Posted by:


For the Marketing World, there are different types of strategies for contributing to UX and even improve user retention and engagement. Advertisements are a crucial part of your marketing’s overall strategy. In the current days, the Firebase Ad monetizing is gaining popularity. Google’s Firebase is a mobile and web development platform packed with multiple services like Analytics, Cloud Messaging, Auth, Real-time database, etc. for application development. Firebase is compensated by rewarded video ads where a user earns rewards of in-app currency.

by Vikash Kumar

 

The rewarded video is a highly user-focused format. It begins by the user choosing to watch an ad and to get some rewards for impacting user engagement in multiple ways. Firebase offers similar reward video ads for the applications. Keep in mind the given few tips to enhance your user engagement.

#1 Building up your application to break down your crowd

Firebase can give a Real-time Database, Authentication, Cloud Messaging, Storage, Hosting and Crash Reporting to help you in building up your application. Disregard framework – you can concentrate on building your magnum opus and leave the tasks to Firebase. At the core, Firebase is a 100% free analytics arrangement constructed explicitly for mobile applications.

With boundless giving an account of unmistakable occasions, you can set up numerous estimations to know precisely what your clients are doing in your application, how they’re drawing in with your application, and what they adore most about your application. With this information, you can center your endeavors to penetrate down and continue the best highlights of your application, while in the meantime enhance recently surfaced zones of requirements.

 

#2 Develop your group of onlookers

After you’ve propelled your application, Firebase can enable you to develop and reconnect clients with ground-breaking development highlights. Utilizing Firebase Notifications reassure you can reconnect clients, run promoting efforts, and target messages to Audiences in Firebase Analytics.

Dynamic Links can endure the application introduce process and take clients to pertinent substance whether they’re a temporary client or a permanent client. There is likewise the Firebase Invites highlight, an out-of-the-case answer for application referrals and sharing, which lets your current clients effectively share your application, or their most loved in-application content, by means of email or SMS.

At last, Firebase can likewise follow your AdWords application introduces and report lifetime incentive to the Firebase Analytics dashboard, and Firebase Audiences can similarly be utilized in AdWords to reconnect explicit gatherings of clients. For instance, In-application occasions can be characterized as changes in AdWords, to naturally enhance your promotions, including public application battles.

 

#3 Adapt your item

With AdMob by Google, Firebase can likewise enable you to adapt your application by connecting your Firebase Analytics with adaptation. By joining these two items, you increase profound bits of knowledge into useful information, which you would then be able to use to enhance your client encounter and adapt your application.

Do your clients experience difficulty advancing past specific dimensions? Help them push with Rewarded Video. Are sure clients going through throughout the day interminably looking through your substance? Help them find other cool applications with Native Express. Do a couple of clients spend intensely on your IAPs and you need to keep their experience advertisement free? Portion them with Firebase, and prohibit them from the promotion encounter.

 

#4 Figure out your monetization strategy

You can add Data Analytics to understand what type of data to be collected along with custom Login for your application to access reward video ads. By enabling Debug mode to track raw event data logged by your app in real-time, create a segment with users for the audiences to check their activity. You can also enable custom parameter reporting to get insights into reading analytics reports and also use analytics predictions to predict user behavior. Opt for A/B testing to analyze Ad Behavior and change them according to user attention for Fine-tune Push Notification Messages.

Final Thoughts

Implementing the hacks in the right direction leads to the active user engagement for the rewarded video Ads using the Firebase. Thus, developers have started using firebase for better analytics as well to get user focus on their specific application. So, what are you waiting for? Start now!

 

Author Bio:

Vikash Kumar as a manager at Tatvasoft.com which is a software development company. Vikash loves to write in his leisure time on development topics. He is also an avid reader and blogger who has already published his bylines in major publications like Entrepreneur. You can also find him on Twitter, LinkedIn and he also blogs on Tatvasoft Blog.

Posted by:


The world today is finding its life in smart devices. They live with the confidence of calling, texting, banking, investing, clicking, and many other things only through one device i.e. smartphone. The market is filled with mobile devices of various platforms. And users choose their device as per their expectation from mobile phones.

 

By Sia Carla

A major platform that rules the market today is Android and iOS. While iOS is a bit on a higher side, Android is more of a reasonable price that is affordable to most of the population of the world. Today, we will talk about how mobile app development companies incorporate added benefits in an iPhone so that customers get more value out of it.

  1. Plan the Development

No doubt, it’s the development of the app that matters. But what’s more important is the outline of the app development. Any iOS app development company or developer cannot start without chalking out the essence of the app creation. It requires good research on competition, market survey, customers’ expectations and more.

A proper and planned outline would help the developer to not miss out an important coding or adding feature that uplifts the iPhone. It could also be used for future reference for development companies to see what functionality was incorporated, what is the scope of future enhancements etc.

  1. Apple Developer Program

Any development company or developer would want to use their ability in developing the app. However, to support further, one should get the membership to enroll in Apple Development Program.  The program aids developer to reach out to audiences across the globe and gives access to multiple Apple resources that are needed in app development.

Other benefits of the Apple Developer Program are advanced app capabilities, access to app analytics, and extensive beta testing tools.

  1. Simple App Design

If you are looking forward to attracting users on your iOS app, then developers need to keep a focused approach over design. It’s a simple design of the app that catches user’s attention and engages them to be on long for all their transactions and needs.

For instance – Amazon has a very simple UI that focuses on user’s need and enhance user experience in their buying journey. A simple click on a product would open a new page and if the user wants to buy the product, they simply need to select size, color, and other specifications to add the product to the cart.

  1. Content Layout

Heavy content is a major turn off for any app. While you expect the iOS app to be with high-end users of the market, you need to be smart with the value you display on the app in content form. The content layout and display have to be unique, creative, crisp, and valuable.

For instance:

  • Font: It’s advisable to use medium size fonts for taglines and small size for descriptions. Too loud fonts ruin the content display and extremely small fonts are hard to read.
  • Color: Background color of the app should be in sync with the font color. You should not use too many colors in the app as the app loses its simplicity.

  1. Apple ID Code

Apple ID Code is a mark of identification for developers or app development companies which they need to create before starting with the coding of the iOS app. If you are developing the app for any client, then you need to send all required documents to the client for them to upload and create Apple id on your behalf.

This gives authentication to the developer or app Development Company that is working on the app development.  Having an Apple id helps the developer to develop and release the app quickly for audience and users.

  1. Ensure Compatibility

While the iOS app developer will create the app based on the latest version, it does not guarantee that the version is going to sustain the entire duration of Apple mobile existence. For an app to perform in ever-changing technological trends, it has to be updated on a regular basis.

Hence, the developer should keep this in mind that he/she needs to create the app that is compatible with upcoming versions of the app. This is necessary to ensure that app’s performance is top notch without hindering user’s experience.

For instance – Facebook Messenger is compatible with all versions of iOS platforms.

  1. Test before Launch

Before launching the app to the Apple smart device audience, the iOS developer or iOS app Development Company should carry out sufficient testing beforehand. In fact, it’s advisable to test phase-wise coding before moving on to development of next phase coding.

This eradicates any unwanted bugs/errors that trouble the smooth functioning of the app. For instance – A/B testing is the best way to test the iOS app. This allows the developer or development company to release two different versions of the iOS app to the different set of audience. The aim here is to find out to which version i.e. A or B, the audience had responded well.

Conclusion:

To conclude the entire blog, app development is the recent trend that is ruling the market and will continue to do so for a very long time. Be it, developers of any app development company, they are looking at ways to get more value out of an app that would upscale their position in the market and is highly accepted by the audience as well. Keeping a few things in mind, it becomes easy to make your app trendy and profitable both in no time easily.

Author

Siya Carla is Solution Consultant at Finoit Technologies, a leading custom software development company which turns ideas into reality by providing unique web design and mobile app development services. By creating intuitive, user-friendly, and interactive apps for more than 450 customers throughout the globe, we enjoy a great reputation as a customer-friendly mobile app development company in the market.

Posted by:


When it comes mobile app development when of the most overlooked aspects of the process is user testing, in fact this is often an afterthought and is only considered after the design and development of an app.

by Robbie Allen, xDesign

Fear not, xDesign a leading mobile app development agency located in Edinburgh, UK are on hand with our definitive guide to App user testing.

App User testing allows us to iterate on what we learn and make sure each app appeals to users and meets their expectations before its launch. Without user testing, there’s no way to know if you’re on the right track until it’s too late…

Much like app development there is no one size fits all approach to user testing.

This Definitive Guide to App User Testing has been created using fundamentals and strategies that will help you create your own user testing plan specific to your business case.

Regardless of whether you use this user resource to create your own in-depth user testing or you reach out to an app development company like us by the time you have finished reading this article we hope you understand each of the core user testing steps, the best tools for the job, and the special considerations you need to make from time to time.

App user testing strategies - not all that dangerous, but very important!

Creating user testing goals

The first step when it comes to app user testing is setting clearly defined goals. The goals you set will define everything from the testing methods you implement to the environment you hold the testing through to the tasks and questions you ask participants.

