Following pandemic-driven shopping trends, lots of local businesses had to explore online marketing opportunities
Google offers a few great ways for a local business to get found through organic search
Local 3 Pack is Google’s search element containing top three local businesses based on your search query.
To rank in the Local 3 Pack you need to ensure your Google My Business listing is complete and active
Third-party local business listings (like Yelp and Tripadvisor) may also drive some organic search visibility so it is a good idea to claim your business there
Hyperlocal content may help your business discovered by people who were not even searching to buy a local product or service, so produce relevant content on a regular basis
Local marketing has become even a more trending topic, following the pandemic-driven pandemic.
Lots of local businesses that used to rely on local foot traffic were forced to turn to the Internet to get found by customers.
That digital transformation brought this huge challenge to just about any local business – how to get found online.
Step 1: Claim your business profile on Google My Business
Google offers huge organic search visibility to local businesses through the so-called Local 3 Pack that shows up on top of organic results when search intent reflects buying (or doing) something locally.
Local 3 pack is Google’s search element that includes three relevant businesses from Google Maps results:
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Ranking your business in the Local 3 Pack is no easy task. It heavily relies on proximity of those businesses to the customer’s current location.
However, there are a few things you can do to improve your local rankings:
Make sure you have a detailed (and original) description of your business and what it is you do.
Add your website (oftentimes Google would grab text from the associated website and rank a business based on that content). There are also a few greatpluginsallowing you to embed your local listing onto your website for better visibility.
Upload pictures and videos of your office and team
Add your products and services (Note: Services arenot believedto have a huge (or any) impact on your local rankings but why not add those anyway)
Your business categories. Keep those categories as relevant as you can as theycan harmyour local rankings
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Most importantly: Keep an eye on your Google’s reviews
Business reviews are known to be crucial for your local (and hence Local 3 Pack) rankings, so make sure to keep an eye on your reviews and reply to all of them.
Note thatGoogle may remove your reviewif they find you have been using manipulative or misleading tactics when getting those reviews, for example:
If that review is repeated across other business profiles on other sites (which, by the way, can be quite natural… I’ll be the one to admit that I may leave my favorite business the same review on a few platforms I am registered at. But again, I think we are talking about suspicious patterns here rather than one-on-one cases)
If you had a massive influx of reviews overnight
If Google suspects that you and your team are reviewing your business pretending to be clients.
While you may notice your competitors implement these manipulative tactics without no obviously negative impact on their rankings, I’d still suggest avoiding these at all costs.
You can invite your customers to review your business on Google through ashort URL that’s specific to your local business(and even note that on your business card). But you are not allowed to request positive (five-star) reviews or segment your customer base to only invite happy customers to review you.
If you have a budget, investing inads on Google mapsis also a great idea. This could bring in more customers and reviews.
Step 2: Claim your business profile everywhere else
While claiming your business is generally a good idea to get better control over your branded content, it also gives you additional organic exposure because those listings may rank in organic search results and bring additional exposure.
Hence, your next step is identifying important local directories (like Trip Advisor and Yelp)and claiming your business everywhere.
Just about any local business out there will need to ensure a strong Yelp presence, for example, so that one will always be on top of your list. Yelp marketing is tricky but if you start getting reviews there,there’s a way to displaythose reviews on your site to boost your conversions.
When putting your business on maps…
Make sure your business name and address is consistent across all channels, including the phone number format
Complete all available fields and use all available characters! More content generally means higher rankings for your listings!
Monitor your listings for reviews, add updates, ensure your info is up-to-date!
Step 3: Develop a hyperlocal content strategy
Similar to how foot traffic works for a local business (passers-by may check a store out of curiosity), a well-planned content marketing strategy can drive customers who never intended to buy anything or didn’t know they needed you.
Describe (location-driven) problems your business solves. For instance, a Seattle hairdresser publishes an article on haircuts that work well in the windy or rainy climate.
Address some problems that are common in your area. These work best when they are timed to a particular seasonal trend. For instance, a bakery in Albany publishes a checklist of foods to store at home to prepare for a snowstorm.
Here are a few ideas for hyperlocal content:
Ideas for local vacations and where your business can be of help
Local events and how your brand participates
Local partnerships like local charities
Take note of localPeople Also Askresults because those are great sources of hyperlocal content.
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Generally, answering local questions is a great idea!
Let’s take a look at this search query: “how far is Central Park from Times Square”
People searching for this may not necessarily be looking to buy anything but there are still some opportunities here as your content may give them ideas on where to dine or stay.
Image source: Screenshot by the author
The beauty of hyperlocal content marketing is that your clients don’t have to be in the area to find your content: They may be planning a trip to your area and discover your business prior to going. This is something local maps placement won’t be able to help with.
Usingsemantic searchis another good way to come up with hyperlocal content ideas because it will help you identify location-based keywords that are able to generate organic traffic.Here’s howsemantic search works:
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Conclusion
Organic search provides quite a few opportunities for local businesses to generate traffic and get found by customers. Keep an eye on your local listings and keep creating hyperlocal content to generate relevant traffic for your local business. Good luck!
Ann Smarty is the Founder of Viral Content Bee, Brand and Community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She can be found on Twitter @seosmarty.
