How to Create a Smart Home App & Gain Benefits for Your Business

Smartening up your home is going mainstream. And this hi-tech area is supposed to simplify and improve our lives in a matter of minutes. Everybody’s home is about to get smarter, no matter what. We, potential users, expect all these devices to fix the new level of comfort, safety, and entertainment quality for us.

For the majority of people, the smart home concept looks a bit complicated: too many options, gadgets tend to be too smart, and much time is needed to set them up. That’s not what a common man hopes for, I bet, when thinking Smart Home.

This paper is going to outline the current situation and trends in the Smart Home integration market, spell out challenges Home Automation companies face when offering technology to their potential clients and finally, will demonstrate the benefits of incorporating a smart home automation app. It’s also going bust a hefty myth of the hi-tech home being too complicated to deal with instead of simplifying life.

All things Brainy Home

For your potential clients, smart home technology is all about order, safety, automation, control, and most importantly, simplicity.

The idea is quite sophisticated – usually implemented as a system of switches, sensors, and security units together with a controlling wall-mounted console. It covers things like doors, windows, lights, bells, water heaters, clocks, thermostats, ventilation, and all kitchen devices, etc.

Other than that, there are a lot of smart devices, that are handled independently through the web interface, gateways, or else.

But again, let me emphasize that – Smart House for a common man like myself is potentially my improved living. I don’t really want to spend hours configuring plenty of things and checking if I switched off heaters or closed the garage through the integrated tools.

As mobile phones invade all spheres of our lives and people get more and more engaged with their devices, we get used to reaching and working out most tasks on the smartphone within a couple of clicks. Also considering that there are no reliable unified technologies of incorporating home control science yet (still a huge number of implementations), a company that will do a smart home app development for you comes in handy.

That being said, competition in the home automation sector increases as demand among consumers escalates:

User challenges when integrating Smart Home

The current curve of Smart Home app development and penetration into everyday life can be marked as infancy – with a huge number of options of how to start up one’s home.

Let me proclaim one thing – there is a couple of deciding obstacles users face trying to implement “Smart Home” and this stops a lot of people from invading this cutting-edge venture:

  • no common platform – currently everybody interested in the latest technologies and willing to “go smart” needs a lot of time and enthusiasm to choose a system and then make it work. Not to mention, there are so many remote controls, switches, and consoles around the house… That’s can get too confusing;
  • study how to use your “new” home – if you wanna own a smart house, you’ll definitely need to go through a bunch of “how-to’s” to be able to manage it and adapt your life to these innovations. Do you have enough time for that, why is that so complicated? Isn’t this technology all about simplifying life?

This graph shows a significant influence on how people recognize “Home Automation” nowadays. The technology-savvy part of the globe is already implementing “Smart Home” elements, but there is 85% more of a blank marketplace to be fulfilled. By your simplified and user-friendly smart home system. The idea to build a smart home app is an amazingly obvious and easy solution for controlling a full house altogether.

And it sounds absolutely effortless as users tend to see Smart Homes!

Look out for the Smart Home Control app

What’s the difference between a web interface, control panel, or application, after all, you say, if you’re getting the next level of security, comfort, and resources?

Here is why:

Read also: How Much Does It Cost To Make an App?

And the cherry on top – 90% of time spent on mobiles actually goes to mobile applications.

The thing is that invisible, but well-tailored improvements are what really helps your leg up on the competition. Not to neglect all these little things, let me outline the range of benefits you’ll get after developing the mobile app for the smart home system:

  • Computer challenged part of a population is yours – remember those who get distracted just from checking their e-mails on the web. The simple one-tap management of the full system will make it easy and quick to get used out of the full Smart Home. It means that a huge stack of potential clients will be much more open to your particular product;
  • Centralization is everything – a single platform seems to be a dominant concern and here is yours – “all in one place” control app gives the opportunity to check everything is even far away from actual home is your game-changing benefit;
  • Updates, updates – new features spring up like mushrooms overnight, and all you need to do to renew the platform is to download an upgrade altogether – saves time and makes sure you’re always on the edge;
  • IoT in action – connected to one system, all devices are able to communicate with each other and ensure smooth and close-knit performance;
  • Combinations are endless – this integral connectivity amongst devices allows to set various modes, options and relations in between and customize it non-stop;
  • Staying informed – the average user interacts with about 10 to 20 mobile apps daily, and one single “Smart Home” app interface and alerts will help not to get totally confused;
  • One remote control, not tens of them – this is an enormous benefit for all mobile apps included the one for smart home control – you got access and control over your house while being on the go. Car, boat, airplane, even remote island – enjoy!

Vital features for your Smart Home Control application

The mobile app that aims at controlling a range of other devices and applications might have a variety of features. But there are a couple of crucial ones, which build a skeleton of an entire engine:

  • Remote access to all integrated gadgets – this is basically a feature, which makes all application. You can operate any device from within your smartphone – switch off a lamp or close the garage doors in a matter of clicks. Similar access to computers feature, but for corporate docs turnover, was successfully implemented by our team in a SkimDoc application:
  • the wide net of settings/configurations/modes – just like any other personal profile, this one needs, even more, customization opportunities for tuning all possible options for personal convenience. For our clients we develop one-of-a-kind settings logics, implement and test it narrowly for the sake of absolute customer satisfaction;
  • connectivity within all devices – any custom configuration won’t be possible if devices are not talking to each other. If you want your morning coffee right off the bat, make sure your smart mattress will send a notification to a coffee machine once you’re up;
  • push notifications – yes, of course, how will you know that TV is left turned on after you left home other than receiving a notification. This is also a major tool for mobile marketing strategy, that will keep your consumers updated with some add-on products or services you want to up-sale.

Read also: Ten Ways to Build a Bulletproof Push Notification Strategy

Once you know what functionality to expect from your application, you can get a prototype and the cost of your smart home app development – that’s a very convenient way to visualize the whole system and calculate the overall cost and profits for the future.

Putting it all together

To nail down the whole idea of the post, let me just say it out loud: when hitting a worldwide market – go simple! And no need to worry about terms “smart” and “simple” to go a bit apart in their basic definitions.

What we suggest is simplify usage of all these smart goodies as you can and people will end up loving how little it takes them to use the latest technologies with your help. And that’s what you want after all, right?

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Pros and Cons of Bootstrap and Investment Funding

Startups. Startups all around. Everybody is coming up with killer ideas and rush to find their target audiences to turn these concepts into beneficial businesses. As people become more and more open to new exciting experiences, a lot of projects really shoot up in quite a short term.

There always is another side of the coin, which is financing the whole venture. Here we come to an important decision because not everybody is able to support a business project independently.

Happily, nowadays freedom of communication and all these cosmopolitan trends in business present a lot more opportunities to young and creative people than back in the day. So in fact, you are not limited by only going to a bank and ask for a loan, you can find a lot of alternative funding options online.

