App City, Author at App City

How To Get Your App Ready For The Holidays

App City — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 13:02:00 +0000

How To Get Your App Ready For The Holidays

Halloween has come and gone… And if you haven’t done so already, it’s about that time to start planning out your business’ summer holiday strategy! For anyone with an app, the holiday season is the biggest time for consumption and spending.

In fact, “this period is the “Black Friday” of the app business world… Brands are sure to see their downloads spike and consumer spending skyrocket,” according to Get Response. So you shouldn’t leave out your mobile app in this year’s planning. You can easily and effectively put your app to work during the holidays with an App City Mobile App.

This blog post is filled with holiday app inspiration, including step-by-step instructions on how to implement it for your own app:

Give Your App a Holiday Makeover

Let’s start with something simple. Give your app an easy makeover to spread the holiday joy. Think of it like this: instead of decorating your storefront with Christmas trees, you can redesign your app’s main screens to have some holiday flair (or you can do both!).

Here’s are some ideas:

Update your Homescreen Background with a new image, one you specifically designed for the holidays (see our Before & After example below)
Upload festive icons to give your feature tabs a holiday look
Customise the Header Background and/or Screen Background – under Custom Design – for each feature by uploading an image or changing the colour to match the ambiance

Set Up a Holiday Loyalty Program

Get your customers in the holiday spirit with a special loyalty program for the month of December/January. Allow customers to collect stamps or points to get a special holiday item. For example, you could give away a limited edition holiday mug, funny T-shirt, or festive decorations. Setting up a limited-time loyalty program will entice your customers to spend more money at your business during that month. Because who doesn’t like a free gift?

Here’s how you can do it:

Add a new Loyalty feature in the app builder
Name it appropriately and provide a clear description of the giveaway
Make it holiday themed by adding a special feature icon and/or header image

Send Out an Email Offer

The holidays are a great time to thank your best customers for their loyalty throughout the year. And with 69% of customers reporting they’d prefer to do their holiday shopping at businesses where they can accumulate loyalty points or rewards, it’s safe to say they feel the same.

A great way to thank customers, and draw them back to your business, is with a gift card or discount. Use the email list your app has been creating based on your app user’s data.* Send your loyal members a $5 gift card, for example, to use at your business that is valid through the end of the year. Or if you want to drive more customers to your app, offer special discounts that are only available in your m-commerce store.

* If you did not enable email collection in your app yet, make sure to do this as soon as possible (under the Promote section in the builder). This way you can start accumulating email addresses for next year’s holiday season.

Here’s how you can do it:

Export customer information, including names and email addresses, under the Promote/Email List section of your dashboard.
Craft an email with your special offer inside (whether it’s an in-store gift card or a special sale in your app)
Send it out to your customer email list

Run a Giveaway

Giveaways are a great way to draw people to your app. Make sure to round up an exciting prize that you can award to one (or a few) app users, selected at random. Be sure to promote this on your social media and at your establishment; what better incentive to download an app than a chance to win awesome prizes. Don’t make the contestants jump through too many hoops, a simple email form will have the best results.

Here’s how you can do it:

Add a new Email Forms feature in the app builder
Name it appropriately and provide a clear description of the giveaway
Make it holiday themed by adding a special feature icon and/or header image

Host a Picture Competition

Instead of just giving something away, you can opt to host a full-blown competition during the holidays. Research actually shows that November is one of the best months of the year to launch contests. Photo contests have only increased in popularity over the last few years, as they are both fun for participants and bring exposure for the company. With a contest like this, you can promote your app, your social media account, and your business all at once.

Make sure you think of an engaging theme for the contest – but that should be easy since there is so much to work with during the holidays. So how do you get people to enter your contest? That’s simple: Provide a highly coveted prize and give participants a moment in the spotlight.

Have participants submit their photos in the app. This way you’ll receive all images over email and be able to sift through them to make sure they follow the requirements. Now publish the pictures to your own social media profile, giving credit to the owner of the image. Instagram and Facebook are both great platforms for displaying user-generated content.

