Envato Expands into North America with Placeit Acquisition

Envato has grown its presence in North America, with the acquisition of one of the web’s fastest-growing digital mockup and templates tools, Placeit.

Purchased for an undisclosed amount, the Mexico-based company adds to Envato’s globally renowned creative community, providing a series of responsive mockups, smart design templates and maker tools for designers of all skill levels.

Headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and the country’s well regarded tech hub, Placeit has grown rapidly since its inception in 2012, with more than seven million templates sold and doubling in size in the last 12 months.

The company’s most recently recorded Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) was over $3M USD. Envato’s current subscription business Envato Elements has an ARR of $21M, and grew over 100% in the last year.

Placeit counts companies such as Google, Facebook and Oracle as among its more than 55,000 regular paying customers, with more than 87% of these customers coming from outside Mexico each month, reflecting the global footprint it has.

The platform currently allows users with no previous design experience to make everything from on-trend logos and branding kits for everything from restaurants to sporting clubs, through to t-shirt design templates, social media videos, high-resolution iPhone and apparel mockups and more.

Users can do all of this very simply from their browser, without the need to purchase and learn how to use specialist design and creative software.

Envato founder and CEO Collis Ta’eed said that the acquisition of Placeit was an exciting one.

“Placeit extends the Envato offering in a big way. We’ve made our mark in the world helping creative professionals get inspired, work faster, and level up what they do for clients.”“With Placeit we’re opening up Envato’s creative magic to absolutely anyone. Whether it’s an entrepreneur just getting started, a marketer working on their own, or just a pro user who doesn’t want the hassle of opening Photoshop - Placeit is just plain fun and simple to use.”

“My ‘aha’ moment with Placeit was sitting down with my kids to make a logo for their basketball team. Watching a seven year old make something that I, as a professional designer, liked was pretty special, and really solidified to me what an opportunity Placeit has to connect with a whole different design audience. Seeing something come to life that simply was not possible before is why I love working in the tech industry.” concluded Mr Ta’eed.

Placeit founder Navid Safabakhsh said he looking forward to the company becoming an integral part of Envato’s global creative community.

“The origin story for Placeit is very similar to the one Envato has; we came up with an online, smart solution to a very particular set of problems that many digital creatives face around the world today, anchored by hard-working local tech talent.”

“In building a series of easy-to-use and on-trend maker tools, we’ve seen first hand just how much we’ve been able to empower creatives of all skill levels around the globe to complete their projects faster, and with better outcomes. We think it’s a perfect match for Envato, one that builds on the strengths of both companies.”

The upgraded Placeit by Envato platform officially went live last week.

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Twitter Enlists Academic Researchers to Reduce Offensive Tweets

Twitter recently announced that it will enlist academic research groups to help in its project on conversation health. The researchers will study the behavior of Twitter users to find ways to assess how healthy the discussions are and help rid the platform of racists and trolls.

The social networking site continues to take steps to tamp down offensive tweets after facing much criticism for not doing enough to curb cyberbullying and online harassment on its platform. The study on conversation health is part of Twitter head Jack Dorsey's plan to stop users' bad behavior and to develop metrics that can be used to check the “health” of discussions on Twitter.

The company revealed on Monday that it has chosen two groups of researchers to spearhead their project. The selection process commenced in March, with Twitter receiving over 230 proposals on metrics that could be utilized to evaluate and improve the social networking platform.

The first group of academic researchers hail from universities in Italy, the Netherlands, and the US and will be headed by Dr. Rebekah Tromble, an expert on politics in social media at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her team will focus on the issues of impolite discourse and “echo chambers,” a practice where people only look for and listen to information that suits their beliefs.

They'll look into ways to assess how much users interact with the various point of views shared on the platform. They're also tasked to design algorithms that will differentiate between “incivility” or rude conversations and “intolerant discourse,” which includes racist terms and language.

Twitter to measure the "health" of public conversation to make the social networking site less toxic; researchers from @UniLeiden will handle echo chambers & uncivil discourse, while @UvA_Amsterdam & @UniofOxford will research prejudice & discrimination: https://t.co/MCpWiAE7Rb.

— Amsterdam Univ Press (@AmsterdamUPress) July 31, 2018

Meanwhile, the second group of academics from the University of Amsterdam and Oxford University will research how exposing users to people who come from different backgrounds and hold other perspectives can lessen discrimination and prejudice. The theory is that if people are exposed to a wider range of viewpoints, there will be fewer insults or threatening comments posted.

Twitter has shown that it's very serious about improving the conversations held on its platform. It has even deleted millions of fake accounts in a bout of house cleaning. The company's health conversation project could potentially make a difference, although its long-term effects still have to be determined.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Why Walmart's Employee Package Delivery Plan Failed

In June of 2017, Walmart announced that it wanted to tap its massive workforce of over 2 million people to bring online orders directly to the front doors of its customers. The retail giant planned to have employees make the deliveries on their way home after ending their usual work shifts. According to Marc Lore, head of Walmart’s eCommerce operations, the strategy would make the company's deliveries more efficient, a move that would help it fend off rival Amazon. But before launching the employee "last-mile" delivery service nationwide, it was first tested in New Jersey and Arkansas. Walmart reeled employees into the program by offering additional compensation to cover labor and fuel expenses, but the experiment flopped. As it turned out, the last-mile program had more drawbacks than benefits for its workers.

In January of this year, Walmart quietly shut down the pilot program and is now testing employee deliveries on a smaller scale.

But exactly why did its last-mile delivery fail? Employees who participated in the program spoke to Reuters about their experience and explained some of the issues they had with it.

Read the full story at the Reuters website.

[Featured image via Walmart newsroom]

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Stripe is Now Allowing Businesses to Issue Their Own Credit Cards

Stripe has just revealed that it will be offering businesses the capacity to make their own credit cards. The online payments company also announced that they will be using Mastercard and Visa as the operating networks for their new service, aptly called “Stripe Issuing.”

The company explained that the service is “an API for creating cards and new business models” and can be utilized to develop a variety of credit cards, both physical and virtual. For instance, Stripe Issuing can be used to create expense cards with customized credit limits for employees and can even be used by new banks to issue credit cards to their customers.

