Articles - Page 163

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

<a name="_GoBack"></a> The world of social media marketing is a fast-paced one. Trends come and go, and if you want to stay on top of your game you need to apply strategies that are up-to-the-minute. Here are six of those marketing trends that really make a significant impact – penetration-wise – this 2018. We still have one quarter to go this year, and that’s still plenty of time for you to implement these marketing trends and tactics to create better brand impact!
<ol>
<li>Video content is king. There’s never been a more effective time to utilize video as one of your premiere marketing tools – especially since businesses and brands that utilized it are up 63% from the previous year. And with over 1.5 billion users logged in to YouTube every month, social networking sites have launched all sorts of new features that will encourage the use and creation of video content. You have Live Videos, 360-videos, instant stories, etc. Apart from being an enjoyable aspect of consuming social media content, these videos are also high on value. Ad recall is achievable within your video’s first 10 seconds. Video pros suggest creating animated videos as these are more popular than mere explainer videos.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Mobile solutions count. Smartphone users now number 2.53 billion as of 2018. According to Facebook data, their number of monthly active users on the mobile platform is nearing 2 billion. It’s safe to say that mobile traffic now surpasses desktop, which is why it’s important to tap into the consciousness of these digital natives through prioritizing mobile. In particular, you can study how you can better take advantage of the call-to-action button on social network mobile apps. These are more able to generate better conversions than their web platform counterpart. Thus, your marketing strategies should be tailor-fit to attract all of these mobile users.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Chatbots are crucial for CRM success. Customer Relation Management, or CRM, is an essential element of business success. This is especially true when addressing the social media aspect of your business. On this platform, Chatbots have proven itself to be very capable in creating real-time engagement to address your customers’ needs. Social media sites have already announced chatbot functions on their platform, so its effectiveness has already been measured and deemed worthy of use. With a Chatbot deployed to deal with your customers’ first line or level of concerns, you have something that works 24/7 without using real-time human effort for customer service. It’s also a cost-effective way to manage some aspects of your marketing strategy. Since chatbots seem to be in its infancy stage, you can surely expect more out of it in the coming years with improvements in AI research.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Investing in influencer marketing. Influencers have varied backgrounds – celebrities, fashionistas, savvy moms, articulate and engaging children and everyone in between. What they have in common is their amazing ability to convince people to try a particular product or service. Thus, investing in influencer marketing should definitely be something you should consider to generate significant returns out of your social media marketing efforts. The key is in finding that perfect influencer that hits the target for your niche. The choice isn’t based on popularity alone. Rather, you want someone who has a wide reach and has developed his/her audience’s trust when it comes to things that he/she patronizes. Social media influencers might seem like a steep investment, but the dividends will pay off in the long run. Brands that count on influencers to get the word across enjoy up to 10x more in their conversion rates – a number that’s pretty hard to beat, strategy-wise.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Paid content that’s also personalized. Paid content such as sponsored ads is a worthy investment if you want your business to have a wider reach on social media. It’s a good way to be better noticed on social media, especially since there are a million other businesses that create a lot of noise on the same platform. However, it is important to factor in personalization to your paid content. People are generally resistant to random ads on social media, and platforms have responded with new algorithms that match ads to the users who are more likely to appreciate seeing it on their feed. This goes for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With this in place, your task is to personalize your content in such a way that your audience immediately sees its relevance in their lives. Social media platforms are already doing you a favor with these new algorithms that bring your target market closer to you, so you’d best focus on crafting your content to capture their attention and create conversions as a result. As a tip, you can also apply the use of analytics to truly understand your data and therefore find out how you can better apply what you know to reach your target users.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Automation = real and lasting solutions. With so many competitors all vying for the attention of users numbering in the billions, working smarter is more effective compared to working harder. In this line, automation presents itself as strategy that does away with manual effort so you can spend more time concentrating on other more important aspects of your business as a digital marketer. The good thing about automation being so prevalent these days is the cost has gone down significantly. Having said that, you really have no excuse to avail of it for better success in social media marketing.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Variety Wins in Social Media Marketing</h2>
With all these new trends coming out, it is safe to say that a general rule to follow when drafting a solid social media marketing strategy is to have a focus on variety. Nowadays, it is never enough to focus all of your efforts on just one strategy. The gains you can generate by casting a much wider net is hard to ignore, especially in a digital platform wherein all the tools are right there in front of you for you to take advantage of. At the same time, it pays to remember that while everything is about technology these days, the heart of your marketing strategy should be the people you want to reach. Trends come and go, but the people – your target market – will constantly remain the same for the most part.

