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Saturday, June 27, 2015

Tech toolkit: 5 things marketers need to know about the smartwatch

IMAGE: MASHABLE/LILI SAMS

BY JEFF MALMAD

This article is part of SWOT Team, a series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public relations.

The Apple Watch is blowing up. Analysts predict that around 15 million units will be sold this year. That's a great start.

To compare, Android Wear sold 720,000 units in 2014. And while Apple hasn't released sales numbers, an interview with Apple's finance chief indicates that the launch day figures may have beat those of the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010.

SEE ALSO: Game of phones: Will marketers be prepared for the mobile storm?

But the launch of the watch isn't just great for Apple or consumers; it’s also a big step for all wearable tech. There are more than 500 consumer wearables in market right now and the press and buzz around the Apple Watch means increased usage for other devices, too.

IDC’s new estimates put worldwide wearable shipments at 72.1 million devices this year — a 173% increase from 2014. What was one of the big catalysts for growth? The category of "smart wearables," like the smartwatch.

So, here's our mantra for marketers: Think of the smartphone as Batman, and the smartwatch as Robin. They can each work independently — but, together, they're a dynamic duo.

Your smartphone is the ultimate wearable device — you take it with you everywhere. But when coupled with a smartwatch, consumers can get a lot of enhanced value.

And value is what's key here. Advertising on a wearable device isn't about running a banner, a video or a highly intrusive message on a watch face. It's about giving consumers utility and information.

For example, Starbucks allows you to use your watch for payments. Chipotle allows you to order food directly from your watch face. IHG released a language translator that helps you learn essential foreign phrases while traveling.

Here are five things that brands and marketers should consider with the smartwatch.

1. Embrace push notifications

These are the main way that people interact with their smartwatches today. And when people opt into notifications from a smartphone app, they appear on their smartwatch as well. From a brand perspective, you can control what goes out and when. If done correctly, you'll be giving consumers high-value information when and where they want it.

2. Make them action-oriented

You only have a very small screen to push a notification to a consumer. This message should be action-oriented and drive value once engaged. Whether you're providing content or a brand offer, use terms that resonate with consumers based on their context. For example, consumers who are standing in a grocery store will want a notification that alerts them of relevant content and savings from a brand.

3. Ask yourself if you really need your own app

It’s true of the smartphone and even more true on the watch — not all companies and brands need their own app. Think about working with a content publisher instead. Those partners are the ones who have the most scale in the smartwatch space.

4. When working with publishers, create an ownable experience

Don't just deploy a “sponsored by” message on the watch.

Don't just deploy a “sponsored by” message on the watch.Instead, create additional value by helping publishers deploy a new feature or experience that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. For example, we recently launched a campaign where the publisher and brand provide customized daily fitness regiments — delivered directly to your wrist.

5. Be adaptive

It’s a new space and the lessons are fresh and constantly evolving. Leveraging opt-in data about location, user history, etc. will help you tailor your messages and create better marketing programs for the immediate future.

As the biometrics space grows, it'll come to represent a whole new area where we've only scratched the surface. Some apps know a consumer's height, weight, and activity level. Now, more than ever before, we can create relevant messages that adapt to the user instead of just something generic.

The smartwatch space is valuable to consumers, which makes it valuable to marketers. But it's important that we don't overstep ourselves. We should provide utility over intrusion — just like Batman and Robin.

Have something to add to this story? Tell us in the comments.

Oh, kale no! Whole Foods denies it overcharges New Yorkers

Kale of indeterminate price.

IMAGE: FRAUKE FEIND

BY SAMANTHA COONEY2 DAYS AGO

Customers want Whole Foods to get its overpriced shiitake together.

The grocery chain is fighting back against the New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs’ allegations that it has regularly been overcharging customers in city stores in what investigators called one of the “worst cases of mislabeling they have seen.”

And customers are taking to social media to air their frustrations about paying more for organic quinoa and kale.