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Every great online store starts from the same place—with an ecommerce website builder. These tools make it easy for anyone to launch an ecommerce business by building a website from scratch.
So if you’re interested in selling products or services on the web, you’ll need to find an ecommerce builder to create your online store.
You don’t have to have any web design experience whatsoever to get started. To find an option that suits your goals, check out recommendations below.
You’ll find in-depth reviews of the eight best ecommerce website builders, followed by a brief buyers guide to help you narrow in on the best one.
#1 – Wix Review — The Best Drag-and-Drop Ecommerce Builder
Wix is one of the best overall site builders on the market today. The platform can be used to create any website—including ecommerce sites.
More than 160 million people across the globe have used Wix to create a website from scratch. There’s no code to write, no technology to master. If you know what you want, you can build it in Wix.
Start with one of Wix’s beautiful online store templates. These have been used by thousands of businesses to get their products and deals in front of customers. From there, you can customize the look and feel of your site to match your brand using the simple drag-and-drop ecommerce website builder.
Wix is a great option for beginners. Anyone can use this platform to build an ecommerce site, regardless of technical skill level. Here’s what makes Wix so great:
Intuitive drag-and-drop site builder
500+ stunning templates
Optimized for SEO
App marketplace for custom functions
Advanced design features like video backgrounds, animations, and scroll effects
Mobile-optimized ecommerce site
Custom domain, free hosting, and free SSL certificate
Supports multiple payment methods
Product pages and store manager tools
$300 in advertising vouchers
24/7 customer care
Unlimited products
Ecommerce plans from Wix start at $23. But I recommend starting with the Business Unlimited plan, at a minimum. It’s just $4 more per month and comes with enhanced features.
You can start building your Wix site for free to try out the drag-and-drop builder. Then take advantage of a 14-day free trial to access premium features.
#2 – BigCommerce Review — TheBest for Large Ecommerce Sites
BigCommerce is another industry leader in the ecommerce world. For more than a decade, this platform has served ecommerce sites in 120+ countries.
Over $25 billion in merchant sales have been powered by BigCommerce. It’s a great option for people who don’t want to hit annoying limits about what their site can and can’t do.
This platform is great for wholesalers, international ecommerce sites, B2B sellers, and multi-channel sales. For selling at scale, look no further than BigCommerce.
Easy to use and secure platform
Powerful ecommerce analytics and customer insights
Drag-and-drop building tools with no coding required
WordPress integration
Custom checkout capabilities with checkout API and SDK
Built-in Javascript, HTML, and CSS for full theme customization
Optimized for mobile and SEO
Built-in faceted search
Cross-channel sales support (brick & mortar, social, marketplaces, etc.)
Multiple currency support
Global CDN
Cross-border fulfillment
Built-in payment processing
Overall, BigCommerce is my top recommendation for large ecommerce websites. If you want to sell online without restrictions, this will be a top option to consider.
#3 – Squarespace Review — TheBest for Beautiful Ecommerce Designs
Squarespace is another all-in-one website builder that can be used to create any type of website.
But unlike other traditional site builders out there, Squarespace is optimized for businesses. With the exception of the personal plan, all Squarespace subscriptions come with built-in ecommerce functionality.
Squarespace is a popular choice for creative professionals who want to showcase their portfolios and sell online. It comes with features like:
Award-winning design templates
Built-in tax tools
Supports sales for subscriptions and digital content
Discount codes and gift cards
Secured checkout process from any device
Abandoned cart recovery tools
Ecommerce integrations for shipping and payment processing
24/7 customer support
You’ll need to connect your own payment processor to run an online store with Squarespace. Ecommerce plans start at $18 per month. Upgrade to the Basic Commerce plan ($26 per month) to avoid 3% transaction fees.
If creating a visually appealing ecommerce site with stunning designs is your top priority, Squarespace should definitely be on your shortlist.
#4 – Square Online Review — TheBest for Small Businesses with Physical Retail Space
Square is best known for its payment processing and POS solutions. But the platform also provides business owners with the ability to create a free online store.
If you’re a brick and mortar retailer that’s currently selling with Square POS, you can easily expand your online presence by building an ecommerce site using Square Online.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the features and benefits that you’ll get with Square Online:
Fast setup with no coding required
Built-in payment processing
Automatic sync with your Square POS system
Supports in-house and on-demand delivery
Instagram integration
Inventory management tools
Accept gift cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay
Launching an ecommerce site with Square Online is free; you’ll only pay the transactional fees (starting at 2.9% + $0.30). For advanced features, paid plans start at $12 per month. Try it for free.
#5 – Bluehost Review — The Best Turnkey WooCommerce Store Builder
It can be a hassle to get a WooCommerce store up and working brilliantly.
From managing the WordPress plugins—both WooCommerce itself and the companion plugins needed to power up WooCommerce for your needs—to conducting regular updates, health checks, backups and so on, building a WooCommerce store can be daunting.
With their specialized WooCommerce Online Stores offering, Bluehost has made setting up a WooCommerce store a breeze.
It starts with Bluehost’s Online Store Creation Experience, a tool that will guide you gently through initial store creation and product uploads.
I love this because Bluehost has long been one of WordPress’ recommended hosting providers. They get WordPress, so who better to trust with maximizing the best ecommerce store plugin for it?
And remember what I said above about companion plugins?
Well, Bluehost has picked out the top ones your web store will need and included them at no charge to you.
That’s a big deal since it would cost you $80 each to install and utilize USPS shipping, FedEx shipping, and UPS shipping, for just one example. Right off the bat, you get the three major shipping providers and Bluehost saves you $240.
And that’s just three of the many plugins included.
Bluehost is generous with included features beyond that, as well. In the basic package, you’re allowed unlimited products and access to traffic analytics, 24/7 support, easy payment processing, manual order creation, and much more.
Plus, you get a free year of CodeGuard Basic for regularly backing up your site.
All of this comes at a good price of $12.95/month if you agree to a 36-month commitment. But if you’re serious about running an ecommerce store, I’d expect you want to be around for at least three years.
Upgrade to Premium—which starts at $24.95/month for the same 36-month term—and you’ll also get the ability to sell subscriptions, customize your products on a deeper level, and book appointments online.
Plus, they’ll give you CodeGuard basic completely for free, as well as domain privacy and protection.
In essence, Bluehost is taking so much work, research, and upkeep off your hands, there’s no question that this is one of the easiest ways to build and maintain an ecommerce store on your WordPress site.
If you currently have a WordPress website and need to add shopping cart functionality to it, WooCommerce will be the best option for you.
This plugin is built specifically for WordPress, and it’s one of the most popular WordPress plugins on the market today.
What makes WooCommerce so great? Let’s take a closer look:
Fully customizable with features that can extend its functionality
Flexible and open-source
140+ gateways and payment integrations
Ability to manage orders on the go
Supports physical products, digital products, and subscriptions
Hundreds of free and paid extensions
Fully scalable
Developer-friendly with REST API
To get started with WooCommerce, you’ll need to have an existing WordPress site. That means you’ll have to handle the domain registration and hosting on your own as well.
Shopify is king in the ecommerce space. Trusted by 1+ million websites in 175 countries, it’s one of the most popular ecommerce platforms available on the market today.
More than $200 billion in online sales have been facilitated via Shopify.
The platform is extremely versatile. Whether you’re starting a new ecommerce business from scratch or expanding your physical presence to an online store, Shopify can accommodate your needs. It comes with everything you need to build your website and start selling online:
Industry-specific templates
Supports multiple sales channels (point-of-sale, social media, online marketplaces, etc.)
Drag-and-drop store builder
70+ templates
Custom domains
Secure checkout
Gift cards
24/7 support
Unlimited products
Built-in payment processing
Shipping discounts
Marketing tools
Business insights
Regardless of your business size or industry, Shopify’s ecommerce platform is versatile enough to support your site.
If you have unique needs and you’re working with a developer or designer, Shift4Shop (formerly 3DCart) might be the solution for you.
Shift4Shop isn’t quite as popular as some of the other ecommerce website builders on our list. But with that said, it’s not for everyone.
While Shift4Shop does have drag-and-drop building tools to accommodate beginners, the software is powerful enough to support the needs of developers and design experts. So it can essentially be as simple or complex as you want it to be.
Other top features and noteworthy highlights of Shift4Shop include:
200+ built-in features
200+ ways to accept payments
50+ free themes
Simple and versatile shipping setups
Robust security
Supports dropshipping
Supports subscriptions, tickets, events, and print-on-demand sales
Powerful CMS
Optimized for SEO
All plans come with secure hosting, unlimited orders, 24/7 support, and no transaction fees.
If you use Shift4Shop for your payment processing, the entire platform is free to use. Whereas some ecommerce website builders cost hundreds of dollars a month, Shift4Shop doesn’t cost a thing more than the transaction fees, which you would still be paying on a platform that cost money.
The potential to save big is yet another reason I recommend Shift4Shop. Subscriptions are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Try it free for 15 days.
What I Looked at to Find the Best Ecommerce Website Builder
Before you start searching for different ecommerce site builders, it’s important to understand how to evaluate these options.
Much will depend on where you are starting from and where you want to go.
Someone who wants to add ecommerce functionality to an existing website, for example, has a different set of challenges than a person who is still planning to launch their site.
Here are the major factors to consider as you’re shopping around and narrowing down your top picks.
Technical Skill Level
What is your technical background?
Some ecommerce website builders are designed for beginners, others are made for advanced users and developers, and the rest fall somewhere in between. If you’re a DIY-type person, then your technical abilities will play a significant factor in choosing the right platform.
Beginners should aim for platforms that don’t require coding. These website builders will let you put everything together with simple drag-and-drop functionality.
Advanced users and developers may want the ability to access the site’s backend code for advanced customizations. Businesses should consult with their tech team or whoever will ultimately be working on the site before finalizing a decision.
Business Stage and Size
New business and rapidly scaling startups won’t necessarily have the same needs in an ecommerce website builder. Some of you might even be looking to sell a handful of products online as a small side project or part-time job.
If you already have an existing website, you might not need a complete site builder. There are other tools out there that can add shopping cart functionality to your current site (more on this shortly).
Do you still need to register your domain name? Have you picked a web hosting plan yet?
There are website builders out there that provide you with all of these capabilities out of the box from a single platform. In other instances, you’ll need to get your domain and hosting plan separately.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping makes it possible to run an ecommerce website without having to buy, store, or ship inventory to your customers. When someone purchases something from your website, the supplier handles fulfillment and ships the product directly to those customers.
