The Postal Service's Chief Information Officer Jim Cochrane

One could fairly sense the eyebrows arching in the room when USPS VP of Network Operations Dave Williams explained how inefficiencies plagued flats sequencing machinery when volume suddenly dropped by 19 billion pieces some years ago. Attendees at yesterday's opening of the American Catalog Mailers Association Forum in Washington knew the story only too well. The precipitous drop followed a devastating rate increase for flats mailers in 2007 that forced scores of catalogers out of business.

That momentous event led to the creation of ACMA, a fact known to subsequent speaker Jim Cochrane, who attempted to move the discussion beyond past differences and explore how the Postal Service and the catalog industry could work together to improve both of their situations.

“Catalogs have a big part to play in communicating with customers in the future,” maintained the Postal Service's chief information officer. “You're really on the front end of analytics, and we have an opportunity to be more strategic about what we're doing.”

Though he admitted that bringing all mail stakeholders together on any issue was nigh-on impossible, Cochrane ventured that the Postal Service and catalogers could unite on pooling their data and analytical resources to bring more visibility, and hence increased efficiencies, to postal operations.

“Visibility is something we can all align around,” he said. “A couple of years ago we introduced reduced cycle time and a funny thing happened on the way to improving service: We drove costs down. We talked service the whole time and we made money the whole time.”

Cochrane lauded catalogers for their high adoption rates of the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb), lamenting that the Postal Regulatory Commission's rejection of its mandatory usage by big mailers was hurting them in the end.

“It's about barcodes and analytics. It's a smart system,” Cochrane said. “It makes mail predictable and measurable, and we need to make sure mail is very measurable because search and email is measurable. If three years from now we're sitting here talking about a range of days for delivery [of Standard Mail], we've missed an opportunity. If you buy a TV ad, you can get Tuesday if that's what you want.”

Cochrane assured the catalogers that, equipment-wise, at least, they are not likely to see a repeat of the Flats Sequencing System debacle. He turned to a recent example from the parcel business to illustrate how Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe had assigned priority status to investments in customer-facing systems.

“We got three new parcel sorting machines deployed in four months versus four years,” Cochrane said. “And we used two different suppliers, something unheard of in our world.”

Business Breaking News: 10 Social Media Selling Solutions for Small Businesses

Social media e-commerce has taken off — and it's showing no signs of slowing down. With social media selling, anyone can become an online merchant without having to invest in a website or give online marketplaces a cut of their profits. Here are 10 social media selling solutions to help you get started.

Want to sell on Facebook? The Soldsie Facebook app turns the social network's comments section into an e-commerce powerhouse. Typically, customers make purchases on Facebook by messaging sellers or leaving their email addresses. Instead, Soldsie's "Comment Selling" system eliminates all the back-and-forth communication by streamlining transactions. To start selling, connect Soldsie to your Facebook page, and upload product photos. These posts become your storefront, where fans can simply comment "Sold" to make a purchase. After commenting, they'll automatically receive an email invoice and proceed to checkout via PayPal or WePay.

Instagram isn't just a photo-sharing platform; it has also become one of the most popular online selling tools available. inSelly, an Instagram marketplace, facilitates the process by aggregating Instagram listings (using hashtags) and making them searchable to anyone around the world. Because it's a third-party platform, you'll first have to connect the app to your Instagram accounts. Next, add your contact information, pricing details and PayPal email address to start making sales and receiving payments. ['Buy Button' Could Make Twitter Your New Storefront]

Commodity Online News: Maize weakness market under long liquidation: Kedia

A search engine made for mobile

Pinterest is introducing a new Guided Search feature that it claims has a leg up on the Bings, Googles, and Yahoos of the world. It requires the downloading of a new app and will be available only in English during the initial rollout.

Emboldened by the 750 million message boards and 30 billion pins it encompasses, Pinterest decided to transform its universe into a self-contained search engine that can let people “explore endless possibilities…even if you don't know exactly what you're looking for,” read a release introducing the service.

One way Pinterest figures to accomplish this is to link searchers with pins posted by people on that topic, but broken down by sub-topics. For instance, enter “plants” and one is taken to a page of pins with a toolbar specifying “outdoor,” “garden,” “decorating,” and “low maintenance.”

“Search engines are great for answering specific questions—the weather in San Francisco or the capital of Peru—but [Guided Search] can help with the questions that have more than one right answer,” maintained Head of Pinterest's Discovery Team Hui Xu in a blog published yesterday.

The company also makes a claim for improved ease of use on mobile devices for Guided Search, which offers “less typing and more tapping.”

Business Breaking News: Paying for Employee Education: Here's How to Decide

Have your employees asked you to pay for outside training so they can do their jobs better?

Before you say yes, make sure the training will end up benefiting the company, as some employees may be asking you to fund skill building that will help them land jobs elsewhere, said Peter DeVries, chief operating officer of business software provider Destiny Solutions.

DeVries said that when employees request outside training, you should ask them to write a small proposal answering the following questions:

Commodity Online News: Chana may trade 3079 3143 range support at 3091

Google intros several new features in AdWords.

Noting that there were more than 50 billion downloads of mobile apps in 2013, 60% of which were never installed, Google AdWords VP of Product Management Jerry Dischler today announced several additions to help marketers increase app engagement:

Keyword suggestions. A new AdWords tool will point marketers to the most accessed keywords in Google Play, the company's app store, to drive more downloads.

App install ads. Ads run in YouTube videos invite viewers to install content-relevant apps.

Deep-linking. This feature aims at increasing app engagement. “Say someone is playing a game on their phone and see an ad for the Hulu show Deadbeat,” Dischler said. “They can click the ad and deep-linking can take them to the most relevant point in that episode and start playing it.”

Metrics. Upgraded measurement of installations and conversion.

Other new metrics will include a system to measure in-store transactions that were initiated online. Dischler mentioned a pilot program that RKG did with Express that, when resulting offline sales measurements were included, showed that return on ad spend increased 102%. “Based on information like this,” he said, “marketers can bid based on the full value of their buys.”

Other new tools—some of which are still in development and will be rolled out in coming months—include an automated bidding program to bring enterprise-level capabilities to all advertisers, enhanced reporting via a new interface that allows marketers to easily click-and-drag new attributes and metrics into their spreadsheets, and a “Drafts and Experiments” tool that allows A/B testing of tweaks in campaigns.