Joining a startup accelerator, for instance, will ensure you not only with free office facilities or consulting services but also seed fund you. You can also barter your skills and this way get some service or facility for free or find an investor – angel or venture capitalist ones. You can even pre-sell your product before it’s actually done. Finally, you are able to apply to some business grants, which spring up like mushrooms overnight.

How to bootstrap a business

The objective of our today’s talk is two antipodal ways to fund your business:

  • Bootstrapping – which is basically doing your best at crafting business with own resources;
  • Investment funding – this is all about selling your idea to an investor, get your money, and give ownership equity to your creditor in return.

After reading the article, you’ll know exactly what do these financing methods mean and in what way they are different; what questions should be asked before committing to any of these models and which way can be more beneficial to pick.

First things first: explaining bootstrapping and investment funding

Bootstrapping

It’s essentially a way discovered by every entrepreneur at least once in their business journey. So anyone who’s started his or her business, tried to stretch any sort of available recourses as much as possible, right? And I don’t only mean startup thing, it can be a to-go strategy at various stages of business life.

The term bootstrapping comes from that very famous legend of Baron Münchhausen who pulled himself out of the water with the help of his own bootstraps.

The vital idea behind bootstrapping in commercial means is to borrow as minimal finance as possible. In two words, you only rely on either on your own budget and savings, on some crowdfunded amount, or simply on loans from friends and family. That’s totally the opposite of, for instance, selling your business idea to investors.

Bootstrap financing is also considered to be one of the most effective ways to assure a positive cash flow for your business and for a good reason. This scenario urges you to borrow insignificant amounts of money and this way keep interest costs minimal. You are turning your home into an office, follow a strict diet, and manage every penny of the budget narrowly for the sake of the flourishing future.

Bootstrap quote for your business

What does bootstrapping mean in business? In fact, this strategy doesn’t seem to be a huge trend internationally, but there is a list of really big brands, whose creators eventually bootstrapped them. And they nailed it.

I will just leave these names down below:

  • Apple;
  • Microsoft;
  • Dell Computers;
  • Hewlett-Packard;
  • Coca-cola.

Investment funding

It is another alternative to arranging your business. And this strategy is different in all ways.

To make a long story short, this is a way to sell your idea to investors, who are interested in getting profit out of your one-of-a-kind idea in the future. So they finance your project for some ownership equity in return, evaluating closely the business potential beforehand. The most popular ones recently are an angel investing and venture capital investment funds.

Angel investors

These are usually wealthy businessmen, who are passing their funds onto well-selected businesses and promising start-ups. These guys are usually very cautious in making decisions because these are their private money. What’s more, angels also expect really high returns from their investments, as high as 15 to 30% of the company’s ownership. On the other hand, angel investors share not only funds but also knowledge, experience, and advice with us, fresh entrepreneurs. To get these guys’ attention, you should be well-prepared, competent, and have a thought-out strategy.

Venture capital investors

This option makes your contributors the decision-makers in a venture, not you. At the same time, getting under some high profile investor’s wing can give a rapid start and some extra credibility to your business. Without a doubt, they will also ask for the ownership equity of your company – that is a common scheme of such funding. You’ll also agree to various restrictions on your salary, cooperation with other companies, etc.

According to recent studies, the venture capital funding field is expanding and there is a growing number of start-up accelerators detected. The overall number of these funds also increases and stockholders become more and more open to smaller companies.

Types of investments for your business

Described ways of financing your business are totally contrasting and offer various approaches to managing recourses and building overall commercial strategy. Both of them have proved to be realistic to implement. The decision is only on you – which one to pick. You are the creator of your success after all. Let’s just dive into the details and find out what details and questions should be considered before adopting any of these concepts.

4 major questions to ask yourself before picking a strategy

Apparently, you’ve already passed the stage of asking yourself a question “To be or not to be?”. Now it’s time to ask further, more complex, questions.

In the context of selecting one of the above-mentioned ways to go, let me outline and systematize topics for you to study in order to make a wise decision.

First and foremost: what is the focus of your [future] business?

If your ultimate priority is steady growth, then you better fix an investor’s support. With funders, it will be much easier to achieve. In this case, you want to clarify if the speed is important for you and in general throughout the market and if you’re able to keep up with it.

For example, if your startup is tech-oriented, here the tempo is quite high and it’s an inevitable part of the market. Technologies develop real quick and you have no chance but move with them, and even be a step ahead.

Otherwise, if you decide to concentrate on taking your product to a new quality level instead of spending time in meetings with investors, you should certainly try and bootstrap your biz. Besides, more money can solve a lot of problems and bring real decisions, but not always. For instance, if you’re limited on budget, you’re forced to make creative decisions and it will ultimately play into your hands.

Second important question: how much control do you want to have over your venture?

If that is one of the major principles for you, then cut off the idea of calling external funding in and look at bootstrapping or alternative self-funding schemes. You appear to be the only decision-maker and free to pivot from one corner of the market to an absolutely different one.

Unlike any venture investing scheme, which works approximately the same: you are expected to provide some ownership equity to your investor and they gonna rebuild your strategy and advise you what actions to take and decisions to make. In other words, many opinions are about to meet, a lot of meetings and discussions to handle.

Questions #3: what returns are you expecting from this enterprise?

Now we all know what does bootstrap means and obviously, you cannot expect some fixed income or salary to come to your pocket with this approach, right? Most of your cash flow from this project is going to be injected back into it – that is how companies with limited budgets develop and grow.

In the case of investors’ involvement, it’s easier. Even though a salary will be somehow limited at early stages and fixed in the contract, you are still guaranteed a monthly payment, which sounds secure, doesn’t it?

And last, but not least: what knowledge pool is required for growing your biz?

Are your skillset and knowledge base enough to craft a successful venture from the scratch?

What I mean is if your product or niche particulars require specific experience, knowledge, or access to any resources. And if you are able to fix it independently. Because investors bring in not only extra money, they own and share their widescale experience and professionals, who really know what they do and how to make things work the best they can.

Differently, if you rely on your own knowledge, connections, and potency, then it’s easier to go for the bootstrapping option.

Which path to take: the pros and cons of bootstrapping and investment funding

Now it’s time to only shortlist all the advantages and drawbacks of both financing strategies for your startup idea or any other business. Afterward, I will leave you with this food for thought and study so that you make up your mind and definitely go for your dream!

Bootstrap and investment funding - pros and cons for your business

Best of luck and happy crafting new businesses, guys!

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Why Does your Mobile App Idea Need a SWOT Analysis?

Whether you are an app marketer, business leader, or client, you must understand mobile business basics. You must know that your app falls into a certain niche and is suited for a specific customer pool with exact requirements. Chances are, you already know that every business undertaking takes money, and if done wrong, may cost you users in the long run.

However, creating an economically sound app for companies is a challenging undertaking. You’d be surprised to know that the hit ratio of building creditworthy mobile apps is pathetically low – around 0.01%

Now the heart-balm.

