Mobile Applications: What Is The Future Of Mobile Apps?

Mobile phone apps are being used for virtually everything… from texting, checking Facebook and email, to checking the weather, the stock market, gas prices, and much, much more.

Popular games like FarmVille and World of Warcraft also use applications.

Smartphone apps have become the rage because they have more advanced connectivity and capabilities than traditional phones.

There is now a greater demand for smartphones than for any other type of mobile phone, according to Wikipedia.

Almost half of America uses smartphones, according to Huffington Post.

Seventy nine percent of all smartphone users reach for their phone within 15 minutes of getting out of bed (All Twitter survey).

This percentage climbs to 89% among those between the ages of 18 to 24.

Smartphone users have an average of 7.4 social/communication apps on their mobile device.

They see their phone as an important tool to keep them connected.

Other interesting smartphone user stats:

  • 34 percent post photographs on Instagram
  • 27percent post updates on LinkedIn
  • 26 percent direct message through Twitter
  • 25percent check a Facebook news feed
  • 22percent check a Twitter feed
  • 20percent check an Instagram feed
  • 16percent use text messaging

A smartphone is like a PC in your pocket.

The average smartphone user checks Facebook 14 times a day and spends approximately half an hour a day on Facebook (Source: A recent study commissioned by a company in Menlo Park, California).

By 2015, it is estimated that mobile Internet usage will surpass desktop usage.

Considering the countless ways that people now use smartphones, some have compared the smartphone to a Swiss Army Knife.

Since mid-April of 2013, an underdog apps company has been paving an untrodden frontier that will soon be rolling out a newfangled breed of apps, only this time, with an innovative spin.

These applications will include gaming apps, social media apps, and more.

Clearly, the company intends to become the head honcho in the application industry, as stated in their promotional materials.

A recent company newsletter states that their goal is to reach one million users before June 15, 2013, which will be a record.

They are over halfway there as of May 22, 2013, even though none of their sign-ups have seen any of the company apps. In fact, the company is yet to go public.

Q: So why would half a million people join an app company without seeing the apps?

A: It’s the innovative spin, i.e. combining apps with what the company calls “incentivized sharing.” The company guarantees that their users will be rewarded through a sharing model similar to a network marketing pay plan. The difference is, the cash rewards will come primarily from the generation of advertising revenues rather than the selling of products.

The company will track these revenues through an app that has been designed for smartphones.

The apps will most likely also work on desktop computers and laptops, like most other apps.

There is still much about this company that we do not know.

Whether or not this company will live up to the aforementioned hoopla is yet to be revealed.

But with over a half-million sign-ups in a month, eyeballs sure are popping!

Web Hosting and Attention-Grabbing Facebook Mobile Marketing

Web Hosting and Attention-Grabbing Facebook Marketing

What works with social media for business owners?

Facebook Mobile for Business

To begin with, the majority of websites and blogs are created using WordPress. So, the security of your Word Press website or blog is crucial.

Two very cool security plug-ins for bloggers who use WordPress are available. Imagine this scenario. One day you wake up and your blog has been hacked and every single article had disappeared. Thank God for backups. It could be absolutely disastrous if someone were able to hack into your WordPress site. SecureWP and WSDSecurity are two plug-ins that can be used collaboratively and they give you increased security for your WordPress blog.

  1. Password generator generates super secure passwords that no one can guess. If you have an administrator that has full access to your account, you need to be sure to generate extremely secure passwords.
  2. A lot of hackers use systems that are smart. They go to a WordPress blog and look at the source code so that they can tell which version of WordPress your blog is running. These plug-ins eliminate the version of WordPress from your source code. Hackers try to exploit challenges of your version of WordPress, so by eliminating the version of WordPress from your code, it is extremely difficult for automated attacks to target your blog.
  3. When you try and login to WordPress with the incorrect password, it generates a response. These automated systems look for those responses in an attempt to hack your blog. These plug-ins remove that response completely. Instead they jingle or blink the login screen so you, as the user, know you have the wrong password, but a machine or a software tool would not know that, therefore, automated hacking attempts are reduced.

Facebook Marketing on a Mobile Platform

Four hundred and eighty-eight million people are using Facebook mobile every month. That is bigger than the entire population of the United States. Additionally, three hundred million pictures are uploaded to Facebook every single day. Close to a billion members take pictures and upload them to Facebook using their smart phone. People have Facebook on their smart phone and check Facebook when they are in a line waiting for a coffee, stuck in traffic, and doing it almost everywhere, this makes mobile users very important to Facebook. Half of the nearly billion Facebook users use Facebook through their mobile device and they are actually twice as active than non-mobile users.

