position2

position2

Author: Team Position Squared

  • IDA Winners!

    Started in 2007, the International Design Awards (IDA) is an organization that recognizes smart and sustainable design in five disciplines, one of which is graphic design. Every year, IDA looks to celebrate graphic designs that not only push boundaries but also use unique elements collectively to create a lasting impression.

    On the 10th Annual IDA Awards, Position2 won Silver for the Multimedia and Interface Design Category and Bronze for the Multimedia and Website Design Category. Both awards were based on Position2’s thinking behind the Artiman Ventures website.

    Artiman Ventures, is a sector-agnostic Venture Capital firm that invests in white space companies. Artiman identifies and backs entrepreneurs that have an unfair advantage in creating or disrupting large markets. White space opportunities occur infrequently and typically at the intersection of multiple disciplines, markets, and geographies.

    Position2 created their new branding, logo, and website to reflect their contemporary thought process, new-age advancement of recognizing great white space ideas, infusing the investment they require and then facilitating the network and ecosystem to thrive in.

    The Artiman logo is designed around their three-pronged approach, which is represented with a triangle. The central concept of the triangle plays on the letter “A” of Artiman. The three vertices are anchored with: Invention; Investment; Network. It puts the entrepreneur in the center, signifying Artiman’s focus, which is, to ensure that each investment is spearheaded by an energized entrepreneur who has all the key ingredients required to propel the idea forward, successfully. Led by a team of highly experienced former entrepreneurs, their website recognizes their ground-breaking portfolio companies, and celebrates their B.E.T.A. Members (Biology, Economics, Technology, and Arts), nominated by a panel of academic advisors and opinion leaders, across multiple disciplines. Artiman catalyzes the injection of new white space ideas to give rise to a plethora of inventions that hold promise of true disruption.

    At Position2, we like turning a client’s brand story into a unique Customer Experience (CX). Through CreaMeleon, our creative group, we deliver an engaging brand experience for web and mobile platforms. With our 3D methodology – Discover, Define, Design – we give clients’ brand a holistic makeover. Our thorough structure ensures that the process is seamless and effective while the clients get maximum value. In our 3D methodology, the Discover phase primarily involves review, research, and brainstorming. Once the Discovery phase is complete, the UX expert develops the first draft of concepts with mood boards. Upon reviewing these mood boards, adjustments are made, if necessary. During the Define phase, the site structure, navigation, scope, flow, and site experience are defined. During the Design phase, the visual designer develops concepts showing how wireframes look with graphics.

    With an infectious spirit of painstaking craftsmanship and layers of brilliant creativity, CreaMeleon is a client’s perfect partner to create a great digital environment for the brand to live, adapt, and grow in. With a focused vision and a great depth perception, CreaMeleon is extremely accurate in covering the tiniest details. Staying updated on the latest news and industry best practices, CreaMeleon is constantly alert to new, disruptive ways to interpret a great design, user experience, and storytelling.

    Reference:

    https://idesignawards.com/

    https://idesignawards.com/winners/index.php?compNum=IDA+17

  • Is Your Business GDPR Compliant?

    With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) just around the corner, businesses and marketers in Europe and across the globe are gearing up to be compliant with the new set of rules. Though GDPR was adopted in April 2016, the EU Parliament and Council has given a two-year preparation or transition period for businesses to prepare for these changes. With the deadline approaching, GDPR has now become a hot topic among agencies and marketers today. So, what impact will this have on businesses and their marketing teams?

    What is GDPR?

    The EU Parliament and Council believed that the current Data Protection (1995) Act was aptly suited for technology that existed in 1995. However, rapid changes in more recent years have made it easy for marketers to collect more data than ever before. The EU Council therefore decided to adopt GDPR to make privacy laws adaptable to current evolving technology, and these new GDPR rules will go into effect on May 25th, 2018. Though it sounds a bit harsh to businesses and other data handlers, the key idea behind the policy is to build trust between the technology providers and the users. GDPR remarkably broadens the privacy rights granted to the EU citizens, and it places many new restrictions on organizations that handle personal information.

