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  • Booster Brings On-Demand Business Model to Gasoline

    Booster Brings On-Demand Business Model to Gasoline

    Imagine just clicking a button on an app and having your cars gas tank filled while you are working at the office. That’s what Booster Fuels is currently doing. Booster has brought the on-demand business model to fuel and it’s extremely popular in its launch markets of SF Bay, San Diego, and Dallas-Fort Worth areas. Booster Fuels co-founder and CEO Frank Maycroft says that they are selling over $180,000 per day in just those three markets and have plans to expand nationwide.

    Frank Maycroft, CEO and co-founder of Booster Fuels, talked about the companies business model and technology on CNBC:

    Push a Button for Same-Day Free Delivery Gasoline

    Amazon set a new expectation for retail. People want to push a button and get same-day free delivery. What we are able to do now is the same thing for gasoline. When you think about a gas station it hasn’t changed much in 50 years. The concept is really taking the old-world industry and leveraging mobile technology, machine learning technology to allow us to deliver gas to people without any of the inconvenience.

    We are the only company quietly roaming through parking lots looking for cars. The truck that does that has to fit within a single parking spot, has to maneuver as well as a small car, has to be connected to the cloud and communicating with all of the other mobile distributed gas stations in the Booster fleet.

    A Million Deliveries and $180,000 a Day in Revenue

    We’ve done more than a million deliveries company-wide and we will do about $180,000 of revenue in a single day. Anybody can make it so that you can push a button and get gas, but doing that in a way that doesn’t cost more than the gas station is incredibly hard. We didn’t want to have to build a subscription service. We didn’t want to have to charge fees. Our belief is service everyone by charging the same price and focus on where cars go all the time, parking lots.

    To really be inventive today you have to start from scratch with the context of what would this have looked like if you started it in the 21st Century? It’s hardware with embedded systems with software that’s communicating to the cloud, it’s procurement of fuel, it’s pricing to customers. When it all comes together that’s where the magic is.

    People Spend More on Gasoline Than They Do For All of Ecommerce.

    We like to be realists that when you look out your window there are gas-powered vehicles and that’s going to be here for a very long time. Let’s make them 3-5 percent better by improving the supply chain, reducing emissions, and reducing miles traveled.

    People spend more on gasoline than they do for all of ecommerce. People spend almost as much on gasoline as they do on groceries as a category. At the same time, we do look at alternative energy solutions. Nothing stops us from doing the same service for electric vehicles or other alternatives. It’s all based on the same technology investment, software, routing, logistics, that works for fuel.

    Nine out of ten Americans still drive to work and are either going to or coming from suburbs. Imagine ten years from now not having to think about gasoline or energy in general or things in general just getting to you where it’s most convenient for us to deliver to, most convenient for you to get it, and most cost-effective for the entire ecosystem. I think that is the way that the world is moving.

    How Booster Works:

  • Instagram Rolls Out New ‘Shopping Collection’ Feature

    Instagram Rolls Out New ‘Shopping Collection’ Feature

    Instagram has just unveiled three new functions guaranteed to please both retailers and shoppers this holiday season.

    The photo and video sharing platform just announced three ways that consumers can find new products, buy from their favorite brands, and even keep track of all their purchases. These new features will also go a long way in helping online retailers push their products.

    According to the Facebook-owned company, users can now build a “shopping collection” and save to it. They will also be able to shop on a company’s business profile as well as on feed videos.

    Shopping Collection

    Shoppers who have come across an item that captured their interest in their Feed or on Stories can now save it to their Shopping collection. To do this, they just tap on the product tag and then tap on the Save icon. It’s a fast way of making a wish list and storing gift ideas in preparation for the holidays.

    Shop on Business Profiles

    Instagram announced that it’s also working on revamping the Shop tab found on business profiles. The new design will reportedly allow retailers to quickly showcase all their products. Users who visit a brand’s profile can tap on the Shop button and see the items, along with key information like the item’s name, the post showing the item, and the price. It’s a quick way to browse a brand’s best items in one place.

    Shop in Video Feeds

    Online businesses will now have another reason to use video marketing on Instagram. The platform’s new feature will let the consumer learn more about a brand’s featured product. If a video on their Feed catches their eye, they can tap on the shopping tag to find the products being featured by the brand and get more information.

    The launch comes on the heels of Instagram’s introduction of its product stickers last September. The social channel also launched a shopping segment in Explore, a space dedicated to brands that are either new or the ones the account holder is following.

    Instagram is certainly working hard to capture an even larger slice of the sales pie, especially with the looming holiday shopping season. These new features make it easier for retailers to show shoppers what they have to offer while also helping customers save their picks.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • How to Turn Seasonal Shoppers Into Year-Round Customers

    How to Turn Seasonal Shoppers Into Year-Round Customers

    The outlook is pretty rosy for retailers this year. The high consumer confidence and low unemployment rates mean that people have more money to burn. Deloitte’s yearly forecast for the holiday shopping season also showed that retail sales are expected to grow from 5 percent to 5.6 percent from last year. Sales could even hit $1.10 trillion.

    While the numbers look good, companies should consider that many of those shoppers are seasonal ones—people who won’t make another purchase from them for months (or ever). That is a massive missed opportunity as it costs more to catch the eye of a new customer than retaining the interest of an existing one. So make sure you take advantage of this upcoming holiday season to try and turn a seasonal shopper into a loyal customer.

    After all, a strong and loyal customer base means continued profit for your business. You have to think in terms of your client’s lifetime value (LTV). This is how much the customer will invest or spend in your store for his or her entire life. You should know how to calculate a customer’s LTV to ensure that you’re spending money on the right demographic and marketing strategy.

    There are also other ways to turn seasonal shoppers into year-round ones. Here’s how:

    Email is Still King

    Email marketing remains a very powerful marketing tool. It’s easy to use, convenient, and affordable. It also has a better response rate than direct mail and banner ads. And if used correctly, you can start developing loyalty in a seasonal shopper.

    • Send Your Thanks with an Incentive: A thank you email is one of the best ways to improve your conversion rates. Improve your open rate odds by including an incentive that will make a seasonal shopper want to visit your site again. Add a discount coupon or a freebie.
    • Add Value by Cross-selling: Use your knowledge of the shopper’s purchase history to upsell or cross-sell products. Suggest items that complement their previous purchase to start establishing a relationship with them.
    • Request Feedback: Ask your customer for their opinions on your product and service. This tells them that you value their thoughts. Plus, you can also use these feedback as social proof for future customers.

    Inspire Loyalty with Great Service

    Make customer service a priority in your business and you have a higher chance of getting that seasonal shopper to come back. Show them that you care by personalizing their shopping experience. Recommend products based on what they have viewed or placed in their carts. A 24/7 live chat is also a worthwhile option since it provides them with the customer support they need without the hassle of calling or waiting for a reply.

    Great service also means taking positive action and making amends when mistakes happen. The best brand takes care of every customer all the time, and when things go wrong, they want to see that you’re taking steps to address it. The way Starbucks handled the controversy when two of their guests were arrested is a good example. The company quickly posted a statement apologizing for what happened and stated what they’re doing to correct their policies.

    Offer Exclusive Deals or Loyalty Programs

    A loyalty program can also turn seasonal shoppers into year-round customers. It helps to engage customers and keep their attention through freebies and discounts. Design a program that will keep your customer active and in the loop. For instance, award points for every purchase made. Once they reach a certain number of points, they can redeem them for a reward or a discount. To make your brand stand out more, offer a 15 percent discount instead of the standard 10 percent.