6 Social Media Marketing Trends You Need Implement, Stat

mike-johnston

Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Marketo, the market-leading cloud platform for B2B marketing engagement, for $4.75 billion, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. With nearly 5,000 customers, Marketo brings together planning, engagement and measurement capabilities into an integrated B2B marketing platform. Adding Marketo’s engagement platform to Adobe Experience Cloud will enable Adobe to offer an unrivaled set of solutions for delivering transformative customer experiences across industries and companies of all sizes.
Today, consumers have a very high bar for what constitutes a great customer experience and Adobe Experience Cloud has enabled B2C companies to successfully drive business impact by harnessing massive volumes of customer data and content in order to deliver real-time, cross-channel experiences that are personalized and consistent. When businesses buy from other businesses, they now have the same high expectations as consumers.
Marketo’s platform is feature-rich and cloud-native with significant opportunities for integration across Adobe Experience Cloud. Enterprises of all sizes across industries rely on Marketo’s marketing applications to drive engagement and customer loyalty. Marketo’s ecosystem includes over 500 partners and an engaged marketing community with over 65,000 members.
This acquisition brings together the richness of Adobe Experience Cloud analytics, content, personalization, advertising and commerce capabilities with Marketo’s lead management and account-based marketing technology to provide B2B companies with the ability to create, manage and execute marketing engagement at scale.
<blockquote>
The imperative for marketers across all industries is a laser focus on providing relevant, personalized and engaging experiences,” said Brad Rencher, executive vice president and general manager, Digital Experience, Adobe. “The acquisition of Marketo widens Adobe’s lead in customer experience across B2C and B2B and puts Adobe Experience Cloud at the heart of all marketing.”
</blockquote>
“Adobe and Marketo both share an unwavering belief in the power of content and data to drive business results,” said Steve Lucas, CEO, Marketo. “Marketo delivers the leading B2B marketing engagement platform for the modern marketer, and there is no better home for Marketo to continue to rapidly innovate than Adobe.”
The transaction, which is expected to close during the fourth quarter of Adobe’s 2018 fiscal year, is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently.
Upon close, Marketo CEO Steve Lucas will join Adobe's senior leadership team and continue to lead the Marketo team as part of Adobe’s Digital Experience business, reporting to executive vice president and general manager Brad Rencher.

Adobe to Acquire Marketo

Telerik, an end-to-end provider of software application lifecycle and content management solutions today announced the launch of Sitefinity 4.0, the newest edition of its powerful, scalable Content Management System (CMS). The platform’s redesigned product architecture delivers an array of enhancements, like advanced workflow control for better business process management and improved ease-of-use, generating considerable productivity gains of up to 70 percent. Underscoring its commitment to meeting the needs of customers developing commercial websites, Telerik also announced its recent acquisition of Mallsoft, leading developers of e-commerce shopping cart technologies. The acquisition lays the groundwork for the integration of advanced e-commerce functionality and a robust system for handling online stores within the Sitefinity platform.
“This is the culmination of many years of real-world experience, extensive time and resources invested in product R&amp;D, and in gathering customer feedback. Additionally, with new frameworks supporting Mallsoft’s e-commerce technologies, users have the ability to fully manage all aspects of their online business, from corporate websites to intranets to online stores. Sitefinity 4.0 has matured into one of the market’s most powerful, comprehensive, and highest quality content management solutions being shipped today,” said Martin Kirov, executive vice president of Sitefinity at Telerik. “By minimizing complexities while providing robust tools and innovative features addressing every aspect of the site building and management experience, Sitefinity 4.0 enables users to quickly, easily, and efficiently optimize their web presence.”
Based on Microsoft’s <a href="http://asp.net/" target="_blank">ASP.NET</a>, Sitefinity is an award-winning CMS for the development and management of websites, intranets, and portals. Sitefinity 4.0 focuses on increasing productivity and usability for both developers and business users alike. As part of its ground-up redesign, various upgrades have been deployed for the development community, such as an open, fluent, and fully exposed API for superior product extensibility and customizability. The backend has also been AJAXified, resulting in substantially improved performance.
Telerik’s recent acquisition of leading San Diego-based web design and development firm, Mallsoft, paves the way for the integration of e-commerce support and underscores the company’s dedication to providing its users with the most complete CMS solution possible. The introduction of Mallsoft’s complementary e-commerce technologies to the Sitefinity platform also assures users will save valuable time, resources, and money by eliminating the need to select and integrate software from third-party vendors. The incorporation of Mallsoft’s development staff and leadership team as part of Telerik extends the company’s presence in the U.S., allowing it to engage more deeply with partners and customers alike.
“We are extremely excited to be a part of the Telerik family, which employs some of the brightest people in the industry.  The vision we saw several years ago with Sitefinity CMS and knowing where it is heading, gave us the confidence that the product will quickly evolve into a leading web presence platform,” said Steve Miller, president of Mallsoft.  “Telerik is an amazing company that truly delivers more than expected, as will Sitefinity eCommerce.“
Telerik’s focus on extended value for business users includes improvements to Sitefinity’s task-oriented UI, facilitating easier browsing and inline editing. Intuitive drag-and-drop functionality enables non-technical personnel to swiftly accomplish tasks previously requiring developer intervention, like button and banner localization, minor page layout changes, and workflow settings updates. Sitefinity 4.0 further improves the business user experience with invaluable SEO tools, like new Forms and Analytics modules allowing users to drill down into site statistics and data to optimize web marketing strategies. The platform is also WebAIM Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) and Section 508-compliant.
Sitefinity 4.0 incorporates more than 100 <a href="http://asp.net/" target="_blank">ASP.NET</a> AJAX and Silverlight UI controls from Telerik’s market-leading RadControls developer productivity tools collection, enabling swifter and easier site development. With the new Project Manager, developers will see streamlined installation, deployment, and upgrade processes, maximizing efficiency and productivity. Other developer-oriented items making their debut are:
<ul>
<li>· Enhanced workflow management capabilities and seamless Windows Workflow Foundation integration</li>
<li>· Improved widget controls layout and output modifications via the Widget Template Editor</li>
<li>· Advanced facet and network taxonomies support</li>
<li>· Starter Kits with premade site architecture, content, components, and customizable widgets</li>
<li>· Support for more granular permissions</li>
</ul>
For more information on Sitefinity 4.0, please visit <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">www.sitefinity.com</a> or follow @Sitefinity on Twitter. For more information about Telerik, please visit <a href="http://www.telerik.com/" target="_blank">www.telerik.com</a> or follow @Telerik on Twitter. For more information about Mallsoft and Sitefinity 4.0 e-commerce functionality, please visit <a href="http://www.esitefinity.com/" target="_blank">www.esitefinity.com</a>.
About Telerik
Telerik is a market-leading provider of end-to-end solutions for application development, automated testing, agile project management, reporting, and content management across all major Microsoft development platforms. Telerik’s award-winning software development products enable enterprises and organizations of every size to generate tangible productivity gains, reduce time-to-market, and stay on time and under budget. With tens of thousands of users in more than 90 countries around the world, Telerik’s customers include numerous Fortune 2000 companies, academic institutions, governments, and non-profit organizations.