Business Breaking News: Developing Your Mobile Web Presence: Where to Start

Business owners know that a mobile-ready site is critical for success on the Web, but navigating the maze of design and development options can be daunting. But it doesn't have to be so intimidating. A few basic guidelines can help you make the most of your company's mobile presence.

Ryan Matzner, director at New York-based Web development agency Fueled said the first step is to figure out what your business needs. "A lot of clients come to us not knowing what they actually need — a mobile app, a responsive site or something else," Matzner said. "Sometimes, they are not clear on what responsive means, for example, so that's a great piece of education."

In basic terms, a responsive website changes its appearance based on the screen size of the device on which it is loaded. Users who interact with a website on a full-size desktop or laptop screen will see a "traditional" site that contains full navigation, copy and images. Customers who visit the site on a tablet or mobile device will see a version of the site that has rearranged, added or eliminated elements of the page to best serve the device's capabilities and the user's needs. A mobile user visiting a restaurant's website, for example, may be greeted with a Call for Reservations button and the restaurant's hours, rather than a large animated image that might be on the full-size site.

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Advertising to B2B prospects at work

According to Demandbase, half of all U.S. workers use their smartphones on the job, and another 14% watch YouTube there. (And yet our productivity rating tops Britain's, Germany's, and Japan's!) Figuring that there could be few better places for its B2B marketer clients to interact with prospects than at their desks, Demandbase today debuts B2B Video Ads and B2B Mobile Ads.

Demandbase does not use cookies to serve or retarget relevant videos to potential customers, instead relying on its own RTB platform that identifies companies that could have a need for a client's product or service. The same system is used to serve relevant mobile ads.

“Businesses have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop video assets, but most have been unsuccessful at generating any payoff outside of the occasional click on their websites,” says Demandbase CEO Chris Golec. “Similarly, adding B2B mobile targeting measurably increases our ability to get the right message in front of the right person during the workday.”

The Demandbase platform had already connected B2B marketers' website, marketing automation, and CRM systems.

Business Breaking News: Boosting Customer Loyalty with Big Data

Are you paying attention to your existing customers? If not, you may want to reconsider your priorities: According to a new report, more than half of the annual revenue for 61 percent of small business owners comes from repeat buyers.

The report found that 80 percent of business owners invest more time, effort and resources into customer retention than acquisition. This shift in focus points to the increasingly influential role repeat customers play in business success. Small business directory and online community Manta produced the report with business research and consulting firm BIA/Kelsey.

One way to earn repeat business is by creating a customer loyalty program.

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AOL expands native advertising's reach on mobile.

While introducing new mobile app-related features in Google AdWords on Tuesday, VP of Product Management Jerry Dischler noted that 60% of the more than 50 billion apps downloaded each year are never installed. Today, AOL announced the roll out of a new native advertising unit for mobile devices that could work to knock down that percentage, if the company's test numbers are to be believed.

Native ads for mobile apps in a four-month trial on some of AOL's lesser-trafficked sites logged install rates of 6 to 8%—six times higher than the average rate for smartphone display banners, according to the company. Beginning today, the mobile unit will be rolled out to premium properties such as Huffington Post (left), Techcrunch, and AOL Mail, expanding reach to a potential 86 million monthly users.

“By the end of the year, there are going to be more page views on mobile than on desktop. The content is moving to mobile but the revenue is not moving with it,” says AOL Director of Mobile Chad Gallagher. “This will go a long way to making native advertising on mobile more scalable. We're creating a larger ecosystem in which advertisers are not limited to dealing with individual publishers.”

Besides AOL sites, the scalability will extend to more than 20,000 third-party publishers that AOL has invited to join its native mobile ad network. That could well serve to open up the mobile channel to big-budget, national native advertisers.

“When our AOL team told us they're rolling out native mobile ads to quality publishers, we wanted to be among the first advertisers to run,” said Tyler Davis, a partner in digital agency Chong + Koster, in a release announcing the expansion.

Gallagher said that AOL would limit native adds to app links at the outset, but would soon expand to other forms of creative.

Business Breaking News: E-Commerce Technology Helps Social Entrepreneur Support Cancer Research

Name: Jessica Ekstrom

Business name: Headbands of Hope

Years in business: 2

Website address: http://www.headbandsofhope.org/

In summer 2011, 19-year-old college student Jessica Ekstrom did an internship at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Western North Carolina. Every day, she visited children with life-threatening illnesses and granted their wishes. Ekstrom's team at Make-A-Wish received hundreds of letters from children who said the foundation changed their lives. Little did those children know, they were changing hers, too.

Inspired by her experiences with young cancer patients, Ekstrom decided to embark on a social entrepreneurship journey. She founded Headbands of Hope, an e-commerce retailer that donates $1 to childhood cancer research at the St. Baldrick's Foundation and one headband to a cancer patient for each headband sold.

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Will USPS let mail occasions fritter away?

Consumer packaged goods marketers—the sons and daughters of Messrs. Procter and Gamble—are arguably the most influential business philosophers of our time. Who doesn't have a brand that they must nurture these days? Athletes, musicians, sandwich makers, fitness instructors, and six-year-old beauty pageant contestants all tend brands like horticulturists pamper orchids. Everybody's down with the program—except, perhaps, the nation's most ubiquitous monopoly, the U.S. Postal Service.

Packaged goods marketers, whom I covered for a number of years, like to talk market share. When Coke or Pepsi gain a single point on each other, it's bonuses and promotions for the victorious brand teams. Designated by the U.S. government as the sole tender of the 150 million-odd mailboxes of America, the Postal Service has a 100% share of the mail market. It's not moved to excess of innovation owing to competition.

Packaged goods marketers like to talk exclusive brand assets and unique selling propositions. It's fitting that the acronym for the latter—USPs—is the same as that for the United States Postal Service, because its claim to mailboxes is one of the few business assets worthy of the definition of the word “unique.” It's the one and only organization allowed to open the lid of one's mailbox or cross the plane of one's mail slot. Try it yourself and you will soon be introduced to another unique USPS asset not found at FedEx or UPS: the Postal Inspection Service.

Packaged goods marketers like to talk usage occasions. Once CPG marketers have settled into a comfortable market share for a number of years, they seek to grow sales by increasing the numbers of “usage occasions” for their products. In the same sink, a consumer might use Ivory soap three times a day, but Liquid Plumr only twice a year. (Years ago an advertising association in New York threw a retirement bash for a legendary adwoman, who came up with the “Rinse and Repeat” instruction on shampoo bottles that skyrocketed usage occasions by mere suggestion.)