    Need more information on some key GDPR terms? Here are some basic definitions from GDPR – Article 4.

    Does GDPR affect Non-EU Businesses and Marketers?

    GDPR will affect any organization that processes or accesses EU citizen’s data. Regardless of where the organization is located, marketers worldwide will need to prepare for the GDPR compliance if they manage any EU data.

    How Does This Impact B2B Marketing/Sales?

    There are several things that marketers should consider, including:

    Opt-In/Opt-Out

    Organizations must be able to provide proof that a data subject chose to opt-in for marketing communications, such as checking an unchecked ‘opt-in’ box on a form, and did not enter the list by default. “Double opt-in” (where opt-in is followed up with a “click to confirm”) is also a best practice.

    Legitimate Interest

    If marketers use legitimate interest for direct marketing, then they will be able to send emails on an opt-out (unsubscribe) basis. However, this is not compliant with GDPR. There are several other rules of GDPR that must be met, and if appealed, proving ‘legitimate interest’ may be harder to do it legally.

    Fields and Forms

    Marketers must ensure their forms are made compliant, with a mandatory opt-in requirement. Forms must be designed in a way that complies with GDPR.

    Events

    Marketers will not be able to use event attendee lists for campaigns anymore. They should consider gathering evidence for opt-in, such as an opt-in from event stands, or a follow-up email post-event.

    CRM

    Consider managing your CRM effectively. Under the “Right to Erasure,” everyone has the right to opt out from your list. These unsubscribed members must be removed or deleted from your records and any other databases.

    ABM and GDPR

    Consent

    Every organization must prove that the subject has consented to the processing of his/her personal data.

    Relevance

    B2B marketing communications, regardless of the medium, must be about products and/or services that are relevant to recipient’s job title. The content should be made relevant to the individual, not just to an account.

    Email Marketing

    We have an ambiguous situation for email marketing in regarding whether to consider a corporate email ID as a personal email and to communicate on an opt-in basis, or to consider the email ID as a corporate subscriber, meaning no no opt-in required. Therefore, B2B marketers will need to make a choice between consent and legitimate interest when sending emails.

    Penalties for Non-Compliance

    Organizations will face heavy penalties in the case of non-compliance with GDPR. Fines could be up to €20 million or 4% of organization’s annual turnover, whichever is greater.

    Checklist to Prepare for GDPR

    The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) advises following their checklist to prepare for GDPR compliance. Check out their checklist here.

    Conclusion

    Though GDPR may create complexities for a few businesses, we can take a positive stance on it. Ultimately, GDPR is about creating transparency between businesses and the customers, which builds more relevant and valued relationships between both the parties whilst ensuring the customers’ data is protected.

    Disclaimer: Please do not use this post as a guide to GDPR policy and consult your legal team for any clarifications about your company’s GDPR compliance. This blog is for informative purpose only.

    Resources

    https://gdpr-info.eu/
    http://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018
    http://blog.strategic-ic.co.uk/gdpr-digital-marketing-what-do-you-need-to-know
    https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/03-03-2018-gdpr-and-digital-marketing-how-your-company-will-be-affected
    http://www.privacy-regulation.eu/en/article-4-definitions-GDPR.htm
    https://trailhead.salesforce.com/modules/european-union-privacy-law-basics/units/get-to-know-eu-privacy-law
    https://www.slideshare.net/kwanzoo/abm-display-advertising-success-in-the-world-of-gdpr-ppt
    https://www.aliaspartners.com/gdpr-recommendations-abm/
    https://www.slideshare.net/kwanzoo/abm-pov-episode-16-gdpr-and-its-impact-on-abm-advertising

  • 2018 Digital Marketing Trends

    Welcome to 2018, a new year where only the strongest fads and marketing techniques will survive. Many successful marketing techniques of the past year have proven their usefulness and will continue to grow and be implemented in 2018. As we enter this new year, let’s take a look at the fads that are here to stay.