Telerik unveils powerful Sitefinity 4.0 content management solution

CoreMedia, a leading Web content management (WCM) company, today announced the launch of CoreMedia 6, the latest release of its innovative WCM platform. Purpose built for organizations looking to increase the value of their online channels, CoreMedia 6 enables a more relevant, engaging and “contextual” online experience by delivering the right business data in real time to the right customer touchpoint, including websites, mobile devices, tablets and TV sets. With this new release, non-technical business users such as marketers and website managers can more easily customize the online experience and anticipate customer preferences and intent by adapting the content or communication “on demand” to each user’s unique needs in a way that is context-aware and goes well beyond basic personalization.
According to a report from IT analyst firm, Gartner, “Context-aware computing — the concept of leveraging information about the end user to improve the quality of the interaction — can improve business results.” The report continues, “Though some components of this concept may already be familiar, such as personalization, Web analytics and recommendations, it is the application of such technologies within a cohesive strategy that allows interactions with users to be even richer and more relevant. Information derived dynamically from the evolving interaction itself can lead directly to a more proactive, well targeted, highly relevant experience that encourages further interaction. In this way, a delivered experience can be converted into an ongoing engagement.”[1] CoreMedia 6 was developed with this in mind; to give organizations user-friendly tools that can truly evolve their Web presence to become context-aware in order to meet customer expectations and business goals.
From laptops to tablets, mobile phones and smart devices to social networks, businesses must also integrate support for all devices and customer touchpoints and ensure a consistent experience, even when customers switch access points. To deliver a relevant experience in this cohesive Web environment, WCM software can no longer work in isolation, but must cooperate with adjacent technology such as social networks and internal applications such as ERP, CRM and other backend enterprise systems.
As the only WCM platform focused on contextualization, CoreMedia 6 offers content orchestration and context management capabilities that enable seamless integration with an organization’s existing business infrastructure to create contextually relevant content on demand, while empowering non-technical users to go beyond editing and publishing content to websites and craft compelling customer experiences. Specifically designed for marketers, communications professionals and website managers, CoreMedia 6 enables companies to derive more value out of existing customer data locked in enterprise applications by optimizing every Web interaction. Several new and exciting features in CoreMedia 6 include:
CoreMedia Studio: Zero-install Web-based environment for business users to access their content ecosystem and create, test and preview relevant Web business rules.Enables non-technical business users to anticipate the customer’s preferences and intent by leveraging all available context information and adapting the content or communication across all touchpoints.
Adaptive Device Delivery: Improved capabilities for an application-like experience on touchscreen devices such as iPhone, Android, and iPad through zero-install browser applications and optimized, device-specific rendering. This allows users to create contextualized experiences for mobile phones from the CoreMedia Studio editorial interface without having to rely on IT departments for any changes. Updated Adaptive Personalization Component: Significant updates and new capabilities, including the intuitive Context Rule Creator for CoreMedia Studio that enables non-technical users to easily apply business rules to match content to a customer’s situation and preferences. Improved context profiling allows for processing real-time customer data to dynamically customize the experience regardless of device or channel. “Internet Broadcasting provides all the components media companies need to build profitable digital businesses: world-class technology, engaging content and applications and revenue solutions. Everything we do focuses on the twin goals of building consumer engagement and enabling our partners to monetize those audiences,” said Jeff Kimball, chief operating officer at IB. “Our relationship with CoreMedia gives IB and our media partners the best foundation for our digital businesses. CoreMedia’s combination of world-class technology, culture of innovation and ease-of-use power IB’s market-leading publishing platform. I am very excited about CoreMedia 6; its focus on contextualization is the beginning of a fundamental shift in the market where it is now possible to provide the most relevant user experiences on multiple devices in a cost effective way.”
“Over the past 14 years, CoreMedia has focused on innovating Web technologies to create a truly connected online world that provides consumers with highly personalized, relevant and real-time content, regardless of the channel or device,” said Glenn Conradt, global vice president of Marketing, CoreMedia. “CoreMedia 6 is the next evolution in helping organizations truly maximize their online presence by making it easy to craft a highly customized experience for each and every customer. In 2011, context is king.”
Availability
The new CoreMedia 6 platform will be available in March 2011. The CoreMedia Studio has been beta tested by companies like Deutsche Telekom.
To learn more about contextualization, CoreMedia produced an entertaining video explainer available for viewing anytime by clicking here. For more information on CoreMedia 6 please visit the product information page by clicking here.
About CoreMedia
CoreMedia is a leading provider of Web Content Management (WCM) software to organizations demanding engaging, context-driven online experiences for their customers regardless of channel or touchpoint. The company’s WCM suite offers unique business value by seamlessly integrating digital and social media assets, increasing editorial productivity and accelerating time to market in complex environments. As a result, businesses can more effectively execute their online strategies to engage users, build customer loyalty and ultimately drive greater revenue and profitability.
Established in 1996, CoreMedia is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, with offices in San Francisco, London, and Singapore. CoreMedia’s clients include global brands, such as the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Bertelsmann, BILD, CLAAS, Continental, EPCOS, Deutsche Telekom, Internet Broadcasting, O2, SEAT, Singapore Press Holdings.
<a href="http://www.coremedia.com/">http://www.coremedia.com/</a>

CoreMedia Empowers Business Users to Customize Online Customer Experience with CoreMedia 6

