Amazon Kindles Emerge, Microsoft Wants Your iPhone and More

amazon kindles

There are tools that can strengthen your business. And there is important information that can put you one step ahead of the competition. Each week, the Small Business Trends editorial team works to bring you stories that will help your business not only survive but flourish.

If you didn’t get a chance to check in daily this week, we’ve rounded up the top posts that will make a difference for your business’s survival. Take a look.

New Tech and the Latest Upgrades

Amazon Kindle Fires singe the market. They look like hot new entries into the tablet market. The increased functionality may prove attractive to small business owners and entrepreneurs on the go. What do you think?

Turn in your iPhone for a Windows device. The non-Android using world can probably be divided into those who find this offer attractive and those who don’t. In any case, if you’ve gotten tired of your iPad or iPhone and want a change, take a look.

New 10-inch tablet coming from Samsung. Move over iPad. Stand aside Surface. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is almost here. It’s like the Samsung tablet/phone hybrid Galaxy Note 3…but bigger. And it’s coming Oct. 10.

Web Tools to Watch

Wix heads for IPO. The DIY web builder claims it has more than 38 million users. The company says 679,536 of those subscribe to premium accounts, some aimed at entrepreneurs and small businesses. Those aren’t Facebook numbers, but time will tell.

Pinterest looks at sponsored pins. As it has come to so many other social sites, the discussion of monetization is now a topic on Pinterest. But the social site that lets you collect and pin pictures of your favorite things vows to do it right.

Measuring AdWords conversion offline. If you had said you wanted to do this a year ago, many people would have probably looked at you funny. Today, the search engine is touting it as a new feature.

Other Top Trends

Payroll cards offer an alternative. Just make sure you follow the rules when asking your employees to take their paychecks on plastic. Is there another alternative? Can they get to their money without fees?

Are your Yelp reviews for real? Turns out, the reviews for lots of other businesses might not be. There are many people disappointed over all the fakery out there. But a more important question would be how valuable even genuine online reviews are after all this?

Grants

$3 million in grants are up for grabs. Small business lender Chase will award that money to 12 winners in its annual Mission Main Street Grants Program (#MissionMainSt) competition. Visit the link above and learn more about what it takes to enter.

Acquisitions

GoDaddy goes right on buying. This time the web hosting giant says it’s bought online invoicing application Ronin. It seems like a logical choice on GoDaddy’s path to become more attractive to small business users.

Security

Dun & Bradstreet and others hacked for private data. Three major “data brokers” have been hacked by a group seeking personal information. They then sold access to that data on another website. If your business also has customer information on your website or database, you could be at risk.

Policy

SEC rule change doesn’t enable true crowdfunding. So if this is what you were expecting after last year’s Jumpstart our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, prepare to be disappointed. Of course, the new rule change may make it easier to find private investors. We’ll have to see how it works out.

Reading Photo via Shutterstock



Chirpify Makes Leveraging Social Media Easier with #actiontag Hashtag

Businesses that use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the other popular social media platforms for marketing are growing accustomed to the value of  the hashtag. They can be used to gain visibility for a post, participate in ongoing conversations, or promote a specific event or product. Social media service Chirpify has come up with an even more valuable way for marketers to leverage these platforms to reach customers and increase sales and engagement.

With its new #actiontag service, Chirpify allows businesses to launch cross-channel campaigns. With this new offering, Chirpify is creating one-stop shopping for its clients, allowing customers to buy products, enter contests, or donate to a charity simply by using a designated #actiontag on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

“Today, hashtags are the new URL,” Chirpify CEO Chris Teso said in a press release announcing the new program. “The opportunity is leveraging those hashtags in what we call ‘real-world’ settings with second screen devices. For example, a recent study claims about half of all smartphone and tablet owners use their device while they’re watching TV. Chirpify’s #actiontags connect the dotsâ€"in this case between TV ads and mobile devices.”

To get started, a Chirpify member sets up a new campaign and designates an #actiontag to be assigned to that campaign. The first part of the action tag will be something like #buy, #vote, or #enter. The second part designates the specific campaign assigned to that action. A red-carpet movie premier might be titled #RedCarpet2013. Those entering the contest would simply post “I would like to #enter #RedCarpet2013″ to be entered into the contest.

Businesses can also allow customers to buy through direct reply. A business could post, “Two tickets for tonight’s show on sale for $19.99. Post #buy in comments to purchase now.” It’s a great way to use social media to sell goods and services without setting up a store.

There are a couple of caveats to this service. 1) To buy items from you using a mere #actiontag, your customers will be required to set up a Chirpify account if they don’t already have one, and 2) Chirpify will subtract a transaction fee from each payment. Each customer will have to provide payment information to Chirpify in order to begin purchasing.

Major companies using Chirpify include Forever 21, MasterCard, and NPR’s Live Wire. Chirpify has offered businesses the opportunity to sell items through social media since February 2012, but #actiontags take the capabilities to the next level, allowing consumers to couple an action with a campaign hashtag (#buy #NFLTickets) to participate across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.



$3 Million in Grants Will Go To Twelve Small Businesses

mission main street grants

Twelve small companies stand to receive $250,000 each in grants as part of an annual competition promoting small business lending, The Main Street Grants Program. They’ll also win a two day trip to Google headquarters for an intensive small business marketing workshop.

Small business lender Chase announced its Mission Main Street Grants Program (#MissionMainSt) this week. Owners of small businesses meeting the criteria should visit the Mission Main Street Grants site and fill in a business profile and grant questionnaire to enter.

Businesses can sign up for the program through October 31, 2013, by completing the profile and questionnaire.

After that, there’s a multi-stage process (see diagram above).  Visitors to the site may vote for their favorite business from Oct. 1 through Nov. 15 using Facebook Connect.

Businesses must receive at least 250 votes to be eligible for for the final round evaluation in the grants. So, obviously, mobilizing social followers is a good strategy at least to get your small business into the running.

