Host Pinterest Contests and Promotions With Pinfluencer |  |
- Host Pinterest Contests and Promotions With Pinfluencer
- What Does Obama’s Re-Election Mean for Green Business?
- 5 Landing Page Optimization Tools for Small Businesses
- Is the Government Responsible for the Poor Jobs Market?
- Cyber Monday Gaining On Black Friday for Many Businesses
| Host Pinterest Contests and Promotions With Pinfluencer Posted: 26 Nov 2012 01:00 PM PST Since Pinterest announced its new initiatives for business users recently, many small businesses have been thinking more about ways to use the site effectively. One of the tools available to these business users is Pinfluencer, which recently launched some new features.
The recently unveiled promotions platform is more than just simple analytics – it can help businesses use Pinterest to run contests and sweepstakes, and also to scale their audience and turn interactions into real website traffic. These promotions can be run either on your company's website or even Facebook landing page. To start a contest or promotion, you can enter eligibility requirements such as number of pins from which website, hashtags, and more. The photo above shows what you might see if you were managing a promotion through Pinfluencer. On the left you can see where you'd enter eligibility requirements and rules for the contest. And on the right, you can see where you'd track the number of participants, pins, re-pins, and similar factors. You can also judge boards using a custom rating system and rank participants based on eligibility requirements, number of pins, and more. Previously, Pinfluencer served mainly as an analytics platform for Pinterest users. The tool works by crawling Pinterest for both the top pins from your website and from your Pinterest boards. The algorithms can then turn this data into scores for things like engagement, influence, and popularity. Pinfluencer still offers these analytics tools, along with its promotions platform and content management system. CEO and Co-Founder, Sharad Verma, said:
Pinterest can be a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target consumers on a visual level. A tool like Pinfluencer can help businesses actually understand what is working for them on Pinterest, so that they can make the most out of their social media promotions. There are several analytics platforms available for businesses using Pinterest, but few that offer the other services Pinfluencer does. Pricing for different plans is available upon request, depending on your business's particular needs. Pinfluencer also offers a 14-day free trial version. The company first launched back in August with $1.4 million in venture funding. The team of eight is based in San Mateo, California. Pinfluencer is currently helping 2,500 brands and small businesses track their Pinterest networks. The post Host Pinterest Contests and Promotions With Pinfluencer appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| What Does Obama’s Re-Election Mean for Green Business? Posted: 26 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PST Many business owners heard little, if anything, from President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney during election season when it came to their stances on green issues such as clean energy, environmental regulations, energy-efficiency incentives and global warming.
So now that the election is over and Obama is re-elected, are they going to hear more from the president? Does his silence on environmental issues during his campaign signal it's not a high priority for him in round two? It's clear that environmental sustainability issues have taken a backseat to reviving the American economy in recent months. While both Obama and Romney discussed the need to expand domestic energy production (including controversial "fracking" of natural gas) as a way to bolster U.S. growth, they spoke little about "green jobs" or renewable energy – both which were hot topics during the 2008 presidential election. In coming weeks, it's likely that environmental topics won't get much airplay as President Obama focuses heavily on issues like taxes, economic growth and deflating the soaring national deficit. Over the next four years, however, there's good reason to believe that Obama will put environmental issues higher in his agenda. His first term as president included several environment-related milestones:
It will be interesting to see which green business issues President Obama chooses to prioritize in his second term. Will he try again to pass "cap and trade" legislation and rein in carbon emissions? (A recent New York Times post suggests he doesn't see much political support for that in the near future, especially as part of the “fiscal cliff” talks.) Will he focus on the expansion of renewable energy production by providing incentives to companies that generate wind and solar energy? Or will his environmental and energy agenda look totally different this time around? How much he can accomplish is another big question. The balance of power in the U.S. hasn't shifted much, with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress. So even if he tries to instate new green business incentives or environmental laws, he will need bi-partisan support. Regardless of what happens politically in the next four years, it doesn't change the fact that green business practices continue to be smart business. Businesses that lower their footprint, run cleaner operations and reduce costs will be better positioned to grow and recruit talented employees in the future – with or without government help. The post What Does Obama’s Re-Election Mean for Green Business? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 5 Landing Page Optimization Tools for Small Businesses Posted: 26 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST A lot of small to mid-sized businesses are realizing the value of optimizing their Websites for conversion, but many find the idea of where and how to start a bit daunting. Before your small business gets started with conversion optimization, there are a few things you'll need before you get started:
If you already have each of the above and you're considering tools to help with implementing some actual tests, the tools below are definitely worth considering:
1. Convert.com by Convert Insights Convert.com enables SMBs to conduct A/B and Multivariate testing and offers intergration with Google Analytics. You also get some of the standard landing page creation tools such as a WYSIWYG editor, easy HTML capabilities and style sheet editor. Convert has some e-commerce specific features as well, such as the ability to connect revenue, transactions and ordered items to your test results to show the best overall picture of outcomes. For such tests they've designed some automated controls to keep losing variations from running longer than necessary, while allowing winning variations to continue producing leads and revenue. Cost Breakdown: Convert offers a 15-day free trial at all pricing levels; pricing starts at $139 per month for the starter package (a bit higher starter price than some alternatives), which includes 50,000 tested visitors but doesn't include advanced integration or geo-targeting. Expert level pricing runs $399 per month and includes 200,000 tested visitors, while Agency level is $1,499 per month for 1,000,000 tested visitors. Each additional 1,000 visitors is $3 at this level. Enterprise packages are also available.
2. Optimizely Optimizely is a popular, simple-to-use program that enables the continuous tracking of any variations you want to implement after inserting a single line of code into your HTML. The program can track a variety of variables, including clicks, conversions, signups or any other measurable metrics you define. It also integrates with several widely used analytics tools, including Google Analytics, KISSmetrics and SiteCatalyst. Like Convert (and many of the conversion optimization offers) Optimizely offers a WYSIWYG editor allows you to move elements around, edit text, images and more without ever touching a line of code. You can also read this Q and A with co-founder Dan Siroker on Small Biz Trends from a couple of years back. Cost Breakdown: Three plan levels are available: Bronze, Silver or Gold. Each offers a 30-day free trial. The Bronze plan costs just $17 per month and includes 2,000 monthly visitors. The Silver plan is $71 per month, including 20,000 monthly visitors, and the Gold plan costs $359 per month and includes 200,000 monthly visitors. Additional features vary by plan and increase with each level. A fourth level is available, Platinum, but interested parties must call to discuss pricing.
3. Unbounce Unbounce offers a lot of the same tracking and landing page creation tools as the other platforms, including several landing page templates to help get you started, and an easy-to-understand reporting dashboard for conducting A/B and multi-variant tests. Unbounce landing pages are hosted on Unbounce's servers, although you can use a custom sub-domain name to make it look like a part of your primary Website (this is fairly easy to set up but may require very minor intervention from a developer). They offer a lot of nice third-party integrations, such as Google Analytics and even email management platforms like Constant Contact and Mail Chimp, which make it easy to sync your landing pages with a variety of other applications. Widgets permit the easy addition of videos and other media for a more interactive user experience as well. Cost Breakdown: Plans include Starter ($49 per month for 5,000 unique visitors), Pro 99 ($99 per month for 25,000 unique visitors) and Pro 199 ($199 per month for 100,000 unique visitors). A free 30-day trial is available at all levels, and the Pro packages includes more features such as integration, two sub-users and the ability to add multiple users.
Visual Website Optimizer offers a few unique features that differentiate it from other A/B Testing tools, including behavioral targeting, which allows you to show specific visitors targeted messages to help boost conversions. Another bonus is the heat maps feature, which tracks visitors' eye path to determine which CTAs are getting the most attention, where visitors' eyes are directed to first and what areas of the page aren't being noticed. Like its competitors, Visual Website Optimizer allows landing page editing without any knowledge of HTML. You can split URLs, conduct multivariate testing and select from 15 different targeting options, including behaviors, system, geolocation and more. Finally, use the built-in usability testing option to ask visitors questions to get valuable user feedback. Cost Breakdown: Choose from four plans: Small Business ($49 per month for 10,000 tested visitors), Small Agency ($129 per month for 30,000 tested visitors), Large Agency ($249 per month for 100,000 tested visitors) or Enterprise (call for pricing to test millions of visitors each month). Both agency plans offer multiple logins, while the Large Agency plan also includes sub-accounts.
