snedwick

M Posted 11 years ago

t 9 min read

Websites today have become increasingly complex. Pages are expected to have far more than just words: visitors want to see images, videos, well-crafted content, and social media integration. Content that features interesting and engaging images receives 94 percent more views than content that does not. Additionally, as many as 67 percent of customers also believe that clear images are more important than product information, descriptions, and even customer ratings when deciding what to buy. These extras give the website the impact it needs to attract visitors and convince them to spend time on the website, engaging with the brand.

Companies today have a variety of tools at their fingertips for creating these dynamic and engaging websites. For large enterprises, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) remains one of the most popular web content management systems available. For those who are unfamiliar with the system, here is a basic introduction to the capabilities of the platform.

Manage a website with Adobe Experience Manager

Adobe Experience Manager provides website developers with all the tools they need to develop and manage a high-class website. Development begins in the author environment, where people can create a variety of different types of content to publish on the website. This includes web pages, publications, and any other type of content. For those developing websites as a part of a corporation or business, with Adobe Experience Manager it is possible to coordinate tasks or establish workflows to control who on the team must review content before it can be published.

With Adobe Experience Manager, creating a page within the site the user simply needs to select Create Page from the drop down menu.

Once the page has been created and reviewed, select publish page.

From within Adobe Experience Manager, users can also easily verify how their pages convert to mobile viewing (learn more about mobile e-commerce) to ensure a positive user experience for those on smart devices. They can also tag the pages, edit manage page titles and meta descriptions and other features that help the pages get indexed and allow visitors to easily navigate the site.

To enhance the website even further, users can also easily upload, edit and use a variety of digital and rich media features with Adobe Experience Manager. Users can adjust details, such as the format and resolution, beyond the basic size and cropping edits available. It is even possible to create interactive rich media, such as doing a 360-degree spin of products.

Videos can also be edited, recut, and published right from the platform. These additional features within Adobe Experience Manager make it easy for users to streamline the production of rich media without having to use a variety of different types of products and platforms.

E-Commerce and Adobe Experience Manager

Adobe Experience Manager works well with sites interested in running eCommerce sites. Site owners can use the Product Information Management system to ensure accurate product entries. The platform will make it easy to keep track of inventory and pricing so that customers receive updated information when they visit the site.

Site owners can enable a few different types of search, including an eCommerce search or a third-party search. These features help to make the customer experience easier as they can search for terms related to the products they want to find.

Users can also create branded shopping carts to ensure that the entire shopping experience fits with the company. Creating a personalized experience for the visitor is also possible and easy to implement. Sites can include features such as ‘Recently Viewed Products’ and other options that keep users engaged and interested in what the company has to offer.

Marketing

AEM allows users to run successful marketing campaigns from the first step to the last. The easily customizable platform makes it easy to maintain brand identity throughout all the pages. Adobe Experience Manager also easily integrates with BrightEdge technology, allowing companies to optimize their content for SERPs and organic search.

BrightEdge Content Optimizer works by combining the power of BrightEdge’s groundbreaking Data Cube with the capabilities of AEM. Brands can research what topics potential customers are searching for and the types of information that they want to find. Content can then be developed and optimized to meet this need. Marketers can use the optimizer to check for the best content structure while also receiving real-time feedback on how to create the effective content being sought by the brand.

Once people have begun to use the website, Adobe Experience Manager also makes it easy to track and optimize the rest of the campaign. Using data derived from visitors, companies can perform tasks such as:

• Create more effective buyer personas for page visitors
• Analyze consumer behavior and use it to create a more personalized experience
• Use the data gleaned from subscribers to create emails and other communication from the brand that are as personal and relevant to the individual as possible

Since social media has evolved into such an important factor in any quality marketing campaign, Adobe Experience Manager also makes it simple and straightforward for users to add the various social tools to the websites. These social media tools help customers connect with brands they appreciate, offering more opportunities to engage with the consumer base and grow the reach of the company.

To further cater to the growing percentage of visitors who will be accessing the website from a mobile device, Adobe Experience Manager also makes it easy for companies to develop mobile apps that integrate perfectly with the wider brand and marketing objectives. These apps include analytics, a dashboard that makes them easy to modify, and options to review apps and test them on devices before release.

Additional marketing strategies, such as running promotions on an eCommerce website, are also popular implementations of the Adobe Experience Manager potential.

For customers interested in finding a web content management system that allows them to build a website that is easy to use and visually outstanding, Adobe Experience Manager is considered the industry leaders. It gives companies the tools they need to create a site at scale that will stand out from the crowd.

A BrightEdger

M Posted 11 years ago

t 9 min read

Earlier this week the BrightEdge New York team hosted an event for content and search marketers at the Yotel, a uniquely fun space in Manhattan. Over 35 attendees from leading companies, like SAP, Wyndham and The Hartford mingled with their peers and BrightEdge staff enjoying drinks and appetizers after hearing the latest insights from BrightEdge executives and other marketers. Brad Mattick, Product and Marketing VP, shared news about the company and with Kristi Faltorusso demonstrated the latest enhancements to the BrightEdge Platform.

Josh Crossman, VP of Client Services and Strategy, moderated a panel featuring BrightEdge CEO and Founder Jim Yu along with Richard Mastriani of Wyndham Hotels, Marcus Cohn of 2U, and Jesus Menez of Scripps Networks Interactive. They provided enlightening insights into how they address the challenges facing digital marketers today and how the BrightEdge content performance marketing platform is helping them win on the content battleground.

Join us at Share15 The New York event was just a small sampling of what you will enjoy at Share15 this year with great content and speakers, interesting attendees, and lots of fun networking opportunities. The BrightEdge staff is now busy preparing for Share15, our industry-leading event for digital marketers by digital marketers.

With over 55 speakers already booked from some of the world's largest brands, this promises to be the best Share yet. The event is September 21-23 at the Westin St. Francis in the heart of San Francisco. It offers a new venue, new formats with hands-on labs and discussion forums in addition to great breakout, and general sessions.  BrightEdge Certification courses are being held on Monday with a special “Share15 Update” course for those previously certified that dives deep into the latest enhancements to the platform.

Visit the Share15 website to learn more about the conference and to register. Take our digital marketing quiz to test your knowledge.

A BrightEdger

M Posted 11 years ago

t 9 min read

Creating a strong community based around a company through a forum is a fantastic way to build the bond between customers and brand. This connection to other customers and to the company itself is excellent to inspire loyalty in customers. It also provides the business ample opportunities for getting to know their customers and what matters to them. By listening to and participating in conversations they can gain far greater insight into their consumer base, improving the customer experience and further enhancing brand loyalty.

How to create a forum

There are a variety of different techniques that site owners can use to create effective forums.

• Create a hosted forum on one of the many free hosting sites
• Create a hosted forum on a hosting site and buy a personal domain
• Create the forum directly on the company website

A forum can be on the company website, which will ensure that the site is protected from ads and other extras. You also have much more control over the appearance of the forum. When the topics on the forum that show up in the search engine results page (SERPs), they will point traffic back to the company site, further enhancing backlink count and SEO results.

There are several different types of forum options for those who want to host their forum. Those using certain website hosts, such as WordPress, can use plugins that will easily create a forum with just a few clicks. PhpBB is the open source forum software that requires a little more work but can be a good option for those who are comfortable doing so.

Follow these steps to successfully download the program.

1. Secure the FTP and login credentials for the database from the host
2. Secure an FTP client if you do not have one already
3. Download the phpBB package
4. Unzip the package to find the directory (which can be renamed)
5. Login to the serve with the FTP client and upload the folder

Making the forum a success

Create a forum to find people in your preferred business niche and convincing them to stay and engage with others on the forum. While accomplishing this goal can become progressively easier as the forum becomes established, the most challenging aspect of running a successful forum is getting the conversation started.

Many people quickly click off an empty forum, even if they would have made the ideal participant. One of the fundamental decisions is whether to moderate and approve all comments, review and remove inappropriate ones, or let it be more wooly and open. If the forum membership has a reasonable hurdle, like being a paying customer or a certified user then regulation is less important. If membership is open, then the comments should be moderated to prevent competitors’ negative or specious comments.

In truly large forums of more than 10,000 the moderating effort may require a few hours a day. At BrightEdge we have more than 2,000 BrightEdge certified users who are admitted to a LinkedIn group, and we run our customer forum there. Both BrightEdge employees and customer forum members start topics and reply to questions. The forum helps define and support the community and improve customer satisfaction and retention. Additionally, a professional network makes an excellent platform because it allows members to display and gain career value from their BrightEdge certification.

