Digital Marketing – Paolo Margari

Laws of UX: user experience design theory and best practices

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 14:46:11 +0000

The user experience or user experience (UX) is everything that happens to a person when they interact with a product or service.

In the digital world, this product is typically a website, application or software.

It is not only about the appearance of a product (the user interface), but also about how it works and feels.

Think of it this way:

Theuser interface (UI) is the steering wheel, seats and dashboard of a car. It is the part you see and touch.
TheUX (User Experience) is the whole act of driving the car: how smooth the ride is, how easy it is to park, how the controls feel and whether you arrive at your destination happy or frustrated.

A good UX is:

Useful: It solves a real problem for the user.
Usable: It is easy to use and navigate.
Desirable: Creates a positive emotional connection.
Findable: Users can easily find what they need.
Accessible: Can be used by people with disabilities.
Credible: Seems reliable and trustworthy.

The ‘Laws of UX’ are a collection of rules, best practices and principles that designers can use to create products that are more intuitive, user-friendly and centred on the human experience.

They are largely based on well-researched psychological principles and are useful for anyone in both digital and physical environments.

Below you will find a comprehensive overview of the most important and most cited laws, categorised for clarity.

Basic Laws (Jakob Nielsen et al.)

These are some of the oldest and most fundamental principles of UX.

Jakob’s Law
- What it is: Users spend most of their time on other websites. Therefore, they prefer your site to function in the same way as all the other sites they are already familiar with.
- Implications: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use familiar patterns and conventions (e.g. the shopping cart icon, positioning of the search bar). This reduces the cognitive load and learning curve of the user.
Fitts’ Law
- What it is: The acquisition time of a target is a function of the distance and size of the target.
- Implications: Make interactive elements (such as buttons) large enough and place them in easy-to-reach areas. This is crucial for touch interfaces. This also explains why fixed navigation menus and “Fitts’ law-compatible” angles (where the mouse is stopped by the edge of the screen) are effective.
Hick’s Law
- What: The time required to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.
- Implications: Simplify choices for the user. Break down complex tasks into smaller steps. Use progressive disclosure to avoid overloading users with too many options at once. This is crucial for forms and navigation menus.
Miller’s Law
- What: An average person can only store 7 (± 2) items in their working memory.
- Implications: Break down information into smaller groups of 5-9 items to make it easier to process. This is why telephone numbers are divided into groups and navigation menus are often grouped into categories.
Postel’s Law (principle of robustness)
- What it is: Be conservative in sending, liberal in accepting.
- Implications: Designs should be flexible and lenient. For example, a form field should accept telephone numbers in different formats, or an application should handle user errors gracefully.

Laws of perception (Gestalt principles)

These principles describe how human beings visually perceive and group elements.

Prägnanz’s Law (Good Figure, Law of Simplicity)
- What: People perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images in the simplest possible form.
- Implications: Users will naturally look for order and simplicity in complex shapes. Use clear and simple icons and avoid unnecessary visual complexity.
Law of Proximity
- What it is: Neighbouring objects appear grouped together.
- Implications: Places related objects close together. It is fundamental for form design (label close to its input) and for tab layout.
Law of similarity
- What: Objects that resemble each other are perceived as related or having the same function.
- Implications: Use consistent styling for elements that perform the same action (e.g. all primary buttons should look the same).
Law of Closure
- What: People perceive whole shapes even when they are incomplete.
- Implications: You can use partial elements (such as a broken circle icon) and the user’s brain will fill in the blanks. This can be used for minimalist and eye-catching design.
Law of the common region
- What: Elements that are within the same closed area are perceived as grouped.
- Implications: Use borders or background colours to group related content, such as tabs or panels in a dashboard.

Motivational and behavioural laws

These principles concern user involvement, motivation and emotions.

Tesler’s Law (Law of Conservation of Complexity)
- What it is: Every system has an intrinsic amount of complexity that cannot be reduced. The designer’s task is to manage this complexity, not to eliminate it.
- Implications: Simplify the user interface by moving complexity behind the scenes. Lets the system do more work so that the user has to do less (e.g. auto-fill modules, intelligent defaults).
Von Restorff effect (isolation effect)
- What it is: When several similar objects are present, the one that differs from the others is more likely to be remembered.
- Implication: Make key actions (such as the ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Buy Now’ button) stand out visually from the other elements on the page.
Aesthetic-User Effect
- What: Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing designs as more usable.
- Implications: A beautiful design can make users more tolerant of minor usability problems and can create a more positive first impression.
Final peak rule
- What: People judge an experience by how they felt at its peak (most intense point) and at its end, rather than the total average of each moment.
- Implications: Pay particular attention to the most impactful moments (a good animation) and the final stage of the user journey (a satisfying confirmation message).
Doherty Threshold
- What: Productivity increases when a computer and its users interact at a pace (<400ms) that ensures neither has to wait for the other.
  Implication: Provide feedback to the system (such as loading indicators) within 400ms to keep users engaged and informed.

How to use these laws

As a guide, not as gospel: these are principles, not unbreakable rules. Context is everything. Sometimes breaking a law is the right design decision.
As justification: They provide a scientific and psychological basis for your design decisions, helping you to support better UX in discussions with stakeholders.
As a checklist: Use them as a mental checklist during the design and critique process. “Am I violating Hick’s law by presenting too many options?”

Why is UX crucial for digital marketing?

Digital marketing is about attracting and converting customers. UX is about what happens after you attract them.

If your UX is poor, your marketing efforts are wasted. They are two sides of the same coin.

Here are some reasons why UX is non-negotiable for marketing success:

1. It has a direct impact on conversion rates (CRO or conversion rate optimisation)

This is the most direct link. Every obstacle a user encounters is an opportunity to abandon it.

A confusing payment process = abandoned shopping carts.
A page that loads slowly = users hitting the back button.
A hard-to-find contact form = lost leads.
Good UX simplifies the user journey from potential customer to customer, eliminating friction and dramatically increasing the chances of conversion.

2. Reduces the cost of customer acquisition (CAC)

Acquiring a new customer through ads or SEO is expensive. Good UX ensures that a higher percentage of these expensive visitors actually convert. You don’t have to spend more to get more leads, you just have to retain more leads that you are already paying to attract.

3. Improve SEO (search engine optimisation)

Google’s main goal is to provide the best possible results to its users (or answers via AI Overviews). How does it measure the validity of a website? Also through so-called UX signals.

Core Web Vitals: Metrics such as loading speed, interactivity and visual stability are direct ranking factors.
Dwell time/Bounce rate: If users click on your link from Google and leave immediately (high bounce rate), it means that your page was not useful. Good UX keeps them engaged and this indicates to Google that your site is valuable.
Mobile-friendliness: With mobile-first indexing, a site that offers a bad experience on a phone will be ranked lower.

4. Builds trust and brand loyalty

A positive and seamless experience makes users feel respected and appreciated. This creates trust in your brand.

A user who can easily find information and make a purchase is more likely to return and become a repeat customer.
A frustrated user will probably never return and may even leave negative reviews, damaging your brand reputation.

5. Provides valuable data and insights

The UX improvement process (through user testing, heatmaps and analysis) gives marketers incredible insight into the behaviour of their audience.

They learn about the content they engage with.
You understand where they get stuck in the sales funnel.
You understand what their real needs and pain points are.
This data is pure gold for creating more effective and targeted marketing campaigns in the future.

6. Fuel word-of-mouth and social media sharing

People are much more likely to recommend a product or service that was a pleasure to use. A smart, intuitive or frictionless experience is something users will talk about and share, earning you free marketing.

Still not seeing the link between UX and Digital Marketing? Think of the relationship in this way:

Digital marketing is the megaphone. It brings people to your digital door.
UX is the door, the corridor and the welcome inside. It determines whether people are able to enter, how they feel once inside and whether they decide to stay and buy something.

You can have the best marketing campaign in the world, but if your website is slow, confusing or frustrating, you are essentially spending money to disappoint potential customers.