Main Street Grants Program Entry Requirements

The program is open to U.S. owned small businesses that have been in operation for two or more years (sorry, no early stage startups). Entrants must employ fewer than 100 full-time people annually. But Chase provides a somewhat more lengthy list of rules you should look over if you’re considering entering, so that you know whether your business meets all eligibility requirements.

A group of 12 expert panelists will choose the final 12 grant recipients from the pool of eligible businesses. Winners will be announced in January, 2014.

What Would You Do with $250,000?

In a recent Google Hangout, four 2012 grant recipients talk about how winning $250,000 helped them grow their businesses.

What would your business do with an extra $250,000?

The money might be enough to build a prototype, put a new product into production, open a new location or just grow the business with added investment.

Chase says winners will also receive a special advertising offer from Google, premium sponsor of the grant competition, and access to a special social media toolkit.

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Chirpify Makes Leveraging Social Media Easier with #actiontag Hashtag

Businesses that use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the other popular social media platforms for marketing are growing accustomed to the value of  the hashtag. They can be used to gain visibility for a post, participate in ongoing conversations, or promote a specific event or product. Social media service Chirpify has come up with an even more valuable way for marketers to leverage these platforms to reach customers and increase sales and engagement.

With its new #actiontag service, Chirpify allows businesses to launch cross-channel campaigns. With this new offering, Chirpify is creating one-stop shopping for its clients, allowing customers to buy products, enter contests, or donate to a charity simply by using a designated #actiontag on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

“Today, hashtags are the new URL,” Chirpify CEO Chris Teso said in a press release announcing the new program. “The opportunity is leveraging those hashtags in what we call ‘real-world’ settings with second screen devices. For example, a recent study claims about half of all smartphone and tablet owners use their device while they’re watching TV. Chirpify’s #actiontags connect the dotsâ€"in this case between TV ads and mobile devices.”

To get started, a Chirpify member sets up a new campaign and designates an #actiontag to be assigned to that campaign. The first part of the action tag will be something like #buy, #vote, or #enter. The second part designates the specific campaign assigned to that action. A red-carpet movie premier might be titled #RedCarpet2013. Those entering the contest would simply post “I would like to #enter #RedCarpet2013″ to be entered into the contest.

Businesses can also allow customers to buy through direct reply. A business could post, “Two tickets for tonight’s show on sale for $19.99. Post #buy in comments to purchase now.” It’s a great way to use social media to sell goods and services without setting up a store.

There are a couple of caveats to this service. 1) To buy items from you using a mere #actiontag, your customers will be required to set up a Chirpify account if they don’t already have one, and 2) Chirpify will subtract a transaction fee from each payment. Each customer will have to provide payment information to Chirpify in order to begin purchasing.

Major companies using Chirpify include Forever 21, MasterCard, and NPR’s Live Wire. Chirpify has offered businesses the opportunity to sell items through social media since February 2012, but #actiontags take the capabilities to the next level, allowing consumers to couple an action with a campaign hashtag (#buy #NFLTickets) to participate across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.



Chirpify Makes Leveraging Social Media Easier with #actiontag Hashtag

Businesses that use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the other popular social media platforms for marketing are growing accustomed to the value of  the hashtag. They can be used to gain visibility for a post, participate in ongoing conversations, or promote a specific event or product. Social media service Chirpify has come up with an even more valuable way for marketers to leverage these platforms to reach customers and increase sales and engagement.

With its new #actiontag service, Chirpify allows businesses to launch cross-channel campaigns. With this new offering, Chirpify is creating one-stop shopping for its clients, allowing customers to buy products, enter contests, or donate to a charity simply by using a designated #actiontag on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

“Today, hashtags are the new URL,” Chirpify CEO Chris Teso said in a press release announcing the new program. “The opportunity is leveraging those hashtags in what we call ‘real-world’ settings with second screen devices. For example, a recent study claims about half of all smartphone and tablet owners use their device while they’re watching TV. Chirpify’s #actiontags connect the dotsâ€"in this case between TV ads and mobile devices.”

To get started, a Chirpify member sets up a new campaign and designates an #actiontag to be assigned to that campaign. The first part of the action tag will be something like #buy, #vote, or #enter. The second part designates the specific campaign assigned to that action. A red-carpet movie premier might be titled #RedCarpet2013. Those entering the contest would simply post “I would like to #enter #RedCarpet2013″ to be entered into the contest.

Businesses can also allow customers to buy through direct reply. A business could post, “Two tickets for tonight’s show on sale for $19.99. Post #buy in comments to purchase now.” It’s a great way to use social media to sell goods and services without setting up a store.

There are a couple of caveats to this service. 1) To buy items from you using a mere #actiontag, your customers will be required to set up a Chirpify account if they don’t already have one, and 2) Chirpify will subtract a transaction fee from each payment. Each customer will have to provide payment information to Chirpify in order to begin purchasing.

Major companies using Chirpify include Forever 21, MasterCard, and NPR’s Live Wire. Chirpify has offered businesses the opportunity to sell items through social media since February 2012, but #actiontags take the capabilities to the next level, allowing consumers to couple an action with a campaign hashtag (#buy #NFLTickets) to participate across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.



Why it’s Important for Businesses to Respond Quickly to Feedback

customer feedback

If there was ever a question as to how valuable customer feedback can be, Barclays recent shift in its overdraft policies provides a sufficient answer - it’s pretty valuable.

After being hit with £290 million fine for manipulating lending rates, the bank reached out to customers to see how they can make their banking experience better. They found out that customers wanted a better understanding of how overdraft fees were broken down. The overwhelming response led to a review of these fees and a total savings of £1.4 million for over 65,000 customers; a move that likely stopped a good percentage of those customers from doing their banking elsewhere.

Despite stories like this, there is a huge disconnect between customers and businesses when it comes to feedback. An American Express survey (PDF) shows that 60 percent of customers feel like their concerns are not being addressed by businesses.

“Consumers feel their feedback is not being heard, yet businesses are working like crazy to stay abreast of online comments,” said Geoff Begg of American Express.

