9 Ways For Marketers To Do Amazing Technical Things Without Knowing Code

As a marketer, you are always looking to do more with less. You may get the sense that technology can help you do better and you’re right. Follow along as I explain exactly how you can harness this force without writing a single line of code.

1. Do A/B Split Tests and Personalization

Visual Website Optimizer and Optimizely that allow you to drag and drop your changes across the website by simply copy and pasting a snippet of code across your website (or getting somebody technical to help you do that). Both tools allow you to customize your website for different types of visitors, and they’ll allow you to run controlled experiments to see which variations of your web pages perform best. Optimizely allows you to drag and drop different variations of your web page without any code.

2. Build Landing Pages

Maybe you don’t want to optimize your website: you want to build some new pages. Maybe it’s a new campaign announcing a new product launch, or maybe you’re running an event you want to collect an email waiting list for. Whatever it is, you’ll need a web page that describes what you’re doing, a landing page. Thankfully, you don’t have to build anything in HTML or CSS. You can use drag and drop editors in Unbounce or, if you’re really looking to maximize conversion, marketing-based solutions like Leadpages.

3. Build Entire Websites

Don’t want to stop at just building a web page? Maybe you want to look to build an entire website for a new product. Thankfully, you don’t have to call a web agency to do everything for you at a high price! You can use solutions like Squarespace or Wix to build everything in your website without a line of code. And if you want to get even more customized, grab a theme from Themeforest and learn the basics of WordPress! You’ll soon be building beautiful websites with layers of personalized complexity–without a line of code.

4. Scrape Links, Content and More with Python (but use with caution!)

By downloading Anaconda and using the iPython Notebook contained within, you can use Python scripts and copy + paste the outputs.

The easiest and most powerful use of this is to take links and data from other websites. Be careful though, a lot of websites will have terms of use that prohibit the use of their content. Nevertheless, it might be a good tool to use to get raw data, or to get useful links that point to certain resources. You might, for example, want to get all of the links of your competitors profiled in a certain blog post, or you might want to get all of the links of different services in a directory.

This script above will take all the links from a sample page (in this case the Wikipedia page for the Python language)

Here’s the raw script you can copy + paste in Python 3.5 mode:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
r = requests.get(“http://ift.tt/2ajWVI2;)
soup = BeautifulSoup(r.text,”lxml”)
for link in soup.find_all(‘a’):
print(link.get(‘href’))

5. Send Newsletters and Automate Emails

Email is one of the most effective marketing channels out there, and the best for return on investment. If you can get people coming back by filling their inbox with valuable information, you’ve reached marketing nirvana.

Instead of doing all the messy work coding up HTML-rich emails, you can use the drag & drop and email list capabilities of Mailchimp. If you want to automate emails a layer beyond, and take people through an in-depth series of automated emails, you could use a solution like Drip.

6. Get Data

Ever needed to take a quick look at certain data, like the demographic traits of a certain country? Need to source the latest financial data? Look no further than Quandl. You’ll be able to find all sorts of data, from the average age of first marriage for women to life expectancy at birth. Best of all, you can export that data directly in Excel, stepping away from all of the code if you needed.

7. Filter Through Data

Most people think of Google Apps as a great way to collaborate with others, but they don’t know about the full power of this suite of tools. Google built a way for you to add layers of functionality on top of their powerful software, allowing you to do so much more with different types of data. Best of all, you can copy + paste pre-made scripts and benefit from the effects without being technical!

Check to see if your website is online or save all tweets that match a certain hashtag to a spreadsheet. You can do that or a variety of other tasks through scripts that will save you time and money.

Use these scripts for good, not evil.

8. Building Popups and Other Interactive Elements on a Website

Sometimes, you want to add an additional layer of interactivity to a website, whether it’s a popup to highlight a brand new feature, or a walkthrough that will help guide users. Thankfully, with tools like Engage and HelloBar you can add different modals or elements to your website that can help you collect emails, direct traffic elsewhere, or dictate what users should look at in a web page.

9. Dig Deeper into Websites, and See How Your Website Looks in mobile

Most people don’t know about the handy Google Chrome Inspector or its equivalent Firebug on Firefox. While most of the time it is used by developers to spot errors or mock up certain changes in the code, you can use the Inspector to check into the exact URLs of images, and how your website displays on different screen sizes, from iPhones to tablets.