People have a tendency to never leave their house without their mobile device. This is wonderful news for business owners! The more you as a business owner can get your message in front of those users who are in constant contact with their circle of friends, the better. Marketing has shifted from trying to get your message in front of people during certain times to becoming an intricate part of their social experience. Ads are coming in through their news feed and users don’t even know that what they are looking at are ads. Facebook’s mobile ad click-through rate is an astounding four times higher than Twitter!

Facebook, Instagram and Cameras

In the past, Facebook’s weak spot was mobile. They were behind the eight ball for developing a robust app so with the purchase of Instagram, Facebook took the lead in this market. It shows the marketplace that Facebook is serious about mobile. Instagram is solely a mobile app. You have to view photos through a Instagram partner, but Facebook might be rolling out an Instagram.com profile where users can share their photos through the web. It could be a whole new social network like Pinterest.

Steve Jobs was a mentor for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook is rumored to come out with their own smart phone. They could be taking a leaf out of Apple’s book and be working on a whole new market in the smart phone industry. It would be a whole new developer marketplace that is perfectly feasible. At some point, there will be more mobile phone subscriptions than there are people on the planet. The whole world is in your hand with a smart phone. You can check your e-mail, check in with friends, view the news, use apps to do just about anything. It is only going to grow and it is a wonderful thing for connecting people among the world. The Facebook mobile app is still relatively limited. For example, you can’t share with the app. So, many people are using Safari to view Facebook on their smart phone and accessing the social media network that way. Facebook might very well venture into the hardware market in the near future to further capture market share within the prominently growing mobile marketplace.

Facebook Page Manager App

Facebook page manager is a great way to manage multiple pages. You can have access to your page on the fly, post content and quickly reply to comments and moderate them. Its very helpful for business owners and entrepreneurs. The latest update to the Facebook iOS and Android apps will now let you tag your friends in status posts and comments. The feature, which has long been available on the Facebook website, can be activated by typing “@” followed by the name of the friend you want to tag in your comment or status update. You can use this feature on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or any Android device running the latest version of the Facebook app. The biggest feature that is still missing, however, in the Facebook mobile app is share. This means half a billion people per day are not able to share something on their mobile device.

Marketing Tips for Businesses

Mobile users should be engaged and treated differently. It is all about content. Mobile users default to the news feed so the more you can be an effective producer of content the better.

  • Shorter posts are better – 160 characters or less
  • Be entertaining
  • Make use of photos
  • Ask questions that are short and sweet
  • Include a call to action such as “like” or “add your comment” or “click here”.

Local Businesses and Facebook Mobile Marketing

For the longest time, people could setup a check-in deal. Offers are only available if you have a place page. But if you do not have a place page and can’t setup an offer, you can instead periodically post a status update, for example, “Are you reading this on your mobile phone, come in for a free latte.” Every single member of your staff should know all the ins-and-outs of what your company is doing on social media. Offer a coupon on-the-spot if people check-in. Encourage visitors to take a photograph of themselves in your store and post it on Facebook. It can go a long way and get people excited if they see their friends at the store.

Facebook and the Future of Marketing

There have been a lot of changes with Facebook since it went public. Some of the changes include “promoted posts” and it is more difficult to get into the news feed. Edgerank is the algorithm that all content passes through on Facebook. Content passes through the Edgerank filter, and that is how it is determined what content will show in the news feed. Ultimately, Facebook is saying that they are only going to display your content on average to sixteen percent of your fans. There are, however, some tools that can increase your visibility on Facebook.

  • Ads
  • Friends Lists
  • Interest Lists
  • Sponsored Stories
  • Promoted Posts
  • Reach Generator guarantees up to seventy-five percent of your content

As a marketer, you can do some split testing and allocate a budget to see which will work well for you:

  • Either a sponsored story which is a post made on your fan page that is turned into an ad
  • Promoted posts which will be visible to mobile users and is given more visibility in the news feed, which is what people look at on their mobile device.

There are some creative ways around this. Fan pages like George Takei (an actor) is a page that has a phenomenal following and has a very high engagement rate. Study fan pages that are successful and watch their page to see how these brands are achieving fan engagement. People on Facebook want to know that there is a real human being behind the brand.

Business owners have put an enormous investment into creating a fan base. People have expressed concern and frustration resulting from Facebook now requesting more investment to get your content visible to more than sixteen percent. Next to every single post on Facebook, you are given the option to pay for your post to be more visible. The large denominator problem is when companies have a huge fan base, so if that person is not regularly interacting with the fan page, they will not see the content. It can get very pricey to promote a post, sometimes from three hundred to five hundred dollars per post.

Why would you use a Promoted Post on Facebook?

If you have a webinar or special event coming up a promoted post could be a good option. Some companies have been able to double their reach, increase engagement with promoted posts. If a page has a low number of fans or has plated or a low engagement rate such as less than two percent, you might want to play with promoted posts to see if it is a worthy advantage. You can better reach the mobile users with a promoted post.

Web Hosting Tips for Facebook Visibility

If you are like the majority of business owners, you have a website or blog that serves as your ultimate destination for visitors. Some people call it their “money site”. A Facebook fan page for your business can funnel visitors to your website or blog, where hopefully that visitor will perform the MDA (most desired action) such as joining your e-mail list or purchasing a product. So, as a business owner, it is imperative to keep a professional looking website or blog online. This can be done with a web hosting account through a reputable hosting firm that offers tools such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal content management systems for creating an engaging web presence.

How to Get Started With a Career in Mobile Massage

Nowadays, our modern lifestyles have meant that do almost anything when it comes to forging a career. There are now more entrepreneurs than ever before and virtually any one can set up their own business as long as they have an idea and the determination to follow it through. However, as long as the ability to go far in business, modern day living has also brought with it more stress than ever before. The stresses and strains of modern life has meant that the value of alternative healing techniques such as massage therapy is higher than ever with more and more people turning to massage as a way of dealing with the stresses of modern day life.

Therefore, it is little wonder that what was once considered largely a physiotherapist’s role is now a popular service on offer in parlors, spas, health farms and even hotels. Many people can now enjoy the relaxation and peacefulness that you can get from a professional massage from the comfort of their own homes courtesy of a mobile massage business. A mobile masseuse can come to you and you can enjoy all the benefits of a really great massage without having to take a step out of the door!

If you are looking to start up your own mobile massage business it can be a really rewarding career. Starting up your own mobile massage service is a really good business prospect as it allows you to start a business from scratch with very little overhead or need for investment. It’s not always possible to rent out large offices for your massage therapy business, therefore many masseuses’ go mobile. You can start your business without an office space or any employees; all you really need is your skill and a van to transport you and your equipment around. With this sort of business you can start small and build up as your business becomes more popular and diverse. Another advantage of setting up a mobile massage business is the flexible work schedule you can set for yourself.

The most important part of starting a career in mobile massage is getting your qualifications and training sorted. You can enroll in either a community college or a specialist school as there are plenty of degree programs on offer. In the majority of states in the US, training and licensing is mandatory if you want to practice massage therapy. The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork recognizes that the appropriate certification will generally take 500 hours of training and culminates in a final exam.

After you have completed your training, you will then need to apply for and obtain a state license for massage therapy if the state you are in requires this. It is really important to check if your state requires a license, you can do so by checking the website for the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. If you have an official certification it can really put you ahead of other mobile massage therapists in your area who are not certified.

Now you are all legal and above board you will need to purchase your equipment. Start out with the basics such as a portable massage chair and tables, oils and towels. These are the only overheads you will need to cover at this point. Now all you need to do is to advertise your business and sit back and wait for the business to flow in.

If you advertise your business effectively, a career in mobile massage can be very lucrative due to the low overheads when you first start out. As time goes on you may be in the position where you can take on staff and your business could go on to cover a larger customer base. Why not see where a career in mobile massage could take you!

Van Storage Ideas to Start a Mobile Locksmith Business

Starting your own mobile locksmith business is a great opportunity as an entrepreneur, and protecting your inventory and equipment with proper van storage will improve the overall return on your investment as you begin your business.

Outfit your van properly, and you will be more organized, efficient, and committed to your work. It’s frustrating trying to accomplish a task when you have to search around a haphazardly arranged van arrangement to find the right tools or supplies.

You don’t need to buy a brand new van to start your mobile locksmith business; however, it would be a wise investment to spend some time and money on the storage ideas that will help you do your job more efficiently. Some of the higher vans allow you to actually move around inside and sit at a workbench while cutting keys, without the risk of banging your head whenever you need to locate a tool.

Here are three things to consider when selecting van storage systems for your locksmith business.

Plan Van Storage Space for a Workbench

Since you are a mobile locksmith business, plan your storage space with a workbench in mind. Don’t settle for standing outside, at the rear doors of your van. Put yourself inside your mobile office and get yourself out of the weather to do your work in comfort. Take time to measure out your space and find the best location for a workbench and a step stool for comfort. A good mobile workbench allows for six or seven feet of space to spread out and accomplish your tasks.

A full-length workbench can accommodate a key machine as well as file storage and the locking drawers necessary for your keys and other supplies. Maximize the storage space at your workbench by including catalog organizers, hooks, safety equipment and other accessories that will make your job easier.

Van Storage Should Include Locking Drawers

There is nothing more annoying than listening to hundreds of key blanks jangling like loud wind chimes while you are driving down the road. Storing your product in well-cushioned, locking drawers is a wise use of your cargo area. The keys will be protected from “road rash” marks from rubbing against each other or other items.

Locking drawers as part of your storage space will also protect you from flying objects if you need to stop or swerve suddenly. Plus, it looks very professional to have drawers full of your product, categorized and ready to use.

Van Storage is Best Organized with Adequate Shelving

One of the most important storage concepts is to determine your shelving needs. What tools and equipment will you need for your mobile locksmith business? What storage location of these tools will make your work most efficient?

Look at your van as a mobile work cell, and set it up as efficiently as possible. You will accomplish your service calls faster, and will be able to make more service calls throughout the day because your van storage plan has helped you become efficient.

Mobile Monopoly – The Fresh Technique For Your Achievement in Online Marketing

Out of all the online marketing items that are widely spoken about regularly, I would say that the Mobile Monopoly program is almost certainly very interesting as well as the most groundbreaking.

If we evaluate online marketing as well as to observe how effective and profitable it has been within the last ten or even fifteen years, and continue to do so, we will see that it is very popular. You see, it’s believed that approximately one point eight billion individuals’ are connected to the internet. Now check out the cellular phone also known as the ‘Mobile Phone’ business; from this all of us can easily see the massive dimension of it. At present, approximately five billion people throughout the world own a cellular phone; therefore, you can easily see the opening for success that marketing and advertising with this industry can bring to you.

In fact, the five billion mobile phone or cell phone consumers are waiting for you to send your advertising to them. In reality these are the sort of customers that businesses all over the world would choose to advertise their products, particularly the fifty million individuals’ who currently have the smart phones. The number of people with smart phones is growing; and to prove my point, Apple not too long ago released apple iPhone4, and they sold over three million models within a calendar month.

Big organisations such as Google as well as the Apple company are continuously altering their marketing and advertising methods in order to dive into this enormous industry, and after Google purchased the promoting system AdMob, the Apple company reacted by releasing their very own marketing system iAd.

Marketing and advertising in this particular market is growing, however, amazingly it continues to be unheard of by many companies, and internet marketers remain unfamiliar with the way it operates, and the excellent opportunity that’s before them when using this system. They do not know how to implement it, and how they can earn an income from using it. Now Mr Adam Horwitz the person who developed ‘Mobile Monopoly’ will show you gradually how you can generate money using his program. He offers to lift the cover from the key techniques he utilizes to get more than $1,000 daily in real earnings from cellular phones. Adam also would display the techniques he applied to simply obtain traffic even when you do not possess an internet site or keyword phrases.

His online video system will show you what is needed to become a member of this fresh emerging trend.

Advanced Mobile SEO TIPS For Mobile Marketing

In 2016, Google introduced the mobile-first index system to provide the best user experience for their mobile users by prioritizing mobile-friendly websites. This new indexing system will first look into the mobile version of your website to determine the ranking. Websites without a mobile version or poorly optimized mobile websites will drop out even further in search engine results pages (SERPs). But, the good news is this Mobile SEO is simple and easy to do yourself tasks.

Advanced Mobile SEO Tips for Mobile Marketers:

Mobile SEO is nothing than a conventional SEO, creating content and tagging to make it stand out online. These white-hat mobile SEO tips will help you to avoid search engine penalties and maintain better online visibility.

1. Google My Business: mobile online marketing.

One of the most important and effective mobile marketing move that business owners can do is signing up for Google My Business account. It is free and simple, by filling the information to the best of your ability and add more possible pictures of your business. When people searching for the keyword that is related to your business, there is more likely to visible your 2nd information first. So, think of using it for mobile marketing.

2. Using social media:

According to reports, average mobile users spending their 80% of the time on social media of the total times they are spending on the mobile. These social media sites bring a huge amount of traffic to your website. So, to improve visibility to mobile users, priorities your social media marketing strategy. The frequency of posting, Quality of content and optimized social media campaign will help your brand stands out. Also, read our Content Marketing Guide.

3. Take advantage of plug-ins for mobile SEO:

If your website uses WordPress or another content management system (CMS). you can use various plug-ins to improve your mobile site more user-friendly. One of the popular CMS, WordPress offers a large number of plug-ins to optimize images, improve speed and take care of other important mobile SEO factors.

WPtouch is the popular universal WordPress plug-in that will create a Google-approved mobile version of your website. If you can’t afford a professional to update and optimize your website, try these plug-ins to build a mobile-friendly website and improve visibilities.

4. Use keywords for mobile users:

It is proven that mobile users search differently than other desktop users. Optimize your content for mobile keyword search phrases to show up your content to the right people. Find the right tools to find the right keywords for your content, you can find keyword comparisons by the device in Google’s Search Console.

5. Improve page loading time:

When it comes to mobile SEO, page loading time is the most important issue. There are many factors that define the page loading time. Gzip compression, Image optimization and using Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), there are some tools and plug-ins to perform this tasks and improve the faster loading of mobile web pages.

Final Words:

Digital marketing trend changed the whole scenario of marketing. Mobile SEO is becoming a most essential task for all bloggers and webmasters for mobile marketing.

The Mobile Game Trend

Recently, mobile gaming has been gaining a rather large share in terms of revenue. Gaming consoles/platforms and online gaming giants have dominated the game industry for the last decades, but with the enormous mobile gaming insurgents, change is definitely coming and change is welcome especially for avid gamers and enthusiasts.

Mobile games revenue forecast is predicted to increase up to $45 billion by 2018. Asia has been the leader in the industry since 2013, and is predicted to dominate the industry by up to 50% total revenue. Industry Analyst Vincent van Deelen stated, “This is simply not the case. We are also emphasizing that the recent results of individual high profile companies such as Rovio, King, DeNA and GREE are not necessarily indicative of the state of the mobile market as a whole. It is not in our interest to inflate market figures, but the hard facts have forced us to adjust our estimates upward. We have maintained our year-on-year growth rates toward 2017, ultimately leading to a $40Bn+ market share.”

In this regard, mobile game players have successfully gained large share in the market like most gaming console and online gaming companies. Indeed, this is good news for game development companies and their shareholders to put more focus and emphasis on this growing trend. Android games are also expected to be predictably higher in the coming years. Though, it is still a proven fact that iOS rakes in more revenue than Google Play despite the latter having massive download for freemium model type of games. But in a global perspective, Chinese app stores and android game downloads and revenue far exceeded iOS last 2014. North America, Europe and other Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea have also ventured in the global trend. Reports show that mobile games now account for nearly 40% of the country’s total digital games revenue. With increased competition, smaller companies are also getting creative with the introduction of e-sports, multi-screen gaming and HTML5 mobile gaming, and the final trend is the rising popularity of downloading Android games for TV-based gaming. The top 7 companies  in the mobile gaming industry compete for the release of quality games to dominate further and not to get left behind in the scene. These are some of the most downloaded game apps:

1. aa

2. Agar.io

3. Angry Birds

4. Angry Birds Rio

5. Angry Birds Seasons

6. Angry Birds Space

7. Angry Birds Star Wars

8. Angry Birds Star Wars 2

9. Angry Birds Go!

10. Angry Birds 2

11. Ant Smasher: Best Free Game

12. Archery Master 3D

13. Asphalt 8: Airborne

14. Bad Piggies

15. Bad Piggies HD

16. Banana Kong

17. Basketball Stars

18. Blossom Blast Saga

19. Boom Beach

20. Brave Frontier

21. Bubble Witch Saga

22. Bubble Witch 2 Saga

23. Candy Crush Saga

24. Candy Crush Soda Saga

25. Cars: Fast as Lightning

26. Castle Clash: Age of Legends

27. Clash of Clans

28. Clash of Kings

29. Clash Royale

30. Color Switch

31. Criminal Case

32. Crossy Road

33. CSR Racing

34. Deer Hunter

35. Despicable Me

36. Diamond Dash

37. Diamond Digger Saga

38. Don’t Tap The White Tile

39. Dragon City

40. Drag Racing Classic

41. Dream League

42. Dumb Ways to Die

43. Dumb Ways to Die 2: The Games

44. Extreme Car Driving Simulator

45. Fast Racing 3D

46. Frozen Freefall

47. Geometry Dash

48. Geometry Dash Lite

49. Farm Heroes Saga

50. FIFA 15 Ultimate

51. Flow Free

52. Fruit Ninja Free

53. Glow Hockey

54. Hay Day

55. Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft

56. Hill Climb Racing

57. Hungry Shark

58. Jetpack Joyride

59. Jewels Saga

60. Magic Rush: Heroes

61. Minecraft: Pocket Edition

62. MORTAL KOMBAT X

63. My Talking Angela

64. My Talking Tom

65. Pou

66. 8 Ball Pool

67. Pet Rescue Saga

68. Piano Tiles 2 (Don’t Tap…2)

69. Plants vs. Zombies

70. Plants vs. Zombies 2

71. Real Racing 3

72. Score! Hero

73. Shadow Fight 2

74. SimCity BuildIt

75. Skater Boy

76. Slither.io

77. Smash Hit

78. Smurfs’ Village

79. Solitaire

80. Sonic Dash

81. Spider-man Unlimited

82. Stack

83. Star Girl

84. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

85. Subway Surfers

86. Summoners War

87. Talking Tom Bubble Shooter

88. Temple Run

89. Temple Run 2

90. Texas Holdem Poker Deluxe

91. The Simpsons: Tapped Out

92. Throne Rush

93. Traffic Racer

94. Traffic Rider

95. Trivia Crack

96. Vector

97. Zombie Tsunami

98. Z War

99. 2048

100. 2048 Number

This is a clear indicator that mobile gaming market share is expected to grow in the coming years.

Top 6 Channels for Mobile Marketing

Statistics speak volumes.

  • The US mobile web population will be up almost 25% by the end of this year.
  • By 2015, more than three in five mobile users and almost half the total US population will be using the mobile Internet.
  • Smartphone usage will increase to 38% of mobile users and 28.8% of the overall population by the end of this year.
  • The number of smartphone users is set to increase 49.6% this year and continue growing at a steady double-digit pace through 2015.

(Statistics and projections from recent eMarketer research)

The unprecedented growth of mobile phone usage is providing more opportunities for businesses to reach their market than ever before. After seeing these statistics you may find yourself saying, yes, mobile marketing a big deal and a great investment for my marketing budget, but where do I begin?

You should start with an understanding of what mobile marketing outlets are available and what benefits they have. Here is a rundown of the top six mediums:

Mobile Website – There are several projections that in the next few years mobile Internet browsing will be more widely used than PC/MAC Internet browsing. Developing a mobile website is typically the first step in your mobile marketing and will increase the satisfaction of your viewers as they visit your site on their mobile phone.

Mobile Application – According to Ovum’s app download forecasts, there will be 14 billion applications downloaded this year. That’s over 400 apps per second! Not only are mobile applications great for increasing brand equity, they can also provide substantial revenue.

Mobile Ads – Mobile ads are what you see in the free version of so many mobile apps. With over 400 apps downloaded per second, there is a lot of opportunity to increase brand awareness and incite action amongst a targeted audience.

Location-Based Apps – One of the fastest growing areas of mobile marketing is location-based services. Consumers often use applications such as FourSquare, Where, Google Places, Yelp, and Merchant Circle to find out what’s going on around them and find special deals. This is a great way to let consumers who are physically near to your business find out about you!

QR Codes – A technology originally used in the manufacturing process, this 2D code allows smart phone users to gain information simply by scanning the code with their phone’s camera. The matrix-like code can be easily developed and is often used to link on-the-go consumers to mobile-friendly websites.

Mobile Coupons – An old concept utilizing new technology. Use QR codes, mobile apps, text messages or your mobile website to offer coupons and entice consumers to shop at your store (brick and mortar or virtually).

The question is not whether or not you should integrate mobile technology into your marketing strategy, but which way works best for your company.

10 Ways to Market Your Mobile App

1. App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization (ASO) requires many of the same factors that go into great SEO tactics. Things like keywords, titles, and descriptions play a role in the app store listings, so leveraging the right tool to understand these variables can really set your app for a path to a top-tier ranking.

Optimizing the keyword tags in the App or Google Play store can really benefit how your app is found. The keyword field allows you to associate your app with certain terms. The key here is to not repeat or use too many variations of the same word which could be portrayed as spam. A good tip is to conduct SEO type test to figure out the best keyword tags to use. You should ask yourself questions like “Which words describe my app?” and “Which words are my competitors using?” Once you get a feel for what words work best for you, be sure to be creative in your choices. Being unique could possibly help you drive traffic your competitors aren’t getting.

Titles are also an important aspect to take into consideration. Much like a title page for SEO purposes, the app name serves as a relevancy signal that the app store algorithms can pull search results from. Many companies include keywords into their main title to help pull their app to the top of search results within their category. A common mistake is to not include the actual name of the app into the title. The overall goal is to have a strong presence as a brand, therefore people need to know your name and not just what your app does.

When you have everything above figured out, it’s now time to write the description for your app. This should not be a painful task. The key here is to keep it short and sweet. You have to keep in mind that when someone is reading this they are not going to spend a lot of time looking at the description on their phone. Leave plenty of white space so that it is pleasing to the readers eyes and less cumbersome. Bullet points or asterisks are commonly used to list benefits of which your app brings to the end user. Sentences should be broken up with a mixture of long and short (5 words or less) sentences to keep the reader engaged. If you want to learn more, we have previously written extensively on the importance of good keywords in the app store.

2. Social Media Integration

Social media integration in an application has been emerging in popularity among many app developers. Giving users the ability to invite others, share gameplay, and view leader boards is a popular and useful aspect for increasing virality. Essentially it is free marketing for your app. When a user shares their recent high score or fitness goal on their social media pages they are then spreading the word of the app to their friends. This increases the number of views and in turn raises awareness of your application. All of which happens without you lifting a finger. Another side effect from this is that it implements a type of competitive atmosphere amongst friends to outdo the other persons high score or have a longer run tracked.

3. Press Kit

Having a press kit readily available is a proactive move to help expedite your marketing efforts farther down the line. Once you have an established microsite for you application you may get a couple of reviews, but to really market your newly developed app, you need to be able to provide quality material that other people can utilize. If people want to write about you, they may not always have the time to contact you to receive useful materials for them to use.

Materials that should be included in your press kit include high-quality icon of your app along with screenshots of the app in use. These will help expedite those bloggers or journalist that wish to write about your app to have official high quality visuals that can be used in their articles or blogs.

Another essential part of your press kit should be all of your relevant press releases. This helps individuals know the “history” of your mobile app and keeps them in the loop on upcoming updates or other company news. By doing this it will also establish a rapport with your audience because they will have a better understanding of you and your mobile app.

If you really want to go above and beyond you can add a company profile page. This can detail your company history and your staff. Links to your social accounts is also beneficial so that people can learn more about you and read what other people are saying.

4. Forum and Discussion Board Outreach

Identifying where your desired audience or key demographic congregates online is an important marketing aspect to identify. There are many technology and mobile applications blogs filled with individuals that read and keep up with news on mobile applications. This is especially helpful if your app is designed for a specific group. For example, if you app is designed to assist joggers track their daily runs, then posting relevant topics about your application on fitness discussion boards or blogs can be beneficial.

When reaching out to these forums the key is to not spam the blog with your business. Many blog and discussion boards ban users who post promotional material on their comment sections. Posting beneficial information and answering any questions is a good way to start. After you have built a rapport as a thought leader then you can start back linking information to your site or post an article about your product.

5. App Profiles

When it comes to marketing a new app raising awareness is an important aspect to increase downloads. The creation of app profiles on sites such as Appolicious and others like it is beneficial to do. With these profiles you can add a description of your app along with a link to the App or Google Play store that allows the user to download it. This is a simple and easy way to increase the awareness to your desired target audience.

6. Influencer Outreach

Along with reaching out to forums and other relevant blogs, contacting industry thought leaders or influencers for reviews is another avenue to market your app. Having reviews of your app is good, having a reviews written by a respected thought leader in the industry and posted on a respectable site is even better. Many of the popular influencers in an industry have millions of engaged followers that read their material daily. So to have a review written on your app by an influencer in the mobile application industry will give you an increased amount of awareness and possibly downloads (as long as you receive a positive review.)

You can go about this by identifying them (you already know who they are) and contacting them about a potential review. You can provide a promo code or demo to access your app for free. This is where the press kit would come into play. In your request you can attach your press release with all the relevant information we talked about above, therefore accommodating them with all the information and resources they may need.

7. Social Media

It is no secret that social media is a popular medium and can be utilized as an effective marketing tool. Creating pages specifically designed for your app on all social media channels is something that is strongly recommended to really engage your target audience and see their discussions. With a plethora of possible outlets that include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few, you have access to a vast population and you have the ability to find which ones work best for you. Keep in mind that these pages should compliment your overall company social accounts. Just like the app store, make sure your company name is on these social pages so that you increase your overall brand awareness.

Managing these accounts is another aspect of social media. Making sure you devote time and effort to monitor your different pages is crucial to really benefit from social media. Think of it as a window into viewing your consumers thoughts and concerns. The better you monitor and all the comments and questions the better you can learn how to improve your product which in turn will increase brand loyalty.

8. Teaser Campaign

Whether it be creating hype over a potential release date or providing an incentive with a promotional campaign, a teaser campaign is a good way to get your audience excited and engaged. This can be done as simple as producing a short teaser trailer paired with a “Coming Soon” animation on your microsite. If you have the resources you can also run a promotional contest or giveaway. To manage this you may even collect email addresses to keep people informed on updates. The more people you drive to your site and social media accounts the bigger the engagement and therefore building a community of followers.

9. Set Up Google Alerts

Setting up Google alerts can be beneficial to track what people are saying about your product. This beats visiting each individual site separately to see if there is a new review of your app. These alerts can can also help you research the app industry or competitors. Instead of doing extensive research across different sites to keep tabs on your competitors, you can simply set up an alert to advise you when any relevant news surfaces about your search query. All this information is easily emailed to you with the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc… ) based on your queries.

10. App Discounts

Lastly, individuals like to get things for free or for a discount. By providing discounts on specific days related to your application is a good way to get your followers engaged and excited. The key is to be creative. For example, if you have a zombie based mobile game, a good time to provide a promotional offer would be in October – around Halloween time.

There you have it. A complete top 10 list of ways to market your app. Of course there are hundreds of potential ways to market your mobile app, however this is a solid start. Stay tuned for more updates to come on how to get the most out of your mobile marketing efforts.

The Procedure of Mobile Application Development by a Mobile Application Development Company

Before when a team submits a proposal, they understand the need of the app, what are the features that can be incorporated and what are the client’s requirements. There are many key steps involved in creating a successful application.

If you want to reduce the risks and time associated with the application development then hire a mobile phone application development company for the best results which provides the below mentioned process for the standard development. They will have the competence to understand your business requirements and deliver you with cutting-edge mobile applications. There are different activities or steps in the process and they are mentioned below.

1. Research and discovery: The team of a mobile web application developer firm understands your vision and requirements. They provide all the possible solutions for any technological hurdles. Before committing to your project, they conduct research proof of concept and discover the type of business and its main technologies which have to be incorporated.

2. Planning and understanding the project: The team determines the immediate and long term requirements for your app development which even includes the third-party services also. It ensures that the objectives of your business, creative design and mobile technologies are properly communicated to the team members. They understand your needs and provide documentation for the process to be done.

3. Prototyping of the user flows: The custom mobile application developer platform provides an interactive visualization of the app and develop a proof of concept. They even create wireframes that demonstrate major situations and how a user can interact with your app. In the effort of wireframe development, they reduce the chances of risks for the estimate and modify the project if any changes required.

4. Designing: If it is possible, the team sends design samples to the client to get an idea about the design for the particular app from a visual point of view. They proper look and feel of your app to look overwhelming on the mobile screens for many different resolutions. They concentrate on taking the wireframes and create a single concept with several revisions of the core screens. They create a complete new design with typography, color scheme, logos, images and layouts.

5. Coding and development: The mobile developers start working on development and coding for the client’s project. They consider the suggestions and feedback from the customers and create two or three restatements of development. They make ready the app for the testing and reviewing and if any additional changes to be made, they will even work on them for best results.

6. Deployment and testing: Once the mobile product is ready, they consider the feedback from the client and then release then in Apples app stores and Google play market places. They test the entire app, individual functions and screens and make sure that all the individual parts all work together. They even test the design, coding as it is being done and test every phase of the development process.

7. Support and optimization: The team goes on giving the support to the client in improving of the app, platform updates, functionality and new features. They handle all the aspects of the submission of the app to be ready for the sale.

Hence, these are the procedures done by the mobile application development firm with the developers working with it.

Exit mobile version