'Net Features : week 16

Experience, Education or Connections?

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Career network Beyond.com polled more than 1,600 job seekers recently to learn what is most helpful to business professionals when searching for a job. The answer might just surprise you - particuarly if you've invested a large amount in higher education.

According to the survey, applicants are placing more value than ever before on their actual work experience than they have in the past - 45% cited their experience, 20.97% cited their education, 19.93 cited the people they know and 13.75% cited their communication skills.

"At one time it was all about who you knew and who in your Rolodex© you could connect with in order to secure an interview," says Rich Milgram, CEO of Beyond.com. "While networking is and will continue to be an important component of the job search, it can only get you so far in the process. Employers are looking past just 'who you know' and making sure candidates have the right qualifications and experience before hiring."

Pay Per Visit Email Marketing Software Launches

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:00:00 GMT

The launch today of Pay Per Visit Email (the company's actual name) caught our attention and it will likely do the same for you, particuarly in light of the release of Website Magazine's May 2011 Email issue. The service is truly unique in concept and as far as I know is the only email service of its kind. Whether it actually works or is as cost effective as it seems is still up for debate.

While most email service providers charge their customers on some version of “volume of emails sent”, Pay Per Visit Email charges customers only when an email recipient clicks through to a website. This eliminates the risk of paying for emails that are not acted on or opened. No traffic, no cost for the email. How exactly the cost per email is calculate we were unable to determine.

Some cost examples are available on the company's website however. One commercial lender sent 24,203 emails in one month and received 21 click throughs to its website. A competitor charged them 1.1 cents per email sent for a total cost of $266. If they were to use Pay Per Visit Email, they would pay $1.00 per visit. So 21 clicks would mean $21.

According to David Chitester, CEO and Founder of Pay Per Visit Email, “We recognized that there was a great way to differentiate ourselves from other email marketing services. It makes no sense to charge people if their email marketing isn’t delivering results and driving traffic to their website. We developed a simple, but powerful, email marketing software that delivers on the promise of low cost and flexible functionality, while stripping away unneeded bells and whistles that do nothing for the customer’s bottom line.”

4-Tell Product Recommendation Software at 3DCart

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:30:00 GMT

E-commerce shopping cart solution 3DCart has partnered with personalization and product recommendation software 4-Tell to offer its 4-Tell Boost solution.

According to eMarketer, most retailers who employ (intelligent, automated) recommendation systems report sales increases of 10% or more, as well as higher customer engagement and loyalty. Hard to ignore that, right?

The partnership will enable retailers using 3DCart to provide product suggestions through a free plugin-in. 4-Tell Boost provides automated cross-sell and up-sell opportunities for site visitors based on real-time behavioral data, historical sales data and merchandising.

“We chose 4-Tell as our partner because we were confident in their ability to help our clients deliver a more relevant customer experience, boosting sales and providing a best-in-class experience to the end-user,” said Jimmy Rodriguez, Chief Technology Officer of 3DCart.

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Arrives

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:15:00 GMT

This week Adobe announced the new Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 product line.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the release is that designers and developers will be able to target popular and emerging smartphone and tablet platforms. Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 includes the Web Premium Suite, which focuses on mobile applications on Android, Blackberry, Tablet OS, iOS and other platforms. It also uses HTML5 to make rich browser-based content across screens and uses Flash Player for videos, casual games and Internet applications.

The suites are expected to be priced at approximately $2,599 for the Master Collection, $1,899 for Design Premium, $1,799 for Web Premium, $1,699 for Production Premium and $1,299 for Design Standard. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

Adobe also debuted a subscription-based pricing plan which will be attractive to those wanting in on Creative Suite products, have project-based needs, or are interested in trying the software for the first time. Adobe's new Subscription Editions will provide up-to-date versions of the software, without the upfront cost of full pricing. Customers will be able to use Adobe Photoshop® for as little as $35 per month, Adobe Design Premium CS 5.5 for $95 per month, and the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection for $129 per month.

“Creative Suite 5.5 will drive the development of new digital experiences across devices, including all major smartphones and tablets,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer, Adobe. “As publishers, media companies, advertisers and enterprises transform the way they develop and distribute their content, Adobe will be there to support them with technology innovations in content creation, management, measurement and distribution.”

TubeMogul Retools as Demand-Side Video Ad Platform

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:45:00 GMT

TubeMogul, a tool for online video production, announced today the launch of a brand-focused demand side platform for video advertising.

According to the announcement, its PlayTime product (which was rolled out last year) provides the benefits of a DSP (targeted, real-time, media buying across multiple inventory sources) and gives video marketers greater reach and transparency.