    Reach Out to Your Customers Again

    Don’t relax just because you already made a sale. Retargeting seasonal shoppers will get them back in your shop. Remember that people are busier than usual at this time of year so you might need to remind them of the wonderful experience they’ve had with you. Send them a reminder to restock on the supplies they bought after a few months. Or email an exclusive offer to try out a new product they might like based on their past purchase.

    You can transform seasonal shoppers into regular ones. Convince them to return to your store. Send them incentives via email and enroll them in a loyalty program. Reach out to them and show that you value them. In turn, they will value and be loyal to your brand. And if you do your job well, they could even become your best brand evangelists.

    [Featured image via Pexels]

  • Zeus Living CEO on How the Startup is Reimagining Housing

    Zeus Living CEO on How the Startup is Reimagining Housing

    The Zeus Living online platform is a new take on the $12 billion corporate housing industry, leasing unfurnished, privately-owned homes and convert them into ‘expertly appointed, convenient, and full-service corporate housing units’ for extended stay travelers. It feels like an Airbnb for extended stays, whether it’s for business relocation or simply a new ‘lighter’ way to live.

    Zeus describes it this way:

    There’s a better way to live and own. We’re using technology, data, and a human touch to build a new light-living experience for residents and homeowners everywhere.

    The service is currently in 3 cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. Zeus is funded by Initalized Capital, a venture capital fund co-founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

    Kulveer Taggar of Zeus Living discussed the startup on CNBC:

    Focusing on Digital Native Millennials

    We are noticing digital native millennials, they want to be a bit more asset light, they want more flexibility, and they want more mobility. So we are providing them a rental solution where they don’t have to sign up for a 12-month lease, they don’t have to sign up for an unfurnished place, and everything is tech-enabled and conveniently set up for them.

    There are two facets to our business. The way we get our homes is we are positioned as a property manager for homeowners. The idea is we provide managed ownership. You get all of the benefits of owning a home without the headaches of managing a property. We will sign a two-year lease, then we will furnish the home and then market them to other people to live in. The homes come pretty beautifully designed so the expectation is that you probably don’t want to do a ton of redecorating.

    Zeus is an Alternative to Extended Stay Hotels

    Since we have actually started the business the rental market has softened by about 15 percent in the San Francisco Bay area, which is where we started. What we found is that as prices actually come down the amount we pay to the homeowners reduces as well. It’s on us to do the math as to what we think the market is going to do and then in the price that we are offering homeowners we factor all of those things in. We have a lot of people and businesses that use us for relocations and we are actually a lot more affordable than hotels, extended stay hotels, or traditional corporate housing.

  • How to Leverage Testimonials From Social Media to Make More Sales

    How to Leverage Testimonials From Social Media to Make More Sales

    Getting new customers to buy from you is a challenge you’ll likely have to deal with for as long as you own your business. However, a good testimonial goes a long way in swaying a person’s opinion about a product. People feel more confident buying from a brand if they see that other consumers purchased similar items and were satisfied with them.

    Research by Nielsen showed that 92 percent of consumers will trust a recommendation given by a peer and that 70 percent of shoppers trust a recommendation or review even if it’s from a stranger. Amazon and eBay understand this phenomenon well. The two online retailers have built their entire platform around customer testimonials and reviews.

    Why are Testimonials Effective

    The smart marketer understands that the most effective sales messages come from happy customers. Here’s why:

    Provides Social Proof

    Every shopper is a skeptic. They wonder whether your product really works or if other companies have already worked with you. Testimonials let satisfied customers answer the shopper’s questions. They have less doubt when they know that other people enjoyed doing business with you. This is “social proof” and it’s very powerful. It’s why advertisers use messages like “9 out of 10 doctors trust this brand.”

    Connects With Customers Emotionally

    Testimonials also help connect you with your target market on an emotional level. This is crucial as studies have shown that most shoppers make buying decisions based on their feelings. If a review or testimonial made a prospective client laugh or teary-eyed, you can bet they will remember that brand and be more open to buying it.

    Tells a Good Story 

    Testimonials are essentially stories, with the customer as the main character; the search for what they want or need is the conflict and your product or service as the resolution. A well-written review or testimonial is like a story with a happy ending; people really love happy endings. 

    5 Ways to Leverage Testimonials From Social Media

    1. Highlight Positive Testimonials on Your Website

    Put your testimonials to good use by highlighting them on your website’s service or product pages. They can help create leads and drive conversions. Prospective buyers will be more amenable to making a purchase if they see testimonials from satisfied clients while browsing through your products.

    You can actually integrate reviews and testimonials on any page, like the home page, About and Contact pages. But make sure that the testimonial you’ll feature is relevant. For instance, a testimonial applauding your team is better suited in the About page than the landing page.

    2. Incorporate Testimonials into Your Blog

    Every visitor to your blog is a prospective customer. Incorporating testimonials within the content can capture the reader’s interest. However, they should be placed where they won’t detract from what the visitor is reading, like in the sidebar. In their own way, testimonials also add content to your site. They also make your brand appear more trustworthy and valuable to first-time site visitors.

    3. Utilize a Variety of Formats

    There’s no law stating that testimonials should only be written. Audio or video testimonials are considered to be more effective since they feel more personal and real.

    Don’t be afraid of asking a loyal and satisfied customer to record a review or shoot a small video. You can even join them and make it appear like an interview. But regardless of whether it’s a sound clip or video, make sure you coordinate with the client so they know what to expect and prepare accordingly. The testimonial should also be short and concise.

    4. Add them to Printed Material

    Print marketing still carries a lot of punch today, and one study explains that this is because printed material feels “more real to the brain.” Handling something solid, like flyers or brochures, involve deeper emotional processing, which is vital for brand associations. Including client testimonials to your print marketing materials will add more weight to them.

    5. Have a Testimonial Page

    Even if you have included testimonials on your website, blog, and social media posts, it’s still a good idea to have a separate testimonials page where you can place the most positive reviews. Prospective clients will see these are further evidence that they are making the right choice in choosing you.

    Testimonials are a powerful marketing tool that you should not be afraid to use. Ask your customers to vouch for you. Satisfied clients are only too happy to provide a good word for a brand that they like. Integrate these testimonials in your different marketing strategies so more people will see why they should choose your brand.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Top 5 US Tech Companies to Reach Unicorn Status in 2018

    Top 5 US Tech Companies to Reach Unicorn Status in 2018

    In literature, the unicorn is a mythical creature that’s rarely seen. In the business world, however, a unicorn was originally defined as a software company based in the United States and “valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors.”

    The expression was coined by Cowboy Ventures founder Aileen Lee back in 2013. At the time, a unicorn company was as rare as its mythological namesake, with only 39 companies included in this rarefied group. Now there are 376 businesses that fall under the unicorn category globally, and the numbers are still growing.

    There have also been changes to the definition. These days, a unicorn is “a privately held startup company with a current valuation of $1 billion or more.” They are also not limited to the US. China reportedly has the most unicorn companies now.

    Top 5 New US Tech Companies to Surpass a $1 Billion Valuation in 2018

    5. UiPath

    The software company is aiming to be the world leader in Enterprise RPA or “robotic process automation.” UiPath wants to automate routine tasks to help streamline business processes. Their open platform is touted to be extensive, with hundreds of customizable and deep integrations with AI, BPM, and ERP technologies. The company was founded in 2005 and has slowly and steadily worked its way to the top. 2018 has proven to be a banner year for the company, as it received $153 million from investors in March and was able to raise $225 million in a September funding round. UiPath is currently valued at $3 billion.