If you’re interested in running an ecommerce site that follows this business model, you need to make sure that your site builder supports dropshipping.
While not every website builder will come with dropshipping functionality out of the box, the best ones will seamlessly integrate with dropshipping software and third-party tools.
Design and Templates
Start to think about the visual aesthetics of your ecommerce site. The best ecommerce website builders will make it possible for you to create a beautiful site without having to hire a designer.
The easiest way to do this is by starting with a pre-built template and customizing it with your content. You should be able to choose a theme or template that fits with your brand image and industry.
As you start browsing and evaluating different platforms, you’ll quickly realize that the templates and design tools aren’t equal across the board—some are undoubtedly better than others.
Built-in Functionality
Not every ecommerce website builder comes standard with a long list of functions. In some cases, you’ll have to customize your site’s functionality by adding features from a marketplace or app store. Depending on the functionality you’re looking for, you might even need to integrate your site with a third-party tool or platform.
With that said, other site builders will provide you with all of the functions you could possibly need out of the box (with some restrictions).
There’s really no right or wrong answer here; it’s all about personal preference. Would you rather have every feature at your disposal as soon as you create an account? Or do you prefer adding functionality as needed?
The answer to these questions will help you narrow down your choices.
Limitations
Your ecommerce website builder might restrict how many products you can sell on the site. Some platforms will even charge you extra fees based on your traffic volume.
This usually isn’t a concern for new websites, but as your site scales, this can definitely become a problem.
Look beyond the rock-bottom prices and entry-level plans offered by different platforms. See how much it will cost you if your product list doubles, triples, or quadruples. Will you incur extra fees?
Some ecommerce site builders are better for selling just a dozen products or so as opposed to managing extensive product catalogs in the hundreds or thousands.
Conclusion
The first step to selling online is finding a viable ecommerce website builder.
Which one is the best? It really depends on what you’re looking for. Here are my top recommendations:
Shift4Shop — Best developer-friendly ecommerce software
For many people, Wix is going to be the absolute easiest option on this list. All the builders I picked are intuitive, but if your not super confident in your technical skills, Wix is a safe bet.
Of course, if you already have a WordPress site, WooCommerce is going to be even easier. For new WordPress sites, go with Bluehost, as they include so much at a great price.
In order to find the best option for your website, refer to the buying guide, reviews, and recommendations outlined in this post. This will definitely help you narrow down your options.
Sometime back the COO of Facebook had blurted out some unfortunate things about email marketing – that emails are going away and that marketers will have to focus on teenagers of today to finalize the marketing strategies of tomorrow, and so on and so forth.
Food for thought
Emails are timeless, dependable, unsung moneymakers that have invariably found continued success and more customers for almost 50 years now. And still, there’s no stopping it.
In fact, researches by Radicati Group found out that there were 3.9 million email users in 2019, and the market is expected to grow over to 4.3 million by the end of 2023.
Whitepaper
This means, over half of the world population has been using emails in 2019 and the medium happens to generate more ROI than what meets the eye – $44 per dollar spent
Underlining the strength of emails, yet another research by Drift and Survey Monkey revealed that 65% of respondents in the past 12 months have communicated with organizations via emails, ranking it way above the rest.
Being around for so long, this phenomenon in economics is known as the Lindy effect.
The Lindy effect
Author Nassim Taleb in his popular book ‘Antifragile’ speaks about the Lindy Effect. According to him, the life expectancy of a business or an idea is in proportion to its current age.
Taleb states, “If a book has been in print for forty years, I can expect it to be in print for another forty years. And, if it survives another decade, then it will be expected to be in print another fifty years. Every year that passes without extinction doubles the additional life expectancy.”
Now, emails have already been around for 50 years, and so we could expect to see it around in 2070 as well. But then no, you can’t just get out there and shoot emails.
As email marketers, first and foremost, you will have to think about re-inventing the existing email marketing strategies in a big bang way if you wish to sustain your business’ email ROI in 2020 and beyond.
Simply put, email marketing will have to embrace videos, personalization, data, mobile, among many other strategies to retain their respective audience base.
This post is an attempt to highlight the key strategies that businesses need to adopt in 2020 to grease their email campaigns in 2020.
1. Mobile-centric emails
If anything, the mobile-mindset is sweeping across the digital marketing spectrum. According to email usage stats by emailmonday, email opens are happening more on mobile than desktop.
This means, if you still haven’t got your emails mobile-responsive, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Now, the question is how to optimize your emails for mobile?
Simple, you need to cut down the size of your copy, images and the overall design to suit the mobile format. A concise copy gives a clear view of the CTA button, which, in turn, leads to more visitors to your landing pages, blogs or product pages. More importantly, shorter copies make the emails much more scannable.
Here’s an example by campaignmonitor on how short copies offer clean, easy-on-your-eyes email experience to subscribers while checking their messages on mobile.
Unlike the first image, the second image is perfectly tailor-made for mobile screening.
The benefits of such copies can be seen clearly when you open such an email on mobile:
Sufficient white space in the copy offers an easy reading experience
The image on the first fold inspires further scrolling
A short copy means the CTA appears clearly. This saves the recipient from scrolling further down to reach a CTA button.