Attracting people to the site

Like any other website, it is important to optimize the site for search engines. That means using keywords to communicate your purpose clearly to search engines and participants. Use keyword and keyword phrases in sections such as:

• the page title
• headlines
• the ‘about us’ page

The meta descriptions of the pages when you create a forum should also be strategically developed. This is the text that a search engine user sees when your forum appears in their search results. Use the text to include keywords and to invite people to explore your high-value forum. Here is what users see when the TripAdvisor Forum appears in search results: it is concise and appealing for those interested in learning more about travel.

You can also invite people to your forum directly. Let regular customers, friends and family know that the forum is ready for conversation and that their input would be appreciated. It can also be valuable to post links letting people know about this community option in places such as the business’s social media pages, at the end of communications from the brand-- such as emails or newsletters-- and on the company website. Many customers appreciate the opportunity to connect with the business’s representatives as well as other customers.

Create a forum that encourages conversation

A common mistake of many over-eager forum builders is to create a forum filled with dozens of different conversation categories. What they neglect to remember, however, is that having so many different options just makes the entire forum look empty. New forums will only have one or two conversations at first, so that leaves room for numerous empty categories. Instead, focus on building a forum with only a few categories, maybe even just two or three.

Define these options broadly to give people flexibility. Forums can always be restructured and new categories added if the conversation successfully attracts regular participants. Site owners should also show initiative to start conversations themselves. Most casual page visitors will not arrive at an empty forum and start conversations. Regularly begin new topics under each category and purposely invite people to respond to those particular conversations. It is important to remember the purpose of the forum. It is generally accepted for brands to create special areas of the forum to deal with topics directly related to the brand, as the company AVS did here.

At the same time, people do not come to the forum to receive a direct sales pitch. Even in the AVS forums, there are over 30 different categories, but only a handful that mention the company name. You should foster genuine dialogue among community members and not be afraid to step back when the conversation begins picking up speed.

Protect the forum

Forums regularly come under attack from a variety of different sources, including spambots and trolls. It is important to protect the forum from these sources to maintain the integrity of the community. There are a few practices that can help keep the forum secure.

• disable the search function for guests and only allow it for registered users
• enable CAPTCHA or similar visual confirmation for people registering
• enable CAPTCHA or similar visual confirmation for people making guest posts (or disallow guests from posting without registering)
• Use the GD CAPTCHA foreground noise to make it harder for spambots to recognize the text

It is also important to protect the forums from some of your registered users. It is not unheard of for people, protected by the anonymity of the internet, to say things that they would not say in real life. To make sure the community remains safe and secure for those who want to genuinely discuss issues related to your business, include a list of clearly define behavioral expectations for users. This would be an example of forum rules, as posted on the popular forum, Reddit.

The popular American Express Open Forum is more lengthy and more professional in appearance with each example fitting well with their intended audience.

In addition to SEO value, the legacy conversation makes an effective knowledge base that helps customer self-solve problems. This can help reduce customer service costs. Before beginning a new forum, companies need to establish a clear plan of how they are going to build the community, which at a minimum include goals, strategy, tactics/cadence, resources, budget/staff, and measurement system. Whichever route is selected, the company should assign at least a partial full-time equivalent as a community to operate, facilitate and police the forum.

Creating a successful forum requires a bit of work to establish the community and a few quarters to nurture and build it, but when done well, it contributes to loyalty, retention and efficiency. See some fun community content that is really working: check out BrightEdge's SEO Jokes post.  

maspillera

M Posted 11 years ago

t 9 min read

According to KISSmetrics, even a one second delay in the time spent loading your website can result in a 7 percent decrease in your online conversions. Customers do not like to wait for a site to appear on their screen.

The tags that you have installed to track the site’s performance and customer behavior can be a major source of page load latency, and therefore could cost you money. Fortunately, companies do not have to choose between important tags or losing customers. Sixty four percent of companies who use a tag management system see faster website performance. You should understand why this happens to have a better idea if a management system will work for you.

What is a tag?

A tag is a piece of code that is inserted into a website to monitor particular parts of the website. These tags can be used to perform a number of different tasks such as:

• information gathering for remarketing campaigns
• website analytics
• conversion tracking

Tags can be 1st party, which means that they have been installed by the owners of the website for their own purposes. A 3rd party tag, on the other hand, was installed in the website to track information for an outside company, such as a contractor who is handling the company’s remarketing campaigns. Third party tags can also be installed by outside advertisers who will be showing advertisements on the site. When these outside tags are used, often the site owner has little control over the data gleaned from the site. There are two main types of tags.