Since its launch in 2010, Stripe has experienced steady growth in the payments sector. Its system has made it easier for businesses like Lyft, Postmates, and Slack to process payments for ride-sharing, food delivery, and team collaboration services, respectively. 

Stripe's Annual Transaction Volume Since 2015

Now Stripe's new service aims to fill another gap in payment processing. Lachy Groom, the head of Stripe Issuing, explained to Bloomberg that the company has “tackled many of the major problems on accepting payments” but that businesses still have difficulties in moving their money.

Analyst Jordan McKee expounded on the appeal this new service will have on enterprises. He said that developing a customized payment infrastructure is very complicated and expensive, which is why the majority of companies don't bother with it. However, Stripe offering a “simplicity value proposition” will definitely bring to light new cases that haven't been considered previously.

Stripe Issuing service may also generate a tidy sum. Not only will it receive a percentage from every payment made on a card,  it could also grow its revenue by retaining customers who are looking for a one-stop source to issue and receive payments. 

Dozens of companies have reportedly tested the product, although no names have yet been shared. Businesses who are interested in Stripe's new service can head over to the company site to request an invitation.

[Featured image via Stripe]

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HipChat Maker Atlassian Calls It Quits, Sells to Rival Slack

The saying “If you can't beat them, join them” certainly holds true for Atlassian and Slack. The former is selling its rights to HipChat and Stride to rival Slack and will even be making a small investment in the company.

The surprising news was announced recently by Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. Aside from tweeting his company's purchase of the two products, he also explained that the move was to “better support those users who choose to migrate” to Slack. Joff Redfern, Atlassian's VP of Product Management, also confirmed the news. In a blog post, he said this was the “best way forward for our customers and for Atlassian.”

Details: • Atlassian is discontinuing Hipchat/Stride • Slack is purchasing the IP to better support those users who choose to migrate • We’re both working closely together to make sure that’s as simple and painless a process as possible …

— Stewart Butterfield (@stewart) July 26, 2018

What was not as surprising was the revelation that the company would be shutting down both HipChat and Stride. The former is one of Slack's main competitor in the workplace chat arena while the latter is a chat and collaboration system that Atlassian rolled out in 2017.

Atlassian clarified that they only sold the intellectual rights to HipChat and Stride and that Slack will not be handling support for the two products. However, existing HipChat Server and HipChat Data Server customers will still enjoy product support until their license period ends. The two products will be discontinued on February 15, 2019.

Slack and Atlassian will also be working together to migrate all of the enterprise giant's users over to Slack. The two companies will also be collaborating in developing future integrations. Atlassian will also be receiving a small stake in Slack, with the startup paying an undisclosed amount to the company in the next three years.

Atlassian tried hard to remain competitive in the office chat space environment by moving its HipChat users to Stride. Aside from the usual chat and communication features, Stride also offered project-tracking and audio and video conferencing. However, the revamped system just wasn't enough to bring in new users and the company started to consider selling.

Shout out to all of the Atlassians who worked their asses off building Stride + Hipchat We built a great product. I’m deeply grateful for every effort, big and small, that every Atlassian contributed. What a journey. What a team! @atlassian #team https://t.co/fVd058AF4x

— Mike Cannon-Brookes (@mcannonbrookes) July 27, 2018

Atlassian co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes told Bloomberg that they're proud of what their team has built, but also admitted that “it is a crowded space, and there's a pragmatic option there.”

The alliance between the two rivals makes sense, especially with Microsoft chipping away at Slack's dominance in corporate chat software. Microsoft has put the pressure on with its Teams software, which is now available to its 135 million Office cloud subscribers. It has also released a free version of Teams to attract new users. At the moment, Slack reportedly has 500,000 live organizations using its system while Microsoft says 200,000 active organizations are using Teams.

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New Drop Box Add-On Makes it Easier to Find and Share Files in Gmail

Dropbox took advantage of the Google Next event to reveal its new Gmail add-on. The first product of its partnership with Google, the extension will make it easier for Dropbox users to find, send, and save files from inside their Gmail inbox.

Gmail users who install this new plug-in will be able to attach a Dropbox file to their email by linking it directly to the relevant file or folder stored in the hosting service. And since the content is attached as links, file size is not an issue. Recipients of the email will also be able to access the file or folder without having to install any extra software.

Once installed, the add-on will appear on Gmail's right-side rail. Clicking on the Dropbox icon will prompt it to scan the email thread for attachments. It will also show useful contextual information, like the sender's name, the file name, and where it is located (email or Dropbox). Users can also view their whole Dropbox file system, making it easier to add and attach files.

Dropbox announced a partnership with Google Cloud in March. Today the company introduced the first integration, a Gmail add-on that makes it easy to move attachments to your Dropbox. https://t.co/8Ck5iaEyt8 pic.twitter.com/nuUx5NbCYM

— Ron Miller (@ron_miller) July 25, 2018

Dropbox describes the Gmail add-on as a convenient method to organize the workplace as it allows the user to access saved content within Gmail. This does away with the need to toggle between the two applications. The add-on also makes it possible for Gmail users to save an emailed file directly to their Dropbox account.

Dropbox explains in a blog post that the “integration deepens our investment in the G Suite ecosystem, offering a cross-browser, cross-platform addition to our existing Dropbox for Gmail extension for Chrome.”

This latest add-on is compatible with any browser and will also work on the official Gmail application for Android. Dropbox also has plans to bring the extension to iOS, although there's no launch date set yet.

The Gmail add-on is just the tip of the iceberg. Dropbox has also shared its plans to develop add-ons that would let account holders use Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets directly within the file-hosting service. There are also talks of integration with Google Hangouts. This feature will let users send links to files saved in Dropbox directly to Hangouts.

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Google Releases Chrome 68, Browser Labels All HTTP Websites as 'Not Secure'

The release of Chrome 68 has pushed forward Google's campaign to drive Internet users to more secure websites. As it has promised several months ago, the company will now be labeling HTTP sites as Not Secure.

Until recently, the company has only marked a small subset of sites as not secure. This was intentionally done to provide developers with more time to transition their sites to a more secure connection. However, the newest version of Google's browser will now mark all unencrypted sites.

It's happening! Starting today, Google Chrome will mark all HTTP websites as 'Not Secure'https://t.co/88ScRCBUWH

If you have a website, you need an SSL — it's as simple as that!#https #security #infosec #ssl #privacy pic.twitter.com/lKecdVV0nw

— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) July 24, 2018

Users who land on an unencrypted page will see the “Not Secure” label on the URL bar. A window with a warning will pop-up when users click on the label. The pop-up advises users not to enter any sensitive information on the site. The warning is more of a nudge to developers to adopt HTTPS protocols. It should not be considered a sign that the user has been hacked.

Google has been pushing developers to make the change to HTTPS for years and each browser version moves this agenda further. After all, HTTPS sites are more secure. They can prevent malware attacks, stop cryptocurrency mining, and limit third-parties from utilizing targeted ads.

So far, the company appears to be successful in making the Internet safer for everyone. As of February, more than 68 percent of traffic on Chrome was protected on Android and Windows while the numbers were 10 percent higher on Mac and the Chrome OS. What's more, the majority of the 100 top sites on the Internet are now following HTTPS protocols.

However, there are still more changes to come. Another version is set to follow Chrome 68 in September and users can expect to see the Secure label as being a less obvious black color. Meanwhile, the Not Secure label will reportedly be displayed in red when Chrome 70 rolls out in October.

The company is hoping to make secured sites the norm in the near future, at which time it will do away with the secure tag.

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Trump Blasts Amazon Yet Again, Says eCommerce Giant Uses USPS as Its 'Delivery Boy'

President Donald Trump once again attacked Amazon and the Washington Post in some of his recent tweets.

In his latest Twitter rant against the company, the President railed that the Washington Post “has gone crazy against me” since Amazon lost their Internet Tax Case in the Supreme Court. He also jibed that the Washington Post is losing a fortune and described it as “nothing more than an expensive lobbyist for Amazon.”

Trump also blasted Amazon for using the US Postal Service as a “delivery boy” for its packages at only “a fraction of real cost.”

The Amazon Washington Post has gone crazy against me ever since they lost the Internet Tax Case in the U.S. Supreme Court two months ago. Next up is the U.S. Post Office which they use, at a fraction of real cost, as their “delivery boy” for a BIG percentage of their packages....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018

....In my opinion the Washington Post is nothing more than an expensive (the paper loses a fortune) lobbyist for Amazon. Is it used as protection against antitrust claims which many feel should be brought?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018

Trump's latest tirade came on the heels of a Washington Post's report that was critical of how he handled North Korea. The paper claimed the president was frustrated with how long it was taking to see some progress after his talk with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Trump tweeted the country had not launched a rocket in 9 months and that “all of Asia is happy.” He also said what the “Fake News” is claiming is wrong and said that he was “very happy” with the way things with North Korea were proceeding.

Amazon's shares dipped slightly after Trump's tweets. However, the loss was minuscule when compared to the company's 55 percent gains since the start of 2018. Trump's tirade also did little to harm Jeff Bezos' standing as the world's richest man. The owner of Amazon and the Washington Post has a net worth amounting to about $150 billion.

This isn't the first time that Trump attacked Bezos and Amazon regarding the e-retailer's use of the USPS. In a tweet last December, Trump questioned why the USPS was charging the online store so little when they “Should be charging MUCH MORE!” He also tweeted in April that the Post Office was losing a fortune but that this will change.

It is true that the Post Office is losing money. The USPS reported a loss of $2.7 billion in 2017. Increasing the rates of shipping packages is one way to resolve the situation. However, the USPS' main function is not to generate profit but to serve civilians. This is why the department's shipping rates are very low.

Amazon also isn't the only company using the US Postal Service. FedEx and UPS also drop off packages and utilizes the USPS as their “last mile” delivery. If the postal service does raise prices, it would affect all companies that ships packages, including small businesses that may find it difficult to cover increased shipping costs. 

[Featured image via YouTube]

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US House of Representatives Passes JOBS Act 3.0, Bill Aims to Help Small Businesses Get More Funding

Small businesses won big on Tuesday night when the House of Representatives passed JOBS Act 3.0. The bill passed on a 406-4 vote, a surprisingly solid consensus from a chamber that has gained infamy due to its present bipartisan differences. But what is the JOBS Act 3.0 and what does it mean for small businesses in the US?

Understanding JOBS Act 3.0 and Its Significance

Originally known as the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, the legislation has been under discussion for several years as Congress tried to hammer out changes that both parties would be happy with.

JOBS Act 3.0 is a major win for American workers and investors. https://t.co/vMThaVbAJQ

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) July 17, 2018

JOBS Act 3.0, or the JOBS and Investor Confidence Act of 2018, is an amalgamation of 20 distinct bills. These bills are all designed to encourage and boost entrepreneurship by making it easier for small businesses to gain access to capital markets.

Under JOBS Act 3.0, new legislation will ease banking regulations, allowing startups to get the financial help they need. It will also stimulate venture capital and make it possible for initial public offering (IPO) to become more manageable and affordable.

Quick take: your primer on the JOBS Act 3.0 https://t.co/MDPt9wjDfQ pic.twitter.com/lK1lhTAuL9

— U.S. Chamber (@USChamber) July 21, 2018

This move certainly garnered the approval of Tom Quaadman, the Executive Vice President of the US Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. According to Quaadman, these pro-growth policies will not only help get new businesses off the ground, it will also improve the chances that these enterprises will grow, innovate, and boost the job market.

“It is a win for entrepreneurs, businesses, and job creators across the country,” Quaadman said.

Ways the JOBS Act Can Benefit Small Businesses

There are numerous ways JOBS Act 3.0 will help small businesses. For one, it will remove barriers that hinder companies from raising capital.

The US Chamber of Commerce revealed that three-fourths of the country's business financing comes from capital markets. However, the sheer number of regulations makes it challenging to keep up with demand. This has resulted in a decline in the number of US startups in recent years. Now China is leading the IPO revolution, producing more than one-third of the world's startups compared to the 11 percent by the US.

New regulations would also permit a larger number of accredited investors to invest in startups and small businesses, thus improving their chances. For instance, people who earn more than $200,000 a year or those who have a net worth of $1 million or more could become accredited investors. This will boost the pool of investors and provide more capital funds.

The Act will also clarify how businesspeople and angel investors can discuss their investments without running into trouble with securities laws. A clear understanding of these regulations would increase venture capital movement and make acquisitions by small businesses easier.

What's Next for the Bill

The JOBS Act 3.0 has garnered a lot of support from numerous organizations and companies. The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) even praised it for being a “tremendous step forward for small, pre-revenue innovators.” However, the bill still has some ways to go.

The legislation is now in the hands of the Senate, the chamber of Congress that has become known for not getting things done. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will now have the job of wrangling enough votes to get the bill in front of President Trump by fall.

[Featured image via Pexels]

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Envato Expands into North America with Placeit Acquisition

Envato has grown its presence in North America, with the acquisition of one of the web’s fastest-growing digital mockup and templates tools, Placeit.

Purchased for an undisclosed amount, the Mexico-based company adds to Envato’s globally renowned creative community, providing a series of responsive mockups, smart design templates and maker tools for designers of all skill levels.

Headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and the country’s well regarded tech hub, Placeit has grown rapidly since its inception in 2012, with more than seven million templates sold and doubling in size in the last 12 months.

The company’s most recently recorded Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) was over $3M USD. Envato’s current subscription business Envato Elements has an ARR of $21M, and grew over 100% in the last year.

Placeit counts companies such as Google, Facebook and Oracle as among its more than 55,000 regular paying customers, with more than 87% of these customers coming from outside Mexico each month, reflecting the global footprint it has.

The platform currently allows users with no previous design experience to make everything from on-trend logos and branding kits for everything from restaurants to sporting clubs, through to t-shirt design templates, social media videos, high-resolution iPhone and apparel mockups and more.

Users can do all of this very simply from their browser, without the need to purchase and learn how to use specialist design and creative software.

Envato founder and CEO Collis Ta’eed said that the acquisition of Placeit was an exciting one.

“Placeit extends the Envato offering in a big way. We’ve made our mark in the world helping creative professionals get inspired, work faster, and level up what they do for clients.”“With Placeit we’re opening up Envato’s creative magic to absolutely anyone. Whether it’s an entrepreneur just getting started, a marketer working on their own, or just a pro user who doesn’t want the hassle of opening Photoshop - Placeit is just plain fun and simple to use.”

“My ‘aha’ moment with Placeit was sitting down with my kids to make a logo for their basketball team. Watching a seven year old make something that I, as a professional designer, liked was pretty special, and really solidified to me what an opportunity Placeit has to connect with a whole different design audience. Seeing something come to life that simply was not possible before is why I love working in the tech industry.” concluded Mr Ta’eed.

Placeit founder Navid Safabakhsh said he looking forward to the company becoming an integral part of Envato’s global creative community.

“The origin story for Placeit is very similar to the one Envato has; we came up with an online, smart solution to a very particular set of problems that many digital creatives face around the world today, anchored by hard-working local tech talent.”

“In building a series of easy-to-use and on-trend maker tools, we’ve seen first hand just how much we’ve been able to empower creatives of all skill levels around the globe to complete their projects faster, and with better outcomes. We think it’s a perfect match for Envato, one that builds on the strengths of both companies.”

The upgraded Placeit by Envato platform officially went live last week.

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4 More Content Promotion Strategies to Increase Engagement

If you’re a B2B marketer, odds are that creating content is an integral part of your inbound strategy for attracting prospects. After, all inbound marketing costs 61% less than traditional advertising, while producing 54% more leads. Because of this, however, everyone is investing more in content marketing. This raises the bar, meaning that creating more content is not enough. To reach your intended audience, you need to differentiate your brand and rise above the noise by offering value.

In the past, inbound marketers spent 80% of their time creating content and 20% promoting it. With all the noise out there, that formula is flipped, meaning that content promotion is now the priority. To communicate effectively with your audience, you must provide the right content in the right place at the right time.

Previously, we looked at four ways to promote your content to increase engagement. Let’s go through four more.

1. Amplify Through Influencers

Getting influencers to share your content is a great way to increase its reach. They have large established audiences, including many of the very same people that you want to communicate with. There are a few ways to gain access to these industry megaphones. The first is to get a quote from one of them as you are creating your content. For instance, you could have an influencer provide their thoughts as a subject matter expert for your upcoming blog post. By getting their quote in your content, you have the necessary foot in the door to have them share the post to their network. In reaching out to potential commenters, make sure to cast a wide net, as many of them will be too busy or not interested.

For your biggest and most influential advocates, consider asking them to create their own piece of content (likely a blog) in reaction or response to a longer asset of yours, like an ebook. This is a bigger ask than simply having them share your content, of course, so be strategic about when you deploy it. While quotes and shares can be solicited from new influencers, you will want to stick with people that you have established relationships with for this type of request. Whichever path you choose, promoting through influencers is valuable by helping you both reach new people and enhancing the reputability of your content through its association with them.

2. Be Savvy with Social

We all know that social media is vital to getting your content in front of your audience. Just posting and walking away is not enough though. Here are some ways get the most of what you’re putting out there.

Facilitate Sharing: Make it easy for users to share your content using Click to Tweet, a free tool that allows you to create pre-populated tweets that readers can share with a simple link click. Not only are you making it easier for your content to spread, but you can control the messaging around it.

#Hashtags: As long as you don’t overdo it, hashtags can be an effective way to broaden the reach of your content, serving as a mini search engine within social media. Research the most important hashtags for your industry or topic and go from there.

Repeat Posts: Social media moves fast—I’m sure we can all think of a time when we missed a piece of news or a friend’s life update because it got buried under other stuff. If you want your audience to see your most important content, it will take multiple postings. Make sure to create a promotion schedule so that your audience doesn’t get oversaturated with the same messages.

3. Repurpose Existing Content

Creating new content requires time and resources, so it makes sense to squeeze as much out of what you have as you can. The easiest way to do this is taking excerpts from existing content and repost them to sites like LinkedIn Pulse, Quora, and Reddit. This opens you up to potential new audiences with minimal effort.

If you want to be more ambitious, consider creating derivative pieces from some of the larger assets you have. Webinars can be great for this—you can turn session slides into a SlideShare, make an FAQ sheet out of the Q&A questions, or even make social media posts out of quotes or key stats. For more ways to repurpose your webinar content, check out this great blog post from our partner, GoToWebinar.

Ebooks are another great source for derivative pieces. At Marketo, we accompany our definitive guides with blog posts, cheat sheets, infographics, and more. When you create smaller pieces out of your big rocks, it makes it a lot easier to promote them. If a prospect isn’t ready to read your 50-page ebook right away, reading some of the associated shorter content may help them get there.

4. Don’t Forget About Email

Emailing your existing lists is still an effective method of promoting your content because of the speed with which you can reach large numbers of people. Sending a monthly newsletter to people who have opted into receiving your content can be very effective—it’s frequent enough to keep you top of mind but doesn’t risk feeling spammy. For more specific content types, make sure that you are segmenting your audiences properly. People have opted in to hear from you and further crowd their already cluttered inboxes, so you don’t want to abuse that trust. Remember that to be GDPR compliant, you will need to have clear customer consent and data privacy policies in place. For a refresher, check out our resources on the subject.

At the end of the day, your content is only as valuable as who sees it. Without the right content promotion strategies, it can’t stand out from the crowd, and will be useless. What other content promotion strategies do you use? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

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Twitter Enlists Academic Researchers to Reduce Offensive Tweets

Twitter recently announced that it will enlist academic research groups to help in its project on conversation health. The researchers will study the behavior of Twitter users to find ways to assess how healthy the discussions are and help rid the platform of racists and trolls.

The social networking site continues to take steps to tamp down offensive tweets after facing much criticism for not doing enough to curb cyberbullying and online harassment on its platform. The study on conversation health is part of Twitter head Jack Dorsey's plan to stop users' bad behavior and to develop metrics that can be used to check the “health” of discussions on Twitter.

The company revealed on Monday that it has chosen two groups of researchers to spearhead their project. The selection process commenced in March, with Twitter receiving over 230 proposals on metrics that could be utilized to evaluate and improve the social networking platform.

The first group of academic researchers hail from universities in Italy, the Netherlands, and the US and will be headed by Dr. Rebekah Tromble, an expert on politics in social media at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her team will focus on the issues of impolite discourse and “echo chambers,” a practice where people only look for and listen to information that suits their beliefs.

They'll look into ways to assess how much users interact with the various point of views shared on the platform. They're also tasked to design algorithms that will differentiate between “incivility” or rude conversations and “intolerant discourse,” which includes racist terms and language.

Twitter to measure the "health" of public conversation to make the social networking site less toxic; researchers from @UniLeiden will handle echo chambers & uncivil discourse, while @UvA_Amsterdam & @UniofOxford will research prejudice & discrimination: https://t.co/MCpWiAE7Rb.

— Amsterdam Univ Press (@AmsterdamUPress) July 31, 2018

Meanwhile, the second group of academics from the University of Amsterdam and Oxford University will research how exposing users to people who come from different backgrounds and hold other perspectives can lessen discrimination and prejudice. The theory is that if people are exposed to a wider range of viewpoints, there will be fewer insults or threatening comments posted.

Twitter has shown that it's very serious about improving the conversations held on its platform. It has even deleted millions of fake accounts in a bout of house cleaning. The company's health conversation project could potentially make a difference, although its long-term effects still have to be determined.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Why Walmart's Employee Package Delivery Plan Failed

In June of 2017, Walmart announced that it wanted to tap its massive workforce of over 2 million people to bring online orders directly to the front doors of its customers. The retail giant planned to have employees make the deliveries on their way home after ending their usual work shifts. According to Marc Lore, head of Walmart’s eCommerce operations, the strategy would make the company's deliveries more efficient, a move that would help it fend off rival Amazon. But before launching the employee "last-mile" delivery service nationwide, it was first tested in New Jersey and Arkansas. Walmart reeled employees into the program by offering additional compensation to cover labor and fuel expenses, but the experiment flopped. As it turned out, the last-mile program had more drawbacks than benefits for its workers.

In January of this year, Walmart quietly shut down the pilot program and is now testing employee deliveries on a smaller scale.

But exactly why did its last-mile delivery fail? Employees who participated in the program spoke to Reuters about their experience and explained some of the issues they had with it.

Read the full story at the Reuters website.

[Featured image via Walmart newsroom]

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Why VR Matters for Marketers

A train barrels down, rattling the small theatre. Women scream, men shout, and children fall to the ground in fear. Then, silently the train disappears, and only a small silver screen is left. Film, when seen through the eyes of those unfamiliar with the tricks of photography, was a frightening affair. The train audiences saw move ever closer in French theatre in 1896, the now-famous The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, was lifelike and so real that it caused a panic. Or so the urban legend goes.

Complete and total immersion to new or old eyes is no longer a thing of urban legend. Virtual reality has advanced in some key ways in only a few short years. In 2014, Facebook bought Oculus Rift, the then up-and-coming virtual reality hardware and software company, for a staggering $2 billion. Four years on and they’ve poured millions more into Oculus Rift and their proprietary social VR platform Spaces.

With your friends at your side, wield swords, take selfies, then settle down, and play a game of cards in a more intimate, computer-generated setting. Post your fantastical adventures on Facebook for everyone to see. Meet your friends to watch a movie without ever leaving your home. This is the version of social virtual reality Facebook and a number of other notable tech companies are pushing for.

VR in the Marketplace

VR is more than simply feasible, it’s commercially viable. Sony posted record numbers for their VR system aimed at gamers. They sold two million units in one year alone, which beat out estimates from all sides.

Big companies are betting on VR coming out on the winning side. Google’s developed their virtually free Google Cardboard VR headset. HTC’s developed a VR headset with heavier, hard-hitting specs to appeal to gamers looking for an elevated user experience. Samsung has offered up its own hardware too—hardware compatible with their extraordinarily popular smartphones.

Growth Potential

Statista projects that the VR market will grow to $40 billion in two years’ time. That’s quite a lot of cash for such a new market. Consumers are eating up their chance to escape to new worlds and developers are delighted to create them.

Outside of gaming, outside of escapism, outside of entertainment, there is yet another use for virtual reality. VR can allow us to tell real stories. In fact, The New York Times is already using VR to tell emotionally harrowing stories. Stories of Syrian refugees, of music, of culture, are given to viewers in 3D. The empathy evoked from VR is incredible, beyond what any other medium has attempted.

Chris Milk, CEO of Within VR, states VR’s potential to evoke real emotion and empathy plainly: “Virtual reality is the ‘ultimate empathy machine.’ These experiences are more than documentaries. They’re opportunities to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”

Furniture materializes on your phone. You point your smartphone camera at an empty spot in your living room, et voila, a brand-new Ikea chair appears on your screen. Maybe it doesn’t fit well with the space. Maybe there’s no space for it there at all. You move around, looking for the perfect place to wedge in some new piece. Thanks to Ikea’s AR, or augmented reality, app, you can plan placing your furniture before ever heading over to a nearby warehouse.

VR as Content Marketing

Apps like the ones Ikea have developed are a new form of content marketing. Ikea created an app that both serves a functional piece of software and as a piece of promotion. Sephora, the makeup retailer, allows users to try on superimposed looks. North Face lets customers don a VR headset and visit trails, mountain ridges, and other outdoorsy locales in store.

Marketers are storytellers. As technology evolves, so does storytelling. VR is a novel way to tell a story, promote a product, sell a brand. Engaging with customers with this new technology will play a larger and larger role as virtual reality becomes more and more embedded in our everyday lives.

How do you see the potential of this technology playing out? Tell me about how you’d use VR in your strategy in the comments.

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HipChat Maker Atlassian Calls It Quits, Sells to Rival Slack

The saying “If you can't beat them, join them” certainly holds true for Atlassian and Slack. The former is selling its rights to HipChat and Stride to rival Slack and will even be making a small investment in the company.

The surprising news was announced recently by Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. Aside from tweeting his company's purchase of the two products, he also explained that the move was to “better support those users who choose to migrate” to Slack. Joff Redfern, Atlassian's VP of Product Management, also confirmed the news. In a blog post, he said this was the “best way forward for our customers and for Atlassian.”

Details: • Atlassian is discontinuing Hipchat/Stride • Slack is purchasing the IP to better support those users who choose to migrate • We’re both working closely together to make sure that’s as simple and painless a process as possible …

— Stewart Butterfield (@stewart) July 26, 2018

What was not as surprising was the revelation that the company would be shutting down both HipChat and Stride. The former is one of Slack's main competitor in the workplace chat arena while the latter is a chat and collaboration system that Atlassian rolled out in 2017.

Atlassian clarified that they only sold the intellectual rights to HipChat and Stride and that Slack will not be handling support for the two products. However, existing HipChat Server and HipChat Data Server customers will still enjoy product support until their license period ends. The two products will be discontinued on February 15, 2019.

Slack and Atlassian will also be working together to migrate all of the enterprise giant's users over to Slack. The two companies will also be collaborating in developing future integrations. Atlassian will also be receiving a small stake in Slack, with the startup paying an undisclosed amount to the company in the next three years.

Atlassian tried hard to remain competitive in the office chat space environment by moving its HipChat users to Stride. Aside from the usual chat and communication features, Stride also offered project-tracking and audio and video conferencing. However, the revamped system just wasn't enough to bring in new users and the company started to consider selling.

Shout out to all of the Atlassians who worked their asses off building Stride + Hipchat We built a great product. I’m deeply grateful for every effort, big and small, that every Atlassian contributed. What a journey. What a team! @atlassian #team https://t.co/fVd058AF4x

— Mike Cannon-Brookes (@mcannonbrookes) July 27, 2018

Atlassian co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes told Bloomberg that they're proud of what their team has built, but also admitted that “it is a crowded space, and there's a pragmatic option there.”

The alliance between the two rivals makes sense, especially with Microsoft chipping away at Slack's dominance in corporate chat software. Microsoft has put the pressure on with its Teams software, which is now available to its 135 million Office cloud subscribers. It has also released a free version of Teams to attract new users. At the moment, Slack reportedly has 500,000 live organizations using its system while Microsoft says 200,000 active organizations are using Teams.

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What Amount of Email Personalization is Good Personalization?

Sending an email can be as good as having a real conversation with a person. If you are a business using email for your marketing activities, you must be adding personal touches to your emails to make it look and sound more tailor-made and relevant.

Personalized emails stand out in the subscribers’ inboxes as highly relevant emails that speak directly to them. When the emails that the subscribers receive in their inbox cater to their needs and interests, it builds trust in them and improves customer relationship and experience.

Why personalize?

Email personalization is a tactic most email marketers have started to use widely in their email campaigns. It is because using email personalization has proved to bring great benefits to businesses.

Let’s go through a few statistics:

• According to GetResponse, personalization in the email body has an open rate of 29.95% and a click-through rate of 5.03%.
• Epsilon research found that 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase when their experience is personalized.
• Lack of personalization may cost organizations up to $2.5 trillion, according to Accenture.

In this blog, I’ll show you some great reasons why marketers should personalize emails.

Use Customer Data in a Conservative Way

When your subscribers opt-in to your email list, they fill certain details in the form such as name, company name, country, etc. in addition to their email address. Since you ask them to fill in all these details, you need to utilize the data conventionally. Put your data to work. Use the location details to know their time zone and to determine the most suitable time to send them emails. Use the ‘First Name’ in the subject line or to address them in the email. This will help build trust.

Customer data is like currency. When your customers reveal their data, they expect you to put it to good use. They anticipate only relevant emails in return for the data they provide. Sending personalized emails can make subscribers feel special. When you address someone with their ‘first name’ AND send relevant content, it seems as if it is a friend sending them an email instead of a business. This increases click rate and improves the credibility of your brand and business.

When you send relevant and tailor-made emails, more subscribers will open, read, and engage with your emails—helping you amp up the open-rates and click-through rates of your emails. When you have a focused approach to cater to the needs and interests of your subscribers, it will also save you a lot of money and help generate better conversions from the emails you send.

What Needs to be Personalized?

If you’ve been using personalization, but are not sure if you are doing it right, here’s which elements of your emails can be personalized and how to do it right.

Copy

The copy of your email lets you convey your message to your subscribers. If you have some details about your subscribers, like their interests, gender, or even their name, you can use these details to create email copy that makes them feel closer to your brand.