In case any additional copy or data needs to be added, you could accommodate that on the landing page to which your email CTA directs.
Further, make sure to test your emails from a user perspective. You cannot leave this to chance because users might spare only some time to check your emails on their phones. If they don’t like what they see, they are sure to delete your emails at once, let alone read the message.
2. Voice-friendly emails
Being mobile-centric is just one thing. By and by, you will have to make it voice-technology-friendly as well as the use of voice technology is growing worldwide.
In 2019, almost 112 million people, in the US alone, used a voice assistant, at least monthly, on different devices.
If you look at it, that’s quite a huge pool of users who’d love using voice-enabled emails as the technology progresses in the future. Some of the popular voice-assistant technologies currently in use include Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Samsung’s Bixby, and Microsoft Cortana.
Presently, if you are using Amazon Alexa it will help you do five basic things with your email.
Read it
Reply to it
Delete it
Archive-it
Switch to the next message
This could prove to one of the most effective and ingenious email marketing strategies of this century as it makes your message heard despite the busy schedule of subscribers. So, even if your email recipient is busy pursuing some other activity, a voice-enabled email would help you to quickly figure out the content of your email.
Not long ago, email marketing was purely driven by human instinct, be it the subject line or the send time. It was spray and pray strategy, more or less.
No more. AI has taken the hassle out of email marketing as marketers can now make accurate predictions, that too, not just with the subject lines but the send time as well. Plus, it also offers amazing recommendations.
How does AI do that?
AI, powered by machine learning, makes use of massive data to arrive at decisions that keep evolving as it learns. Though humans are involved in AI training initially, but then, by and by, they evolve themselves to find their own solutions and pathways.
Here are a few top use cases of AI in email marketing:
A. Craft outstanding subject lines
AI-powered by NLG, which runs on large and structured data sets, is quite good at churning out outstanding subject lines that could even beat copywriters’ hands down. In addition to subject lines, AI is quite capable of generating content for social shares, press releases and more. From word choice to emojis and sentiments, the copies are spot on and delivered quickly. And, more than anything generates more opens for your emails.
B. Optimization of send times
In 2020, marketers will have to optimize email send times based on historical open patterns of the audience. Say, for example, if Jonny opens his inbox between 10.00 am and 1.00 pm then you need to make sure that your emails reach his inbox during that period of time and not later.
But then, his sister Joanna opens her inbox around 5.00 pm. Manually it’s almost impossible for marketers to shoot so many emails, at different points in time, especially when tens of thousands of customers are involved.
This is where AI could chip in with its expertise. AI is programmed to handle problems of scale easily. The technology dissects mountains of data to come up with a predictive model for every contact on your list. This way, every individual, on your list, is sent an email at a time when they are most likely to open it.
C. Smarter segmentation of email marketing lists
Segmentation of the email list enables marketers to develop a relevant buyer persona, which, in turn, helps them shoot tailor-made emails. Such segmented email campaigns are known to increase revenues by a whopping 760%. However, such segmentation, though it yields good results, isn’t good enough.
Combined with AI, smarter segmentation, on the other hand, helps you generate a list that significantly accelerates open and click rates. This is because it thoroughly analyzes the behavior of the current customers and finds patterns that help you segment the audience in new ways. And, the brilliance of it is, that it gets the job done faster than what any humans could do.
Customization is central to capturing today’s audiences. And with smarter segmentation, you get optimized email lists that help your emails perform better.
4. Video centered emails
Yet another way to bolster your email marketing efforts is to add videos to your email campaign. It’s one of the proven ways to increase leads, educate customers and, in the process, enhance brand awareness.
And being a clear differentiator in terms of content, it manages to stand out from the mass of emails that you receive every day. They offer several advantages:
Immediately hooks the audience and drives engagement
More impactful than plain text as it communicates product or service information better and faster. This, in turn, ensures a faster response rate from users.
Complex topics are easily explained
Videos are viral in nature
Wide social media sharing, thus boosting a brand’s SEO ranking
Also, don’t forget, if your client’s emails are not HTML5-compatible, they won’t be able to view your videos. In such cases, you could do two things: One, you could create an image that looks like a video image. Once the user clicks on it, it would direct the user to YouTube. Just ensure that your video is on an autoplay mode. Two: Embed GIFs or cinemagraphs. According to Experian Research, 72% percent of brands using animated GIF or a cinemagraph experience higher transaction rates.
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5. AMP for emails
As it turns out, AMP or accelerated mobile pages was introduced by Google to speed up the mobile web, specifically the landing pages, blog posts, and even full websites. Now, with millions of domains already under the “AMP”ed umbrella, the open-source technology is expanding its reach to emails as well.
AMP for emails will allow email marketers to create more interactive and actionable emails with the help of AMP elements. Broadly put, when you add interactive features such as accordions, confirmation, carousels, and purchase buttons in your email, AMP will allow you to take actions inside their emails without opening a new tab or visiting the website.
Additionally, emails can be updated in terms of news articles, weather, stock prices, and so on.
Of course, each of these things is possible when you run a third party script Javascript inside these emails. However, according to Google experts, running a third party script inside an email may cause loads of security issues, which is not the case with AMP for emails. In this case, the documents are analyzed for spam, phishing, among many other things, which, in turn, ensures the safety of the user.
