as part of its search algorithm and relevance-based
ranking, TheFind shows shoppers trending products
that are prioritized based on Facebook likes or by analyzing its
traffi c patterns.
TheFind is just one of many companies realizing that mobile
is intrinsically social, as mobile users are spending most of their
time in social apps – opening up many opportunities for com-panies
to acquire and retain via both mobile and social. Take
PagePart as an example.
When it was launched by Constant Contact Founder
Randy Parker, PagePart solely focused on building
mobile sites for small businesses by pulling information
directly from their Facebook pages, which 30 mil-lion
already have (according to the social network).
Today, PagePart has turned a big part of its attention to-

ward helping that same audience run targeted Facebook
ads – while still helping small businesses look good on mo-bile
– to increase the chances of them being found on the
world’s most popular social network. In short, PagePart is
working with Facebook to simplify social advertising for small
businesses so they can reach local, mobile users.
Analytics Optimization
It’s too easy to drown in all the data points that seem relevant
and important to a company’s mobile Web strategy. Turns
out, often companies have a mobile data problem, not a de-sign
problem. This is why Kaufman of BloomReach says that
companies should focus on incorporating data that can col-lectively
and individually analyze and constantly improve the
user experience.
Kaufman continues that mobile sites should be opti-mized
for experience, not just for conversion. Almost every
company can see the dramatic increase in traffi c to their
mobile sites. For example, after hiring California-based
IdeaWork Studios to rebrand its site, Southern Califor-nia
Builder Allen Construction saw 30 percent of its traffi c
coming from mobile (which it likely wouldn’t have tracked
before). It needed to educate its potential customers coming
from all devices, so IdeaWork Studios chose a responsive
strategy, allowing all user subsets (desktop/tablet/mobile)
to utilize the same website, but track the customized
resulting for each.
Companies need to optimize for what customers
want to do on their websites from their different de-vices,
but what metrics are available to make these crucial
business decisions? From clicks and conversions to swipes and time
on site, learn how to create a mobile Web strategy based on the data
that is already available at wsm.co/datatobuildon.
THIS WAY TO THE TOP
The gap between where marketers and the companies
that pay them think their mobile strategies are and where
consumers think they are is wide – and perhaps even
widening. According to Kenshoo, 82 percent of
consumers are disappointed when they reach a site
not optimized for the mobile experience, yet marketers
think they are currently providing a rich mobile optimized
Web experience across smartphones (50 percent) and tablets
(47 percent).
To make mobile truly work, companies must address
mobile’s unique capabilities and the development, promo-tion
and analysis of the mobile Web – and many of today’s
top companies are providing the perfect paths to follow.

Hosting PANEL
Active
Versus
Passive
Monitoring:
What’s the Right Approach?
By Mehdi Daoudi, Co-Founder and CEO of Catchpoint systems
While just understanding the value of website performance
monitoring is an asset in and of itself, there remains confu-sion
within the IT world as to the benefi ts and drawbacks
that result from active and passive monitoring strategies.