5. InstaPage InstaPage offers landing page templates and a drag-and-drop interface that lets you easily add elements and move them around the page. Landing page widgets let you add third-party content from sources like Twitter and Facebook. A single, simplified interface tracks all your stats including visitors, page views, conversions and more. InstaPage's claim to fame, however, is its different approach to A/B Testing: Instead of a standard split test, the platform uses "Machine Learning" technology to automatically improve your landing pages. How it works: InstaPage tracks what content was displayed when a conversion occurs along with how far the user scrolled down the page, the time spent on page and other conversion metrics. This information is then used to improve your landing pages based on what works. A couple of important notes of caution here:
Cost Breakdown: InstaPage offers a 30-day free trial on all account levels, and prices are lower than competitors. A Single plan is just $9 per month, which includes one landing page and one custom domain along with all the other features such as automated optimization and lead form integration. The Basic plan, at $29 per month, includes five landing pages and five custom domains, while the Standard plan is $49 per month and includes unlimited landing pages and custom domains. The kicker: Every plan includes unlimited visitor tracking. Bonus App: Google Analytics Content Experiments (formerly Google Website Optimizer) If you're not thrilled about the idea of forking over some cash for A/B Testing, fear not: Our favorite – and free – Web analytics platform, Google Analytics, now has integrated Content Experiments, what was formerly known as Google Website Optimizer. Because it's right in your Google Analytics dashboard, you can use your already-created goals to track results for up to five different landing pages, each set up on its own URL. You can define what percentage of visitors are included in your content experiments, choose the metrics on which to measure success and directly compare complete variants all within the same Google Analytics platform you've been using to track visitors and results for years. The downside? There's no easy WYSIWYG editor, so all the technical coding is up to you. But in terms of statistical analysis, Google Analytics Content Experiments handles all that for you. So if you have the coding knowledge or development and design resources at your disposal, this is a free, easy solution to get you started creating landing pages that convert. How to Choose Just One? Each of the tools has some form of free trial, so I'd recommend taking a look at the features outlined above and narrowing to two or three that seem to suit your needs and then actually trying them out. If your requirements are more basic, it might come down to which is the easiest to use for you and/or price. Personally we use Unbounce for most of our own and our clients' projects because of the design of the application and the feature-set offered (also by the way if you're looking for inspiration on things to test and/or conversion best practices, their blog is an excellent resource regardless of which tool you choose), but again a different tool may better suit your needs and/or price point depending on what you're trying to accomplish, so take a couple for a spin and see what fits! The post 5 Landing Page Optimization Tools for Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Is the Government Responsible for the Poor Jobs Market? Posted: 26 Nov 2012 05:00 AM PST Whether they are relying on anecdotes or statistics, just about everyone knows that the employment situation remains much worse than before the Great Recession began in December 2007. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show (see figure below) that the share of the U.S. population with a job declined from 62.9 percent in November 2007 to 59.4 percent in June 2009, when the recession officially ended. Since then, this fraction has been largely flat, coming in 0.6 percentage points lower in October 2012 than at the time the recovery started. The $64,000 question is why. Without an understanding of the cause of the weak employment situation, policy makers stand no chance of fixing it. As is often the case, there is no shortage of answers, just a shortage of agreement. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for example, blame weak investment in real estate, which keeps businesses from hiring in traditionally high employment sectors of the economy. University of Chicago economics professor and Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker points to uncertainty about future economic policy, which has caused business to delay investment. Nobel laureate and Princeton University economics professor Paul Krugman, disagrees, saying that the problem is weak demand, which keeps business from expanding. While some of these authors believe that the government may not have done enough to respond to the financial crisis and the recession, or that its inaction on key issues is to blame, none of them see government policy as the cause of the current weak job market. But enter University of Chicago professor Casey Mulligan. He places the blame for a lack of jobs squarely on the back of policy makers. In a recent book entitled The Redistribution Recession, Mulligan argues that government's remedy for rising unemployment during the recession – a dramatic increase in government support programs – is the cause of the weak employment situation today. The enlargement of the amount and duration of unemployment benefits; amplification of loan forgiveness, health subsidies, and transfer payments to those adversely affected by the downturn; and growth in the minimum wage, his argument goes, reduced people's motivation to work, and spurred businesses to put money into equipment and machinery, rather than hire more workers. If Professor Mulligan is right, policy makers are in a pickle. Shrinking government support programs back to pre-recession levels – by eliminating extended unemployment benefits, for example – will be necessary to get hiring back to where it was before the economic downturn. But our political leaders expanded the safety net to help workers hurt by the bad economy, particularly the poor employment situation. With the jobs market still weak, undoing these policies will hurt those still suffering from the worst recession since the Great Depression. They don't call economics the dismal science for nothing.  Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics The post Is the Government Responsible for the Poor Jobs Market? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Cyber Monday Gaining On Black Friday for Many Businesses Posted: 26 Nov 2012 02:30 AM PST Move over Black Friday. Cyber Monday is here! With online shopping steadily rising, it’s clear that businesses with a strong online component incorporating e-commerce will be the best placed to take advantage of what experts say could be the new contender for busiest shopping day of the year. The online shopping trend is good news for retailers of all sizes. Even small to mid-sized businesses have a chance to reach a larger customer base not limited by physical location or number of stores. Read more about how your company can benefit too. Holiday Shopping Moves OnlineCyber Saturday is here to stay. In fact, experts like retail analyst Hitha Prabhakar consider it a forgone conclusion that the special day set aside for online holiday shopping will ultimately overtake its more traditional cousin, Black Friday, and that those businesses that are unprepared will be left behind. The successful businesses, Prabhakar says, will be those that adopt an omni-channel retailing approach. This means a strategy that makes the online and in-store experience consistent for shoppers, particularly those who want to shop in the store but buy online. Yahoo! Finance E-commerce shopping will increase. Increased online shopping isn’t limited to just one day out of the year. According to projections from ComScore, e-commerce sales will increase by 14 percent over the holiday shopping season. This adds up to an incredible $42 billion in business up for grabs during the period, experts say. This will be a huge boost for businesses large and small that already have a presence online. Your company should explore expanding operations on the Web immediately, if you haven’t done so already. Mobile Marketing Watch Challenges, Tips, and TrendsRealize there will be pitfalls. Just like any other kind of business, e-commerce will have its pitfalls. Read about Steve Chou’s experience and you will soon realize that every online business owner runs into trouble sometimes. Many are familiar with the business Steve and his wife built as a great e-commerce success story. However, over the past few critical weeks leading up to the biggest shopping season of the year, Steve has encountered a perfect storm of customs problems, server failures, and shipping issues that would be any business owner’s worst nightmare. MyWifeQuitHerJob.com Start to think globally. There was a time when small to medium-sized retailers could only focus on local customers. Back then, operating a business globally was only possible for large multinationals with massive resources and multimillion dollar budgets. Not so today, says business consultant Dave Brock. With the increase in online shopping today, it’s clear that businesses no longer need to be limited to their own back yard. Partners in Excellence Online shopping goes mobile. Shopping is not only online and potentially global this holiday season. It is also more mobile than ever before. Businesses that are ready to take advantage of both the online and mobile trends stand the best chance for success. If you would like a glimpse at the projections for mobile shopping this past Black Friday and heading into today’s Cyber Monday rush, check out the cool infographic at the link above. WebSuccessTeam Final ThoughtsCustomers without borders. We reported earlier that as online business grows, companies of all sizes should start looking at the world as their market. In a recent post, Canadian SEO expert Jim Rudnick reports that events like Black Friday at brick and mortar retailers have already moved north of the U.S./Canadian border, and that big online retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart now market Black Friday specials to shoppers on their Canadian sites too. Canadian retailers should consider getting on the band wagon and offering special seasonal deals for U.S. visitors to their sites, whether a particular holiday is celebrated in their home country or not. Canuck SEO Last minute holiday marketing on Facebook. It’s human nature to wait until the last minute for everything concerning the holidays, from shopping to marketing for your business. Now that Cyber Monday is upon us, remember there’s still time to do some last minute marketing for your e-commerce business and cash in on some of the heavy online shopping that will be taking place from now until the end of the season. Facebook offers some simple and easy-to-implement marketing opportunities perfect for this time of year. Get started with some tips from Allison Semancik. Idea Sprouts The post Cyber Monday Gaining On Black Friday for Many Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment