Yahoo & Google Together Again In New Search Deal

Three year deal to put Google's results and ads into some of Yahoo's search results needs US Department of Justice approval and still might get vetoed by India or EU action.

Reunited, and it feels so good. Well, we’ll see if that line from the classic song plays out for Yahoo, which has revealed it wants to be together with Google again in a deal for search results. The deal excludes Europe, almost certainly to avoid anti-trust issues there. It also will depend on US Department of Justice approval.

The Deal, In Summary

As part of today’s Yahoo earning news, it revealed a new search deal with Google:

In October, the Company reached an agreement with Google that provides Yahoo with additional flexibility to choose among suppliers of search results and ads. Google’s offerings complement the search services provided by Microsoft, which remains a strong partner, as well as Yahoo’s own search technologies and ad products.

Wondering how Yahoo and Google can be together, when Yahoo is supposed to be with Microsoft? What we mean by Yahoo and Google being together again? And what’s in the deal? Come along.

Isn’t Yahoo With Microsoft?

If you’re thinking that Yahoo and Microsoft have a search deal, you remember correctly. They do and renewed that in April of this. year. Our FAQ: The New Yahoo-Microsoft Deal, Explained story also had more background on that.

As part of the renewal, Yahoo agreed that Bing’s ads would appear on 51% of the desktop searches that Yahoo delivers. The other 49% could be “powered” by Yahoo’s own ad system or from any third-party that Yahoo wanted to use.

As it turns out, by July, Yahoo was spotted testing using Google’s search results and ads. Clearly, Yahoo liked how it went. Now it’s planning to do more.

And Yahoo Had Been With Google Before?

Years ago — back in 2000 — Yahoo was partnered with Google to carry both Google’s search results and ads. That partnership maintained for many years, until Yahoo eventually developed its own in-house search technology and ad serving systems in 2004.

Yahoo gave up its own internal search technology when its search deal with Microsoft was formally established and got the go-ahead in 2010. But as that deal never performed as expected, and Yahoo’s been especially looking over the past two years for ways to generate more revenue from search beyond its deal with Microsoft.

What’s In The New 3-Year Google Deal?

Let’s go to the Form 8-K filing on the deal and look at the officialese, which I’ll break down as best I can into regular speak:

On October 19, 2015, Yahoo! Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Yahoo”), and Google Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Google”), entered into a Google Services Agreement (the “Services Agreement”). The Services Agreement is effective as of October 1, 2015 and expires on December 31, 2018.

Right off, we’re talking just over a three-year term. However, the agreement can end early for various reasons, as explained more below.

Google To Power Both Mobile & Desktop

Next up, this:

Pursuant to the Services Agreement, Google will provide Yahoo with search advertisements through Google’s AdSense for Search service (“AFS”), web algorithmic search services through Google’s Websearch Service, and image search services. The results provided by Google for these services will be available to Yahoo for display on both desktop and mobile platforms.

Basically, this says that Yahoo can show Google’s search results. And by search results, that means both the editorial “free” listings as well as the ads. Yahoo needs to serve both, because it has no editorial listings of its own, no crawler that combs the web for such content. And Yahoo probably can’t — or can’t afford — to show Google ads against editorial listings provided by Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Could Yahoo Go Over 51% On Mobile With Google?

Yahoo also can use these results for both mobile and desktop. On desktop, it’s limited to a cap of 49% that potentially could come from Google, as Microsoft is guaranteed the other 51%.

On mobile, Yahoo has no such limit. There, it could choose to fully serve out Google results even at the expense of its own Gemini ads system.

Deal Excludes Europe, Probably For Anti-Trust Reasons

The deal is for these regions:

Yahoo may use Google’s services on Yahoo’s owned and operated properties (“Yahoo Properties”) and on certain syndication partner properties (“Affiliate Sites”) in the United States (U.S.), Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Middle East, Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Australia and New Zealand.

You can see all of North America is covered. Several Asian countries are included, as are Australia and New Zealand. Parts of South America are also covered. What’s missing? Europe.

Why not Europe? Google already has an anti-trust action happening against it in the European Union. It probably does not want the attention or criticism of doing a deal with Yahoo there, especially with Google already having a 90% or more marketshare in many EU countries.

Yahoo Has Flexibility, Could Skip Google Search Entirely

Next, this:

Under the Services Agreement, Yahoo has discretion to select which search queries to send to Google and is not obligated to send any minimum number of search queries. The Services Agreement is non-exclusive and expressly permits Yahoo to use any other search advertising services, including its own service, the services of Microsoft Corporation or other third parties.

Basically, this says that Yahoo doesn’t have to guarantee anything to Google. It could decide to send no queries to Google, if it wanted to.

Yahoo Gets Cut Of Ads, Amount Not Said; Image Search Named

How about getting paid? Well…

Google will pay Yahoo a percentage of the gross revenues from AFS ads displayed on Yahoo Properties or Affiliate Sites. The percentage will vary depending on whether the ads are displayed on U.S. desktop sites, non-U.S. desktop sites or on the tablet or mobile phone versions of the Yahoo Properties or its Affiliate Sites. Yahoo will pay Google fees for requests for image search results or web algorithmic search results.

This is pretty standard, saying that Yahoo will get a percentage of what Google makes off its ads that are shown on the Yahoo network.

That percentage can — and probably will — vary depending on whether it’s from desktop or mobile.

Interestingly, there’s no minimum guarantee from Google to be paid to Yahoo. That’s sometimes the case in these deals. It was in the original Yahoo-Microsoft deal.

Finally, Yahoo is obligated to pay Google if it uses its editorial (“algorithmic”) search results for web listings or images. This is likely to ensure that Yahoo doesn’t take Google’s listings but shows Yahoo’s own ads against them. In such a case, Google would be earning nothing yet providing a service.

Terminating In Case Of US Opposition

At the end, we get this:

Either party may terminate the Services Agreement

(1) upon a material breach subject to certain limitations;

(2) in the event of a change in control (as defined in the Services Agreement);

(3) after first discussing with the other party in good faith its concerns and potential alternatives to termination

(a) in its entirety or in the U.S. only, if it reasonably anticipates litigation or a regulatory proceeding brought by any U.S. federal or state agency to enjoin the parties from consummating, implementing or otherwise performing the Services Agreement,

(b) in part, in a country other than the U.S., if either party reasonably anticipates litigation or a regulatory proceeding or reasonably anticipates that the continued performance under the Services Agreement in such country would have a material adverse impact on any ongoing antitrust proceeding in such country,

Some history here. Back in 2008, Yahoo wanted to do a deal with Google. The US Department of Justice decided that would be bad on competitive grounds, so the companies abandoned that.

The DoJ decision left Yahoo with Microsoft as pretty much the only choice for doing a deal. As a result, the deal that Microsoft eventually offered to Yahoo in 2009 was much less lucrative than the one it offered in 2008, when it was competing with Google.

In the years since, the deal arguably has helped Yahoo drop from a second-place search engine in the US with its own search technology to a third-place competitor that’s dependent on others.

Clearly, there’s a fear that the US competition authorities still might not favor a Yahoo-Google tie-up, despite the fact that Yahoo is less dominant than it last was and a potential argument that the previous DoJ objection helped lead to Yahoo’s current decline.

In fact, at the end of the filing, there’s this:

In connection with the Services Agreement, Yahoo and Google have agreed to certain procedures with the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) to facilitate review of the Services Agreement by the DOJ, including delaying the implementation of the Services Agreement in the U.S. in order to provide the DOJ with a reasonable period of review.

This is all going to the Department of Justice for review. If approved, the companies will move ahead. Unless….

The EU And India Get Final Word

Even though the deal isn’t involving Europe, the agreement has termination language that involves possible EU objections:

(c) in its entirety if either party reasonably anticipates a filing by the European Commission to enjoin it from performing the Services Agreement or that continued performance of the Services Agreement would have a material adverse impact on any ongoing antitrust proceeding involving either party in Europe or India, or

The deal does involve India, where Google also faces anti-trust scrutiny, so the language including India makes more sense.

Google is almost certainly so paranoid that the agreement might impact its on-going anti-trust actions in both the EU and India that if gets the idea either political entity will object, the whole deal could be closed.

Other Termination Reasons

There’s a few last boilerplate reason the agreement might be terminated:

(d) in its entirety, on 60 days notice if [sic] the other party’s exercise of these termination rights in this clause

(3) has collectively and materially diminished the economic value of the Services Agreement.

Each party agrees to defend or settle any lawsuits or similar actions related to the Services Agreement unless doing so is not commercially reasonable (taking all factors into account, including without limitation effects on a party’s brand or business outside of the scope of the Services Agreement).

In addition, Google may suspend Yahoo’s use of services upon certain events and may terminate the Services Agreement if such events are not cured. Yahoo may terminate the Services Agreement if Google breaches certain service level and server latency specified in the Services Agreement.

If I read this correctly, either party could end with 60 days notice for any reason. Just because. There’s also a nebulous “certain events” that aren’t itemized, unknown reasons Google could terminate. Yahoo can drop if Google doesn’t serve content up quickly enough.

Stay Tuned For More!

The deal is a big deal, even if Yahoo is no longer the search powerhouse it once was. We’ll have further coverage of reaction and more details, as the emerge, so stay tuned to Search Engine Land.

Reference URL : http://tinyurl.com/of9y7qn

5 Best Techniques for SEO in 2016

There is no denying the effectiveness of SEO in driving search rankings. But over the last few years gradual but nonetheless consistent changes in market demographics, profiles, trends and preferences have necessitated an evolution in the process and application of SEO. Still, there are techniques and practices that remain effective simply because these are easily adaptable to change.

Here are five (5) of the best techniques for SEO that will remain relevant in 201 and perhaps, beyond.

 1. Design SEO strategy according to target audience data. SEO has been popularly used to research keyword intent to be congruent with marketing strategy.

But as SEO has continued to evolve in its approach, methodology and purpose a shift seems to have occurred and integrate it with more traditional marketing strategies.

Quantitative data is utilized to identify search topics that are in demand in conjunction with information on the target audience; particularly on what influences their purchasing decisions. SEO is also being utilized to develop a greater understanding on comparative advantage or what the competition is doing to maximize on those same factors that influence consumer purchasing behavior.

Thus, SEO has been evolving into a more 3-Dimensional discipline that integrates technical, fundamental processes with behavioral theory.

2. Align SEO strategy with Content strategy. Keywords serve the important function of increasing the probability of being found in the Internet and move up the search rankings. But to leverage the effectiveness of SEO strategy solely on the strength of keyword research will be futile.

Function is one thing, application is another. It is not enough to be found. The audience must be encouraged to stay and patronize. Keywords will be rendered useless if it is not aligned with content.

How often have you come across website content which reads like gibberish? How many times have you read website copy where keywords are splattered throughout the content like graffiti along the streets of Sao Paolo, Brazil?

Effective SEO in conjunction with great content create a memorable User Experience. According to 2014 data from the Content Marketing Institute, B2B’s and B2C’s have been utilizing content through blog posts and web content as key components of their content marketing strategy.

The best approach to align SEO with Content strategy is to begin with content creation; then apply SEO best practices to enhance its value and visibility online.

3. Allocate resources for Mobile SEO. Since 2013, technology industry analysts have been advocating the need for a shift toward mobile responsiveness. For some time, industry data had pointed to a decline in the use of the Personal Computer through progressively lower sales and increased demand for mobile gadgets via progressively higher sales.

The shift in consumer preference was a crucial point in re-aligning web design strategies toward responsiveness. By 2014, mobile gadgets particularly the smart phone, accounted for more than 60% of Internet traffic. The shift impacts B2Bsignificantly.

