“The Big 4" Technology Trends Your Business Cannot Afford to Ignore. They include (1) how the web user experience is changing, (2) Google's 500+ changes in 2013, (3) steps on how to do business-to-business social media, and (4) the future of mobile.
Six Myths about Ontologies: The Basics of Formal Ontology
4 Critical Web Challenges Facing WNY Businesses in 2014
1. 4 Critical Web Challenges
Facing WNY Businesses in 2014
PCA Technology Group | www.pcatg.com
“The Big 4” Your
Business Cannot
Afford to Ignore
Mary Owusu, MBA – www.linkedin.com/in/maryo
3. The Power of Listening
Cloud Computing
Cyber Security
Network Consulting, Outsourced IT, Managed
Services
VoIP / Unified Communications
Software Development
Internet Marketing & Analytics
4. 4 Critical Web Challenges
Facing WNY Businesses in 2014
“The Big 4” Your
Business Cannot
Afford to Ignore
5. What are “The Big 4”?
The
Big 4
1
2
3
4
Web User Experience
Google’s 500+
Changes
B-to-B Social Media
Mobile
6. The WNY Environment
Globally, technology is rapidly changing.
Adoption Curve
Categories of Adopters
Tipping Point
(begins to hit
mainstream)
Key Point
Don’t miss the Chasm.
Your business should be
actively watching what’s
going on in the
technology marketplace
in order to be prepared to
make the move before
your competition does.
That’s what this
presentation is all about.
How about in Western New York?
7. For this presentation…
Think of the groups of adopters as “B2B’s nationwide.”
Throughout this presentation, I’ll highlight where these
other B2Bs are on the curve in terms of the 4 trends. If
they are in or pass the chasm, it means your prospects
are expecting these trends on your website.
Key point: Don’t get left behind the curve.
Tipping Point
(begins to hit
mainstream)
8. The Web User Experience is changing.
The
Big 4
1
2
3
4
Web User Experience
Google’s 500+
Changes
B-to-B Social Media
Mobile
9. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
1. Please Don’t Make Me Think: The infamous “F”
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
10. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
1. Please Don’t Make Me Think: The infamous “F”
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
11. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
2. Please Speak MY Language
Snow
tires
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
Winter
tires
Auto
injury
attorney
Car
accident
lawyer
12. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
2. Please Speak MY Language
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
13. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
3. Be in the ZMOT (Use Pull vs. Push Marketing)
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
14. The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
Key Point
Where do your
prospects go in their
ZMOT moment?
Find out and make sure
that you’re there waiting
for them.
ZMOT = Zero moment of truth.
The moment your prospect grabs a
digital device to self-educate prior
to making a decision to buy, try or
trust a product or service.
15. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
3. Be in the ZMOT (Use Pull vs. Push Marketing)
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
16. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
4. Positive Experience on Any Device
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
For nearly all my
clients, mobile users
make up 20-40% of
website visitors.
More on “Mobile” later
in this presentation.
17. What your prospects and
customers expect today:
4. Positive Experience on Any Device
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
18. The Web User Experience is changing.
Why that matters to your business:
Google is watching
how your prospects
interact with your website…
…and rewarding or penalizing
your website based on it.
2 key things Google is watching: CTR and BR
19. 1. Your Site’s Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
Ranking
CTR
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
12.5
9.5
7.9 6.1 4.1 3.8 3.5 3.0 2.2
Key Point
The higher your
site’s CTR (relative
to these
standards), the
higher your Google
rankings.
20. Improving Your Site’s CTR
1. Write compelling titles, descriptions, content
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
21. Improving Your Site’s CTR
1. Write compelling titles, descriptions, content
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
For sites with
good
CTRs, Google
will show these
sitelinks.
22. Improving Your Site’s CTR
1. Write compelling titles, descriptions, content
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
23. Improving Your Site’s CTR
2. “Own” more properties
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
Key Point
Give people more
“things” to click
on. Get press, get
involved in your
community, join
industry
groups, post
jobs, etc.
24. Improving Your Site’s CTR
2. “Own” more properties
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
25. Improving Your Site’s CTR
3. Build Your Offline Brand
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
Key Point
Marketing 101 –
Offline marketing
increases your
brand awareness.
This in turn
increases the
probability that, on
Google, someone
will click on you vs.
the competition.
26. Improving Your Site’s CTR
3. Build Your Offline Brand
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
27. Improving Your Site’s CTR
3. Build Your Offline Brand
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
28. 2. Your Site’s Bounce Rate
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
BR represents the
percentage of visitors who
enter the site and "bounce"
(leave the site) rather than
continue viewing other
pages within the same site.