    4. SnowFlake

    The tech business with the ephemeral sounding name bills itself as the only data warehouse built exclusively for the cloud. Snowflake is pushing companies to combine the power and flexibility of the cloud, data warehousing and big data platforms for their data solutions. The company was founded in 2012 by Benoit Dageville and Marcin Zukowski. They’re supported by a team of technology and industry experts, as well as top-notch investors that have helped push the company to its $3.95 billion valuation.

    3. DoorDash

    Food is always a lucrative business, and DoorDash wisely took advantage of that fact. The on-demand food courier service has grown by leaps and bounds since it was established in 2012 by four Stanford students. The company’s use of logistic services has helped it expand to 56 markets and go head-to-head with rivals like Uber Eats and GrubHub. The company has had a lucrative year; forging partnerships with Walmart and Chipotle and raising $535 million in a Series D round. It’s currently valued at $4 billion.

    2. Epic Games

    The American video game developer has an epic history, beginning in 1991 when it was founded by Tim Sweeney. The company is known for developing the Unreal Engine, and games like Fortnite, Infinity Blade, Gears of War, and Unreal. Despite being around for more than two decades, the company is showing no signs of slowing down and has climbed its way to a valuation of $15 billion.

    1. Juul Labs

    Billed as the smoking alternative, Juul was founded in 2017 and immediately found a strong following among the millions of adult smokers. The electronic cigarettes company was established by former smokers who wanted a world where there’s minimal cigarette use. To do that, they designed a device that’s thin, streamlined, and comes with an intelligent heating mechanism. Juul’s classy look and large variety of flavors have helped the company reach a $16 billion valuation.

    What’s exciting is the number of tech startups that have joined the golden herd. There are reportedly 81 new unicorns this year. And, according to PitchBook, 35 US startups joined the unicorn class in 2018. 

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • Etsy CEO: Machine Learning is Opening Up a Whole New Opportunity

    Etsy CEO: Machine Learning is Opening Up a Whole New Opportunity

    Etsy CEO Josh Silverman says that “machine learning is opening up a whole new opportunity” for the company to organize 50 million items into a discovery platform that makes buying an enjoyable experience and also is profitable for sellers.

    Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy, recently talked about their much-improved business and why it is working so well with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

    Our Mission is Keeping Commerce Human

    Our mission is keeping commerce human. It’s really about in a world where automation is changing the nature of work and we’re all buying more and more commoditized things from the same few fulfillment centers. Allowing someone to harness their creative energy and turn that creativity into a business and then connect with someone in the other part of the country or in another part of the world, that’s really special. We think there’s an ever-increasing need for that in this world.

    It’s about value. We’ve been really focused on delivering more value for our makers. Etsy really is a platform that brings buyers to sellers and that’s very valuable. We raised our commission from 3.5 to 5 percent commission which was I think is fair value for our sellers, particularly because we’re reinvesting 80 percent of that into the growth of the platform.

    Free shipping is pretty much table stakes today. Yet only about 20 percent of items have free shipping. About half of all the items on Etsy buyers say have shipping prices that are too high and yet we grew GMS at 20 percent last quarter.

    Machine Learning is Opening Up a Whole New Opportunity

    Machine learning is opening up a whole new opportunity for us to take 50 million items from two million makers and make sense of that for people. We have 37 million active buyers now and many of them come just for discovery, just to see what they can find, and that is exactly the right thing for someone out there. Our job is to create that love connection. Etsy over the past 14 years, with a large team effort, has I think done a great job.

    One thing I want to emphasize is the quality and the craftsmanship with so many of the products on Etsy. That’s something that has been such a delight for me. People like Kringle Workshops that make these incredible products. What we have been doing a better job and need to continue to do a better job of really surfacing the beautiful artisanally crafted products that are available at a really fair price. You’re not having to pay for warehousing, you’re not having to pay for all the other things that mass-produce things have to pay for, you’re buying directly from the person who made it. So it can be both beautiful, handcrafted, and well priced.

    There are 2 million sellers, 87 percent of them are women, over 90 percent are working from home or are businesses of one, who can create a global business from their garage or their living room. Etsy does provide a real sense of community for them and that’s really powerful.

    Amazon May Open New HQ in Queens Near Etsy

    We feel great about our employee value proposition and come what may. Here’s what we have going for us. We think we’ve got the best team, certainly in tech companies on the eastern seaboard. We think ours is the best and we continue to attract great talent. The reason is, first and foremost, our mission is really a meaningful important mission and that matters. Great people want to work in a place with a great mission.

    Second, our technology challenges are interesting. For example, search and using machine learning to make sense of 50 million items that don’t map to a catalog. Third, our culture is really special. We have been a company that’s authentically cared about diversity from the beginning. Over 50 percent of our executive staff are women, we have a balanced board, 50 percent male and female, and 32 percent of our engineers are female, which is twice the industry average. People who care about diversity and inclusion really want to come to work at Etsy. All of that is going for us and we’re happy to compete with whoever we need to.

    Earnings Call Comments by Etsy CEO:

    Active Buyers Grew 17 Percent

    Etsy’s growth accelerated again in the third quarter to nearly 21% on a constant-currency basis. Revenue growth exceeded 41%, fueled by the launch of our new pricing structure, and our adjusted EBITDA margins grew to nearly 23%, while we also increased our investments in the business.

    Active buyers grew 17% to 37 million worldwide. This is the fourth consecutive quarter that GMS has grown faster than active buyers, evidence that we are seeing increased buyer activity on the platform, which is a key proxy for improvement in frequency. We grew the number of active sellers by 8% and GMS per active seller is also increasing.

    Two principal levers contributed to our progress this past quarter. The first is our continued product investment, focused on improving the shopping experience on Etsy. By making it easier to find and buy the great products available for sale on Etsy, we’re doing a better job converting visits into purchases. The second lever was our new pricing structure, which enabled us to ramp up investments in marketing, shipping improvements and customer support.

    Successful Cloud Migration

    We achieved a significant milestone in our cloud migration this quarter, successfully migrating our marketplace, Etsy.com, and our mobile applications to the Google Cloud with minimal disruption to buyers and sellers. This increases our confidence that the migration will be complete by the end of 2019.

    Once fully migrated, we expect to dramatically increase the velocity of experiments and product development to iterate faster and leverage more complex search and machine learning models with the goal of rapidly innovating, improving search and ultimately driving GMS growth.

    In fact, we’re beginning to see some of those benefits today based on the systems we’ve already migrated. I’d like to thank our engineering team for their incredible work to get this – get us to this point.

     

  • Tim Draper: These Guys Transformed the World and We Should Thank Them

    Tim Draper: These Guys Transformed the World and We Should Thank Them

    Legendary investor and political activist Tim Draper says that instead of getting on the case of Elon Musk, we should be thanking him and other transformational entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick.

    Draper also suggests that Elon Musk probably should have just taken Tesla private in order to avoid the myriad of rules and regulations imposed on public companies.

    Venture capitalist Tim Draper was interviewed at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal by CNBC:

    These Guys Transformed the World, We Should Thank Them

    Every time I pull out my iPhone I think thank you, Steve Jobs, this is awesome. Every time I hit the Uber key, I think thank you, Travis, that is so cool. Every time I get in my Tesla I think thank you Elon. These guys have really transformed the world and we should just thank them everywhere we go. And if they are having trouble supporting them. What can we do to help? How can we support you? How can we make you happier? We want to make you happier, look what you have done for us! It’s so cool!