While Mobile SEO should be a priority in strategy design, it is important to note that configuring your website to fit mobile design could result in 68% loss in traffic from smart phone users. In the study conducted by BrightEdge, the loss in traffic occurred because Google and other search engines could not recognize the mobile site as related to its desktop counterpart.

4. Utilize long-tail keywords in your SEO strategy. Long-tail keywords as described; are longer and more specific keyword phrases that Internet users may use when they are closer to making a decision to purchase.

For example, your business is a restaurant that sells organic, charbroiled, half-pound hamburgers. Obviously, the chances of your web page appearing at the top of the search ranking will be very low with the organic search for “hamburger” because there will be too much competition.

But if you used “organic, charbroiled, half-pound hamburgers”, the probability is greater that your target audience will be directed to your web page.

Using long-tail keywords works because it enhances your reputation as an authority compared to websites that merely repeat standard, generic industry keywords. You can find the long-tail keywords that are most suitable for your industry or niche by using Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool and by reviewing the data in your Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics.

5. Integrate SEO with other online marketing strategies. SEO by itself, despite the advances in techniques and variety in applications is not enough to maximize the online presence of your business. There are other tools in the online marketing tool box that should be taken notice of and utilized in conjunction with SEO strategies.

Social media for one has grown to become a focal point in the online marketing campaign of several companies. This should come to no surprise because even without the need to confirm social media’s value through statistics, we can easily validate its significance simply by assessing its influence on how we manage our day-to-day lives and business affairs. Social media has empowered the consumer; with a single click of a mouse or a stroke of a keyboard pad, the fortunes of a business can be changed by a post, a share or an image.

In terms of patronage, there are three billion people online every single day. Of these, close to a billion spend at least 20 minutes on Facebook. The rest are dispersed to other social media networks like Google Plus, Twitter and Pinterest.

Integrating SEO is not meant to downplay its significance in the total online marketing strategy. Instead, integration redefines SEO as the foundational component which works in synergy with other effective online marketing strategies as social media as well as content creation which was discussed earlier.

As we head toward the end of 2015, these 5 SEO techniques continue to play prominently in the campaign strategies of businesses in 2016. There have been tweaks and adjustments undertaken in the application of some of these techniques.

A good example would be the increasing use of the narrative approach in content creation. Businesses are veering away from the ego-driven, technical heavy web copy to adopting a reader-friendly narrative approach which has been referred to as “story-telling”.

Whatever the case maybe, SEO becomes a more effective strategy when it is allowed to evolve and take shape to correspond with the changes in the market profile and in conjunction with other digital marketing strategies.

Reference URL : http://tinyurl.com/qyahstq

On Page SEO Techniques To Rank On First Page – 2015 Edition

Want to make your post Keyword targeted? ..


Want to make it easier for search engine to understand what Keyword your blog should rank for?
If yes, you are about to learn the secret of making your blog post Keyword targeted.


When it comes to optimizing a website or blog posts, there are two factors that plays a big role. These two factors are Onpage optimization and Offpage optimization. Today’s article, remain focused around On page optimization and I will be sharing some good on page SEO techniques you should implement while working on onpage aspects of your blog posts.





Now, lets not confuse onpage SEO optimization with Onsite SEO optimization. Talking about, onpage SEO, we optimise our content for our target  keyword. This includes use of proper heading, keyword placement, content quality and many other factors. We will look into them one by one in this detailed post.

• Read: Importance of Keywords

Why do you need OnPage Optimization:

 

So what’s the target of this post: This post will help you to write more search engine optimized article. Now, when I say SEO optimized article, many blogger think it’s a bad practice.
But, again here is a takeaway from Harsh last post on Recover from Google panda:

Search engine is nothing but a set of algorithms, it look into various factor to rank your page for certain Keyword. Now, here we will help search engine to pick the target Keyword from the post and make it more target able.