Even if participants don’t win, they will be excited to see their submission featured on your Instagram or Facebook account. When the contest comes to a close, pick a winner by selecting the best picture of yourself or having your followers vote on their favourite one.

Here’s how you can set it up in your app:

Add a new Email Photo feature in the app builder
Name it appropriately and provide a clear description of the contest, including the rules and what you will be doing with the pictures
Make sure to enter an email address that you will be checking on a regular basis
The rest of the contest will take place outside of the app, on your social media

Add Holiday Items to The Menu

This holiday idea is specifically for apps in the restaurant industry as ‘tis the season for dining out! Diners are actually more likely to give their business to restaurants with seasonal options. In fact, restaurants with seasonal menu items see approximately 26 percent more orders and a 23 percent increase in average ticket size over other restaurants. So sit down with your team to create a unique menu for the holidays – think pumpkin, peppermint, butternut squash, turkey, spiced apple cider, champagne… Make sure to add all these new items to your app’s (mobile order) menu, so that current customers don’t miss out on these limited-time items.

Tip: If you aren’t in the restaurant industry, you can still add a selection of holiday-themed items or holiday-themed special in your app.

Create a Holiday QR Code

A couple years back QR codes were said to be dying, yet here we are in 2017 and QR codes are “cool” again. According to Mashable, “Facebook and Snapchat, two of these most-frequently-used apps, are pushing a present and future of QR codes.” Especially with the new iOS11 release, iPhone users can scan QR codes directly from their smartphone camera app – no need for a separate QR Scanner.

Now with the rise of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), you can combine both pieces of technology to expertly market your business. Unlike native apps, PWAs allow you to directly launch a customer into your app from a QR code. You can even send customers to a specific feature within the app! So don’t miss out on this opportunity to market your business during the holidays. You could create a holiday QR code that sends your customers directly to the Events calendar, so they don’t miss out on any special events. Or you could send customers to an Info feature about the specials you are running. The possibilities are endless here!

Here’s how you can do it:

Under the Promote section, set up the Promotional Kit to create your branded promotional material
Use the Edit function to add a QR code for a Web App and pick a specific feature the QR code will send your app users to
Bring the finalised flyer to a print shop and then distribute them at your establishments

Promote Your Holiday Specials

Once you have all these great specials in place, you will have to promote, promote, promote. Besides using social media and word-of-mouth to do this, you can use the News feature to promote your holiday specials on your app’s home screen!

Here’s how you can do it:

Add the News feature in the app builder
Choose Custom News Service and select Add New Headline to fill in custom content for the news ticker (see example below)
You can even provide a Hyperlink URL or link out to a specific feature in your app depending on what you are promoting

To Wrap It Up

A mobile app can be a very powerful tool during the holidays, as people are willing to splurge and are to trying new things. Even though it can take many months of planning to set up a full-blown holiday strategy, you can easily implement these holiday tweaks on our platform in a matter of minutes. So make sure your app is up-to-date and ready for the winter holidays.

How are you preparing your app for the holidays?

Related Tag: App Developers Australia

The post How To Get Your App Ready For The Holidays appeared first on App City.

7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App

App City — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 13:46:28 +0000

If you think that mobile apps are solely for big name brands like Dominos, Myer and banks you are wrong. More and more small and midsize businesses are following the mobile trend, understanding that an effective mobile strategy involves more than just a mobile-friendly website.

Get ahead of the game and take your marketing to the next level!

If you’re still on the fence about the idea of an app for your business here are the top seven benefits of going down this path sooner rather than later.

1. Be Visible to Customers at All Times

Statistics show that the average person spends more than two hours a day on his or her mobile device. While probably only a handful of applications make up the bulk of this total usage, it doesn’t change the fact that each user has to unlock, scroll, and scan their device for the apps they’re looking for. Being “in the way” can be an advantage to your company, as our mind unconsciously does record every image and text (or well-designed app icon!) it comes across — even if it happens unnoticed.

2. Create a Direct Marketing Channel

Apps serve many functions: they can provide general info, prices, booking forms, search features, user accounts, messengers, news feeds, and much more.

One of the biggest benefits of having a mobile app is that all the information you’d like to provide to your customers – including special sales and promotions – is right at their fingertips. Through push notifications you’re getting even closer to a direct interaction, and can easily remind customers about your products and services whenever it makes sense.

3. Provide Value to Your Customers

Talking about on-hand information, how about digitalising that loyalty program you have in place? Instead of sticking to the old point-collection card, make it possible for your customers to collect their rewards via your mobile app. The result? More downloads and more return customers.

4. Build Brand and Recognition

A mobile app for your business can greatly contribute to your brand awareness. I’d like to break this topic down into two aspects, the combination of which will make your app a true winner:

Brand. A mobile app is like a blank billboard sign. You can do what you want with it; you can make it stylish, hip, functional, shocking, or informative. But what you really want to do is create an app that has features your customers will love, while at the same time is well branded and beautifully designed.
Recognition. The more often you can get customers involved with your app, the sooner they will be inclined to buy your product and/or service. In advertising this is called the “effective frequency”: as a rule of thumb, hearing and/or seeing your brand approximately 20 times is what will get you truly noticed.

5. Improve Customer Engagement

No matter whether you are selling flowers or spa services, your customers need a way to reach you. Having a messaging (or help desk) feature within your app can really make a difference in the way you communicate with your customers. How many customers would prefer to communicate with you via text than via phone?

6. Stand Out From the Competition

These days mobile apps at the small business level are still rare, and this is where you can take a big leap ahead of your competitors. Be the first in your neighborhood to offer a mobile app to your customers. They’ll be astonished by your forward-thinking approach!

7. Cultivate Customer Loyalty

Last, but not least, the most important reason why you should consider your own mobile app is customer loyalty. With all the noise out there — roadside banners, billboards, flashing signs, newspaper ads, flyers, coupons, websites, website banners, Facebook ads, and email marketing — we slowly lose our impact on customers because of the immense amount of advertising surrounding us all. It’s time to go back to making a true and sincere connection with your customers, and making them a loyal lover of your product and/or service. I am not saying a mobile app is going to save your business, but it can be a way of staying closer to your customers, and being just a “fingertip” away at all times.

Convinced yet?
Now that you have a taste of the numerous benefits of your own business mobile app, it’s time you spoke with App City.

The choice you make today is going set the foundation for the future of your business!

Related Tag: Business Apps

The post 7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App appeared first on App City.

How Businesses Can Make the Most of Facebook’s Call-to-Action Feature

App City — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 13:29:07 +0000

Your content is only as good as what it accomplishes. If you spend time and money crafting it, it needs to achieve something measurable and concrete, like generating new leads or educating customers. Without a clear purpose, you’re just adding more fluff to the server racks.

Quality content gets shared and shares lead people to your site, so you have to begin any marketing venture with a strategy for not just attracting attention but keeping it. A call-to-action, or CTA, comes at the end of a content piece and guides readers toward their next move. For example, if you’re marketing your small mobile business apps and want more downloads, your CTA may go something like, “Download our free rewards app today for exclusive access to deals and promotions! You’re just a step away from savings.”

See how that statement led the reader to their next move? CTAs guide your audience toward an actionable outcome rather than spilling them back into cyberspace.

Facebook’s recently released call-to-action buttons—which businesses can easily add to their pages—are the Autobahn of sales and marketing opportunities considering the site’s 1.04 billion daily active users.

To effectively use these CTA button, you first need a steady flow of visitors. Facebook offers a wealth of advertising opportunities that you can capitalise on to do that, the most obvious being their built-in ads, but there are numerous ways to drive more traffic to your Facebook page. The key is crafting content that drives both clicks and conversions. A quality ad includes, you guessed it, a CTA urging visitors along the path you lay out for them. A few CTA tips can help you design compelling ads:

Include clear action words rather than flowery language.
Tell the reader exactly what they should do next, focusing on the benefits they’ll gain when they take action.
Keep your statements short and sweet.

Simply put, CTAs with clear directions—like “Enter to win” or “Stop overspending”—will attract the most clicks.

The Basics of Facebook CTAs
As traffic to your Facebook page increases, the new CTA buttons can begin doing their work. Facebook lets you to add one button to the top of your page. You can choose from the following:

Book Now
Contact Us
Use App
Play Game
Shop Now
Sign Up
Watch Video

Prior to the feature release, many small businesses tried to create a seamless user experience by developing Facebook stores. Now, small businesses can link to their independent storefronts instead. The integration breaks down barriers for visitors, significantly reducing the amount of steps they take to connect with your business. In banner form, at the top of the business page, is an invitation to act.

What CTA Button Should I Use?
Every small business has its own needs. Some may benefit most from growing their mailing list while others want to increase online sales by linking to their e-commerce sites. But one thing is certain: when visitors download your app, you establish a more direct and permanent connection.

Before deciding on a CTA, set some goals. What do you hope to accomplish? How would each of the seven CTA options help your small business? From there, decide which one promises the most. If your mobile app has booking, contact, and shopping features, then the “Use App” CTA covers 4 options right off the bat.

Examples of Excellent CTAs

– Book Now: Exploring Tourism makes great use of the “Book Now” CTA. This small business is dedicated to creating an international tourism network. The booking button helps them connect tourists with destinations quickly.

– Contact Us: Puppy Dog Bark makes it simple to seek advice about pet adoption and rescue with the contact CTA. As an awareness-driven organisation, this CTA is perfect for their needs

– Use App: NIJobFinder helps job-seekers and employers with their search. They leverage the “Use App” button to expand their user base. Their app sends push notifications to users about positions matching their criteria, so getting people using and engaging with the app is critical to their success.

– Play Game: The world’s largest poker site, pokerstars.net, wasted no time inviting users to play cards with them. The “Play Game” button has helped grow their user base substantially.

– Shop Now: Everyone’s favorite party game, Cards Against Humanity, capitalizes on people’s desire to enjoy a good time. By making the option to “Shop Now” available on its Facebook page, the company takes advantage of their social media traffic and leverages it to increase sales.

– Sign Up: Like many modern news outlets, The Huffington Post has a strong social media presence. They make the most of it with a simple subscribe button that casts a net around new visitors.

– Watch Video: Cracked.com is an entertainment website that offers “heaps of facts smothered in humor.” They use the “Watch Video” CTA to showcase some of their hilarious videos.
Setting Up Your CTA

Check out Facebook’s instructions for launching your CTA. To direct users to your app:

1) Go to your Page’s cover photo and click Create Call-to-Action.
2) Choose your call to action, add a website URL, and click on the toggle below “Set up a Link to an App?”
– To direct people using an iPhone or iPad to your app, click the dropdown below “iOS Setting” and choose “App.” Add a link to the app. You’ll also have the option to add a Website or App Store Link.
– To direct people using an Android to your app, click the dropdown below “Android Setting” and choose “App.” Add a link to the app. You’ll also have the option to add a Package Name and a Website or Play Store Link.
5) Click Create.

Related Tag: App Developers Australia

The post How Businesses Can Make the Most of Facebook’s Call-to-Action Feature appeared first on App City.

How Teachers Can Leverage Mobile in the Classroom

App City — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 09:52:14 +0000

If you’ve spent any time at the front of a classroom in the last 5-7 years, or tried to get the attention of a teenager or college-aged student recently, you have quickly become aware that they check their mobile phones a lot. Even if your classroom or school has strict no mobile phone policies, chances are students are still using their mobile devices.

In the past, teachers only needed to worry about students causing distractions for other students, but now they have to compete with the likes of the Kardashian’s, super-star athletes, famous YouTubers, funny animal videos and everyone else.

Students have more things to look at and engage with than ever before, which means it is harder and harder to hold their attention. While teachers may lie awake at night thinking of a mobile phone free classroom, the reality is, that’s not going to happen. There could be a bright side to mobile for educational institutions. We just need to look at school communication apps through the right educational lens.

There’s No Beating Mobile

Again, mobile devices provide an unlimited number of distractions for students because they can engage with any other being on the planet who also has a mobile device, whether that is the student sitting two rows up, in another classroom, Aunt Sue, Beyonce, or even major brand names like Red Bull, Apple and others. When you also consider that over 80% of college-aged adults own a smartphone or other mobile device, then you get a clear picture of why we can’t beat mobile in the classroom. So as they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

Detractors of going mobile inside the classroom are going to argue that if we empower students to use mobile devices inside the classroom, they are only going to be distracted more. But I would argue that part of the reason that our mobile devices are so distracting is not so much the content, but how it is being delivered. Sure, the latest Hollywood gossip may be more interesting than learning the Pythagorean theorem—in the eyes of students. But the major reason they are tied to their devices is simply because the medium is much more interesting; it is something they can physically touch, move and manipulate with their hands.

By integrating mobile into the classroom experience, you can create a learning environment that is truly aligned with the current Common Core standards. 42 states in the nationwide have adopted the Common Core approach to education. “The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. Our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” As educators, you now have “college and career readiness” to add to your already heaping plate of things to worry about. Why not use the tools mobile has to offer to make it easier?

If we can provide students with engaging School apps that allow them to interact with educational content in ways that are more natural to them, we can easily help them reap the benefits that real life learning truly has to offer. If we are sincerely preparing them for the future, we need to do so with the tools they will use in the future—mobile apps.

How to Enhance the Classroom with Mobile

The mobile education market is expected to grow by at least 21% over the next five years. This means more educational apps and platforms that will act as teaching tools for teachers are being created. Aside from enhancing the learning experience for students, educational apps also present the opportunity to better manage administrative data, allow educators to handle grading and lesson planning, and help campuses become safer and more cohesive as a community.

Here are some of the ways mobile can be leveraged by an educator and or academic institution.

Pre-Recorded Lectures

What if you could record lectures and have them available via a mobile app for students? It would allow them the opportunity to go back and visit the day’s lecture on their ride home, before they go to sleep, or while they are crafting an essay. It also makes it easier for absent students to get caught up; they can watch or listen to what they missed right from their mobile device.

Even the best note-takers in the classroom aren’t going to catch every important point made in a lecture or during a classroom discussion, yet students are held accountable for any information delivered by the teacher. A tool that gives them this access can help to foster personal accountability—a skill crucial in both higher education and in life.

Push-Notifications for Communication

With all the distractions of the digital age, it is even easier for students to forget to complete their homework. Current research shows that 86% of students show some sort of improvement in math when they complete additional practice at night. For this reason, little reminders about what to do can go a long way in helping students achieve growth in math.

There’s really no better tool than a mobile app. Not only does it possess the potential to easily reach both students and parents, it also leaves a concrete paper trail should any misunderstandings or miscommunications occur.

Teachers have found great success using apps like Remind101, which sends notifications directly to students’ phones or tablets, reminding them to finish their homework.

A mobile strategy reminds students who otherwise would have forgotten to do their homework, but it also makes the in-class experience more engaging, as more students have done the work and are able to better participate in discussions.

Furthermore, if you are looking to make headway in a school, parents are a crucial factor in that success. Studies show that schools with large amounts of parental support perform 64% higher than those without. In order to be supportive, parents need to be informed. Apps easily keep everyone in the loop.

Collaborative Classroom

One of the biggest uses of mobile devices is social networking. The world is more connected than ever before, so why shouldn’t your classroom? In fact, 70% of students claim they wish their education was as simple to follow as their social media feeds. So why not make it that way – #punnettsquare or #y=mx+b? The conversations don’t have to end once the bell rings.

Collaborative classrooms allow for students to pose questions or status updates regarding that day’s lecture, homework, or other assignments. Other students, or the instructor, can reply, engage and share their own ideas or thoughts. All of these updates and interactions can be used by the educator as real-time feedback to adjust the curriculum and improve the next day’s lesson plan.

Real-Time, Important Info

Outside the classroom, mobile can play a big role in sharing school-related news, events and other info. For example, a campus can show real-time locations of shuttle buses, changes to event schedules or sports games, even the day’s lunch menu. And let’s not forget weather delays. Sending information related to delays caused by the weather can easily simplify the lives of school officials while providing students and parents the necessary safety they deserve.

As sad as it is to say safety has reached the forefront when it comes to concerns for schools. If there were a dangerous situation on campus or at school, you could quickly alert every student via their mobile device and ensure they stayed away from the hazardous area.

Alternatively, students could report suspicious behavior, as soon as they saw it, rather than having to find a staff member to explain what they saw. 68% of students claim that they want to help curb the bullying problem. It makes sense to provide them with the tools to do so.

Interactive Lessons

As mentioned before, the beauty of mobile is in its ability to be touched and manipulated. Kinesthetic learners account for 50% of secondary students. This type of learning style can be easily accommodated using mobile applications.

We don’t always realise it, but even as we’re zooming in on a picture or fast forwarding through a YouTube video, we’re interacting with content. Mobile creates this pseudo-environment where things can be swiped, pinched, pulled, scrolled, stopped, moved and deleted.
Instead of studying a diagram of the human body in a textbook, what if you could give your students access to a digital body that they could interact with and learn in a way that is fun and not so archaic?

Data, Data, Data

As a result of engaging with students through mobile and digital platforms, you accumulate lots of data. It’s no secret that “growth” is education’s current flavour of the week. With the implementation of Common Core, most states’ education departments have added “value added” assessment as part of teacher evaluations. Simply put, teachers now have to prove that students exhibit academic growth over the course of the school year.

A well designed school apps development can offer a variety of student progress monitoring options. The data that comes as a result of such tracking is extremely beneficial to educators for several reasons. Primarily, it can be used to gauge and modify instructions based on what students know–the primary goal in education. Your educational apps can double as a tool for showcasing data to the administrators who are conducting your evaluations. The data collected by your app can easily prove that your students have grown under your tutelage as required by the new “value added” teacher assessments.

Large corporations refer to this as “Big Data” and it has been allowing them to better refine their marketing strategies and business processes. The same can be true in the classroom. Teachers can use the data from their classroom’s mobile learning applications to make better lesson plans and quickly identify students that are struggling and subject topics that are harder to grasp.

Conclusion:

Mobile device use is ubiquitous among high school and college students. They are using their smartphones and tablets everywhere, especially inside the classroom. Instead of looking at these devices as a distraction, they can be used by educators as a valuable tool. It creates the opportunity to easily reach out to students long after they’ve left the classroom and do so in an engaging and relevant way. It can also help create a safer campus community that is up-to-date on events, fundraisers and other scheduled happenings.

While mobile certainly looks like a promising future for educators, it doesn’t come without a host of possible issues. Educational institutions looking to implement a campus-wide mobile platform and learning environment need a considerable amount of infrastructure, especially in the technical support, network connectivity and data security areas, if they want to succeed at going mobile.

The post How Teachers Can Leverage Mobile in the Classroom appeared first on App City.

Mobile Websites VS Mobile Apps

App City — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 09:46:49 +0000

The question is, should you have a mobile optimised website or a mobile app? Both? How do you decide?

It’s common knowledge these days that having a mobile presence for your business is one of the best things you can do. Being accessible to your customers via mobile is simply smart business nowadays, as such a huge percentage of people are surfing the web and conducting business solely via mobile.

We’ll explore the differences between a mobile website and a mobile app so you can make an educated decision on which one can propel your business forward.

Mobile Websites
A mobile website is basically just a website that is optimised specifically for smaller screens, often has touch-screen capabilities and is more streamlined for ease of access and visibility. They are designed to be accessible through any mobile browser on almost all smart phones.

Mobile Apps
A mobile app is a whole lot more engaging, and to many people, better. An app must be downloaded and installed to your device, such as a smart phone or tablet. It offers specific features and functions that websites do not.

Mobile-optimised website
– Makes websites more accessible for smart phone and tablet users
– Mobile friendly layout, improving functionality and visibility
– Easy accessibility
– Simple but effective functionality

Mobile App
– User control over features and functions
– Customer-specific incentives, rewards and communication
– On-the-go functionality
– Push notifications, geofencing, and localised marketing
– Social media interaction
– Loyalty programs
– Mobile payments and accounting features
– One-tap functionality
– Increased customer engagement

Both mobile apps and mobile websites have a place in the mobile driven market these days.

Mobile apps & mobile websites have many upsides to consider. However, it is a good idea for most businesses to have both, but if you are hard-pressed to choose one, we’d go with a mobile app every time. You can offer your customers much more engaging functionality that will show a higher return on investment.

Customers are likely to download the app when they find out about the incentives and rewards involved, they’ll share on social media, which will allow you to recruit more clients, and you can always be available to them 24/7. You can offer your customers excellent customer service and save time and money on your end through streamlined functionality.

Apps are the way of the future simply because they offer both your business and your patrons around-the-clock accessibility, ease of access, fun and convenient interaction, and incentives to keep using the app.

Ready to design your mobile app today? App City has everything you need to get started!

Related Tag: Mobile Apps Developers

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6 Ways to Market Your Small Business Mobile App

App City — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 09:43:57 +0000

Apps are as effective as their reach. It’s the cold truth of marketing—no matter the quality of your campaign, it’s the delivery that makes it successful. To ensure your mobile app lives up to its ROI potential, it’s important to invest in a well designed mobile marketing strategy, which can lead to hundreds or even thousands of downloads when properly leveraged.

Here’s a comprehensive guide on making an early dent with your mobile marketing plan.

1. Know your audience
If you haven’t identified your core audience, you’ll never hit your sales target. First figure out who your app should cater to, then design for them. Here are some factors to consider:

Age range
Interests
Tech-savviness
Industry

2. Don’t overlook keywords
App store discoverability is a huge factor to consider when you’re launching your app. At least 63% of iOS users search for apps organically, and a whopping 83% of all iOS apps are “Zombie Apps” that are essentially invisible in an organic App Store search. These stats underline the importance of keyword research and optimisation. Aim to attract as much organic traffic to your site and app as possible by examining industry trends and staying up-to-date on app store optimisation strategy.

3. Build an online presence
Enhance your app’s online presence as much as possible by showcasing it on your website and incorporating it into your other marketing channels. You can even go so far as creating a comprehensive website for the app itself. Here are a few more detailed ideas to consider:

~ Landing Page: Dedicate a page of your front-end website to your mobile app. Include download links or scannable QR codes that lead visitors straight to the app store listing. Emphasise its benefits to the user, like cost-savings and insider product info, in addition to simply listing the features. Screenshots and promo videos are big selling points as well.

~ Blog Articles: Leading up to launch, post regular updates and sneak peeks on your company blog. Post-launch, continue to share the latest feature updates and user insights to capture the attention of new customers.

~ Banners: Design clickable website banners that convey essential info and link through to actionable content, like the download link or an app release blog post.

~ Emails: Add regular app update emails to your drip campaigns. You can pull content from your landing page and reframe it to work seamlessly within your email marketing campaign.

4. Schedule your launch
An app launch done right can bring a storm of downloads. Put your launch day on the calendar and begin advertising your “Official App Launch” to customers and leads. Create a social media buzz around it, promising exclusive offers and sending teasers out far and wide. When launch day arrives, offer special deals to the first users to download. Before you know it, you’ll have hundreds of customers with your app in their hands.