    He Probably Should Have Just Taken the Whole Thing Private

    Every human in the world has made a mistake. There are so many laws that you have to follow if you are a public company he probably should have just taken the whole thing private. When you are a public company you’ve got to follow so many rules. If you step one little piece out of line you guys in the press are like… oh my gosh, our hero has done something wrong. I think we have got to say, hey look, he’s a human being, he’s doing the best he can. He’s running two amazing huge multi-billion dollar companies that he started. Well, he started one and jumped in very early and saved the other. This guy is awesome, let’s do what we can to support him.

    All of Us Should Really Focus on Making SpaceX Successful

    I invest in early-stage startups and then I will ride them as long as I feel it’s the right thing to do. Have you driven a Tesla, it’s so much better than any other car out there. And SpaceX, all of us should really focus on making SpaceX successful. If Tesla doesn’t save this earth, he will at least get some of us off the earth so that we can move our species somewhere else. Elon was amazing… we are all going to Mars. People looked at him and said, oh he’s crazy.

    But then all of the best engineers in the world said, how would we get there? Then they thought, how would we have human life succeed there? And then, how can we get there faster? All those questions happen with an engineer and so Elon gets the best rocket scientists in the world working for his company and so, of course, it becomes a big success. He’s going to get us closer and closer to Mars and maybe to Alpha Centauri and other places.

    About Tim Draper

    Tim Draper helps entrepreneurs change the world. Tim Draper helps entrepreneurs drive their visions through funding, education, media, and government reform. He has founded thirty Draper venture funds, Draper University, Bizworld, and two statewide initiatives to improve governance and education.

  • How to Use Email Segmentation to Drive Conversions

    How to Use Email Segmentation to Drive Conversions

    Email is still a very powerful marketing tool. Contrary to proclamations that it’s a dying or dead channel, email is still more relevant and effective than Twitter or Facebook. Most of the bad propaganda about email is due to how marketers misuse it. These days, eblasts sent out simultaneously to hundreds or thousands of random people doesn’t convert very well and might even be viewed as spam. To get the most out of your email marketing campaign, you have to learn segmentation.

    Image source: LyfeMarketing

    What is Email Segmentation

    Email segmentation is an organizing system wherein email subscribers are placed in different categories and messages customized to speak to each group directly.

    The main purpose of email segmentation is personalization. You divide your email list into groups based on the available customer data, like their professional backgrounds, purchase preferences, buying habits, and their familiarity with your brand. These groups can be as large or as small as you want, depending on the category you chose.

    Why Businesses Need Email Segmentation

    Segmentation can be the tipping point that determines the success or failure of a company’s email marketing strategy. Here’s a list of reasons why your business needs to divide its email list:

    1. One Size Doesn’t Fit All

    The odds are high that you’ll have numerous shopper personas on your email list, as well as buyers who are at different stages of the sales cycle. Delivering the same message to everyone on your list just won’t cut it. A survey by Hubspot shows that consumers simply won’t respond to messages that aren’t relevant to them.

    2. Enhances Your Brand’s Reputation

    Your brand’s reputation will also receive a boost if you utilize email segmentation. Marketers who segment their subscribers received fewer complaints and have lower unsubscribe rates. And since segmentation means that people on your list receive messages right for them, they will trust your brand more.

    3. Improved Open Rates

    Your email might be full of important information but it will remain useless unless the recipients open their emails. With segmentation, you can tailor the subject lines to resonate with the specific group you’re targeting, thus enticing them to open your email.

    4. More Conversions

    Email segmentation can boost the odds that the right content is sent to the right customer at the right time. One company who nailed this was Isotoner. The company saw their email marketing profits rise by as much as 7,000% when they segmented their emails based on the products their customers checked during their visit.

    5. Reduces Unsubscribe Rates

    People unsubscribe for two main reasons – there’s a deluge of emails or the messages they’re receiving aren’t relevant to them. You’re dealt a blow everytime a prospective client unsubscribes. Not only are you blocked from having a direct in to their inbox, they’re also leaving a key marketing channel. Email segmentation will ensure that you won’t be guilty of these practices since your messages are customized.

    Image source: Business2Community

    How to Increase Conversion Through Email Segmentation

    Group People into the Right Segments

    Placing your subscribers in the right segment can give your email marketing campaign several advantages, like ensuring that each group receives the message most relevant to them and enabling you to respond to subscriber behaviors appropriately.

    There are several ways you can group people:

    • By Geography: Create a category based on specific cities or states, time zones, or regions.
    • By Purchase History: This is particularly helpful in segregating new shoppers from loyal customers.
    • By Abandoned Carts: There are many reasons why customers don’t complete their transactions. However, an email reminding them of their abandoned cart can guide them back to your site to finish their purchase.

    Image result for how to segment your email campaign

    Image source: Email Monday

    Be Clear on What Your Email Marketing Service Provider Can Do

    There are so many email marketing providers right now, and most of them offer tools and services that can make email segmentation a walk in the park. For instance, companies like Aweber, iContact, and MailChimp have integrated tools that can assist you in growing your email list and communicating with prospective clients and loyal consumers easily.

    Some providers also offer software that help determine your demographic and test and measure your email marketing campaign’s effectivity. They can also provide you with the critical data needed to assess your progress. However, you have to understand clearly how they manage email segmentation as well as their regulations. These will help you adjust your strategies and settings so it complies with their rules and ensures your marketing campaign goes smoothly.

    Use Segmentation to Customize Messages and Improve Customer Experience

    Email segmentation is a key component to improving customer experience. Personalizing a user’s experience entails tailoring your marketing strategy based on the wants and requirements of various segments.

    The idea here is to supply visitors with the right content that will capture their attention and entice them to take action. For instance, emails to new customers could include a banner offering them a 10 percent discount on their first purchase. Meanwhile, you offer loyal customers a discount based on their purchases reaching a specific amount.

    Conclusion

    Most businesses that switch to segmenting their email campaigns will see a significant jump in their conversions. Chances are, if you sell a wide variety of products and you have a relatively large subscriber list, you’ll need to segment. Take a close look at your current list of subscribers and use the information above to help determine what groups of customers are most important to your business and segment them accordingly.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]

  • How eCommerce Businesses Can Prevent Fraud in 2018 Holiday Season

    How eCommerce Businesses Can Prevent Fraud in 2018 Holiday Season

    Given the dynamic nature of the internet, it’s not surprising to also see frequent changes in consumer buying behavior, which online retailers try to predict and cater to on various digital platforms. Convenience and revenue growth of eCommerce businesses, however, come with a price in the form of fraud.

    Sales transactions from online merchants are on an uptrend, but attacks on eCommerce businesses have alarmingly increased as well. Based on the first-quarter report by ThreatMetrix, 210 million cyber attacks were prevented in real time from January to March 2018 – up by 62 percent from prior year. Some of these attacks have cost the eCommerce industry a whopping $58 billion in losses in 2017, according to the Global Fraud Report done by PYMNTS and Signifyd.

    Image result for threatmetrix fraud report

    Image source: ThreatMatrix (2017 Cybercrime Report)

    With the upcoming holiday season, incidents of digital fraud are expected to further rise in the eCommerce industry. Avoid the pitfalls of fraud by proactively taking steps to detect its forms and prevent them from hurting your bottom line, which can be significant for some eCommerce businesses. Fraudulent purchases can translate to chargebacks from affected online retailers, resulting in financial losses.

