Best of 2013: Responsive design, content marketing, conversion paths & more

2013. Google called it "a year of transformation." Mashable declared it "the year of responsive web design." And then there was Google Enhanced Campaigns, which was mandated across all AdWords campaigns back in July. If you weren't ready for mobile, well, it didn't matter, because it happened.

With smartphone sales expected to reach 1.81 billion...and double by 2015...compelling, intelligent, and integrated digital campaigns, and thus experiences, will be mandatory.

Not optional.

We've been preaching brilliant post-click marketing since 2007. But this year, highly relevant, smart, user-centered creative really took a front seat that will carry through 2014 and beyond.

So, to wrap up the year with a nice bow, we wanted to share our "Best of 2013" — a collection of blog posts designed to inspire better digital experiences and help you provide more value (and conversions) in the new year.

Cheers!

Jessica 

9 Best Practices for Designing Responsive Landing Pages

Nine of our favorite best practices for designing stellar responsive landing pages. You can use these with or without a platform to ensure you are building landing pages that not only respond, but convert! Learn how to put the right content in the right place on the page for every user.

How to use conversion paths for a better digital experience

Humans click your ads and land on your pages. Seems obvious, but in our haste to put up an experience with the perfect layout, content & offer, we often forget to think about the human behind the click. Learn how to use user segmentation (aka conversion paths) for a better digital experience.

9 Ways to Drive More Leads From Your Content Marketing

Sure, you've used landing pages to 'gate' high value content such as white papers or ebooks, but there more creative ways to up-sell and cross-sell content to convert your audience's attention into business results. Discover nine ideas for innovative ways to drive more leads from your content marketing.

Three awesome [infographics]

Content marketing, landing pages and testing...these are three of our favorite things! Download these infographics.

Happy Holidays from ion!

Read our 2013 holiday blog post series — ionians cover best practices for testing, responsive design, user segmentation, marketing apps & more! Read the series.

Best of 2013: Responsive design, content marketing, conversion paths & more

Why Wiping Out HIV 'Reservoirs' Is So Hard

Virus sometimes inserts near genes that make cells divide faster.
Why Wiping Out HIV 'Reservoirs' Is So Hard

3 Social Media Strategies You Should Be Using To Inspire Customer Loyalty

3 Social Media Strategies You Should Be Using To Inspire Customer Loyalty

Advertisers: Tap Into Social Conversations To Engage Users

Advertisers: Tap Into Social Conversations To Engage Users

Inside Visa’s Most Social World Cup

Inside Visa’s Most Social World Cup

Google Updates Maps With Gmail Invitations, Better Search

Searching for places within the Google Maps iOS app just got easier.

Google rolled out an update to the iOS version of its Maps app that improves search and discovery, and integrates Gmail events and reservation information.

See also: How to Get the Most Out of the New Google Maps

Now, when searching for a restaurant, store or other nearby business, Google Maps displays the results on a list of cards in the bottom half of the app. Previously, the app would only display the closest result; users would have to navigate away from the map in order to view a list of all results

Relevant results also now appear on the map itself, along with a brief description of each location, such as “brewing company” or “Chinese restaurant.” (The Android version of Google Maps already has this feature.) Read more…

More about Google, Google Maps, Tech, Ios, and Ios Apps

Google Updates Maps With Gmail Invitations, Better Search

Apple Starts a Blog for Swift Developers

Good news for Apple developers: the Cupertino giant launched a bunch of new resources for its Swift programming language on Friday.

Announced at WWDC 2014, Swift is Apple’s new programming language for iOS and OS XEarly response from developers has been positive, with many seeing Swift making it easier for new programmers to come to the iOS and OS X ecosystems.

See also: What Does Apple’s Swift Programming Language Mean for iOS Developers?

Apple’s Swift page includes a new Swift blog and updated resources for developers.

The Swift blog will offer behind-the-scenes glimpses at the design of Swift and will serve as the official home for news and tips and tricks. This is unusual, because it’s one of the few times Apple has create a blog for any of its developer resources — the WebKit project being the notable exception. Read more…

More about Developers, Apple, 99 Music Video, Tech, and Apps Software

Apple Starts a Blog for Swift Developers

4 Ways to Prepare for the Future of the Inbox

With all the changes coming to the email channel, it's easy to lose sight of what you need to focus on to both optimize what you're doing today and strategically plan for continued optimization tomorrow.

4 Ways to Prepare for the Future of the Inbox

Alaskan Fisherman Reels in Ginormous 482 lb. Halibut

Get ready for a whopper of a fish story or a helluva halibut tale.

The fish in this image is no Photoshop special. It’s a real (no, rot reel), 95-inch, 482 lb. fish caught in the Pacific Ocean near Alaska, according to a report in Alaska Dispatch News.

Fisherman Jack McGuire hold his giant halibut.

Image: Devin Brown, Alaskan Anglers Inn

Jack McGuire, 70, of Anaheim, California, snagged the monstrous swimmer, but will miss out on a world record because it was ultimately caught with a harpoon instead of a net before they pulled the giant halibut onto the boat.

McGuire was fishing on a 28 ft boat piloted by Captain Rye PhillipsMashable contacted Phillips employer Alaskan Anglers Inn, based in Gustavus, Alaska. They sent us the original photo, which we’ve included here. Read more…

More about Fishing, Us World, and Us

Alaskan Fisherman Reels in Ginormous 482 lb. Halibut

Yodlee Interactive’s incubator program gives fintech startups $20K for no equity

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Financial tech might not be the sexiest thing happening around town, but one company is putting all its bets on it.

Yodlee Interactive (YI), a division of financial software company Yodlee, is beefing up the incubation part of its Next program, making it a more formal incubation program for financial tech startups.

YI’s Next program helps financial companies through three periods: incubation, acceleration, and cultivation. Companies falling into the incubation categories are very small, and need of resources to get their products going, which is why YI is now giving them, on average, $20,000 each. They will also get six month of free access to Yodlee’s API, as well as dedicated technical assistance and early access to new versions.

The $20,000 is actually part of a total $250,000 — or more if it sees fit — that YI will invest across all the participating incubator companies.

“We started hearing from [the incubation-level startups] that they wanted a more official incubator experience,” said Next head Joe Polverari in an interview with VentureBeat.

And while $20,000 might not sound like much funding, Polverari added that YI is not only giving it to the startups without taking any equity in return (gift!) but it also won’t tell them how to spend it, unlike some other programs that require companies to use the funds in particular ways. YI could later choose to “buy equity” — actually invest — but this initial pot of money is free of charge.

Since the beginning of the Next program, YI has been not only making its financial tools available to the companies participating, but has also been providing access to an ecosystem of players in the financial tech space. Participating companies have access to fellow Next participants and alumni, as well as YI’s partners, customers, and virtually anyone else they might want to work with from YI’s network.

“What we’re attempting to create is this giant virtuous circle,” said Polverari.

YI really came out from Yodlee’s realization, after powering Mint.com and seeing how well it did, that it should make its data available to other startups.

YI has several hundreds of companies using its tools, and are in about 30 different verticals within the financial realm, according to Polverari. “Broadly speaking, the common link is that they’re all doing something in or around financial services,” he said.

“We’re launching, as far as we can tell, the first financial incubator in Silicon Valley,” said Polverari, and it fact, it looks like he might be right. There are already others outside of the Bay Area, such as the Fintech Innovation Lab in New York, London, and Asia, and the Scivantage FinTech incubator in Jersey City and Boston, but none around the Valley.

This might give YI’s incubator an edge as many financially-oriented startups are calling the Bay Area “home,” and companies like Coinbase and Kabbage already use YI’s tools.

YI’s parent company, Yodlee, has been around since 1999, much longer than many of the tech companies we talk about everyday, and powers major financial products we use everyday, such as Bank of America’s online banking product. YI is making Yodlee’s data, through APIs, available to companies that want to integrate it into their products.

The Next program originally launched last year. Yodlee, which has raised a total of $124.3 million, and Yodlee Interactive are located in Redwood City, Calif.

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Yodlee is a provider of financial applications that aims to make online banking more profitable. Yodlee’s personal financial management, payments, and customer acquisition solutions unify all personal financial account information to... read more »

Kabbage is a financial and data technology company that pioneered the use of unique yet compelling data sources to radically change the way small businesses obtain capital. In just two years, Kabbage has become the number one online pr... read more »

Coinbase makes it easy for the average person and business to use the digital currency Bitcoin.
Coinbase lets any consumer to create a Bitcoin wallet and start buying/selling Bitcoin instantly by connecting their bank account.
In add... read more »

Yodlee Interactive’s incubator program gives fintech startups $20K for no equity