What my two-year-old taught me about User Experience

My two year-old daughter is already familiar with touchscreen devices.

She plays games on the iPad and Mummy’s iPhone. We think that’s great – along with being entertained, she’s developing fine-motor skills and familiarity with ubiquitous technology, not to mention the educational content of the games we download for her. (And before anyone calls me out as an irresponsible father, fear not, as she’ll spend far more time running around with a cardboard box and wooden spoon.)

Whilst watching her tap, stab and swipe her way through the apps and the iOS interface, I began to notice some interesting patterns that beautifully illustrated common User Experience design challenges.

My child is not wrong

When playing one of her iPad games, she would often attempt to hit something that simply did nothing at all. She would tap and tap away at it until she got so frustrated that she’d had enough and hit the physical ‘Home’ button on the body of the device, taking her back to the desktop where she would find a different app to play with.

Now, we could easily dismiss this as a small child’s inability to use the app properly – the user was at fault. However, it’s a cardinal rule of any right-thinking designer that if a user gets confused or struggles to complete a task, it’s not them we should be blaming – it’s us.

If something is hard for the intended user to operate, we have to face facts and accept that our product isn’t designed well enough for them. We need to make our interfaces and processes in such a way that achieving goals is intuitive and easily achievable. Otherwise, we’re failing the user and they too will hit the big ‘Home’ button and go somewhere else.

Or we really lose it and smash the offending device against a kerb.

Flashy bright things

One particular game my daughter likes involves a particularly annoying cartoon character running down a path and collecting berries. The player swipes him left or right to help him avoid obstacles. She does fine with this for the most part, until a flashing circle pops up in the top of the screen, signifying that another character is talking.

The game is still going, the little whiney character is still running and the user needs to keep playing or they’ll crash. However, the flashy, blinking light is still there – and my daughter abandons her character and begins stabbing away at the circle instead. The character piles into a bush and the game is over.

What’s happened here is that the designers of the game have distracted the player from their key mission with an irrelevant or unrelated visual element.

And a teeth-grindingly irritating central character.

 

Children are like magpies, in the respect that they are innately attracted to flashing, bright and noisy things. The reason for that is – we are ALL attracted to flashing, bright and noisy things. It’s just that as we grow, most of us develop the self-restraint not to run up and grab those things the moment we see them. Unless, that is, we’re online, at which point we devolve back into easily distracted children with a gnat’s attention span.

You can read plenty online about the lizard-brain psychology at play – but the key is that users are so very easily distracted. Sometimes, this can’t be helped – but if you’ve intentionally placed something on your page that inadvertently draws your user from the key mission – collect berries, find the appropriate navigation element, completing a purchase – then you’re essentially taking out your own legs from under you. Common examples I see are animated ad banners, auto-rotating carousels and (I’m sad to report) a spinning 3D logo!

If it looks like a lion…

Another key design lesson from these last two examples is – if something is supposed to be a button – make it clearly resemble a button. If something is not interactive – style it so that it’s also clear. Nothing annoys users more than clacking away at inert items that they expect to do something – and missing interactive elements that look inert.

Interface familiarity

I mentioned before that my daughter would play with Mummy’s iPhone, as well as the family iPad. She never uses my phone. This isn’t because Daddy is mean and keeps it hidden away. It’s because she’s tried it and it didn’t meet her expectations.

See, I have an Android phone – same size and similar appearance to the iPhone, as well as a somewhat similar interface. But, what sets it apart is the absence of any physical ‘Home’ button – my daughter’s ‘go to’ resort when she’s bored or frustrated with whatever app she’s using.

She’s tried my phone out and managed perfectly well until she needed to get back to the home screen – at which point, she began stabbing the plastic case where she expected a ‘Home’ button to be. Sadly, it wasn’t there. She tried and tried, looked all over the device, but eventually gave up, grumpily handed me back the phone and went off to find Mummy.

What’s happened here is the embodiment of a key User Experience theory – expectations are based on previous experience.

Her expectations of where a key navigational element should be are based on her previous experience with the iPad and iPhone. Now that she couldn’t find her most essential interface elements, she’d experienced what any of us do when our favourite piece of software upgrades and moves the ‘Print’ button.

Yes Microsoft ribbon. I’m talking about you. Where’s the Print button? WHERE’S THE DAMN PRINT BUTTON???

 

We get confused, we’re forced to hunt, cognitive load increases, frustration may well begin and before long, we’re not playing anymore – we’re leaving. Often, we’re not coming back.

We can help the user’s transition through such changes – on-boarding messaging signposting any key function that may have moved (and highlighting anything else new the user might need to know), or simply researching what functionality is most critical for the user, ensuring it isn’t hidden away in any dramatic new ‘innovative interface’.

There’s a good reason why shopping baskets on ecommerce websites are most commonly in the top right-hand corner of a page – it’s where users expect it to be. If you want to be a maverick designer from the wrong side of the tracks and pop it in the bottom left – then you go for it. However, you’d better a) have a damn good reason for doing it and b) have a damn good strategy for informing the user that it’s there.

Top right-hand corner for a site’s basket is now part of the language of the user’s expectation. To move it is to require a user to unlearn something instinctive and build new cognitive bridges – something that users are hugely resistant to. Your reasons for doing this have to be better than “to stand out from the crowd”.

My two-year-old is not your User

Unless you are Pixar, CBeebies or the producer of animal-shaped biscuits, then you may well be thinking what possible relevance the actions of my daughter could have to you and your product design. She has limited communication skills, the attention span of, well, a toddler and has no disposable income.

This last point is of course completely untrue – she may not hold the purse strings, but she is the most powerful influencing force in our spending habits bar none, a point advertisers are certainly not oblivious to.

The point I’m trying to make is that it is only through close observance of your user that you’ll truly learn what you need to change to make them happy. Observing your design in real-world use can reveal often-unexpected insights into what works and what clearly doesn’t.

Also, whilst testing with users who match your intended audience is a given, there are often surprising insights that can be gleaned from considering other, more leftfield sources.

When it comes to the toddler factor – observing someone looking for the most intuitive, essential and visual elements helps to inform us about some hard-coded truths about User Experience and interface design.

 

P.S. As a final aside – throughout this article, I have blithely referred to a two-year-old using cutting-edge computing technology with relatively few problems. Whilst I of course will tell you that my child is a genius, we must also pause and appreciate an interface and product design that allows an individual who has only just learnt to walk to navigate complex user journeys with ease. If we can design to this level of intuition now, what will be possible when my daughter has a two year old of her own? We live, my friends, in exciting times.

P.P.S. She is also a genius.

Source: Branded

The post What my two-year-old taught me about User Experience appeared first on Jass V.

Back to the … Vanilla UI Framework – Part II

Pattern library

A pattern library is created in addition to the style guide document. It collates each of the various design patterns into one place.

What we mean by a design pattern is any repeating styles used across a site. This isn’t usually needed on small projects, but it’s the first step to coming up with a plan to tackle the front end architecture.

A pattern library should be collated during the initial project meetings by both the relevant UI developer and designer, as a way of breaking a project down into its smallest component parts and to enable a good understanding by the UI developer of the work involved. This step also benefits project managers, as more accurate timings can be produced.

This is beneficial for the designer to spot any potential issues with a design and refine inconsistencies, as well as allowing the UI developer to create an organised CSS plan from the designs before they jump into any actual code.

It’s also useful for other developers who might begin work on the project at a later date, as it lays out all existing patterns in a page with mark-up. A great example of one of these is the Mailchimp pattern library.

Once you have all these elements together alongside the styling that comes from the style guide, you should build up the pattern library in code. You should include the HTML that goes into producing these patterns as a reference for any other developers who may work on this.

Again, this comes down to limiting the amount of time a developer is writing repeating code.

Project architecture

When sitting down to a large web project, it’s always best to lock the designer and the developers in a room to go through the design meticulously, to ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of UI/UX direction and expectations.

From this initial breakdown of the design, a UI developer should have a good roadmap for moving forwards in terms of how they are to tackle the code and structure they intend to write. They should have a good idea of all the classes and styles you are going to be writing and a way to break them down into the simplest of solutions, always keeping in mind the importance of low specificity css.

Making use of the pattern library can help to identify repeating styles that can be broken up into small functional classes for global use. It can also identify the number layouts used in the design, and come up with a good solution that caters for as many of them as possible, with as little css as possible. For this we use layout classes in combination with last classes, and for our rules we use Susy to generate our grids maths.

Taking a meticulous approach as part of the project’s planning phase before sitting down and writing any code, should enable you to start to see your projects as a collection of globally styled elements and parts rather than individual pages to be styled.

From all of this you can work out a good selector naming convention (we go with BEM) for the whole project, as well as getting a good idea of the amount of work which is required to achieve the perfect end product. This should also make your project manager happy.

The language – SCSS

Why do we use SASS over LESS, and why SCSS and not SASS? There are many articles on the subject, as any technology goes for front end development – there are numerous solutions out there. The trick is finding the one that best suits you, and we go with SCSS for the following reasons:

We found LESS to be counter intuitive when bringing a more programmatic approach to writing our styles. LESS aims to be as much like CSS in style, syntax and structure, and while this is a nice thought for new users who are writing it, there are some issues which make less fun to write.

Another great benefit to SASS is the compass library. This comes with all kinds of handy tools for an eager front end developer to make good use of.