Check out this email from Spotify that has its copy customized based on the interests and past behaviors of the subscriber:

Offers

The performance of your business is directly or indirectly dependent on the offers you promote to customers. Your promotional offers should tap into the core needs and interests of your target audiences. Sending the right offers to your customers and subscribers will keep them interested in your brand and restrain them from moving over to your competitors.

This email from Skullcandy gives early access to their VIP members for their offers. This builds brand credibility and persuades them to buy.

 

Product Recommendations

Integrating your customers’ browsing history and past purchases will help you send hand-picked recommendations to them. When the suggested products are highly relevant to their interests and needs, they are most likely to make the purchase. Use behavioral data and past purchase data to create real-time, customized product recommendation emails that can improve your conversions.

Here’s an email from Canopy. This email features recommendations based on the interests of the subscriber, which are cooking and baking. By closely monitoring their every move on your website, you can send accurate product recommendations.

Images

Images draw more attention than text or any other details. If you add personalized images in your email, more subscribers will view and click through it. Represent details of your subscribers in the form of pictures to grab their attention and keep them interested in your brand’s emails.

For example, this email from Starbucks uses the subscriber’s name in the email image.

Cart Abandonment

Paying attention to customers who abandon your products halfway through a purchase is of utmost importance to your business. Keep your subscribers engaged with your brand by sending personalized cart abandonment emails featuring relevant messages for items left behind in their cart.

Check out this example from MCM. The email includes the images and details of the abandoned products, along with related products that the subscriber might be interested in purchasing.

Important Details for Personalizing Emails

• Using the right first name: Make sure you address your subscribers correctly. Wrong first name personalization can be detrimental for your brand and even lead to unsubscribes.
• Sending to the right segment: Email segmentation is an important part of email marketing process, and you need to double check while creating and sending emails to specific segments.
• Sending at the most suitable time: Irrespective of how good your email is, you need to send them at a time when it is most likely to garner the subscriber’s attention.
• Including relevant content and product recommendations: Create product recommendations based on each individual subscribers’ purchase history and interests, instead of sending the same product suggestions to everyone on your list.

Wrapping up

With more and more businesses using personalization in their email marketing strategy, it is very necessary to know how to do it effectively. Make sure you choose what’s best for your business and target audience and personalize wisely.

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Fantasy and FOMO: Why Marketers Need to Question AI

Picture yourself as a prospector in 1859 drilling one of the first commercial oil wells in western Pennsylvania. You seek a dark, mysterious substance that can illuminate rooms at night. Your peers are drilling too, so you assume there’s value. To be an ‘early adopter’ is both thrilling and comforting. You pursue a fantasy of success fired by the most ancient of fuels: FOMO (fear of missing out). You haven’t a clue how oil will affect our environment and geopolitics in 100 years, but at your moment in history, it’s too enticing to resist.

That is the state of artificial intelligence (AI) in the marketing industry. In Widen’s 2018 Connectivity Report, we found that marketers are seriously confused about AI, yet have a giant appetite for it. As a community, we must question the fantasy and FOMO driving this trend.

Voracious and Confused

In early 2018, my team and I conducted 32 phone interviews and 506 online surveys with marketing professionals. 86% of respondents told us that they’re not using artificial intelligence in marketing and creative work yet. For comparison, Gallup finds that almost 85% of consumers already use AI in their personal lives, whether they realize it or not. Seemingly, marketers are behind.

The gap is surprising because the top trend in our study was “personalizing the customer experience.” 93% of respondents feel that personalization at scale is attainable, but 58% are unsure of how to achieve it. Personalization at scale is probably a pipedream without technology that segments customers automatically. We might call that technology AI (although as you’ll soon see, we should be careful with that label).

When we asked these same participants what “artificial intelligence” means, over 50% said it either reminded them of futuristic movies and robots or that they didn’t know. Hence, the oil metaphor. Analysts, vendors, and reporters told us that AI is the ‘next big thing,’ and we bought in. They sold a fantasy about the wonders AI will accomplish, igniting the FOMO furnace. What are we really buying?

Sexily Undefined

Good news for marketers: everyone is confused about AI. Experts don’t even have good definitions for the word “intelligence” let alone “artificial intelligence.” And bad news for marketers: if few people understand what AI is, we’re falling for own tricks. AI is a locked-and-loaded buzzword.

The definitions are problematic because most assume that human beings are “intelligent,” a word our species invented. In our limited experience of the universe, we don’t know of any organism that exhibits greater “intelligence” than us. Our biology is the reference point for machine intelligence.

So, the experts have been debating definitions for decades. One article by researchers at Deloitte cites three different definitions just to make a point. Even the definitions that sound ‘right’ don’t make total sense. For example, Deloitte says, “AI is concerned with getting computers to do tasks that would normally require human intelligence.”

That’s reasonable if we’re considering tasks like voice recognition, driving, or playing chess. Often though, we’re trying to get AI to do things that human beings cannot do. For instance, the recommendation algorithms behind Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, etc. find correlations that human data scientists would never notice. Eventually, those algorithms might predict, with amazing accuracy, what we will buy next. Human beings aren’t known for accurately reading the future.

The Burden is On Us

The struggle to understand AI means that marketers—and many other professionals—could make far-reaching decisions about concepts they don’t understand. Vendors may still be working on their definition of the technology.

Thus, we have a responsibility to question AI technologies served to us on the silver platter of buzzwords. I can’t supply a better definition than the experts, but I can arm you with five questions for vendors:

1. What do you really mean by AI? What makes your tool(s) intelligent?
2. Can you explain the difference between the AI you claim to have in your system and general machine learning, which trains AI (i.e., by giving algorithms instances of a pattern, like red traffic lights, so it learns to identify instances of red lights on its own)?
3. If the AI behaves unexpectedly and does something to embarrass our brand, what will you do about it?
4. How does your AI use the data our company collects? Why should our customers trust that their data is safe in your system?
5. In five years, what do you hope your AI (if that’s the right word) will be able to do? Where’s the roadmap aimed?

We may develop a dependence on a resource that, like oil, changes the global economy but not without unintended consequences. These questions probe for consequences, or at least gauge whether the seller understands the nature of the product. You want vendors who are mindful about AI and how it can fail.