    Pay particular attention to these three kinds of eCommerce fraud:

    Types of eCommerce Fraud

    1. Identity Theft

    Among the most common type of fraud, identity theft has been a long-running scheme of cybercriminals. Identities, along with credit card information and addresses, are stolen using the latest techniques on data hacking, malware, and theft of mobile devices, which are then used to purchase from online merchants. Aside from stolen identities of actual individuals, fraudsters can also fabricate fictitious or manipulated personalities and use these instead during transactions.

    2. Friendly Fraud

    Sometimes called “chargeback fraud,” friendly fraud happens when customers call their credit card issuer and dispute the charge. While some fraud incidents are due to misunderstanding, others are done with malicious intent. Dishonest consumers will claim that they never received the item, heavily damaged, or not as described, requesting refunds from the online retailer after getting the package.

    3. Phishing

    This type of fraud is rampant and requires technical capability, as fraudsters pretend to be a company or eCommerce platform to trick customers into typing in personal information on a rigged form. Phishing emails often contain a warning to customers that their accounts have been compromised and need to input details like user ID, password, and personal information as proof of their identity. Armed with an individual’s stolen details, fraudsters can use these to make online purchases or transfer money to another account.

    How Online Merchants Can Protect Against Fraud

    To minimize the increasing risk for eCommerce fraud, there are a few things that you, as a business owner, can do. A proactive approach, rather than a reactive one, is more effective in preventing fraud from happening and taking a cut of your profits, especially during the holiday rush.

    1. Have a good fraud protection system in place.

    Before the buying frenzy of the holidays begins, ensure that your business has fraud prevention and chargeback protection systems set up. There are numerous tools available on the market, so choose one that fits your business needs. It’s a cost-effective solution that’s well worth the investment in the long run.

    2. Use a prevention system that combines human and artificial intelligence.

    While machine learning can effectively analyze patterns of fraud based on millions of transactional data, it still takes human intelligence to know something is off with a transaction.

    3. Take advantage of the verification process as well.

    To mitigate eCommerce fraud, make use of a good address verification system. This will confirm whether the bill-to and ship-to addresses are similar, along with email address and location as part of a customer’s identity verification when the transaction happened. An extra layer of protection helps by employing the card verification value to ensure that the customer holds or has access to the actual credit card.

    Image result for ecommerce fraud 2018

    Image source: Amasty

    4. Use email authentication.

    Even though email fraud is a far-too-common occurrence, you still need a good authentication system for your business. Authentication systems with Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance will give you a heads up if an email contains dubious links or potential threats. Aside from protecting your eCommerce business against fraud, email authentication assures your customers that what you send is trustworthy.

    5. Determine transaction origins.

    Each electronic device has a particular fraud profile and depending on what was used for the transaction, you can gauge and screen for potential eCommerce fraud. Device assessment assists online merchants in identifying transactions made by bots, flagging anomalous purchases through account takeovers, and highlighting malicious intents. 

     

    When consumer spending picks up during the holiday season, it is expected that eCommerce fraud will gain momentum as well. Ensure that your business is not losing money from fraudulent transactions by beefing up your prevention and authentication systems and keeping them updated with the latest patches. 

    [Featured image via Pexels]

  • Kevin O’Leary: The Secret of a Successful Pitch

    Kevin O’Leary: The Secret of a Successful Pitch

    Sometimes short and sweet is the right way to give advice and SharkTank’s Kevin O’Leary offered up a great short video on how to give a successful startup pitch to potential investors:

    The Three Elements To a Successful Pitch

    I’m gonna tell you the secret of a successful pitch because I’ve heard thousands of pitches now. There are three elements to it and you have to have all three in order to get an investor to write you a check. It doesn’t determine the outcome of the business but these three are found in every case where an entrepreneur is successful in getting money.

    1. Explain the Business in 90 Seconds

    You have to explain exactly what the business is in less than 90 seconds. If you can’t do that you’ll never be successful.

    2. Make Me Believe You Are the Right Person to Lead It

    You have to explain why you’re the right person to execute the business plan. You have a great idea now who’s gonna run the show? Is it you? You’ve got to tell me why? What have you done in the past that makes you particularly good at this opportunity? Did you come out of the industry? Did you work for a competitor? Did you fail before and now know the mistakes you made. A great idea with a great entrepreneur with executional skills are the first two elements.

    3. You Have to Know Your Numbers

    Now here’s number three and this one is the killer. You have to know your numbers. How big is the market? How fast is it growing? How many competitors? What is your break-even analysis? All of those things you have to know cold.

    So Start Practicing…

    If you get the first two right and you don’t know your numbers you deserve to burn in hell in perpetuity and I will put you there. Those three together define leadership in business. If you want to be an entrepreneur and you want to be successful you have to do all three. So start practicing…

  • MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and His Story of Hope

    MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and His Story of Hope

    The Inventor and CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, was at a Trump rally in Houston tonight where he talked passionately and from his heart about his past drug addiction and how he feels that MyPillow is a platform for hope.

    Mike Lindell also announced a new website and program that will soon be launched called the Lindell Recovery Network that will match drug addicts with stories of hope designed to motivate addicts to get help.

    Here is MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s story of hope:

    I Was a Crack Cocaine Addict

    I used to be a crack cocaine addict. On January 16, 2009, by the grace of God, I prayed and I was free from all these addictions. I’m actually going to be at the White House on Wednesday for the opiate crisis that we are working on and trying to solve all these things for the opiate addicts, such a tragedy now. I want to get the right people voted in so that we can keep on that path of getting rid of some of the regulations so we can help everybody.

    What I’m doing personally is helping the faith-based treatment centers. These are the ones that work; there’s Salvation Army, Teen Challenge, and Union Gospel. These are the treatment centers that have worked in our country. The Salvation Army goes back all the way to the late 1800’s.

    Announces The Lindell Recovery Network

    What I have that’s going to be coming out, I’ll tell it here first, is called The Lindell Recovery Network. If you are a 22-year-old opiate addict, you put in your age and what you are addicted to and all these stories that I’m gathering of hope come down from people your age. So you will go, wow, they all made it through.

    Then I’m going to be like their tour guide on the website where I’m going to say you go over here and see all these centers of hope I have vetted in this country over the last year. I’ll say you go to one of these centers and get help and when you come out I will be there for you.

    I’m Going to Have Pain Mentors

    I’m going to have pain mentors and I want to be one of the biggest employers in this country where I’m going to employ all of these mentors to help them when they come out. A lot of times when addicts come out of treatment they don’t have trust, people aren’t going to trust them right away. I’m going to be doing it for the prisons too.

    There are so many things that the President is working on now… they always try and stop things especially with the faith-based centers. Okay, we will give you money but you have to take Jesus out of the equation. That’s wrong. You need these centers so they help people so they have a base when they get out. It’s going to be amazing. I can see the opiate crisis shrinking. We are going to tackle it head on the same way it happened where it got big so fast.

    People relate to their own age group and their own addiction. For me, I had my friend come to me, I had been a cocaine addict for 20 years, then a crack addict for 9, but my friend came to me one month before I quit and for three years he had been clean and I said, Dick what are you doing here? He had found Jesus, he had gotten saved and I said as long as your here I asked, is it boring? He said no man it isn’t boring. I had all these questions that only he could answer.

    A Match Will Call Up Stories of Hope

    A 20-year-old opiate addict might not be able to relate to a 50-year-old meth addict. It’s like a match and when you get a match you see all these stories of hope. It’s going to be so amazing.

    At MyPillow I take addicts who have gotten help and give them second chances. Even like the Salvation Army, which is an amazing treatment center but nobody knows about them, so people that come out of there employers will grab them because they know they are amazing people. Addicts are amazing people, they are just hiding pain. I hope my story will give them hope. I have a book coming out that is going to offer hope. People need hope nowadays.