Now for why we choose SCSS over SASS: in version 3 of SASS, the ‘sassy CSS’ syntax was introduced to replace the old syntax for SASS. It builds on the existing syntax of CSS, which every developer should be familiar with. This takes away the opinionated syntax of SASS, but leaves the developer with all the tools available when using it. So any valid CSS would also be valid as SCSS.

On top of this, we find SCSS easier to read because it follows the same rules as CSS, which we are all used to reading. There isn’t a learning gap for any developers who are new to the team.

There are arguments on all sides of this; I’d recommend having a go with the different syntaxes yourself and decide. At the end of the day, it’s a tool to help you achieve more for less work, so it’s entirely down to personal preference.

Responsive – Breakpoint

So there are a few methods by which we could make a site responsive in our CSS. Back in the day it’d be writing single media queries and putting all of your rules in them for whatever you wanted changing at certain sizes.


@media screen and (max-width: *some value*) {
*some rules*
}


Thankfully we no longer have massive media queries. By using SCSS, we can make use of variables and mixins, and have a more inline approach to writing our media queries.

Regarding the inline approach, there are a couple of ways you could go about it. You could write your own mixins or use some of the ones which are available from sites like css-tricks, or like us, you could make use of an existing mixin library.

We use breakpoint SCSS for our responsive queries and the results are amazing. Organised media queries in line with the elements they affect, make things much easier and much more rapid to develop responsively, especially when setting your dimensions in variables so you can refer to a list of custom breakpoints whenever you need to.

We don’t ever work to a standard list of dimensions, instead we cater for the major breakpoints like 768px for an iPad etc. Our method is more of an “add a breakpoint at a point that the site breaks” approach.

Obviously, you must keep in mind that these breakpoints can cause load on browsers (only if someone sits and resizes from desktop down and back up again) but still it’s worth considering.

So keep the number of breakpoints as limited as possible, while still achieving a robust responsive solution. A use case of breakpoint SCSS would look like the following:


$bp_ipad: max-width 768px;

.foo {
width:50%;
margin-bottom:50px;
@include breakpoint($bp_ipad) {
width:100%;
margin-bottom:20px;
}
}

Now you may be thinking that with this method, it might cause bloat in our CSS, but a little research reveals that this isn’t the case.

While having numerous different media queries firing across a resize from desktop to mobile, size does cause CPU and memory load; when running on an actual device, the impact of having many media queries is negligible when considering performance.

So we can be confident that adding in multiple breakpoints and using them whenever we need won’t make our site slow.
Here are some useful resources, on performance, management and tools for breakpoints.

Naming conventions

Another practice we have in place for our Vanilla framework is a strict doctrine of naming conventions.

We have come across problems before when working on legacy projects, due to bad selector names, names that are far too vague and could apply to any number of things.

We follow the BEM syntax when writing our selector names. If you’re not familiar with it then check out this article by Harry Roberts. I won’t go into much detail because frankly it’s very well documented in other blog posts and articles. The bottom line to BEM in selector names is that it gives greater transparency to other developers and to yourself!

We follow a similarly strict doctrine when naming our variables.

For colours we call, we have as ‘$accent’ and a number – accent1 through 10 for example. We also have a rule for naming our breakpoint variables. For these we use nonspecific names that are in no way related to the content of the variable.

The reason for this is due to the potential for a value in a breakpoint to change, so we would have: $bp_blue, $bp_pink, $bp_yellow etc. None of these names have a bearing for the value of the variable, to save confusion if things get changed.

By using a structure doctrine of naming conventions, we know that, across multiple projects, we will have no issue going back to work on anything, and can further our aim of creating beautiful sites with low specificity CSS.

Using SCSS we can write our classes like the following:


.block {
@at-root #[&]__element { }
@at-root #[&]--modifier { }
}


Which outputs


.block { }
.block__element { }
.block--modifier { }


The idea behind our use of these methods is to replace “can you build this?” with “can you maintain this without losing your minds?”

To sum things up

Creating a custom front end framework is a daunting task. If it’s not well researched and well considered, you’re wasting your own time and potentially impacting on projects by using a substandard framework for the job.

At the same time, you can have this problem with the bloated common frameworks. It all depends on the needs of the project, although all considerations on what to use should be on a project by project basis.

We invested time in creating a custom framework because we saw the worth in doing so. We are now ultimately familiar with its use and abilities, because we built it ourselves, and most importantly, you will never know a framework like you know your own.

Source: Branded

The post Back to the … Vanilla UI Framework – Part II appeared first on Jass V.

Pinterest CEO: Our Ads Are More Effective

Pinterest is different.

Less a social network for people to share with friends, instead “Pinterest is about me, what I want to do. What I’m thinking about doing in the future,” co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann said during an interview on stage at the IAB Mixx conference in New York this week.

And that difference, Silbermann said, makes Pinterest an especially effective forum for advertising because brands’ products and services are a natural part of that content mix. Ads on Pinterest are relatively new. Promoted Pins, the main ad product, has been around for 14 months and have very low opt-out rates from users, “rates that are well below the industry,” Silbermann said.

The Ad Week New York audience is an important one for the privately held company, which has been aggressively rolling out new advertising products in the last year and working to live up to its $11 billion valuation.

Pinterest is five years old, but Silbermann said he still gets questions from potential advertisers about how Pinterest works. “We spend a lot of time educating people about how do folks use it,” he said. To illustrate his answer, he’ll pull out his phone and show Pin boards on what he is planning to cook for dinner, activities he’s planning to do with his toddlers, ideas to redecorate his living room. “Really core life-planning things,” he said.

Within that type of content, Pins about businesses’ products and services are a natural fit. That makes the discussion of about the creation of Promoted Pins easier.

“When we hold workshops for our partners we really talk to them about how to create advertisements that are useful enough that people will actually want to save them,” Silbermann said. “I think people are kind of tired of ads that are just trying to grab their attention away from everything they are doing.”

Silbermann said Pinterest had been focusing on displaying as much information on Pins as possible. If there’s product data associated with a page that’s pinned — such as size or price — Pinterest wants to show that to users. Adding Buyable Pins — the ability for people to make purchases directly on Pinterest — was a natural progression. Silbermann said it had long been the No. 1 requested feature and Pinterest rolled the product out on iOS devices this summer.

Now Pinterest is focusing on global expansion, Silbermann said. This month it announced its user numbers for the first time, checking in with 100 million monthly actives, a total that has doubled in the last 18 months. About 55 percent are US users, but growth is higher internationally, so Silbermann said the company expects that ratio to flip.

Apps Using Google’s New App Indexing API Will Receive A Ranking Boost

This ranking boost isn’t the same as the initial App Indexing boost, but rather is an additional boost. There is not a formal announcement to date from Google, due to the fact that the landscape is changing incredibly quickly.

In addition Google announced additional app indexing news at SMX East including:

New Search Console Features
Developers will now have the ability to:

• Segment out search analytics data
• Fetch as Google by uploading your APK directly
• Full API responses for Fetch as Google results

New iOS Indexing Documentation
A fresh new set of details around iOS app indexing was released today and is live on the Google Developers site.
For more information see Search Engine Land.

Nielsen Survey: Consumers More Likely To Trust TV Ads Than Online Video & Search Ads

According to a recent Trust in Advertising survey from Nielsen, consumers are more likely to trust TV ads over online video ads, but their trust in friends and family trumps all.

After polling more than 30,000 consumers across 60 different countries between February and March of this year, Nielsen found 63 percent of the consumers surveyed either completely or somewhat trust TV ads compared to only 48 percent who trust online video ads.

More than eight in ten of the survey respondents (83%) said they either completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family, the No. 1 most credible source of advertising per Nielsen’s findings.

The second most trusted form of advertising came from brand-managed channels, with 70 percent of the respondents claiming they completely or somewhat trust branded websites. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they trust opinions posted online – making online reviews the third most trusted format, following family and friend recommendations and branded websites.

When looking at online and mobile ads, online video ads were the most trusted, followed by search ads (47%), social ads (46%) and mobile ads (43%).

Very little has changed in consumer trust toward online and mobile ads since 2013. The only changes noted in the last two years was a two-percent drop for social and mobile ads, and a one-percent drop for search ads and text ads on mobile.

Trust in Advertising: Tradition vs Online & Mobile

Nielsen found that Millennials have the highest levels of trust when it comes to online and mobile formats.

“Millennials consume media differently than their older counterparts, exercising greater control over when and where they watch, listen and read content – and on which device,” reports Nielsen Expanded Verticals President Randall Beard.