The responsive design tool in these inspector tools will allow you to simulate what your website looks like from device-to-device, a crucial need to see if your website is mobile-friendly. This is a factor that’s critically important for websites with mobile traffic, and one that Google uses to rank webpages.

Conclusion

By harnessing technology, you’ll be at the cutting-edge of digital marketing. You won’t even need to learn how to code to get an awesome array of new powers. Save yourself time and money, and make sure you use your new capabilities for good!

About the Author: Roger is a digital marketer who self-taught himself to code but recognizes when code is useful and when it isn’t. He manages Growth for edtech company Springboard, and will often write about new technologies at his own personal blog code(love). You can find him on Twitter.

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We Want to Be The Very Best — Like No One Ever Was!

Pokemon GO may be all the rage, but here at Vidyard we’ve been PokeNerds for a long time. From trying to get Snorlax to move on our monochrome, brick-sized Gameboys to trying to perfecting our Pikachu strategy in Super Smash Brothers, Vidyard’s marketing team is packed with Pokemon Veterans.

To celebrate the launch of Pokemon GO and a brand new lunch-hour addiction for our team, we imagined ourselves as Pokemon trainers and gym leaders, and looked at what Pokemon would be our loyal friends in the quest to catch ‘em all.

We want to be the very best – like no one ever was!

Kimbe & Noah

As the leader of the Content Gym, Kimbe and her Arcanine Noah bring in powerful PokeLeads with their commitment to quality, informative content. Noah uses Extreme Speed to create content faster than any other Pokemon, and Fire Fang to create red-hot blog posts.

Emily & Finn

Emily and her Umbreon Finn work late into the night building Vidyard’s PokeSite and Brand. Emily’s special bond with Finn allows them to use Tackle to bring complex branding concepts into focus and Mean Look to make sure people follow them.

Julie & Piper

As the newest trainer on the Design Gym, Julie and her Jolton Piper use their energy to create beautiful graphics for Vidyard’s content. Piper is always there to use Helping Hand to get design projects finished faster, and throw out a few Thunder Shocks when everyone needs an energy boost.

Amar & Jam

Amar is not only the strongest member of the Rev Ops Gym, but he’s also the most focused. Jam, his loyal Pinsir, can use Focus Energy any time reports don’t look right, and Submission any time the data gets out of line.

Jeff & Carmen

Jeff is a man of many words, and as leader of the Product Marketing gym, he and his Ditto Carmen have to be ready for any battle with other gyms. Jeff helps show our customers and prospects the true power of Vidyard, and Carmen can Transform into any Pokemon that will help!

Joe & Big Green

The days are long for Joe, the leader of the Rev Ops Gym, but his Snorlax Big Green is always there to help with a quick nap. After a long day of wrangling revenue data, Big Green loves to curl up for a nap, and uses Snore to make sure Joe gets one now and then too.

Mike & Red

Mike is the trickster of the Rev Ops Gym, but his Cubone Red is no laughing matter. When our marketing automation gets out of line, Mike gets Red to whack it on the head with Bone Club, and throws in a Headbutt for good measure.

Raj & Eva

As the leader of the Design Gym, Raj has to be both creative, and focused. His Dragonite, Eva never leaves his side, showing off her Hurricane attack when projects start to mount up, and boosting Raj’s creativity with a Dragon Dance when the going gets tough.

Rob & Spoons

Rob leads the Partnerships Gym, and his Alakazam Spoons makes bringing on new agency partners a snap. Spoons helps Rob Teleport to agency meetings in far away lands, and uses his Psychic power to see just what each partner needs to be successful and happy.

Wes & Mr. Splashypants

Wes may be the tallest member of the Demand Gen Gym, but without his trusty Lapras Mr. Splashypants, even he couldn’t swim to all the islands in Vidyard. Mr. Splashypants uses Water Gun to help shoot PokeLeads out of the sky, and Sing to help Wes write soothing nurture emails.

Katie & Coco

Katie is the longest-standing member of the Design Gym, and her Vaporeon Coco has been there through thick and thin. When design projects pile up, Coco uses Muddy Water to clear away the clutter, and Helping Hand to do twice the design work in half the time!

Kim & Etta

Kim radiates joy and happiness at the Demand Gen Gym, and her Bellossom Etta can’t stop smiling. Kim and Etta team up to run the best webinars in the world, and Etta uses Energy Ball to make sure everyone is as excited as can be.