For further insights – in English – you can visit Yon Jablonsky’s interactive Laws of UX site or the portal of the well-known organisation Nielsen Norman Group NN/g which contains training, case studies and more.

The ultimate guide to Dropshipping: build your online business

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 23:48:32 +0000

Have you ever dreamed of running your own profitable online business without the headaches of inventory management, shipping logistics or huge upfront investments?

You should consider dropshipping, an interesting business model that’s transforming how entrepreneurs approach e-commerce. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about dropshipping, from understanding the basics to building a thriving online store.

What Exactly Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is fundamentally a fulfillment model – a way of handling how products get delivered to your customers. But it’s so much more than that; it’s a complete business approach that eliminates many traditional barriers to starting an online store.

Fulfillment: In business terms, fulfillment refers to the entire process of receiving, processing, and delivering orders to customers. This includes inventory management, packaging, shipping, and customer service related to deliveries.

In traditional retail, if you want to sell physical products, you typically need to:

Purchase inventory upfront – buying products in bulk at wholesale prices
Store products – finding space for your inventory
Manage stock levels – keeping track of what you have and what you need to reorder
Handle shipping – packing and sending products to customers
Deal with returns – processing refunds and exchanges

This traditional model requires significant capital investment and comes with substantial financial risk. If your products don’t sell, you’re stuck with expensive inventory taking up space.

How Dropshipping Changes Everything

With dropshipping, the process becomes remarkably simple:

You create an online store and list products for sale
A customer places an order on your website
You forward the order to your dropshipping supplier
The supplier ships directly to your customer
You keep the profit – the difference between what the customer paid and what you paid the supplier

With dropshipping, you never actually handle the physical products. You’re essentially the middleman connecting customers with suppliers, but your customers never know this – to them, you’re the retailer.

Dropshipping vs. Affiliate Marketing: Understanding the Difference

Many people confuse dropshipping with affiliate marketing, but there are crucial differences:

Affiliate Marketing: A business model where you promote other companies’ products and earn a commission for each sale made through your unique referral link. Customers are directed to the company’s website to complete the purchase.

Profit Potential

Dropshipping typically offers higher profit margins than affiliate marketing. Most dropshipping businesses use “keystone pricing” – selling products at roughly double what they pay suppliers. This 100% markup is standard in retail and allows for healthy profit margins.

A pricing strategy where the retail price is set at double the wholesale cost. For example, if you pay $25 for a product, you’d sell it for $50.

Brand Control

Perhaps more importantly, dropshipping allows you to maintain complete control over your brand experience. Customers buy from your website, using your branding, and never interact directly with the supplier. This creates a more professional appearance and keeps customers loyal to your brand rather than directing them to someone else’s website.

The Major Advantages of Dropshipping

1. Sell Physical Products to Everyone

One of the biggest limitations of digital products (like e-books, online courses, or software) is their limited appeal. While digital products can have high profit margins, they typically only appeal to tech-savvy consumers or other online marketers.

Physical products, on the other hand, have universal appeal. Everyone needs:

Clothing and accessories
Home and garden products
Health and fitness items
Electronics and gadgets
Beauty and personal care products

This broader market appeal means more potential customers and less competition fighting over the same small audience of “make money online” enthusiasts.

2. Incredible Flexibility

Dropshipping offers flexibility in several key areas:

Sales Channels: You’re not limited to your own website. Many dropshippers successfully sell on:

eBay – Start selling immediately without building a website
Amazon – Tap into their massive customer base
Social media platforms – Sell directly through Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Your own e-commerce site – Complete control over the customer experience

Pricing Control: Unlike affiliate marketing where the product owner sets the price, you control your pricing strategy. You can offer discounts, create bundles, or adjust prices based on market conditions.

Product Selection: With virtually unlimited niches to choose from, you can pivot or expand your product line based on what’s selling well.

3. Dramatically Reduced Risk

Traditional retail requires significant upfront investment in inventory. With dropshipping, your only real costs are:

Website hosting and domain ($10-50/month)
Marketing and advertising (can start small)
Time and effort

There’s no risk of being stuck with unsold inventory, no need for warehouse space, and no need to invest thousands of dollars before seeing your first sale.

Smart Strategy: You can further reduce risk by choosing products that are already proven bestsellers. Instead of guessing what might sell, find products with demonstrated market demand.

4. Build Your Own Brand

This might be the most powerful advantage of dropshipping. Unlike affiliate marketing, where you’re essentially advertising for someone else’s business, dropshipping allows you to build your own brand and customer base.

Every sale happens on your website, under your brand name. This means:

Customer loyalty – People remember and return to your brand
Repeat business – Satisfied customers come back for more
Cross-selling opportunities – You can offer multiple products during the same shopping session
Brand equity – You’re building long-term value in your business name

White Label Dropshipping: The Ultimate Branding Solution

Some suppliers offer “white label” dropshipping, where products can be packaged with your own branding and labels. This makes the products appear as if they’re manufactured by your company.

White label products are manufactured by one company but packaged and sold under another company’s brand name. The “white label” refers to the blank label that can be customized with your branding.

For example, if you’re in the fitness niche, you could work with a supplement manufacturer to create protein powder with your logo and brand name on the container. You might even be able to customize the formula with your preferred blend of ingredients.

The Challenge: Finding Reliable Dropshipping Partners

The biggest hurdle in dropshipping is finding legitimate, reliable suppliers. Since this business model heavily favors retailers over suppliers, not all manufacturers offer dropshipping services.

Directory Websites

The easiest place to start is with established dropshipping directories or platforms:

Alibaba – Global marketplace connecting buyers with manufacturers
ThomasNet – North American industrial supplier directory
Makers Row – Platform connecting brands with manufacturers
WholesaleCentral – Free directory of wholesale suppliers
BigBuy – A European platform based in Spain

Important: Some directories charge membership fees. While these can be worth it for serious businesses, make sure you research the platform thoroughly before paying any fees.

Google Search Strategy

You can often find suppliers by searching: “[product type] + dropshipping + [your country]”

For example:

“clothing dropshipping Europe”
“electronics dropshipping USA”
“home goods dropshipping Italy”

Direct Outreach

Sometimes the best approach is contacting manufacturers directly. Many companies don’t advertise dropshipping services but might be willing to work with you if you approach them professionally.

Look on marketplaces like eBay for products with multiple sellers offering identical items – this often indicates a dropshipping supplier. You can then research to find the original manufacturer.

What to Watch Out For

Not all companies claiming to offer dropshipping are legitimate. Avoid suppliers who:

Charge monthly fees – Real dropshippers make money from product sales, not membership fees
Sell directly to consumers – This creates competition between you and your supplier
Require large minimum orders – This defeats the purpose of dropshipping’s low-risk model
Won’t provide product samples – You should always test products before selling them

Choosing Your Niche: Finding Your Perfect Market

Your niche is the specific market segment or industry you’ll focus on. This choice will determine everything from your profit margins to your marketing strategies.

Niche: A specialized segment of a larger market. For example, “fitness” is a broad market, while “home gym equipment for seniors” would be a specific niche within that market.

The Goldilocks Principle of Niche Selection

You want a niche that’s “just right” – not too broad, not too narrow:

Too broad (like “fitness”) – You’ll compete with major brands and struggle to rank in search engines
Too narrow (like “left-handed golf equipment for teenagers”) – Your audience will be too small to sustain a business
Just right (like “home fitness equipment for busy professionals”) – Specific enough to avoid major competition but broad enough for sustainable growth

Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Niche

1. Your Existing Audience

If you already have a blog, social media following, or email list, consider serving that existing audience first. They already know and trust you, making sales much easier.

2. Personal Interest and Knowledge

Choose something you’re genuinely interested in. You’ll need to create content, understand customer needs, and stay current with trends. This is much easier when you actually care about the subject.

3. Your Unique Advantages

Do you have special connections, expertise, or access in any particular industry? These advantages can give you a significant head start.