Despite what many believe, the issue is not whether Web
professionals should be utilizing either approach, but rather
how the two can be used in congruence to provide an effi -
cient and accurate look at a sites’ performance. So, what’s the
difference between active and passive monitoring?
In order to understand how these very different approaches
to monitoring work together, it is fi rst necessary to under-stand
exactly what they are and what they cover.
Active (or synthetic) monitoring takes a proactive approach
to ensuring a site is working at optimum effi ciency (e.g. avail-ability,
download speed) from specifi c geographies and Inter-net
service providers (ISPs). Maintaining an active monitoring
strategy requires software-based agents (backbone, last mile,
wireless and private nodes) distributed throughout the world
in a controlled setting to simulate the user experience. This
method measures and validates key business procedures and
functions in a website (shopping carts, customer relationship
management record retrieval, Web lead registrations, conver-sion
goals, etc.).
Since active monitoring happens continuously and on a
fi xed schedule, site owners can create a controlled baseline
for performance, which allows for alerts to let them know
about availability and performance at the fi rst sign of trouble,
even when no users are on the site. This enables them to
diagnose and troubleshoot problems before they affect the
end-user experience, minimizing the negative impact on their
enterprises’ bottom line.
In addition to early warnings, synthetic traffic gen-erated
from backbone ISPs eliminates the effect of
variables outside of one’s control, such as browser exten-sions,
badly confi gured home connections, etc. This al-lows
active monitoring to also be used for service-level
agreement (SLA) management and verification, as
well as benchmarking a site’s performance against
the competition.
Performance data collected is impacted not only by an
infrastructure, third parties and content delivery networks
(CDNs), but also determines if code changes or architec-tural/
infrastructure changes had the desired effects, or if
they caused errors and/or performance degradations. This
helps a company identify and optimize for these variables,
which allows workers to test changes before rolling out any
to end-users.
These advantages are all well and good, of course,
but that doesn’t mean that active monitoring is with-out
drawbacks. Most notably, while it can simulate
user experience, that’s not a perfect substitution for the real
thing because ultimately the end-users can experience some-thing
different (and perhaps worse) due to external variables.
Additionally, since active monitoring relies on node infra-
Hosting PANEL
“
“When it comes to active and passive moni-toring,
electing to utilize one or the other is
going to result in an incomplete picture of a
site’s overall performance.

structure around the world to create those simulated experi-ences,
it’s limited by geography and ISP locations. Utilizing
that infrastructure to monitor every page and navigation
path can also become costly. This forces one to choose what
pages he or she wants to focus on (generally the most heav-ily
traffi cked ones), which could mean missed performance
problems for less visited pages or not understanding and op-timizing
Hosting Got
You Down?
for true click-through paths, or the best representa-tions
of true end-user behavior on a site.
For this reason, passive monitoring (done predominantly
through Real User Measurement or RUM) comes into play as
it picks up where active monitoring leaves off. RUM comes
in two types: by devices installed in the data center, or by
JavaScript embedded on the page. As the name suggests, Ja-vaScript-
based RUM measures the performance of all of the
pages as experienced by real end-users, giving businesses a
picture of user experience across all geographies and devices.
Whereas active monitoring lacks insight into the business
metrics of a site, JavaScript-based RUM is also able to gauge
the amount of time and/or money that users spend there,
an undeniably important indicator of success for any sites
that rely on e-commerce or advertising revenue. In doing
so, passive monitoring accounts for many aspects that ac-tive
monitoring is unable to cover, though it clearly cannot
handle everything a company needs to optimize its website.
Passive can’t detect or measure downtime where it occurred.
In fact, if an enterprise relies only on passive monitoring it
may not know when its site is down at all. Passive monitoring
also misses opportunities to optimize slow-performing sites,
because many visitors won’t stick around for a site owner to
measure the full download time of pages. In addition, pas-sive
monitoring can’t benchmark a site’s performance against
competition; it’s unable to provide fi lmstrips, screenshots,
ping or trace route monitoring; and it can miss performance
problems during light- or no-traffi c time periods.
When it comes to active and passive monitoring, electing
to utilize one or the other is going to result in an incomplete
picture of a site’s overall performance. If a company focuses
exclusively on active, then it will be left in the dark with
regard to certain external factors which lie beyond its con-trol,
but ultimately still drastically affect how the site per-forms
in the real world. Yet, companies that take a decidedly
passive approach with RUM, will likely fi nd themselves react-ing
to problems as they happen rather than getting out ahead
of them.
That’s why organizations around the world are continually
realizing that this is not a matter of “active versus passive,” but
rather “active plus passive.” The tools are now available to get
a complete look at your site’s performance, and to optimize it
as much as possible.
Hosting PANEL
Check out news and
tips in Website Maga-zine’s
Web hosting Panel
on the ‘Net at
wsm.co/wmhosting