29. Your Site’s Bounce Rate
Ranking
BounceRate
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
Average BR by site type
20 –
40%
70 –
90%
10 –
30%
RETAIL SITES
Driving targeted traffic
SIMPLE LANDING PAGES
With one call-to-action ex: add to cart
PORTALS
MSN, Yahoo Groups
10 –
30%
40 –
60%
30 –
50%
CONTENT SITES
With high search visibility
(often for irrelevant terms)
SERVICE SITES
DIY, self service, FAQ
LEAD GEN SITES
Services for sale
Source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/bounce-rate/
30. Improving Your Site’s Bounce Rate
The Web User Experience …is changing.
1
Factors that affect BR
1. Poor page design
2. Poor correlation between
what the page is about and
what the user thought the
page would be about
3. Slow loading pages
4. Attracting the wrong type
of audience by ranking for
the wrong keywords
Tips to Improve BR
1. Speak their language
2. Provide relevant content
3. Place search box
prominently
4. Build a clear navigation
menu
5. Speed up the pageload
(check using Google’s
Page Speed plugin)
32. Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
may already be affecting your sales.
The
Big 4
1
2
3
4
Web User Experience
Google’s 500+
Changes
B-to-B Social Media
Mobile
33. Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
may already be affecting your sales.
1. Market Share – 75%+
2. Most Innovative among Peers
3. Control / Influence – owns or partners with several
other popular web properties (ex:
AOL, Android, NYTimes.com, Weather.com)
Why Google Matters
37. 1. (Not Provided)
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
Key Point
If you’re solely using Google Analytics, you should
be aware that Google is withholding your data!
You need to export all of your keyword data out of
Google Analytics. Then use a Ranking Tracking
software to keep track of those keywords yourself. Why?
Because those keywords are bringing traffic to your site.
It’s critical for your business to continuously keep your
eye on them, and maintain those rankings.
PCA can help.
38. 1. (Not Provided)
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
Key Point
If you’re solely using Google Analytics, you should
be aware that Google is withholding your data!
You need to export all of your keyword data out of Google Analytics.
Then use a Ranking Tracking software to keep track of those keywords
yourself. Why? Because those keywords are bringing traffic to your
site. It’s critical for your business to continuously keep your eye on
them, and maintain those rankings.
PCA can help.
PCA can help:
Sample Rank Tracking Report we use for our clients.
39. Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
PCA can help:
Sample Rank Tracking Report we use for our clients.
40. Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
PCA can help:
Sample Rank
Tracking
Report we use
for our clients.
42. 2. Penguin Updates
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
What Google Did:
Penalized websites
that had lots of links
pointing TO them from
irrelevant sites.
Takeaway – Know
what your “web guys”
or your outsourced
SEO company are
doing. They could be
using bad techniques.
44. 3. Hummingbird Update
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
What Google Did:
Focused on conversational searches. The
idea is Google want to be able to deliver
correct answers to broad-meaning questions.
Takeaway – Google is moving away from
focusing on keywords and meta tags, etc.
and more on what the searcher “means”
instead of what he/she “says.”
47. 4. Author Rank and Publisher Rank
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
What Google Did:
Along with the world wide
web consortium, Google is
paying attention to sematic
web – a way of coding
websites using standardized
markups or tags for items
such as
Author, Publisher, Product
Price, Product Color, etc. so
that someone could
theoretically search for
something such as “Who in
Buffalo charges the least for
red widgets” and receive an
exact answer from Google.
48. 4. Author Rank and Publisher Rank
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
51. 6. Google Now
7. Google buys Nest (thermostats)
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
Plus Hundreds More
… so what is Google up to?
52. Google wants businesses to stop pushing one-way
messages to customers, and start focusing on
naturally pulling prospects in by being in the right
place at the right time in front of the right people.
Google wants businesses to focus on building
their authority, increasing semantic relevance, and
improving the user experience.
Takeaway: KNOW what your web team is doing. If
they’re focused on “meta tags” that’s a red flag.
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
53. At PCA, we are transparent with our clients.
We baseline your site before we do any work.
Show you the work we’re going to do on your website
BEFORE we do it.
Schedule monthly meetings to present performance (#
leads, # phone calls, etc.).
Compare our metrics to what you’re seeing internally –
ex: Do our # of leads match yours?
Always seek your feedback to continuously improve the
program and grow with your business.