4. Strong Value Proposition

The most successful niches solve real problems or fulfill strong desires. The “big three” niches in online marketing are popular for a reason:

Health and Fitness – People want to look and feel better
Wealth and Finance – People want financial security and success
Relationships and Dating – People want meaningful connections

Value Proposition: The benefit or transformation your product provides to customers. It’s not just what the product is, but what it does for the person buying it.

Remember, you’re not just selling products – you’re selling outcomes. A fitness product isn’t about the equipment; it’s about the confidence, health, and attractiveness the customer will gain from using it.

Sub-Niches and Niche Combinations

One powerful strategy is targeting sub-niches or combining multiple niches:

Sub-niche examples: “Fitness for people over 50,” “Budget home decorating,” “Eco-friendly baby products”
Combined niches: “Outdoor gear for photographers,” “Productivity tools for remote workers,” “Style accessories for plus-size women”

These focused approaches help you stand out and build a loyal customer base that feels like you truly understand their specific needs.

Selecting the Perfect Products

Once you’ve chosen your niche, you need to select specific products that will resonate with your audience and sell well.

Alignment with Your Brand

Your products should feel like a natural extension of your brand and mission. Avoid simply picking the first available products in your niche. Instead, ask yourself:

Does this product align with my brand values?
Would I personally use or recommend this product?
Does it solve a real problem for my target customers?
Can I get excited about promoting this product?

Avoid This Mistake: Don’t sell generic, widely available products that customers can easily find elsewhere. You need to offer unique value, whether through better service, exclusive products, or superior customer experience.

Product Characteristics That Sell

Look for products that have:

Clear, obvious benefits – Customers should immediately understand what problem it solves
Visual appeal – Products that look good in photos tend to sell better online
Reasonable size and weight – Shipping costs can eat into profits for large, heavy items
Good profit margins – Aim for products you can sell at 2-3 times your cost
Proven demand – Look for products that are already selling well elsewhere

Building a Product Range

Consider offering products at different price points to serve various customer types:

Low-cost items ($5-25) – Build trust and encourage first-time purchases
Mid-range products ($25-100) – Your bread-and-butter sales
Premium offerings ($100+) – Higher profit margins, though lower volume

Strategy Tip: Consider consumable products that customers need to repurchase regularly (supplements, skincare, pet food, etc.). These create recurring revenue streams and increase customer lifetime value.

Subscription Box Opportunities

One innovative approach is creating subscription boxes – curated collections of products delivered monthly. This model works well for:

Beauty and skincare products
Snacks and specialty foods
Hobby and craft supplies
Pet products
Fitness and wellness items

Subscription boxes provide predictable recurring revenue and can command premium prices due to the convenience and curation value you provide.

Building Your Brand and Growing Your Audience

Success in dropshipping isn’t just about finding products and suppliers – you need to build a brand that customers know, like, and trust.

What Is a Brand Really?

A brand is much more than a logo or company name. It’s your business’s personality, values, and promise to customers. Strong brands like Apple, Nike, or Starbucks succeed because they stand for something meaningful beyond just their products.

Your brand should answer these questions:

Why do you exist? What’s your mission beyond making money?
What do you believe? What values guide your business decisions?
How are you different? What makes you unique in your market?
Who do you serve? What specific type of customer do you focus on?

Example: Instead of just being “another fitness equipment store,” you could position yourself as “empowering busy professionals to stay fit without sacrificing family time” – focusing on efficient, home-based workout solutions.

Content Marketing: Building Trust Before Selling

The biggest mistake new dropshippers make is trying to sell immediately.

This approach rarely works because people don’t trust unknown brands.

A strategic approach focused on creating valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a target audience, with the goal of driving profitable customer action.

Instead, focus on providing value first:

Create helpful content – Blog posts, videos, guides related to your niche
Solve problems – Answer questions your target customers are asking
Demonstrate expertise – Show that you understand their challenges and needs
Build relationships – Engage with your audience on social media and email
Introduce products naturally – Once trust is established, recommend products as solutions

Multi-Channel Audience Building

Don’t rely on just one platform to build your audience:

Blog/Website – Your home base that you fully control
Email List – Direct communication with your most interested prospects
Social Media – Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, BlueSky, X, YouTube, Threads, Tumblr, VK (choose based on where your audience spends time)
SEO – Optimise content to be found in search engines – consider Google AI overview
Paid Advertising – Meta ads, Google ads, X, LinkedIn ads, influencer partnerships

Rather than trying to be everywhere, focus by picking 2-3 channels and do them well. It’s better to have a strong presence on a few platforms than a weak presence everywhere.

Creating Your E-commerce Store

Your online store is where the magic happens – it’s where browsers become buyers. Every element should be designed to encourage sales and provide an excellent customer experience.

Platform Options

You have several options for creating your store:

Shopify – Popular ecommerce hosted solution, easy to use but monthly fees
WooCommerce (WordPress) – More control and flexibility, free (but you need hosting) requires more technical knowledge
BigCommerce – Feature-rich platform with good built-in SEO tools, free but you need to pay for web hosting
PrestaShop — Another popular ecommerce CMS
Squarespace – Great for design-focused brands, limited e-commerce features, paid

You can also synchronise products with popular ecommerce platforms like eBay, Amazon, etc. pushing them via API from your dropshipping platform(s), bypassing your e-commerce website.

Design Principles That Sell

Your store design should prioritize conversion over creativity. Every element should either help customers make purchasing decisions or remove barriers to buying.

The “Communicate, Don’t Decorate” Rule

Every design element should serve a purpose. Ask yourself: “Does this help customers buy, or is it just decoration?” If it doesn’t contribute to sales, remove it.

Key Design Elements:

Clear navigation – Customers should easily find what they’re looking for
Professional appearance – Poor design destroys trust and credibility
Mobile optimization – Many customers shop on phones and tablets
Fast loading times – Slow sites lose customers quickly
Easy checkout process – Minimize steps between “buy now” and “purchase complete”

Psychological Pricing Strategies

How you price and present your products can significantly impact sales:

Contrast Pricing

Display expensive items next to cheaper ones to make the cheaper items seem like better deals. A $50 product looks more reasonable next to a $200 product.

Anchor Pricing

Show the “original” or “MSRP” price crossed out next to your sale price. This makes customers feel they’re getting a deal.

Trust-Building Pricing

Offer some very low-priced items ($5-15) to allow hesitant customers to test your service with minimal risk. Once they have a positive experience, they’re more likely to make larger purchases.

Once customers have decided to buy, they’re more open to additional purchases: it’s a chance to offer complementary products (cross-selling) or upgrades during the checkout process (upselling).

Building Trust and Credibility

Online shoppers are naturally cautious about buying from unknown stores. Build trust with:

Customer reviews and testimonials – Social proof is incredibly powerful
Clear return policy – Reduces purchase risk
Security badges – SSL certificates, payment processor logos
Contact information – Phone number, email, physical address (even if virtual)
About page – Tell your story and mission
Money-back guarantee – Shows confidence in your products

Writing Copy That Converts

Your product descriptions and sales copy can make or break your success. Great copywriting can sell ordinary products, while poor copywriting can kill sales of excellent products.

Grab Attention Immediately

Online attention spans are incredibly short. Your headlines and opening lines need to hook readers instantly:

Attention-Grabbing Techniques:

Direct address: “Are YOU tired of…”
Intriguing questions: “What if you could…”
Bold statements: “The #1 mistake that’s sabotaging…”
Story beginnings: “Three months ago, Sarah was struggling with…”

Focus on Benefits, Not Features

Customers don’t buy products – they buy outcomes. Always translate features into benefits:

Feature: “Stainless steel construction” → Benefit: “Never worry about rust or replacement – this lasts for years”
Feature: “Lightweight design” → Benefit: “Take it anywhere without fatigue”
Feature: “30-day supply” → Benefit: “See real results in just one month”

Address Objections Proactively

Anticipate why customers might hesitate to buy and address those concerns in your copy:

“Is it worth the price?” → Emphasize value and compare to alternatives
“Will it work for me?” → Provide testimonials from similar customers
“What if I’m not satisfied?” → Highlight your return policy and guarantee
“Is this company legitimate?” → Show credentials, reviews, and contact information

Make It Scannable

Most people skim rather than read every word. Make your copy easily scannable with:

Descriptive headlines – Readers should understand your message from headlines alone
Bullet points – Easier to digest than long paragraphs
Short paragraphs – Large blocks of text are intimidating
Bold keywords – Highlight important points
White space – Give content room to breathe

Ready to Start Your Dropshipping Journey?

Dropshipping offers an incredible opportunity to build a profitable online business without traditional barriers like inventory investment or complex logistics. The key to success lies in choosing the right niche, finding reliable suppliers, building a strong brand, and creating exceptional customer experiences.

Remember: success in dropshipping isn’t about finding a “magic product” or secret strategy. It’s about understanding your customers, providing genuine value, and building relationships based on trust.

Video with a simple short explaination

Taking Action: Next Steps to Take

Now that you understand the fundamentals of dropshipping, here’s how to get started:

Choose your niche – Pick something you’re interested in and that has proven market demand
Research your audience – Understand their problems, desires, and buying behavior
Find suppliers – Use the strategies outlined above to locate reliable partners
Test products – Order samples to ensure quality meets your standards
Build your store – Create a professional, conversion-optimized website
Start creating content – Begin building your audience before you launch products
Launch and iterate – Start small, test everything, and improve based on results

Dropshipping is not a “get rich quick” scheme. Like any legitimate business, it requires time, effort, and persistence. Focus on providing genuine value to customers, and the profits will follow.

The beauty of dropshipping lies in its low barriers to entry and high potential for scalability.

You can start part-time while keeping your day job, test different products and niches without major financial risk, and scale up successful products quickly but keep in mind fundamental aspects such as your business structure, to optimise tax impact.

Most importantly, remember that you’re not just selling products – you’re solving problems and improving lives.

When you approach dropshipping with this service-oriented mindset, both you and your customers win.

Recommended resources…

Relevant Dropshipping / Supplier Platforms with European strength

These are platforms or supplier networks that tend to work well (or have features) for Europe:

Platform / Supplier	Strengths / European features	Potential drawbacks or considerations
Spocket	Strongly marketed as “US + EU suppliers.” You can filter suppliers by region (EU) so that your customers get faster shipping.	Some items still shipped from outside EU; margins might be lower. Depending on your region, certain EU suppliers may have limited catalog
Printful	For print-on-demand aka POD, Printful has fulfillment centers in Spain, Latvia, UK, etc., which helps with shipping times within Europe. No costs to start. Visit Printful	Because it is POD, you are limited to “printable” product types (t-shirts, mugs, posters, etc.). Not ideal for general merchandise.
BigBuy	Spanish, very EU-centric wholesaler & dropshipping supplier. They have European stock, multi-language catalogs, and synchronization options, quite demanding in terms of resources for big shops (API, XML, etc.). Visit BigBuy	You may face more competition in their catalog; subscription or membership costs might apply; quality variation
Syncee	Good automation and many verified EU suppliers. You can filter by supplier location (EU) and product categories.	The supply from EU may not cover all niches; pricing for advanced tiers
Droppery	Works with European / premium brands, fairly fast delivery within Europe; integrates with Shopify.	It’s selective in its set of brands (you may need approval)
GOGETTERS	Focused on European suppliers (300,000+ product options) with automation and fast delivery.	As always, check product quality, shipping coverage, and integration to your store
BrandsGateway	If you’re doing designer / fashion dropshipping, BrandsGateway offers European warehouses and faster delivery to EU markets.	Higher costs; subscription or membership fees; niche limited to fashion / luxury
Hertwill	A newer platform mentioned among European dropshipping supplier lists.	Because it’s newer, its depth of suppliers, support, and track record may not be as strong as more established ones

Other platforms / plugins you might use (global but popular in Europe too)

These are more general tools (marketplaces, plugins) that enable dropshipping / supplier access, even if they’re not European-native:

AliExpress (via plugins or dropshipping centers) — Chinese, very common; but shipping from Asia often means longer times and more customs complexity in Europe.
Dripshipper — create your own coffee label and sell via dropshipping.
Modalyst, DSers, Dropified, SaleHoo etc. — many of these connect to global suppliers, but you can filter for EU / local warehouses (they often appear in “best dropshipping tools” lists)
WordPress + WooCommerce + supplier plugins or Shopify + apps — your store platform matters. Many dropshipping supplier networks integrate via their own apps or plugins like Oberlo.

Are you ready to start?

SEO in the Age of Google’s AI Mode: Show Up, Earn Qualified Clicks, Stay Relevant

admin — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 01:43:38 +0000

A practical guide about SEO + AI

If search felt like a neatly ordered supermarket, AI Mode (which is the evolution of AI Overview) is the friendly clerk at the door giving instant directions: it’s helpful for users, and disruptive for website owners.

Here’s how to adapt without losing your traffic.

What actually changed (and what didn’t)

Google’s AI Mode (AIO) sits on top of classic search. It synthesizes an answer and cites a handful of sources. There’s no secret AIO tag or magic schema. If your content is indexable, helpful, and easy to quote, you’re eligible.

In a few words, you’re no longer just competing for organic ranking, you’re competing to be one of the sources Google leans on to build its answer.

AIO tends to “fan out” into sub-questions. Pages that cover the main query and the likely follow-ups (with clear, quotable snippets) get more opportunities to be cited—even if they’re not #1 for the head term.

Meanwhile, Google has tightened policies against low-quality “scaled” content and reputation-renting. Translation: mass-produced thin pages are now high-risk and low-reward.

Not least, blocking AI spiders, also from other large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, DeepSeek, etc., might be a suicide action for your brand narrative visibility, control and relevance. It might disappear from answers, and others can still talk about it anyway so despite some SEO experts suggest that option, I strongly recommend not to take it.

Pros & Cons of AI Mode

For site owners

Upsides:

New discovery surface: AIO can cite you even if you’re not a top-3 organic results.
Higher intent: Users who click through often want depth, not fluff.
Diversified queries: Covering sub-topics earns more “edges” into your content.

Downsides:

Zero-click pressure: Shallow pages get answered in-SERP.
Attribution fuzziness: AIO clicks blend into “Web” in analytics; you’ll need better instrumentation.
Quality bar ↑: Thin, scaled, or off-topic content is a liability.

For visitors

Upsides: Faster orientation, clearer starting points, fewer tab explosions.

Risks: AI can still be confidently wrong. Your job is to be the credible, human source users recognize and trust when they click through.

The new mindset: don’t just rank—be cite-worthy

Answer the question + the next five: anticipate follow-ups and structure them as sub-heads.
Make claims quotable: concise answer first, depth and nuance after.
Show lived expertise: names, credentials, methods, data, screenshots, failures, lessons learned.
Stay snippet-eligible: avoid accidentally blocking previews/snippets with aggressive meta directives.

A practical playbook to appear in AI Mode and earn qualified traffic

1) Cover topics like a human teacher

Lead with a one-paragraph TL;DR, then the why, then the how.
Use Q&A sub-heads that mirror real follow-ups.
Add receipts: original data, methods, tables, checklists, screenshots, quotes from primary sources.
Include first-hand notes: what surprised you, pitfalls, before/after metrics.

2) Structure for machines without writing for machines

Be indexable and preview-friendly; fix stray noindex or snippet-blocking parameters.
Use internal links to cluster related sub-topics; keep hubs one click from spokes.
Add structured data that matches visible content (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Organization, Author).
Mind page experience: clean layout, readable typography, mobile comfort, Core Web Vitals.

3) Create “information gain”

Original datasets: polls, benchmarks, public data with methodology.
Lightweight tools: calculators, converters, checkers.
Decision aids: matrices, teardown comparisons, pros/cons with criteria and scoring.

