Beyond the Pixel - June Edition

Welcome to the June edition of Beyond the Pixel, your go-to guide for the latest digital insights curated by CTI Digital .

In this issue, we discuss Google's Mobile-First Policy and the risks of legacy hosting infrastructure. We also cover how your brand or business can create personalised user experiences that convert and how to unlock affiliate marketing's potential with key strategies and actionable takeaways.

?? Google's Mobile-First Policy: What You Need To Know ??

Starting 5th July 2024, Google will deindex websites without a mobile version. Let's break down what that means...

Understanding Deindexing

Deindexing is a process where Google removes a website from its index, rendering it invisible in search engine results. This drastic measure is part of Google's ongoing commitment to enhancing user experience by prioritising mobile-friendly sites. In essence, if your website does not have a mobile version, it will no longer appear in Google search results, which could drastically affect your online visibility and traffic.

Why the Change?

With over half of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, Google is reinforcing its mobile-first approach. Users expect fast-loading, responsive websites that provide a positive experience across devices. By deindexing non-mobile-friendly sites, Google ensures that users consistently receive the best possible browsing experience.

How to Keep Your Website Indexed

It is crucial to adapt to this change promptly. Here's how you can ensure your website remains indexed:

• Responsive Design: Implement a responsive design that adjusts content and layout based on the device. This approach provides an optimal viewing experience on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
• Mobile-Friendly Test: Use Google's Pagespeed Insights tool to evaluate how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device. This tool provides immediate feedback and suggestions for improvements.
• Speed Optimisation: Mobile users expect quick load times. Optimise images, leverage browser caching and minimise server response times to enhance site speed.
• Consistency: Ensure that the mobile version of your site contains the same content as the desktop version. Google's bots will index the mobile version, so any discrepancies can negatively impact your site's ranking.
• User Experience (UX): Prioritise mobile UX using readable fonts, intuitive navigation, and ensuring buttons and links are easily tappable.
• Regular Audits: To maintain mobile optimisation, perform regular audits and updates to your website. Trends and standards evolve, and staying updated is essential for ongoing success.

Google's deindexing policy is a firm push towards a more user-centric web, where mobile experience is paramount. For brands and businesses, this transition is not just a technical requirement but an opportunity to enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

?? The Risks of Legacy Hosting Infrastructure ??

As businesses strive to maintain their competitive edge, the infrastructure underpinning their operations plays a crucial role. Legacy hosting infrastructure, while reliable in the past, can often hinder growth and innovation due to its inherent limitations. Limitations of traditional infrastructure can pose significant risks to a business including security vulnerabilities, high operational costs, lack of agility, and scalability issues.

Understanding What Legacy Hosting Infrastructure Is

Legacy infrastructure refers to older technology hardware and software that a business has relied on for years, sometimes even decades, to host their website and systems. This is usually on-premise, traditional hosting solutions, which were groundbreaking at the time of their implementation but now lack the capabilities to keep up with modern demands.

Common Risks and Challenges to Legacy Infrastructure:

• Security Vulnerabilities: As cyber threats evolve, legacy infrastructure becomes increasingly susceptible to attacks. On-premise hosting and traditional hosting solutions may not receive the attention they need to keep them secure and performing optimally, leaving critical business data at risk.
• High Operational Costs: Maintaining and operating traditional hosting infrastructure can be expensive. These older systems often require specialised maintenance skills, which can drive up labour costs.
• Limited Scalability: Legacy infrastructure typically struggles to scale efficiently with business growth. Adding new capabilities or expanding operations could be cumbersome and costly.
• Integration Challenges: As businesses adopt newer technologies, integrating them with older infrastructure can be complex and problematic, causing operational bottlenecks.
• Maintenance and Support Issues: Support for outdated technologies diminishes over time. Finding replacement parts or service providers becomes increasingly difficult, leading to unplanned downtime and disruption.

