Mobile App Development Tricks: Four (4) Basic Tips To Design An App That Users Will Love

Building a mobile strategy is a necessity to all businesses. In today’s age where gadgets keep getting better and users get more dependent on their devices to help with their everyday needs, business owners have to make use of several avenues to reach to their customers in the best ways possible. One particular avenue to look into is through mobile applications.

How To Design A Mobile App That Users Will Love

Creating any type of mobile application is not enough though. With the growing number of competitors around, your primary goal goes deeper into developing something that a lot of people will love. You have to stand out from the rest. You have to stop thinking from an entrepreneur’s standpoint but instead, start putting yourself in the customer’s shoes – what particular features am I looking for? Among millions of apps to choose from, which gives me the best benefit?

Here are four (4) basic tips to designing a perfect application for your consumers. Have your mobile app developer follow this quick checklist to target your desired audience.

1.       Make ease of use your number one priority.  Remember that the easier it is to navigate around your app, the better. Suppose your new customer is not familiar with mobile applications. Will he understand right away how it works? Does he have to read the documentation first before he can work around it? How many taps or clicks does he need to perform before the information he’s searching for appear onscreen? The key then is to make it extremely easy for any user to find the ins and outs of your system.

2.       Keep it super simple. “Good design is as little design as possible.” Do not complicate and overdo things. Pay attention to the age and technical skills of the crowd you are hoping to tap into. For instance, can a 60-year-old man identify the function in the first minute of usage? How about a non-technical person? Can he define what the buttons are for merely by glancing at them? Take note of the places where they can get stuck and are unable to move forward. Eliminate these elements and find better alternatives.

3.       Aim for convenience. Consider how your apps can bring convenience to your customers. They would want the info ready at their fingertips regardless if they are at home or on the go.  How can you enhance usability and experience then? Ensure too that your iPhone app developer clearly recognize the importance of having it available in multi-platforms.

Focus on one purpose alone. As much tempting as it is, avoid developing apps with several purposes in mind. Concentrate on one task and work towards providing a solution that fits that goal.

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Digital Marketing Case Study – Guide to Executing your own Digital Marketing campaign

This case study shows how Hizon's Catering utilized the power of different digital distribution channels (web, social, search and mobile) to improve their sales performance.
More info about the campaign here: http://www.myoptimind.com/digital-marketing-case-study-guide-to-executing-your-own-digital-marketing-campaign/

Tips For Making Your Own Mobile App

Technology has been growing at an exponential rate the past few years. If computers and software has been the norm a decade or so ago, nowadays it’s all about mobile devices such as tablets and mobile applications. If you have your own website, whether for personal or business use, having a mobile application will provide many benefits to your website. It will also be good to know that you can make your own mobile app even with little help from a mobile app developer Philippines company. Below are some tips to help you.

• Give it for free. Before you even start planning your mobile app, remember that its chances for success are greater if you offer it for free. Make it available for free download from your website and promote your mobile app by letting your customers and clients know about it. If the expense of getting a mobile app development company is not an issue even if you make the mobile app available for free, then getting their services is not a bad idea.

• Provide a service or product with your mobile app. What is the purpose of your mobile app? Make sure that whatever feature you will offer with your mobile app is something that your customers or clients would often avail of. It can be a service or it can be a product discount or coupon. Ask yourself how a mobile app can make your customers’ lives more convenient?

• Put attention to the design and detail. Who would like an ill-designed mobile app that has many glitches? Make sure to take the time and effort to choose a design for your mobile app that is sleek and looks good. A mobile app that looks savvy and stunning can easily get your customers’ approval. Also, do not forget to test several times before distributing it for download.

• Make it simple and easy to use. Not all of those who will be downloading your mobile app are tech savvy, so it is very important to make sure that those who are on the lowest level of tech know-how will be able to figure out how to use your mobile app.

• Have it available in different platforms. Although you will definitely start out in a single platform, it is better to expand into other platforms once you have a mobile app up and running. This will provide you with the flexibility to offer your mobile app to any customer no matter what mobile device and platform he or she uses.