DNN announces the general availability of Evoq 9, which delivers omnichannel publishing via a microservices architecture. Evoq 9 includes Liquid Content™, a new Content as a Service platform that’s delivered as a microservice via DNN’s Liquid Content™ Cloud.
Included in Liquid Content™:
<ul>
<li>A headless CMS to manage content </li>
<li>A content analytics application to measure and analyze the impact of content </li>
<li>A stateless API to access and retrieve content </li>
<li>Delivery of services via Liquid Content™ Cloud, powered by Microsoft Azure</li>
<li>The content delivery and presentation features of the Evoq CMS, including a library of 100+ visualizers</li>
</ul>
Liquid Content™ facilitates the intelligent re-use of content beyond websites, to apps, devices and Internet of Things (IoT). 
<blockquote>
According to Navin Nagiah, President and CEO, DNN, “Liquid takes the shape of the objects it’s placed in and flows around barriers and obstacles. Our vision with Evoq 9 is to transform your content into liquid. Your content becomes fluid and adaptable, and can easily be published to any channel.”
</blockquote>
Fred Beer, President of ITX Corporation, a DNN Gold certified partner said, “Liquid Content™ and Liquid Content™ Cloud are exciting developments that help us efficiently deliver digital experiences to our customers. Creating content once, then re-using it across channels, will help our customers gain a higher return on their content.”
Because all Liquid Content™ features are delivered as microservices, DNN can publish weekly or daily updates to individual features. All customers will receive updates instantaneously, which provides enhancements and fixes as quickly as possible.
“We’re bringing multi-tenant Software as a Service (SaaS) to a CMS, which is quite rare in our industry,” said Nagiah.
While most headless CMS platforms require developers to create front-end experiences, DNN leverages the longstanding capabilities of the Evoq CMS to deliver content without writing a single line of code. “Evoq is the head that’s attached to the headless CMS of Liquid Content™. Customers will receive all of the content delivery and presentation features they’ve come to expect, along with visualizers and other new features,” said Nagiah.
Visit them on the web at <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/" target="_blank">http://www.dnnsoftware.com/</a>

DNN Announces the Release of Evoq 9

For those of you who are unaware, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/headway">Headway</a> is a premium theme / framework for WordPress that takes theming far beyond what was normally believed to be possible.
Headway is the only theme available today that truly makes designing simple and easy to use for anyone.
How does it do this? Through one of the most unique methods available today in the world of WordPress theming. Drag and Drop.
The following video highlights very well what Headway is capable of:
Some of the key features that <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/headway">Headway</a> brings to the table include:
Special Content Layouts On Demand
Using the Headway Visual Editor, you can do anything from a standard blog, to landing pages, to membership sites, to e-commerce sites. For non-technical folks, Headway’s “Easy Hooks” let you insert custom content at will wherever you like on any page without messing with PHP or CSS. For hardcore developers, Headway has heaps of actions and filters (or hooks) to take customization even farther.

<h4>Design Your Blog Visually</h4>
Headway’s innovative Visual Layout Editor gives you the power to rearrange your site layout without touching a line of code. Even if you’re comfortable with HTML/CSS/PHP, the Visual Layout Editor saves you time. You can sculpt your design into anything you want. You’re not restricted by someone else’s ideas about columns or content layouts. The sky’s the limit.

<h4>Complete Control is Yours to Command</h4>
In the Headway Configuration Panel you can customize just about everything behind the scenes you can imagine. Add universal analytics or opt-in form scripts, integrate your Twitter account, set detailed options for post meta information (publication dates, author, etc.), add a favicon, and much more.

<h4>Search Engine Optimization</h4>
Headway has its own built-in search engine optimization (or SEO) settings. Simply having Headway will help your search engine optimization, even if you don’t use any of its manual features. If you do use them (and we’ll show you how), you can enjoy a greater chance of moving up in search rankings. Our priority for this was to keep the code clean, but flexible. Having clean code allows the search engines to easily scour the page and index what’s important. With Headway you can stop worrying about what plugins to install and how to efficiently optimize your site. All the options are there and easily accessible. Settings for the home page, the entire blog, and each post or page (more than any other theme) are there for you to control.
Get pricing, purchase or learn more: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/headway">Headway Theme for WordPress</a>

Headway for WordPress - the future of theming?