Moving Beyond the Legacy Maze - How Cloud Hosting Can Provide Flexibility and Scalability

Cloud hosting offers a comprehensive solution, enabling businesses to overcome these limitations and future-proofing their operations. Cloud migration brings numerous benefits, such as cost efficiency, enhanced security, and the ability to innovate and scale quickly.

5 Benefits of Moving to the Cloud:

• Cost Efficiency: Investing in cloud infrastructure eliminates the need for costly hardware purchases and maintenance. Instead, you can leverage a subscription-based model and pay only for what you need for the resources you use with flexible pricing options.
• On-demand Resource Scaling: Cloud platforms can scale resources up or down as needed, ensuring that you can handle varying workloads without overinvesting in physical infrastructure, which lies redundant for most of the of the year.
• Advanced Security Features: Cloud providers invest heavily in advanced security measures, such as encryption, multi-factor authentication, and threat detection systems.
• Continuous Updates and Compliance: Keeping systems secure and compliant is easier as cloud providers regularly update their services to adhere to the latest standards and regulations.
• Enhanced Data Analytics and Business Insights: Cloud platforms offer robust tools for data analytics, giving you insights that can drive business decisions and strategy.

By moving from capital-intensive, on-premise legacy hosting infrastructure to scalable and flexible cost-effective cloud solutions, organisations can optimise resources, enhance global reach, and maintain robust security protocols through advanced measures and continuous updates.

Read more about the risks of legacy infrastructure and the benefits of migrating to cloud hosting in our blog.

?? How to Create Personalised User Experiences ??

Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all communication. Today, brands have a wealth of data at their fingertips and can use this data to create personalised experiences. Using data generated from website interactions, app usage, browser history, and even survey responses, amongst other digital touchpoints, brands can create delightful experiences that resonate with users, fostering deeper engagement and brand loyalty.

What is a Personalised User Experience?

Customers expect interactions that feel tailored just for them. A personalised customer experience goes beyond simply addressing someone by name. It involves leveraging data and insights to understand individual needs and preferences and then crafting interactions that resonate.

5 Steps to Creating Exceptional Personalised Experiences

• Leverage User Data and Segment Based on User Needs: Utilise data collected from various touchpoints like website interactions, app usage, and surveys. This data helps you understand user behaviour and preferences. Then, segment your audience based on factors like demographics, interests, and past behaviour. This allows you to tailor your messaging and offerings to specific user needs.
• Dynamic Content Delivery: Use a CMS that allows for dynamic content delivery. This personalises website content, displaying articles, products / services, and events relevant to each user's profile. Dynamic content delivery creates a personalised online experience, saving users time by surfacing the information they value most.
• Targeted, and Timed Communication: Personalise communication by incorporating personalisation, referencing past interactions (e.g., "We noticed you downloaded our e-book on x topic..."), and offering content recommendations based on their interests. You can also review the timings of past purchases, using seasonality trends and other insights. Personalised communication that is well-timed will increase your open rates, click-through rates, overall user engagement, and most importantly conversions.
• Recommendation Engines: Implementing recommendation engines on your website and app is a powerful way to enhance user experience by suggesting relevant products and information based on a user's past behaviour and interests to generate personalised recommendations in real-time. There are two main approaches to implementing recommendation engines: integrations and bespoke development. Integrations, often via APIs, plugins, or extensions, offer a quicker and potentially more cost-effective solution for businesses with existing platforms and basic recommendation needs. However, if you require highly customised algorithms tailored to your specific business and user behaviour, building a bespoke recommendation engine might be the best option, offering ultimate control and flexibility.
• Using AI: Artificial intelligence (AI) injects a powerful way into your personalisation efforts. AI tools can sift through massive amounts of user data, uncovering hidden patterns and preferences that may be missed by humans. AI can predict user behaviour, allowing you to anticipate their needs and proactively offer relevant recommendations before they even ask. This proactive approach fosters deeper engagement and keeps users coming back for more. AI can also personalise real-time content based on user interactions on your website or app.