Nielsen assembled the following chart, breaking down trust in advertising formats by generations:

Trust in Advertising by Generations

Marketing Day: Google Display Network Updates, Twitter’s Buy Now Button & ComScore News

Here’s our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• Rentrak And comScore To Merge Creating Broad Media Measurement Firm
  Sep 30, 2015 by Greg Sterling
  In a surprise move that will reverberate across the world of analytics and audience measurement, comScore and Rentrak have announced a merger.
• Attribution Should Be About Contribution Chains Rather Than Awarding Credit
  Sep 30, 2015 by Soren Ryherd
  Marketers put a lot of time and energy into determining which channel gets credit for a conversion — but contributor Soren Ryherd believes that this approach is missing the point.
• Is There Such A Thing As Too Native?
  Sep 30, 2015 by Lauren Weinberg
  Yes, it is possible for ad content to be “too native,” says columnist Lauren Weinberg. She discusses how ad transparency results in consumer trust, which in turn will increase an ad’s effectiveness.
• Google Enhances Dynamic Remarketing Ads To Adjust Across Devices
  Sep 30, 2015 by Martin Beck
  System will automatically resize, reshape — and even re-color — ads to make sure they look good and drive performance on desktop and mobile devices.
• Google’s Brad Bender On The Problem With Ad Blockers
  Sep 30, 2015 by Matt McGee
  Google Display Network executive says online ads are necessary to make sure publishers and content survive.
• Google Display Network Will Charge Only For Ads That Are Viewed
  Sep 30, 2015 by Martin Beck
  In the next several weeks, Google will move all CPMs to viewable CPMs in its display ad network.
• Why A Baseline Is Essential To Accurate Marketing Attribution
  Sep 30, 2015 by Eric Dezendorf
  Establishing a baseline for your marketing isn’t easy, but columnist Eric Dezendorf explains why it’s essential and what you’ll need to do it the right way.
• How Innovation Changes The Ps Of Marketing
  Sep 30, 2015 by Frederick Vallaeys
  What innovations are on the horizon in the tech space, and how will this impact marketers? Contributor and former Googler Frederick Vallaeys explores the possibilities.
• Twitter Rolling Out Buy Now Buttons Widely With Shopify, Demandware & Bigcommerce Partnerships
  Sep 30, 2015 by Martin Beck
  Twitter ramps up e-commerce effort, announcing integrations with major commerce platforms.
• A Step-By-Step Guide To Becoming An Influencer In Your Industry
  Sep 30, 2015 by John Lincoln
  How do you become an influencer in your industry? Columnist John Lincoln discusses some tactics for building your following, increasing credibility, and becoming known as an authority in your field.
• SMX East: Google Announces AdWords Audience Insights, 100% Viewability For Google Display Network & More
  Sep 30, 2015 by Matt McGee
  Google’s Brad Bender shares new announcements for display and search advertisers during SMX East keynote conversation.
• MarTech Europe Is 3 Weeks Away! Register & Save £100.
  Sep 30, 2015 by Marketing Land
  Nearly 60% of marketers are not fully utilizing their marketing technologies, according to a recent study. Selecting and on-boarding the systems that promise to deliver exceptional customer experiences is just the beginning; rubber meets road when the organisation, people and culture are aligned to effectively apply them.
• Report: Twitter Plans To Allow Tweets Longer Than 140 Characters
  Sep 29, 2015 by Martin Beck
  Twitter is building a product that would allow long-form tweets, multiple sources have told Recode.
• IAB To Help Publishers Fight Ad Blocking, Says It’s Still Considering Legal Action
  Sep 29, 2015 by Martin Beck
  Online advertising trade organization is working on ways to help publishers educate users about how ad blockers can hurt businesses.

Recent Headlines From Search Engine Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Search News & Information:

• Google Adds Additional Ranking Boost For Using App Indexing API
• 5 Mistakes SEOs Still Make With Links & Content
• Using Component Metrics In Your SEO Analysis
• New AdWords Audience Insights Report Offers Deeper Dive Into Audience Demographics
• How To Resolve Issues With Flexible Bid Strategies In AdWords
• At Nexus Hardware Event Google Shows Now On Tap & Expanded Voice Actions
• Why Some Might Think Google Is Hostile To The Daily Show
• Google News Publishers No Longer Require Three-Digit Numbers In URLs
• Communication & Transparency In Enterprise Link Building
• Google Search Console Changes URL Removal Language To “Temporarily Hide”
• Google News “First Click Free” Gets Less Free To Appease Publishers

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

Analytics

• A “Dislike” for Facebook = A “Like” for Sentiment Analytics, www.cmswire.com
• ComScore Merges with Rentrak to Build iPhone of Measurement, adage.com
• Making Sense of Digital Customer Analytics, www.cmswire.com

Blogs & Blogging

• Five Apps to Help You Manage Your Blog, www.problogger.net
• HTTPS support coming to Blogspot, buzz.blogger.com
• Make people stay and read your post, yoast.com
• WordPress 4.4 Removes the View Post and Get Shortlink Buttons From the Post Editor, wptavern.com

Business Issues

• Yahoo Real Estate and Yahoo Celebrity are Yahoo’s Newest Digital Magazines, yahoo.tumblr.com

Content Marketing

• 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, http://ift.tt/ojEUCE
• How to Create Snackable Content, blog.marketo.com
• Is Your Content Marketing Effective?, heidicohen.com
• Now Marketers Can Buy Sponsored Content Programmatically, www.adweek.com
• What Effective B2B Content Marketing Looks Like, contentmarketinginstitute.com
• Why Meaning Will Ultimately Determine Your Brand’s Content Marketing Success, moz.com

Conversion Optimization

• 5 Ways Conversion Reporting Could Be Misleading Optimizations, www.ppchero.com
• How To Visualize A/B Test Results, conversionxl.com
• Just How Proven Are *Those* Proven CRO Tips?, blog.crazyegg.com

Copywriting, Design & Usability

• How to overcome the difficulties of copywriting for the Chinese market, econsultancy.com
• What my two-year-old taught me about User Experience, www.branded3.com
• Why Do Web Pages Load So Slowly In A Broadband World?, adexchanger.com

Domaining

• Don’t Try to Sell a Domain Without Permission, http://ift.tt/1fGmFLe
• ICANN on “knife edge” after accountability impasse, domainincite.com

E-Commerce

• Digital channels will influence 64% of holiday purchases, http://ift.tt/IQX13p
• eBay’s focus on UX pays off, econsultancy.com
• Ecommerce growth does not need to mean slowed in-store conversions: report, http://ift.tt/prXZQm
• Lessons from Past Retail Holiday Campaigns, blog.movableink.com
• Marketing in China: Understanding the Vitality of Ecommerce, www.emarketer.com
• Nine Checkout Optimization Tips to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment, http://ift.tt/ojEUCE
• Rackspace Teams Up With Amazon, www.wsj.com
• Target to match online prices with over two dozen online rivals, www.reuters.com

Email Marketing

• 5 Ideas to Reinvigorate Your Email Marketing Strategy, blogs.constantcontact.com
• Google Makes Email Cool Again, www.cmswire.com
• How an email campaign inspired travelers to explore Oregon, myemma.com

General Internet Marketing

• Do you know the impact of Adblockers today?, http://ift.tt/HQeRjG

Internet Marketing Industry

• Amobee Ranks #1 on Mobile Seller Trust Index, www.marketwired.com
• Catalina Mid-Year Performance Report Finds Challenging Market for Many of Top 100 CPG Brands, http://ift.tt/14nqttK
• CBS Television Network Expands Program Ratings With Nielsen Digital Certification, www.nielsen.com
• Kenshoo Builds Upon Latin American Success and Opens New Office in Mexico City, kenshoo.com
• Offerpop Announces Integration with Instagram Ads API, www.businesswire.com

MarTech

• Martech Trendsetters Honored as DMA Announces 2015 Innovation Awards Winners, thedma.org

Mobile/Local Marketing

• 5 Things that Make Me Suspicious of Morgan Stanley’s Report on Apps vs. Mobile Web, www.distilled.net
• 5 tips to prepare for the mobile holiday shopping season, http://ift.tt/prXZQm
• Eight reasons to kill your native mobile app, econsultancy.com
• Flurry Documentation is Now Available in Chinese, yahoodevelopers.tumblr.com
• Mobile Ad Spending to Overtake Print in the UK, www.emarketer.com
• Mobile video ads: Now the fastest growing category in mobile advertising, www.tune.com
• Wearables are gaining widespread acceptance. Now for the real challenge, qz.com
• What’s the Biggest Obstacle to Mobile Marketing?, www.cmswire.com

Social Media

• 10 Statistics To Get You More From Your Photos On Social Media, http://ift.tt/Q5Ea6w
• 4 Steps to Boost Your Social Media Engagement, http://ift.tt/eck6D6
• 5 Answers to Top Social ROI Questions, simplymeasured.com
• 6 Ways to Ignite a Social Media Content Fire, www.jeffbullas.com
• Facebook Starts Letting You Add A 7-Second Looping Video As A Profile Pic, techcrunch.com
• Facebook: Fast-scrolling millennials consume ads 2.5 times faster, digiday.com
• Foursquare Taps Button For Deeper Integration With OpenTable, techcrunch.com
• How Brands on Facebook Should Use Measurement, www.adweek.com
• How to Use Quizzes to Generate Leads, simplymeasured.com
• How to Use Social Media Insights to Improve Your Marketing, http://ift.tt/eZnnjC
• Optimizing for Pinterest, www.bruceclay.com
• The Super Tweet, techcrunch.com
• What Snowden Joining Twitter Says About Twitter, adage.com
• Why I am spending more time on LinkedIn, www.cornwallseo.com
• Why Snapchat’s Only Non-Ephemeral Content, The Profile GIF, Is A Big Deal, techcrunch.com
• Will Ads Come to Facebook Messenger? Not Anytime Soon, www.adweek.com

Video

• 7 Great Ways to Advertise on Youtube, http://ift.tt/mEmkMD
• Diary Of A Cord Cutter In 2015, techcrunch.com
• NBCU Reaches Deal to Sell Ads on YouTube Videos, Including “Tonight Show” Clips, www.wsj.com
• Stop Worrying About Video Views, www.thevideoink.com
• Three Questions to Help You Decide Whether to Start Using Vine, http://ift.tt/ojEUCE

Rentrak And comScore To Merge Creating Broad Media Measurement Firm

In a surprise move that will reverberate across the world of analytics and audience measurement, comScore and Rentrak have announced a merger. Both companies are public.