Here is a food of thought: When you publish a post, have you ever thought why you have not got 1st page ranking. ?

So when we do SEO optimization of post, it means we follow certain set of proven method to rank higher in search engine. Now ranking in Google, doesn’t only consider On page SEO score, but it also take care of many factors like Social media votes, back links, domain authority and many other offpage factor. Our goal here is to optimise our article in natural but smart way, so that search engine can easily pick the target keyword (Focus keyword) and thus, instead of raking for irrelevant long tail keyword, we will get more targeted visitors. Here is an interesting article which shows how on page optimization is not dead.
Before, you read more, I assume you know about Keyword research and you have found a Keyword for next post, which is going to be a perfect example of onpage SEO optimized post. Here are latest 2015 On-page search engine factors :






As you can see from the above list, a lot has changed in 2015 and most important factors are relevant keywords, internal links. Above chart is prepared by search metrics team after analysing top pages from Google search. One thing which I highly recommend you to do from now on is to take advantage of adding videos in your blog post. Adding videos will not only increase the rich media on your post, it will also make users stay more on your blog post.

10 Onpage Optimization Techniques for Better ranking

 

So here is the ultimate list of 10 Onpage Optimization factors you should keep in mind while optimizing your blog posts:

Blog Post Title

Most important Onpage factor which really plays a big role in deciding whether our blog posts will be doing well on search engines front is its title. We should make sure we are using targeted keywords or phrase towards the beginning of Title tag. We should not repeat the same keyword in title tag with the intension to get better rankings on Google, Yahoo and Bing. And we should keep limit Title Characters length to 65 Characters only with spaces.

Post Permalink Structure

Then it’s about going ahead with a search engine optimized URL structure. Again, you should aim at using targeted keywords towards the beginning of blog post URL. You should avoid using special characters, symbols, brackets, comma’s etc as part of your post URL. Most of the times you should be using alphabets and numeric from 0-9 in your URL structure and use dashes to differentiate two strings in URL structure. Make sure to follow a pretty permalink instead of random strings in your permalink.

Heading Tags

You should use heading tags like h2, h3 and h4 etc to highlight various headings, sub-headings and important points. Our Title tag is used as h1 tag at single post level in WordPress. So we don’t need to use any h1 tag in our blog post body section. Also, don’t repeat H2 or H3 tags too many times, as it is considered as negative SEO practice. Here is what Matt Cutts has to say about repetition of H1 or any other heading tags.

Reference URL : http://tinyurl.com/opt62qp

Google Shopping: three updates to be familiar with this holiday season

In anticipation of the peak holiday shopping season, Google has made several enhancements to Shopping Campaigns and Product Listing Ads (PLA) over the past few months to help streamline the experience.

Here are a few of the improvements that Google Shopping users need to be familiar with:

Shopping Assortment Report 

This new report’s purpose is to help you identify popular products that may be missing from your feed or those you do not sell.

Essentially, this report will allow you to discover where there’s a high consumer demand that you might be able to tap into across a list of the top 100 items. 

By filtering the report by category, you can see what products make the most sense for your business. For added insight, the report provides product price points so you can stay competitive.

With a look back window of 14 days, retailers can track changing holiday activity and shopping habit through the season.

RIP Promotional Text

At the end of September, Google retired the promotional line of text that was found in Product Listing Ads. This optional message was typically used by retailers to call out offers such as sale pricing or free shipping and will now be replaced with an automated extension that will be pulled via the Merchant Center and the feed.

Beyond this, additional shopping extensions can be used for other callouts including: merchant promotions to share discounts, product ratings to highlight ratings and review, and trusted stores to show your store’s certification. 

This change means less manual customization but emphasizes a greater importance on feed optimization.

Drive to stores with local inventory

Local inventory ads highlight store and product details including availability, price, and shop information to nearby customers to draw them to brick-and-mortar locations and boost sales.

For searches with local intent (think: the use of ‘near me’, Google is prioritizing these local inventory ads so shoppers get a more tailored ad delivered at the most opportune time.