<h2>How A Document Management System Leads to “Big Insight”</h2>
The term “document” has become a ubiquitous, widely applicable term for anything containing information in digital or physical format. However, for the purposes of organizations, it is better described as anything an organization creates that contains information.
As the e-commerce revolution ensued and surged at the beginning of the 21st century, organizational information with each passing year could not be accurately defined as just a document or file.
Instead, the term “data” emerged to explain and categorize the varieties of organizations’ digital information, including the variety of places this information can be stored, duplicated, and lost—making it an equally dangerous medium for unstructured information.
<h3>Leveraging Document Management to Mitigate Skilled Labor Shortage</h3>
The most versatile <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/efilecabinet-online/">benefits of a document management system</a> are time and money savings. In the construction and manufacturing industries in particular—there is a large shortage of skilled laborers.
However, a skilled labor shortage does not have to mean the downfall of an organization, for a document management system solutions can resolve this problem—given that a document management system expedites internal processes, it frees up room for recruitment revenue and the salaries to attract top talent to an organization without breaking the bank, providing a competitive edge on the balance sheet when it is especially needed.
Moreover, new talent is not always needed: cutting costs internally through a document management system alone is enough to free up the profits sought by many executives and administrators—especially those who are beginning with startups.
A <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/what-is-a-document-management-system/">document management system</a> (DMS) is any small to mid-sized organization’s formalized, strategic, and technological means for storing and managing images, web pages, graphics, social content, email content, video, and other rich media assets.
The goal of DMS is to effectively manage all information belonging to and created by organizations—relaying greater insights into the information contained in its content. Document management provides organizations with the means to manage the proliferation of their content, including the data and information it contains.
This signifies a major paradigm shift for the organizational prospectus: moving from big data to big content—focusing less on data-intensive aspects of the organization like data mining (which automation is better equipped to handle today) and more on effectively storing content to effectively harness its information.
This phenomenon is further reified by the <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/mobile-document-management-software/">DMS mobile app</a>, which gives businesses, in addition to other mobile tools, another means of conducting businesses wherever there’s an internet connection.
<h3>Deriving Big Insight through the Document Management System</h3>
Essentially, organizations should not spend money on analytics and big data without the means to effectively do so—DMS being a potent means for accomplishing these objectives.
Additionally, sometimes organizations purchasing a document management system will arrive at sufficient analytics and insight-based conclusions regarding the data in their content without buying big data and other analytics services—further increasing the potential ROI for document management system adoption and use over the long haul.
Analytics, or in other words—deriving insight from data—has dominated organizations’ spending plans for the past two years. For instance, the <a href="https://www.idc.com/">International Data Corporation (IDC)</a> projected that analytics would become a $125 billion market worldwide by 2015.
However, these budget allocations are futile without a document management system or other enterprise-grade document management solutions, for without DMS and similar technologies, including the behavioral means to use them effectively, acquiring crucial insight from data will prove a time-consuming, ineffectual process.
To learn more about what a top-rated document management system, visit <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/">efilecabinet.com.</a>

Document Management and Entrepreneurship: From Big Data to Big Insight

Convio, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNVO), announced today it has acquired StrategicOne, a leading provider of analytics, predictive modeling and database marketing services. By adding StrategicOne’s capabilities to Convio’s market leading software and service offerings, nonprofits can improve marketing and fundraising results by building stronger relationships with constituents and prospects. StrategicOne services help nonprofits discover, analyze and act on information to more effectively attract new constituents, retain existing ones, reactivate lapsed supporters and steward relationships to higher levels of engagement.
“Enterprise-size nonprofits need solutions that help them apply analytical intelligence to their constituent data to more successfully leverage relationships across channels and across the organization,” said Gene Austin, Chairman, CEO and President of Convio. “The experience and expertise of the StrategicOne team combined with our increased investment in enterprise constituent engagement solutions, further strengthens Convio’s position in helping large nonprofits maximize results.”
“The StrategicOne portfolio of services are designed to increase an organization's fundraising and other engagement results by maximizing the lifetime value of each relationship,” added Austin. “These services provide nonprofits with a better understanding of their constituents and prospects which allows them to develop campaigns across channels that more efficiently and effectively engage people to drive fundraising results, volunteerism, advocacy and other forms of engagement.”
StrategicOne, headquartered in Overland Park, KS, was founded in 1997 with the mission to assist clients with predictive and actionable intelligence to improve constituent acquisition, retention and lifetime value across all channels.
“Convio is at the forefront in integrating online and traditional channels with social, mobile and other emerging technologies,” said Michael Rogers, president and chief executive officer for StrategicOne. “We are proud to be joining a company that recognizes evolving market dynamics and is leading the way in helping nonprofits address those changes with innovative technology and services that help deliver fundraising results.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Convio will pay approximately $5 million in cash and may also pay $1 million in cash based on successful achievement of performance targets payable over three years. Total revenue for StrategicOne was approximately $2 million in 2010. Convio expects the impact of the acquisition to be neutral to non-GAAP earnings per share on a full-year basis in 2011. The Company will provide additional financial detail regarding the transaction on its regularly scheduled fourth quarter earnings call, to be held February 3, 2011.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about Convio, Inc. (“Convio”), StrategicOne, LLC (“StrategicOne”) and the combined company after completion of the transaction. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “goals,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements which are not statements of historical facts. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the opportunity presented by the acquisition, the needs of nonprofit clients and the addressability thereof by Convio and StrategicOne, the integration of the products and services to be delivered to nonprofit clients by the combined company and the fundraising and other benefits thereof, the financial results of StrategicOne and the impact thereof on the financial results of Convio.
These statements reflect management’s current beliefs, assumptions and expectations and are subject to a number of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. These factors include but are not limited to: the unprecedented volatility in the global economy; the risk that the future business operations of Convio and/or StrategicOne will not be successful; the risk that Convio will not realize all of the anticipated benefits from its acquisition of StrategicOne; the risk that there will be disruptions following the acquisition in client acquisition and retention; the risk that unexpected costs in the integration and operation of the combined company will be incurred; the risk of litigation related to the acquisition or the operations of the combined company and the outcome thereof; the detrimental actions of competitors; adverse changes and developments affecting our industry; quarterly or cyclical variations in financial results; the risk that Convio is not able to protect its intellectual property rights; risks related to the combined company’s reliance on third parties for products and provision of services; and other factors that are set forth in the “Risk Factors” section and other sections of our registration statement and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Convio assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments, except as required by law.
About Convio
Convio is a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions that enable nonprofit organizations to more effectively raise funds, advocate for change and cultivate relationships with donors, activists, volunteers, alumni and other constituents.
For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.convio.com/">www.convio.com</a>