Before you go any further take some time now to set out what your goals are.

Depending on what stage of development your app user testing goals will change. Let’s look at a couple of examples;

Pre Development User Testing Goals

If you plan on conducting user testing before your app’s development phase, your goals will be more focused on functional requirements and discovery. That is, finding out what your target users need, what similar apps/products they already use, and what pain points they need help with

During Development User Testing Goals

User testing goals during development tend to lean more towards validation and evaluating. That is, finding out if users understand and enjoy your app, and whether the features meet their needs. For this, leverage early versions of your app, prototypes, and mockups.

Post Launch User Testing Goals

our goals in the post-launch phase will focus on measurement and further validation. That is, how your app is performing, opportunities for optimization, and whether your user experience appeals to users. For this, give your participants your actual app and try A/B testing to narrow in on what resonates best with your users

Setting Objectives for each User Test

Once you establish your user testing goals, you need to go a step further and determine clear objectives for individual tests.

Try to hone in on the most important insights you want to gather rather than trying to test everything at once. Remember, you’re not looking for generic feedback, you’re looking to uncover specific problems.

Don’t Do it All

When you try to discover too much at once, you run the risk of conducting a long and unwieldy test that fatigues your testers. It’s also easier to confuse your results and next steps when you try to tackle too much.

In Person vs Remote User Testing for your App

User testing can occur either in person or remotely. For both types of testing, you will want to observe participants using your product and uncover any usability issues. Where in-person and remote testing differ is in their pros and cons.

In Person Pros

  • With in-person testing, you get the opportunity to establish a real connection with your participants and see their reactions from up close.
  • It’s much easier to read someone’s body language in person than it is over a video conference.
  • In-person testing also makes it easier to use a participant’s body language cues to gauge when to ask questions for clarification or dig for more feedback.

In Person Cons

  • These in-person interactions come with a cost, however.
  • They often take more time because they involve traveling to a location, setting up a testing environment, and being present for each participant session.
  • You may also incur a cost if you need to rent physical space for the testing.

Remote Testing Pros

  • Remote testing works well for unmoderated sessions as well as when budgets are more limited.
  • This type of testing is also ideal for tighter timeframes as there’s no need for travel or testing facilities, and because there is less pressure on test moderators.

Remote Testing Cons

  • The major downsides, however, are that you can’t interpret body language.
  • it is more difficult to follow up or do a deeper dive into your participants’ feedback.

Selecting the RIGHT Recruits

If you recruit the wrong participants, or if you don’t get enough participants, your user testing will not generate the results you need. To find the right participants for your user test, you first need to identify your app’s target audience. We often dive into recruiting participants during the discovery and user research process here at xDesign.

Behaviour over Demographics

It’s more important to recruit participants based on their behavior rather than demographics. In choosing your participants, select for behavior more than age, sex, income, location, education, or marital status. The best way to do so is by finding people who are already active in similar apps.

This doesn’t mean you should dismiss demographics altogether.

How many User Testing Recruits do you need?

The number of participants you need for your test also depends on your testing goals. You should recruit 5-7 participants to test usability problems. While the Nielsen Norman Group asserts that you only need five participants to uncover 85% of a product’s issues, we prefer to schedule seven participants per test. The two extra participants account for no-shows, which do happen!

Test your User Test

Make sure you do a dry run before your first real session. Doing so will give you the opportunity to fix any red flags or issues that come up. We find running a pilot test with a co-worker helps iron out any kinks in the test script and tasks.

It gives you a chance to evaluate the flow of the test, add or remove any tasks, and predict any potential roadblocks. You’ll feel much more prepared and confident for your sessions if you’ve already remedied possible issues.

Think of it like usability testing your usability test!

Testing Time… Finally

  • Start your testing sessions by welcoming the participants and explaining their role (using your test script!).
  • Make sure you note that you’re testing the app and not them. This takes the pressure off your participants and may help them relax.
  • You’ll also need to remind them to think out loud throughout the session. Participants often forget to verbally express their thoughts and may resort to sighing or looking confused. Encouraging them to think out loud will help you gain those valuable insights you’re after.
  • Only one person should be moderating each session, but you can alternate moderators between sessions if necessary.
  • After each session, ask the participant follow-up questions and for any more insights or feedback they might want to offer up.

What Next?

Now it’s time to watch any recordings and take note of what you see and hear. Look at all of your observations together to try to determine why particular things happened and develop theories about the causes of any friction, frustration, and problems.