Kari & Manola

Kari is the sole member of the Events gym, but with her Wigglytuff Manola she can do the work of a hundred trainers. Kari works hard to make sure Vidyard’s events are the best they can be, and Manola can use Dazzling Gleam to wow crowds of any size.

Cam & Jay

Cam is the newest member of the Video Production Gym, and his Psyduck Jay is still getting used to all these moving pictures. Cam helps Vidyard’s customers personalize their video content, and Jay can use Psych Up to keep Cam going when videos take too long to render.

Mat & Scooter

Mat is rarely found without a camera in his hand, and his Slowbro Scooter is usually not far behind. Mat writes and directs films for the Video Production Gym, and while he’s not the quickest pokemon, Scooter is always there with a Psyshock to keep Mat focused!

Blake & Bebop

Blake is the leader of the Video Production Gym, and his Blastoise Bebop means business. When complex projects pop up, Bebop uses Water Gun to blast them into tinier, more manageable pieces so Blake and the rest of the gym can attack.

Tyler & Viddy

Tyler is the grand master of the Marketing Gym, and his Pigeot Viddy means business. Viddy flies high into the sky so Tyler can see every other gym in marketing land all at once, and uses Aerial Ace to outsmart challenges, competitors, and quotas.

Jesse & Snap

Jesse helps keep customers happy in the Product Marketing Gym, and his Zapdos Snap helps Vidyard soar above other companies. Snap is always there to lend a helping hand, using Thunder Shock to power our influencer marketing community.

Tom & Scorch

Tom is the newest member of the Partnerships Gym, and his Charizard Scorch is a force to be reckoned with. Scorch helps heat up cold leads  with Heat Wave, and uses Inferno to burn anything that stands in the way of our partner’s success!

Jon & Mick

Jon joined the Content Gym because he loves to talk, and his Meowth Mick can’t keep his mouth shut either. Jon whips up content fast, and Mick uses Slash to cut through deadlines, and Echoed Voice to amplify posts on social media.

Jodi & Gus

Jodi is the leader of the Demand Gen Gym, and her Ninetails Gus knows who’s boss. While Jodi travels the world generating PokeLeads for Vidyard, Gus uses his psychic abilities to charm prospects, and can use Safeguard to ensure potential customers are happy and comfortable.

Want to join our Pokemon gym? We’re always hiring! Check out our careers page, dust off your PokeBalls, and help us catch ’em all!

 

The post We Want to Be The Very Best — Like No One Ever Was! appeared first on Vidyard.

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The Hidden Side Effects of Using Big Data to Better Understand Your Customers

When it comes to better understanding your customers, you likely leverage every possible resource from personas to mapping the customer experience journey.  For marketers, big data is a boon – it’s a gold mine of information that, to be sure, requires a bit of digging through the dirt to get to the real treasure.

Big data has been used to tout everything from customer sentiment to fraud prediction. By letting computers do what they do best, it is believed that crunching all that information can lead to some pretty significant correlations – between click streams, geographic location, and even transactional data. Tying it all together helps bring the customer service lens into even greater focus.

With that being said, however, relying too much on big data has its drawbacks.  Beyond the fact that we’re just starting to understand what’s out there and how it’s all relatable, big data should not be looked at as a marketing or customer service panacea.  In fact, there are a lot of areas where relying too much on big data to better understand your customers can have the opposite effect, like these:

Lack of Availability

Let’s say you’re shopping online for a new pair of shoes. You’re scrolling through pair after pair on your cell phone until you find the perfect pair. Unfortunately, they’re backordered.  You want to be notified when more are in stock, but you’re not sure how to do that.  You tap for customer service. You’re invited to type in your question and see a list of canned solutions.  That’s a bit too cumbersome so you look for a way to contact a representative.

Instead, you’re asked to submit your question to a helpdesk or online community. Trying to fill out a trouble ticket, you see that the service isn’t compatible with mobile. You give up in frustration. Shortly thereafter, you get an email reminding you about the item you were interested in, and asking how the company can do better.

If you’re visualizing a cartoonish response of steam coming out of your ears from anger and frustration, now you can imagine the limitations that big data has.  Perhaps the only retailer to truly get a handle on big data at this level is Amazon, and they’ve been able to integrate unimaginable reams of data seamlessly while being able to grow and scale their company with consistency.