If you’ve ever run a marathon, you’re familiar with the
term “hit the wall.” This is a point right around mile 20
where the body’s store of glycogen (energy) is de-pleted,
leaving you exhausted and challenging your
will to fi nish what you started.
Web visitors have a similar wall, but it’s based on cognitive
exhaustion rather than physical. When visitors go to a web-site
that requires them to work too hard to accomplish their
tasks, they hit a wall, unable to fi nish what they started. In Web
terms, they abandon.
People go to websites to accomplish something, and if
their tasks involve any amount of research or new learning,
some cognitive load will naturally be required. Websites
cause unnecessary and unexpected additional mental pro-cessing
when they don’t clearly and immediately address a
visitor’s query. Users hit their mental wall when they have to
expend time and energy trying to fi gure out how to accom-plish
their tasks.
Being Contextually Perceptive
One of the ways to avoid overloading visitors is by being con-textually
perceptive. A website that is contextually perceptive
is one that seems tuned in to the state of mind of its visi-tors,
understanding the circumstances surrounding their visit
– not just from a task perspective but also the sequence of
events that led to this moment. Being contextually perceptive
means understanding visitors’ biases, their knowledge level,
their anxieties and their expectations.
When you are contextually perceptive and understand your
visitors’ roles, sites can be designed to enable visitors to do
what they want to do, not force them to do what you want
them to.
Enter the User Scenario
User scenarios are the means to creating a contextually per-ceptive
site. They are the roadmap not just for the design of
homepages, but also for key usability and design elements such
as the information architecture, the overall page layout, how
Conversion CORNER
Optimizing
Conversions
with Common User Scenarios
By Brian Lewis

information is prioritized on each page, and even what colors
and design elements to use.
User scenarios differ from personas in that they place equal
importance on both the visitor’s role and his or her task. Sce-narios
look not just at what a visitor is trying to accomplish,
but also at their motivations, abilities, desires and fears. This is
key, because a particular task will be approached differently by
different people, depending on the personal context the visitor
brings to a visit.
Roles and Goals
User scenarios are comprised of two elements; the specifi c
role that the visitor is playing and their intent (or goal).
Roles generally describe the type of visitor (for example, in
a B2B environment that might be experts, infl uencers and re-searchers)
4 Stages of
Conversion
as well as the defi ning characteristics of the visitor.
Characteristics might include level of knowledge, where they
are in the buying cycle, how price conscious they are, their
motivation for completing the task and their urgency.
Goals are intents – things people are trying to accomplish
when they come to a site. A helpful way to think about goals
and visitor intentions is to think about the four stages a person
goes through when researching and ultimately buying some-thing:
attention, interest, desire and action (see sidebar). Within
each of these stages, visitors will likely have different intents,
for example collecting research, comparing similar products,
evaluating prices or making purchases.
Creating Your User Scenarios
Before constructing user scenarios, an internal team must fi rst
be assembled. Include people from sales, customer service,
tech support and anyone else who has contact with prospec-tive
customers.
Distribute different color sticky notes to team members accord-ing
to the functional area they represent. Ask everyone to use the
sticky notes to write about a common type of customer or visitor
that they’ve been in contact with. Each sticky note will be the
framework for a user scenario, and should include a sum-mary
statement (short phrase that identifi es who the person
is and what they are trying to achieve), the task and intent
(which provides more detail than what is addressed in the
summary, including what stage of the buying cycle the visi-tor
is in), the context (describing the visitor’s emotions and
motivations instead of logic) and subtasks (which are often
more logic-based). Once the team has completed its assign-ment,
organize the sticky notes on a whiteboard according to
buying stage, remembering that the different colors represent
different functional departments in the organization. Condense
similar, overlapping user scenarios and get rid of those that are
not truly “common.”
After the team’s ideas about common user scenarios have been
received, start looking at the data. Run different Web analytics
reports that show visitor paths segmented by keyword data,
referral source category, entry page and device. You can also
create visitor surveys, look at social conversations and survey
Conversion CORNER
Discover effective ways big-name
brands address the attention, interest,
desire and action of each online con-sumer
at wsm.co/4cstages