In response, the chain has adopted an interesting public relations strategy: its Twitter account has taken up the task of responding to a lot of the naysayers with some variation of, “We disagree with these far-reaching allegations. Customer trust is our top priority.”

The tweets align closely with the statement that the company has provided to media outlets, which said, “We disagree with the DCA's overreaching allegations and we are vigorously defending ourselves. We cooperated fully with the DCA from the beginning until we disagreed with their grossly excessive monetary demands. Despite our requests to the DCA, they have not provided evidence to back up their demands nor have they requested any additional information from us, but instead have taken this to the media to coerce us."

In @USAgov If a person steals, you go to jail. If your a business like @WholeFoods and steal from your customers... Slap on the wrist

— Mark Clark (@MClark_Live) June 25, 2015

But it's not all doom and gloom for the chain, which took a break from responding to the Twitter hate to send its love to one customer.

10 steps to take if your conversion rates drop — first, don't panic

IMAGE: ROBIN HEIGHWAY-BURY/ IKON IMAGES/CORBIS

BY SCOTT GERBER

2 days ago

Plummeting conversion rates can spell bad news for a business that relies primarily on online sales, and how you react is critical. Factors such as technology failures and sales funnel issues play into sudden conversion rate drops, as do overall market changes — but you won't know the real reason, or best way to respond, until you investigate the source.

Before you panic, take some time to analyze what might have gone wrong. I asked 10 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to weigh in on what to do after spotting the initial decline. Their answers are below.

1. Trace your steps

If you see your conversion rates are dropping suddenly, then the first thing you need to do is figure out what's causing the drop. Is it directly related to a drop in your website traffic or is it something else?

SEE ALSO: 14 traits every successful social media manager should have

If your traffic is the same and the conversion has dropped, then you should run through your checkout process and test that it is working in all different browsers. Often you will be able to find the problem during this process and fix it. If the drop in conversion is caused by drop in traffic, then you should look at any outlier drops. For example, if Google was your No. 1 source and it's down 80%, then log into your Webmaster tools to see if there are any penalties against your domain.

— Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

2. Analyze your acquisition channels methodically

First, break out the data into your acquisition channels. From which acquisition channels are your conversion rates changing? Is it all of them or just one?

If it’s all of your channels, that’s indicative of a changing market. Perhaps a competitor is outdoing you, or perhaps your market is shrinking. You need to take a holistic view of your business and product and transform it to match the changing market landscape.

If it’s just one or two of your channels, even if they are major ones, that’s probably due to a lack of accountability or innovation within your marketing team’s control. Examine each step of your funnel and look for weak points. Engage in split testing and hold your staff accountable for getting those conversion rates back up.

— Joshua Dorkin, BiggerPockets

3. Consider seasonal effects

It is something I like to call buyer's fatigue. It is what happens to consumers right after the holidays, towards the end of January or right after Valentine's Day, when they are less willing to part with money anymore. They are still browsing, but aren't as quick to pull the trigger. The effects are rather sudden. While you might be getting the same level of traffic, less people are converting. It is important to think about these seasonal effects so that you don't inadvertently make changes to your site that may actually be detrimental to its success.

— Justin Boggs, ZeeBerry.com

4. Check the top of the funnel

The longer you run the same marketing campaign, the less effective it becomes. This is true of paid and unpaid customer acquisition channels. Check to see if the quality of your incoming traffic has dropped recently. If so, it's time to build new content and test new platforms.

— Neil Thanedar, LabDoor

SEE ALSO: 9 marketing mistakes that make you look like a rookie

5. Act like a customer

Look at where your customers are coming from. Your answer will be different depending on whether your customer came from organic traffic, social media or paid advertising. Remember that within each of those groups are subgroups. Also check the functionality of the page they're landing on — something might be misfiring. I always prefer to do a test transaction myself on each of the major channels.