On the desktop, retailers have the option to display ‘store-only’ products. This could come in handy particularly during the holidays if stock runs out online or if shipping dates pass and last minute shoppers need gifts.

On mobile, a new enhancement creates an expanded product detail view when you swipe over the ad to reveal inventory and other information.

With limited mobile space, this feature ensures shoppers can still get all the relevant information to make their purchase, whether that happens online or in store.

With Google Shopping likely to be a continued strong drive of advertising spend and consumer engagement this holiday, advertisers must keep pace with the latest updates to make the most of this format.

PLAs, like any other ad type, can’t be treated in a ‘set it and forget it’ manner, especially during the Christmas season. Increased traffic and more competition mean that marketers must constant assess the opportunities and optimize their programs across Google Shopping and more.

Reference URL :  http://tinyurl.com/ogudgeo

Five reasons why visitors will abandon your website

As clickbait becomes a common marketing tactic, some extremely frustrating user experiences are being used to convince visitors to stay on a website or sign-up to an email list. 

Here are a few of the most common frustrating tactics currently used by publishers and businesses alike…

Showcasing content using pagination

A good top 10 list can be a humorous two-minute break for those of us who sit behind a desk for multiple hours a day. But when that top 10 list causes you to refresh the page 12 times (yes the extra two refreshes are because of ads), then it can become ridiculously frustrating. 

Not to mention when you are viewing the site on a mobile device and it’s impossible to close down the ad. 

Page views alone are increasingly becoming a redundant metric for businesses. You’re much more likely to retain the attention of a user (and the possibility of future visits and email sign-ups) with just one or two pages of a nicely laid out list rather than having them constantly load multiple pages. 

Directing them to the wrong content

When someone searches on your site for something, they are telling you what they want.

If a user is specifically looking for a product or piece of information about your product, their expectation is to land on a page with that content. By merely dropping them on the homepage of your website or too high within your product portfolio, you can end up with a quick bounce from the visitor. 

Asking for their email too early

There are many publishers and online businesses that produce great content and quality products, but many businesses ask for commitment far too early. 

Signing up to an email list and committing to having their inbox flooded with your emails may be something they’ll be interested in at some point, but if they have no clue about your product or service, chances are they will immediately close the pop-up. 

By using cookies, you can select when a user is prompted with a pop-up based on the actions they have taken on your site. 

Hiding calls-to-action

If you happen to work in the ecommerce, lead generation or B2B market, chances are you have specific actions on your site you want a user to take. You need to make it easy for them to take these actions. 

By hiding your email sign up or check out button in the top right corner of your website, you may frustrate a user and have them abandon the conversion they were in the process of completing. Having a clear call to action in a visible space, above the fold, can keep the user on track for conversion. 

Providing a poor mobile experience

In our post mobilegeddon world, the need for a business to have mobile optimized sites is paramount. 

Delivering a quality experience on a mobile device goes beyond just ensuring your website is sized properly via responsive or adaptive design. You also need to provide a click-to-call option, integration with maps, properly loading videos… It’s also very important that display ads do not dominate or takeover the mobile screen.

Reference URL : http://tinyurl.com/qygt7ga

How beacons and mobile wallets can improve customer experience

It’s been said that beacons will revolutionize search by creating more contextual experiences inside retail stores.

Businesses ranging from Macy's to Starwood Hotels & Resorts have launched beacons (with great fanfare) to share micro targeted content and improve the customer experience. But beacons in and of themselves do not create customers. 

Enterprises with multiple locations should view beacons in context of a location-based marketing strategy that capitalizes on mobile wallet offers to connect with customers and convert them. 

What are beacons?

Beacons are low-powered devices equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). As long as a consumer possesses a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone capable of picking up BLE signals, businesses can use beacons to deliver location-based content to people when they are close or, more likely, inside a store. 

Beacons appeal to businesses because the devices make it easier for the store to share contextual content such as offers about special sales and deals delivered to shoppers' smartphones while they’re in or near a location. 