The Postal Service delivers to 150 million addresses six days a week, adding up to total usage occasions of 900 million a week, or nearly 50 billion a year. Now here's where the Postal Service runs it truck off the road in the estimation of CPG marketers. CPGers battle to increase occasions. USPS managers want to decrease theirs to the tune of nearly 6 billion a year by cutting out Saturday delivery. There are others who think this a crazy idea, most notably Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway and National Association of Letter Carriers Chief of Staff Jim Sauber. They both could get jobs at P&G or Coca-Cola since they would like to see USPS ramp up usage occasions by moving to 7-day mail delivery.

“Why would you want to reduce mail delivery while you're making a move to 7-day delivery of packages?” wondered Goldway, the most powerful regulator of the Postal Service. “Why not figure out a way to merge the two, so the mail continues to be a resource that helps to grow the network, stabilize it, maintain it, and, in fact, enhance it?”

Before any policies are changed at the Postal Service, labor must be heard from, and labor appears to be in line with the regulators. “We're moving to 7-day package delivery with Amazon. Why wouldn't we move to 7-day mail delivery and delivery at night?” Sauber asked, as did Goldway, at a meeting of postal stakeholders in DC last week.

Everyone knows that the Postal Service wants to cut a day from mail delivery to reduce labor costs and give a boost to its bottom line. But that, as Sauber pointed out, is a defeatist attitude in the world of free market business that USPS purports to be entering.

I suggest that the C-level staff at USPS ask themselves this: What if the government decided to privatize its post and put access to those 150 million doors up for sale? The winner of the resulting bidding war between UPS and FedEx, and perhaps even DeutschePost DHL, would certainly have to pay a hefty price for exclusive access to the doors of America. It would be hard to imagine them, when rationalizing the outlay, telling their boards and their banks that their first action after taking possession of those expensive doors would be to visit them less.

Business Breaking News: Top 5 Windows Phones for Business

Need a new business phone? Android and iPhone aren't your only options. Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is packed with business-friendly features, and the recent release of Windows Phone 8.1— a major operating-system update — brings Windows Phone closer to matching the features offered by those other platforms.

Windows Phone 8.1 marks the debut of Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated personal assistant, whose context-sensitive alerts and voice commands are sure to improve your productivity. Windows Phone 8.1 also introduces a new notification hub called the Action Center, which puts all of your alerts in one place; simply swipe down from the top of your phone's display to access it.

However, Windows Phone does have some drawbacks. The Windows Phone Store has a smaller selection of apps than competing platforms do — about 200,000 apps, compared with the more than 1 million each for Android and iOS. But don't let that discourage you; Windows Phone easily covers all of your basic business needs.

Commodity Online News: Chana market under long liquidation open interest drops 1.33%

Kent Smith tells USPS its time to leave the 'Golden Age' behind.

The Postal Service talks about adjusting to digitization and the habits of a changing marketplace, but its culture remains mired in the habits of a “Golden Postal Age,” when volumes ticked up like clockwork. “Mail moved up with the economy; it didn't matter what we did,” said 38-year U.S. Postal Service veteran Kent Smith at the Postal Vision 2020 conference in Washington. “We talked about ourselves as a commodity business where 2% growth was OK, and we'd make it up on volume.”

That mind-set is one of the contributing factors to the malaise the Postal Service now finds itself in, said the former manager of both the Market Research and Strategic Business Planning units at the agency.

“As bureaucrats, we try to avoid risk and maximize return. Customers are focused on benefits, but we're not talking about the customers. Entrepreneurs focus on opportunities, and we don't necessarily talk much about opportunities,” maintained Smith, who still uses the personal pronoun “we” when speaking about his former employer. But Smith, the current research director for Ursa Major Associates, also refused to let private business stakeholders in the mail off the hook: “We as businesspeople like to focus on problems and create solutions, and we may be missing what's going on to create new opportunities in the future.”

Observing that postal reform legislation—should it ever be enacted by Congress—won't be a cure for the Postal Service's ills, Smith outlined a 7-point plan for how it can thrive in the 21st ^century:

^{1. Become the information powerhouse you know you can be. USPS should leverage the incredible amount of data it holds to drive better performance and customer experiences. “When the Postal Service can go in to mailers and say, ‘Here's how we can use this data to make direct mail more effective,' that's exciting, especially when [mailers] see how well the Postal Service will be able to deliver on customer preferences.”}

^{2. Create a virtual private network for consumers. Further use the data warehouse to increase engagement with recipients by creating an internet channel around the mail, giving people the ability to have mail delivered where they are, for instance, and be able to track it on their phones.}

^{3. Invent the digital front end for mail. Smith recounted how a presenter at the recent National Postal Forum demonstrated that she was able to push up response rates to her mailings by integrating with Google and challenged USPS to try to own this business. “There will be a time when you can sit down at your PC or tablet and design an entire mailing from start to finish,” Smith said. “The digital front end of mail—who's going to create it?”}

^{4. Bring magic to delivery.The advent of the Internet of Things will have the mail, the truck, and the driver all communicating with each other, and the resulting information will create untold opportunities for both efficiencies and customer service. “All the Postal Service cared about was getting the mail into the mailbox,” Smith said, “But the connection of the carrier, the letter, and the channel will create a magic moment. We ignore it at our peril.”}

^{5. Work the segments. Market researcher Smith challenged Postal management to act more like direct mailers by identifying and serving the needs of different segments. He cited a study USPS conducted before the last recession that identified three user segments--the largest of which, at 37%, said that they relied on the mail. “How do we reinforce that segment, move up the segment in middle, and really think about attracting the people who say, ‘I look at the mail sometimes,'” Smith said.}

^{6. Make the mail channel important to people. Public-private relationships could be explored to add value to customers and allow the survival of much-desired Post Offices in towns where they face closure. People don't want to lose their Post Offices, so USPS has to find ways to make them profitable. “I don't know if you've ever tried to close a Post Office,” Smith asked. “I have, and it's one of the most difficult things you could possibly do.”}

^{7. Collaborate with both sender and receiver. “When we talk about the customer, it's not the mailer or the recipient, it's both. “It's a simultaneous equation that has to be solved.” Smith said. “We have to understand the customer's customers.”}

^{Business Breaking News: S Corporation vs. LLC: Which is Best for You?}

^{When starting a new business, one of the first big decisions is choosing the structure it is going to have.}

^{Two of the most popular options are S corporations and Limited Liability Company (LLC). While they have many similarities, there are some key differences that establish each as being better for certain types of businesses.}

^{An S Corporation, Subchapter S of the first chapter of the Internal Revenue Code, is a tax designation.}

^{Commodity Online News: Turmeric may trade 6443 6919 range support at 6544}

LinkedIn snags its 300 millionth executive.