That’s a Wrap

Done well, user testing makes sure your app aligns with what your users expect, need, and want. Without it, there’s no way of gauging whether you’re on the right track throughout the design and development process.

We hope this definitive guide to app user testing  gives you a good foundation from which you can build your own successful user testing sessions.

Posted by:


Do you really need funding for your app? Should you approach investors or go at it alone? These are just a few questions you may be wondering about if you are in the process of launching your app startup. Once you have a well-developed working app, the next natural step is to market it and secure investment to make sure it keeps growing.

Should you approach investors or go at it alone?

Re-posted with permission from Creative27

However, is this funding for app really worth it? Do you actually need it? This is what this article is going to focus on. Today, securing investors and funding for app startups is an ongoing trend. Everyone is doing it, so it is only natural to imagine this is the only way to go. But the question you really need to ask yourself is whether this funding is really worth it and whether you can survive or even thrive without it.

One of the biggest mistakes many startups make is that of seeking funding when they do not need it. What harm could that do, you ask? Isn’t having more money for your project actually a good thing? Well, yes, it can be a good thing. But it can also be a very bad thing. There is a certain amount of risk that comes with bringing in investors to your company at a very early stage.

Because everyone is doing it, we have lost track of the real reason behind seeking funding for app startups. We have forgotten what it really takes to move your app forward and keep your business above the red line. We think that money is readily available, and with this attitude comes the risk of spending the money we get without properly thinking through what we spend it on. The downside is that taking on an investor means giving away part of your company. You end up having more people in control of every decision. In the end, you sacrifice efficiency for growth, and you need to really think critically about whether this is what you want.

There are a few questions that need to be answered before making the decision to seek investor funding for app startups. Do you really need a full-time team from the first day or can you manage without it? Do you really need that uber-expensive marketing campaign or that flashy app design or can you implement simpler strategies? Does your product need to implement all those exciting new features at this stage or can they be staggered out and launched at later stages? Could you be biting off more than you can chew?

funding for app

The Best Direction For You To Take Might Be Bootstrapping Your App

There are many upsides that come with bootstrapping your business. With this direction, you get to reap several advantages such as learning new skills such as app development and increasing your creativity in product development and marketing. You also get to make smarter, wiser decisions about your spending, because being strapped for cash has a way of bringing out the inner creative in people. Your business might actually end up taking a different and more innovative direction thanks to this limitation.

Additionally, bootstrapping your business will open you up to more opportunities, it will stabilize your company’s foundation, and it will give you 100% control of every business decision you make. It cannot be overstated how important it is to have decision-making rights within your own company. In the end, things will admittedly move a little slower, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. By taking things slow, you take your time with every decision, reflect on and analyze your actions, making you learn more and become better at what you do with every passing stage.

Sometimes, of course, your company really does need that extra boost. You may find that you do indeed need additional funding. Think about whether your company can survive without this support. Can you do what you need to do to take your company to the next stage without sacrificing your control over the company? If not, then you do need that investor funding, and the next step is to seek it.

Securing and contacting investors funding is not easy. It is true that there is more money available today from investors than ever before. According to Pitchbook data, the average funding for startups in 2017 was between 1 million and 5 million dollars. Dropbox could only raise about 15,000 dollars in investor funding 11 years ago. However, let all this cash not fool you. There is more money than ever before, but it is harder than it ever has been to get it. Plus, the 5 million apps on Google Play means that there are probably several hundred apps out there that do what you want to do, and the competition is intense.

Before seeking out investor funding for app startups, it is a good idea to at least have a working app that has gotten some traction to present to your prospective investors. This is called a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP for short. It is what will get anyone to open up their wallets for you. All your efforts should be focused on getting your app to this stage, because a working app will secure more funding for a smaller share of the company, compared to an idea that only works on paper.

Next are the types of investors you can get. There are 5 types of investors to fund your app, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

1. Friends and Relatives

If your app is in its early stages, you should probably consider seeking funding from friends and family first before venturing to other funding sources. They will probably offer you interest-free loans and will be more understanding of your situation than many other funding sources. However, by getting into business with family, you risk irreversibly ruining those relationships if things don’t work out as you promised. Treat them as you would other investors, by making everything formal, as this might lessen the blow in case things don’t work out.

     2. Crowdfunding

Sometimes, if you get investors who hold a lot of equity, which may oust you out of your own company later on. This is a possibility most founders have to make peace with if they want to seek investors. However, there is another investment option without this risk: crowdfunding. Crowdfunding means getting a lot of people to invest in your company, such that everyone chips in a small amount that contributes towards a larger end goal amount. This spreads out risk, and no one person holds too much equity and power over your startup.