    1. Targeted Ads and Personalization

    A long-standing marketing technique, targeted ads have gotten even more advanced and more focused. With new ways to break down your target market and find new potential customers, speaking to each individual audience has never been easier. Personalization in all aspects of your campaigns will lead to building greater personal connections with your prospects. The array of target ads and personalization options with specified messaging in marketing campaigns is endless. For example, you can target teachers, healthcare professionals, and IT administrators, all within the same campaign.

    2. Video Marketing

    On-demand and live webinars are paving the way for curated content when it comes to video marketing. These webinars often have experts presenting hot topics within their industries, which is a very enticing viewing opportunity. The way in which information can be presented and explained in these formats is quite unique – if you are hosting a live webinar, direct interaction with your viewers is a positive for you and the viewer. The data collected from these activities is top-notch.

    3. Continuously Engage Throughout the Customer Journey

    Taking the above into account, connecting with customers during one or two specific stages of the customer journey is not enough anymore. Picking the right content and right channel to engage with your customer depends heavily on your knowledge of the customer’s buying stage. This opens more doors to connect and engage with your customers, which in turn will provide more leads and data for your team.

    By incorporating these key digital marketing trends into your marketing activities this year, you are sure to see some vast improvements in lead quality, engagement, and data collected. Using these trends and improvements gives you an advantage over your competition and will help your business be more successful.

    Reference Material

    How Digital Marketing Will Change In 2018: 15 Top Trends. (2017, December 18)

    Click here

    10 Marketing Trends to act on in 2018. (2018, January 03)

    Click here

  • Account-Based Marketing In 2018

    Account-Based Marketing, or ABM, is when you approach B2B marketing strategically to reach out to potential customers. Also known as key account marketing, it is based on customer account awareness. Here, the organization considers both individual prospects and customer accounts as one market and communicates accordingly.

    ABM in 2018

    ABM was one of the top trending stories in marketing in 2017 and is likely to grow significantly in the B2B marketing domain in 2018. However, 2018 may see a shift in the focus and implementation of ABM strategies.

    Most companies are using highly customized one-on-one program with a few existing accounts, and others are also using segmented and less personalized one-to-many programs. These programs focus on acquiring new logos with broadly targeted prospective accounts.

    Both these approaches have individual merits; however, the industry is yet to use a blended approach to ABM. This blended approach will be the focus in 2018 as companies scale their approach.

    Here’s what the experts are saying:

    “My prediction for ABM in 2018 is that it will be on its way to becoming the dominant B2B demand creation strategy, and those who don’t get on board will be increasingly left behind. More and more companies are using technology, data and account insights to make smarter choices about the best path to growth,” said Megan Heuer, Vice President, Research at SiriusDecisions.

    Trish Bertuzzi, President and Chief Strategist of The Bridge Group, said, “My advice for people to succeed in ABM in 2018 is to stop thinking ABM M=Marketing and start thinking ABR R=Revenue. Any successful strategy is about one thing and the one thing is the cha-ching. A great account-based strategy isn’t just about Marketing doing something differently. It also requires that Sales and Sales Development change the way they interact with buyers. When the entire organization aligns their activities around ABR it brings it all together.”

    Jon Miller, CEO and Co-founder of Engagio, said, “My prediction is that in 2018, companies will recognize that just buying targeted ads does not represent an ABM strategy. You’re not going to get a senior executive at a large company to engage with you just by showing them an ad. Good ABM isn’t about waiting around to see if someone clicks an ad; it’s about crafting relevant, personalized messages and reaching out to the right personas at the right companies proactively.”

    5 useful tips to run a successful ABM campaign in 2018:

    Here are some useful tips to run effective ABM campaigns in 2018:

    #1 Use Marketing Automation Selectively and Effectively: Avoid misusing or overusing marketing automation when implementing ABM strategy.

    #2 Create your “List” Judiciously: When strategizing for ABM, focus on a list of a small, selective group of prospects that will fit your customer profile perfectly.

    #3 Recycle and Reutilize Your Success Stories: Check what worked well in your previous accounts and reuse those strategies in the current account if it fits.