Amazon had to grow and scale its operations – and quickly, yet they still deliver consistently high-rated customer service thanks to big data analytics.

When the service you need isn’t available, you grit your teeth for long wait times ahead, and test your patience with the poor rep that has to look up the details of the backordered product in a sea of potential choices. The point is, Big Data shouldn’t just be pored over by analytics experts, but made available to everyone at every tier in the organization.

Rush to Judgment and Unrealistic Expectations

Big data is the foundation of a perilously-positioned scale. On one end, you have the camp that’s rigid and inflexible. Things have always been done a certain way, and the deluge of big data isn’t going to change that. These companies risk getting outmaneuvered by their more proactive competitors. They make hasty decisions that may not always be backed by data science, and then backpedal when things go south.

At the opposite end, there are those who are positively drowning in analytics. They’re so swallowed up by data that they hesitate to make any decision without consulting the numbers like some kind of oracle. They shrug off their “gut feelings” or intuition because the data doesn’t account for that.

There’s no doubt that big data is changing the way we market, but as many industry trends go, it can easily be blown out of proportion into something it’s not. People are complex, self-serving, habitual, ever-changing creatures. Trying to make sense of that is not something that can be done overnight. It requires careful planning, an understanding of the different “pools” of information the data is drawing from, and one’s own understanding of their target market to fully grasp.

Otherwise you end up with complex, complicated decisions that are impossible to predict and frustrating to implement.

Data Modeling Difficulties

In order to get the most out of big data, it has to be modeled in order to bring the value it’s so often associated with to customer service, which in turn trickles down to the customer. At its core, Big Data is raw, unfiltered and largely noise. It’s not structured, organized or clean.  The only system currently out there with the power to tackle such large scale information is Hadoop, which has been around since the early 2000s.

Hadoop is the closest thing available to enterprise-grade big data analytics. Image source

Currently there is no user friendly, on-demand and easily implementable enterprise data modeling system. There are many ways to tackle the big data noise, however, but many data models hit common obstacles including not being able to scale accordingly or organize the data in a sensible way, and still fewer work with existing analytics platforms and CRM information.

Just having the data is no longer enough. Making it accessible and understandable to everyone is the challenge today’s modeling apps have to fix.

Pure Complexity

And finally, let’s face it, we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s out there. And yet it keeps growing and growing.  Costs go down, availability of information goes up.  Despite all its lucrative potential, big data can’t replace people. When insights are gleaned from data scientists, they’re passed on to managers and then employees.  If there’s not a process in place to better understand and leverage the information you continue to gain, it’s practically worthless.

The bottom line with using big data to better understand your customers is that there’s a lot of expectations of what it can or cannot do. With such a wave looming overhead, it’s easy to want to stand back and wait.  But just as the internet itself was once looked at as being “just a fad”, so too is big data poised to completely change what we know about our audience.

Being able to turn this information into insight is a challenge – but one worth tackling. We all know what happens when there’s a rush to implement without a goal in mind.  Knowing the issues ahead of time can help you plan out a strategy that takes all of these points into consideration as you all work together toward a common goal – making sure every customer is exceedingly satisfied, again and again.

What are Your Thoughts on Using Big Data to Better Understand Customers?

Do you think big data is still in its infancy with regard to its use in customer analytics? Or do you think we simply lack the tools and understanding to make the most of it? What tools are you currently using to make sense of the data you collect? Share your thoughts and comments with us below.

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

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Are You Handicapping Your Conversion Rate?

As humans, we tend to believe that if we like something, it must have value—how else do you explain our obsession with celebrities?

I mean, I’ve never met Tom Brady, but he’s one of my favorite athletes…so he must be a good guy, right?

Unfortunately, this sort of thinking doesn’t end with pro athletes or TV stars. As online marketers, we make a lot of assumptions about how certain website elements affect our conversion rates.

After all, if we like a certain page element or approach to site design, then everyone else must like it too, right?

If only that were true…

The fact of the matter is, you are not your target audience. So, even if you love your sidebar and hate your developer’s favorite widget, you really have no idea how either of those site elements are affecting your conversion rate.

But, the good news is that with a few simple tests, you can easily discover how different elements on your site help or hinder your conversion rate.

Much Ado About Nothing?

Eliminating website elements allows you to get a good feel for how those elements are affecting the performance of your site.