    MyPillow is a Platform for Helping People

    I would get these dreams and I used to always tell people, even my drug dealers, that I would come back someday and MyPillow was going to be a platform for helping people. The drug dealers did an intervention on me after I’d been up for 14 days. They wouldn’t sell me any drugs and I couldn’t get them on the street. I came upstairs at three in the morning and he took a picture and said you are going to need this for your book.

    You’ve been telling us for years that you are going to come back and help us, help the inner cities, and help us with our addiction and we are not going to let you die on us. I’d always tell them that MyPillow was a platform for God enabling us to help people and get that story of hope out there.

  • Uber is Planning to Start an On-Demand Staffing Agency for Businesses

    Uber is Planning to Start an On-Demand Staffing Agency for Businesses

    Uber is preparing to launch a new on-demand staffing business ahead of its first initial public offering. Called Uber Works, the new business could show prospective investors that the company can be a strong and lucrative platform for on-demand services.

    Uber is banking on the fact that their “on-demand” transportation model was a huge success. The company is also betting that its massive database of contractors can be utilized to serve as temporary staff, like security personnel, waiters, or cooks, for corporate functions and various events.

    While Uber Works is targeting people who are not Uber drivers, there’s no denying that the program could also help the company retain its drivers, or “partners,” by providing them with an alternative means of making money.

    Some of the ride-hailing company’s drivers are already moonlighting at Uber Eats, the company’s food delivery platform. Aside from the additional income, opting for a staffing job can also break the monotony of driving the whole day.

    Sources have reported that the Uber Works project had an initial trial run in Los Angeles before being developed further in Chicago.

    There’s no word yet on when Uber Works would be formally launched. However, the company is said to have already started its recruitment drive. Job ads stating that a Chicago-based special projects team is looking for applicants that have a “strong interest in the on-demand labor space” have already been posted.

    Uber Works will reportedly operate in the same vein as Freight and Uber Eats. The former connects shippers with the appropriate truckers. The latest “internal start-up” will fall under the office of Rachel Holt, the present head of Uber’s “new modalities” department. Holt’s division is in charge of the company’s multi-modal transportation drive. Aside from ride-sharing, the department is also expanding into scooters and bike sharing.

    On-demand staffing is said to be among the numerous initiatives Holt’s division is studying. However, there’s no guarantee that Uber Works or any of these other projects will become the main business line.

    [Featured image via YouTube]

  • You Don’t Have to Buy Google Ads to Create a Big Company

    You Don’t Have to Buy Google Ads to Create a Big Company

    Self-made marketing phenomena Neil Patel says that there is an alternative to buying Google Ads to grow your company. The answer he says is creating a free leader product or service that drive customers to your site for you to later upsell. Patel sees this alternative solution as a less expensive and more sustainable “growth hacking” strategy.

    Neil Patel discussed this growth hacking strategy in a recent video:

    You Don’t Have to Buy Google Ads to Create a Big Company

    Google Ads are continually rising in cost. What if I told you I have a really cool solution that’ll give you a much better ROI in the long run than Google Ads. Today, I’m going to share with you the best alternative to Google Ads. What most people don’t realize is, you don’t have to spend money on Google Ads to create a multibillion-dollar company.

    Have you heard of Dropbox? Of course, you have and the chances are it’s on your computer. Did you know that when Dropbox first came out they tried to grow by doing Google advertising? And what they found is, even though they had a product that costs around $5 a month, which is around $60 a year per customer, they were spending roughly $200 to $300 to acquire a customer from Google Ads.

    Can you see how those numbers don’t work out? Not only are they spending more to acquire a customer than what they’re paying in the first year, but just because someone’s paying you $5 a month, doesn’t mean that $5 is pure profit either.

    How to Leverage a Growth Hacking Strategy

    So, what did Dropbox do? They leveraged growth hacking. They figured out a way to get users to come to their site and generate more customers. They did this by creating a free product or a service, and that’s a better alternative to Google Ads. If you look at Dropbox, you look at Slack, even look at Amazon, although Amazon’s not really doing free with Prime buy you get free two-day shipping.

    By creating something that’s free or such an amazing offer, think of it as your carrot that you’re dangling, you’re going to get so many people over to your website that then when you upsell them into your paid products or services, it’s so much easier because they’re already using your product or service, you’ve already built that brand loyalty, that connection, that rapport with them. It’s much easier to get that upsell.

    It Does Cost a Lot to Offer a Free Product or Service

    And here’s what most people don’t understand; they’re like, “Whoa Nellie, if I spent all this money getting people over to my website by having a ‘free’ product or service, it’s going to cost me a lot of money,” and it does. I recently released a tool called Ubersuggest. If you look at Uber suggest, I’m spending $150,000 a month releasing a lot of the features you see in tools like BuzzSumo or SEMrush, for free; 150 grand a month, that’s my cost. My cost isn’t going down, it’s continually rising too.

    But you know what, if I had to do paid advertising on Google to get those visitors, my estimation shows that I would be spending a bit more than $600,000. Do you see how giving something away for free that costs me $150,000 a month is much better than spending $600,000 a month on paid ads?

    Get Creative with Your Marketing

    You do not have to spend money on Google Ads to create a big business, just look at Dropbox. Leverage growth hacking, and then as you have these free tools, these free products, these free services, and it may not be the best ones out there but something that people are used to paying for, what you can do is do things like creating invite flows. Dropbox has it: you want more free space, invite more users. I can do the same thing with Ubersuggest; I don’t, but I can say “Want more free usage? Invite more members.”

    You can get creative with your marketing, leverage growth hacking. Just don’t put all your money into Google Ads, and the reason I say that is not because I don’t like Google Ads. Ideally, you should be doing both. But the reason I say this is, the moment you stop Google Ads you don’t have any more traffic.

    By creating something that’s free, and it doesn’t have to continually cost a ton of money, like HubSpot, they have this free email signature generator. It doesn’t cost them much money; they only spent a few thousand dollars creating it. They don’t even spend any money maintaining it each and every single month. But they found that it can drive over seven figures worth of revenue to their business per year; not too bad from one free tool.

  • Chris Brogan Says if Your YouTube Videos Are Boring… Emote!

    Chris Brogan Says if Your YouTube Videos Are Boring… Emote!

    Marketing guru Chris Brogan offers some advice on how to make interesting videos for business owners that produce YouTube videos:

    The Medium Requires You to Amp it Up

    One detail that I see repeated over and over and over again in your YouTube videos is that you forget that this medium requires you to amp everything up a little bit more than what’s probably your normal delivery. When I’m talking normally to other people I still use my hands but not as much as I do in a video.

    One other difference is I’m very vividly aware of this frame. I’m making sure that I have everything such that I’m paying attention to the frame. I’m looking at the lens which means I’m looking at your eyes and I’m paying attention, but what I’m also doing, and this is where it gets important, is I’m emoting.

    You’re Performing Whether or Not You Want To

    I could talk to you about the data, I could just say you know it’s really important to emote, emoting is good, you should emote. But in video, you’re performing whether or not you want to. Notice a difference in how I was talking. When I just kind of talked normal, one of the things I do is there are not really many pauses. It’s just kind of walking along and getting the words out as fast as I get the words out.

    When I’m performing, there are a few more clear pauses and I’m doing a little bit more enunciation and I’m changing and validating and varying all the different pieces of the words so that you can catch up.