    #4 Get your Data Correct: Ensure that your ABM strategies are based on solid data. Remember, the more you work on gathering relevant data, the more chance of success your strategy has.

    #5 Be Disruptive: This might be easier said than done. Your ABM strategy should be designed in a way that it will shake up your prospective client and give them food for thought.

    So, we can conclude by saying that ABM is currently the most talked-about digital marketing strategy to reach out to your potential prospects, educate them, and turn them into customers. However, as a smart marketer, you need to avoid any pitfalls and strategize well to make it work for you. Come up with a data-driven plan for your 2018 ABM campaign effort that will give you an edge in this competitive business marketing world where competitors are vying for every inch of customer’s attention.

    References:

    Leavitt, R. (2017, December 20). The Best of ABM: Resources for 2018 Planning – ITSMA. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from Click Here

    Redlinger, B. (n.d.). Prophets of Profit 2018: ABM Experts Give Their Predictions & Advice – Part 1. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from Click Here

    Schmukler, M. (n.d.). How to Use Account-Based Marketing Wisely in 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from Click Here

    Scientist, M. L. (2017, November 29). 2018 Planning Tips: Getting Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Results Ramped Up. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from Click Here

  • Why Preventive Website Maintenance is Better than Reactive Maintenance

    At the crux of a technological revolution, “good” is no longer good enough. In addition to nurturing success by the book, businesses today use “street smarts” to stay at the forefront of the industry and provide optimal products and services to their customers. Now more than ever, a company’s online presence plays a key role in delivering the brand experience to its customers and acts as a salesman for the company. Therefore, a business cannot afford to have its website down for a single minute.

    What can effective website maintenance do for you and your business? The website is a company’s first point of interface with a new prospect. Prospects can find the site through various touchpoints, such as social media, mobile, desktop, email, Google search, or through website referrals. It is your job to guarantee a seamless user experience by building a clear path for prospects to follow in order to find the relevant pages that serve their business needs.

    Reinforcing trust in your customers’ minds

    Ten years ago, customers were reluctant to transact online, and for good reason – web technologies were in an evolutionary phase then. The reliability of e-commerce was uncertain, and everyone was skeptical about threats to customer security.

    Fast forward to today, and e-commerce has now become an integral part of our society – customers utilize e-commerce platforms everyday to stay updated on company offerings and make quick, convenient purchases from the comfort of their homes. Take the retail industry, for example. Online retail chains that use innovative technologies and sophisticated e-commerce channels are able to establish a sense of trust and security in their customers and can increase sales through opening up new channels for purchase.

    Increasing your business footprint

    Digital marketing plays a key role in promoting your business, and you always have to be on the lookout for opportunities to reach your target audience. A well-maintained website that integrates the latest technologies will likely elicit the best digital marketing campaign results. No matter what platform you use to promote content (drip marketing, Facebook, Twitter, Google, or email), you need to ensure your content stays updated and relevant at all times and that the links from these platforms to your website are not broken.

    Say goodbye to website downtime

    A website that faces the embarrassment of a “downtime” online not only loses business, but also compromises the trust of its customers. From the perspective of the customer, website downtimes are often frustrating because the customer is prevented from learning more about the company. At the same time, there is a constant stream of technology upgrades that are being brought to light, and it is extremely difficult for companies to integrate all these programs into your website efficiently. Preventive maintenance ensures you remain on top of the game all the time and never have to worry about a downtime again. Such proactive maintenance keeps your customers engaged and helps accelerate demand for your products.

    How do I solve this?

    Professional website maintenance providers are crucial in ensuring all potential sources of trouble are nipped in the bud. Deploying proactive monitoring techniques to ensure your website remains updated from both a content and technology perspective is essential to always stay on top of your game. Be on the lookout for software upgrades and security patches to ensure your website remains on and ready.

  • Simple SEO Tips to Increase Traffic

    “I optimized my website and did the best I could, but I could not find that one robust tactic that gives me a high return on investment.”

    SEO is always evolving. While some strategies in the past have proved to be profitable, they may not be as effective today. However, there are still some optimization strategies and tactics that are still important today and should not be ignored.

    Here are the four simple things to help your overall SEO results:

    1. Revise Low-Traffic/Low Quality Pages

    Depending on how large your site is, there is a limit on pages crawled by search engines. The main target should be to let search engines crawl the most valuable/quality pages of your website. Pages that have low quality or low traffic should be removed to let search engines crawl the most important pages.

    To do this, check if your site has following things:

    – Pages that are old and are no longer relevant to your business

    – Blog posts that are outdated

    – Pages with thin content (pages will less content or having little or no original content)

    – Multiple pages that can be merged and grouped under a single theme or topic

    – Pages that mostly contain low search volume keywords

    Keeping all such pages aside will pave a way for search engines to reach your higher-quality pages and are likely to appear on search results, thereby improving the overall quality of your website.

    However, be careful when removing those pages because you could lose link equity and website authority you have built. It is recommended to set up a permanent 301 redirect to ensure search engines and users are sent to the most relevant pages.

    2. Optimize URL Architecture and Structure

    URL architecture and its structure plays a significant role in modern website optimization. A wise approach in URL structure revision and optimization is to get rid of URL structure and set a hierarchy instead. A hierarchical URL architecture allows search engines to better understand what your website content is about.

    One simple way to do this is to create nested buckets under each of the individual pages within your website. Your home page will have the largest bucket since it is about the core theme of your content. Then, there will be second level-pages, under which you will create third level pages or blog posts that are related to the second level pages. When you create deeper page levels, make sure they all fit within the same theme as the second level page.

    In the same way, other second level pages should follow the same hierarchy bucketing as all related content under it. The benefit of this is creating a meaningful flow of your website content, not just throwing your various website topics randomly. Such URL folder structure allows link equity passed on to the main themes under each hierarchy and improve the authority. Search engines will weigh the content groups and are likely to churn better ranking positions.

    3. Improve Page Load Time

    Page speed is another simple SEO effort yet often discarded. The fact that page speed is a ranking factor denotes how important it for website optimization.

    You can check your website speed using Google’s speed test tools such as PageSpeed Insights and Test my site which will bring out your website speed status and areas that need improvement.

    To boost website speed, use a reputable web host that can give you secure hosting and offers overall page speed improvement. You may also want to check on the number of plugins you have and reduce them because each plugin requires processing effort for each page to load. The same approach applies to CSS, JavaScript, images, and videos.

    4. Optimize Internal Linking Structure

    This is another area most people overlook in their optimization strategy. Internal links can add valuable SEO benefits when done correctly and are important due to technical and user experience.

    Internal links help search engines discover more pages that are important and relevant to the page it crawled. They also help improve user experience as it helps users find more related content they are looking for.

    Building an internal linking structure is simple but should be done by taking into account technical and user experience impacts. Avoid too many internal links as it may confuse search engine crawlers with numerous content and distract users.

    Remember to include internal links from any relevant pages to all your important pages – solutions, products, or services. In the linking text, try to use keywords related to the page you want to link to. This will ensure optimization of relevant keywords while improving internal linking structure. At the same time, check all the internal links to make sure they are only relevant links and that there are no crawl errors.

    There are many other simple SEO tactics that can be easily employed to improve rankings and traffic and these are few of them. If you are looking for deeper optimization tips, here is what you can look up to: 4 Tips to Take Your SEO Effort to the Next Level

  • 4 Tips to Take Your SEO Effort to the Next Level

    The days when you could fool the search engines with coding and other black hat SEO stuff are gone. Search engines are being continually updated and upgraded with the latest intelligence and ability, increasing the need for improved SEO tactics and strategies.

    Having said this, there are several factors that make an SEO strategy successful: on-page activities, off-page activities, technical SEO, and non-technical SEO. These are the age-old factors that will always play a role in SEO success. Apart from these, here are few more points to remember to take your SEO efforts to the next level:

    1. Technical SEO roles and optimization effort

    Most of the organizations today have a separate technical team that maintains their website’s technical space. This team may include web developers, content marketers, link building strategists, and an IT technical team to manage security and data storage.