You can dodge app failure by studying meticulously your brand insides – strengths and weaknesses. This is where a free SWOT application mobile analysis comes onboard.

swot analyze example

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You shouldn’t underrate the importance of creating your mobile app project plan of action on a solid foundation. This refers to thorough management and addressing the ongoing operational tasks. Only after obtaining extensive data are you ready for decision-making. 

Therefore, a SWOT analysis is the best tool to transform your brilliant app idea into a tangible app. Otherwise, there is no point bothering developers and going for app development in general.

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS VS. MACHINE LEARNING: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

What is SWOT?

A SWOT analysis is a core element of any business and strategic planning that every company should add to their toolbox. The abbreviation stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or free project planning. 

swot analyze meaning

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While strengths and weaknesses are deemed internal factors, opportunities and threats are considered to be external factors. 

A SWOT diagram analyzes an application or business undertaking by concentrating on each of these aspects, and makes analysis easy and accessible. The analysis usually consists of four boxes, each box describes a certain factor. However, the exact shape may vary depending on the design. It can be a box, circle, or any other convenient way that will help you conduct the analysis.

DATA MINING VS. PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS: KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

A free SWOT analysis comes in useful when trying to decide whether or not to engage in a certain project or strategy by picturing the for and against and pinpointing all the good, bad and ugly sides of a project. A SWOT analysis also facilitates decision-making regarding further moves.

This analysis will allow you to determine the aspects of your business that are doing great. These are the key success factors of your business that are strong and provide a head start. Outlining these assets will help you remain at a high ranking, and you will also need to find ways to leverage and build upon these strengths to expand your business.

Build Your Own Dedicated Team

Next, you’ll want to identify ways to eliminate or recuperate your weaknesses. Weaknesses are the features that put you in a less favored position to your competitors. Figuring out what these weaknesses are, and taking measures to lessen them before they hurt your business, is vital. This stage calls for an elaborate and straightforward analysis of what is going wrong within your organization. 

Once you are done with internal factors, you can proceed by identifying your external impacts. By recognizing your weaknesses, you can overcome and escape threats.

But what’s in it for a mobile app development agency?

Well, it’s simple. Being a standard process, a SWOT analysis gives a closer look at mobile application development technology. Additionally, this method allows businesses to analyze and test the related potential and worthiness of their app ideas, targets, and app purposes, to find and assess challenges and experiences that may be influencing their company. 

DOES YOUR BUSINESS REALLY NEED AN ENTERPRISE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Last but not least, it allows any app ideas to prove more successful for the end-customer and market needs. Gaining this insight can help deliver greater results and overcome threats for your mobile app project.

This was a quick walk through the process of carrying out SWOT analysis. Now let’s move onto the benefits this analysis entails for you and your business.

Benefits & Limitations

Before we dwell on the benefits, you must understand that a SWOT analysis does not give a ready-made solution. Instead, it facilitates analyzing the issues that impact your company or idea. A SWOT analysis is not a one-size-fits-all option for any application. Therefore, it is crucial to understand its main advantages and restrictions before you perform it.

SWOT Benefits

There is one thing that you should know – this type of analysis comes at no cost. However, if you cannot see the backside of your idea or business, it’s better to contact a professional analyst. We usually offer such a service to our clients.

Here is a quick overview of what benefits this analysis entails:

  • It allows better divergent thinking and an enhanced vision of your business;
  • By understanding weaknesses one can overcome and escape threats;
  • Its framework gives you a competitive edge and more opportunities. 

SWOT Limitations

SWOT analysis is not the panacea for your brand, it’s just one imperative stage of your strategic planning. Therefore, it only encompasses what its name implies – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

SWOT is not suitable for complex and intricate issues or aspects. For example, this technique doesn’t have a priority ranking and doesn’t bring you to the final action. SWOT analysis is an idea-generator, it doesn’t steer you toward the best option.

GOOGLE CLOUD SERVICES FOR BIG DATA PROJECTS

swot analyze best examples

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Conducting a SWOT Analysis of a Mobile App Idea

Before taking the first steps, you need to outline the objective of your analysis. You can use SWOT on your companies, brands, mobile app ideas, minimum viable products, or any important features.

After this, you need to conduct profound research on your industry and the market. The data can be retrieved from both the online space and your team, business partners, or users.

Strengths

As an initial step, study all features of your future app. There is a good chance that most of them will fall into the strengths category. Additionally, do some competitive research to define your competitors’ strengths. If you find some similarities, your business idea must adopt these strengths as indispensable elements.

Also, it is necessary to go through your advantages, unique selling proposition, unique resources, and the final goal regarding your sales.

Weaknesses

This step requires a bold and honest look at your business idea. As there is always room for improvement, you will likely find some weak points.

Again, some competitive research allows you to compare your weaknesses to those of your competitors and get some answers.

Consider the following points:

  1. What new enhancements would you offer?
  2. Is there something you could discard?
  3. What weak sides do your customers point out?
  4. What product features hinder your brand success?

OUTSTAFFING VS. OUTSOURCING VS. MANAGED SERVICES: DIFFERENCES AND BENEFITS

Opportunities

The top tip while assessing your opportunities is to take a hard look at your strengths. You need to think about how you can transform your strengths into new opportunities. 

Cutting-edge technologies and different trending patterns can allow you to do that.

Also, remember that federal police monitoring and behavioral models of your target audience can create new opportunities as well. 

Threats

If we are talking about threats and opportunities, there is one tool that helps identify the big picture. This tool is not new and is known as the PEST or PESTLE analysis. It helps analyze the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, and Technological shifts in your business environment.

Let’s go over the best questions that will allow you to find your threats:

  1. What new challenges may you come across?
  2. What anti-threat techniques and tools do your competitors use?
  3. How do quality standards impact your product?
  4. Is your product ready for evolving technologies?
  5. Are you sure you won’t have any financing constraints?

However, when you use the SWOT technique it is crucial to use only credible information and explicit statements. In this way, you will get rid of the apparent new facts and prioritize the rest.

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION FOR THE PROJECT’S MVP

Another tip is to use the categories at the same level and not to mingle the points. Thus, you cannot use the idea’s weaknesses in SWOT on UX, etc. As we have stated above, to get a more extensive feature try other analytic tools like PEST Analysis, USP Analysis, Core Competence Analysis, and so on.

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Example of SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is the ultimate tool. You can use this technique for both your business idea or app and for your brand in general. It is also relevant for different categories like user experience. 

User experience cannot be crafted based on your friends’ or relatives’ feedback (well, it can, but we rather you didn’t). UX calls for better and direct feedback from genuine end-users.

Now let’s have a look at how you can use this analysis on UX:

Read also: How Does Business Analysis Work and What Are Its Benefits

Takeaway

A SWOT analysis is an unbelievably straightforward yet robust technique to help you build your new game plan.

It also outlines your objectives whether you’re building a startup or mentoring an existing company. One cannot underestimate the power of analysis and planning. SWOT analysis is among those useful tools that can get your product potential to a new level. It improves the performance and given resources at any phase of your SDLC.