They explained in their joint release that they’re merging to bring improved cross-platform measurement to the industry: “TV, video on demand, desktop, mobile, over-the-top devices, or in the movie theater.” Rentrak measures TV and film, while comScore offers comprehensive digital ad and audience measurement.

The increasing fragmentation and complexity of consumer behavior and the need for better visibility and attribution are the motivating factors behind the merger. The combination will provide a nearly comprehensive media measurement system.

Despite its breadth, there are a couple of areas where the two won’t have a solution. Arguably the most important is online to offline/in-store measurement.

Accordingly I would expect the combined company to look to acquire an offline or location analytics company in the near term to plug that hole. Among the firms that may be on such a short list are PlaceIQ, Placed and NinthDecimal.

Postscript: I was remind by Ginny Marvin that the Verizon-AOL merger has also created an analytics (and targeting) powerhouse. Verizon knows where its wireless customers live (billing address) and where they are at all times (location awareness). That data yields Census-based and other insights about income and demographics. Location can also be used for audience segmentation and combined with AOL’s online data for targeting and attribution purposes.

Attribution Should Be About Contribution Chains Rather Than Awarding Credit

The conversation about attribution is all wrong. Even the name “attribution” conveys the wrong meaning. Much of the attribution discussion — and even the attribution models we use — focuses on dividing up the chain of touchpoints to determine which channel gets “credit.”

Yet multi-touchpoint engagement implies that the whole chain of touchpoints is what creates value — not each independent touchpoint.

Current attribution models, such as First-In, Last-In, Even Distribution, or custom weighted models, all look to discretize the value based on philosophical approaches.

For example, proponents of Last-In (if there are any… Bueller?) would argue that the last step in the journey should get the credit, as it is the closest step to value. First-In proponents argue that early steps are tied to the motivating or educational stages of engagement, and, therefore, deserve to be more highly valued.

The reality is, all of these are guesses. And we don’t have to guess. We can take the information from our data sources and tests to create attribution models based on empirical data regardless of assumptions.

But here’s the thing. Users don’t care about budget silos, departments or fiefdoms.

It is time to shift the discussion, and our models, from dissecting touchpoint chains to “credit” individual channels,  towards reinforcing the tactics that create chains of value in the first place.

The current attribution discussion stems from over a century of channel-specific marketing, and a channel-specific worldview that has carried over into our digital programs, budgets, and even operational structures.

When the evolution of tracking data began revealing user engagement paths involving multiple channels, we stuck to our channel-centric view and attempted to shoehorn multi-channel data into our single-channel reports, tools, and execution. In larger media programs, this tied back to departmental budgets and siloed operations within marketing.

But here’s the thing.  Users don’t care about budget silos, departments or fiefdoms.  They care about their needs.

When value is created by multiple channel touchpoints, what users are telling us is that it is the combination of channels that they need for engagement. And it is becoming increasingly apparent that attribution models that attempt to discretize value over different channels without looking at the impact on the creation and support of the entire chain may not be as efficient as they appear.

Chain-Based Attribution

A completely different approach is to use Chain-Based Attribution.

Chain-Based Attribution looks at understanding the value of the chain by working backward from customer value, then making tactical decisions in valuing the touchpoints to maintain the entire chain.

Chain-Based Attribution is less concerned about the specific placement of the touchpoint, such as is used in First-In or Last-In models, as opposed to the fragility of the touchpoint. Protecting the chain is everything.

Most multi-touchpoint chains begin with a non-branded touch that exposes or reinforces the connection with a user and a brand. This can include non-branded search (paid or organic), display, social media, links, YouTube ads, or more.

Almost all chains end with a branded touchpoint, most commonly a brand search or a direct (No Referrer) visit, or remarketing exposure.  In the middle can be a mix of almost anything, including brand and non-brand, remarketing, and more.

Fragile Touchpoints

What makes a touchpoint or channel fragile in the touchpoint chain?  Which run the risk of not being present if we don’t tactically support them?

Almost always, auction-based paid media is the most fragile. The nature of the auction is that in a competitive field, not supporting paid media to the full value possible based on the value of a customer means that the channel is at risk of not being present.

If that touchpoint is no longer present, the chain no longer exists.  If the entire chain no longer exists, it cannot create value from those users that need that combination of touchpoints for engagement.

Protecting the chain is everything.

Other factors contribute to fragility in touchpoint chains. For example, non-brand organic keywords that rank high on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) may be at risk in a page redesign.

Display, Video, and other highly interruptive media may be at risk because the initial engagement is at an impression level with no click ever being recorded in the touchpoint stack. Therefore, we may need to develop methods (such as statistical modeling) for valuing those types of media relative to the volume of touchpoint stacks that only show branded and direct touches.

In practice, Chain-Based Attribution most closely resembles First-In models, but for radically different reasons. First-In models assume higher value earlier in the chain because those touches are assumed to be “more motivating”.

Chain-based attribution doesn’t require assumptions about motivation, but instead supports highly fragile early auction-based touches because that is what is required to maintain chains that the data show create value.

Contribution Replaces Credit

With Chain-Based Attribution, contribution replaces credit in internal discussions about the deployment of resources. Marketers must recognize that combinations of channels, programs, and budgets create desired outcomes.

While this may sound daunting, the fact that Chain-Based Attribution puts outcomes first in valuing touchpoints, and only values the entire chain, actually makes it easier to have discussions on budgets, programs, and new initiatives that cross operational divides. Departments have to coordinate to create explicit chains of multi-touch engagement.

Chain-Based Attribution provides a clear outcome-driven philosophy of attacking attribution that can lead to readily apparent tactical approaches that maximize the value in multi-channel engagement.

Losing the fights over credit is just a bonus.

Is There Such A Thing As Too Native?

Native advertising has earned a ton of industry buzz: 72 percent of publishers are currently offering native ads or are planning to within the next several years. It’s easy to see why.

According to research Yahoo recently conducted, more than 60 percent of consumers have a favorable view of native ads. (Disclosure: Yahoo is my employer.)

For consumers, when an ad blends smoothly into the flow of the content, it can create a less disruptive experience and drive deeper engagement.

Native ads have created new opportunities for digital and mobile marketers, as well. With formats including search, in-feed, in-ad, custom, widgets and promoted listings, there’s a variety of ways to tap into these opportunities.

What’s more, native ads are a way for brands to give back to consumers by making their online experience more enriching. They encourage innovative creative and copy, which can increase relevance and drive stronger results.

Research on Yahoo native campaigns found that branded searches see 3.6 times the lift when ads are integrated within an editorial feed, compared with standard display. Furthermore, IPG Media Lab’s 2014 study on native ads found that consumers look at native ads 52 percent more frequently than traditional banner ads.

So it’s no surprise that in 2015, 79 percent of advertisers plan to buy native ads.

3 Keys To A Powerful Native Ad Campaign

When it comes to native advertising campaigns, there are three main keys to success:

1. Select The Right Platform: Make sure your content is aligned with the purpose, tone and visual style of the site you choose.
2. Add Value For Users: If users find the content informative and in line with their interests, they’ll read and share it, even if it is presented by a brand.
3. Be Transparent: Native content that is very clearly identified as sponsored, clearly branded and includes a clear call to action performs best.

I’m going to focus on the third key to success, transparency, which has been a hot topic in the industry. One reason is that when we think about an ad being native, we often think the more an ad looks like the content around it, the better.

But can a native ad ever be too native? So native that even if the ad is the best content on the page, viewers will miss the brand connection?

At Yahoo, we recently conducted a case study with an important conclusion for marketers: Yes, there is such thing as too native. Modifying ads to be too native significantly impacts brand metrics such as awareness and recognition — in a negative way.

Greater Transparency Leads To Stronger Results

Not only do consumers have a right to know if content is paid for, it benefits the brand for them to know. Greater ad transparency not only leads to more consumer trust, it actually leads to stronger ad effectiveness.

What led to this interesting conclusion was a study we conducted last year with adults ages 18–54 in the United States. As part of the study, we tested three mobile ads for a CPG (consumer packaged goods) brand — all clearly labeled as sponsored.

The first ad did not include a brand logo; the second did include a logo; and the third included the brand logo and a modified headline with more active, actionable language.

Adding a logo and changing the messaging (the third ad) significantly increased top-of-mind, unaided brand awareness — a 20 percent lift over the first ad. It also drove a 20 percent lift in overall brand favorability and a 17 percent lift in purchase consideration.

In fact, the new ads helped the CPG brand overtake its competition for next-time purchase intent and greater likelihood to recommend the brand to friends and family.

As we dove deeper, we found that consumers actually preferred the second and third ads — the ones with brand logos. Why? Consumers noted that it was clear to them who the sponsor or advertiser was, and they had a better understanding of what was content and what was advertising.

These findings show how important earning and maintaining consumers’ trust is to native advertising and campaign performance.

Key Takeaway

The main takeaway from our study for advertisers is that while consumers are open to and prefer native advertising experiences, they want to know up front that the content is sponsored.

There’s a fine balance between blending in with the content environment and delivering an impactful marketing message, but brands that provide greater transparency will have stronger results.

While there are several keys to successful native advertising, it’s clear that more transparent native ads will have greater impact in critical areas beyond just awareness, including favorability, consideration and likelihood to recommend.