For businesses, this is not encouraging news as 89 percent of people surveyed by the Customer Experience Impact Report (PDF) claimed that they started doing business with a competitor after a poor customer experience.

For a small business one bad experience can do quite a bit of damage.

Relying on Customer Feedback

Getting honest customer feedback can be essential to businesses who are looking to improve their customer’s experience. However capturing their customers’ feelings isn’t always easy when you consider that 91 percent of customers don’t complain when they are unhappy because they think that taking the time to provide feedback isn’t worth the time because the business simply doesn’t care.

But if the customer knew that there would be an immediate response, 81 percent claimed that they would provide the business with feedback.

The Barclays incident shows just how valuable that quick response can be. Faced with a damaged reputation and being accused of overcharging their customers, the bank looked to lose a good portion of their business. However by collecting feedback from their customers, analyzing what they had to say and acting on their customer’s needs, that bank was able to avoid a public relations nightmare and salvage their reputation with their customer base.

Businesses could do well by learning from this example as the benefits, especially for a smaller business looking to build up their customer base, can be quite impressive. And getting to that stage is something that businesses of any size can accomplish if they listen to what customers reported in the CEI survey:

  • Make sure that you are available via phone and email.
  • Be quick to respond to customer issues.

  • Listen to what customers are saying, don’t be clueless.

  • Make the effort to be friendly.

  • Get to know your customers and their history.

Most importantly, have a process in place to collect customer feedback and a way to log not only complaints, but also how you and your company respond to issues as they are reported. Being able to follow trends in actual feedback has shown great promise in a company’s ability to solve small problems before they have a negative impact on how customers view them.

Don’t Ignore the Positive

Sometimes, too much attention is given to negative feedback and customer complaints and people forget that positive feedback can be just as useful when it comes to the growth of a business.

Not only do positive words and comments tell a company what they are doing right, but they help to encourage others to take notice as well. Claims Dr. Duncan J. Watts of Microsoft Research:

The biggest obstacle to success is just being noticed.

But positive feedback won’t come unless you make sure to do things the right way.

Feedback Photo via Shutterstock

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Black Enterprise Small Business University Offers Four-Week Webinar Series For Entrepreneurs Looking to Start and Grow Small Businesses

AARP and Black Enterprise have teamed forces to launch the Black Enterprise Small Business University, a four-week online video course that offers expert advise to entrepreneurs looking to start and grow profitable small businesses. The Small Business University aims to assist entrepreneurs in three different stages of business development; the aspiring start-up, the part time entrepreneur, and those with an already established enterprise.

“Many Americans dream of owning their own business, sometimes as a second or third career, and using their creative talents to do productive work that also helps them gain economic stability,” said Edna Kane-Williams, AARP Vice President, Multicultural Markets and Engagement. “AARP looks forwards to collaborating with Black Enterprise to provide valuable resources and information that will help strengthen small businesses and encourage more entrepreneurs to reimagine their careers.”

Each week there will be three original video tutorials featuring a team of rotating business, marketing, branding and technology all-stars including ‘SmallBizLady Melinda Emerson, Vanguarde Consulting Group CEO Derrick Webster, Editor of Smallbiztechnology and Regional Director of Development for Infusionsoft Ramon Ray and Alfred Edmond Jr, SVP/Multimedia Editor at Large of Balck Enterprise.

The webinar series kicks off this coming Monday, October 7th, with “Crowdfunding and The Future of Small Business”. The rest of the schedule includes:

  • Tuesday, October 8: What to Look for When Hiring a Lawyer
  • Wednesday, October 9: Picking an Accountant That’s Right for Your Business
  • Monday, October 14: How to Properly Assess and Compete With Your Competition
  • Tuesday, October 15: How to Determine Your Price point and Market Value
  • Wednesday, October 16: How to Decide What Online Networks are Best for Your Business
  • Monday, October 21: From Start to Finish: Your First Website
  • Tuesday, October 22: How to Get Your Email Marketing Noticed
  • Wednesday, October 23: The ABCs of Customer Relationships
  • Monday, October 28: Cash flow Management: Keeping an Eye on Your Bottom Line
  • Tuesday, October 29: Creating and Maintaining a Social Media Presence for Your Business
  • Wednesday, October 30: Social Media Dos and Don’ts for Your Business

All courses offered through the Small Business University are free! You can register here for the Small Business University.



Black Enterprise Small Business University Offers Four-Week Webinar Series For Entrepreneurs Looking to Start and Grow Small Businesses

AARP and Black Enterprise have teamed forces to launch the Black Enterprise Small Business University, a four-week online video course that offers expert advise to entrepreneurs looking to start and grow profitable small businesses. The Small Business University aims to assist entrepreneurs in three different stages of business development; the aspiring start-up, the part time entrepreneur, and those with an already established enterprise.

“Many Americans dream of owning their own business, sometimes as a second or third career, and using their creative talents to do productive work that also helps them gain economic stability,” said Edna Kane-Williams, AARP Vice President, Multicultural Markets and Engagement. “AARP looks forwards to collaborating with Black Enterprise to provide valuable resources and information that will help strengthen small businesses and encourage more entrepreneurs to reimagine their careers.”

Each week there will be three original video tutorials featuring a team of rotating business, marketing, branding and technology all-stars including ‘SmallBizLady Melinda Emerson, Vanguarde Consulting Group CEO Derrick Webster, Editor of Smallbiztechnology and Regional Director of Development for Infusionsoft Ramon Ray and Alfred Edmond Jr, SVP/Multimedia Editor at Large of Balck Enterprise.