4) Match format to intent

How-to: steps, requirements, pitfalls, time estimates; consider a short video or GIF.
Comparisons: transparent criteria, real photos, clear disclaimers for affiliates.
Local: up-to-date services, hours, photos, menus, “who this is for.”
Product: specs, compatibility, returns/warranty, real usage notes.

5) Stop the risky stuff

No mass-generated city/model doorway pages.
No “renting out” your domain to third-party thin content.
No repurposed expired domains for unrelated topics.

Measure like a detective

Segment queries that tend to trigger AIO (questions, comparisons). Track CTR, on-page engagement, and conversions.
Log SERP features for your priority terms (manually or with a tracker) to spot AIO patterns.
Use UTMs on downloadable tools or calculators to fingerprint “summary-driven” clicks.

Strengthen brand signals (your durable moat)

Humans click names they recognize. Invest in:

Author entities bios, LinkedIn, talks, bylines.
Real PR studies, partnerships, expert quotes.
Quality links that corroborate your expertise (no schemes).
Owned channels email list, community, YouTube—so search is a gateway, not your whole business.

On tone & transparency

AIO rewards content that sounds like real people doing real work. Keep the language plain, admit trade-offs, show your working, and give readers the “why,” not just the “what.” That’s what builds trust—and citations.

Quick FAQ

Is there a tag to force my page into AI Mode?

No. There’s no special markup. Do great SEO and be genuinely useful.

Can I opt out of AI Overviews but keep regular snippets?

You can block previews/snippets, but you’ll also lose classic snippet benefits. Use sparingly and intentionally.

Will AI kill my traffic?

It depends on your content. Be the page AIO wants to cite, and build direct demand for your brand. That combo is resilient.

12 actions you should run ASAP to stay relevant with AIO

Pick 10 money queries; list the 5 likely follow-ups for each.
Update pages: add a two-sentence answer up top and Q&A sub-heads.
Add proof: screenshots, data tables, references.
Make authorship obvious: bio, credentials, first-hand notes.
Tighten internal links so every sub-answer is one click from the hub.
Validate indexability & snippet eligibility.
Add or refresh structured data that mirrors visible content.
Improve page experience basics (speed, readability, mobile spacing).
Publish one original dataset or a simple calculator this month.
Audit and prune thin or near-duplicate templates.
Build a reporting view for “question” queries; track CTR and conversions.
Start one brand-signal project (PR piece, talk, or partner study).

AI Mode didn’t erase SEO—they raised the bar and changed the geometry. The winner isn’t the page that mentions the keyword the most, it’s the page that cleanly answers the question, anticipates the next five, backs it up, and feels human.

Do that consistently and you won’t just survive—you’ll be the source the summary leans on.

If you need effective SEO services for your website, get in touch now.

Framing, Anchoring and Halo Effect: How Marketing Shapes Brand Perception

admin — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:30:42 +0000

Marketing isn’t just about pushing products or services. It’s about understanding how people think and using that knowledge to shape perceptions.

By tapping into some psychological principles, marketers can create more compelling, impactful strategies.

Let’s explore three influential effects: the Halo, the Framing, and the Anchoring, each with a major impact on how people perceive and respond to brands.

1. The Halo Effect: First Impressions Count

The Halo Effect describes how first impressions set the tone for all future interactions. When people encounter a brand—through its website, social media, or even a simple handshake—they make snap judgments that can impact their overall perception. If a brand’s social media is vibrant and engaging, people might assume the brand itself is lively and trustworthy. Conversely, if the website looks outdated or the messaging is dull, people may conclude the services are subpar, even if they’re excellent.

This effect cuts both ways:

Fun social media presence = fun, trustworthy brand.
Boring social media presence = boring brand.
Polished, professional website = high-quality services.
Poor website design = low-quality services.

For brands, maintaining a consistent and appealing image across all platforms is critical.
How a business “shows up” in every interaction—online or offline—matters because each impression is an opportunity to either enhance or damage customer perception.

2. The Framing Effect: It’s All in the Presentation

The way information is presented, or “framed,” influences how people perceive it. A message framed positively will often feel more appealing than one framed negatively, even if both convey the same underlying information. For instance:

“You have a 90% chance of surviving surgery” sounds reassuring.
vs
“You have a 10% chance of dying from surgery” sounds alarming.

In marketing, framing can be used to emphasize the positive benefits of a product or service and downplay any perceived risks. Here’s how framing can be applied effectively:

“Join our event and avoid years of back pain.”
“Download our guide and prevent bloating.”
“Sign up now to look and feel your best at the beach.”

By framing messages in a way that highlights the positives and minimizes negatives, brands can help guide customer decisions and foster a sense of trust and positivity.

3. The Anchoring Effect: Setting the Right Baseline

The Anchoring Effect shows how people rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive (the “anchor”) to make subsequent judgments. For example, if a product is listed at $1,000 but then reduced to $100, it feels like a great deal, even if that discount is part of the regular price strategy. Similarly, offering “10 sessions for the price of 5” makes people feel they’re getting added value, anchored by the initial number of sessions.

Anchoring is powerful in pricing and promotion:

A high original price followed by a discount can make a product seem like a great value.
Offering “extra” sessions or benefits relative to a lower initial offer can feel like a bonus.

However, it’s essential to use anchoring ethically. Customers appreciate value, but if brands inflate prices only to mark them down significantly, it can erode trust. The best practice is to create a genuine sense of value by carefully choosing your anchor points and delivering quality.

The Halo, Framing, and Anchoring Effects show how much perception matters in marketing and help marketers build campaigns that not only catch attention but also create lasting positive impressions.

We entered the era of Zero-Click Marketing

admin — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 13:41:57 +0000

Do you remember when all your digital acquisition efforts focused on driving website traffic?
Those days are fading fast.

After analysing recent trends emerging in major digital platforms worldwide, Rand Fishkin and other digital marketing industry thought leaders warned marketers to adapt their strategies and move away from the pressure to generate incoming website traffic. We’re entering the so-called zero-click marketing era (don’t confuse with zeroclick attack, which involves vulnerabilities of some digital platforms and it’s more a matter of cybersecurity specialists rather than marketers).

Look at these recent digital marketing trends

YouTube is now the 2nd largest search engine worldwide.
Already in 2020, more than 75% of Google searches ended without a click, and the platform is changing fast, offering immediate website extracts and AI-generated answers on top of SERP (search engine result page), for which users don’t even need to screen results and click one or more websites anymore. Consequently the SEO game must adapt too.
LinkedIn & Facebook: algorithms favour native content and penalise direct links to external web pages.
Instagram & TikTok: Video-first (and only). The two platforms are now similar as Instagram has given up its initial and much-loved vocation for photos to chase the Chinese competitor who dominates the market despite Western boycotts with the backing of politics. It is not allowed to click anything outside the profile description, which is often ignored given that the contents are mainly used in the user feed and not in the channel feed (remember that it is not possible to insert links in the description of photos or videos, and the link-in-bio mention, as well as being obsolete and ineffective, risks penalising views).

Growing channel attribution challenges

Cookieless browsers, due to growing privacy concerns and regulations, limit user data.
Link sharing via private chats, either individual or group (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord, and more), makes tracking difficult, if not impossible, making analytics data and KPIs unreliable and, often, misleading.
Last-touch attribution models are outdated and, in most cases, unreliable. Why assuming that credit for a conversion goes the last-click if other touch points contributed too? If you expect effective actionable KPIs to drive your strategic adjustments, don’t trust what’s based on partial data and wrong assumptions, because your future success might suffer big time.

What to do to be effective in a zero-click marketing world?

Rethink your strategy. It’s not about clicks anymore, but attention.

Go where your audience is: YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram.
Partner with influencers/creators on podcasts and social platforms.
Create engaging, inspiring, native content which is worth sharing for each platform, rather than just posting a link.
Don’t forget to nurture your email list, a primary owned channel.
Keep on building a memorable and trusted brand.

In a few words: stop chasing clicks and start capturing attention on platforms that matter. Adapt your marketing strategy now, or risk falling behind.