Convio Acquires Analytics and Data Intelligence Firm StrategicOne

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

We’re kicking off another featured week here at CMS Critic, and this time, we’re accompanied by <a href="http://ez.no/" target="_blank">eZ</a>.
<a href="http://ez.no/" target="_blank"><img alt="eZ-Logo-No-Tagline_max600height250.png" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ns3w2zCGC3Ouw8GeW2BDUUwbnIOgoqiRIvGmGeii4y-Ljv864aP5KAjTP2LZ8Onuyboa_cxqjvdO8KYNuM5s9oiVL5BcSCNmrZsHbEIl1TOCVLKDCdZrtHAquM6FgMgQg_ADBe-a" /></a>
eZ Systems, the company behind eZ Publish, was founded in 1999. The company refined itself into eZ Systems Group in 2011 in order to develop further products to complement their flagship enterprise product the eZ Publish Platform.
As we begin our coverage of this CMS, I’m taking a good look at how it offers three solutions that are in high demand – content management, eCommerce and marketing – under the very same roof.
Here’s a short introductory video to get us started.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koDex3KhHNM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koDex3KhHNM</a>
<h2>Content Management</h2>
eZ Publish Platform may have a broad skill set, but there’s no doubting that content management is its chosen forte.
Built to be easily used by developers and publishers, eZ Publish enables brands to produce, manage and deliver content to any device type.
The platform offers landing page management, front-end and WYSIWYG editing for non-technical users, multi-language support and multi-channel delivery.
To help brands embrace the emerging age of IoT (Internet of Things), eZ Publish provides Rest APIs to push your content to the screens of Smart TVs, automotive interfaces, and more.
<a href="http://ez.no/Products/Content-Management">Learn more about eZ Publish and content management</a>.
<h2>eCommerce</h2>
Selling online, whether it be physical or digital products, is now as lucrative as ever.
In recognition of this, eZ Publish Platform gives its users everything they need to set up an online marketplace.
Products and catalogs can be added directly into any eZ Publish-powered website via specific pages, or even via embedded content blocks.
There are no design restrictions to worry about either, so shopping experiences can be moulded around existing content and design elements to provide a seamless process for the end user.
eZ Publish also empowers brands to integrate with other products that can help bolster their eCommerce offering. PayPal, SugarCRM, Netsuite, Magento and more, are all welcomed with open arms.
<a href="http://ez.no/Products/e-Commerce">Learn more about eZ Publish and eCommerce</a>.
<h2>Marketing</h2>
Marketing automation has rapidly emerged as the next big thing that brands should be engaging in. Marketing automation systems have sprouted up everywhere, built to work alongside a CMS.
However, just as it does with eCommerce, eZ Publish Platform cuts out the middleman by housing such features within itself.
eZ Publish boasts Marketing Automation, Smart Analytics, Personalization, Recommendation and Optimization features, to ensure that no web property ever goes unnoticed or untracked.
For example, eZ Live Viewer, using live analytics, tells you how a website’s content is performing in real time, by sending alerts and recommending changes that improve content performance.
Meanwhile, eZ Recommendation heightens the personalization level of a web property, by recommending; news, images, videos, products and events to users in real time, based on their behaviors.
<a href="http://ez.no/Products/Digital-Marketing">Learn more about eZ Publish and marketing solutions.</a> 
To find out more about eZ Publish, <a href="http://ez.no/">check out eZ Systems’ website</a>. You can also <a href="http://ez.no/Forms/HTML-forms/Request-a-Demo">request an eZ Publish Demo</a> to try it for yourself.
Stay tuned for a separate post from eZ Systems regarding their next generation content management solutions, eZ Platform and eZ Studio, launching in Q4 2015.

eZ Publish Platform: Content Management, Marketing & eCommerce Under The Same Roof