The webinar series kicks off this coming Monday, October 7th, with “Crowdfunding and The Future of Small Business”. The rest of the schedule includes:

  • Tuesday, October 8: What to Look for When Hiring a Lawyer
  • Wednesday, October 9: Picking an Accountant That’s Right for Your Business
  • Monday, October 14: How to Properly Assess and Compete With Your Competition
  • Tuesday, October 15: How to Determine Your Price point and Market Value
  • Wednesday, October 16: How to Decide What Online Networks are Best for Your Business
  • Monday, October 21: From Start to Finish: Your First Website
  • Tuesday, October 22: How to Get Your Email Marketing Noticed
  • Wednesday, October 23: The ABCs of Customer Relationships
  • Monday, October 28: Cash flow Management: Keeping an Eye on Your Bottom Line
  • Tuesday, October 29: Creating and Maintaining a Social Media Presence for Your Business
  • Wednesday, October 30: Social Media Dos and Don’ts for Your Business

All courses offered through the Small Business University are free! You can register here for the Small Business University.



Black Enterprise Small Business University Offers Four-Week Webinar Series For Entrepreneurs Looking to Start and Grow Small Businesses

AARP and Black Enterprise have teamed forces to launch the Black Enterprise Small Business University, a four-week online video course that offers expert advise to entrepreneurs looking to start and grow profitable small businesses. The Small Business University aims to assist entrepreneurs in three different stages of business development; the aspiring start-up, the part time entrepreneur, and those with an already established enterprise.

“Many Americans dream of owning their own business, sometimes as a second or third career, and using their creative talents to do productive work that also helps them gain economic stability,” said Edna Kane-Williams, AARP Vice President, Multicultural Markets and Engagement. “AARP looks forwards to collaborating with Black Enterprise to provide valuable resources and information that will help strengthen small businesses and encourage more entrepreneurs to reimagine their careers.”

Each week there will be three original video tutorials featuring a team of rotating business, marketing, branding and technology all-stars including ‘SmallBizLady Melinda Emerson, Vanguarde Consulting Group CEO Derrick Webster, Editor of Smallbiztechnology and Regional Director of Development for Infusionsoft Ramon Ray and Alfred Edmond Jr, SVP/Multimedia Editor at Large of Balck Enterprise.

The webinar series kicks off this coming Monday, October 7th, with “Crowdfunding and The Future of Small Business”. The rest of the schedule includes:

  • Tuesday, October 8: What to Look for When Hiring a Lawyer
  • Wednesday, October 9: Picking an Accountant That’s Right for Your Business
  • Monday, October 14: How to Properly Assess and Compete With Your Competition
  • Tuesday, October 15: How to Determine Your Price point and Market Value
  • Wednesday, October 16: How to Decide What Online Networks are Best for Your Business
  • Monday, October 21: From Start to Finish: Your First Website
  • Tuesday, October 22: How to Get Your Email Marketing Noticed
  • Wednesday, October 23: The ABCs of Customer Relationships
  • Monday, October 28: Cash flow Management: Keeping an Eye on Your Bottom Line
  • Tuesday, October 29: Creating and Maintaining a Social Media Presence for Your Business
  • Wednesday, October 30: Social Media Dos and Don’ts for Your Business

All courses offered through the Small Business University are free! You can register here for the Small Business University.



Adobe’s Kevin Lindsay: It’s Time to Focus on Conversions and Customer Journeys

When it comes to marketing and advertising budgets, the vast majority of money is used on lead generation activities, with only a few dollars spent on nurturing and converting those leads into full blown business opportunities. But those companies that focus more of their marketing efforts on lead conversion and understanding the journey a prospect takes from a click to a customer is seeing much more marketing success.

Kevin Lindsay, Director of Product Marketing for Adobe’s Target product, part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud, shares with us his take on why it is critical for marketers to start focusing more on conversion activities in order to get the most out of their marketing efforts.

* * * * *

customer journeysSmall Business Trends: The whole idea of conversion across different types of devices. How are companies looking at those different conversion types across the different tablets and device types?

Kevin Lindsay: Well, let’s start with the first part of the question, which is really a good one. Because when we talk about conversion, it does mean a variety of different things when you’re looking at different industries. When you take Adobe, just as one example, there are multiple things we want to happen on that site.

One type of conversion is someone actually saying, ‘OK, I found Photoshop, I found the version of Photoshop that I want, I’m going to add it to my cart and I’m going to buy it,’ or a subscription to Creative Cloud or whatever it might be. It’s an eCommerce conversion the way we all classically think about conversion.

Another type of conversion is when we use our digital marketing efforts to ultimately generate a sales accepted lead for our enterprise sales folks. Now along the path to that conversion would be something like downloading a whitepaper. We would call that a micro-conversion. What are the different conversion events that actually need to lead up to that ultimate conversion if you will.

Small Business Trends: The sale?

Kevin Lindsay: Right. In our case, from an enterprise software sales perspective, we’re not even looking at the sale as the conversion. From a digital marketing impact perspective, if we get the lead, then that is the conversion. We’ve done our job on the digital marketing website. We’ve passed it over.

Now obviously a lot of people are tracking the eventual sale, and that is a conversion. From a digital marketing perspective in the way that most of our B2B clients look at it when they are using digital marketing for lead gen, they’re looking at things like whitepaper downloads and videos and product tours and all those kinds of things. What is the value of those kinds of offers? What’s most appropriate at the top of the funnel versus mid-funnel versus at that point where someone is ready to take a meeting? What are the things that are most impactful?

The same kind of reasoning can be applied to the scenario in financial services, where today, particularly in the U.S. banks are feeling a crunch due to legislation around service fees, and the fact that they have to make up that money somewhere. They’re actually engaging in merchandising optimization, cross-selling and that sort of thing.

If you have a mortgage with a bank, they will try to sell you a home equity line of credit. Debit card, maybe on the first purchase you get a $50 whatever toward your purchase, credit. Whatever it might be, as you look across industries, there are different definitions of conversion. Then within that, as you alluded to, there are these gates that you need to get through. Something we’ll call micro-conversions.

From an analytics perspective we were looking very, very closely at the make-up of our customers’ journeys. What’s happening along the path here? Where is fallout occurring, and where can we be making improvements along the way to improve or fatten the funnel up at the top?