people at different trigger points on the site (exit
pages, repeat views of the same page and so on). Try
to get an understanding of not only who is converting,
but also who isn’t — and why. Then, visit competi-tors’
sites to see what visitors are experiencing when
they attempt to complete the same task elsewhere. Add all of
this data to those sticky notes to come up with a complete pic-ture
of the most common user scenarios.
When complete, try to have no more than fi ve user scenar-ios.
Remember, for the purpose of optimizing a site, the goal
is to understand the most common users, not to exhaustively
profi le every individual user.
Here is an example user scenario of someone shopping for after-market
wheels for his car.
• Summary: Shopper is new to the auto aftermarket, wants to
learn about options for custom wheels for his car.
• Task Intent: He’s early in the decision-making process.
Wants to learn about what features are important.
• Context: He doesn’t know what wheel sizes fi t his 2013
BMW 335i. He likes the look of a wider tire.
• Specifi c Subtasks: He wants to understand why certain fea-tures
matter. He wants to explore which wheel options are
available to fi t wider tires on his car. He needs to see if there
are qualifi ed installers in his area.
Putting User Scenarios to Work
Now that the most common users and what they
are trying to accomplish is understood, it’s time to evaluate
your site through their eyes. Become each of these defi ned
users and try to accomplish a task from their perspective.
As you play the role of each scenario and encounter con-version
roadblocks that users are experiencing every day,
document the journey through screen grabs, noting unmet ex-pectations,
elapsed time and feelings (frustration, impatience,
aggravation, surprise).
Once you have walked in your visitors’ shoes, use the fi nd-ings
to inform an optimization process. If you’re ready to take
on a full-site redesign, user scenarios will help create a contex-tually
perceptive site that effortlessly meets the needs of your
most common visitors. If you are conducting testing, your user
scenarios will provide lots of ideas for how to clear conversion
roadblocks. And if you are constantly being asked to incorpo-rate
new bells and whistles, user scenarios will be a valuable
reminder of what’s important to a site’s most common users.
Brian Lewis is director of optimization at SiteTuners, where he works with
clients to diagnose conversion barriers, streamline conversion paths and
support test-planning efforts.
Conversion CORNER
“ “ For all the talk about technology and data, one com-mon
theme stands out as central to most optimization
advancements: a focus on customers as individuals.

Email EXPERIENCE
D.A.T.
SEGMENTATION
A Highly Conventional Approach to Email Segmentation
Chances are good that the tra c you receive through
the email channel is a major contributor to top-line
digital marketing metrics (unique visitors and page
views) and pure, bottom-line sales performance in-dicators
(leads and conversions).
Today’s digital marketers must appreciate how infl uential the
interactions are that result from the email experience and treat
recipients in a manner that respects the value of this interaction
to the business.
While the trend toward digital personalization (the technolo-gies
used to deliver messaging in accordance with users’ tastes,
preferences and behavior) is increasing dramatically, only a
small percentage of senders currently segment their lists. Mar-ketingSherpa’s
2014 Email Benchmarks Report revealed, in
fact, that just 32 percent of the 1,000 organizations surveyed
indicated “customer segmentation” as one of their main goals
within the next year.
Despite the slow pace of adoption among digital marketers,
the benefi ts of segmentation are clear (and many). Senders that
engage in the practice of email segmentation, specifi cally, regu-larly
experience higher open and click-rate rates, better conver-sion
rates and even decreased unsubscribe rates. On the whole,
marketers that segment their lists simply have more engaged
prospects (and greater profi ts).
To start more effectively utilizing your database of customer
information, you must realize that each of your customers has
particular needs and is at his or her own special point in the cus-tomer
experience. Instead of sending the same batch-and-blast
email to everyone on your list, why not send custom communi-cation
based on a type of audience segment? Here are three such
audience breakdowns to get you started:

marketers use email
?
emographic Segmentation
Perhaps the most conventional method to seg-ment
an email list is to do so by some of the more
obvious demographic traits of your recipients.
For example, geography, age and gender are prac-tical
approaches, as are the industry, the job function of the
recipient as well as his or her seniority level. Another, albeit
slightly more sophisticated approach, is to forgo demographics
and segment using psychographics, the attitudes and aspira-tions
of users. To segment a list using demographics or psycho-graphics,
however, it’s necessary to have information available
about recipients – something that should be done within the
acquisition phase. Learn how to create an effective email form
at wsm.co/gotoemailform.
ctivity Segmentation
Another powerful way to segment an email list is
to do so by the recipient’s activity level (as well as
the value of their activity). It has been very com-mon
in the past to segment by RFM metrics (re-cency,
frequency, monetary) and past purchases undeniably
provide as good a starting point as any – but for most send-ers
a more elementary approach is needed. Many email ser-vice
providers (ESPs) offer functionality within their platforms
that reveal which users are most active. MailChimp, for ex-ample,
offers a 5-star Member Rating (based on open and
click activity, bounce history, etc.) that is recalculated for
every send. Segmenting based on activity enables senders
to test a variety of techniques to determine the optimal subject
lines, different calls-to-action for each activity level, and what’s
more, sending emails that align with user activity will result in
better deliverability over time and a better sender reputation for
your enterprise.
ransactional Segmentation
Arguably the most valuable way to segment is to do so
based on purchase history. Frequent buyers, one-time
buyers and irregular buyers each require a different
style of communication so the more targeted senders
can make their segmented list, the better chance they
will have of delivering the right message at the right time to the
right recipients. Senders using transaction-based segmentation
will be able to promote new products and features to the most
frequent buyers, offer incentives or discounts to irregular buyers
and encourage those that haven’t yet bought to do so.
Demographic, activity and transactional-based (DAT) email
segmentation is a conventional approach to getting more out of
your marketing efforts. Start segmenting today and you’ll realize
the benefi ts immediately.
Email EXPERIENCE
com- A
T
D
Did
You
Know?
86 percent of U.s. digi-tal
marketing regularly
(Source: Gigaom, 2014)

Affi liate INSIDER
Programs, Publishers Products
3 REASONS
YOUR AFFILIATE
PROGRAM
IS STALLED
It can happen to any major online advertiser with a
mature a liate program.
What once seemed to coast, climb and generate sales on
autopilot eventually plateaus and even begins to stall. A
common response from your affi liate network is to ‘raise com-missions.’
However, smart marketers are now leveraging robust
reporting technology and sophisticated optimization tools to
align their affi liate programs to their margins, not those of their
publishers.
Affi liate marketing is a large and growing segment with major
online advertisers pouring billions into the channel. Forrester ex-pects
affi liate spend in the U.S. to reach $4.5 billion per annum
by 2016, and the IAB regularly reports that performance-based
models continue to dominate online ad spend. A lack of trans-parency
into program performance, however, coupled with
outdated affi liate strategies and models, can cause stagnation for
even the most seasoned advertisers.
There are several areas of possible transformation in the af-fi
liate space that can contribute to a brand’s affi liate program
stalling. Fortunately, better access to data and smarter use of that
data can enable brands to optimize and energize their programs
and scale for the future as the channel continues to evolve.
Program Management
Other channels have rapidly transformed to incorporate
and leverage big data (think search and display exchanges) to
drive the online advertising marketplace. Meanwhile, tradi-tional
affi liate marketing still relies primarily on static historical
performance to determine commissions as the core pro-gram
driver - and this can inhibit program growth. The good
news is that technology is transforming the affi liate landscape.
Advertisers that use data to optimize their affi liate spend
need to migrate away from reactive data processed in spread-sheets,
to proactive, real-time data that allows them to escape
from crunching numbers and return their focus on advertising.
By Jim Robinson