SVP Products and User Experience Deep Nishar wrote in a blog today that mobile adoption of the platform provided the momentum to push LinkedIn over the 300 million mark, noting that nearly half of LinkedIn's traffic arrives via mobile devices.

“Two years ago we started developing multiple LinkedIn mobile apps to fit the different needs of our diverse members,” wrote Nishar, adding that more apps tailored to member-specific use cases were in development via partnerships with Apple, Nokia, and Samsung.

Nishar reported that LinkedIn draws 15 million profile views and 1.45 million job views daily. The company is looking for significant growth in China, where it launched a beta version of a simplified Chinese site earlier this year.

Business Breaking News: Top 5 Windows Phones for Business

Need a new business phone? Android and iPhone aren't your only options. Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is packed with business-friendly features, and the recent release of Windows Phone 8.1— a major operating-system update — brings Windows Phone closer to matching the features offered by those other platforms.

Windows Phone 8.1 marks the debut of Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated personal assistant, whose context-sensitive alerts and voice commands are sure to improve your productivity. Windows Phone 8.1 also introduces a new notification hub called the Action Center, which puts all of your alerts in one place; simply swipe down from the top of your phone's display to access it.

However, Windows Phone does have some drawbacks. The Windows Phone Store has a smaller selection of apps than competing platforms do — about 200,000 apps, compared with the more than 1 million each for Android and iOS. But don't let that discourage you; Windows Phone easily covers all of your basic business needs.

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Twitter expands mobile ad reach without adding users.

Twitter set mobile advertisers aflutter today. The social network announced that marketers will now be able to simultaneously place campaigns on mobile apps via Twitter and MoPub, the mobile ad exchange that Twitter acquired last year.

A new promotions suite will enable marketers to address campaigns to MoPub's billion-plus mobile device universe plus Twitter's 41 million users through a single interface at ads.twitter.com. Advertisers currently have to set up separate portals to achieve this.

In a blog published today, Twitter reported promising results with the new system from beta testers including Spotify, HotelTonight, Kabam, and Deezer. “Twitter has jumped to be our number one acquisition channel. We couldn't be happier with the results of the Beta,” said Rich Pleeth, VP of global marketing at GetTaxi, another beta partner.

From a business perspective, the integration of MoPub allows Twitter to expand reach for advertisers without having to grow its own user base.

Business Breaking News: 5 Dangerous File Sharing Habits You Need to Break Right Now

Sharing files with colleagues and clients should be easy and convenient. What it shouldn't be is a security risk — but it frequently is. Because many small businesses don't have the right file-sharing systems and policies, many turn to unsafe practices that often put both their business's and clients' privacy in jeopardy.

An annual study by the Ponemon Institute revealed that although 37 percent of data breaches are due to malicious attacks — cybercriminals and inside jobs — 35 percent are actually caused by the "human factor" attributed to employee or contractor negligence. Another 29 percent are due to system glitches. One significant contributing factor is Shadow IT, the practice of employees using IT solutions that are not officially implemented and approved by an organization or its IT department. This includes using personal email accounts, free cloud storage services and other consumer services systems to share business documents, all of which pose significant security risks.

"It should be no surprise that Shadow IT, combined with the carelessness of corporate employees, can put company data at risk and lead to dangerous consequences," said Alex Gorbansky, CEO and co-founder of document management company Docurated. [3 Ways to Share Supersized Files]

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Instagram under the microscope

Union Metrics, an early player in social media metrics with the introduction of TweetReach five years ago, today introduced Union Metrics for Instagram. The new product allows marketers to track hashtag reach and exposure, identify their biggest fans and advocates, and follow competitors on Instagram to determine share of voice.

“We help you find specific influencers or people who are heavily engaged with your content or people hosting content around brands,” says Union Metrics CEO Hayes Davis. “We really help brands understand their audiences.”

Union has merged its new offering with its Tumblr and Twitter products to simultaneously introduce the Union Metrics Social Suite, a product in progress that will add more social networks in the coming months. A monthly subscription for the Instagram program costs $199; the full social suite is $500.

Business Breaking News: 4 Ways to Ensure You're Recruiting the Best Talent

Every company wants the best and the brightest to join its staff. To find these employees, many organizations rely on recruiting firms to locate and reach out to the top talent in the company's industry. But the recruiting game has changed in recent years, and today's talent seekers need to have an appealing pitch and a clear strategy to attract the right candidates. Five hiring experts offered their tips for recruiting in today's social media-driven job market.

Look beyond the résumé

Social media profiles have become standard tools for researching and evaluating talent. Instead of only looking at a candidate's résumé, thoroughly vet them by looking at their LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media profiles.

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Google Glass gets off the mark, but will it have legs?

Today is Tax Day, but it's also the first day that regular citizens will be able to purchase Google Glasses. Whether the wearable search engine/camera/emailer leads to the creation of a new consumer touchpoint or just the passage of innumerable municipal laws regulating the ambulatory operation of them remains to be seen.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that Google chose today to release its $1,500 cyborgian fashion accessories, since many people will have tax refunds burning holes in their pockets. Until now, Google Glass has been the sole possession of “Explorers”-- developers and other marketplace influencers chosen to put the supercharged spectacles through their paces. Google is making only a limited number of Glasses available today, and they're sure to be snapped up by early adopters. It remains to be seen, however, if their appeal will range far beyond that group.

A study of 1,600 U.S. and U.K. consumers by Gfk last October learned that 40% of 16- to 24-year-olds found connected eyeglasses appealing, yet their intent to purchase fell by almost two thirds after they learned how much they—and other wearables like watches—cost.

“Google Glass could make the promise of location-based marketing a reality, however it's not immediately obvious that Glass will have any success beyond the early adopters,” says Marc Poirier, EVP, Business Development of Acquisio. “This sale should help gauge interest beyond the ‘in' crowd and tell us a lot about the future of Glass.”

Business Breaking News: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. HTC One M8: Which Is Better For Business?

Want the fastest business phone around? Samsung's new Galaxy S5 and HTC's new One M8 are two of the most powerful smartphones ever. And they aren't just speedy. Both devices pack big, sharp displays, handy software updates and long battery life. In other ways, these new flagship smartphones are very different. The One M8 makes an impression with its slick metal casing, while the Galaxy S5 packs new hardware features, including a fingerprint reader. Read on for a head-to-head comparison.

Galaxy S5: The Galaxy S5's Super AMOLED display is big, bright and extremely sharp. At 5.1 inches, it's a smidge bigger than the 5-inch screen on its predecessor, the Galaxy S4. For most business users, that's a benefit; a little extra screen real estate can go a long way toward improving productivity. The S5's big display is more comfortable for basic tasks such as email and Web browsing, and it offers the space you'll need to view or edit documents and spreadsheets right on your smartphone.

One M8: The new HTC One M8 has a bigger, better display than its predecessor. Its 1920 x 1080-pixel, 5-inch display is significantly larger than the original HTC One's 4.7-inch screen. Business users will appreciate the phone's sharp picture, and the extra screen real estate can help you be more productive. But the phone's display isn't as bright or colorful as the Galaxy S5's.

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IBM Gets Deeper Into Marketing With Silverpop Acquisition

On the heels of the recent announcement that IBM plans to invest $100 million in digital marketing, the technology behemoth has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire marketing automation provider Silverpop. The deal has been rumored for several weeks.

According to Craig Hayman, GM, Industry Cloud Solutions, at IBM, the Silverpop acquisition is central to IBM's ability to help its clients be more customer-centric. Silverpops marketing automation and real-time personalization offerings are designed to help marketers deliver personalized customer interactions, he noted. “Now, nearly any marketing, commerce, or customer service professional from any business will have the ability to deliver the kinds of personalized customer experiences that make a measurable impact on the brand experience and the bottom line,” Hayman said in a statement.

Silverpop currently has more than 8,000 customers, include Advance Micro Devices, Mazda, and Stonyfield Farm. The purchase adds another tool to IBM's cache of more than 100 cloud-based offerings, as well as to its ever-increasing Enterprise Marketing Management solutions.

According to a statement from IBM, the acquisition is expected to close in Q2 of 2014. The deal's financial terms were not disclosed.

Business Breaking News: 5 Red Flags Smart Job Interviewers Watch Out For

Are you ready to hire an employee? You've created a short list of candidates, and it's time to conduct your first employee interview. But based on just a short interview, how can you tell who will be a good employee for your small business?

Hiring experts shared six warning signs of potential problem employees.

Typos and grammatical errors in cover letter or résumé

Commodity Online News: Buy MCX Zinc sell Copper: Karvy

Consumers Expect the USPS to Deliver

What's present in every household and business in the nation but remains an enigma to Americans? The mail.

This riddle is keenly relevant among pure-play digital marketers unaware that response rates to direct mail are typically 200 times that of email. But it's also true among consumers, who retain some surprising assumptions and notions about the U.S. Postal Service.

For instance, the great majority of consumers are unaware that USPS has a balance sheet. “Every time we revealed to people that the Postal Service is self-supporting, they're shocked,” InfoTrends Director Matt Swain told the Postal Vision 2020 conference in Washington. InfoTrends had produced a survey-based study for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Postal Service in 2013, and more recently went on the road to engage postal customers face-to-face to gauge their attitudes about the mail.

“Once they had that realization, they exhibited different attitudes and expectations about postal service,” Swain said. “They were much more open to compromise on levels of service.”

Consumers in rural and urban areas alike expressed a willingness to move from door delivery to cluster boxes—though more so in rural areas that are often underserved—and five-day delivery was fine with most people. “A lot of people were even willing to go from five to three-day delivery,” Swain reported. “And, though they understood cluster boxes, people actually said they would pay anywhere from $10 to $100 a year to have mail delivered to their doors.”

InfoTrends' focus group subjects also exhibited a high regard for the Postal Service brand. One woman from an isolated town in Montana said that having a Post Office made hers a “little big town.” Many others were uncomfortable with co-location of Post Offices not staffed by USPS employees, such as with the Postal Service's recent partnership with Staples stores. “I want a real postal employee to handle my mail,” said one woman from an urban location. “It's like when you go in to a drug store to get a flu shot. You don't want to get it from a regular Walgreen's employee.”

In sharing consumer attitudes about package delivery from his own study, Accenture's Global Postal Practice Lead Brody Buhler said that Americans especially linked package delivery quality to brand attitudes about brands and retailers. He also made the point that integration of digital and physical methods will become more essential to the parcel business. “If they know that a package is in their mail [via digitial notification], 23% of Americans said they are more likely to check it,” Buhler said.

Some of Buhler's other study-based observations on modes of package delivery:

Ship to store: It will become ever more highly promoted by retailers who see it as their most effective traffic-builder. “Seventy percent of purchases on our site are picked up in stores, and I want people to come to my store,” one retailer told Accenture.

Retailer as shipper: Buhler identified this as the Postal Service's (and FedEx's and UPS's) chief competition in the coming years, as retailers try to win brand advocates through seamless delivery. “Seventy percent of customers repeat-buy when they have a great customer experience, and shipping is a big part of it,” Buhler said.

Same day delivery: The practice has become institutionalized. “Instant gratification is more important to consumers,” Buhler said. “The closer you can get to instant gratification, the more business you're going to get.

Same day is so deeply entrenched in Japan, Buhler observed, that Japanese retailer Yamamoto announced that next year it would charge the same for same day delivery as it does for overnight delivery. “Same day is the expectation in Japan,” he said. “It's a look at what's coming to the U.S.”

Business Breaking News: Acer Iconia A1: Top 3 Business Features

Acer's budget-priced iPad mini lookalike might be a good buy for business users. The attractive Acer Iconia A1 tablet boasts a sharp, 8-inch display and decent performance, and it's light and portable enough for your daily commute. But there are some major tradeoffs. The Iconia A1 isn't the speediest Android tablet on the market, though it should suffice for basic productivity tasks. And with a battery that lasts for just six hours, it can't match the longevity of competing slates. But the low price of Acer's tablet makes it worth a look, anyway. Check out a full review of the Iconia A1 at our sister site Laptop Mag, then read on for three features that make it good for business.

Value

At just $179, the Acer Iconia A1 offers good bang for your buck, and that's good news for budget-minded business users. Some comparable Android tablets offer better performance, but at a price. Amazon's 8-inch Kindle Fire HDX, for example, offers impressive performance and high-quality hardware, but starts at $229. And Google's 7-inch Nexus 7, one of the best small tablets on the market, also costs $229.