Even companies with a limited presence on social media platforms should remember that their marketing goal is reaching their audience.

Any company talks to people, wherever they are. And people are on social media – either through a direct presence or indirectly via testimonials, reviews, and overall word of mouth shared on digital channels by individuals, partners, press, and industry influencers. Therefore, traffic to their websites is a consequence of a positive, growing brand awareness rather than just a sequel of posts merely including boring calls-to-action and direct web links, which, if allowed by platforms, are still penalised by algorithms.

Moving to paid clicks, companies with low brand awareness still need to improve their click-through rate, proving that it’s wiser to move marketing investments towards effective organic inbound strategies.

Social media platforms turned into creator platforms with (social) benefits

Social platforms aim to retain users rather than making them exit to external websites (unless advertising clicks, aka PPC campaigns, compensate for these exits).

In fact, social platforms are greedy for our time: the more time we spend, the more advertising spaces they can sell (paid impressions).

Keep in mind that today social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads) are mostly media distribution platforms, like let’s say like Netflix, embedding social elements such as reactions (likes), comments, sharing. On these platforms, each user is a potential creator (or re-creator), and those who generate content most effective at retaining users are rewarded with greater visibility.

Therefore, it is necessary to minimise the clicks of the user journey, possibly allowing the user to achieve the objective we have set ourselves directly on the first acquisition platform, where, moreover, if what we propose is valid, there are more significant opportunities than visibility (reach ) is multiplied thanks to the actions of the user who reads us. User involvement (engagement) matters most, and measuring our content’s success and increasing its organic visibility (social reach) is essential.

We must always create and share (inspiring, meaningful, valuable, fresh, unique, captivating) content to encourage reactions such as likes and comments to which we can and must respond immediately, reposts to a presumably qualified audience, supported by the fact that the advice comes from a person and not a brand).

Follow me on LinkedIn
(yes, sometimes clicks still count!)

15 steps to optimise your digital marketing ROI

admin — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 21:28:44 +0000

Boost your digital marketing ROI with a smarter budget

With economic uncertainty ahead – well, it’s a constant, isn’t it? – budgets get tighter.

That makes Return on Investment (ROI) even more critical.

You’ll need to stretch each euro further through smarter budgeting.

Follow these 15 steps to optimise your digital marketing budget & ROI.

1: Start with a Clear Plan and Keep it Flexible

Set clear strategic goals and map related tactics to achieve them. A plan provides direction, optimises resources, and makes measurement easier.

Know where you want to go before determining budget. Plans set the direction in line with the company objectives, but don’t have to be too rigid: periodic revision helps to adjust the trajectory, considering that forecasts might be incorrect and the market is dynamic so changes must be faced timely.

2: Audit Your Tech Stack

Take stock of your martech and tools. Look at upgrades needed and potential new investments to support goals. Don’t forget to take into account cybersecurity, business continuity and indirect costs.

Some tools are cool but not safe (mind giving access to internal documents or API keys to unknown developers).

Other tools might disappear leaving you with no alternatives – it happens frequently when working with cool startups that go bankrupt or are acquired by other companies that change their offer and pricing.

Not least, some tools might be cheap or totally free, but their implementation still has a relevant cost.

Think of switching costs (training internal staff), developing costs, hosting, security, customisation, possible increase in pricing, integration with other tools or platforms, etc. The final price of a tool is not just its cost.

3: Analyse Current Spending

Critically assess this year’s expenditures. Identify what worked and didn’t. Shift budgets accordingly. Things don’t always need to be the same. There’s no best recipe, even when it works. Because everything can always be improved.

4: Calculate Task Time

Account for team and task time in your budget, like content creation and asset production. Demonstrate work required – not always easy to estimate, but the more you’ll track, the more you’ll get a rough idea of the real time spent on single tasks. Some might be avoided, and processes can be improved adopting collaboration tools, saving time, hence costs (because time is money).

Minimise emails, calls/meeting duration and distraction time (for example avoiding copying in an email or inviting to a meeting staff not required).

Any distraction costs time, which is money. In the long term, it’s an important part of the total costs that could have been saved and invested in some more productive resources, tools, tasks.

5: Leverage External Support

Estimate needs for freelancer or agency support. Specialists bring expertise your team may lack.

However, when working with freelancers mind their availability and business continuity: if they have too many clients they might get slower or outsource to low skills collaborators. They might also stop the contract if they have a more inspiring or rewarding project to follow.

In terms of agencies, mind those ones that don’t have internal staff and just collect freelancers extra charging for that.

They also tend to charge more to cover their indirect costs, and often most of the work is carried out by interns or junior profiles despite you’ll pay at senior level.

Employees help to leverage internal skills, save costs and time (less calls, meetings, emails, that are normally charged too when working with agencies) and, not least, employees learning stay in-house while an agency might resell it to your competitors in the future.

6: Budget for Paid Social

Allocate funds to promote key social posts beyond low organic reach. Combine with employee advocacy – try an ambassadorship program – for maximum impact.

Employees network is a great multiplier. On social media channels, brands must talk with people’s voice, better if others talk about a brand, rather than the brand itself self-claiming achievement.

Paid Social helps to reach a narrow audience interested in a specific content. You don’t need to target the world to talk to a few people.

Organic social is not effective in this sense, because its reach is generally low and often out of target, especially for niches hard to reach.

7: Enhance Existing Efforts

Before launching new initiatives, optimise current ones. Reallocate to improve ROI on previous investments.

Why rebuilding the wheel when little adjustments can bring great improvements?

Don’t forget the Pareto’s law before dismantling stuff. Don’t be like those sport teams that after a few bad results change the coach, forgetting that a team is a team, and results don’t depend on a person.

8: Align Sales and Marketing

Shared budgets foster collaboration between sales and marketing teams, aligning goals. If teams don’t share the same reward, a competition between them will be unhealthy.

Depending on the type of market and product, as well as internal governance, a company normally tends to emphasise more sales or marketing – despite other be predominant too, like product management or CX. The more company elements are integrated, sharing success (and learning together from failure), the better results will be in the medium/long term.

Silos don’t work. Startups have an advantage in being smaller hence more agile, but on their side, growing fast tends to cause confusion and overlaps, difficult to sort out when experience and employee retention is lower – differently than dinosaurs.

9: Test and Adopt New Metrics & KPIs

If it’s the case, implement leading indicators for revenue streams and renewals, like Sales Velocity and Account Health Scores. Some ads platforms have plenty of metrics but there’s no need to waste a life deep diving into numbers that don’t bring learning and action. Instead, try to build your own KPIs focusing on specific segments, products, actions, trying to identify correlations between metrics. AI tools like GPT can greatly help on both quantitative (making sens of huge raw datasets) and qualitative metrics (for example sentiment analysis).

10: Follow the 70/20/10 Rule

Allocate budget as: 70% proven strategies, 20% new avenues, 10% experiments. Save some time for brainstorming, learning, testing new tools and strategies before their implementation. Assumptions never works (and if they do you’ve just been lucky – luckiness is not sustainable).

11: Get Inspired from the Industry

Make time for learning. Attend events and allocate training budget for the team. The best way to learn is to do, so avoid static resources, useful only when needed, but save time and space for little experiments that, beyond new skills, might be the seed of future successful campaigns.

12: Save Time with Templates

Leverage pre-built budget templates as helpful starting point. Speed-up work by substantially reducing time spent on routine tasks.

13: Focus on Actionable KPIs, not just Metrics

Derive value from your data. Turn findings into actionable insights and business impact. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) must be actionable.

Switch from periodic static reports to dynamic dashboards (for example Looker Data Studio or PowerBI) that allow changing timeframe and go granular.

Try to integrate channels (online and offline) to provide an holistic view of your marketing efforts. Don’t get crazy with attribution models: no model is perfect and often, picking the wrong one might lead to wrong assumptions, instead of optimising your campaigns and spending allocation.