Google Enhances Dynamic Remarketing Ads To Adjust Across Devices

Google announced today that dynamic remarketing ads will now adjust automatically to fit all devices.

Brad Bender, vice president of product management for the Google Display Network, announced the change during a keynote discussion at SMX East in New York and in a blog post on Inside Adwords.

The enhancement will allow advertisers using the retargeting ad product, to upload fewer customized creative materials and be assured that the ads will look as good on phones as they do on the desktop.

The system will automatically make size and shape adjustments and also change colors, Bender wrote in his blog post:

Ads are also touched up to look great on any mobile or desktop site, or app. For example, if your logo is predominantly blue and yellow, AdWords may use these colors to shade the border and background of your ad. We’ll even try out varying color combinations and use the ones that drive the best performance. As always, you have control to make changes to these selections based on your personal style and preferences.

More in-depth coverage about Google’s latest ad announcements to come on Marketing Land.

Google’s Brad Bender On The Problem With Ad Blockers

Ad blockers don’t offer users enough control and are having a negative effect on online publishers. So says Brad Bender, VP of Product Development for the Google Display Network, speaking during today’s keynote session at our SMX East conference in New York City.

Marketing Land’s Ginny Marvin and Danny Sullivan spoke with Bender about the heightened attention on ad blocking since Apple’s iOS 9 came out earlier this month. As I wrote in my liveblog of the keynote, Bender says ad blockers are targeting both “good and bad ads” to the detriment of online publishers.

Ads are an important part of the ecosystem. They’re funding most of the free content we consume — the blogs we visit, the media we use. I think the ad blocking phenomenon is driven by people having bad experiences with ads. Think of pop-up ads, for example.

The problem with ad blockers is that they’re blocking the good ads and the bad ads. We think it’s important that publishers continue to be funded.

Bender talked about developer Marco Arment, whose ad blocking app called Peace was an instant success in the iTunes App Store, and how Arment decided to remove the app because he didn’t like the all-or-nothing approach to ad blocking.

Like Arment, Bender told the SMX audience today that he’d like to see more user control when it comes to blocking ads.

I’d love to see it so that good ads are able to get through, and we go after the bad players — especially fraud and malware.

Google has a big stake in this discussion since almost all of the company’s revenue comes from selling online ads. Bender says he thinks Google’s text ads are unobtrusive, and the company’s focus is on making all Google ads “as useful and relevant as possible.”

For more on the ad blocking discussion and other AdWords and Google Display Network news, see our live blog of today’s SMX keynote session.

Google Display Network Will Charge Only For Ads That Are Viewed

Google today announced a commitment to only charge for display ads that are viewed.

Speaking during a keynote discussion at SMX East in New York, Brad Bender, vice president of product management of the Google Display Network, said: “I’m pleased to announce that GDN is moving to 100% viewable. We’re going to migrate all of the CPMs in the system to viewable CPMs. All advertisers will be able to see viewable metrics so they can make better decisions.”

The move, which Bender said will be rolled out to GDN users in the next couple weeks, should be welcome news to advertisers worried about the Google provided stat that 56 percent of online display ads never have a chance to be viewed. Among the reasons for their invisibility: they are low on a page, they have scrolled out of view or they are in a tab that isn’t activated.

Bender said Google has already been working on the viewability issue and last year didn’t charge advertisers for 70 billion impressions that weren’t seen.

You can read more about the announcement on Google’s Inside Adwords blog.

More in-depth coverage about Google’s latest ad announces to come on Marketing Land.

Why A Baseline Is Essential To Accurate Marketing Attribution

Accurately measuring the return on your marketing initiatives can be a struggle for any company. However, it’s universally acknowledged that every marketer needs to do so in order to grow their business effectively.

Many marketers rely on last-click attribution from their media partners and agencies to report on performance. But in reality, that information is unreliable, as it doesn’t account for the many external factors that play into a consumer’s decision to make a purchase.

It’s critical for every company to establish a baseline to fully understand the incremental value of their marketing.

What Is A Baseline?

A baseline is the attributed value of everything outside of the marketing campaign being measured — or in simpler terms, what would have happened anyway. This includes:

• External Factors. Does your company already have far-reaching brand recognition? Do you have excellent existing customers who praise your company to others just by word of mouth?

Have your competitors changed their marketing strategy to give them greater visibility in the market? Many things can influence a purchase, and it is important to try to account for them all.

• Seasonality. This affects some companies more than others, but it is important for every company to identify their customers’ purchasing trends over the course of a year. For example, if you sell miniature holiday villages, it is likely that you are going to see the majority of your sales come in November and December, regardless of your marketing efforts.

This isn’t going to be as obvious for every company, but it is something everyone needs to include as a baseline factor.

• Unmeasured Marketing. What marketing outlets do you have that may not be included in your data? How effectively can you measure the internet activity of someone searching for a product when he gets information from a third-party site?

How much impact does your bus stop ad or billboard really have? Is someone who saw a display ad for your company still impacted by that when he converts three months later?

All these things and others must be included for an accurate baseline measure.

After formulating an approach to measure each of these factors, your baseline can be simplified into the formulas below:

Baseline = Total sales – sales attributed to marketing

OR

Baseline = Unexposed sales + exposed non-attributed sales (sales that would have happened even if they had not seen marketing)

Why Is It Needed?

Establishing a baseline allows you to do two different things that are important when trying to measure your marketing campaigns.

First, you can compute the incremental impact of your marketing. Rather than saying, “We saw a 25 percent rise in sales last quarter,” you can say, “We saw a 25 percent rise in sales last quarter, and 17 percent is directly attributable to the launch of our new display ads.”

This can be a huge boon to the justification of your marketing plan and purchases.

Second, it allows you to explain and account for fluctuations in performance due to external factors. With an advanced baseline algorithm established, it’s much easier to explain that dip in March and spike in July, even though your marketing budget stayed the same.

What Are The Requirements?

So now that you know what a baseline is and why you need one, the question of how you can establish a working baseline that is unique, agile and tailored to your business remains. There are three main requirements that you must account for to do this.

First, it must be dynamic. If you only use averages to build your baseline, it will only account for expected behavior and fail to report on external factors that may lead to a spike or dip. This means that shifts in consumer behavior will also go unaccounted for.

Second, it must be inclusive. You must be able to report on all conversions made, not just those by people who are exposed to your marketing. Without this data, it is impossible to have a baseline.

Finally, your baseline must be integrated into all attribution computations. If you even once ignore it, your marketing attribution is no longer valid.

Creating a baseline for your marketing is no small task, but to accurately measure your marketing efforts, it is essential to create a dynamic, inclusive and integrated baseline.

With an accurate baseline, you can uncover new insights about each of your marketing channels well beyond determining the sources of conversions.

How Innovation Changes The Ps Of Marketing

I recently spoke at the Internet Marketing Association’s annual conference on the topic of innovations that give consumers more time (and how this impacts marketing). I picked this subject because I recently read a quote from Larry Page, Google’s CEO, that really got me thinking:

If you really think about the things that you need to make yourself happy — housing, security, opportunities for your kids — anthropologists have been identifying these things… it’s not that hard for us to provide those things. The amount of resources we need to do that, the amount of work that actually needs to go into that is pretty small. I’m guessing less than one percent at the moment. So the idea that everyone needs to work frantically to meet people’s needs is just not true.

Larry’s not arguing that we only need to work one percent of the time, but he says that we could theoretically provide for all our basic needs in that amount of time. That one percent number may be a bit optimistic, but the underlying point seems valid: we need a lot less time than before to achieve an equivalent number of things.

When people need less time to provide for necessities, we have more leisure time, and what we end up doing with it is an important question for marketers to ponder. That’s because the answer to that question will almost certainly impact the products consumers want, and will also dictate when and where we have opportunities to market these products and how we spread the word.

Three of the four Ps of marketing are impacted by innovations that create new free time: place, promotion and product.

Innovations That Save Us Time

Thanks to technological innovations like the smartphone, consumers can do more with the limited time they have.

According to Google, people are moving in droves to take advantage of all this new time and doing more searches on mobile devices than on desktop computers in the US and nine other countries. Mobile is now the primary place where advertisers can connect with consumers at the moment they need something; it’s the moment of relevance.

Smartphones Create More Moments Of Relevance

When I started at Google in 2002, these “moments of relevance” were reserved for those times when we were sitting at our desks using a laptop or desktop computer. Now that more people have smartphones than toothbrushes, there are many more opportunities for consumers to have those moments of relevance — and for advertisers to connect with a quality lead.

This is largely driven by the fact that these moments can happen in different places (one of the four Ps of marketing).

One of my favorite examples is the locksmith who targets consumers who are locked out of their cars. By targeting mobile users located in areas where they are more likely to want help in a hurry because they don’t feel safe, and by increasing bids at night, when that sense of urgency is even greater, he’s able to run a very profitable PPC campaign in a way that simply wasn’t possible before the era of the smartphone.

Moments of relevance now take place anytime, anywhere as illustrated in this screenshot taken from Google.com in September 2015 on a mobile device.

Smartphones Enable Micro-Moments

In addition to giving us more moments when we can share our promotions, the smartphone is driving a shift in consumer behavior that has expanded the types of products consumers search for.

Google calls these micro-moments, and here’s an example: Whereas consumers used to have to set aside a good chunk of time to research bigger purchases like a new car or a mortgage for a house, now they are starting to take advantage of brief moments when they are not engaged in an activity that requires their undivided attention. That’s when they leverage their smartphones to do their research bit by bit.

No purchase is too large any longer to be initiated from a smartphone. As marketers, we need to be cognizant that consumers expect to be able to do more on their smartphones. If we are not present at all stages of the funnel during those micro-moments enabled by mobile devices, we will miss out on a lot of moments of relevance.

Because these micro-moments tend to take place inside the ecosystems of companies like Facebook, Google and Apple, it’s critical that we marketers pay close attention to new opportunities these companies give us to connect with our prospects. New ad formats from Google, like hotel ads and product listing ads, are good examples.

Hotel Ads image taken from Google.com

A traveler who just missed the last flight home will have a micro-moment where he or she will look for a nearby hotel on a smartphone, and viewing hotel ads is one of the quickest ways for consumers to see prices and locations near the airport.

With many options for convenient same-day delivery of products, a consumer who finds she’s run out of oatmeal at breakfast may have a micro-moment where she orders a new packet from Google Express as she stands in front of her pantry. In fact, the adoption of product listing ads by consumers is impressive, accounting for 32 percent of all PPC clicks for retailers, according to Merkle RKG’s Q2 2015 data.

Marketers Need To Change Expectations Of Measurement

With new consumer behaviors, marketers need new ways to measure this activity. A cornerstone of online marketing is its accountability and transparency, but we can no longer rely on simple conversion tracking where all transactions happen online and on one device.

Google is using innovations in location detection technology to provide reliable estimates of how many people visited stores after doing a search by looking at GPS and WiFi signal data; how many people made a purchase by tying into POS systems; and how many transactions resulted from a cross-device behavior by using logged-in user data to know when a consumer switches between devices.

This image captured during a Google presentation illustrates how granularly Google can know where a user is located inside a building, thanks to signals such as WiFi signal strength.

Shifting how we think about conversions from an easy-to-measure, absolute thing to an estimate based on lots of data can be challenging, but we need to consolidate our view of the data with Google’s interpretation. Otherwise, we’ll be left behind by competitors who’ve already done this and who can now afford to pay more because they have a more complete picture of the value of online advertising.

Innovations Create New Time

Not only are consumers shifting their behavior to be more efficient with existing time, but also, innovations will give them new leisure time that didn’t exist before. For example, self-driving car company Google Auto, whose goal is to reduce car crashes, will give commuters significant new chunks of time when they can do something else besides pay attention to the road.

No longer will we need to waste 30 percent of our driving time looking for a parking spot in cities like San Francisco. When our cars can drive and park themselves, we’ll have more time for leisure.

The latest Google self-driving car was initially not qualified for road use because it lacked some of the things the law dictates a car must have, like a steering wheel, a gas pedal and a brake. If Google gets its way, we’ll see cars with just three buttons: “Go,” “Please Slow Down and Stop,” and “Stop Pretty Quickly.”

Forget about a steering wheel or a brake pedal in a self-driving car from Google. Instead, here are the three buttons you may get to control it.

People being chauffeured around will have plenty of time to have new micro-moments where we marketers can connect with them. Even if Google’s car doesn’t become a reality, there are many others like Tesla, Audi, Mercedes, Uber and Apple who are also working to make a self-driving car a reality.

Drones Will Leapfrog Road Infrastructure

Self-driving cars will benefit the developed world, but a technology that could really improve people’s lives in the developing world are drones that solve the infrastructure problem. Rather than making huge long-term investments in building a great network of roads, it may make more sense for drones to handle transportation in areas with poor road conditions.

This is similar to what happened with communications, where it made more sense to skip laying landlines and instead build a mobile network.

There is now even an XPrize in the works for a human transporter, and this gentleman in the UK seems to be on the cutting edge with his drone that has enough lift to carry him off the ground.

This screenshot from YouTube shows drones used to lift a man in the air.

It seems clear that drones will open up opportunities for commerce in markets where there previously was too much friction in the delivery systems. Additionally, we may one day zip to work in flying machines like the Jetsons, giving us back all the time traditionally wasted on congested roads.

Delivery Services Give Consumers More Time

Google’s same-day delivery service slaps this sticker on every bag: “Delivering you more free time.”

Every bag I get delivered from Google Express is closed with this sticker that reminds me they just gave me some extra free time.

They’re in this business to try to win back consumers who are using Amazon as the de facto starting place for product searches, and consumers are the winners by getting back those Saturday mornings they used to spend running from store to store.

Once you experience the convenience of same-day delivery of virtually anything you need, it’s hard to imagine going back. Between getting fresh meals delivered at a reasonable price from Munchery, Gobble or Blue Apron, getting stuff from local stores you like and trust from Google Express, and getting everything else from Amazon Prime, there is no more reason for people to waste time leaving the house to buy stuff.

Health Breakthroughs Will Give Us All More Time — A Lot of It

The most significant innovations that will give consumers more time are yet to come from efforts made by life extension companies. It all started with 23AndMe, which analyzes genetic data to find patterns, and it continues with companies Calico, whose goal it is to extend human life.

Calico hopes to achieve this goal by applying big data analysis to more samples than was ever possible before and using their findings to counteract the things that cause aging. They also don’t want a traditional business model that provides relief rather than cures and requires consumers to buy pills for the rest of their lives rather than a product that fixes the underlying cause.

It’s not far-fetched to imagine that there will be breakthroughs in the next five years in this space that will add decades to all of our lives — new time that we didn’t have before.

Innovations For Marketers

The same big data analysis that will extend life is also applied to marketing. We now have automation and big data capabilities that let us do more in the same amount of time. For example, new technologies like AdWords Scripts are one of the most effective ways to automate routine tasks in AdWords. At Optmyzr, we build many of these automations for advertisers.

While automating what humans do is a big time saver, it still limits us to doing what we could figure out with our limited brains. Big data tools help us go further by sifting through petabytes of data to find insights that we simply couldn’t find manually. These new insights can then be automatically turned into more effective campaigns.

One great example of using technology to do something entirely novel uses the Google Prediction API. You can feed this system data about your online marketing results and any signals that you suspect may have an influence on these results, like the weather, the performance of the stock market, or your own business data. The system will then make instant predictions for future events.

At Google, we used the Prediction API to figure out which department would be able to answer a question submitted in a ticket. Because the system could make really good predictions, it was no longer necessary for humans to route the ticket to a different department, often getting it wrong and wasting a lot of time between when the question was asked and when the answer was provided.

Innovations In Human-Computer Interaction

Despite all the new time consumers are already saving, they still expect more gains in efficiency. Whether it’s same-day delivery or a natural language answer to a question at the dinner table, consumers expect technology to make life more convenient.

Google pioneered the concept of talking to one’s phone, but it was Siri who got all the attention, probably because it’s just cooler to ask a question to someone with a cool name like Siri or Cortana than Google Now. The younger generation, especially, is not afraid to use voice search even in the presence of others, and Google reports that 55 percent of teens and 41 percent of adults use voice search more than once per day.

Amazon took voice search a step further by putting it in the living room. The realization that consumers don’t necessarily want to pull out their phones to ask a question is simple but brilliant in my opinion. Amazon’s Echo is a speaker that sits in the house and can be activated simply by saying “Alexa” and then asking it any question you want.

Sadly, her search is powered by Bing, and she doesn’t have as many answers as Google, but she is brilliantly simple to use to play music, do basic searches, get sports scores, get news updates, set timers, add stuff to lists, and even turn on the lights in the house.

Google with its WiFi hub and Nest line of products can’t be too far away from introducing a device that can simply be spoken to without the need of physical touch to activate the listening mode. I have a Moto X phone that also is activated by voice, but even that device still requires that I remove it from my pocket before it’s ready to listen.

Tie in these new ways of interacting with computers with Google Now, and you could have something magical. Now uses everything it knows about you to show cards with useful information. Google has announced Now On Tap, which goes one step further by using the context of what you are doing to provide even more relevant results.

For example, if it sees you’re sending email to a friend about dinner plans at Reposado, it can open up the restaurant’s details in your favorite app, where you can quickly see the ratings, the menu, and even order take-out or reserve a table.

As you can see, there is a lot of innovation that’s creating more time for consumers and making existing time more efficient. Figuring out how to respond with new products and new ways to promote them should make life as a marketer exciting.

Twitter Rolling Out Buy Now Buttons Widely With Shopify, Demandware & Bigcommerce Partnerships

It’s a buyer’s market for Twitter Buy Now buttons.

Twitter announced a big rollout of its e-commerce effort today, partnering with Bigcommerce, Demandware and Shopify in integrations that will greatly increase the number of merchants who can sell directly within user timelines.

Twitter has been testing its Buy button for more than a year, tinkering with ways to entice people to make purchases directly from tweets. Facebook is also testing an in-feed buy button and Pinterest rolled out Buyable Pins in June.

Now Twitter is hitting the accelerator. Bigcommerce and Shopify each have in the neighborhood of 100,000 merchant clients in the US and Demandware has hundreds (which tend to be larger retail brands). Twitter’s Buy button is currently only available for businesses selling in the US.

Of course, not all merchants will want the feature and it remains to be seen whether people will embrace the idea and practice of buying within social networks. But Twitter is betting that they will.

Nathan Hubbard, Twitter’s head of commerce, explained the company’s thinking in a blog post:

The goal for all our commerce initiatives on Twitter is simple: make it as easy as possible for businesses to connect directly with, and sell to, customers on Twitter. With Buy Now, businesses can drive more conversions and remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process.