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No trust for marketers online

Some three fifths of consumers said that worries over the safety of their personal information have risen in the last 12 months. Half of all Americans are now “very concerned,” according to the results of a survey of more than 1,000 people released today by researcher Gfk.

Gfk undertook the project to determine whether high-profile breaches on the part of Target, Neiman Marcus, and other organizations last year had heightened fears over PII safety. The answer was a resounding “yes,” and people's trepidations appeared to be based on personal experience. A third of those surveyed said they had been subjected to online fraud, and 11% said it had happened to them “several times.”

As a result, nearly half of them had said they had begun avoiding particular online platforms and had also started seeking added protections through social networks, online authorities, and search engines.

Despite the fact that the most highly publicized breaches involved brick-and-mortar retailers, all marketers and advertisers face repercussions. Less than 40% of those surveyed said they trust them, though two thirds said they continue to have high regard for online retailers, healthcare providers, and online payment systems.

Generally speaking, the older a consumer is the less he trusts marketers. Seventy-five percent of pre-Baby Boomers and 60% of Boomers said marketers needed to take a hard look at their data privacy policies, compared to only about 50% of Gen Xers and 46% of Millennials.

A desire for increased policing of data usage, however, was a constant across all generations. Nearly 80% of the entire sample said they felt there should be more regulation controlling the use of third-party data in marketing campaigns.

Business Breaking News: Google Calendar: 8 Hidden Tips & Tricks

Google Calendar can help you plan your workday. The Web-based calendar application features an easy-to-use minimalist design and broad compatibility; you can sync your Google Calendar with just about any mobile device, as well as with desktop calendar applications like Outlook. Plus, it's free, making it a good option for business users on a budget.

But Google Calendar is much more than a digital version of your desktop calendar. It's packed with tons of hidden functionalities to make you more productive every day. Here are eight Google Calendar features you may have not even known about.

Notifications

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Shareable content could give marketers the jolt they're after

People are sharing digital content more than ever, with 93% of respondents to the “Content Fitness Test Report,” a recent study from PAN Communications, claiming that they share content with their network.

The study consists of data from the responses of a survey sent to more than 1,000 marketing professionals, all of whom donned their consumer hats when responding. According to the study, while 50% of respondents still seek news and information from online news sites, this is 14% less than in 2012. This was followed by Twitter, cited by nearly a quarter of respondents, and blogs (15%). Additionally, although 82% of users consume information and news on their laptops, 85% do so on their mobile devices—driving up the value of responsive design.

The amount of users seeking content on Twitter rose 3% from 2012 to 2013 to 24%, while blogs rose from 6% to 15% in that same time frame.

Though the shift toward using social media and other non-traditional outlets for news and information may seem slow, communication via social media is becoming increasingly commonplace. In fact, 81% of consumers now use Facebook to communicate within network. SMS comes second for communication, with nearly 68% of respondents citing it; LinkedIn and Twitter round out the top four communication tools at 70% and 67%, respectively. Of the 93% of consumers sharing content across these platforms, only 76% feel that content is directly relevant to them or their network.

With such a high rate of sharing, marketers who produce shareable content stand to gain as the paradigm shifts further toward using these non-traditional platforms as information sources.

Business Breaking News: How to Use CRM for Your Small Business

Do small businesses really need customer relationship management (CRM) software? Regardless of a business' size, CRM is key to gaining visibility into a company's pipeline, to build a more knowledgeable workforce and, ultimately, create happier, more loyal customers.

Unfortunately, discussions of CRM often focus on the "big business" context. These discussions rarely show how the average small business can benefit from the technology, much less get the most return on investment (ROI). Moreover, most CRM software tools are designed for enterprises, making them technologically overwhelming and unaffordable for smaller organizations. Used correctly, however, CRM can mean the difference between failure and success as a small business.

"I think the biggest struggle for small businesses is winning their first customer, then the first 10, then the first 50 and so on," said Connor Marsden, United States lead at Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "As the company scales out, the ability to understand who the target customers are, what they need and how to win their business becomes more important." [Big Data vs. CRM: How Can They Help Small Business?]

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Has Heartbleed been exploited for marketing purposes?

The entire world's been bugging out over Heartbleed—what it means to brands, to personal security, to the Internet at large. But now that it appears most companies are taking steps to deal with the OpenSSL flaw (affected sites, including Dropbox, Gmail, Facebook, Tumblr, Yahoo, and YouTube, have all released patches), and everyone's become used to the idea that the Internet has had a massive security hole for the last two years that no one seemed to know about—the discussion has shifted a bit.

Yesterday TechCrunch called Heartbleed: “The first security bug with a cool logo”—a cynical sentiment echoing around the Internet right now. Not only could you download the Heartbleed logo right from the Heartbleed website, Codenomicon, the Finnish company that first discovered and brought attention to the flaw, has been called out for capitalizing on all the brouhaha. And brands have also gotten in on the action. Hey, Heartbleed is hot right now.

Here's the buzz:

Heartbleed sucks but that name and logo are pretty cool. What marketing firm did they use?

— Matt Kristek? (@ScubaHey) April 11, 2014

If the security departments of tech companies got on this Heartbleed thing as fast as the marketing departments have then we should be fine.

— forgottentowel™ (@forgottentowel) April 11, 2014

Yay the heartbleed themed marketing pieces have begun!

— keith (@6nak6) April 11, 2014

The new badge of honor: "We were not affected by Heartbleed". Marketing guys, go crazy..

— Chris Kaknevicius (@edwolb) April 11, 2014

1Password is having a Heartbleed 50% off sale. I am told it's worth it. https://t.co/liK34VJll5 (HT @tinahender)

— Laura Brady (@LauraB7) April 11, 2014

@ochsff @thegrugq Timing (whitehat save the world stuff). Cool name. Pretty webpage. Nice bug (remote noauth)

— twiz (@lazytyped) April 11, 2014

Jeez, companies are using heartbleed as an excuse to send marketing mail.(Spam) Blah blah wasn't affected by heartbeat - buy some crap! BLEH

— skullaria (@skullaria) April 11, 2014

WTF @Etsy. You just sent me an "In Full Spring" marketing email (https://t.co/VPJXa1xjXE) but no mail re #heartbleed, and you were affected.

— Steve Schneider (@scschneid) April 11, 2014

Waiting for the announcement that Heartbleed was just a brilliant marketing campaign by Yahoo.

— Shibli (@PieceOfShib) April 11, 2014

Business Breaking News: Creativity Doesn't Always Lead to Profits, Study Finds

Creativity and innovation are crucial to businesses' growth, new research suggests.

If companies fail to integrate creativity and innovation into their business, they could be preventing themselves from reaching their full potential, according to a study from Rice University, the University of Edinburgh and Brunel University.

Creativity and innovation are complex, multilevel phenomena that pan out over time and require skillful leadership to maximize their benefits, the researchers said. Jing Zhou, a researcher at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and one of the study's co-authors, said the vast majority of companies operating today are not doing a good job of translating creative ideas into solutions that improve the firms' performance.

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Jon Miller, cofounder and VP of product marketing at Marketo

Marketo's Jon Miller is excited about the future. The One-to-One Future, that is—as predicted by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., in their seminal 1993 bestseller. Miller, Marketo's cofounder and VP of product marketing, says that the time for one-to-one marketing has come, and business success is riding alongside it.

“The one-to-one phrase suffered a backlash for some time, with many marketers considering it almost an archaic term because it's been around so long without being real,” Miller says. “But we in marketing are a helluva lot closer than ever to delivering on that. I'm excited about it.”

The ability for marketers to get truly one-to-one with customers, Miller says, is aligned with three trends:

• The emergence of customer context as a way for marketers to understand and be more relevant to their audience. From demographic data to behavioral data to now contextual data and the Internet of things, marketers have access to more in-depth customer data than ever before.


• The growing number of channels that are directly addressable and can be personalized. When marketers send emails, customers don't sent replies, Miller explains; they go to the company's website. Many websites are static today; but, increasingly, sites are delivering a more personalized experience.


• The move away from campaigns to ongoing experiences that occur along the whole customer journey. Customers don't necessarily recognize discrete interactions with different company touchpoints; they see a holistic customer experience with one company.

Together these trends imply the need for a marketing platform that is for marketing versus an add-on to another system, like CRM, Miller says. He asserts that marketers need a platform that performs a set of core marketing functions that integrates well with other point products, because marketing is too broad for one system to do it all. This is in large part the impetus behind the launch of Marketo's Customer Engagement Platform, he says. “And we expect others to follow, including Adobe, Oracle, and Salesforce.com,” he adds. “We think that everyone else is calling their [offerings] a marketing cloud, but it's symptomatic of the wrong way to look at this: ‘Get our marketing cloud and get it all.' But there are more than 1,000 companies in the space; no one can do it all.” A platform, Miller points out, can provide the core offerings and marketers can use point solutions for the other solutions they need.

At the core of Marketo's Customer Engagement Platform is a system of record designed to bring together customer data like who I am, what I'm doing, and what I'm interested in. Next is what Marketo calls the brain, which aims to help marketers orchestrate activities across channels and determine the right customer experience, including personalized interactions at each touchpoint. Additionally, there's also analytics designed to help with such activities as attribution, optimization, and segmentation. The new platform also includes a calendaring application, SEO capabilities, and enhanced personalization tools.

“Like fitness, everyone needs a good core. Then, if your foundation's good, you can do whatever sport or exercise you like,” Miller says. “We're in a good position to help marketers master this complex world by providing the technology foundation that acts as that core. We're the company that has the marketers' backs as they deal with all this complexity.”

Business Breaking News: 7 Expense Tracking Apps for Smartphones

Keeping track of your expenses is important, especially if you run your own business. You'll need to manage your daily, weekly and monthly expenses for tax and bookkeeping purposes. And your employees will need to track expenditures incurred during work hours in order to be reimbursed later. But tracking spending manually is a hassle, and paper reports are easy to lose. That's where your smartphone comes in. The right apps make it easy to manage your expenses on the go by taking advantage of your phone's features, including the camera and GPS sensor. Here are seven of the best.

Expense Tracker (Free) – iOS

Expense Tracker (available for iOS) lets you quickly record individual expenses so you can get back to work. Expenditures are grouped by week, month or year, and you can create dynamic graphs for a visual look at your spending with a few taps. It's also simple to generate expense and income entries at the end of each spending period. Expense tracker lets you track multiple accounts, and gives you easy access to the spending history for each account. The app also includes support for a variety of different currencies.

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Customers want great experiences, but are companies ready to deliver?

The good news is that 81% of businesses believe that customer experience is more important than three years ago. Despite that, 30% have not increased their investment in customer experience in those three years and 40% invest less than 2% of their revenue into customer experience, according to a recent study.

The study, conducted by customer experience transformation firm Strativity Group, surveyed 248 corporate executives in Africa, Asia, Europe, Central America, North America, and South America.

The study found that companies that committed at least 3% of revenue to customer experience saw 9% more referrals, only 9.5% attrition, and an 82% retention rate. Conversely, the 40% of companies that dedicate 2% or less of their revenue to customer experience experienced a 7% referral rate, nearly 12% attrition, and 75% retention.

Executives lack ample knowledge of the costs associated with customer experience, with less than a fourth (24%) understanding the cost of acquiring a new customer. At 83%, most executives don't know the cost of a customer complaint. Only 40% know the average annual value of a customer and 85% don't know how much it costs to resolve a service issue that affects customer experience.

The study found that companies with higher satisfaction scores generally share several characteristics, including C-level support for customer experience, an integrated brand promise and customer experience, and consistency in business decisions and the overall customer experience itself.

Business Breaking News: Stressed Out Workers Say These Two Thing Bother Them Most

Long commutes and low pay are the two things causing workers the most stress.

For the fourth consecutive year, small paychecks were the top stressor of employees, with 13 percent of adults ranking low wages as the most stressful aspect of their job, according to a new study from Everest College. Low pay shared the top spot with Americans' long commute to and from work, which jumped to 13 percent from 9 percent in 2011.

Among the other things putting stress on U.S. workers include unreasonable workloads, annoying co-workers, poor work-life balance, a job that is not a chosen career, lack of opportunity for advancement, bosses and fear of being fired or laid off. [5 Ways to Improve Your Work-Life Balance Today]

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Leads going from call center to the cloud

Saying that its new technology does for inbound sales calls what Google Analytics does for Web interactions, Invoca today announced Invoca Signal, which “listens in” on inbound sales calls and applies custom-input metrics to score the lead.

“[Signal] revolutionizes the way I identify and optimize ROI-generating phone calls," said beta tester Rebecca Kaplan, group director of search agency Acronym in a press release. “It empowers marketers like me to understand the value of the calls we're driving, while giving us the knowledge and signals needed to make critical adjustments and optimizations in near real-time.”

Invoca also announced that a leading global retailer was signed to deploy Signal, though it wouldn't identify which one.