14: Track Performance Continuously

Measure and adjust your campaigns periodically, according to performance. Optimise spend across channels based on results: what counts most are KPIs, not simple metrics (for example engagement rate, not just vanity metrics like followers or impressions).

15: Secure Stakeholder Buy-in

Get leadership support through concise, data-driven plans conveying ROI. Numbers tell more than words. Your goals must always be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Smarter budgeting takes work but pays dividends. Following these tips will stretch your dollars further and elevate results. Take the time to plan and set your marketing up for success in the future.

Do you need help with your Digital Marketing strategy?

Ask Oltre Digital

Why blocking GPTBot & other AI web crawlers is a bad move

admin — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 17:20:17 +0000

OpenAI announced its support for robots.txt for GPTBot, which means you can block OpenAI from harvesting your website content.

As Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specialists know, the practice is already available for years for search engines, some SEO tools and other popular web crawlers & scrapers – however, not many websites make good use of it.

Today, SEO specialists advise blocking GPTBot and other AI web scrapers (probably a better definition than crawlers, normally associated with search engine spiders.

However, blocking GPTBot for an entire web domain is a wrong move.

What counts for a brand is not website traffic but information persuasion.

Blocking AI bots will prevent owned brand narrative visibility on tomorrow’s knowledge sources (conversational chatbots are tomorrow’s search engines).

You can still limit its access, but it’s not advised to prevent it from the entire website.

A new search paradigm is coming

Hopefully, the upcoming switch from smart yellow pages (Google) to smart advisors (AI-powered conversational chatbots) will make the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) ranking race a thing of the past.

The digital marketing industry should get rid of grey SEO tactics aimed at tricking algorithms and moving towards meaningful information sharing.

The Generative AI tools in search seen so far (Bing, You, Google SGE) seem to need to be more capable of replacing ‘traditional’ search features.

However, what can be called ‘traditional’ nowadays? SERPs are already full of features where AI plays a role. Beyond (smart) search ads, think of rich snippets, comparisons, answers, custom/local info and so on.

Many more valuable and attractive features already push down organic search results.

AI summarises the most relevant findings from various sources into one snippet rather than separately listing findings for each source.

A way to gain fast adoption by AI-powered conversational search features is to dynamically prompt long questions according to user queries, keeping in mind topical search history – timing is a crucial issue since the user’s search intention changes according to the funnel stage determined by search queries.

Search engines algorithms transformed the web into a wasteland of mediocrity

The current search engine ranking criteria transformed the web into a wasteland of SEO-generated mediocrity.

Most of the so-called reputable media industry ended up in poor clickbait techniques, elegant fake news, surrounded by tons of annoying ads, and often offered behind paywalls.

Let’s be honest: no organisation is fully honest, starting from news factories, usually pushing specific agendas according to their investors, advertisers, positions, etc.

Single voices pursue their interests. Only crowdsourced information can be considered valid since it brings many voices to the storytelling process.

Therefore answers based on multiple sources tend to be more valid than answers based on single sources.

However, the most visible and valuable content tends to be non-promotional, crowd-sourced, rich, and updated, moved by altruism rather than purely promotional goals – think of Wikipedia.

Quality > quantity always prevails in business, at least in the medium/long term. Short-term victories won’t assure business sustainability.

Nowadays, capitalism started to delegate marketing efforts to customers by rewarding evangelists/early adopters, a form of religious missionaries – think of Apple or Tesla fanatics.

Reviews boosted by digital platforms are powerful profit drivers – word of mouth still being the most effective marketing channel.

However, we all know how fake reviews (like fake news) affect their validity.

And besides that, ‘the wisdom of the crowd’ is not that wise after all, considering, for example, election results massively fueled by crap propaganda worldwide.

So AI tools might be a better way to select and interpret valid content, moving beyond biased content, either mass social proof or SEO-driven content.

AI tools can help get rid of all those pages built with the sole purpose of leading SERPs.

Digital platforms’ key goal is to keep users in there

Before any sales, interactions, or persuasion, digital platforms are eager to eat your most valuable asset: time.

Time is consumption, and consumption makes advertising spaces, aka income opportunities.

It doesn’t count the absolute number of profiles (or rather, of users, considering that a user can have multiple profiles) but the time that users spend on the platform, even before how they spend it.

To all supposed SEO professionals scared by the growing amount of AI tools’ web scrapers, it’s worth remembering that a vital goal of any digital platform (social networks and search engines) is to keep users within the platform.

Letting a user move away from a platform is a cost that ads must compensate.

For websites, getting traffic for free will be more challenging when solutions offered by search platforms (including social networks) will be richer and smoother.

Skipping search platforms means missing the marketplaces where users spend most of their time.

Many businesses won’t need a rich website (which represents a considerable cost to be perfect in terms of content, design, SEO, UX, hosting, security, integrations, translations, etc.) where they can feed a global platform with their feeds via API, focusing on core elements of their business: product/service (including pricing) & CX. Their core assets, audiences, will be based on primary data since pixels will also be a thing of the past.

From SEO to AIO

As I wrote some time ago, AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimisation) will be the new SEO. If you want to skip the race, block AI web scrapers, and your brand-owned narrative won’t be mentioned anymore. But others can still talk about your brand, preventing you from any control over it when popping up in AI-powered conversational chatbots.

The News We See: How Facebook Fuels Political Polarization

admin — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 02:14:38 +0000

Research published by Science reveals ideological “echo chambers” on social media

Facebook (Meta Inc.) has transformed how we get news and information.

According to self-proclaims by Meta Inc., over two billion users and counting – or better profiles, including probably a half of fakes, duplicated, bots, scammers, deads, banned… For sure, Facebook is the largest social media network worldwide. Considering the average type of current user – a boomer functional illiterate easy catch for propaganda machines of any kind – the USA-based network founded and still owned by Mark Zuckerberg greatly impacts election results worldwide.

The new anti-Twitter – or better, anti-X – network, Threads, has been a huge flop – 100 million users the first week after launch, and over 50% lost the week after. Two records – despite technically they’re not new users but rather existing users of another network, Instagram, that activated the Threads extension.

Considering the Metaverse flop, the recent introduction of paid verified profiles to provide users’ assistance – otherwise totally absent – and paid plans to watch creators’ content is not a good time for Meta. It seems more of a desperate attempt to drain the drop in advertising revenue due to poor performance amplified after the iOS14 conversion API block for privacy (mainly business) reasons.

Beyond such technical and business sides, a major question concerning Facebook’s rise among users and policymakers: is it dividing us politically?

A major new study published by Science in July 2023, ‘Asymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on Facebook’, suggests it is.

A pool of 27 independent researchers analyzed Facebook data for 208 million U.S. users during the 2020 election. They examined the full universe of news stories people could see in their feeds. Then they compared this to the narrowed selection of stories Facebook’s algorithm showed them.

Facebook contributes overwhelmingly to the ideological segregation and political polarisation of society

The researchers found high levels of “ideological segregation” on Facebook. Conservatives tended to see news catering to their views. The same for liberals. This segregation grew stronger as stories moved from potential exposure to actual exposure.

Political polarisation is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes. Most discussions of polarization in political science consider polarisation in the context of political parties and democratic systems of government. (Source: Wikipedia English)

There was also striking asymmetry between left and right. A sizable segment of conservative news was isolated and consumed only by right-leaning audiences. No equivalent bubble existed on the left.

The researchers also looked at misinformation – stories flagged as false by Facebook’s fact-checkers. Nearly all these bogus stories resided in the uniquely conservative bubble.

In other words, conservatives on Facebook inhabit an alternate media universe to a greater extent than liberals. Their feeds promote partisan news – and sometimes fake news – more aggressively.

Political polarisation taken to extremes by a cynical algorithm

To understand these findings, we need to grasp how news reaches Facebook users:

The underlying network matters. Who you friend, follow and join shapes your potential exposure.
Facebook’s algorithm then filters this network based on your interests. It elevates certain stories into your actual feed.
You engage with some stories by reacting, commenting, and sharing. This signals Facebook what you like, driving the algorithm further.