This system also enables you to come up with the best tactic, define your challenges, and evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

You can also reach out for our assistance. Our BA will be glad to carry out a profound analysis and decide on further moves. Please, liaise with our manager to schedule a meeting.

Benefits of Using Chatbots for your Business

One of a trend that has shaped a previous year and definitely is going to influence the year 2017 is the increasing popularity of chatbots.
Chatbots is a program that simulates a real conversation with users by using artificial intelligence.

To understand this technology and find use cases that will fit your business and your customers` needs, let’s analyze the background that drives this trend.

Factors Influencing the Rise of Chatbots

  1. The exploding popularity of messaging apps is hard to deny. The GlobalWebIndex Statistics says that 75% of Internet users are adopters of one or few messengers. Also, take a look at the Business Insider statistics that shows how quickly growth the popularity of messengers:READ ALSO: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP A MESSAGING APP LIKE WHATSAPP?
  2. The rise of artificial intelligence technologies brings chatbots to a new level. Together with natural language processing AI brings up to 90% the accuracy of machine parsing and understanding of requests. Another significant factor here is sophistication notifications that take into account the context of the situation and are always on across devices.
  3. The accelerated development of all kinds of sensors and wearables in addition to analytics and data science boosted the personalization of virtual communication and the capabilities of predictive assistance.
  4. Payment integration to third parties via APIs brings, even more, options to the chatbot functionality.

Adopting Chatbots for business

There is one interesting nuance you probably haven’t ever realized. In-app stores, you can find millions of different apps available. However, Forrester Research shows us, that users use about 24 apps per month wherein 80 percent of the time is on just five apps. Without any doubt among them are Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. That means that you hardly can shoot ahead with a new app for your business, but you still have high chances to integrate your chatbot into one of the platforms from your user’s everyday routine.

Of course, bots have not appeared just now, but at the Annual F8 Conference in April 2016 Facebook has announced its platform. That gave a massive impulse for the implementation of this technology for business needs.

Chatbot app development has all chances to be one of the hottest trends and a new challenge for companies and software vendors.

When Building a Chatbot Makes Sense

  1. You receive many requests that are similar to each other
    For every business, there is always a set of typical questions that your employees have to answer over and over again. You can gather all these matters in the FAQ form on the website or Facebook page, or you can create a chatbot for that. Also, chatbots are essential when customers need to get a consultation ASAP.
  2. Products you sell are low involvement
    Low involvement goods and services mean that the clients do not spend much time making a decision to buy or not to buy. Emotions dictate such purchases, and I bet you do not want to miss such a customer`s impulse by not providing info in time. By one single request bots immediately understand what the customer wants and offer it without human interaction.
  3. Your customers need information that is easy to provide
    Everything is simple. The more you can give to your client conditionally for free, the more loyalty you get. That is how your chatbot actually can become another channel of winning sympathy. From another hand, by providing info automatically also you save some money for human recourses. Also, take note that this information can be easily personalized.
  4. You work in a highly competitive niche
    Working in a field where products, services, and prices for them are mostly the same, it is hard to compete. Most likely that your customer will choose the vendor that requires spending fewer efforts to get a product. Moreover, again your chatbot is a winning strategy! First of all, your customer will get information regardless of the day of the week, time, holiday, etc. Secondly, no one likes to speak by phone nowadays.

5 Inspiring Chatbot Use Cases

Chatbots change the form of communication between the brand and the consumer. Of course, some of them will stay with us longer, and others are going to evolve further. Anyway, there is no doubt that both users and brands can get benefits from this technology. We have gathered five inspiring chatbot use cases.

1. Shopping

The percentage of consumers who prefer to buy online is inexorably increasing every year. Today this number tends up to 45%. At the same moment, there is another curious fact. 64% of consumers search online before making a purchase, which means that even those who prefer offline shopping spend some time looking online before this.

That is why chatbots can become one of the most important channels for your retail business. As it is written above, this model will better work for the products with little involvement like clothes or accessories. Furthermore, the chatbot helps you to ensure your customer with a personalized experience.

A good example of a retail chatbot is Shop Spring. You do not need to chat with it, only to pick up some answers from the list of questions to narrow down the options for the final choice. The main advantage of the bot before the marketplace is that it minimizes the number of actions and clicks that the user needs to do.

2. Payments

With the help of a chatbot, you can not only choose the product or service but also and buy it. At the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016, the Head of Messenger David Marcus has announced that bots are going to accept payments. So indeed, from late September 2016, Facebook Messenger users can not only initiate orders but complete them through payment systems like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree.

Of course, every financial operation requires a high level of privacy and security. At The App Solutions, we do know all actual threats and provide reliable fraud protection.

3. Restaurants & Delivery

The main point of any fast food is quick. Your chatbot here will win on all counts. It`s always online and ready to take an order in a few steps. A good example is Pizza Hut. “We are committed to our servicing our customers in the most convenient way and meeting them in the channels they already prefer,” said Baron Concors, Pizza Hut’s Chief Digital Officer.

Another great example is Domino. The system is more sophisticated. After the sign-up, the system saves contacts and a so-called favorite basket that the user can request later. This bot also has an excellent sense of humor 🙂

4. Healthcare

Same as in the financial sphere, any healthcare or hospital app requires a high level of security standards. The confidentiality of patient`s private data and HIPAA compliance are crucial.

Healthcare chatbot patients can book an appointment with doctors, pay invoices for services, store and track all payments and medical care. Also, such a chatbot can perform as an instrument of patient education. Such a strategy helps healthcare providers to build stable and value-rich relations.

A great example of a medical bot is a HealthTap that instantly connects users to doctors. The database of medical staff includes 100,000 physicians from over 140 specialties.

5. Customer Support

Customer support and technical assistance are quite a resource-consuming part of any business. This process can also be improved with the help of chatbots. Once you analyze incoming requests, you will see that most of them are identical.

By creating a chatbot for business, you can automate repetitive requests. Your customer will appreciate the direct communication that avoids holding on the line and talking to strangers from support service.

Takeaway

Chatbots are a powerful tool for brand-to-customer communication that also helps to reduce costs and resources. The reason for such exploding popularity is the rise of mobile messengers and extension technology of artificial intelligence.

Vendors and retailers need to rethink their communication strategies to strengthen their presence in the channels where their customers prefer to be. For now, it is messenger apps.

9 Best Mobile Advertising Platforms

There are tons of money to be made from app development. This ranges from the paid apps’ initial sale to in-app purchases. Several companies find it suitable to utilize a mobile advertising platform to monetize their apps in order to multiply their investment. You probably have several advertising platforms for your app to select from; however, the challenge to this is that you have no idea where to begin.

This happens often to most app developers and budding entrepreneurs, which is why some professionals shortlisted top-notch information to offer those who are facing trouble choosing, to make a decision. Here is a list of the top 9 best app advertising platforms guaranteed to bring you optimum revenue.