    Many times, the coordination between these teams are overlooked and may affect the overall SEO effort. The ideal optimization strategy is to have a constant coordination across all teams for a clear understanding of the impact one team might have on the other. It is critical to include technical SEO in the optimization planning process, and this should be incorporated at an early stage of planning. A well-coordinated team internally will ensure smooth implementation of technical SEO recommendations, optimization, site structure enhancement, etc.

    2. On-page and off-page activities balance

    On-page and off-page elements are both equally important to scale up optimization effort. There should be a good balance between the on-page and off-page SEO activities. Consider the following activities to create a balance between the two:

    On-page SEO efforts:

    1. Website architecture and folder structure
    2. Sitemap and website navigation
    3. Meta tags optimization (using a thorough keyword research and mapping)
    4. Fixing technical errors
    5. Crawlability and indexability
    6. Content updates: refresh and addition
    7. Site security
    8. Main website and sub-domain inter-connection
    9. Internal linking structure
    10. Site speed (desktop and mobile) and mobile-friendliness

    Off-page SEO Efforts:

    1. Social visibility and engagement
    2. Articles, news and blog post generation
    3. Content sharing

    3. Segregate on-page and off-page SEO responsibilities

    While there are tasks that are evident on its own, whether they belong to technical or non-technical SEO, there are some that can be missed out on both areas. Such elements can have a destructive effect on the website, user experience, rankings and traffic, and finally the overall sales.

    One of the things that is powerful in content strategy is the combined effort of the on-page, off-page, technical and non-technical SEO to set the organic traffic flow right. This may require different combinations of efforts amongst all the factors – website restructure (whether to use sub-domain or not) and revamp, content that is user driver (informative) and supported by off-page activities, and research form external partners.

    4. Create an SEO content system

    Content generation in any form requires some alignment that will direct all the SEO optimization towards one single goal. Content created from various baselines will not only disregard the intent of other content, but also dilute the optimization efforts altogether.

    To ensure that content is in line with the optimization goal, create a system that will help you get a quick reference for content creators. This will answer multiple questions, like what images are to be used and how should it be optimized, what should the meta tags be, what to use as headers and how should it be optimized, what is the intent of the content, and who is the target audience.

    Lastly, to stay on top of the competition, you need to build a connection between technical and non-technical SEO effort, on-page, and off-page activities balance. Good coordination across teams will not only help you stride towards your SEO goals, but will also find you new opportunities to stay ahead of the competition.

  • 5 Things Every CMO Must Know About Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

    Look before you leap! We learnt this lesson from childhood. Unfortunately, many of us forget this as we dabble with our hyper competitive and fast paced work regimes. Marketers are no exception and neither are their Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) projects because results are expected quickly – too quickly!

    In recent years, CRO has gained significant traction. Many senior marketers want to start CRO projects. Their aim is to increase the conversion rates of people visiting their website. This, of course, is not a bad objective, but many times, it is their “only” objective.

    So, what do marketers need to focus on as they embark on their CRO journey? Here is a list of the top 5 items:

    1. CRO is not A/B Testing

    CRO is about deploying measurable techniques that can be used to improve customer experience and consequently website or landing page(s) performance, which adds to the company’s bottom line. A/B testing is exactly what it is – you test two variants of the same experience. This is a small component of CRO. In many instances, A/B testing may not be needed in a CRO project.

    For example, before you start a CRO project, you need to thoroughly analyze your site’s analytics data. If data indicates glaring problems that can be fixed immediately, you should fix them – don’t A/B test! Examples of problems include page load times, issues with Mobile load, or UI. Look for ways to improve customer experience immediately and great performance will follow.

    2. Conversion Rate is Not Important

    Yes, it’s contrary to what many marketers believe what a CRO’s end goal should be. However, conversion rate should not be the ultimate KPI. What really matters is business KPIs such as Number of Customer Wins and Monthly Recurring Revenue. These objectives are harder to measure and take longer to report.

    Ultimately, a CRO project needs to measure the bottom line impact in any business.