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
PCA can help: Know what your web team is doing
54. The Future of Social Media
in the B-to-B marketplace.
The
Big 4
1
2
3
4
Web User Experience
Google’s 500+
Changes
B-to-B Social Media
Mobile
55. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
1. Set specific, clear, measurable goal(s).
a) Increased brand awareness,
b) Lead generation,
c) Service and support, or
d) Reputation management.
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
Source: Social Marketology by Ric Dragon
56. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
2. Identify the smallest possible target segment
for that goal.
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
Social media marketing allows you to
be hyper-granular and drill down to
micro-segments, to dramatically
improve engagement levels and
conversion ratios.
57. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
3. Research what social places they “hang out in,”
if any at all.
a) Blogs and microblogs (Twitter)
b) Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, G+)
c) Podcasts
d) Video sites (YouTube)
e) Photo sharing sites (Flickr, Pinterest)
f) Discussion Forums (Yahoo! Answers)
g) Association membership sites/groups
This is the most time-intensive, tedious step.
58. The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
3. Research what social places they “hang out in,”
if any at all.
PCA can help: The most time-intensive, tedious step
Below is a snippet of the sample research we did to assess a client’s social
media “hang-outs for prospects.” Client was a B2B international manufacturer
of expansion joints for engineers, architects and municipalities.
59. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
4. Identify the influencers of these communities
using Klout’s Influence Matrix.
60. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
Klout’s
Influence Matrix
61. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
5. Create an action plan with metrics.
6. Incorporate brand personality and voice.
7. Execute and measure results continuously.
62. 7 Steps to Doing B-to-B Social Media
the Right Way
The Future of B-to-B Social Media
3
63. Your Mobile Customers
… Beyond Smartphones & Tablets
The
Big 4
1
2
3
4
Web User Experience
Google’s 500+
Changes
B-to-B Social Media
Mobile
64. Your Mobile Customers
… Beyond Smartphones & Tablets
The Mobile Economy is growing
At the end of 2013, the number of
mobile phones officially surpassed
the number of people on Earth.
65. Your Mobile Customers
… Beyond Smartphones & Tablets
Mobile Advertising revenue is growing
US – 2012: $3.2billion
– 2013: $3.8billion 19% growth
– 2014: $4.7billion 24% growth
That’s a 47% growth from 2012 to 2014!
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-2013-mobile-growth-statistics/
66. Standard Site vs. Mobile Site
vs. Responsive Site vs. Mobile App
Your Mobile Users… Beyond.
4
67. Does mobile matter for my business?
Check your Analytics for
percentage of mobile users and
their behavior vs. desktop users
Your Mobile Users… Beyond.
4
68. Does mobile matter for my business?
Your Mobile Users… Beyond.
4
Looks like smartphone users are bouncing at a
significantly higher rate than desktop users. Plus they’re
not converting. That’s a problem. Now let’s fix it.
69. At PCA:
Our marketing and analytics team will assess your
potential loss/gain from mobile users (i.e. “What are you
missing out on now?”). We will also provide clear direction
on which type of mobile experience would work best for
your audience – responsive, mobile site, or mobile app.
Our programmers our world-class engineers. They can
build any mobile experience, from a responsive website to
a mobile app.
Our marketing and analytics team will step in again to
measure the impact of the new mobile site in terms of
increased leads, sales, phone calls, etc.
Google’s 500+ Changes in 2013
2
PCA can help: Mobile Sites
72. What is “beyond”
smartphones & tablets?
Wearable devices
Your Mobile Users… Beyond.
4
Takeaway – These
have not yet hit the
Chasm. We’re
keeping an eye on
when they do. Until
then, focus on your
smartphone and
tablet users.
73. “The Big 4” Your Business Cannot
Afford to Ignore
The
Big 4
1
2
3
4
Web User Experience
Google’s 500+
Changes
B-to-B Social Media
Mobile
74. 4 Critical Web Challenges
Facing WNY Businesses in 2014
“The Big 4” Your
Business Cannot
Afford to Ignore
Mary Owusu, MBA – www.linkedin.com/in/maryo
Q&A
PCA Technology Group | www.pcatg.com
75. 4 Critical Web Challenges
Facing WNY Businesses in 2014
“The Big 4” Your
Business Cannot
Afford to Ignore
Mary Owusu, MBA – www.linkedin.com/in/maryo
Thank You
PCA Technology Group | www.pcatg.com
Notes de l'éditeur
My bio:10+ years in digital marketing and user experienceWorked with local, national, and international organizations – b2b and b2c Increased sales and leads by 20-400%Certified inbound marketing professional by HubSpotProfessor of digital marketing at Canisius College
Present as “a refresher/reminder of what was in the email blast.