1. Tapjoy

All top mobile game developers might want to consider Tapjoy. This is because it has experience with in-app purchases, which is among the most utilized way of achieving optimum app monetization. Undoubtedly, Tapjoy takes the lead in the gaming domain. What do mobile gamers do when they are asked to pay just to finish a game? Some pay up, most gamers quit. In order to avoid this, Tapjoy has introduced incentivized downloading by providing gamers the prospect of earning virtual currency by partaking in real-world actions.

This in turn enables them to get awarded in the virtual world through access to premium content in over 20,000 games to the present day in the Tapjoy network on more than a billion devices.

best-advertising-platform

2. AdMob

AdMob is among the most commendable advertising platforms presently available. It is sometimes referred to as ‘the child of a search engine giant, Google’. It has gained its reputation from its enormous advertisers’ network. Also, the fact that it is owned by Google, which is also reputable and renowned, is a major plus for this platform.

With the vital part to Google’s success being coding, AdMob SDK offers coherent software development tools for app developers to link popular mobile programs such as Windows Phone, iOS and Android. To top it up, AdMob has an elevated CPC to aid users get the leading ROI.

Top mobile advertising platforms

3. Aditic

Aditic is a prime mobile advertising network that was established and is owned by a mobile marketing company called Sofialys. Aditic offers support in various platforms including Blackberry, Android, Java, iOS, and Samsung Bada.

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4. Millennial Media

Millennial Media is renowned for being the chief mobile advertising network, which climbed its way to the next level via the first public offering. Millennial Media acts as both a campaign platform and marketplace. For someone looking to quickly and easily structure a campaign for advertisers to rival for their business, the Millennial Media Platform offers affluence of intelligence and research for that particular use. In addition, it also provides users with a systematic dashboard from which they can obtain reports of all transactions such as date ranges, pacing, targeting, and pricing.

Millennial Media offers enormous deals to mobile developers, individual development teams, and game publishers. It allows advertisers to display ads from other networks via their Ad Network Mediation support system.

One can assign traffic across networks based on CPM. This is doable by utilizing location, revenue, and percentage. Through this platform, one has the ability to cross-promote their apps within its own application. Millennial Media is by far the best combination of advertising and monetization for your app according to experts. This is due to its flexibility.

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5. Byyd

It was initially known as Adfonic but was recently re-branded to Byyd. Byyd provides approximately 95% fill rate for iOS and Android platforms. With their main focus on rich media ads, Byyd provides advertising platforms for big brands and corporations such as ESPN, Samsung, and Amazon. One great major advantage to Byyd is that one has the means to structure and manage several accounts.

6. Chartboost

Most gaming app developers opt for the Chartboost ad platform because of its commitment to serve gaming ads with integrated serves and built-in analytics ads, basically to accomplish your cross-promotional marketing campaign needs. This means that you can obtain more particulars on what a user is doing with your game.

Chartboost platform has several creative solutions that are intended for the heavy utilization of app marketing in a professional manner. Since the targeted audiences are already present and playing the game, and are always looking for the next fun gaming app, the ads displayed are basically about the downloading of new gaming apps and cross-promotion. The best thing about Chartboost is that it only takes 5 coded lines to begin.

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7. AppLovin

AppLovin serves requests for over 7 billion ads every single day together with 10 terabytes of user data. It allows you to provide your users with personalized recommendations as well as selected promotions and other benefactions.

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8. Flurry

The main vision of Flurry is to make your app flourish in these new economic times. Their main goal is to generate as much revenue as possible for your app based on app monetization. Its crew Flurry has assembled a magnitude of user data set in relation to global consumer usage, from over 700 million smartphones and other mobile devices as well.

Furthermore, it utilizes cutting edge analytics to elevate your ad to the right position and at the right time. Flurry is used for takeover, video ads, and interstitial on Android and iOS. However, do you know what is Android Boilerpale

9. Vungle

Contrary to what the majority of people believe, users don’t find all ads are boring. For instance, think about all the people who are attentive to the astonishing ads that air during events such as the Super Bowl. Vungle is committed to aiding you to convert your app into engaging and captivating video ads, which will keep your end-users fixated on it.

With so many app monetizations and app advertising platforms out there, mobile advertising can sometimes become daunting. However, the above-compiled list of the top 9 app advertising platforms should make the selection process easier. Each of them offers a unique take on app monetization to increase revenue for developers.

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10 Tips from The App Solutions to Make Your App Look Cool in the App Store

In this strange and relentless world of mobile application development, the first impression is the thing that matters the most. If your app attracts attention – this is the goldmine.

While it seems to be an obvious thing to claim, some tend to ignore the user experience and first impression, hoping that content alone will make it gangbusters. It doesn’t work like that, however, because in order for the user to get to your amazing content, s/he needs to have your app on their mobile devices.

The consequences of failing to make a positive and ultimately engaging impression are well-known, but there is hope as there are several fairly simple ways of making your application look attractive in the app market.

Here are 10 tips that will help you to make your app look cool in the app store.

How to Market Your Mobile App?

Clearly defined target audience

App store works in mysterious ways at times. There are thousands upon thousands of applications of all walks of life — but only those which happened to be in top-25 charts are making serious business. The rest is just there doing time and stuff. Why is it so?

The reason for that lies in the users. For the most part, they are not looking for some peculiar deep cut options, they need to do something, and they simply take what is lying on the surface. The logic behind this decision is simple — apps presence in the top-25 is a noteworthy sign that this particular app is actually useful and trustworthy.

This means — in order to get through you need to be in the top-25. How? Two words — App marketing.

If you want to compete with the big boys — you need to convince users that your app is worth attention. Your goal is to thoroughly explain what makes your app better and/or different from the others.

How? Look at the application from the user’s point of view. Channel directly to their needs and expectations for certain kinds of apps. Why should he care about it? That’s the secret.

Focus on local markets and work on regional rankings

Another important element is knowing where your target audience is situated country-wise. It is one thing when you need to get into the top 25 of the United States and completely another when you need to get into the United Kingdom top 25. Thresholds are different and the competition varies.

By localizing your target market and focusing your efforts on building up the presence there you can save yourself a lot of time and money. It is that simple.

In the case of non-English speaking countries, it makes sense to make a fully localized version. Even though it seems like everyone knows English — not everyone is comfortable using it. The thing is — for the most part, users prefer to use an application in their native language. Adding support of other languages broadens the international appeal of the application and immensely widens your audience.

Apply an App Store Optimization (ASO)

App Stores are huge. It is easy to get lost there. The success of an application depends on the discovery factor. For the most part, users are either skimming on the top or going straight through the referrals. The majority of users don’t go beyond that.

But since there are hundreds upon hundreds of various applications trying to present themselves in the most engaging manner possible — the competition for the top spots is very high. Even if your app is actually better than the others in a selected field — it doesn’t mean it will stand out in the search results. Quite the contrary is within a probability.