Personalisation is a journey, not a destination. By continuously testing, refining, and improving your strategies, you can unlock the power of user data and craft exceptional user experiences. Remember, your UX team plays a vital role in this process.?

?? Unlocking the Potential of Affiliate Marketing ??

Businesses are constantly seeking?innovative ways to expand their reach and increase revenue. One strategy that has been steadily gaining prominence is affiliate marketing.?

Although we may not always recognise it, affiliate marketing is everywhere. Affiliates help to promote a company's products and services to a new audience, with social media being a key area where affiliate marketing thrives. There are also less involved versions of affiliate marketing whereby affiliates simply create their own pay-per-click (PPC) ads.?

With the affiliate marketing industry already worth $17 billion and?set to grow to $40 billion by 2030, it's hard to ignore the growing powerhouse as more companies opt to promote their products and services this way.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a form of advertising whereby companies have their products or services promoted by a third party (the ‘affiliate’). The company benefits from being exposed to new audiences through various channels like social media or blogs, that can be converted into potential customers, and the affiliate benefits with a small commission from each sale. The buyer must know that the person promoting the product or service is doing so through affiliate marketing and that they will receive a commission.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

There are three types of affiliate marketing to consider:

• Involved Affiliate Marketing: As the name states, this is the most ‘involved’ out of all the types of affiliate marketing. The affiliate has a deep understanding of the product or service and believes that it will benefit their audience and uses/has used it themselves. Therefore, they can comment on their experience of the product in their marketing promotions to encourage their audience to purchase it.?
• Related Affiliate Marketing: Related affiliate marketing is categorised by those who promote a product or service likely to appeal to their audience. They will not have used the product and, therefore, can not make claims about its use, but they can promote it to their audience, who are likely to be interested in it. The people who usually market these products have some form of influence and authority over their audience, making them a trusted source.?
• Unattached Affiliate Marketing: Arguably, unattached affiliate marketing requires the least commitment from the third-party marketer. Even though they promote these products or services, they will have no known interest, association, expertise or skills with the product and can not make claims about its use.?The standard method for promoting products with which the affiliate has no interest is PPC (Pay-per-click) ads. Allowing the marketer to leave the consumer to decide on their own if the product is appropriate for their needs.

Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing

Pros

• Cost-effective: Affiliates cover promotion costs, saving you money on marketing campaigns.
• Creative freedom: Affiliates handle content creation, freeing you from creative burdens.
• High ROI: You only pay when a sale happens through an affiliate link.
• Control: You set the terms, choosing how much creative control you give affiliates.

Cons

• Planning & Management: Requires careful planning and setting clear terms, especially for traffic-based payouts.
• Potential for Fraud: Monitoring needed to prevent dishonest affiliates using misleading tactics or fake information.
• Reduced Brand Control: Less control over messaging and brand representation compared to in-house marketing.

So, Is Affiliate Marketing the Right Strategy for You?

Moving forward with a broadened understanding of affiliate marketing, you can begin to take the time to make an informed decision on whether this strategy is suitable for you and your business.?The ultimate decision rests in your hands as you carefully evaluate whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks when considering the incorporation of affiliate marketing into your marketing approach.

Trends and predictions highlight the dominance of influence, the future leverage of implementing AI for successful campaigns, the shift to promoting your brand’s personality through affiliate marketing and the new age of operating without cookies.?

Weighing up both the pros and cons, we can confidently say that affiliate marketing is a cost-effective tool with high ROI. It can be useful for those looking to outsource creativity to promote their products. However, vigilance is necessary to prevent fraud, monitor contract terms and ensure affiliates act ethically.?

To find out more about affiliate marketing and if it's right for your business, read more on our blog.

We hope you enjoyed this month's edition of Beyond the Pixel! Stay tuned for our July update next month, where we'll keep you in the know with the latest tech and digital marketing trends, news, and insights.