Two other insights emerged:

Pages and groups drive segregation more than friends. This suggests ideology plays a bigger role in choosing to follow pages/groups versus individuals.
High-political interest users see twice as much segregation as low-interest users. They opt more into partisan echo chambers.

Tell me who you follow, and I will tell you who you vote for…ever

Past research using web browsing data found limited “filter bubbles” online. But this study suggests social media enables far more segregation in news consumption.

Browsing websites like “Fox News” can miss important differences in the specific stories users see. Granular data on news articles – not just outlets – is key.

The findings also underscore the asymmetric polarization of America’s media ecosystem. Conservative media nurtures a more cloistered audience than liberal media. On platforms like Facebook, this asymmetry gets amplified algorithmically.

Social media expands our information horizons. But the factions we prefer to follow can consolidate our prejudices and bias. Facebook’s algorithms cater to those biases, potentially fueling political tribalism.

Hordes of devotees feast daily on media lies, whatever the political party, and then share it with their peers, reinforcing its supposed importance. However, it’s worth reminding that popularity doesn’t imply validity.

Extremist political parties fuel the trend. For example, according to public ads spending data provided by Meta Inc, Belgium’s biggest spender in political ads is the Flemish independentist right-wing party, Vlaams Belang (directly or through its representatives). Millions of taxpayers’ money are funding political parties’ propaganda, ultimately fueling the American social network revenue – skipping local taxation thanks to its Irish tax haven.

The research published by Science highlights the need for transparency from social media platforms. Clearly, in addition to Facebook, there are other platforms. Still, Meta platforms are the most influential in political polarization, both for the number of users involved and for the effects of the algorithm that generates the personalized news feed for each user And for society to navigate the internet’s risks and rewards thoughtfully. Facebook alone won’t fix political divides, but understanding its impact is crucial to mitigate it; otherwise, future elections will be pointless.

The article was also published on DataDrivenInvestor via Medium.

Adapting Journalism to AI: The Good, the Bad and the Profitable

admin — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 15:03:31 +0000

Impact of AI on Journalism

Artificial intelligence (AI) has shaken up the journalism industry worldwide.

Newspapers are searching for new business models to counterbalance AI’s impact and engage their readership.

The growing influence of AI in content creation has forced publishers to search for a sustainable business model that balances quality content and profitability.

The Rise and Fall of Digital Publications

Buzzfeed News and Vice were once successful digital publications that won several awards for their innovative approach to topics like politics and economy. However, both have faced financial difficulties recently.

Buzzfeed News has ceased operations, and Vice is at risk of bankruptcy. While these are high-profile examples, they’re not unique. Their downfall is primarily attributed to their inability to find a sustainable long-term business model.

The Challenge of Scaling Advertising Revenue

Vice and Buzzfeed heavily relied on video and branded content (paid for by advertisers) to generate revenue. Yet, this model could have scaled more effectively in the face of competition from social and streaming platforms, which carved out significant chunks of advertising revenue previously monopolized by newspapers.

Besides, blending journalism with advertising only sometimes yields positive results.

Paywalls: A Possible Solution?

Paywalls have proven effective only for large global brands with loyal audiences. Despite that, data shows that the paywall model is only somewhat effective for some.

In recent years, there has been a stable percentage of people willing to pay for online journalism after years of growth.

The Importance of Diversification

A diversified business model can help media organizations remain stable when market variables change.

Successful media companies operate multiple business lines, such as the Financial Times.

Balancing Press, Digital, and Events

The Financial Times hosts events through its subsidiary, The Next Web. These events contribute significantly to the newspaper’s profits and offer opportunities for networking and discovering new trends in the market.

SEO and AI

Search engine optimisation (SEO) practices have changed how content is written, leading to debates about whether the content is written for readers or search engines.

With advances in AI, SEO can shift from visible text to metadata, simplifying the process for content writers.

AI’s Impact on Content Production

AI has automated simple content production for several years, and this trend is expected to continue.

Quality content that machines cannot replicate will require heightened attention. A minority of journalists produce such quality content, and only half will likely adapt to working with new tools. Some publications are predicted to remain human-only, while others will digitize and transform their operations, publishing in various formats.

Imagine grabbing news, reshaping it for various audiences, translating it into various languages and transforming them into podcasts using text-to-speech technology (that can even adapt to regional accents). New opportunities ahead, where content creators remain crucial in shaping communication goals, setting up the right tone of voice, frequency, media planning, and leaving recurring/routine/boring tasks to machines.

Exponential technologies like generative AI, machine learning, and robotics are rapidly changing the world, predicting that about 50% of jobs will disappear due to these technologies. However, they also foresee exciting developments like new products and services we can’t yet imagine.

To survive and thrive in this new age, we need to develop our skills in creative collaboration – blending creativity, curiosity, and our ability to collaborate with people and machines. Everyone already possesses these skills but they must be developed and shaped in a constantly changing environment. After all, thinking of genetics, according to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is neither the most intellectual of the species nor the strongest that survives, but the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment. Someway, technology follows nature’s rules.

Navigating the Changing Landscape of Social Media

admin — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 16:41:11 +0000

Social media has evolved from simple conversation platforms to robust entertainment systems.

They are now moving towards becoming marketplaces, a change primarily driven by algorithms – the secret formulas that determine how these platforms work.

Take, for example, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to create a ‘metaverse’ or Elon Musk’s expensive purchase of Twitter. These shows attempt to evolve the social media business model beyond personalized advertising. Something similar is also seen in Instagram, adopting features popularized by Snapchat and TikTok.

However, these changes have raised concerns about user data privacy, especially with international platforms like China’s TikTok.

For instance, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter raised many eyebrows and led to significant changes. Some major advertisers like General Mills and General Motors cut or reduced their advertising budgets in response. The platform is now looking at transforming into a marketplace where it can engage with commercial partners differently.

Other platforms like Instagram and Facebook resemble more and more TikTok in their content format to attract and retain users. However, they might also propose new formats to chase those nostalgic users who aren’t willing to switch to video production or consumption. Meta has been working on a platform similar to Twitter, which is expected to be launched this year. Recently, TikTok’s owner ByteDance started to test Lemon8, a channel similar to the old Instagram (based on photos rather than videos). Other platforms might emerge – despite it’s hard in such a concentrated market. Among the others, it’s worth mentioning BlueSky (still invite-only) and Mastodon, a distributed network out for a few years but never able to gain or keep a substantial market share.

Younger generations (GenZ and beyond) focus on communities rather than platforms. They’re unfamiliar with Facebook and prefer direct messaging apps or private channels via Diskord (between a chat and a forum) or Twitch. This channel focused on live streaming and gained popularity thanks to its focus on gaming and other niches, despite almost all social networks offering live streaming (starting from the video-leading platform YouTube, owned by Google).

Social channels have been under scrutiny for years due to political polarization or ideological segregation, an effect detrimental to democracy since users tend to consolidate their beliefs by watching only content strictly related to their network and preference. The Newsfeed algorithm’s main goal is to retain users as much as possible on the platform. Hence it often leads to confirmation bias, as users are mainly shown content they already agree with.

LinkedIn stands out from this trend by encouraging sharing different viewpoints on its platform, primarily used for professional networking.

Despite some negative aspects, it’s undeniable that social media play a central role in our lives. According to the British consulting firm Smartinsights, more than half of the world’s population uses social media daily for an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes.

How these platforms structure their content to keep users engaged has various effects. It can reduce individual focus or redefine social messages, such as political communication. It also opens doors for cybercriminals who aim to steal user identities.

Social media news has significantly declined as algorithms favour other types of content. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal involving false content on Facebook affecting election results, platforms have struggled against fake news.

So while social media continues to evolve and shape our world in various ways, it also raises essential data privacy issues and publishers’ rights that need addressing.

Social media today is much different than during its bubble peak about a decade ago, and it seems that their evolution won’t stop here – we can expect new channels, new formats and new business models that will reshape the advertising market too.