To get the ball rolling with our latest featured week with <a href="http://ez.no/" target="_blank">eZ</a>, we explored how <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ez-publish-platform-content-management-marketing-ecommerce-under-the-same-roof/" target="_blank">eZ Publish Platform provides everything a brand needs for content management, eCommerce and marketing</a>.
Now, understanding a platform’s core features and benefits is one thing, but seeing them put to use in the real world by noteworthy brands puts everything into perspective.
<a href="http://ez.no/" target="_blank"><img alt="eZ-Logo-No-Tagline_max600height250.png" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/yZso9JMz33l5WvuANjWMr05G9S9-PEE4ohCGOee-TPnMEE4-igzkPPiPVTFvAgVNwV7-8CCcgGmX4CxgAFOBsVz08lsJObSLY7aKQ0knKS-reJKqMkdNBSxV-TMt2WUNlz7yj_jF" /></a>
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how two high-profile eZ customers have found success with the enterprise-grade CMS by making use of eZ Publish Platform’s broad feature set.
<h2>A Suite Deal</h2>
With over 10 million customers worldwide, HootSuite is one of the world’s most popular social media management tools.
Hootsuite began looking for a new CMS when they realised that their web properties were stretched across too many platforms. They required an enterprise-grade platform to unify their online presence.
Their essential requirements were:
<ul>
<li>
Full stack Symfony2 Implementation
</li>
<li>
Personalization capabilities for dynamic content generation
</li>
<li>
Internationalization and localization of content
</li>
<li>
Solid development framework for deep integration into their product and systems
</li>
<li>
High traffic scalability
</li>
</ul>
Jeff Waterfall, Hootsuite’s User Interface and Frontend Developer, gives us further background:
<blockquote>
“From the start, we knew that we wanted an open source CMS. After a two month evaluation process, Hootsuite narrowed their search down to Drupal, SiteCore and eZ Publish.
We started looking at eZ Publish and it checked all the boxes for us. It was an enterprise-grade CMS and it was very secure. It had everything we were looking for baked right into it.”
</blockquote>
As of right now, Hootsuite is benefitting from eZ Publish Platform in several ways, including; an editorial interface that gives publishers total control over website content, fine-tuned SEO tags, rich text formatting, embedding images and videos with multi-load functionality, and more.
Furthermore, as a result of eZ Publish Platform’s content delivery performance levels, paired with streamlined SEO capabilities, Hootsuite has experienced a boost in traffic originating from search engines.
<a href="http://ez.no/Customers/Case-Studies/Transforming-Hootsuite-Embracing-the-Symfony-Framework-with-the-eZ-Publish-Platform?utm_source=cmscritic&amp;utm_medium=articledownload&amp;utm_content=hootsuitelink&amp;utm_campaign=hoosuitecasestudy">Download the Hootsuite Case Study</a>.
<h2>Scoring with eZ</h2>
comScore is a digital measurement and analytical company, with over 1,200 employees serving over 2,000 clients.
By selecting eZ Publish Platform, comScore was looking to move forward on four key fronts:
<ul>
<li>
Marketing automation for increased lead capture and nurture
</li>
<li>
Mobile first with responsive design
</li>
<li>
Analytics availability throughout the organization
</li>
<li>
Multi-lingual content delivery
</li>
</ul>
How did it work out, you ask? comScore’s Senior Director Web Marketing, Ferry Gijzel, sums it up nicely.
<blockquote>
“By integrating our Marketing Automation Platform with eZ Publish we can offer more targeted content and a smoother user experience across multiple channels, improving engagement and conversion.
Connecting the dots between Eloqua, eZ and Digital Analytix allows us to continuously track performance and optimize where needed.
During January to July 2014 the average engagement (measured by the number of page views per visit) increased by 19.2% compared to the same period in 2013. In that same time frame, the average share of browsers that converted directly by requesting a product demo showed an increase of 25.7%”
</blockquote>
comScore’s story provides us with an excellent example of a brand making use of eZ Publish Platform for more than just content management.
As discussed in our premier featured article, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ez-publish-platform-content-management-marketing-ecommerce-under-the-same-roof/" target="_blank">eZ Publish Platform covers the three major bases of content management, eCommerce and marketing automation</a>. And as you can see, it delivers not just on paper, but in practise too.
<a href="http://ez.no/Customers/Case-Studies/Create-Deliver-Optimize-the-comScore-Way?utm_source=cmscritic&amp;utm_medium=articledownload&amp;utm_content=comscorelink&amp;utm_campaign=comscorecasestudy">Download the comScore Case Study</a>.
To find out more about eZ Publish, <a href="http://ez.no/Products/The-eZ-Publish-Platform" target="_blank">check out eZ Systems’ website</a>. You can also <a href="http://ez.no/Forms/HTML-forms/Request-a-Demo">request a personal demo of eZ Publish Platform</a> to see the many features for yourself. 
Also, stick around for more eZ coverage, including articles on their next generation content management solutions, eZ Platform and eZ Studio, launching in Q4 2015.

From Hootsuite to comScore: Success with eZ Publish Platform

Workbooks, the UK-based leading CRM vendor, today announces the launch of its new events module. The module helps mid-market organisations create and publish an event online, manage the registration process from start to finish and ensure a smooth on-the-day management.
<h2>Your events, managed</h2>
The events module extends Workbooks capabilities to managing events of all types – from stand-alone training courses and seminars to multi-stream conferences – helping marketers provide a seamless experience for their prospects and customers.
The new module builds on the functionality of the existing Workbooks campaign record and event management web portal. It brings efficiency gains to every aspect of event management, from audience segmentation and event promotion to managing attendees – paying or not – and speakers. And all from a single, fully integrated platform.
<h2>Fast-growing platform</h2>
The new module is the latest in a series of fresh features to be added to Workbooks' cloud-based CRM applications over the past year, including marketing automation, web analytics, contact information-gathering and integration with Zapier, which allows customers to link their CRM with over 750 apps such as Xero and Wufoo.
Workbooks is developing fast and is increasingly seen by mid-market organisations as the automatic choice of CRM provider.From planning to ticket printing
Every aspect of event management is covered by the new module:
– Create event – with the option of allocating products, which can be individual items, such as a ticket, or a bundle of products, such as a table for 10 people at a dinner; – Create individual sessions within the event; – Manage delegate status; – Manage all communication to the target audience and delegates, whatever their preferred communication channel; – Manage orders and invoices and track payment, as well as manage international tax rules (for VAT etc.); – Website integration – publish events on the website, with the option to purchase tickets or any other event-related product; and – Print tickets for the event.
Workbooks CEO John Cheney said: “This new addition to our suite of CRM applications streamlines every aspect of event management and it's highly configurable so our customers can adapt it to suit their specific needs.”
“The new module offers a great alternative to RegOnline or Eventbrite with the added advantage of being part of a fully integrated CRM solution, with all the benefits this brings in the areas of efficiency, insights, reporting and communication. No need for re-keying information, transferring data from one system to another. Everything is available at your fingertips in one platform: Workbooks.”
“We think it's a game-changer for SMEs and growing businesses looking to maximise their return on investment for events.”
The events module is available to Workbooks users from Spring 2018.