Hopefully, App Store SEO aka ASO can help.

How? You see — search engines are weird beasts with less reason than a bag of bats locked in a submarine. They live by their own rules and you can study them in order to turn the tables into your favor.

By applying ASO you give yourself an additional advantage in the quest for user’s discovery. Simple adjustment of the description and elaborations of the title can work magic for the discovery factor. Combined with high volume low competition keywords — it moves your app up the search results ladder straight to the top.

Learn more about app store optimization or google play store optimization.

Make your app icon distinct

An icon is the first thing users see of your application. In many ways, it is a “make it or break it” situation. You either hook the user, and he goes on to check out the description and the screenshots, or he just moves on through the search results.

An icon shows what your app represents. It is your coat of arms. It tells what the app is about through common symbolism.

Here are a few handy tips on making a distinct icon:

  • It should be catchy and easy to remember;
  • It should not be cluttered (remember that it’s the icon, not a screen)
  • It should be tied to the purpose of the app;
  • It can be a play on words or images based on the app’s purpose or name.

Make a convincing screenshot showcase

Screenshots play important role in the consideration of whether to download an app. On the surface it seems like a nothing deal — just throw in a bunch of screenshots that show how an app works – that’s how app developers usually see it. But in reality, it is a bit trickier.

Upon selecting screenshots for the App Store page, you need to keep in mind how users perceive them. They need to understand what is what and how it works through static images. If done right, screenshots can serve as a strong rationale for your mobile app marketing campaign. However, you should keep them to the point and ultra-descriptive.

Here are several things you need to keep in mind about the visual presentation in the App Store:

  • Show full cycle of navigation (for example, on-boarding process)
  • Show features of the app and appropriate screens for them
  • Record a video of how the app works
  • Tell a story to the user of how s/he could use the app

Take full advantage of the video opportunities

While adding video presentation to the page may seem abundant — it can be used to further the impression of the product and incite positive decision i.e. download.

How does it work? Basically, this is like an ad for the app. Don’t simply repeat your screens, but rather, make the user want to use your app and be happier / healthier / more positive (whatever your app is designed to do).

For example, how the app solves a particular problem or how it allows doing more than other apps. The key element is relatability. If the potential user can’t relate to the problem depicted or doesn’t identify himself with the target audience, chances are s/he won’t get the app (unless s/he falls in love with the design or micro-interactions…)

Make description credible

While the visual aspect is able to raise awareness and carry out the first contact — it is a description that makes a final stroke in the “to install and or to pass on” story. The well-written description of an application works on two fronts:

  • Explains what the app is about;
  • Presents apps value proposition;

Keep in mind that the text consists of two parts. One that is seen in the search results and the rest of the app page. You need to make the opening lines as catchy as possible so that the user will go to the app page and consider the download.

Think about it from a user’s perspective. For example, you need an app to take notes. You’ve found one and it looks kinda fine, but the description is just some atrocious mix of buzzword mumbo-jumbo and hapless braggadocio. You go “yikes” and move on.

Here are several handy tips on how to make app description work in your favor:

  • Must be written in an engaging manner;
  • Must explain the purpose of an app in plain words;
  • (optional) Show the benefits and advantages of your product in contrast with competitors;
  • Must be slightly intriguing.

Secure glossy user reviews and ratings

User ratings and app reviews are an incredibly influential factor when it comes to consideration on whether to download an app. Basically, the better app store reviews the better conversion. However, it is also one of the places where you have little control over the situation.

It can go both ways — scare off potential users due to exposing flaws and inconsistencies or convince them to try it out by the sheer power of positive reaction.

How to secure good reviews? It all comes to one thing — make a good app that is actually useful and tested through and through before going on the market. And if there any problem occurred, just fix it on the notice.

Word of Mouth matters

Referrals are one of the most common ways of discovering new applications. What makes it happen? In a nutshell, it is a direct result of the positive reception of your application. I.e. app is so good, users are telling other users to try it out.

How to make it? Basically, try-hard, and make a good app, spice it with a clever marketing campaign, and voila.

However, because of that, there is little to no control over it. You can’t artificially generate positive word of mouth.

Sure, you can strike a partnership deal with an influencer who will recommend your app to his audience but that is not a guarantee of positive word of mouth. In fact, it can backfire as an attempt to shove something down the throat.

Make frequent updates

One of the most effective ways of maintaining a consistent presence in The App store is through a steady stream of updates. The logic behind it is simple — it shows that an application is still moving forward and evolves into a better thing.

There are several types of updates worth mentioning:

  • Regular updates — refined features, fixed problems, etc;
  • Optional updates — supplementary features (new photo filters, etc);
  • Seasonal updates — April’s Fools Day treacherous trolling user experience;

Every update in one way or another is a legitimate reason to remind already engaged users about an app and also attract new users through readjusting ASO.

In conclusion

Promoting an application is a challenge. But with these little tips in mind, you can be sure that all your marketing efforts will be ultimately fruitful.

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Google Play Store Optimization

Let me just outline, that currently there are over 2 million apps in Google Play Store. That is quite a good deal of applications, isn’t it?

Sounds like a piece of great news for all smart gadget users out there, but not as good for app developers.

Getting to ASO itself, which is basically app optimization for improving its’ ranking in App Store search results, the surprising thing is going on. A large amount of publishers still doesn’t invest in app store optimization.

But here is one thing – before people use apps for diverse purposes, they tend to search for these. Consequently, everybody wants the highest rankings in Android App Store, because you get more app downloads. It can sound simple in theory, but in fact, takes a while trialing and fixing mistakes.

While nobody really knows the exact algorithm of Google ranking, there are a few well-tried tricks that work to lift your app up in Play Store. Google Play Store algorithm seems to be more complicated when comparing to Apple App Store.

Here is a list of primary Google play store app ranking factors:

  • Number of ratings
  • Number of installs and uninstalls
  • App involvement (frequency of use)
  • Growth of downloads in the nearest 30 days
  • Backlinks to your app

In fact, there are a lot of common things in app optimization for Android and iOS. But let’s dive more into specific features of ASO Google Play Store, shell we?

7 game-changing tricks for Android app optimization

Google play optimization tricks

1. Find and track the keywords

This basic, yet deciding, step means EVERYTHING on your way to Google app store search optimization. Without this information, you won’t even find out whether your google play search optimization is working or not.

Apparently, it’s important to choose the words according to your target audience.

The keywords in Google Play Store you select should properly describe your app, so people are encouraged to download it once they find the app in the search. Besides, you want keywords to be as relevant to your application core as possible.

And to hit a maximum of your target audience, these words better be the most requested, at the same time overlapping competition as little as possible.

There are cases in-app publishing when particular apps gained about 300% downloads raise only from keywords optimization.

Remember not to overplay with this part to really improve Google Play ranking.