Theoretically, you do that, you take more people through and you improve ultimately, your conversion rate. That’s where optimization fits in, and that’s where Adobe Target fits into the picture. How do we take that data, how do we make it actionable, how do we actually turn what we know into insights that improve conversion? Or in the case of media, it might be engagement for example.

Small Business Trends: What are folks focusing most on? Getting the conversion rate up or making it more efficient, or both?

Kevin Lindsay: I’d say it’s both, but let me first say four years ago we put out a stat. We corroborated this with analysts out there in our community as well as looked at our own data.

We reported that for every $92 that companies were spending to acquire new customers, they’re spending $1 to convert those visitors. I don’t think things have changed dramatically in the last four years since we put that stat out. That tells us that there’s still a very, very big focus on acquisition spend, on display advertising, search engine marketing obviously.

Companies are pouring a lot of money at the top of the funnel to fill the funnel, but not a lot to actually take people through and optimize that journey for the conversion.

It’s been kind of slow. Adoption has not been as aggressive as you think. Now, there are truly some best use case examples, where companies are doing it, where there’s a healthy overall, I’d say culture, around optimization. They know that it’s technology but it’s also best practices and it’s people. It’s all of those things. Then they’re seeing better results from those efforts.

Then you’ve brought up the point around devices, and again, when you’re looking at conversion and you have all these different micro-conversions, and then you add to that complexity of all these different touch points. Where does one person start? Where does a person start on one device, maybe, and then pick up with another?

What do we need to look at in terms of length of something called cart persistence, where somebody actually adds something to the cart? They don’t buy it today, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to buy it. What is the length of time it takes for someone to convert in financial services, and across how many different touch points?

Our financial services expert, a guy named Jason Ward, says basically people go to financial services sites and they lurk. They hang around and they leave, and they come back and they do more research.

Now they’re going to do it across all these different touch points. They’re going to be on the train, going home, they’ll use their iPhone to understand rates or different products and service fees, whatever it might be. Then they go away, and then maybe later on that evening when they’re sitting at home with their tablet they complete the process.

It’s adding a new level of complexity, and so we need to look at how do we close the loop on this? How do we track from one touch point to the next to the next? How do we optimize that conversion process as you add this new level of complexity as well?

Small Business Trends: What about mobile app versus mobile website conversions? It’s funny, because I’m not a big Dunkin’ Donut kind of guy, but somehow I got their app. They have the locations, nearest locations, deals. Next thing you know I’m using this to do more than I ever did with them.

Kevin Lindsay: Yeah. I love this topic. We’re seeing some very, very interesting things, and we have this discussion a lot. A colleague of mine covers this area very extensively from more of a business and use case perspective around app versus site.

First of all, his advice always is that if you have limited budget and you need to start with one or the other, he tells clients to start with mobile-optimized site. Particularly if SEO is important to you the site is just that much more valuable in terms of acquiring traffic.

We’re seeing huge uptake and great results from apps. The retailers that have invested in apps are seeing very nice conversion rates from apps. The shopping apps are pretty powerful. I don’t know if you have the Target iPad app. It’s beautiful. It’s so useful, and has so much utility built into it, that you really can’t do with a normal site.

Small Business Trends: Do you see moving forward with more conversion types taking place on a social network? Maybe a certain kind of a conversion type, or a purchase directly from a website, fanpage?

Kevin Lindsay: Last year and the year before, there was a lot of talk about social commerce. A lot of our customers were beginning to play around with it. They were using their various offerings that you could use to actually integrate commerce onto your pages. Some of the commerce platforms had plugins and so on.

I talked to a couple customers who said ‘nothing, nada.’ Most of them have abandoned that, but they do recognize the value of social features on their site; also the value of brand engagement and the role that social referrals play.

That brings to mind ‘OK, on a product details page maybe I should be really optimizing that share button because the value of the share is really high.’ I had a customer speak with me at an event last year who said, ‘I do that. I really, really encourage the share, because when this person shares out to a social network, those people with whom he shares that come back to the commerce site, they’re converting at an 11% conversion rate compared to my 3% site average conversion.’

The value of the share is really, really high. In something like apparel retailing, it’s huge. Then you get into some interesting things like within Adobe Social, maybe you have an ensembling app on Facebook and you get people sharing an outfit that they’ve put together.

Small Business Trends: The thing that still gets my attention is this $92 spent on customer acquisition for every $1 spent on conversions.

Kevin Lindsay: Yeah. It may have improved marginally, but it’s not great.

Small Business Trends: Do you see, as companies get more and more involved in these exercises, more time and effort and resources spent on that aspect of it?

Kevin Lindsay: I think clearly acquisition spend is always going to lead the way. It’s definitely going in the right direction, and when you look at the results of this optimization survey and you look at the correlation between companies that are engaging in optimization and testing, targeting, all that kind of stuff - they see higher conversion rates. They answer all the right questions in the affirmative, those folks that are engaging in this kind of stuff. It does pay off.

The woman from Brooks’ Brother who we were on the phone with earlier today, she got up at an event a couple weeks ago and said, ‘This one campaign that we ran, this one experiment essentially, more than paid for the investment in this technology and the people it takes to run the thing for a year.’

These kinds of efforts pay off. Where companies maybe get a little bit disillusioned, but this is typical human behavior. We all start out gung-ho with things. We keep up the momentum and say, ‘What’s next? What is our optimization plan? What’s our testing road map here?’

Small Business Trends: Yeah, have a plan to get the most out of using this.

Kevin Lindsay: Exactly. I think that’s what we, through our technology, we have big products, they’re big solutions. They require an investment of some time to actually say OK, we’re going to take this thing on. It’s going to be a program, it’s not just an individual project or series of tests. I think that’s really important that people get that.

This interview on conversion is part of the One on One interview series with thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This transcript has been edited for publication.  