Twitter also said it’s giving Buy button access to Adidas and PacSun. And any business that lists its products on Stripe’s Relay API also can include buy buttons in tweets.

You can read more about Twitter’s Buy Now button on this new information page.

A Step-By-Step Guide To Becoming An Influencer In Your Industry

Influencers are the people others come to for advice. They have a genuine, loyal following because they add real value to their industries.

Influencers have insight and actionable information, and because of that they attract the eye of even major brands.

In short: Influencers have power.

It’s possible that someday soon you will have an amazing service, product or idea that will change your industry forever — or maybe you already do. Perhaps you already have a startup for that industry-changing service, product or idea and a crack team to make it work. What else could you possibly need?

Influence. Because without it, your amazing work just won’t get the buzz you need to really succeed.

This is the fear all entrepreneurs have, and no wonder. We have all faced it from time to time.

To get the attention your business needs, you need to become an authority, an influencer in your industry. Fortunately, this is within your reach.

Too often we believe that influencers are born, not made, and that we can’t learn how to do what they do. Wrong!

Influencers do not pop up overnight; they work their butts off to get where they are. Just ask them.

This practical guide to becoming an influencer in your industry will show you how to grow your following, build credibility, and develop your identity as an authority in your field.

It will cover educating yourself, creating compelling content, harnessing the power of social media, and engaging with your community. And it will share these tools and tactics with you step by step.

What Is Influence? What Makes Someone An Authority?

There is an endless stream of information out there, and everyone is looking for content that is actionable, credible, and powerful. Most of us are on the seeking side of things — we consume the best information we can find.

But authorities create that high-quality information. They consume, but they also create. As you produce more and more valuable content, you grow your influence.

Influencers engage in other authority-building activities as they create their information: They nurture useful, productive relationships and networks, and they continue to improve themselves and their work. Becoming an influencer is an ongoing process.

This matters because it dictates the necessity of engaging at a high level continually. As new consumers of your content find you, they will research you, what you do, and who you know as they watch your social media profiles and activities.

Social media is important today, and this won’t change. It provides a way for people to decide how valuable your work is, and how much they should trust you.

Influence is supported by metrics. Your numbers of followers, engagement levels of those followers and who they are, and your place among other influencers are things people can look at as they evaluate you. For all of these reasons, there are proven, concrete steps you can take to become a top influencer.

The Psychology Of Influence

You must understand the psychology of influence to seize it, because influencing is a challenge.

Robert Cialdini, a psychology and marketing professor and author, has named six principles of influence based on his experimental studies. To do this, he worked with people he titled “compliance professionals” — those who succeed in their work only when they persuade others. For example, salespeople only succeed if they persuade you to buy.

You can only succeed as an influencer if you can persuade others that what you have to offer is unique and valuable. Therefore, mastering these six concepts allows you to harness them for your own use as an influencer.

Reciprocity

The notion of treating others as you’d like to be treated doesn’t belong to a particular group or faith; reciprocity is a basic truth of human nature.

People strive to pay their debts and return favors because no one likes to feel indebted, powerless, or weak. This also means that we are more likely to do favors for people who offer them to us.

Use reciprocity to influence others by having a deep understanding of what your goals are. You also need to know what the people you are interacting with want.

In this way, you will be best able to see what exactly you want from others and what you can offer to set this reciprocal relationship in motion.

Commitment And Consistency

Humans perceive a deep connection between commitment and consistency. That is why getting a commitment for a sale is so important: Once we have committed to the transaction, we are far more likely to make it happen.

This means influencers seek out verifiable commitments quickly. A natural by-product of this is the engagement you attain as you seek a commitment.

Social Proof

We humans feel safer in numbers — not just physically, but also socially. This is especially true when we feel threatened, anxious, or unsure.

When that happens, we seek reassurance or social proof from others, especially people who seem trustworthy.

This impulse is what makes us more likely to patronize the busy restaurant, tip when others do, and stay later than we like when our party does. This is why people advertise products using celebrities — we think of them as people we “know.” This is why we care how many followers they have when we assess their information.

This is also why creating buzz works. And buzz from other influencers is more valuable, because influencers are credible and trustworthy.

Example of Infuencers Who Helped Take a Piece of Content Viral on BuzzSumo.

Liking

This one is simple and intuitive: People we like or find likable are more likely to influence others. Maybe they’re very kind or flattering, or maybe they “feel” like they are similar to us.

To be an influencer, you must make others like you.

To be likable, you invest your time and effort in building rapport and trust. You nurture good relationships with your co-workers, clients, and others in the industry.

You are reliable and consistent. You are an active listener who balances the knowledge that comes from experience with an open, creative mind that can find novel solutions.

You use your emotional intelligence (EI) to do this, because it works, and because you need genuine buy-in to be likable. No one likes a phony, and most people can spot them from a mile away.

Authority

People are impressed by authority figures; we believe they are more likely to possess expert knowledge and good judgment. People also have an inherent impulse to comply with authority and experience a sense of obligation to authority figures.

As an influencer, you supply authority, but you also know how to leverage the authority of others. You gain support from authorities by involving them in your goal and asking for their insight and assistance. Once you have an authority backing the goal, show others.

And don’t forget: If your own work is professional, high-quality, smart, and presented in an appealing way, you further establish your own authority.

Scarcity

You probably already know that things that are in limited supply, special edition, or exclusive sell well and hold more appeal for consumers. The psychology behind this is that scarcity means we have a higher chance of missing out, so we jump for what the scarce item is instead.

How does this work with influencing rather than selling? As an influencer, you give actionable advice and valuable insight into issues that people care about.

This is the urgency or scarcity: You have the power to help them solve serious problems, problems that ultimately have serious consequences if they aren’t solved.

As you consider how to use these principles, always remember what your ultimate objectives are, who your audience is, and why/how you must influence them. Then adjust your approach to suit each situation you tackle.

This means you must develop and build empathy while maintaining a baseline level of detached interest. In other words, you learn to gauge the emotions of others while not getting too emotional yourself.

Be smart and strategic as you seek out the perspective of your audience.

Create And Share Relevant And Unique Content

Creating and sharing relevant and unique content is central to being an influencer. There are several strategies to use as you strive for and meet this challenge.

Find Your Focus

An influencer must choose and master a specific area within your industry. No one can be an expert on every detail of your entire industry, and if your focus is too broad, you will neither gain the right expertise to function or be perceived as an authority.

Start with the basics of your focus area and master them by researching, theorizing, and experimenting. This is exactly what I have done over the last decade or so when blogging, and I recommend you do the same.

As you hone your theories and learn new things, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your focus area. Your goal will be to move from reading and restating the ideas of others to generating your own.

Before you know it, you can talk about any angle of your core topics in your sleep.

Choose The Right Topics And Focus Them

Align your content with your target audience’s interests and needs. Use your expertise and insight to solve their problems, answer their questions, and entertain them in specific and meaningful ways. If people see you as a resource, you will influence them.

Create unique content that highlights your brand and ideas. Don’t stop at finding great topics; identify unusual, compelling angles you could take on topics that your audience is interested in.

Take complicated issues and transform them into compact, easily understood, usable content for your readers.

Engage in competitive analysis before you create your content. Search using your working title and see what’s out there.

I like BuzzSumo, Reddit, simple competitive analysis and tools like SEM Rush for this. Read content that’s on point to identify what’s missing or left unsaid, and focus your content to bridge the gap.

Fold in your own insights based on your expertise and experience. In this way, your content is relevant yet unique, and adds value.

Your focus is important, because to become an influencer in your industry, you must have a clear, powerful brand and value proposition. This allows you to compete and makes you stand out even in a remarkable crowd.

Your brand and value proposition also become your long-term goal; everything you do must make sense within that paradigm.

For example, I have identified the following for myself, and it has helped. My business mission is to “help others through digital marketing.” And our core company values are honesty, hard work when necessary, innovation, over-delivering for clients and growing into their business and results.

Blog

You already know this, but you absolutely need to blog to be an authority. You must stay organized, and plan your blogging so that you will publish consistently.

Aim for a minimum of two to three posts per week. Use an editorial calendar to stay on track, and stick to it.

Your blog content must be valuable and usable. It must be in line with your expertise and your SEO strategy.

Its purpose is to show who you are and allow you to disseminate your knowledge. Your blog is your voice in the world.

There is so much to know about how to blog, so before you start a blog, talk with an expert about how to maximize your blogs reach. Otherwise, you could be blogging for no reason.

Guest Posting

Partner with other influencers in addition to creating and sharing your own content on your own channel. You can interview them for your own blog, and guest posting is even better.

It allows you to reach a whole new community. It further establishes you as an expert and brings people to your blog. Strive to make your guest posts even better than your everyday content.

To find your best guest posting bets, search for the best social media users and bloggers that relate to what you do. You probably already follow some influencers who you should contact.

Reach out after you’ve researched their submission guidelines and pitch a piece that covers something new for them. This way you ensure that you both gain value and traffic from your work.

And remember, after you’ve successfully reached out to one influencer, you should seek out another one, preferably in the same circle. You are building a network of influencers to join.

Make friends with these people, because you will be working with them for a long time. Help them out, and they will hopefully help you.

When I am approaching a new site, I generally like to provide them with a piece of content that is so good, it is very hard to say no to. It also shows that you know your stuff.

I generally know this works because I was an editor for four and a half years. When someone gave me a great piece of content I didn’t have to pay for, I was pretty thankful.