    3. CRO is Multidisciplinary – Put the Right Team in Place

    CRO can get complicated. It is a methodology that taps into skills from Business consulting to UI/UX to Content to Analytics.

    Here’s how these critical digital disciplines interconnect on a CRO project:

    • Business consulting helps you position your solution.
    • Marketing tells you if you have the right offer for the persona at the right time.
    • Analytics helps you identify the baseline performance and gives you regular data segmented by source, device etc.
    • Copy teams tell you if your content is persuasive and if your value proposition is clear.
    • Design teams will help identify and resolve the UI/UX challenges.
    • Content teams guide you with the right keyword strategy and SEO.
    • Developers and peers who are tech savvy help bring the technical solutions to solve a problem.
    • Marketing Automation and CRM teams inform you of the much-needed history on consumer behavior, sales cycle, type of content that has worked, and how best to retain customers/prospects – a.k.a offers intelligence around loyalty and customer advocacy.

    There is no CRO without these multifaceted teams integrated together.

    4. Statistical Significance is a Crucial Factor

    Here’s a good reality check – analyze your home page traffic (specifically unique visitors/month) and existing website conversion rate. Next, use a test duration calculator (from VWO or Optimizely). Finally, make some reasonable assumptions on the number of variations and minimum improvement to expect.

    You might get surprised to see the recommended test duration with statistical significance, especially if you are a B2B marketer or in a niche business. This kind of check helps you plan realistic goals and time frame for CRO.

    Once you start the CRO project, resist the urge to end tests quickly. Look for the best-case statistical significance you can live with – we recommend 90% +. Some marketers make changes on 75%, but just know that higher statistical significance means better chances of making the winning variation do well in the long run.

    5. Focus on the Strategy

    Focusing on individual LPs or certain website CTAs alone cannot drive significant business impact from CRO.

    Instead, focus on a larger content strategy based on target personas and corporate or product messaging. For example, ask questions: who is the target audience for a whitepaper? What they already know and how this whitepaper will impact them in a positive way? What will be the next logical action for that persona? Questions like these will help you build the right long term strategy and pool the right resources together for success.

    Conclusion:

    Even though CRO has gained significant interest among digital marketers, a lot of them don’t know what to expect, how to read results, or how to differentiate between tactics and strategy. Coincidently, according to an HBR article from 2012, marketers depend on data for 11% of their decisions, while a majority struggle with statistics, and a few who use data don’t do it the right way. Given the way marketing data has exploded in the last few years, we believe the proportion of people in the last category has increased. We hope the tips in this article help you navigate the complex CRO landscape with more planning and caution.

  • Here’s What You Need to Know About the Google ‘Fred’ Update

    Google released an unconfirmed update on March 8th, 2017 which is being called the “Fred.” As per initial reports, the sites affected by this update saw up to 90% drop in organic traffic.

    What is the Google Fred algorithm update?

    While it remains vague as to what this update is specifically targeting, Fred is believed to be one of those updates which go by unnoticed until you start seeing changes in your website rankings or traffic. The chatter in the SEO community suggest that the Fred update affects these kinds of sites:

      1. Sites with low quality and thin content – Research findings from Barry Schwartz suggested that most sites that lost the most in terms of search engine rankings and organic traffic were those that have “SEO content” – content that is created solely for improving ranks in search engines and not around the user’s search intent. This is a clear indication that Google is keeping true to its goal of serving quality content that focuses on customer needs.
      2. Sites with low quality backlinks, i.e., where a number of the sites that link back to your site are low in domain authority.
      3. Sites with ads that have low or no relevance to the content on the site.
      4. Revenue or lead generation sites with lots of ads and not enough content created around the target audience’s search intent.

    5 things you can do to safeguard against the Google Fred update

    1. Build quality content – Quality content is not entirely about high word count or keyword density. Make sure that your content — even if it is low on word count — is relevant, provides unique value to the reader, addresses the needs of your audience and appeals to them.