Order – We all live and work in WNY so important to talk about these 4 trends in a way that makes sense for OUR environment. We are not NYC, San Jose > show adoption curve and explain it including tipping point > ask how WNY fits > explain digBuffalo (opened this year 2014 by the BNMC. Similar ones were opened in NYC http://nyc.socialinnovation.org/our-story 10 years ago) > YOU DON’T WANT TO WAIT UNTIL WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WEB WORLD REACHES THE LAGGARD STAGE – TOO LATE! THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE TO TODAY… SHOW YOU WHAT’S TRENDING, TELL YOU WHERE IT IS IN THE ADOPTION CURVE, MAKE SURE YOU DON’T LOSE THE CHASM TO YOUR COMPETITORS. The big 4 web challenges we’re addressing today will help you do just that.In business and economics, innovation is the catalyst to growth. Rapid advancements in transportation, health care (<<my add) and communications over the past few decades (Wiki: innovation)We have seen growth in development industry in recent times, but it’s no secret that Buffalo(WNY) is NO NYC, San Jose (Silicon Valley)Chasm = “K”; a marked division, separation, or difference. “THE POINT AT WHICH IT HITS THE MAINSTREAM”Img - http://wisepreneur.com/innovation-marketing-2/customer-adoption-considerationsTransition – Your customers may be Businesses, but at the core, they are people – people who have “other experiences” with the web, with other websites other than yours. They use the web to find the best vacation spots, research schools for their kids, compare local car dealers, shop for clothes. They have iphones, androids, Netflix, chromecasts, at the very least, they read/hear about innovations. They may not be innovators or early adopters, BUT they know a positive web experience from a negative one. So yes, although WNY is not at the mouth of the Adoption Scale, the big takeaway is don’t miss the Chasm. Your businesses should be listening, watching what’s going on in the marketplace and make the move before the competition does – to capture your audience before it’s too late. The Big 4 Web Challenges we’re addressing will help you do just that.
= Put the important things where I can easily find themEasy navigationSearch box prominent and on the topWhere’s your phone number? Calls to action?I heard an ad on the radio, where’s that page with the promotion?Existing customers – how do you delight them?
= Put the important things where I can easily find themEasy navigationSearch box prominent and on the topWhere’s your phone number? Calls to action?I heard an ad on the radio, where’s that page with the promotion?Existing customers – how do you delight them?
ASK for audience examples?Another example: Cellino and Barnes says car accident lawyers instead of auto injury attorneys. Listen carefully.People who don’t know you by name will not search for you by name. They will search their need… more and more people are searching with long strings or questions: Show me pictures of widgets. Top companies in b2b collections. You say: textured metal panels; prospects say: stainless steel kitchen backsplashSearch engines’ response to people’s preference for their natural language is LSI (latest semantic indexing): The contents of a webpage are crawled by a search engine and the most common words and phrases are collated and identified as the keywords for the page. LSI looks for synonyms related to the title of your page. For example, if the title of your page was “Classic Cars”, the search engine would expect to find words relating to that subject in the content of the page as well, i.e. “collectors”, “automobile”, “Bentley”, “Austin” and “car auctions”. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-latent-semantic-indexing-seo-defined/21642/
ZMOT = the moment in which the prospect reaches for a digital device in order to self educate65% percent of all U.S. shoppers use the Internet to research products and services, yet 90%of all non-grocery transactions in 2012 occurred in the store.. (Source: Cisco, 2013)Google lives in the ZMOT, watches the ZMOT (through data collection), wrote the book on the ZMOT – literally.Takeaway = where do your potential customers go during the ZMOT? A Google/Bing Search? (<< Gain high rankings); Partner sites? Associations? Talk to peers? )<< Join the network) Your website? (<< it better have the right usability elements) Competitor’s website? (<<Write your own review pages for people searching for “vs” or “compare A and b”– tred carefully of course). Social media group? How to video on YouTube? Find out and Be There.