Tools for keywords research:

  • Google Keyword Planner
  • Wordstream
  • Sensor Tower
  • Wordpot
  • AppCodes
  • Ninja Search Combination Tool

You can also dig for more keywords either in users’ reviews (check Review Mining), or survey your target audience on Social Media, through e-mail newsletters, etc.

2. Include keywords in the title

Speaking about the name of your application, it might be the most determining factor in ASO.

First and foremost – keywords placed in the title of your application should be with the most massive search traffic. Take time to search for this essential, because once you decided on the title, it becomes a staple. And you really want the head of the app to be descriptive, unique, sharp, and appealing.

This way you create the most comfortable and “easy to figure out” experience for the searchers.

Once your app is published, starts getting downloads and reviews, it will be also spread by word of mouth. So it’s not the best idea of switching and trying different names at that stage.

Mind! Your title should not exceed 25-30 characters. Otherwise, you risk losing users distracted by not seeing a complete name in a search list and shifting to a bunch of other apps out there.

3. Description really matters…for Google

Here goes a major difference between Google Play Store and Apple App Store search optimization principles.

Google picks up the keywords from a description of your application. Obviously, we need to get the most out of it.

Experience shows that using keywords 4 to 5 times throughout the app’s definition will improve your rankings up to 20 spots. But again, do not stuff your description with the whole range of keywords straight – that’s a way to turning it into spam.

4. Now visuals – App’s Icon, Screenshots, Promo Video

Looking for an appropriate application, a lot of searchers will “window shop”. And the app’s icon is the first thing to pay attention to. It should be of high quality, utterly informative, and attractive design. There are also clear specifications Google expects your icon to include, so you can, obviously, Google it 🙂

Killer name and icon might be not enough for catching your prospect’s full attention. So make sure to use all 8 available screenshots for different types of devices – phones, tablets, TVs. You need a set of high-resolution screenshots with the descriptions on them to show the most goodies of your app.

To make these pics even edgier, use various dynamic tools (Promotee, Adobe Photoshop, PlaceIt, Screenshot Maker Pro) to simulate running the app on the device.

A stunning Promo Video is a cherry on the top of your cake. That is why Google Play is so awesome. You simply upload it to YouTube in a matter of minutes.

Make your video short and on point to respect your people’s time, they will appreciate that a lot! You wanna highlight only major features and advantages within your app.

5. Work those reviews and ratings up

App optimization in Google play store

The truth is it takes a number of downloads to get displayed. So asking for reviews and improving ratings of the app is a significant scope when doing a qualified ASO.

Zendesk claims in its’ recent survey that around 88% of consumers are mostly influenced by online product reviews before they make a decision to buy an app.

So again, head to your customers and ask to leave favorable reviews. As far as your app is satisfying and involving, it won’t be a problem for them.

For Google Play Store there is also a great chance to avoid negative reviews from users.

You can simply provide them with a clear direct channel for giving feedback to developers within the app. This way you can ask users for reviews (Important! Only when they are the most engaged, not really when they are busy performing tasks on the app, ok?). Just preface by asking a simple question – are you enjoying the app?

6. Localize your app

You always want to translate the application to the languages of your target regions. It’s a true must to offer a localized version of your product, except a common international option.

7. Backlinks are going to make wonders for your app

It’s the same as with a normal web search when links from reputable A list resources increase spreading the application over the net. You don’t wanna deal with low-quality Z list link farms for getting optimal results.

Therefore, it will be great to promote your app on some popular websites, asking them to write about your application and providing a link to your app page. You may also consider starting your own blog and contact press for people to get more opportunities for exploring your app.

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Overall picture

A global trend is all about the growing price of each app installation and the same rising number of downloads required to appear in the featured ratings of Google Play Store. So promoting the app can become a truly challenging activity for the narrowed budget companies.

At the same time, Google Play Store optimization can complete your whole marketing strategy at a lower cost and give tangible results already in the short-run. Don’t waste that chance and absolutely try it.

Happy app store optimization, guys!

Rebranding? Don’t Forget Your Mobile Strategy

If you decide to rebrand your product, don’t forget your mobile strategy. It’s always a decisive ritual of transformation when you decide to rebrand your product line because mobile is no longer a by-product.

Mobile strategy plays an integral part in a whole process, whether it’s to stand out from competitors, increase sales, exclude a negative image or present new features. We have compiled 5 marketing questions each entrepreneur should ask themselves before starting a rebranding journey.

1. Do I really need an app?

Apps aren’t suitable for all types of companies, so why this question is important. You definitely need an app, when you can offer mobile users an improved, balanced experience that connects with your brand’s nature. The app should work in a way users can interact with the label. On the other side, when should you remove your app?

There are many apps that need a real purpose because a lot of brands are launching an app just for the sake of one without counting of the added value. The best proof that your app isn’t worth your precious time and money when it demonstrates the same content that is featured on your website.

2. The interface of the website. How should it look?

Let’s be honest, there is nothing more embarrassing and irritating in 2015 than creating an awkward website that is not suitable for mobile screens. Moreover, visiting sites via mobile phone far exceeded desktop, users. All that really matters that you must guarantee that your website is mobile-friendly because consumers will buy or download your product using their mobile devices.

3. Should your brand use Multilingualism?

If companies want to interact with consumers and form a deeper connection, they must speak “their “language. During the rebranding process, the majority of labels change their names and logos to show a new identity. This new “personality” will most likely endeavor to advertise new fresh ideas and values, but don’t forget that the language used by your project should reflect this “breezy identity”.

4. Target the proper audience?

When you decide to rebrand your product, usually your target audience isn’t going to remain the same. It is a great opportunity to focus your strength on those you are trying to attract the most.

The same thing with a mobile strategy: Your new label’s audience must apply in your mobile ad targeting. Truth be told, mobile is a perfect background for brands who want to check different groups as the eventual target audience.

5. How should I introduce my new marketing concept?

For those who are making some changes to their concept, there is one important rule. They should inform their customers and the whole market about the name, slogan, or logo changing for their company.

In this case, you can use some really aggressive strategy like a mobile advertising campaign on popular platforms. This method will inform customers about your re-branding.

For example, Airbnb decided to change its logo that was not appropriate for the entire concept of the company. A new logo was about the Belo symbol that stands for ‘belonging’. Their entire strategy was built then on the ‘belonging’ basis and theme.

It was perfectly adapted to their website, interface, and, of course, mobile application. However, they did not prepare their customers for changes, and the brand got its portion of negative feedback after the logo was released. People just called it ‘ugly’ and ‘weird’ with no idea what it was.

So, what lesson can we learn from this example? Well, you should remember that before showing your audience your new image, look, and concept you should educate them. And mobile marketing would be the perfect decision for that task.

So, you should launch some really massive educational campaigns to demonstrate your new features, logo, corporative colors, and stuff. Lead your customers to step by step to the whole new concept. This will be your perfect foundation for rebranding.

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Using Updates for App Promotion

Improving your app regularly increases the number of downloads. And otherwise, if your enthusiastic users become unhappy one day, downloads and ratings can go down.