Guide To Push Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is on the rise in the past few years, along with the rise of the use of electronic devices. Whether through computers, mobile phones, tablets, or game consoles, more and more people are relying on these devices for browsing the Internet, accessing information, and playing various media. Because of the increased time spent on these electronic devices, it is inevitable that companies would turn to digital media to market their products and services.

 

Because of the need for digital marketing in the Philippines, many marketing companies have ventured into this field as well. New companies that offer only digital marketing have also sprouted up and it can be quite easy to find a digital marketing company if you have a need for their services.

Digital marketing has two forms or approaches – pull digital marketing and push digital marketing. This article will focus on the more aggressive approach, push digital marketing.

What is push digital marketing?

Push digital marketing, as the name suggests, is a form of digital marketing wherein the marketer pushes a marketing material towards the target audience. With this approach, the recipient often does not provide permission or consent for the marketer to make the marketing material available. 

What are the different forms of using push digital marketing?

Some examples of forms of push digital marketing are emails, text messages, online messages, and newsletters. Email marketing is among the most popular forms of push digital marketing. Because of the nature of these forms of digital marketing, they are also often categorized as spam.

 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of push digital marketing?

Push digital marketing is a more aggressive form of digital marketing compared to pull digital marketing because you deliver the information directly to your target consumers. One advantage of push digital marketing is that it provides you with the opportunity to send a more personalized message to your customers. However, this also makes it more tedious to implement. Also, with push digital marketing, you need to have a specific group of potential customers. You need to have specific information such as a list of email addresses or mobile phone numbers for you to pursue this form of digital marketing.

This approach is often used to promote new products and services because it involves pushing new information towards the target market. Compared to pull digital marketing, push digital marketing is more focused and driven.

Mobile Marketing: How To Market Your Mobile Website

We’re nearing the end of the series about Mobile Web Development, Optimization and Marketing. On the previous posts, we discussed the four (4) different ways to reach your mobile consumer and analyzed their pros and cons. Last time, we introduced optimization techniques on how to make your existing website mobile-friendly. On this fifth installment, learn the basics of SEO and marketing strategies should you choose to have a separate site intended for mobile consumers.

Mobile Website Defined.

This is the second copy of your main site. Your visitors are directed to it if they’re using a handheld or tablet device. It displays only pertinent information and is designed with larger navigation and special features like click-to-call functions all aimed to give your audience the best mobile user experience.

Mobile Website and SEO.

As users hate to scroll through a page when they’re using their smartphones, it is extremely important to be on the top of the list should a prospective mobile client decide to search for a certain service your company happens to offer. Thus, here are three (3) simple tips to help you rank better on mobile search engines.

·         Onpage. Similar to web, optimize your title, meta and tags with the right keywords. During keyword research, consider the behavior of mobile users as they totally differ from the web users – factor such as the earlier tends to type fewer words than the latter.

·         Mobile Standards. Just like your usual Googlebot task, it indexes the XHTML and CSS files of your mobile website. Make sure that you upload the correct copy accordingly.

·         Redirection and Sitemap. Test to see if redirection works properly in different gadgets. You wouldn’t want to lose a potential buyer by merely failing to direct them to the right version of your website. Add a mobile sitemap for mobile robots.

Mobile Website and Marketing.

Modifying your site to increase ranking on mobile search engines isn’t enough. What about the people who use local directories to look for a recommended restaurant or dry cleaning shop near the area. Then enters marketing. Below are ideas on how to approach this type of crowd:

·         Online coupons. Mobile people most often than not prefers local. Hence, if your firm is located in the country, have a webdesign professional in the Philippines create online coupons to generate sales for your business. This is a great opportunity to maximize purchases that can be done in impulse.

·         Listings. If you’re a local resto that offers exotic Pinoy cuisine, have an SEO company in the Philippines submit your listing to a local food directory. In this way, you can get leads that are targeted according to your niche.