Other benefits of AMP for Emails
The technology will swap static content with a more dynamic web-page like the content. So users will be able to receive highly personalized content on-demand in the form of current product prices, weather updates, news, and so forth.
It’s a red hot technology. Only a few marketers are experimenting with this technology. This means you have the edge over your rivals if you have a clear cut idea on how to use AMP elements inside your emails while interacting with the users.
Known email service providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook support AMP technology. This means you can add AMP elements into the emails for most of your subscribers.
Examples of AMP emails
Pinterest: AMP allows you to enlarge each of the images, inside the email, and see more detailed information, instead of visiting the Pinterest webpage.
Doodle: With the help of the Doodle website, AMP for emails can help you create, manage, and respond to polls. Plus, you can set dates for meetings without opening a new tab.
Integrating all the latest technology and all is fine, but then don’t forget it’s the rudimentary aspects that make your emails click-worthy, that is content and design. So, by all accounts, take into consideration the following points while designing your email.
A. Content
An email shouldn’t have more than 50 words because a reader won’t be putting in more than 13.4 seconds to read it.
So, how do you write a compelling copy in 50 words? Litmus recommends the following tips:
Short sentences
Limited jargons
Localization
B. Design
Some simple ways to make email designs accessible and effective to a broader audience:
Use Real text HTML
Be cognizant of font sizes, line spacing, and text justification
High contrasting colors
Ensure visual hierarchy
C. Code
To make sure that your emails can be read as soon as they are opened you need to slightly tweak your code. A solid code-base assures accessibility.
So how do you ensure a solid code-base?
Enter alternative text for images
Make HTML tables accessible to screen readers
Use semantic HTML
Specify a language in the HTML
Going by the Lindy Effect, email marketing, at the very least, is going to around for the next 50 years. So, no matter what, make it a point to update your current email marketing tactics with the latest technologies, be it AI, voice, video or AMP for emails.
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It’s not exactly news that programmatic advertising, automation and agency consolidation have upended the media industry. Such changes have been well documented (as well as felt personally by many of our colleagues).
But change, like time, marches on, and these trends continue to turn the media world upside down. Exhibit A: the sales organizations of media and digital ad tech companies that sell to agencies. Programmatic and consolidation have imposed a new sales team structure, though many not quite realize it yet. Any organization that sells to agencies, and seek that all-important master services agreement (MSA) with any of the holding companies, will need to adapt their organizations to the new reality.
In the old days (by which I mean just a few years ago), the sales organization inside of a media company, ad network or any other entity that sold into an agency needed to be vertically aligned with the agency. For instance, GroupM has many agencies under its umbrella, and some of those agencies have multiple sub-agencies. Each agency, and sometimes even the sub-brands, acted as separate entities to sign their own contracts with media owners (or ad networks and digital ad companies).
To support these multiple contracts, the media sales organizations had layers of employees. There are executive-level salespeople who negotiated and signed I/Os with an agency or sub-agency; senior-level managers who oversaw the relationship; and legions of staff who took care of the day-to-day business of processing I/Os, executing campaigns and providing general agency support.
But as programmatic took off, as agency consolidation accelerated, and as brands began to squeeze margins, the holding companies realized they needed to drive efficiency. One strategy — which is occurring as I write this — is to replace the multiple I/Os with a global MSA at the holding company level. This approach requires less administrative overhead, lends itself to the potential of automation and provides both sides more ability to negotiate services and costs with the sellers.
As a result of global MSAs, seller sales teams can function with a new streamlined staff. They essentially need executive-level employees to negotiate the global MSAs, a rank and file sales staff who can provide the day-to-day support to get deals closed and live.
This change is notable for a few reasons. First, contrary to popular belief, programmatic and automation haven’t eliminated jobs, though it has changed the jobs themselves. Sell-side sales team members are just as busy as ever, albeit they’re doing different things.
Second, the required skill set of the executive-level salesperson is now far more complex. It’s one thing to negotiate an MSA with a sub-agency, it’s another animal altogether to negotiate one across a global holding company that spans many countries and sectors. Add to that, the holding companies are bombarded with requests for MSAs, and the executive level salesperson must figure out a way to distinguish his or her company from the rest of the pack. That takes some imagination and foresight.
What does this mean for sales organizations?
Without a doubt, sales organizations need to position themselves to this new world order. Doing so requires three main actions. First, they must organize around an executive-level salesperson who has the necessary skills to make those MSAs happen.
Next, that executive must learn and understand what it takes to create those agreements and get those deals signed. This isn’t an easy task given that the individual must understand the inner workings of a holding company along with their requirements for brand safety, SLAs, measurement, verification and so on. Add to that, this executive must articulate to the holding company why his or her company is unique and worthy of the MSA.
Finally, some reorganization is required. The senior-level salesperson, in particular, will need to be redeployed, as his or her function is essentially going away. I suspect many or most have tech skills that can easily be repurposed within their organizations.
I share this insight based on our team’s experiences working with agencies in the sincere hope that sales organizations begin making the necessary adjustments so they can be even more successful selling in ideas, concepts and products so that they can grow their businesses.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.