If you’ve ever released an app before, you should know that the task is not finished once it’s published on the store. You have to constantly keep your users engaged and your app always improved by updates. Once you put hard work into these, you’ll as well get the word out.

Keep Your Users Engaged and Happy

You need to regularly update your app in order to keep your customers always happy and engaged. And even if you think that you’ve put all your care into developing the first version of the application, there are still chances that you didn’t make everything right.

READ ALSO: App Store Video Previews

Of course, the first thing you should pay attention to is fixing the bugs. You might also want to add or improve some features users and bloggers complain about when leaving their reviews. But don’t go crazy with updates, releasing a new one every 2 or 3 weeks. Steer a middle course: don’t let your current users get bored and don’t make your potential users think that your app is dead.

Updates Play a Bigger Role than App Store Optimization

Did you know that release of iOS6 had big impact on App Store Optimization? Among the biggest benefits is the new feature on the details page named “What’s new?” The new section becomes equally important as the general app description does.

The metadata for every update appears directly on the user’s iPad. That means you’ll have to use the first couple of your app description to describe your product and then use the first few lines of the “What’s new” tab for promotion and showing that your app has been recently improved.

Why not to use that additional space, where you can encourage users to download the app? Don’t limit yourself just to “new features, bugs’ fixes” when writing the metadata for your application’s update. Straight after the first lines you may embed the list of new features. You can also use special symbols or characters in order to make these more visible.

These can be asterisks or anything else you prefer. Try not to be too techy when talking about the bugs or features: most users will not understand that entire technical staff, so keep it simple. In the end do the same thing you do in your description, inserting call-to-action offering users to download the updated version of your app now.

You may think that some of these are just small details but it won’t take lots of your time to get this part right. In case you’re doing an update just to fix some bugs, you can also include info on what’s new is there in this version.

How and Where to Promote Your Updates

When releasing little bug-fixing updates, you may do it quietly. But when it comes to completely new outstanding features of your app, you have a great opportunity to talk with your favorite users as well as reach out to new customers. Here are some things you can do right now to start promoting your app’s updates.

Promo Codes Giveaway before Your App Update

In case your app in not brand new, you are not likely to use all those promo codes each time. But try to apply some of those promo codes before submitting your app’s updates to Apple Store. When announce about an update coming, give a link on Twitter/Facebook, where anybody interested can use the app promo codes. In case you have more than 1 app you can also consider a cross-promotion.

Control the Release Date

As well as for an app launch, if you want to communicate with your audience about an event, it’s better to set a time for that. Make things easier both for you and your customers. We recommend you to plan to do your submission 3-4 weeks before the moment you’d like to officially release your update.

Promote Your Update

If you have a blog, write a small post about the update.

It shouldn’t be difficult as it has to be a detailed version of what you submitted in the “What’s New” section of the App Store. Try to describe each feature you added and explain why. It will be also nice to insert a couple of screenshots, provide the link to the App Store, and motivate users to get the update.

Use Facebook/Twitter to tell about the app update

You can start talking about the update even before you start working on it. Just let people know when you’re going to prepare the new release (check promo codes info above). After you’ve released the update you can once again tell about it in the “What’s new” section, giving a link to the app’s page or your blog post.

Having a push notification system you can alert your users as well. But make sure to use it only for big updates that really improve your application and/or fix any major issues. People shouldn’t feel spammed.
Trying to be less intrusive you may consider the small popup that appears at first opening following the updates with friendly explications of what’s new there is for users who automatically download the updates.

One more thing you can consider for major updates is contact journalists and bloggers who can be interested in them. But make sure to do this only if your update is newsworthy, as otherwise, you’ll just spoil your relationship with your contacts.

If some bloggers reviewed an earlier version of your app and talked about something he didn’t like, make sure to let him know about the improvements you made to correct some features and you’d like these people to try and review the new version of your app once again.

Remember, updates are crucial for keeping your app alive on the market and are a perfect way to show your users that their opinion is important for you and you do your best to improve the app. Use this amazing opportunity to talk about your work and discuss what benefits your users can have by using it.

What Does Mobile Success Really Look Like

With almost every aspect of our lives turning to the small screen to set up inventive presence, success in the field is taking on numerous new implications, understandings, and interpretations.

READ ALSO: How do apps make money

But, how is it possible that mobile app developers are making record profits while, at the same time, the number of free apps on the market continues to grow? The answer’s simple. Most app developers don’t make very much money.

But when we are talking about startup beginners, they are considering themselves as extremely ambitious personalities on their first steps in this field. My tip is to layout your startup on the business model canvas first.

This is what business people naturally do, and a unique idea will take more time to be developed into something tangible, something that will have definite value for future users.

So, what does success look like in the mobile space? Sadly, there’s no distinct answer. Above all else, it depends on who’s inquiring. In case, you’re a startup, displaying a new application or a worldwide brand hoping to build up an overwhelming mobile presence. Your goals will be distinctive, and as a direct result, so will your meaning of success.

Though years, prior speculators looked for after applications with a substantial client volume and neglected those with a moderately little after, today’s existence is an alternate story. Industry insiders know the force of an in number client base, paying little respect to its volume – a dynamic group with intriguing practices and examples demonstrates that the item is promising. Engagement is critical, not the amount.

It’s all about realizing what your product requires. It is a picture of the product, and how the startup will function. You can figure out your ways of mobile application monetization, the value of the product, the target audience,  and the value of the product,  to exude it during marketing campaigns.

Or there is another view, if your product is a transportation application, it doesn’t help when clients download your application but don’t book rides. A quality client for you would mean one that connects into their credit card information and orders a cab. That’s what success looks like for you.

The main truth is that for apps, tons of installations may not be as successful as the numbers lead people to persuade. A strong base of users who are dynamic, contribute to the community, and make in-app purchases, ought to be your main purpose, and harnessing more of those users is your new understanding of mobile prosperity.

But then again, if you’re a traditional, non-digital brand, your definition of success and achieving goals may differ. It shouldn’t be a challenge for you to make a name in the marketing field when you have already a consumer base.

For brands, succeeding in the mobile sphere means applying an improved experience:

  1. by using everything that mobile devices have to offer.
  2. by providing customers an alternative platform to cooperate with the brand in a way that will hold them coming back for more and more.

In a recent discussion with a partner, she mentioned that she uses an app for an American food chain that doesn’t have an affiliate in her country. She explained, that this source recommends not only food products, but also offers free music and other entertaining content.

It is a perfect example of a label that succeeded in creating a strong mobile experience that provides consumers demand for value-added tax.

Whether you’re a mobile startup or a well-established brand, accurately defining your goals is a significant step on your way to mobile success. Start testing them with upcoming customers. You have a team. But have no strategy? That is a serious question.

Just having a team without a clear understanding of its strengths and weaknesses doesn’t mean much. Don’t rush into creating a mobile strategy without first taking the time to understand clearly where you should go.

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