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Adobe’s Kevin Lindsay: It’s Time to Focus on Conversions and Customer Journeys

When it comes to marketing and advertising budgets, the vast majority of money is used on lead generation activities, with only a few dollars spent on nurturing and converting those leads into full blown business opportunities. But those companies that focus more of their marketing efforts on lead conversion and understanding the journey a prospect takes from a click to a customer is seeing much more marketing success.

Kevin Lindsay, Director of Product Marketing for Adobe’s Target product, part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud, shares with us his take on why it is critical for marketers to start focusing more on conversion activities in order to get the most out of their marketing efforts.

* * * * *

customer journeysSmall Business Trends: The whole idea of conversion across different types of devices. How are companies looking at those different conversion types across the different tablets and device types?

Kevin Lindsay: Well, let’s start with the first part of the question, which is really a good one. Because when we talk about conversion, it does mean a variety of different things when you’re looking at different industries. When you take Adobe, just as one example, there are multiple things we want to happen on that site.

One type of conversion is someone actually saying, ‘OK, I found Photoshop, I found the version of Photoshop that I want, I’m going to add it to my cart and I’m going to buy it,’ or a subscription to Creative Cloud or whatever it might be. It’s an eCommerce conversion the way we all classically think about conversion.

Another type of conversion is when we use our digital marketing efforts to ultimately generate a sales accepted lead for our enterprise sales folks. Now along the path to that conversion would be something like downloading a whitepaper. We would call that a micro-conversion. What are the different conversion events that actually need to lead up to that ultimate conversion if you will.

Small Business Trends: The sale?

Kevin Lindsay: Right. In our case, from an enterprise software sales perspective, we’re not even looking at the sale as the conversion. From a digital marketing impact perspective, if we get the lead, then that is the conversion. We’ve done our job on the digital marketing website. We’ve passed it over.

Now obviously a lot of people are tracking the eventual sale, and that is a conversion. From a digital marketing perspective in the way that most of our B2B clients look at it when they are using digital marketing for lead gen, they’re looking at things like whitepaper downloads and videos and product tours and all those kinds of things. What is the value of those kinds of offers? What’s most appropriate at the top of the funnel versus mid-funnel versus at that point where someone is ready to take a meeting? What are the things that are most impactful?

The same kind of reasoning can be applied to the scenario in financial services, where today, particularly in the U.S. banks are feeling a crunch due to legislation around service fees, and the fact that they have to make up that money somewhere. They’re actually engaging in merchandising optimization, cross-selling and that sort of thing.

If you have a mortgage with a bank, they will try to sell you a home equity line of credit. Debit card, maybe on the first purchase you get a $50 whatever toward your purchase, credit. Whatever it might be, as you look across industries, there are different definitions of conversion. Then within that, as you alluded to, there are these gates that you need to get through. Something we’ll call micro-conversions.

From an analytics perspective we were looking very, very closely at the make-up of our customers’ journeys. What’s happening along the path here? Where is fallout occurring, and where can we be making improvements along the way to improve or fatten the funnel up at the top?

Theoretically, you do that, you take more people through and you improve ultimately, your conversion rate. That’s where optimization fits in, and that’s where Adobe Target fits into the picture. How do we take that data, how do we make it actionable, how do we actually turn what we know into insights that improve conversion? Or in the case of media, it might be engagement for example.

Small Business Trends: What are folks focusing most on? Getting the conversion rate up or making it more efficient, or both?

Kevin Lindsay: I’d say it’s both, but let me first say four years ago we put out a stat. We corroborated this with analysts out there in our community as well as looked at our own data.

We reported that for every $92 that companies were spending to acquire new customers, they’re spending $1 to convert those visitors. I don’t think things have changed dramatically in the last four years since we put that stat out. That tells us that there’s still a very, very big focus on acquisition spend, on display advertising, search engine marketing obviously.

Companies are pouring a lot of money at the top of the funnel to fill the funnel, but not a lot to actually take people through and optimize that journey for the conversion.

It’s been kind of slow. Adoption has not been as aggressive as you think. Now, there are truly some best use case examples, where companies are doing it, where there’s a healthy overall, I’d say culture, around optimization. They know that it’s technology but it’s also best practices and it’s people. It’s all of those things. Then they’re seeing better results from those efforts.

Then you’ve brought up the point around devices, and again, when you’re looking at conversion and you have all these different micro-conversions, and then you add to that complexity of all these different touch points. Where does one person start? Where does a person start on one device, maybe, and then pick up with another?

What do we need to look at in terms of length of something called cart persistence, where somebody actually adds something to the cart? They don’t buy it today, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to buy it. What is the length of time it takes for someone to convert in financial services, and across how many different touch points?

Our financial services expert, a guy named Jason Ward, says basically people go to financial services sites and they lurk. They hang around and they leave, and they come back and they do more research.

Now they’re going to do it across all these different touch points. They’re going to be on the train, going home, they’ll use their iPhone to understand rates or different products and service fees, whatever it might be. Then they go away, and then maybe later on that evening when they’re sitting at home with their tablet they complete the process.

It’s adding a new level of complexity, and so we need to look at how do we close the loop on this? How do we track from one touch point to the next to the next? How do we optimize that conversion process as you add this new level of complexity as well?

Small Business Trends: What about mobile app versus mobile website conversions? It’s funny, because I’m not a big Dunkin’ Donut kind of guy, but somehow I got their app. They have the locations, nearest locations, deals. Next thing you know I’m using this to do more than I ever did with them.

Kevin Lindsay: Yeah. I love this topic. We’re seeing some very, very interesting things, and we have this discussion a lot. A colleague of mine covers this area very extensively from more of a business and use case perspective around app versus site.

First of all, his advice always is that if you have limited budget and you need to start with one or the other, he tells clients to start with mobile-optimized site. Particularly if SEO is important to you the site is just that much more valuable in terms of acquiring traffic.

We’re seeing huge uptake and great results from apps. The retailers that have invested in apps are seeing very nice conversion rates from apps. The shopping apps are pretty powerful. I don’t know if you have the Target iPad app. It’s beautiful. It’s so useful, and has so much utility built into it, that you really can’t do with a normal site.