·         Reviews. Have your satisfied customers write a review for you. Let the word about your excellent products and services go out.

·         Social Media Promotions. Utilize the social media hype. Add your business in Foursquare for better visibility. Reward regulars with freebies for frequently checking in.

·         QR Codes. Your customer can reach your website by simply scanning your QR codes found online and on print. So remember include this in your marketing plans as well.  

Next up is how to market your mobile app.

Mobile Web Development: Mobile Site vs Mobile App

MobileWeb Usage Statistics.

based on Westminster eForum, March 2012 and Pew Research Center

• A sale coming from mobile phones on eBay comes every 2 seconds.
• Smartphone sales have become bigger than PC sales.
• Tablet sales are expected to exceed 100 million by the end of the year.
• 28% of Internet usage comes from a mobile phone.
• 86% of adults own a cellphone and 53% use it to access the Internet.

With the above stats, are you and your business prepared for the explosion of the mobile web? In this series, we already tackled four (4) ways to reach your mobileconsumers as well as the advantagesof Responsive Design over Mobile website (and vice versa). On this post, let’s see which between the two, by going through their features, would be the best solution to your business needs – would it be a mobile website or a mobile application?

When to use a Mobile Website.

As mobile websites were strategically designed for smartphones and not desktop PCs, they have been made efficient to show only the most relevant information compared to the full web version. Thus, they are mainly the effective choice if Analytics show that majority of the visits come from mobile devices.

When to use Mobile Apps.

Since mobile applications are stand-alone software aimed for a specific purpose, they normally direct the people to their own compact form of a browser for additional details. The apps then get the content from its server so that the downloader can retrieve it anytime. They are the best option if the target audience uses a tool regularly (like Evernote).

Here are ten (10) more factors that illustrate how they differ from each other.

1.      Ease of Access

·         Mobile site: may be accessed only when online

·         Mobile apps: may be accessed even when offline

2.      Availability of Content

·         Mobile site: instantly available since content may be viewed via browser

·         Mobile apps: available only after apps has been downloaded from the marketplace and installed on the gadget

3.      Ability to be searchable

·         Mobile site: easier to find because search engines have a distinct mobile search index similar to web’s

·         Mobile apps: harder to find as it all depends if the apps exists on the app store of manufacturer

4.      Ability to be shareable

·         Mobile site: easy to share, it takes only one click. It’s like sharing a regular web link, only it’s done on mobile

·         Mobile app: harder to share as the person either has to go to the marketplace first or download another app to enable sharing

5.      Compatibility

·         Mobile site: compatible to all device types – smartphones, tablets

·         Mobile apps: solely depends on the device. There are apps that might work on Apple but wouldn’t work on Android or Blackberry

6.      Integration Feature.

·         Mobile site: can integrate with existing technologies such as QR codes or SMS

·         Mobile apps: can integrate in terms of built-in features like camera or processing power

7.      Administrative User Control and Permission

·         Mobile site: the user has no authorization to the site except to “Read”. Complete control goes to the webmaster

·         Mobile apps: the user has the absolute authority to do anything he likes with the app. He can run it, retain or opt to delete it. He has “Read, Write and Execute” permission.

8.      Update and Maintenance

·         Mobile site: easy to update and maintain on the developers end. If the site is local and the layout needs to be changed, a web design expert in the Philippines can effortlessly do the work.

·         Mobile apps: hard to update and maintain due to its long procedure to do so. If the app is locally-made, the assigned iOS developer in the Philippines, will initially perform the update and compatibility debugging. Once tested, he will upload it along with documentation about the latest revision. The user will then transfer and install the newest copy on his phone.

9.      Cost and Affordability

·         Mobile site: more affordable due to updates and maintenance

·         Mobile apps: less affordable for the same reason

10.  Best suited for:

·         Mobile site: Ecommerce websites. The simple step-by-step instructions will guide prospective buyer to a simpler process of purchase

·         Mobile app: Interactive games

On the next post, discover techniques on how to optimize your current site tomake it mobile-friendly.