TubeMogul aggregates inventory from top publishers, exchanges, ad servers, supply side platforms and other transparent inventory sources to reach 99% of U.S. Internet users, according to comScore. At launch, over 90% of the comScore Top 1000 sites are available to select from. In addition, private exchanges can be built between any agency and publisher directly for sites not generally available.

In all, TubeMogul clients can bid on over five billion auctions for ad space per day, or over 60,000 auctions per second. To buy at this scale, the company must identify a viewer, choose whether or not to bid, name a price, receive an answer as to whether the auction was won and finally call an ad – all in the milliseconds before a video player or page loads for a viewer.

The company offers several layers of targeting to reach audiences. At setup, marketers select contextual targeting (i.e. sites, categories, etc.) and geographic regions to narrow in on a specific country or market. From there, marketers can layer on audience data, whether it’s their own or data or from third-party providers like BlueKai, Exelate, Rapleaf and TARGUSinfo.

TubeMogul will support mobile and social video ads, such as ones people watch in exchange for virtual currency in games. For self-serve advertisers running video ad campaigns through TubeMogul, it will take 10 percent to 15 percent of the advertising budget. For larger ad agencies and trading desks, better deals are negotiable.

Specific Media Receives QAG Certification from IAB

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:15:00 GMT

Specific Media announced today its certification through the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) new Ad Network & Exchange Quality Assurance Certification program. Specific Media is one of the first companies to meet the training, audit, and compliance requirements for the program.

The QAG aims to enhance advertisers’ control over the placement and context of their ads and offers transparency to the marketplace by standardizing the information provided to advertisers. QAG is the only industry-endorsed certification program that exists today.

“We’ve always been committed to maintaining trustworthy and transparent relationships with brands,” said Ron Nielsen, senior vice president of media operations for Specific Media. “Advertisers deserve to understand how and where their messages reach consumers. Our participation in the IAB’s Quality Assurance Certification program is further validation of our adherence to accepted industry standards, and our intention to give advertisers the best possible environment for connecting with customers.”

Better Bing Business Portal Arrives

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:45:00 GMT

Bing has made a few important improvements to (and renamed) its local business directory offering. The beta version adds the ability for owners to create, claim and manage listings and perhaps more importantly, promote special deals.

Bing's Local Listing Center is now called Bing Business Portal and lets owners add content to their listings such as photos, logos and information beyond the basics, such as menus for restaurants, parking availability, holiday hours and types of payments accepted.

The portal also lets owners craft and promote deals, like coupons or promotions, for free, which are then indexed by Bing's search engine and can also be posted on businesses' Facebook pages from the portal's interface.

As readers are likely aware, other search engines have similar business directories, such as Google's Places and Yahoo's Local. Local search directories are essential tools for search engines to establish potential advertising relationships with small local businesses, many of which have but a modest presence online and as such represent an underserved advertising market.

Will the enhanced platform make a difference in search rankings? It likely will according to Bing's FAQ page. “The details you provide can help modify how your business appears in the Bing algorithmic search results.”

To claim your listing, search for it in Bing’s local results, then click the “change this business listing” link. Remember to identify specific search categories and to explore the available publishing tools for creating mobile sites (and QR codes) for inclusion on mobile devices.

Google Rolls Out Farmer (Panda) Globally

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:15:00 GMT

It has been just over a month since Google made one of the most significant changes to its algorithm in the Anti-farm Panda update which impacted nearly 12 percent of all searches.

Google is now pushing out the changes to all English languages users and finally incorporating data from user feedback signals. "In some high-confidence situations, we are beginning to incorporate data about the sites that users block into our algorithms," according to the announcement on the Webmaster Central blog.

The search giant also indicated that this change goes deeper into the “long tail” of low-quality websites where the algorithm might not have been able to make an assessment before. The impact of these new signals is smaller in scope than the original change: about 2% of U.S. queries are affected by a reasonable amount, compared with almost 12% of U.S. queries for the original change.

Search Market Share and Longer Queries

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:45:00 GMT

Hitwise released data today revealing that while Google still commands 64% of the search market share, Bing-powered search is on the rise.

Google accounted for 64.42 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending April 2, 2011, while Bing-powered search comprised 30.01 percent. The remaining 69 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis report accounted for just 5.58 percent of U.S. searches.