Publisher Base
To date, the affi liate channel has been dominated by the network
model, which focused on mining the long tail of publishers to
drive incremental sales. In reality, however, the affi liate publisher
base continues to consolidate. For many large advertisers, the
attempt to “scale the tail” is contributing to the plateau of their
affi liate programs, exacerbated by the proliferation of poor per-formers
Who Gets
Credit for
What?
and bad practices. Advertisers need to focus on com-pliance,
as well as move from fl awed attribution models. Value
attribution data can allow advertisers to identify publishers that
drive the bulk of their highest value sales - and reward those
publishers accordingly.
Product/Off ers
In the past, there has been an over-reliance on offers,
promotions and exclusive placements, controlled and
driven heavily by the publishers. This model is based
on increasing sales through increased commissions
but isn’t scalable for large advertisers once their affi liate
program matures. Advertisers across different sectors from retail
to travel to credit card companies each have their own target con-sumer,
publisher base and compliance issues to consider. High-end
retailers, for example, may place a higher priority on brand
equity than blasting promos. Advertisers need to shift from the
one-size-fi ts-all approach of increased commissions and refocus
on their own internal marketing and product margin objectives
as the determining factor for their mix of offers and promotions.
Quit Stalling
Technology and data will continue to transform the affi liate
landscape. By examining their program management, publisher
base and product/offer mix, enterprise-level advertisers will be in
a position to more precisely market to consumers at the bottom
of the sales funnel with their own priorities in play. Publishers,
likewise, will also be positioned to leverage a deeper understand-ing
of the tendencies and behaviors of their user base to optimize
their own site performance. Ultimately, the advertisers that un-derstand
the current shifts happening in the affi liate channel will
be able to take their mature affi liate program to a new level and
dramatically increase their performance.
Jim Robinson is VP, North American Sales for Performance Horizon
Group and previously was head of sales and operations for the
Google Affi liate Network.
Affi liate INSIDER
“
“ By examining their program management,
publisher base and product/offer mix, enter-prise-
level advertisers will be in a position to
more precisely market to consumers at the bot-tom
of the sales funnel.
Get a rundown of how to
track value attribution data
at wsm.co/creditisdue

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The Top 12 Marketing
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Sponsored by LeadsPedia

Insight on ANALYTICS
Analytics, Metrics KPIs
for Content Marketers and Blog Publishers
Content marketing changed the approach many en-terprises
take to attract and retain customers in the
digital world, but many are struggling to understand
how the tactic is actually benefi ting their brands’ bot-tom
lines and that’s creating a virtual headache for
digital media managers.
The key “success” indicators for information publishers (indepen-dent
bloggers, as well as more formal content marketing teams at
larger enterprises, agencies and traditional media outlets) have
always been diffi cult (if not impossible) to identify. Fortunately,
that’s starting to change.
First, realize that most enterprises have no idea at all if they
are effectively tracking content utilization metrics (so you’re not
alone). Only 27 percent of B2B marketers (according to Kapost)
believe they are on the right track, but since there are so many
different possible data points to measure, where should you be-gin?
Which metrics should today’s digital brands use to gather
the insights required to generate more revenue and improve the
user experience over the long term?
There are, of course, a range of options, but production,
engagement, traffi c and effect are quickly becoming the stan-dards:
PRODUCTION :: Measuring performance by production (including
the number of content assets produced, the types of content
produced and the volume of content produced by each au-thor)
is useful, but more from a personnel perspective (you
know who’s working and who’s not). More is not always bet-ter,
of course, so to achieve success with the content market-ing
and the more informal “blogging,” you need to make a
suffi cient amount available. It’s no secret that regular pub-

Website Magazine issue82 201409

Website Magazine issue82 201409

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Website Magazine issue82 201409