Marketers are among the frontier prospectors drilling wells to strike it rich with personalization and other innovations in customer experience. Whatever the merits of our collective fantasy, FOMO makes it hard to pause and scrutinize our actions. Let’s do the hard thing. Stop and question “AI” before you implement it.

Do you agree with the questions I’ve outlined for vetting AI before diving deeper into implementation? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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New Drop Box Add-On Makes it Easier to Find and Share Files in Gmail

Dropbox took advantage of the Google Next event to reveal its new Gmail add-on. The first product of its partnership with Google, the extension will make it easier for Dropbox users to find, send, and save files from inside their Gmail inbox.

Gmail users who install this new plug-in will be able to attach a Dropbox file to their email by linking it directly to the relevant file or folder stored in the hosting service. And since the content is attached as links, file size is not an issue. Recipients of the email will also be able to access the file or folder without having to install any extra software.

Once installed, the add-on will appear on Gmail's right-side rail. Clicking on the Dropbox icon will prompt it to scan the email thread for attachments. It will also show useful contextual information, like the sender's name, the file name, and where it is located (email or Dropbox). Users can also view their whole Dropbox file system, making it easier to add and attach files.

Dropbox announced a partnership with Google Cloud in March. Today the company introduced the first integration, a Gmail add-on that makes it easy to move attachments to your Dropbox. https://t.co/8Ck5iaEyt8 pic.twitter.com/nuUx5NbCYM

— Ron Miller (@ron_miller) July 25, 2018

Dropbox describes the Gmail add-on as a convenient method to organize the workplace as it allows the user to access saved content within Gmail. This does away with the need to toggle between the two applications. The add-on also makes it possible for Gmail users to save an emailed file directly to their Dropbox account.

Dropbox explains in a blog post that the “integration deepens our investment in the G Suite ecosystem, offering a cross-browser, cross-platform addition to our existing Dropbox for Gmail extension for Chrome.”

This latest add-on is compatible with any browser and will also work on the official Gmail application for Android. Dropbox also has plans to bring the extension to iOS, although there's no launch date set yet.

The Gmail add-on is just the tip of the iceberg. Dropbox has also shared its plans to develop add-ons that would let account holders use Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets directly within the file-hosting service. There are also talks of integration with Google Hangouts. This feature will let users send links to files saved in Dropbox directly to Hangouts.

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How to Build a Super Audience for Your Ads

Building an audience is perhaps the most important aspect of growing a company. And yet, it’s also one of the most elusive.

Turning digital advertisements into swaths of new customers is seen as a miracle, a magic trick. The phrase “growth hacking” is spoken in reverent tones as a sport for geniuses.

The truth is that audience building will be a mystery until you pin it down by tracking and analyzing it. Instead of relying on risky tricks and luck, turn it into a science. In doing this, suddenly you’re able to predict and control long-term outcomes and do more of the things that work for your particular business.

According to stats from the Delhi School of Internet Marketing, 80% of marketers agree that data has a positive effect on advertising campaigns. At the same time, 87% pinpoint data as the most underused asset in their companies.

A data-driven testing strategy is the only way to accurately, purposefully grow ROI. It’s not so much growth hacking as growth crafting. Build your audience by setting precise goals, testing tactics, and spotting what pushes the needle. It sounds less exciting than “hacking,” but it actually enables you to be more aggressive and confident in your strategy.

Here are five ways to build audiences for your ads safely and sustainably:

1. Build Empathy with Customer Personas

If you can understand customers’ current habits, you’ll be better able to predict what will interest them next. Make these habits come to life by creating customer personas.

A great persona is a transporting narrative. It brings readers into the mind of the customer by using first-person, detail-rich descriptions. Give your customers a name, a family, and a home. Watch them go about their day and pay attention to how they choose and react to the products they see.

Pro tip: Use high-quality photos to make personas come to life even more, and three-dimensionalize the characters that comprise your audience segments.

2. Select Channels to Target Based on Those Personas

Using your descriptive customer profile as a starting point, choose channels for your ads that your customer would encounter and engage with during the course of his or her day.

Every channel requires a different strategy, so it’s important to select which channel you’re targeting before crafting your ads. Targeting a relevant channel is what fills your audience with the right kind of people—the people who are likely to become your loyal advocates.

When you consider that 96% of B2C companies choose Facebook as their main social media platform and 93% of B2B companies choose LinkedIn, you can see how critical platform choice can be for getting in front of the right people.

3. Leverage Platforms to Grow Audiences Further

SEO tools allow you to examine your audience’s search habits and connect more directly with them. Use these tools to find out what interests your audience, and then let that knowledge power your advertising.

Google Keyword Planner is a great example. Google’s massive store of data is at your fingertips—use it to discover precisely what your audience is looking for, and deliver it back to them in the form of meaningful keywords. Use Keyword Planner in conjunction with Google’s other audience-building tools (like AdWords and Google Analytics) to test and measure how keywords are performing with your chosen personas.

When you pair this knowledge with the right channels, you’ll start carving the internet into your own personal showroom.

4. Build a Lookalike Audience

A lookalike audience is a group of your existing, active customers who already love your product. This is a group you can test and examine—and use to attract more of those people who are likely to “get” you.

Begin by identifying a list of ideal customers and input this list into Facebook to create a lookalike audience. Let the platform’s algorithm do its work to illuminate the crowds of people with the characteristics you need: the people you should be talking to with your ads.

5. Create a Super Audience

Once you’ve mastered the science of creating lookalike audiences, you can level up by layering interests to create a super audience. You’ve proven that certain ideas work well for a particular group of people, so now you can hone in further by testing additional interests that might turn already hot leads into loyal advocates.

For one Ladder client, we created a persona targeting people who loved using discounts. By targeting this persona, we built a list of 1,000 emails, fed it to Facebook, and created a lookalike audience of deal lovers. We then layered the “deal-loving” interest on top of that lookalike audience to build a super audience. It earned us record-breaking acquisition numbers.

Once you’ve located an audience ripe for your ads, play with your lookalikes. Experiment with how specific the interests should be, test out a new ad on 5% or 10% of your audience, and see what happens.

Building a data-driven customer acquisition strategy is not magic—it’s better. It allows you to know exactly how and why your audience-building actions are working. Every part of your strategy, from landing pages to welcome emails, can be fine-tuned for success.

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