    1. Use a website auditing tool to analyze what kind of content is ranking and driving traffic to your website by keeping a watch on key metrics such as bounce rate and time spent on page. This will help you understand what is and isn’t working to make the necessary content changes.
    2. Focus on creating unique content that clearly answers relevant queries — content that people want to read, not what you want them to read.

    2. Monitor website traffic – Keeping an eye on website analytics will help you understand how these updates are affecting your site ranking and traffic. When you begin to see unusual changes in your ranks or traffic, check the dates of the changes against the dates of the algorithm updates.

    3. Audit the ads on your site – To avoid being penalized by Google:

    1. Get rid of deceptive ads which can be deemed to be black hat SEO and harm high-quality content.
    2. Ads placed within articles and videos that auto-play when the user lands on the page affect user experience and in turn increase the chances of attracting a penalty.
    3. Ads with a dofollow link can be deemed to be black hat. Make sure all ads on your website have a nofollow attribute. Similarly, make sure all your ads on other websites have a nofollow attribute.

    4. Quality backlinks – If you find that a site irrelevant to yours has linked to you, reach out to them and ask them to remove your link or use Google’s Disavow Tool to disavow these links. Doing so will allow you to avoid a manual penalty from Google. If you have any affiliate links, make sure all the affiliate links have a nofollow attribute on them

    Use a link audit software to keep check of backlinks from other sites. Here are some Backlink analysis tools you can make use of:

    1. Ahrefs
    2. Moz Open Site Explorer
    3. Linkody
    4. Majestic SEO

    In addition to these, there are multiple tools out there that can help analyze the quality of your backlinks.

    5. Improve user experience – Focus on keeping your site user-friendly by optimizing for all platforms, eliminate unnecessary UX barriers and make the site easy to navigate, use schema markups to create well-presented search results and overall create a good site architecture.

    Focus on content quality and SEO compliance

    There is no doubt that Google is rolling out updates on a regular basis, and you may not get confirmation on every update. The best thing you can do to avoid being a victim of penalization through these updates is to constantly make sure that you are always serving quality content to your users which are not centered around search engine algorithms or created only for revenue generation.

    In addition, keep close watch for Google algorithm updates so that you can reduce the chance of being caught unprepared.

    Sources:

  • Opening New Doors for Design Thinking

    When a group of ambitious designers meet, you know something hot is brewing. Take a closer look and you’ll find them murmuring away about how to improve user experience on their next big undertaking.

    Design thinking is related closely with, but not limited to, designers. It takes a strategic approach to design better products and can be used by people from any field – art, literature, science, music, engineering or business.

    The Interaction Design Foundation (IDF) aims to make this approach more commonly known to everyone. IDF has a presence in about 85 countries where local groups get together to learn and develop new skills.

    We have one such group in Bangalore, India and we had the first IDF meet up on 18th February, 2017 at the Position2 office. Our team participated and collaborated with designers from across the city. We were pleasantly surprised to have some participants from other cities as well, who came just to be a part of this discussion group. This meet up was attended by 24 people in all.

    We have hosted two more such sessions on 11th March, 2017 and 29th April, 2017 respectively.

    In a snapshot

    Over three sessions, the IDF meet ups covered a wide range of topics:

    1. The first session was all about introductions and networking. Everyone was getting to know each other. This session was also used to set the ball rolling for the other sessions. It was decided that in the future sessions, a common problem area in User Interaction would be identified and the participants would brainstorm and come up with suitable solutions for them.
    2. The second session covered a more focused set of points – the future of interaction design vis-a-vis web, mobile, virtual reality (VR), AR and their applications. The group also discussed the present challenges of website and app design. An offshoot of this discussion led to listing the pros and cons of UI/UX.
    3. The third session saw the group dive right into the nitty-gritties of user experience, taking food delivery apps – Swiggy and Hungry Panda – as examples. The group divided themselves into teams and each took up an app and analyzed it. They traced the user journey and identified user personas – slicing the apps down to the tiniest details.

    Having declared Swiggy the winner, the participants proceeded to set the agenda for the next meet up – User Research. Don’t miss it!

    Missed out on some good moments? No problem, join our next session for a quick catch up and more conversations #meetup4