Although beacons are still considered an early-stage technology, a number of businesses around the world are experimenting with them. Examples include:

• Levi’s recently deployed beacon-enabled billboards prompting customers with an offer and driving them into nearby stores. Consumers close to the billboards could scan the ads with their smartphone and receive a notification of a nearby store and a promotional offer.
• Lord & Taylor began testing a location-based coupon app called SnipSnap in May 2014. The retailer delivered mystery coupons to shoppers when they were about 1,600 feet from a store. According to Lord & Taylor, the engagement with push messages was as high as 50 percent, and the "click-to-claim" coupons showed 20% results.

When you hear about big-time brands experimenting with beacons, it is certainly tempting to test the waters. After all, who wants to be left behind by a disruptive technology? 

If the digital era has taught businesses anything, it's the importance of being nimble and forward thinking. But we've also learned another important lesson: technology must follow strategy, not the other way around. With beacons, your strategy must begin with customer-centric, location-based marketing.  

If you are considering the deployment of beacons, I would suggest you do the following:

Support ‘next moments’ with mobile wallet offers

Before you think beacons, take a look at your location-based marketing strategy and identify where you can turn ‘near me’ moments of discovery into ‘next moments’ of conversion. 

The next moment is the action that occurs after someone has found your brand through a location-based search, usually on a mobile device. Examples of next moments include:

• On its location landing page, a retailer features an offer for 20% off one item, and the offer can be downloaded to a consumer’s mobile wallet (compatible with both Apple iOS and Android). 
• The same retailer, noticing that a shopper has downloaded but not redeemed the 20% offer within a certain amount of time, reminds the shopper that the offer is due to expire soon.  
• Using GPS, the retailer sends a notification to the consumer when he or she is near the store location to drive conversion. In other words, location-based mobile retargeting. 

Beacons can help you create next moments when you couple them with mobile wallet offers. But because of their limited range, beacons are going to be less useful to drive shoppers to your store unless your location exists in a densely populated area with heavy foot traffic close to the store. 

They may work best for creating next moments with customers after they have entered your store.

If your primary local marketing need is to generate more traffic by attracting shoppers outside your store, beacons might not help you achieve your goal, whereas GPS technology might be more useful. 

Moreover, using beacons at scale requires heavy lifting and maintenance. An enterprise needs to make sure they are all installed correctly (probably multiple beacons being needed for a large store) and maintained (they can break, become lost, or require new batteries). 

By contrast, using the right automation tool, an enterprise can scale unique mobile wallet offers across thousands of locations efficiently without requiring any beacons.

Understand customer needs

By understanding the wants and needs of your customers first, you avoid spamming them with content. Before you try to deploy beacons, first do a gut-check with your customer survey data and answer some fundamental questions: 

• Why do your customers visit your location?
• Are they looking for deals primarily (which might be the case for a large chain retailer)?
• Or is the overall customer experience their primary motivator (which might be the case at high-end boutiques, where personal service and ambience come into play).

Knowing the motivations of your customers will inform whether you deploy beacons at all, and if you do, how you deploy them. We think of beacons residing at the intersection of location, customer need, and your brand.

Beacons can succeed when they meet your customer needs by improving your service at the location level. 

Set realistic goals 

Take a close look at your customer service metrics and set realistic goals. What are your customers telling you about your service levels? Do you have a fundamental service problem that needs to be fixed?

Beacons won't make a bad customer experience better. They can make a good one great though. Are you using them to solve the right problem?

Do your homework

As with any emerging technology, beacons are constantly evolving. Make sure you research carefully their limitations (e.g., they have limited range), resource requirements (ranging from marketing to information technology) and costs.

But most importantly, first take another look at your location-based marketing strategy. Coupling beacons with a strong mobile wallet offer in context of a location-based marketing strategy will deliver customers to your register, not just to your storefront. 

Reference URL : http://tinyurl.com/ntlw2zc