ZMOT = the moment in which the prospect reaches for a digital device in order to self educate65% percent of all U.S. shoppers use the Internet to research products and services, yet 90%of all non-grocery transactions in 2012 occurred in the store.. (Source: Cisco, 2013)Google lives in the ZMOT, watches the ZMOT (through data collection), wrote the book on the ZMOT – literally.Takeaway = where do your potential customers go during the ZMOT? A Google/Bing Search? (<< Gain high rankings); Partner sites? Associations? Talk to peers? )<< Join the network) Your website? (<< it better have the right usability elements) Competitor’s website? (<<Write your own review pages for people searching for “vs” or “compare A and b”– tred carefully of course). Social media group? How to video on YouTube? Find out and Be There.
More on mobile later but …My clients – 20-30% of visitors are on a mobile device. And it’s always fun to explore future smartphones vs tablets, and even the specific device they’re onMobile usership is growing exponentially – people are not slowing down, they’re getting busier… they expect your site to work from any device and from anywhere in the world. Period.
Yes the web user experience matters because of the adoption curve – but here’s another very important reason :::: Google is watching… all the search engines are. For every ZMOT moment that Google owns/controls (search, google+, android phones, maps) it can rank you against your competition based on how well IT feels your prospects are served by your site.Transition = here are 2 ways Google is already doing this. Looking at 2 metrics – bounce rate and CTR – to determine how high you should be ranked
Content – because Google will pull from content at its discretionThe fact that Google is using CTR to determine rankings is relatively new, but the fact that your site should have compelling titles and descriptions is late in the adoption scale
PS – these sitelinks only appear for sites that have a history of high CTR in Google
Own more = more chances to get clicked onAnother example = PPC bid even if #1 in organic – another way to get more clicksGet involved in the community (<< get in articles and link from them to your site), build social media profiles (<< and optimize them for key phrases that matter to your prospects),
The constant struggle of having a dedicated marketing budget…Building offline brand = gives you the recognition online to have your potential customers click on you instead of the competitionKey = tightly integrate online and offline – AllState example
The constant struggle of having a dedicated marketing budget…Building offline brand = gives you the recognition online to have your potential customers click on you instead of the competitionKey = tightly integrate online and offline – AllState example
Negative slope = higher bounce rate, lower your ranking
Factors #4 example – Jim’s example of working for a commercial refrigeration company > autopsy refrigerator > because of certain content placed on the site, happened to rank for terms related to alien autopsies
2012, 2013, 2014
2012, 2013, 2014
2012, 2013, 2014
Marrano – 1st ranking report – tracking 330 total rankings (165 keywords x 2 engines: Bing and Google)
Dunn’s BringShare report
Dunn’s BringShare report
Focus – black hat SEO techniques especially link issues2012 was the official update but 2 or 3 mini updates in 2013
Key – exact match emphasis going outFocus: focus on conversational and semantic search – deliver correct answers to broad meaning questionsLATENT SEMANTIC IndexingSemantic - common data formats on the World Wide Web so data can be easily shared and resued across applications
Key – exact match emphasis going outFocus: focus on conversational and semantic search – deliver correct answers to broad meaning questionsLATENT SEMANTIC IndexingSemantic - common data formats on the World Wide Web so data can be easily shared and resued across applications
Markup tags used to create a verified authorship between the G+ page and the Author’s articles; or between G+ page and Pulisher’s web entities.Lowest cost for a red widget OR top providers of Your personal authority matters! And so does your company’s authority.
One or more of the followinghttp://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2013/08/17/7-steps-to-productive-business-use-of-social-media/Talk through WBA social media company. Wanted A and CIncreased brand awareness, Lead generation, Service and support, or Reputation management.
Due to the information overload felt by consumers today, marketing at the generic segment level no longer worksWBA – structuralarchitects in the United Statesa. Engineers, especially structural, civil and mechanical engineersb. General contractorsc. Engineering companies – multidisciplinaryd. Architectse. Specifiersf. Owners – State DOTs, Developers, Federal TransitAdministration, General Services Administration (GSA)
Slide shows example of WBA’s potential social spaces to enter the B2B sm marketing
WBA – YouTube – competitor had a very active channel dedicated to how to install his products > was high creator and sharer = celebrity and broadcasterSo the plan was to enter the YouTube market > watch the competitor over time > create own channel about own products > use ideas from competitor channel then brainstorm own ideas too < ALSO become more of a Conversationalist by doing more listening than competitor did
In GA you can get goals. You can also track social influence
47% growth from 2012 to 2014!
Whoa 40%? I better be paying attention to smartphone users ‘cos they’re 30%, bouncing at nearly 60%, AND their conversion rate is very low.Gameplanning – how are they getting to my site? Google search – I better focus on developing a mobile friendly site (not an app) > responsive or mobile version – depends on budget