• Image pixel tags

These tags create an invisible image on the website. The image requires the computer downloading the image to request it from the server, which allows the server to track how often the image is used. The request for the pixel is sent with valuable data information points about how the website is being used.

• JavaScript tags

JavaScript tags can sometimes use image pixels as well, but they are often more complex. These tags often use either first-party or third-party cookies. The tag may either read past cookies or install a new one. Google Analytics is a commonly used program that installs tags to help site owners monitor the progress on their site. This is a sample of what a Google Analytics tag might look like to track a transaction on a website.

Tags themselves have been around for years, but their use has improved dramatically.

When tags were originally developed, they tended to load in serial order, which means that the tags at the top of the page must load before the rest of the website loaded. If something went wrong with the tag, the rest of the website might not load. This would significantly harm the website’s reputation and could cost you customers.

Now the majority of tags load asynchronously or parallel. This helps to reduce the number of problems that tags cause on sites should something go wrong with the code on just one of them. While there are still some older tags that load serially, this is now significantly less common.

Tags have become a critical part of website analytics and site management for most website owners. They offer insight into the site’s performance and the behavior of visitors on the website pages.

Tags even make it possible to use real time personalization on websites. With tags, sites can track users along with data such as where they are located and what they are going on the website. This information can be used to produce personalized suggestions and information to improve the user experience.

On the BrightEdge platform, customers can receive customized dashboards that let them know precisely how their website performs on a regular basis, such as the dashboard below tracking a site’s performance with organic search and revenue. The information for this type of insightful analytics is only possible with the use of tags used by Google Analytics and imported onto the BrightEdge platform. That’s one of the ways BrightEdge provides marketers actual revenue and visitor information and does not rely on estimates and projections.

What is the benefit to using tag management?

Many companies, however, struggle with the sheer number of tags that need to be included in the website to track all the different types of data. Often once a website has been designed, the owners will find themselves assaulted by requests to add various tags into their site. These tags allow the contractors in charge of roles, such as marketing and analytics gather the necessary information.

Once all the tags are added, the site page load speed can begin to slow down as the tags load serially. Although the changes might not be obvious to website owners or users who have operate the site, there are now numerous commands that the computer must fulfill as it attempts to use the website. Tag management allows website owners to gain the data and information from tags without adding countless bits of code into their site.

Tag management can help control for the following potential problems:

• slow loading caused by too many tags
• slow responses by IT teams to include, modify, or delete tags
• human error when adding the tag
• having unused tags left within the website
• changes in website design that render the tag meaningless

How Tag Management Works

When a website uses tag management, you will only have to worry about one master tag that gets installed into the website. This master tag can be likened to a container that holds the commands for all the tags that will be run on the website. When you want to modify the tags operating within the site, you can use a simple web interface that will allow you to adjust the tags controlled by the master tag.

These changes can be performed simply by those in the marketing departments, rather than being added to the list of tickets sent to IT. According to Econsultancy, 69 percent of tag management system users can add new tags to their sites in less than a day. That is three times the number of companies that can do so when the tags have to be added manually by IT teams. Master tags also help simplify the commands the computer must fulfill as it loads the website, speeding up the loading process and enhancing the user experience.

Tag management also allows website owners to optimize the ‘data layer’ of their website and thereby standardize the types of data used by each application, regardless of the digital channel that is being used. This helps websites better sync their applications and understand the data that is coming in through the program, regardless of whether it originates in mobile or on a desktop.

When you have the power to unify your data layer through tag management, you will find the freedom to use different marketing vendors and other contractors regardless of the company. All of the tags will easily integrate with one another, giving you control over the data coming in and improving the analysis.

There are a number of popular tag management solutions. Google Tag Manager, Adobe Dynamic Tag Management (DTM), and Google Doubleclick Floodlight are popular options that help sites add tags and manage their existing tags. Satellite, Signal, Ensighten, and Tealium also can help businesses get more out of their tags.

Tags have given websites the power to track vital information that helps marketing campaigns to thrive and allows websites to better engage with their customers. More than 4/5 of companies believe that digital marketing complexity is only going to increase, and many sectors, such as ecommerce already face incredibly complex sites. With tag management, it is possible to gather the necessary information without hurting site performance or the user experience.