5. Hear your customers
At the first stages of your app’s release, listen closely to customer feedback. It helps to include a response form in your app and on your site. Regularly read over the app store store reviews—and ask loyal customers for positive ones— plus pay attention to common complaints. Keep these communication channels open in the long-run so you can continue revising and improving your app’s ratings, ultimately better serving your user base.

6. Consider videos
Videos are a great way to demonstrate your app’s capabilities. They go further than words and screenshots can, providing a real glimpse into the user experience. Create a short promo video that tours the app’s UI, but avoid low-quality production at all costs—no video is better than shoddy video, and if you don’t have the resources to dedicate to it then you’re better off sticking to print. With short and clear videos, you can popularise your app on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and Instagram. The clip may not go viral, but you’re likely to nab some downloads and add a dose of professionalism along the way.

Take advantage of the included support and contact the App City team for any tips or advice in marketing your app.
Advice is FREE and always available to our customers.

The post 6 Ways to Market Your Small Business Mobile App appeared first on App City.

5 Myths About Mobile Apps For Small Businesses

App City — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 09:32:58 +0000

The mobile app industry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so all small businesses should consider engaging their customers with a mobile app, otherwise they will lose out on some serious business.

But what’s holding small businesses back from going mobile? Why are some small businesses finding it so hard to develop a mobile app or even a mobile optimised website?

Experts say it can be a combination of factors that can be easily avoided. We’ve detailed five of the biggest myths that might be holding SMBs back when it comes to mobile apps.

1. Developing a mobile app is too hard.

Developing and creating school organisation apps & small business apps hasn’t always been as easy and affordable as is today. App City can build and develop an app for your buisness, quickly and easily and at a price made affordable to all SMB’s.

2. Mobile apps aren’t really necessary.

Many SMBs make the mistake of thinking that they are well-known enough among their customers, and that a mobile app is just a waste of time and money. They mistakenly believe that an app, while helpful to some, won’t really drum up any new business for them. To the contrary, if you don’t have a mobile app to increase repeat business, or at the very least, a mobile optimised website, you are losing out on a huge chunk of revenue.

3. Social media presence is good enough.

Small business owners often make the mistake of thinking that if they are on Twitter or Facebook, that they are getting through to all their customers. This isn’t completely the case – Facebook filters out posts from “fan” pages and business pages, so your customers only see a tiny percentage of the things you post. And with Twitter’s massive feeds, the sheer number of posts people see every day mean that your updates might get lost in the shuffle or buried under other tweets. Push notifications on the other hand arrive directly on a customer’s phone, which can be hard to miss.

4. Mobile Apps don’t provide enough functionality.

Business owners mistakenly believe that apps can’t really do much other than offer some information that’s already out there anyway, but that’s not the case. Mobile apps are built to engage your customers and encourage loyal customers to come back through in depth functionality. For example, you can message specific customers based on location or interest, interact with customers, providing them answers to emails and queries no matter where you are, rewards programs, loyalty programs, incentives, promotions, coupons, contests and other sales-generating marketing strategies, and so much more.

5. Mobile apps are way too time consuming.

Mobile apps are designed specifically to not take up too much of your time. In fact, they can often save you time, by doing things for you like updating your content, keeping data organised, providing customers with helpful information, automatic updates, etc. In addition, features like mobile food ordering or mobile reservations can reduce time spent talking with customers on the phone for their orders, automating the whole process, which is good business for everyone.

So there you have it. If you run a small business, you owe it to yourself to speak with our team today.
Let us develop an app to interact with your customers and tap into the mobile marketing opportunity.

Developing an app with App City is easy, convenient, and shows a high return on investment.

Related Tag: Mobile Apps Developers

The post 5 Myths About Mobile Apps For Small Businesses appeared first on App City.

Hello world!

App City — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:32:05 +0000

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

The post Hello world! appeared first on App City.

Hello world!

App City — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 08:38:50 +0000

Welcome to The7 – Ultimate WordPress Theme Sites. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

The post Hello world! appeared first on App City.