Small Business Trends: Do you see moving forward with more conversion types taking place on a social network? Maybe a certain kind of a conversion type, or a purchase directly from a website, fanpage?

Kevin Lindsay: Last year and the year before, there was a lot of talk about social commerce. A lot of our customers were beginning to play around with it. They were using their various offerings that you could use to actually integrate commerce onto your pages. Some of the commerce platforms had plugins and so on.

I talked to a couple customers who said ‘nothing, nada.’ Most of them have abandoned that, but they do recognize the value of social features on their site; also the value of brand engagement and the role that social referrals play.

That brings to mind ‘OK, on a product details page maybe I should be really optimizing that share button because the value of the share is really high.’ I had a customer speak with me at an event last year who said, ‘I do that. I really, really encourage the share, because when this person shares out to a social network, those people with whom he shares that come back to the commerce site, they’re converting at an 11% conversion rate compared to my 3% site average conversion.’

The value of the share is really, really high. In something like apparel retailing, it’s huge. Then you get into some interesting things like within Adobe Social, maybe you have an ensembling app on Facebook and you get people sharing an outfit that they’ve put together.

Small Business Trends: The thing that still gets my attention is this $92 spent on customer acquisition for every $1 spent on conversions.

Kevin Lindsay: Yeah. It may have improved marginally, but it’s not great.

Small Business Trends: Do you see, as companies get more and more involved in these exercises, more time and effort and resources spent on that aspect of it?

Kevin Lindsay: I think clearly acquisition spend is always going to lead the way. It’s definitely going in the right direction, and when you look at the results of this optimization survey and you look at the correlation between companies that are engaging in optimization and testing, targeting, all that kind of stuff - they see higher conversion rates. They answer all the right questions in the affirmative, those folks that are engaging in this kind of stuff. It does pay off.

The woman from Brooks’ Brother who we were on the phone with earlier today, she got up at an event a couple weeks ago and said, ‘This one campaign that we ran, this one experiment essentially, more than paid for the investment in this technology and the people it takes to run the thing for a year.’

These kinds of efforts pay off. Where companies maybe get a little bit disillusioned, but this is typical human behavior. We all start out gung-ho with things. We keep up the momentum and say, ‘What’s next? What is our optimization plan? What’s our testing road map here?’

Small Business Trends: Yeah, have a plan to get the most out of using this.

Kevin Lindsay: Exactly. I think that’s what we, through our technology, we have big products, they’re big solutions. They require an investment of some time to actually say OK, we’re going to take this thing on. It’s going to be a program, it’s not just an individual project or series of tests. I think that’s really important that people get that.

This interview on conversion is part of the One on One interview series with thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This transcript has been edited for publication.  

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Two Apps That Make Syncing Contacts To Your Mobile Device a Breeze

Contact Syncing Apps

Smartphones are an indispensable communication device, but ensuring that all of your contacts that sit on your computer appear on your mobile device, and are up to date, can be tedious. This is where contact syncing applications can help. 

A contact syncing application automatically updates information on contacts listed on your mobile phone from other data points such as your business email, central business contact list and social networking accounts. We’ve talked about syncing applications before on Smallbiztechnology.com, but with technology changing so fast, and new services being introduced every day, we wanted to point out two new contact syncing applications that offer some unique benefits.

Easygrouper - There are several contact syncing applications in the market, but what sets the recently launched Easygrouper apart from the pack is that it simultaneously organizes and updates business contact lists on all mobile phones being used by your employees. Relevant business information including numbers, addresses, email and designation is stored in the cloud and pushed to the app activated mobile phones. Also instead of having to inform the administrative manager for a change of contact details, employees can can simply edit their contact profiles for the information to be updated on all devices at the same time. Of course contact information changes can also be managed centrally so that everyone in the office has the latest contact details. 

David Alison, Executive Vice President for the parent company of EasyGrouper LLC says, “I have a passion helping businesses succeed in today’s competitive market. The inspiration for EasyGrouper was born out of my own personal frustration with not having critical company and employee information at my fingertips when I was out of the office. EasyGrouper solves that problem”.

With Easygrouper business contacts are automatically stored as a separate group. Groups can also be created based on business roles or geographical location. The application is a great way to share information, schedule meetings with employees that may not have a work email address or are constantly on the move. The status feature allows you to communicate your availability to other colleagues and with a single tap you can call, message or email a contact.

The application can be used at no cost for 45 days.The paid package starts at $15 a month for up to 25 users and the Easygrouper pro package, which starts at $30 a month, comes with the added feature of broadcast group messaging/ emailing. 

Syc.ME - Another increasingly popular free contact syncing application available for iOS and Android mobile devices. What makes this an effective app is the large number of users ( 7 million with more than 1 billion contacts synced per week). Each user defines a ‘Me card’ which controls the information that others using the Sync.Me service can view. It automatically syncs your mobile phone with updates made by other Sync.Me users that are part of your contact list. It also shares information updated by your contacts on social networks such as Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. So you automatically get a profile picture, the latest employment information and contact details as well as birthday reminders all integrated on your mobile device.

For growing businesses with limited manpower resources, contact syncing application can reduce the administrative burden of manually updating vital business contact information.In addition, apps allow creative, and easy, ways to make the most of your contacts, like adding faces to the names. All of these apps and services provide a great way to manage your employees and client information while on the go, so you don’t miss a beat!



Two Apps That Make Syncing Contacts To Your Mobile Device a Breeze

Contact Syncing Apps

Smartphones are an indispensable communication device, but ensuring that all of your contacts that sit on your computer appear on your mobile device, and are up to date, can be tedious. This is where contact syncing applications can help. 

A contact syncing application automatically updates information on contacts listed on your mobile phone from other data points such as your business email, central business contact list and social networking accounts. We’ve talked about syncing applications before on Smallbiztechnology.com, but with technology changing so fast, and new services being introduced every day, we wanted to point out two new contact syncing applications that offer some unique benefits.

Easygrouper - There are several contact syncing applications in the market, but what sets the recently launched Easygrouper apart from the pack is that it simultaneously organizes and updates business contact lists on all mobile phones being used by your employees. Relevant business information including numbers, addresses, email and designation is stored in the cloud and pushed to the app activated mobile phones. Also instead of having to inform the administrative manager for a change of contact details, employees can can simply edit their contact profiles for the information to be updated on all devices at the same time. Of course contact information changes can also be managed centrally so that everyone in the office has the latest contact details. 

David Alison, Executive Vice President for the parent company of EasyGrouper LLC says, “I have a passion helping businesses succeed in today’s competitive market. The inspiration for EasyGrouper was born out of my own personal frustration with not having critical company and employee information at my fingertips when I was out of the office. EasyGrouper solves that problem”.

With Easygrouper business contacts are automatically stored as a separate group. Groups can also be created based on business roles or geographical location. The application is a great way to share information, schedule meetings with employees that may not have a work email address or are constantly on the move. The status feature allows you to communicate your availability to other colleagues and with a single tap you can call, message or email a contact.

The application can be used at no cost for 45 days.The paid package starts at $15 a month for up to 25 users and the Easygrouper pro package, which starts at $30 a month, comes with the added feature of broadcast group messaging/ emailing. 

Syc.ME - Another increasingly popular free contact syncing application available for iOS and Android mobile devices. What makes this an effective app is the large number of users ( 7 million with more than 1 billion contacts synced per week). Each user defines a ‘Me card’ which controls the information that others using the Sync.Me service can view. It automatically syncs your mobile phone with updates made by other Sync.Me users that are part of your contact list. It also shares information updated by your contacts on social networks such as Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. So you automatically get a profile picture, the latest employment information and contact details as well as birthday reminders all integrated on your mobile device.

For growing businesses with limited manpower resources, contact syncing application can reduce the administrative burden of manually updating vital business contact information.In addition, apps allow creative, and easy, ways to make the most of your contacts, like adding faces to the names. All of these apps and services provide a great way to manage your employees and client information while on the go, so you don’t miss a beat!



“Bouncing” Into a New Startup Office Space

business startup cartoon

I was reading something recently about open office layouts and was trying to think of a cartoon to play with that idea, but it’s not something I have any experience with.

The last time I had a ‘normal job’ we were all in cubicles. Which got me thinking about enclosed spaces, which got me thinking, of course, about bouncy houses.

And then this cartoon popped out.

I don’t pretend to fully understand how my head works sometimes, I’m just glad it continues to.

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Dunn & Bradstreet, Others Hacked for Personal Data

data collectors hacked

The major objective of many cyber attacks on websites and databases isn’t compromise of your technology at all. Its the private information you’ve stored on your customers, clients or anyone else with whom you’ve ever done business.

That point was again made last week with news that three giant data collectors -Dunn & Bradstreet, Hire Right/Krebs and NexisLexis â€" have been hacked.

The objective: Social security numbers, birth records and credit and background reports on millions of Americans.

Access to this information was later sold on a website for 50 cents to $2.50 per record or $5 to $15 per credit or background check, reports KrebsOnSecurity. The security news website broke the story after a seven-month investigation drawing coverage from national media and investigation by law enforcement.

Your Customers Could Also Be Targets

Of course, you don’t need to be a giant data aggregator to be targeted by hackers working to steal customer or client information.

For example, smaller firms (250 employees or less) were the targets of 31 percent of all cyber attacks in 2012, up 18 percent over the previous year.

Again, the targets of these attacks are often not the companies themselves but any information obtained from customers, in many cases during an online transaction.

Information Companies Are at Risk

All three targets in the recent cyber attack dealt mainly in the aggregating of information, reports KrebsOnSecurity.

For example, LexisNexis has the world’s largest database of legal and public records. Meanwhile Dunn & Bradstreet collects and licenses information on businesses and corporations. And Hire Right/Kroll provides background checks, drug and health screening for employees.

What the companies all have in common is the collection of a huge amount of data.

Do you collect customer data in online transactions? Do you use it to create your email list or when you add customer information to your customer relationship management software?

If so, then your business could be a target for cyber criminals seeking private information on the people with whom you do business.

Hacked Photo via Shutterstock

Sponsored Content



Dunn & Bradstreet, Others Hacked for Personal Data

data collectors hacked

The major objective of many cyber attacks on websites and databases isn’t compromise of your technology at all. Its the private information you’ve stored on your customers, clients or anyone else with whom you’ve ever done business.

That point was again made last week with news that three giant data collectors -Dunn & Bradstreet, Hire Right/Krebs and NexisLexis â€" have been hacked.

The objective: Social security numbers, birth records and credit and background reports on millions of Americans.

Access to this information was later sold on a website for 50 cents to $2.50 per record or $5 to $15 per credit or background check, reports KrebsOnSecurity. The security news website broke the story after a seven-month investigation drawing coverage from national media and investigation by law enforcement.

Your Customers Could Also Be Targets

Of course, you don’t need to be a giant data aggregator to be targeted by hackers working to steal customer or client information.

For example, smaller firms (250 employees or less) were the targets of 31 percent of all cyber attacks in 2012, up 18 percent over the previous year.

Again, the targets of these attacks are often not the companies themselves but any information obtained from customers, in many cases during an online transaction.

Information Companies Are at Risk

All three targets in the recent cyber attack dealt mainly in the aggregating of information, reports KrebsOnSecurity.

For example, LexisNexis has the world’s largest database of legal and public records. Meanwhile Dunn & Bradstreet collects and licenses information on businesses and corporations. And Hire Right/Kroll provides background checks, drug and health screening for employees.

What the companies all have in common is the collection of a huge amount of data.

Do you collect customer data in online transactions? Do you use it to create your email list or when you add customer information to your customer relationship management software?

If so, then your business could be a target for cyber criminals seeking private information on the people with whom you do business.

Hacked Photo via Shutterstock

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