— Kevin Henrikson, Acompli (now Outlook iOS/Android @ Microsoft)

6. Take a look at your analytics

This is a major issue that should be addressed as early as possible in order for it to not snowball into a larger problem. You need to dig into your analytics and look to see if the traffic that is coming in is the same as it has been. Ask yourself if you changed anything about your landing pages. I would have a friend randomly test it on your website so you can get honest feedback. This issue is originating somewhere and you need to decipher where it is coming from in your analytics.

— Jayna Cooke, EVENTup

7. Look over paid search campaigns

Give a once-over to your paid campaigns and their locations, and see if there have been any changes that you did not keep track of or were not aware of. Was the landing page for one of your links changed? Was a special offer or coupon removed from your landing page content, therefore bringing a lot less traffic to the site? Was your campaign budget hit? All of these things should be looked into and measured right when you see any kind of decrease, so that in the future you will know what may be causing a decline in conversion.

— Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com

SEE ALSO: 6 ways to build career skills on your own

8. Go through your lever checklist

Consider all of the levers influencing your conversions and investigate each of them. For example, I would run down the following checklist to see where the drop is coming from:

Test the conversion flow.
Dig into your back end for potential issues (tracking, attribution, configuration, etc.).
Check impact of any tests that are running on ads, landers, etc.
Check for increases in competition.
Drill down into individual traffic sources.
Segment out conversion rates by device, browser, geo, etc.
Account for any industry trends or seasonality.

Then, most importantly, prioritize where there’s the biggest opportunity to move the needle and get to where you need to be.

— Zach Robbins, Leadnomics

9. Check your technology

Make sure all your technology is working. Your could be having server issues, your forms may not be working, etc. Performance is typically a huge issue — people don't have patience to deal with slow websites or glitchy software. Thoroughly test all your technology.

— Joe Apfelbaum, Ajax Union

10. Don't panic

Any market change has to be respected. First, don't panic — it isn’t time for sweeping change at the slightest indicator. Next, take a look at Google Analytics — what changed? If absolutely nothing has changed in terms of calls to action, digital assets, site ranking and authority, then the issue is simply that you haven’t followed the market. Take that as a cue to revisit your buyer personas and do a refresh. I will say, however, 9.9 times out of 10, something major has changed in terms of the site structure or content. Markets don't often turn on a dime — unless its 2000 or 2008.

— Justin Gray, LeadMD

SCOTT GERBER

Scott Gerber is a serial entrepreneur, author (Never Get a 'Real' Job), TV commentator and founder of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneur...more

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Jay-Z's 99 problems definitely include holding on to a CEO for Tidal

IMAGE: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY SAMANTHA COONEY1 DAY AGO

It’s a hard knock life for Jay Z’s Tidal, which is without a CEO for the second time in three months.

Interim CEO Peter Tonstand has left the streaming service after replacing Andy Chen in April of this year, Norwegian news site Dagens Naeringsliv first reported on Tuesday morning.

“We are thankful to Peter for stepping in as interim CEO and wish him the best for the future,” a spokesperson for Tidal told the Wall Street Journal.

SEE ALSO: 99 problems: Why Jay Z's Tidal streaming service became a train wreck

Jay-Z has only been at the helm of the service, which charges users a minimum of $9.99 or $19.99 for premium service, since March, and the CEO shuffles have only accounted for half of the service’s 99 problems.

Though Tidal was branded as the streaming service that would change the way artists get paid and offer high sound quality, its roll-out under Jay-Z was widely heralded as a disaster.

For the March 30 launch event, Jay-Z paraded out famous friends like Rihanna, Kanye West, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin to wax poetic about how Tidal would pay artists differently. But many called the event awkward and tone-deaf, most notably for excluding artists who aren’t already ranking on lists of millionaires and billionaires.

For his part, Tonstad — who served as the CEO of Tidal’s parent company Aspiro before taking on the top job at Tidal — told the Wall Street Journal that he thought the launch “absolutely fantastic.”

But users didn’t buy into the service, either. Though Tidal offers exclusives, including the first release of Nicki Minaj’s “Feeling Myself” video that featured Beyonce, users aren’t biting — it fell out of the Top 500 download apps in April, and hasn’t found its way back. And as the company replaced Chen with Tonstad, it fired another 24 employees.

But not all industry analysts are saying to count out Tidal — one industry analyst says that Tonstad’s departure might mean that the company is on its way up.

“Tidal is still finding its way as a company,” industry analyst Mark Mulligan told Mashable in an email. “Jay Z bought a company to shape in his own vision and that process has a long way yet to run. Tidal is making strong progress now and that sort of pace of change is going to quickly reveal any simmering differences of opinion that may exist within the ranks.”

“So this is no crisis but instead collateral damage en route to transformative change of the company,” Mulligan said.

It's still unclear where Tidal will go from here — but right now it’s certainly not looking like the holy grail of streaming services Jay Z was hoping for. At least, not yet.

The Taylor Swift guide to being a kickass businesswoman

IMAGE: ROLF VENNENBERND/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY SAMANTHA COONEY2 DAYS AGO

Darling, she’s a businesswoman dressed as a pop star.

Taylor Swift is known for selling out arenas with her catchy ballads about love, loss, and cherry-red lips, but her recent move to call out Apple Music’s policy to not pay artists during a three month trial period of the new streaming service — which prompted the tech giant to reverse its policy less than 17 hours after Swift’s condemnation — proves she’s got chops as a businesswoman.

SEE ALSO: Dear Taylor Swift: While you're at it, can you fix a few other things?

But this shouldn’t come as a surprise to Swift’s legions of fans. As the daughter of two financiers — her father Scott is a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch, and her mother Andrea used to work at a mutual fund — Swift’s got business in her blood, and the Apple move is the latest in a long list of smart business decisions for the “Blank Space” singer and her label Big Machine Records.

“There is no doubt that Swift and Big Machine are together in a highly effective business,” music industry analyst Mark Mulligan tells Mashable. “Her role in the streaming debate highlights her keen understanding of the importance of the business of making music.”

We examined how Taylor Swift became so awesome, and distilled her actions down to some useful business advice any woman — or anyone — can use.

taylorswiftbreakup — Learn business at the feet of the best.

Taylor Swift is a strong negotiator

Taylor Swift has mastered one of the keys of negotiation, Sun Tzu style: she comes out firmly for what she wants, but always allows the other side a way to save face. Another key of negotiation: she knows what she wants out of a deal.

Swift raked in $64 million in the last year alone, earning the second spot on Forbes' Top Earning Women in Music in 2014.

In other words, Taylor Swift never has to think about nickels and dimes again. But when Apple Music announced that it wouldn’t be paying artists for during the three month free trial of its streaming service, Swift still spoke up — with some firm words.

“This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows,” Swift wrote in a Tumblr post published on Saturday. “This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success.”

“It is clear that Swift and her label Big Machine are trying to shape and influence the streaming debate and not simply reject it,” Mulligan says.

The move earned her kudos from many in the music industry for speaking up for the artists who lack Swift’s leverage, becoming a sort of champion of underdogs.

“We haven't seen the revised contract for indies, but let's assume they get compensation at some level for the free trials. We also don't know if the majors had compensation while the indies didn't, but it seems safe to assume that they had the same terms,” Alice Enders, an analyst at U.K-based market research firm told Mashable. “So all indies will gain from Swift's concerns being addressed by Apple Music.”

taylor-swift-spotify-thoughts — Taylor Swift performs at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sept. 19 in Las Vegas.

Taylor Swift pays attention to every penny

But the move also signals that Swift made the right move in sticking with Big Machine Records, an independent label in Nashville co-owned by Scott Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith, instead of jumping ship to a larger label.

“Taylor Swift is an independent artist,” Enders says, “and that has allowed her to dictate her own terms and conditions to her label.”

And part of those terms and conditions is that Swift stay off streaming services that don’t provide enough pay for artists. Her first move was to pull her entire music catalog off streaming giant Spotify, which pays artists between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream.

Instead, Swift has been strategic in which companies she’s given access to streaming right to her four previous albums (granting the much-maligned Tidal, which charges users a minimum of $9.99 a month, access to her old album), and no streaming service has the right to 1989, forcing fans that want to listen to “Blank Space” or “Bad Blood” buy the album — perhaps part of the reason the album went platinum earlier this year.

But even before Swift waged her war with streaming services, her label was fighting with the old fashioned radio to get paid for plays. In 2012, Big Machine brokered a landmark deal with Clear Channel to receive royalties for radio plays (and certainly Swift’s singles from her 2012 effortRed were getting the most plays out of anyone on Big Machine’s roster, which now includes bro country stars Zac Brown Band, Florida Georgia Line, and Brantley Gilbert.)

“Thanks to Swift's must-have status, she is the first recording artist that has received royalties from plays on commercial radio...and you may recall that she also threatened to pull her repertoire from that channel,” Enders said. “She punches way above her weight.”

She knows — and protects — her brand and hires good people to help her

But though her status as Big Machine’s crown jewel has allowed Swift to speak out against streaming, Swift is ultimately in control of her brand and image.

And she's handpicked a team — centered around manager Robert Allen and publicist Tree Paine — that allows her to flex her muscles.

When she strayed away from her country roots to make her first all-pop outing with 1989, label head Borchetta reportedly asked Swift to include some country tracks. According to Rolling Stone, Swift resisted, telling Borchetta: “Love you, mean it...But this is how it's going to be.” And that all pop album sold almost 1.3 million copies in its first week.

Swift went on to trademark some of the catchiest lyrics from that album, including "Style's" “Cause we never go out of style” and “Shake It Off’s” “This sick beat.”

“It’s a smart move,” New York University law professor Christopher Jon Sprigman toldUniversity of Pennsylvania’s Business School journal Knowledge at Wharton. “She both has an interest in protecting what she views as her intellectual assets, which she thinks are some of these lyrics … and she does ultimately hope to be able to use some of these on various products, goods and services.”

In addition to protecting her lyrics, Swift protects her image. She’s brought in more than $33 million from her deals with shoe brand Keds, Diet Coke, and beauty brands CoverGirl and Elizabeth Arden — and none of those deals have strayed from Swift’s all American image.

And earlier this year, Swift bought up the rights to porn sites taylorswift.adult and taylorswift.porn to keep control of her likeness — and keep it out of the hands of enjoyers of XXX-content.

taylor-swift-spotify-removes-music — Taylor Swift performs on "Good Morning America" in Times Square on Oct. 30 in New York.

Taylor Swift is social media savvy

But perhaps the most important part of the Swift business model is her accessibility to her fans on social media — the ones who will have to spend money on the albums she’s withholding from those streaming services.

Swift counts more than 64 million followers on Twitter, 36 million followers on Instagram, and keeps a Tumblr where she reblogs fans, makes fun of memes, and posts about Apple Music’s streaming services.

“There are a few artists who are as astute in their use of social media for fan engagement as Swift,” Mulligan tells Mashable.

And though she’s currently at the top of pop and pals around with supermodels, she presents herself as a friend to her fans — sending them love via social media, helping them announce their baby news, and sending them gifts.

And she uses social media to generate excitement. She announced her fifth album in a Yahoo! event after leaving clues on her Instagram for weeks leading up to the event. She held secret listening sessions in her private homes to the album with fans handpicked off her social media accounts.

Ahead of the release of the music video of 1989’s fourth single “Bad Blood,” (which was remixed by Kendrick Lamar, prompting fans who had already purchased the album to shell out another $1.29 for the refreshed song with Lamar's verses) Swift released a number of superhero posters of her celebrity friends starring in the video.

And of course, Swift used her powerful social media presence to force Apple to stand down.

Swift has long presented herself as the underdog. On one of her popular earlier singles, Swift sings of a romantic rival: “She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.” But it’s clear from her business savvy that Swift instead belongs in the boardroom.

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