About The Author
Rob Rasko is a thought leader in the digital marketing industry. His venture, global digital solutions firm The 614 Group, enables results-driven client marketing efforts in the practice areas of content monetization and revenue strategy, brand safety, technology and digital systems integration, and corporate strategy.
Google launched three new features or changes to Google My Business including messaging insights, a site manager sign-up link on a business profile and changes to status names.
Messaging Insights
If you have turned on messaging within Google My Business, then Google will show you some analytics around that feature. Google now enables you to see insights based on your responsiveness to messages. You can see your insights if you have messaging enabled in your Google My Business app. All insights will be private to you and won’t be shared with your customers.
You can see the average response time to your messages. These insights will display the average wait time for a message response using the last 28 days of data. All insights will be private to you and won’t be shared with your customers.
To see your messaging insights:
(1) On your Android device, open the Google My Business app My Business.
(2) Tap Customers and then Messages.
Site Manager Sign-Up Link
A site manager sign-up link can be found in the Business profile of some claimed chain locations on Maps and Search.
With the new sign-up link, users can sign up as a site manager directly from the Business profile page. Users who use the sign-up link will be verified by Google to make sure their profile data is accurate.
You can learn more about how to do this over here.
Changes In Status Names
Google made the status names on the locations page and the Google Updates card “more accurate”. On the locations and Google Updates pages, Google will show you “verified” and “unverified” instead of “published” and “unpublished,” since those more clearly describe the possible listing states.
Important: A listing being published is not the same as being verified. If the listing is closed, suspended, or pending review, it can be verified but not published. If a listing is on Google, but no one has verified their connection to the business yet, that business is published, but not verified.
When you use a traditional CMS architecture, your content is stored in a single system or database. Unfortunately, this means everything from the front-end website to backend administration tools relies on one system, making scaling difficult.
If you’re ready to scale your website but aren’t sure where to start, adopting a headless CMS could be your ticket to increased traffic.
What Is a Headless CMS?
A headless CMS is a back-end-only content management system that works as a content bucket. Content is accessible from an API and can be readily displayed on any device without the need for a presentation layer or built-in front-end.
In a headless CMS system, content is stored in a repository “body” that can easily be separated from the presentation layer, or “head.” This is called “decoupled architecture” or a “decoupled CMS.”
Without using decoupled architecture, companies would have to scale their servers to manage large amounts of data.
Headless CMS architecture removes the presentation layer from your website and enables content to be consumed by APIs. The heads can then communicate, allowing for increased functionality such as real-time updates or multi-organization collaboration.
Because of APIs, headless CMS platforms provide better scalability for websites hosting unstructured data such as images or videos.
Using a headless CMS, you can extend your content management beyond your website and into other platforms such as point of sale systems or online marketplaces.
Additionally, headless CMS enables developers and content managers to work independently of one another. It also allows developers to create custom integrations enabling different devices to interact with the database containing the business’s content.
What Is the Difference Between a CMS and a Headless CMS?
Traditional CMS is software that needs to be installed or managed by an individual or server environment. All functionality is included in a single system, giving only one context for presenting content. Usually, this comes in the form of a webpage.
Unlike headless CMS, traditional CMS relied on content buckets to manage images, HTML, CSS, and other website content. This system made it difficult to reuse past content because it was mixed up in code and led to a high risk of content duplication.
Traditional CMS platforms were only accessible through a webpage, making it difficult for companies to create different experiences on apps and other digital platforms.
Examples of traditional CMS programs include WordPress, Sitecore, and Drupal.
As more content is coming online, managing this data in one place has become crucial. Businesses that want to stay competitive have been searching for a more flexible solution to their content management needs.
That’s where headless CMS comes in.
Using headless CMS allows users to organize and manage all website content from one place while decoupling it from the presentation layer. This ensures content is reusable and easier to scale.
It also eliminates the risk of content duplication across multiple pages because it saves everything as a single piece of content. For example, you can have an article saved once but displayed on every webpage using different layouts for each page type.
Headless content management systems also allow clients to customize and edit content without extensive knowledge or training, which is beneficial for businesses looking to scale their websites internally.
These programs are changing how businesses think about managing website content because they do not require installation or complex management of the backend.
Examples of headless CMS options include Contentful, Agility CMS, Sanity.io, and Magnolia.
Pros and Cons of Headless CMS for Marketing
While headless CMS offers many benefits to web developers and designers, they have different features for marketers.
Those looking to migrate to a headless CMS system should consider the pros and cons before jumping in.
Headless CMS Pro: Faster Content Delivery
Content delivery is extremely fast using headless CMS, which can be done in real-time through APIs and webhooks.
Marketers can easily store, edit, and publish content within a headless CMS platform without the need for content rendering.
Faster content delivery means marketers can respond to changing needs of their audience faster, which is crucial in today’s ever-changing digital landscape.
Headless CMS Pro: Often Cheaper
Headless CMS systems are generally cheaper because they don’t require expensive hosting.
This is crucial for small businesses with limited budgets that want to implement content management systems but can’t afford the associated costs of traditional platforms.
Further, marketers looking to make the most out of their annual budgets can benefit from eliminating the need for additional hosting fees.
Headless CMS Pro: No Coding Knowledge Required
Headless CMS solutions require far less coding knowledge than traditional systems, allowing marketers and content producers to manage their site rather than working with developers.