Workbooks extends its CRM and Marketing Automation offering with a new events module

Every marketer who’s ever been responsible for content marketing knows that keeping content fresh, relevant, and up-to-date is incredibly important. Part of any content marketing strategy involves keeping your website populated with meaningful content that will engage and draw users to your site. 
However, the urgency of content creation means that you may not be reviewing your website design as often as you should. 
A good website with a modern feel and quality navigation enhances the user experience and drives repeat visits. There’s an old adage that you should update your website with a completely new design every year or two. Realistically, this may not be possible and you might be thinking that if your website is currently working for you, why change it?
Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that even a well-designed, functioning website gets stale from both the perspective of design and technology quite quickly. Everyone has had the experience of going to a website and immediately recognizing that it hasn’t been updated in years. 
Those signs include missing key elements such as rotators, newer social media icons, or relying heavily on flash technology. It’s particularly egregious when your website doesn’t respect that many of your visitors will be viewing the site using mobile devices. 
This is most noticeable when your website lacks responsive design or a dedicated mobile version. Another dead giveaway that your site has not been updated recently is that the screen resolution it was designed for is too large for mobile devices, and too small for a modern desktop monitor. Where you’ve got screen real estate, you need to use it, and where it’s not available you need to ensure that only the most relevant content is presented.
So let’s say that you recognize your website is starting to get a bit dated. How do you justify to your CFO or CEO the costs associated with a complete website redesign? Every marketer I’ve ever talked to has struggled to get the budget they need to be successful on the tactical day-to-day activities of marketing. Getting enough budget to redesign your website is often like pulling teeth. So, to help justify your decision and get you the budget that you need here are a few tips on calculating the ROI of a website redesign:
<ol>
<li>
If your site is not optimized for mobile and tablet usage, use your CMS or Google analytics to determine how many visitors are coming to your site using these devices. Being able to demonstrate the user experience and quantify the number of affected visitors can go a long way making your case.
</li>
<li>
If your analytics show that people on mobile or tablets navigate away from your site faster than those on desktops, you have a compelling reason to modernize your website with responsive design.
</li>
<li>
If your site is heavily dependent on flash technology, those same analytics can help determine how many visitors can’t access your content because they are using an iOS based system.
</li>
<li>
Check for brand consistency. What often happens is that your brand slowly changes and develops over time. If the website has been static for a long period, it immediately shows that there is a gap between your current marketing materials and your existing website. If you can show that your new designs are more effective than your old ones, this will lend weight to your argument that the website needs to be updated.
</li>
<li>
Crunch the numbers. (You know your CFO loves numbers.) Have your conversion rates been dropping over time? How many of your new leads are coming directly through your website forms, landing pages or website “contact us” page? If you’re evidence shows that these channels are less effective than they used to be, you can use that data to calculate the value of the lost opportunities. Use your knowledge of your organizations conversion from leads to closed sales. Estimating lost revenue as a dollar figure may be the most powerful way to justify the budget for a new website.
</li>
<li>
Doing a win/loss analysis of your most recent deals can reveal how important your website and the information on it is to the decision-making process of prospects. You may be able to connect a lost opportunity and the dollar figures it represents to a quote like “… but I couldn’t find the information I needed…” or “… I didn’t realize you offer that product/service”. Even in cases where you have won the deal you may have won “…despite your website.”
</li>
</ol>
So with these tips in mind, you can build a case for a website redesign using strong metrics which makes getting budget approvals significantly easier. Keep in mind, once you have acquired the budget for a website redesign, it’s also a great time to evaluate whether your current CMS has the features and functionality you need to keep your website’s content up-to-date. 
To find out more about picking a quality CMS, you might want to read <a href="http://www.marqui.com/landing-pages/March2014-Newsletter.aspx?%5Bwxactivitytracking%5D">this article</a>.

Determining Your Website's ROI

<a href="http://www.flazio.com/">Flazio</a>.com powers more than 150,000 Websites worldwide, so it’s high time you heard about it, if you haven’t already.
Launched by the Elisa and Flavio, both from the Italian-rooted Fazio household, Flazio has become a popular choice for startups and brands looking to entertain an international audience.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nS7sGLoDoO8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Their Professional plan includes custom domain name usage, 5 5GB email accounts and unlimited bandwidth. The Professional plan comes with an extra-cheap price: 9€/month or 99€/year (VAT included).
Flazio.com also boasts a lucrative <a href="http://www.flazio.com/Partner-Program.php">reseller program for freelance and agencies</a>.
Now though, let’s delve into what Flazio.com <a href="http://www.flazio.com/features.php">offers</a> as a website builder.
<h2>Social</h2>
Flazio.com also offers a unique import function from Facebook personal and brand pages in just a matter of one click. This functionality also stretches to Twitter and Linkedin.
As Flazio.com does most of the work by pulling data directly from existing social media profiles, this provides non-technical users with an excellent avenue into website building.
<h2>One For All</h2>
Flazio.com has been built to cater to all business types. And it's just not matter of different templates.
Features like eCommerce functionality, photo galleries, a booking engine and even real-estate modules which boast complete databases, ensure that most brands can flourish with Flazio.
<h2>Visible Everywhere</h2>
First and foremost, Flazio.com builds purely responsive websites, which are ready to be viewed and used by visitors on desktops, tablets and smartphones.
Flazio.com also boasts advanced SEO (search engine optimization) and analytics features to help get websites in front of more eyes – and to inform website owners of when that happens.
Furthermore, Flazio.com users can also implement Flazio’s multi-lingual capabilities, which includes the quick and simple translation of text boxes.
<h2>Free(dom)</h2>
Flazio.com offers a package totally free of charge, and follows up by providing freedom when it comes to design, too.
You can start with either a template or a blank page, before moving things around using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. So, anybody can design a truly functional website.
<h2>Collaborative</h2>
Got a team together? Flazio.com makes it easy for users to work together on the same page, and they can even see things changing in real time.
Not only does this streamline design and publishing processes, but it also saves time. For example, an Editor is able to proofread text as it’s being written.
<h2>Customer Centric</h2>
Last but not least, Flazio.com puts the customer first.
The team behind Flazio.com prides itself on fast email support, live chat and customer service via social media.
To learn more about Flazio.com, <a href="http://www.flazio.com/">visit their website</a>.
Please Note: This is a sponsored article.

Introducing Flazio: Flexible, Multi-lingual & Free

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Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

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