Also, when they bought me lunch or hooked me up with tickets to an event that was appreciated, too. It is fine to treat editors as you would a prospect; you just can’t pay directly to be published. If you do, that needs to be labeled as an advertorial or sponsored post — which is also OK, but just slightly different.

Organize And Maintain Your Stream Of Content

Posting as often as you need to can seem intimidating at first, but you can do it. Create and maintain your publishing calendar, and stick with it.

Use a free social media scheduling platform like Hootsuite or Agora Pulse to maintain a steady stream of fantastic content so you can schedule posts in advance and save time.

Organize your existing content so it is simple to search and easy for you to send out answers to queries right away.

One of your followers has a question? Respond immediately with your content that provides answers.

Keep a list of ideas and topics. Always be adding more.

Keep the list with you, so you can write down new thoughts, topics, and ideas whenever they come to you. Go back to things you’ve added so you can keep thinking about them; take notes as you think about them.

I like to email myself my article ideas with a simple email title like “article idea.” Then when I have nothing to write on, I just search my inbox for “article idea.”

Don’t forget, one of the ways you’ll steadily add value to your audience is by curating great content from others; this way, you show that you really know what you’re talking about.

Part of your stream of content every day should be made up of the best articles, blogs, and videos of influencers in your field. When you curate well, the value of what you shares inures to you too, further establishing you as an expert.

One thing you will notice is that a lot of influencers seem to have so many posts, that they almost look automated. In many cases, they are.

Using a tool like Hootsuite or Twitterfeed, you can select your favorite sites, and filter the content by keyword. You can then set the update duration and your posts of articles from these sites will be constantly published for you. It is always better to do this manually, but I have to admit I have a few feeds on my Twitter profile.

Half the time I refer to my profile to see what is new! It actually works really well, as long as you’re not updating too often.

Connect

Obviously, your social media presence is essential to your role as an influencer. Your brand should be prominent on as many social media platforms as are relevant to your industry. Your tone should be recognizably yours on each platform and on-point for your brand, but varied enough to “fit in” on each channel.

Just being online and active in social media, however, is not the whole story. You need to connect in multiple ways.

Connecting In Person

Attend industry conferences and events, and present if you can. This is a fantastic way to network and meet other industry experts and community members.

And perhaps the best way is public speaking. It can be demanding, but it is worth it, and each time you do it you get better.

Connecting With Social Media

I’ll go into great detail about researching your social media channels and SEO below, but for now I’ll mention Twitter and LinkedIn briefly.

On Twitter, try tweeting through live events in your industry or hosting a Tweetup to foster more engagement and nurture your identity as an influencer.

And use LinkedIn to post long-form, detailed posts — even recycled blog posts with great pictures. LinkedIn matters because people tend to believe that only thought leaders and influencers post on the channel.

Connecting With Influencers

To establish yourself as an influencer, you need to interact with influencers. Find their best work and share and promote it.

Thank them if they do the same, and when they thank you, start the conversation. You may not get a response from very famous influencers by promoting their work (since so many do it) but those who are on the rise like you will often answer you.

Focus your effort and time on the right influencers for your industry, and be persistent. Your connections with influencers speak volumes about your brand and raise your professional credibility.

The other day, I wrote a post that was retweeted and praised by the head of SEO at Yahoo. That would be an example of someone in the space who I was very happy to see enjoyed the post.

Research influencers in your industry so you can target those that can help you — and be helped by you. Create a list of influencers you want to reach, and work on it over time.

Start interacting and keep trying. Eventually, as you grow as an influencer and continue to help them and interact with them, you will build a relationship.

Engage Via Social Media

To become an influencer, you must share your ideas and be seen. Answer questions on Quora. Participate in and lead Tweet Chats.

Host gatherings via various social media networks. Remember: Don’t just share and like on your various platforms. Add value by adding comments, asking and answering questions, and giving opinions.

Watch for comments on your post and use those openings for more interaction. And don’t shut down the conversation: Ask open-ended questions to prompt more engagement.

Influencers must know exactly how social media channels will best work for you.

Upon which platform are your industry leaders most often active? Choose that one to be your primary platform and publish there several times every day.

If you’re not sure which platforms are strongest in your industry, do competitive research and see where your competition is doing well.

Educate Yourself

High-functioning SEO, on-target publishing, and everything else you need to master as an influencer depends on your active and continuous acquisition of education. Educate yourself as follows.

Smart Focusing

Malcolm Gladwell wrote in Outliers that you need 10,000 hours of work, education, and experience in your area to gain the true expertise of a world-class performer.

Which topics have you invested yourself in to that degree? Which compel you enough that you hope to spend 10,000 hours on them? You’ve identified your focus areas.

You may worry that focusing your work within a niche limits you, but actually it makes your offerings attract an audience of people who are truly interested.

Create A Valuable Information Feed For Yourself And Jump On Opportunities

Social media is always in motion. Read platform blogs as a matter of course.

Watch for new features and analytics, platform updates, and changes to algorithms. These can all change the user experience significantly, and you can better maintain your presence if you understand them.

You’ll also be building your expert status on the platforms. So you need to always be looking for information about your industry, but also understanding how to use the marketing tools that have the biggest impact in your industry.

Read case studies, expert articles, and news that influencers in your industry share. Look for news alerts and press releases about your key subject matter areas.

And don’t forget sources like industry magazines and specialty news outlets. Influencer status requires you to be in the know.

But how can you possibly stay on top of all of that? Use feed tools. Feedly and tools like it allow you to follow a sizable variety of blogs, alerts, and other sources of information.

Similarly, Social Mention and Google Alerts help you see the news that’s closely related to your brand first. I get most of my news through Twitter, email newsletter I have subscribed to, YouTube videos and a few core websites.

SEO And Hashtag Research

Know the keywords relevant to your area of expertise, and own the few that are most important to you.

This helps you clarify your SEO goals: You want people finding you first when they search for those words.

Identify which Twitter hashtags are most frequently used by people in your industry. You need to know because your hashtag-laden tweets draw two groups: your followers, of course, but also anyone searching for that term.

Integrate SEO into your content strategy. You will notice that your tweets with the best use of hashtags get the most engagement.

Search for content using the hashtags that are most relevant to your work. You’ll pull up tweets from influencers first.

When you find great content this way, share it with the hashtag that helped you find it and other relevant hashtags. If research like this isn’t getting you everything you want, use http://hashtagify.me/ — it has great insight into the best hashtags.

Verify whether your strategy is working once you’ve established and followed your plan by using Klout to see where you rank within social media influencer circles. Klout ranks users based on how consistent you are with content sharing, how responsive you are to engagement, and what you should be doing better. There is some controversy around Klout and the scores, but I generally like it.

Learn About Your Audience

To create truly compelling, engaging content, you have to know your audience. Know who they are, what they care about, and why they care.

Understand their behaviors, beliefs, careers, families, and lifestyles. Let that understanding guide you as you think about what they want and need; as if you were shopping for a gift for a loved one, imagine what they will be excited to see.

Enjoy the feeling that you will be giving people something they want and can use to motivate yourself. This is how you begin to internalize your audience identity.

Study your influencers and other influencers in your industry. Watch what they do on social media, what they share, and how they interact with others. This helps you model and improve on what they do and further enhances your understanding of your own audience. Find out what their pain points are and give them what they need to solve those issues.

Educate Others

Education is always multi-directional. As you continue to educate yourself, educate others in many different venues. Influencers educate others.

Schedule speaking engagements and present at conferences. Even within your niche you can add value in a variety of settings, so research carefully and find out what all of your options are. The other presenters you meet there will be part of an incredibly rich resource network.

Create and run seminars and webinars. This takes a lot of energy, but you can also charge for them, so you are educating and engaging while gaining financially.

Webinars are especially cost-effective because you can record and reuse them. Tools like Stealth Seminars make this very easy.

Send press releases in addition to your normal social media activities. If you don’t know how to write them correctly — and this is a specific skill — learn how or hire someone to write them.

News and industry outlets should be able to see right away what the press release is about, and they should also be able to grab images and a ready-to-print article using the press release so the work they need to put in is minimal.

Create or interview on radio shows, Internet radio shows, or podcasts. You can do this solo or take the opportunity to invite influencers in your field for a better show and a joint promotional opportunity.

There are great software packages and apps for each online format. BlogTalk Radio allows you to set up an Internet radio show or podcast fast and distributes and syndicates your content so it is immediately available everywhere. Audacity is another excellent tool for beginners wanting to create podcasts.

Create informational products like guides, e-books, and even traditional books. Once you have amassed multiple successful articles, combine them into a book. Turn a shorter post or series into an educational handbook or how-to.

Influencers educate others and offer them actionable advice. Your reader should walk away with new ideas, questions, solutions, and plans. Let them have something really unique and valuable — that’s what experts do. Give it all away and if you are really that good, the business with come back to you.

Final Takeaways

Remember the steps to becoming an influencer:

• Know what an influencer is and does.

• Understand the psychology of influence and the Six Principles of Influence. Know how to use them.

• Create and share relevant and unique content as follows: find your focus; choose the right topics and work them into your focus; blog; guest post; and organize and maintain your stream of content.

• Connect in person, via social media, and with influencers.

• Be helpful and add value.

• Engage via social media in ways that foster connections and ongoing exchanges.

• Educate yourself by choosing a smart focus, creating a valuable feed, and doing SEO and hashtag research; learn about your audience.

• Educate others.

Have a great day, everyone, and best of luck with your efforts to become an influencer!