Perhaps the most interesting angle is that Yahoo! Search and Bing achieved the highest “success rates” in March 2011 with 80% of searches executed resulted in a visit to a website. Google achieved a success rate of 66 percent. This may imply that

Longer search queries — five to eight words — were down 3 percent from February 2011 to March 2011. Shorter search queries — those averaging one to four words long — increased 1 percent from February 2011 to March 2011. One-word searches comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 24.40 percent of all queries, a 2 percent increase from February 2011 to March 2011.

Daily Deal Aggregation at Offers.com - Saturation?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:15:00 GMT

Last week Offers.com announced the debut of its Local City Deals at the Daily Deals Summit in New York City. Does the Web need an aggregation service for daily deals? Offers.com apparently believes so, but consumers will most definitely have the last word on whether its actually wanted.

Offers from local daily deal sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, CrowdSavings, Entertainment.com, Restaurant.com and others will be aggregated and provided to consumers through one website (and one email) to access daily deals from over 75 U.S. cities.

"Everyone loves having a bunch of daily deals to choose from each day, but who has time to sort through multiple emails each morning to find the best deals in their area? Local City Deals at Offers.com gives you the best of both worlds – all of the local deals for your city, plus the top three offers hand-selected by our editors. You can find all of that on our site, or you can sign up for your Local City Deals email to get one email every morning," said Steve Schaffer, founder and CEO of Offers.com.

Getting the Most Out of Mobile

Linc Wonham — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:30:00 GMT

Many retailers consider it their next big opportunity, while for others there remains a mysterious quality – perhaps, even for some, inconvenient. But make no mistake; the evolution of mobile shopping platforms is reshaping the e-commerce landscape forever.

So, like it or not, merchants have to adjust. Whether that means developing a mobile website or an application for the multitude of today’s devices – or all of the above – the most successful e-retailers will always be the ones who willingly accept, even embrace, change.

To help foster that glass-half-full outlook, and provide some helpful tips along the way, below are some of the best opportunities awaiting your online retail business in the mobile space:

Customer Service
Speed is of the essence when it comes to customer relationship management, and the mobile platform provides opportunities that simply were not available before now. Whether it involves an SMS messaging protocol to thank customers on their way out of a store’s physical location; real-time product descriptions, inventory and pricing information, or the distribution of daily, weekly or monthly online coupon notifications – the mobile channel can significantly enhance a retailer’s dialogue with customers.

Location Technologies
They are not going away, and for good reason. Perhaps the leading catalyst behind mobile commerce, location-based services and platforms can – and will, for many – be a retailer’s best friend. Merchants should begin by ensuring that they are easily searchable by their mobile customers, and then add to their presence with features such as alerts, coupons, ratings and reviews, inventory, etc.

CSEs
Recent studies have shown that mobile shoppers use their devices most frequently to compare the prices of in-store products with other products online. Retailers that have taken the time to establish a mobile presence but neglect to take advantage of comparison shopping engines are losing customers to this process. And it’s not just enough to participate today; in the mobile age it is imperative that every bit of data remains accurate in real time.

Payments and Barcodes
Much more than a simpler way for consumers to complete transactions, the mobile payments movement and mobile barcodes provide retailers with increased opportunities to offer promotions, cross-sell and upsell. Each barcode and/or mobile payment system adopted by a merchant gives that merchant the ability to use a landing page for a specific product or category purchased through that channel, allowing for customized messaging to an entirely new group of customers.

While it may seem new and even somewhat intimidating to many of us, mobile commerce has arrived – and it is here to stay. In this ever-flexible world of e-commerce, the most content merchants a year or two from now will be the ones that accepted this latest change rather than running from it.

ShopSocially Unveils Social Connect for Merchants

Linc Wonham — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:25:00 GMT

Social recommendation platform ShopSocially has publicly released its social commerce suite for online retailers, concurrently unveiling partnerships with dozens of top retailers including Sephora, CafePress, Zales and Rawlings Gear.

Social Connect strives to turn shoppers into brand ambassadors and generating traffic and new customers via friend recommendations. It also helps retailers monetize their fan base by creating a shopping community called Shoppers on their Facebook fan page.

Fans can see what their friends and other shoppers are buying at the retailer site and engage in a conversation. The Shoppers tab also features top shoppers, top products and other engaging social widgets.

“ShopSocially fit perfectly with our customer acquisition goals,” says Sumant Sridharan, Vice President of online acquisition and retention at CafePress. “First and foremost, to encourage our user base to broadly share our unique, custom products across their social graphs – and then do so in a manner that produced a significant return on investment. From day one, we saw thousands of incremental, high quality clicks. Today, ShopSocially is used by a significant portion of our customer base to share product recommendations to over 300,000 social media users daily.”

Retailers can sign-up and get started for free within an hour.