Using headless CMS, marketers can add new pages and images without waiting for developer responses or changes. This enables companies of all sizes to benefit from the scalability headless CMS provides, regardless of coding proficiency.
Headless CMS Pro: Easier to Scale
As a site’s traffic scales, its content management system has to keep up with demand and deliver web pages in a timely fashion. All this needs to happen without compromising on performance or uptime.
Headless CMS is optimized for scaling, as it can handle big data and deliver web pages faster. This can be beneficial to a website’s traffic and SEO, which contributes to important marketing KPIs.
Headless CMS Pro: Supports Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing is essential in today’s competitive environment, and a headless CMS can help companies deliver personalized content across different channels.
For example, a headless CMS can adapt to fit the different screen sizes of mobile devices and desktops while minimizing data consumption. This allows companies to deliver a better user experience.
Headless CMS also makes it easier to deliver content across multiple platforms, such as websites and social media. As a result, marketers using this tactic can engage audiences more effectively, which is especially important for businesses with multiple brands.
The more omnichannel marketing you can do, the better you can engage a wide variety of customers. If you’re looking to expand your reach across platforms, headless CMS can help you get there.
Headless CMS Con: Less Flexibility
Headless CMS systems are less flexible than traditional CMS systems because there is a clear separation between content and design.
Changes to the headless system must be managed by developers, which adds an extra step in the update process. This can make it difficult for non-technical personnel to implement updates if required, creating a bottleneck in workflows.
Headless CMS Con: Limited Access to Content Management Interfaces
While plugins and integrations can be used, companies using headless CMS systems have limited access to backend interfaces that control how the website functions.
This is especially problematic if marketers don’t have the skills and knowledge to work with APIs, limiting functionality.
Marketers who cannot manage API on their own may need to hire developers to create custom integrations and handle future updates, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Headless CMS Con: Slight Learning Curve
Marketers used to using traditional CMS systems may find it difficult to move over to headless CMS.
Some of the difficulties of learning a headless CMS system include understanding how the content is stored, implementing changes to your website, and determining what type of CMS should be used.
However, any marketer who wants to move up in the company or improve their skill set can easily overcome these difficulties.
Headless CMS Con: Relies on Other Technology
Headless CMS solutions do not have built-in integrations, so users must rely on third-party apps for their website’s SEO needs.
Similarly, headless CMS lacks the marketing analytics that traditional content management systems provide, such as Google Analytics or Adobe Omniture SiteCatalyst.
It also requires marketers to manage more tools, leading to a lack of efficiency and miscommunications.
Headless CMS Platforms to Try
If you’re looking for a headless CMS to try out, it’s a good idea to shop around and see what fits your needs.
It can be challenging to determine the exact features and functionalities you’ll need for your headless CMS, so it’s generally recommended that companies test each solution before deciding.
This way, they will know precisely how to scale their website using headless CMS infrastructure.
Contentful
Contentful is a headless CMS management and delivery solution for digital content.
Contentful provides UI, SDKs, and APIs and makes publishing content across channels with a simple app framework more efficient.
The service is free with limited features, and plans start at $489/month.
Agility CMS
Agility CMS offers the features of a headless CMS and the authoring tools of a traditional CMS.
Trusted by companies such as PepsiCo, Oxford, Mitsubishi, and more, Agility CMS is a comprehensive CMS solution.
Agility CMS offers a free trial and business plans start at $900 per month.
Magnolia
Magnolia is an API-first headless CMS offering full functionality for enterprise suites.
Magnolia allows users to edit raw content and see live previews of content.
Additionally, it offers personalization features and unlimited integrations to connect to your other important marketing tools.
Contact their sales team to learn more about Magnolia pricing.
Sanity.io
Sanity.io was built to unify content and make collaboration easy for large teams.
Sanity uses structured content to create an optimized infrastructure using your best content components.
What’s more, all content is data-driven and can easily be customized by individuals or teams.
Sanity.io pricing starts at $99 per month and can be scaled up to the enterprise level.
Headless CMS Frequently Asked Questions
What Are the Benefits of Using Headless CMS for Marketing?
Headless CMS creates fully responsive websites that load faster and are more secure. This can help improve SEO and user experiences.
What Is the Difference Between a CMS and a Headless CMS?
Traditional CMS systems manage content and front-end on a website, whereas headless CMS deals only with content.
What Does Headless CMS Mean?
Headless CMS is a back-end-only content management system that works as a content repository. This allows content to be accessible from an API without needing a front-end presentation layer.
What Are the Top Headless CMS Platforms?
Some of the most popular headless CMS platforms are Contentful, Agility CMS, Magnolia, and Sanity.io.
Headless CMS Conclusion
Headless CMS solutions are becoming more common as companies seek ways to increase their digital presence and provide a richer user experience.
These platforms offer the flexibility of decoupled CMS architecture, which allows for site content to be accessible by any front-end system.
Further, headless CMS platforms benefit marketers by offering faster content delivery that improves SEO, supports omnichannel marketing, and helps improve conversion rates.
If you’re looking to improve marketing efforts for your website, headless content management systems can provide the scalability needed for increased traffic and user engagement.
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Image source: The Ultimate Free Business Directory List for the USA – Updated 2020 
Image source: Screenshot by the author
Image source: Screenshot by the author