    Keep Your Energy Level High

    I’m trying to keep it audibly interesting and I’m trying to keep the energy level high because that’s what we respond to in video. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen some of my friends talking on video and they seem sort of like they’re just being held at gunpoint. No one wants it and so you have to deliver.

    It’s performing, its producing, it’s creating something for someone. It’s not fake. It’s just a way of making sure that everything gets pushed forward a little bit, notches it up. You do this kind of thing when you make a selfie. You might image adjust a little, you might wipe out a zit or something, you might whiten your teeth, who knows. Do the same with your video, produce. Also, when you’re creating a background for your presentation you have to pay attention to that as well.

    I’ve been talking mostly about voice and emoting, but I wanted you to feel and understand how this all connects. You’re not just delivering the information, you have to amp things up a little, you have to push. This is coming from a guy who deals with mild clinical depression. My normal energy level is low, but if I don’t deliver like this then you don’t pay attention.

    Be Like You… Plus

    I learned some of this from watching some of my friends and my kids YouTube videos. My kids watch these people who when they get excited they shout and they scream. You say, but Chris, I’m not that kind of person, I don’t emote normally. I’m not asking you not to be normal, but I am asking you to be like you… plus. Can you be just a little more you for the video? If you’re super quiet and super non-emotive, be just a little more emotive. That’s gonna help a lot.

  • Pinterest’s Latest ‘Product Pin’ Feature Gives Sellers 40% More Clicks

    Pinterest’s Latest ‘Product Pin’ Feature Gives Sellers 40% More Clicks

    Pinterest is doing everything it can to make shopping even better for its users. The visual sharing platform recently introduced Product Pins, Shopping Recommendations, and a new shortcut. These new features aim to provide its 250 million active Pinners with a more intuitive and streamlined shopping experience.

    The first of these features is the Shopping Recommendations area in the women’s fashion and home décor categories. Pinners who view a pin in these groupings will see a new section showing “products like this.” The company states the recommended pins are visually similar to the items the customer is interested in. Each of these recommended pins will be called Product Pins.

    An enhanced version of the Buyable Pins, the Product Pin shows users the item’s current price and stock availability. The update is also designed to keep the users inside the platform. A lot of Pinners have expressed their frustration of going to an item’s product page only to find out that it’s out of stock. Product Pins will do away with that frustration. Pinners who tap on the pin will see a shopping tag icon. Hitting that tag will automatically send the user to the retailer’s checkout page. They then simply add the item to the card and finish the purchase. Less clicks, less frustration, more sales.

    Pinterest is reportedly phasing out its Buyer Pin program in favor of these new features. According to Tim Weingarten, Pinterest’s head of shopping product, not only are Product Pins “more personable,” but consumers also prefer to purchase pinned products directly from the merchant’s website.

    The company is also incorporating a shortcut that will make browsing Product Pins even faster. Users simply tap and hold on a pin to start a shortcut reel. It sends consumers to a page where they can find the relevant information about the item, along with other related products. The reel also includes a shopping tag shortcuts as well as save and send shortcuts.

    Pinterest is building themselves up as the consumer’s personal stylist. Weingarten explained in a blog post that their vision is to give users who see something they like on the platform the capability to buy it or something similar to it. It’s why the upgraded Pinterest “can give you recommendations for products based on your unique taste and what’s trending, and show you a range of visual ideas.”

    The company has commenced testing these new features last quarter, and the clicks on retail products have reportedly increased by as much as 40 percent. This will certainly help Pinterest’s goal of becoming a more “shoppable” platform.

    Pinners around the world can now enjoy Product Pins while Shopping Recommendations are currently limited to the U.S. However, it’s expected to roll out globally soon. The shopping shortcut is now available via an iOS app update but Android users will have to wait for a while.

    [Featured image via Pexels]

  • Kevin O’Leary: The American Core Economy is On Fire Like it was in the 60’s

    Kevin O’Leary: The American Core Economy is On Fire Like it was in the 60’s

    Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary says that despite the recent stock volatility the “American core economy is on fire like it was in the 60’s.” O’Leary also believes that getting a deal done with China, as we did with Canada, Mexico, and Europe will make the economy boom even more. 

    “If we get a deal done with China, Katy bar the door! The upside on the S&P, if that gets worked out, will be extreme. We will have concern about a melt-up!”

    Kevin O’Leary talks about how the American core economy is on fire in an interview on CNBC:

    Asia is Having a Massive Correction

    I think it’s fair to look at large-cap companies and say that they should have some exposure to the volatility to the rest of the world. Over 47 percent of the S&P’s earnings come from overseas markets, notably Asia which is having a massive correction and Europe which is slowing down a little bit. Obviously, the German numbers over the last three months have been slower than people anticipated and it’s started to be reflected in some of their debt.

    Volatility Because of Some Concern About China

    I still look at that and say, okay, I’m going to own those companies because of their sheer scale and their growth and dividends. Yes, we have more volatility because there is some concern about China and other markets. Our own domestic market, our companies in this country which don’t sell abroad and which have a lot of their input costs at question is one of the reasons small caps are correcting because people are worried about tariffs actually effecting input costs.

    The American Core Economy is On Fire Like it was in the 60’s

    I have over 30 of them now, almost in every state. The last two quarters I’ve never had anything like this in my life. We’re hitting on every cylinder we’ve got. So look, yes we should be concerned, but the American core economy is on fire. It’s on fire like it was in the 60’s. I’m still bullish on the American economy, my money is still going there because I live it every day. These are not public companies, these are private ones that send me a check every quarter and cash flows are going up. I love them.

    If We Get a Deal Done With China, Katy Bar the Door!

    The reason we are not having a major correction yet on the China story is that (investors are waiting to see) if we get a deal done as we did with Europe, as we did with Canada, as we did with Mexico. If we get a deal done with China, Katy bar the door! The upside on the S&P, if that gets worked out, will be extreme. We will have concern about a melt-up, which you don’t talk about on a day like today. That’s why the market is waiting to see what happens. So Mnuchin and Kudlow, put your nose to the grindstone, get some work done there, and solve this for us.

  • Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec Tells the Story of How an Employee Scammed Him

    Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec Tells the Story of How an Employee Scammed Him

    Even successful entrepreneurs can be scammed, just ask Shark Tank investor Robert Herjavec. In a recent Inc. video clip (below), Herjavec explains how the sales manager of his first startup scammed him out of business.

    Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank and founder of The Herjavec Group on how he was once scammed by an employee of his first business:

    Funniest thing that happened to me in my first company, and it’s actually only funny now because I’m sitting here and have money. So I start my own company and things are going great. I have great employees, we’re growing and all of a sudden our marketing head, Jennifer, quits. She’s got a different job. Everything’s great, we’re cool.

    As she’s leaving we’re kind of having an exit interview, it was great working with you, and all of a sudden she starts crying. I’m like oh my gosh, what have I done to her? I just loved working with you so much, you’re such a great boss, but there’s something I have to tell you.

    Bob, not his real name, who’s running sales for you, has a company on the side and he’s funneling half the deals to his own company. I looked at her and I’m like, no I’m too smart to have that happen to me. Jennifer, I don’t know what you’re talking about. So all of a sudden, I start thinking what if it is true?

    I go back to the deals that we have lost and I call one of those customers. I called them up and I say hi, just curious, why didn’t you guys go with us? Guy goes, I don’t know what you’re talking about, we actually did buy from you. My own sales manager had his own company on the side and he would take an order for us and he started another company with a similar name and it was taking those orders, fulfilling them, and cashing the checks.

    The minute you hire the first employee you have got to be careful. I’ve had people do horrible things to me in business, people that work for me, competitors, everybody. You’ve got to look out for yourself.