Business Breaking News: Recruiters Reveal Most Wanted Tech Skills

Where are hiring managers searching for their next superstar employees? It's not necessarily the résumé pile: Today's recruiters are scanning social media profiles to identify and headhunt the industry's top talent.

"Hiring managers are increasingly turning to [social media] to get a competitive edge in identifying potential candidates and broaden their candidate pool across all job sectors," said Shon Burton, CEO of global recruiting tool HiringSolved. "The reality is that the job market has completely changed. Unlike previous generations, there is very little loyalty to a single company. Employees no longer stay with a single company for 25 years. Today, everyone is a candidate."

Social recruiting is especially prevalent in the tech sector, where positions often require very specific experience and skill sets. Instead of wasting time reading through a relatively narrow pool of applications, hiring managers can simply enter search criteria and find social media profiles that match the job requirements. [What Social Media Can (Really) Tell You About Job Applicants]

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Think of the Postal Service as Asset

If there's one thing that postal workers unions and mailers can agree on, it's that, when it comes to the U.S. Postal Service, Congress is clueless. “There's very little thinking going on in Congress [about the Postal Service], in general,” Jim Sauber, chief of staff of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), told a group of international postal stakeholders today.

Not only is the union in favor or reamortizing the Postal Service's prefunding commitment to the retiree's health benefit funds, but it's in solid agreement with direct mailers and catalogers on the power of the individual mailbox. Addressing the Postal Vision 2020 conference in Washington, he said that the union's mission to save jobs for its members goes hand-in-hand with its commitment to help make the Post Office a more valuable proposition for mailers and consumers going forward.

“Our ability to reach more than 150 million addresses is a real asset. Our carriers have personal knowledge of customers that is powerful, and I think the key to the future of the Postal Service is to harness that knowledge,” Sauber said, adding that carriers could be virtual sales reps who could sell local businesses on the value of direct mail.

“Congress,” Sauber maintained, “needs to stop thinking about the Postal Service as a cost factor and treat it as an asset.”

Sauber saved some criticism for USPS, questioning its planned move to five-day mail delivery and cluster boxes—a labor-saving device that many mailers also oppose due to lower response rates. “We're moving to seven-day package delivery with Amazon. Why wouldn't we move to seven-day mail delivery and delivery at night?” Sauber posited. “There's defeatism in the air [at USPS]. They want to degrade or dismantle the ‘last mile' proposition.”

NALC engaged Lazar Bank to study what it termed the government's “shrink to survive” strategy, said Sauber, and declared it doomed to fail. “Eliminating direct-to-door delivery is insanely unconstructive. It will lead to more lost revenue,” Sauber declared. “Congress should just get out of our way and let us do what we do best.”

Business Breaking News: 5 Free Visual Voicemail Apps

Communication is a key part of running your business. But you can't answer every phone call that comes your way, and managing heaps of voicemail messages is a pain. Most voicemail systems are cumbersome, requiring you to enter a PIN and then navigate through menus before you can listen to your messages. And the process of replaying, archiving and deleting messages isn't always user-friendly. But there's a smarter way to do voicemail. These free apps provide a visual user-interface for easy message browsing, and many of them transcribe your messages from audio to text. That means you can manage your voicemail the same way you manage your email.

YouMail (Free) – iOS, Android

YouMail is a voicemail suite that lets you access and listen to your messages on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or desktop computer. Browse, manage and listen to all your messages in an inbox interface, and share messages via email with a few taps. Other advanced options include the ability to customize voicemail greetings for individual contacts in your address book, and even set an "out of service" message for unwanted callers to block them from leaving a voicemail. YouMail also offers free caller ID services, even for callers who aren't in your address book; when an unknown call arrives, the app can show you the name, city and state of the caller.

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Nearly 80% of viewers watch entire ads served in-stream.

Click-throughs for in-stream ads served by the Gannett-owned marketing services company last year were four times higher than for standard display ads, mobile ads, or rich media served with or with or without video. Only 10 to 12 out of a thousand viewers clicked through on ads in those media formats, while 46 did so on in-stream placements made last year by PointRoll clients.

“What you get with in-stream is it takes up a larger slice of the screen. It's more frequently and prominently in view,” says PointRoll Manager of Analytics Ryan Hurley. “It gives you a longer time to tell a more engaging story. When you think about display, the ad is probably only in front of people for a second or two.”

One big reason for that—at least among ad types serving video—is that 75% of viewers stuck with in-stream videos to the end. Video completion rates for rich media service online and via mobile were only 25% and 31%, respectively, in the PointRoll tally.

Once the click-through occurred, however, in-stream fell down in comparison to other ad types. Viewers spent only about 11 seconds with a brand following a click on an in-stream ad, whereas the average “brand time” was 19 seconds for mobile rich media and 14 seconds for online rich media. What's more, post-click interaction rates were higher for some display ad types than they were for in-stream video. More than 4% of viewers interacted with brands after clicking through via anchored float ads, and over 3% did so through an expandable ad. The interaction rate for in-stream was 1.3%.

“One of the downsides of in-stream ads is that brands are limited by the format as to how many things they can do to interact with customers,” Hurley says. “When you do rich media, you can serve up games, other videos to watch, forms to fill out. A travel site could provide a photo gallery, a retailer could provide a digital circular.”

While in-stream video shows great promise to digital marketers, it's widening usage is limited by availability. “It continues to gain adoption, but it's lagging because of availability. Not every website has video content. You mostly see it on entertainment or news sites,” Hurley says. “For now, demand outstrips supply. We're finding publishers that are sold out of their inventory for the year.”

Business Breaking News: Windows Phone 8.1: Top 5 Business Features

The new version of Windows Phone is ready to make you more productive. Dubbed Windows Phone 8.1, the update boasts dozens of new features for business users. Notably, it introduces a voice-activated personal assistant and a comprehensive notification center so you can check all your alerts at a glance. Other highlights include a slew of updates that help you conserve battery life, limit data usage and free up storage space on your device. The update is expected to roll out on Windows Phone devices starting this summer, so read on for five features business users can look forward to.

Cortana

Microsoft's new virtual personal assistant, dubbed Cortana, will let you to be more productive with context-sensitive alerts and voice commands. Cortana, which will be baked into every Windows 8.1 device, is Microsoft's answer to Siri on the iPhone and Google Now on Android devices. Microsoft says Cortana will "learn" about you every time you use your Windows Phone, helping it deliver timelier, more relevant information.

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