In a lot of ways, it’s like comparing Tom Brady’s performance with deflated balls to his performance without deflated balls.

If Tom only wins Superbowls when he plays with deflated balls, that must be a big contributor to his performance. On the other hand, if he still wins without the deflated balls, air pressure probably doesn’t affect his throwing ability much.

The same idea applies to your website.

If you remove an element and your conversion rate goes up, that element was probably hurting your conversion rate. If your conversion rate goes down, that element was probably helping your conversion rate.

Simple enough, right?

It may be a simple idea, but it’s one that can make a big difference to your business.

For example, EA got rid of the promo banner on their SimCity microsite and improved their purchase rate by 43%. Impact deleted their sidebar and their conversion rate went up 71%.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that what we like, everyone likes. But, if you aren’t testing your site elements, you may very well be doggedly hanging on to an element that is ruining your conversion rate.

How to Determine the Value of Your Site Elements

If you really want to know how specific site elements affect your conversion rate, there are two easy places to start: your pages and the elements on those pages.

Which Pages Do You Really Need?

One of the simplest things you can test on your site is how your homepage affects your conversion rate. Is your homepage an important part of your conversion process? Or does it distract and frustrate your site visitors?

To test this, all you have to do is send traffic to another page.

In fact, most companies do this without even realizing it when they send campaign traffic to landing pages…instead of their home page.

Essentially, when you send traffic to a landing page, you’re running an A/B test. The homepage is your control and the landing page is your variant.

In general, a good landing page that matches the messaging of the marketing that brought someone to your page will convert better than your homepage. However, this isn’t always the case.

For some companies, their homepage is actually an important part of their conversion funnel.

For example, we had a client who wanted to send traffic to two landing pages (each one was focused on a different product) to see which one performed the best. Out of curiosity, we also threw in the homepage for comparison’s sake.

To our surprise, the homepage won.

As it turned out, this client’s customers were actually interested in both products and a variety of our client’s other products. Since the homepage featured all of those products, potential customers didn’t want a product-specific landing page—they wanted the homepage.

For this client, the homepage was a key part of their conversion process.

Simply adding or eliminating pages from your customer journey can be a great way to determine how different pages are contributing to your conversion rate. It’s simple, easy and it can teach you a lot about your audience.

Which Parts of Your Page/Site Matter?

Once you’ve identified how your pages are affecting your conversion rate, you can start looking at the specific elements on those pages.

For example, for one of our clients, we removed the sliding promotion header from their eCommerce site. As a result, their revenue-per-visitor increased by 25%. Similarly, when we nixed their navigation sidebar, their monthly revenue increased by 19%.

Together, eliminating these pet design elements increased their yearly profits by $2 million!

To set up a test like this, you’ll want to build a second version of your page that is identical to your current page—with one exception. Your new page won’t have the page element you are evaluating.

Typically, this is pretty easy. Just duplicate the page you want to test and then go in and delete the part of the page that you want to test. In some cases, though, this can mess up other parts of the page, so be sure to proofread your new page before you start your test.

As an added bonus, you can use what you learn from eliminating page elements to come up with further testing ideas.

For example, if you know that a page element on one page is hurting your conversion rate, you can try eliminating it from other pages too. Alternatively, you can try tweaking or replacing the element to see if you can get it to perform better.

On the other hand, if a specific part of your page is really boosting your conversion rate, you may want to replicate that element across your site. You can also try to milk even more from high-performing elements by tweaking things like copy, color, size, imagery or location.

Regardless of how you use your findings, eliminating page elements can teach you a lot about what your audience really wants from your site.

Conclusion

No matter how much you might like a particular page or page element, what really matters is how those aspects of your site affect your traffic.

Unfortunately, if you don’t test your specific site elements, you’ll never know whether or not they are helping or hurting your conversion rates.

However, by simply eliminating specific site elements, you can very easily discover what your target market values on your site and what they hate. And, once you know what your audience values, you can make sure your website delivers exactly what your potential customers want.

You’ve heard my two cents, now I want to hear yours.

How do you feel about this approach to website optimization? Are there additional factors that should be considered in this analysis? Is this something you’ve tried or would consider trying?

About the Author: Jacob Baadsgaard is the CEO and fearless leader of Disruptive Advertising, an online marketing agency dedicated to using PPC advertising and website optimization to drive sales. His face is as big as his heart and he loves to help businesses achieve their online potential. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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