  • Ecommerce Startup Zola Seeks to Reinvent the Wedding Industry

    Ecommerce Startup Zola Seeks to Reinvent the Wedding Industry

    The wedding niche is a $100 billion industry in the US alone and is ripe for ecommerce startups. In 2013, Shan-lyn Ma and Nobu Nakaguchi realized through their own experiences that they could not only improve on but literally reinvent the wedding industry, so they started Zola.

    According to Shan-lyn Ma, Zola is the fastest growing wedding company in the US, with the goal of reinventing the wedding planning and registry experience. To date, it has received over $140 million in funding.

    Shan-lyn Ma, CEO, and co-founder of Zola recently talked about how Zola came about and where it’s going:

    Personal Experiences Were the Spark

    Zola means love in the Zulu language. In 2013, which was the year that we were brainstorming was also the year all my friends got married at exactly the same time. I was shopping on a lot of my friend’s department store registries and finding that it was the worst ecommerce shopping experience I had ever seen. Talking to my co-founder Nobu Nakaguchi, he’s married and he was complaining about how painful it was from the couple’s perspective.

    We had worked in design and product and technology together building great products and so we knew we could do a much better job and we knew our friends getting married deserved a much better product. Before Zola launched a couple would have an average of three registries and Zola takes that down to just one registry.

    Zola Weddings Launched Last Year

    Last year we launched a second product called Zola weddings. That includes is free a wedding website, our guest list manager,  and our checklist for all your to-do’s in order to plan your wedding. This was the number one request we were hearing from couples who were saying I love you for my registry, why can’t I just add a few more details about my wedding and I’ll make it my wedding website and then I’m done.

    Pitching Zola to Investors

    Regarding how we pitched Zola to investors, it was harder to show that emotional connection to a problem and how the product sold this better than anything else. We focused on how is this business model is innovating how we are redoing retail and we had the numbers to show it and they absolutely got it.

    Weddings are a $100 Billion Industry

    Weddings are a $100 billion industry in the US and globally it’s a $300 billion industry. When you think about it, weddings is one of the few industries remaining where we haven’t seen a dominant startup player or disruptor emerge to take the market.

    There’s no one that does everything that we do and there’s certainly no one that does it all on the website and on your mobile device serving every couple no matter who you are, no matter what your sexual orientation, no matter what you want your wedding to look like, or your religion. We are there to serve you and that is what is unique and that’s why we’re the fastest growing wedding company.

  • Moz Founder Says Google Knows Everything and is Now Relying on Behavioral Data for Search Rankings

    Moz Founder Says Google Knows Everything and is Now Relying on Behavioral Data for Search Rankings

    Google is now relying on behavioral data that it gets from searchers, Chrome users, Android, etc. as the primary way that it ranks pages, according to Moz founder Rand Fishkin, who spoke at the recent MozCon event.

    Google used to have to predict what searchers are going to do and used a reasonable surfer model as the premise for its search algorithm. No more says Rand Fishkin. Google knows everything so it doesn’t have to predict because it already knows. Interesting but very scary stuff.

    Rand Fishkin, founder and former CEO of Moz and current founder of Sparktoro, discussed Google’s current approach to ranking websites at MozCon:

    What is Google Going To Do About Judging Links?

    I want to from my mind of all the things that I knew about link building up until this point and instead, take a look at companies and brands and websites and just ask what did they do right and what did we do wrong in the past and what is Google going to do about judging links?

    You might remember that last year when Google announced RankBrain they said it is the third most important ranking factor. You might also recall Danny Sullivan asking them what are the first two? A few of us were on a phone call with one of Google’s engineers and brought this up and he was like, what are you talking about, everyone knows the first two are content and links. Still true.

    In the past, link evaluation algorithms have been in these places we’re all familiar with such as PageRank, source diversity, anchor text, trust distance, domain authority,  location on the page, spam out link analysis, yadda yadda yadda. All these little individual factors around how Google judges a particular link and all the links that point to a website.

    Google is Going Away From the Reasonable Surfer Model

    But this is not where they’re going. Google’s is going away from the reasonable surfer model. Remember what PageRank was supposed to do, even in 1998, it was supposed to predict which links on a page were important and then it was supposed to assign values to them and it was supposed to assign those based on the probability, the chance of someone clicking on those links.

    Of course, Google was very naive in 1998 and so all they could do was assign the same weight to all the links on a page and they assigned the weight of a page based on all the links that pointed to it.

    Google Search Relying on Behavioral Data Because Google Knows Everything

    But that is not today. Today, thanks to Chrome and Android and Google WiFi and Google Fiber, Google knows everything. Google’s sample of everything that happens on the web is probably in the 80 or 90 percentile range. It’s insane and it’s crazy. Because of that, they can see. Google knows where people were, where they go and where they go next. You don’t need a reasonable surfer model anymore. You don’t need to predict because you know.

    Google’s goal is pretty clear, it’s searcher satisfaction. Google knows that if they satisfy searchers well, those searchers will return again and again. The number of searches will go up and the number of searches per searcher will keep going up and that’s what we’ve been seeing. Even as desktop has leveled off in its growth, mobile keeps growing and searches and searches per searcher keep growing.

    Google’s core search team asks the same question every time, are searchers satisfied with the results? The way they know that is finding out if searchers are getting the answers that they’re seeking. Google asks how do we get to that? It’s behavioral data.

  • Pinterest Opens Up to Third Party Influencers

    Pinterest Opens Up to Third Party Influencers

    Pinterest recently announced that its giving third-party influencers access to its API. While influencer marketing is not new to the social media platform, opening its content marketing API provides brands, influencers, and marketers a chance to work more closely.

    The move is part of Pinterest’s expanding Marketing Partners program. The company is adding a total of eight marketing platforms – AspirelQ, HYPR, Influence.co, IZEA, Klear, Mavrck, Obvious.ly, and Open Influence.

    The company explained in a blog post that they’re “opening our content marketing API to third-party influencer marketing platforms to help brands and influencers collaborate more effectively and create exciting new things on Pinterest.”

    David Temple, the head of Pinterest’s content and creator products, said that creators are vital to the company so they’re excited to be able to supply them with more tools and resources for them to utilize as they develop strong relationships with various businesses.

    Aside from connecting brands to influencers, the API will provide Pinterest’s partners with key performance metrics regarding influencer campaigns. It will also give insights into click-throughs, impressions, monthly views, and saves. More importantly, it will give companies a better chance at understanding how content developers can boost engagement and drive traffic to the app. This will go a long way in helping companies design their marketing campaigns so that they will deliver a healthy return on investment.

    The lack of data has been a large stumbling block in working with influencers. While companies can get a baseline, it’s labor-intensive and time-consuming. By giving access to its API, Pinterest has given companies much-needed information. It’s also a strategic move on the company’s part as it opens them up to higher ad spending from marketers.

    Eric Lam, AspirelQ CEO, revealed that it has also gotten very challenging for brands to attract consumer attention, making it imperative for brands “to connect with consumers using the right message, at the right time, through the right channel.” Partnering with Pinterest gives brands another channel and more opportunities to engage clients in a personalized and meaningful manner.

    Opportunities is the perfect word to use here. Pinterest is in a class all by itself; its Pins can drive customer engagement for more than 120 days. That’s in direct contrast to posts that can only be seen on certain platforms for a single day.

    Brands and content developers can find more information about Pinterest’s marketing API on the site’s Marketing Partners site or by emailing pmp-partnerships@pinterest.com

    [Featured image via Pinterest]