    3. Angel Investors

Angel investors are investors who chip in their own money, while at the same time guiding and advising you regarding your business.

    4. Venture Capitalists

This is the group of investors that everyone has in mind when they think about seeking funding. Venture capitalists are professional investors. Their primary concern is the return on their investment, so they will probably be asking for a huge chunk of equity. However, they also provide technical support through experienced networks of professionals that they possess. This will raise your chances of going to the next level.

    5. Incubators and Accelerators

Incubator and accelerator programs are a great way to get funding and guidance especially if your product is in its early stages. These programs nurture your idea and jumpstart it by injecting a little cash into it, facilitating growth until you can manage it on your own. They also put you in contact with other people who are going through what you are going through, as well as making available the muscle you need for such specialized tasks as advanced app development or improved app design for your product. The difference between them is that accelerators have a fixed timeline while incubators take more time with you with greater long-term benefits in mind.

In the end, it’s all about being honest with yourself. Assess your company’s wants and needs and figure out what direction you need to take. It’s nice to have an app that works, but marketing and developing it constantly is what will take your product to the next level and finally make it worth the time you have put into it.

Posted by:


Are you looking for Salesforce app development or other app development services?

By Mike Hutson

Customized mobile apps have found their own space in the business world. According to reports, on average around 7.5 hours per employee per week are saved because of using customized mobile apps. In addition, about 82 percent of business owners believe that their customized mobile app helped them earn additional business revenue.

Using popular mobile app development services, such as Salesforce app development, you can partially or completely customize your business mobile app to best suit your business needs and operations. The apps these service providers make are altered to address a specific audience’s expectations rather than provide a solution that caters to a large group with different needs. This is the main reason why businesses are turning towards building custom mobile apps, for which these services are gaining and proving to be a successful option for businesses of all sizes.

What industry you operate in, and whether you are a small, medium or larger organization doesn’t change the opportunities and advantages your business app can help create. It helps you increase your competitiveness in the market, increase productivity and meet business objectives like increasing sales.

Here are some of the most popular advantages that businesses can drive from their custom mobile app development.  

1.              Improve efficiency

As your business app is custom-built, while keeping in mind your business operations and requirements, it works as a comprehensive app that performs diverse functions and may also negate the requirements of multiple apps. Moreover, because these mobile apps are tailored to suit your operating system and working style, it enhances your employee’s productivity, as well as the business’ ROI.   

2.              Secures your app data

The basic business apps may or may not have data security features, which might put your sensitive business data at risk. You can avoid this risk by getting a custom app built specifically for your business and reinforce a proper data security system. You can also ask your mobile app development service providers to take all possible, relevant security measures that will be addressed according to your particular business needs.  

3.       Integrate with the existing software

The general business apps might allow you to integrate with your existing software but it is unlikely that it will function smoothly and some general business apps may not even allow you to integrate with your existing software at all.  

However, custom business apps are built especially to meet your needs, after taking consideration of your current business software. Hence, it is guaranteed that your custom made app would integrate very well with your business system and function smoothly.

4.       Easy to maintain

By using a general app for your everyday business operations, you are putting your business at risk in the hands of an unknown mobile app developer. In case the said developer decides to discontinue the app, you will be left to look for a new app and may be unable to continue daily operations without any notice. On the other hand, having your own custom-made app will give you complete control over the functionality of the app and your business operations won’t have to depend upon a third party.

5.       Improve customer relationship

Using a custom-made app, you can send personalized updates or notifications to your customers in real-time, such as informing them about new products or services or any promotion or discount. In addition, you will also have access to clients’ details and receive their feedback. You can use this information for future strategic decisions and to improve your long-term customer relationships.   

6.       Facilitate new client data retrieval

You can also add simple forms and surveys in your custom made app to collect the client information you need. Other than being a discreet way of getting the information you need, it is also very convenient and saves you and your clients’ time.

7.       Provide real-time project access

When travelling away from the office you can still have easy access to all of your work documents. Your custom-made app will also allow easy synchronization to your cell phone with your desktop, which would give you access to all the material on your work computer, like work documents, reports, calendars, etc. Moreover, sharing a document with other employees or a client is also very easy using your custom app.

8.       Ease in project management

Custom made apps are largely used to keep a real-time check on a project’s progress and meet deadlines. You can use the features of the app to send updates after completion of each phase or step of the project and also maintain the billing cycle with each step in the project.

Furthermore, your custom app also allows you to manage each project separately and decide who to share information or project progress with, by setting the authorized personnel.

Author Bio: Follow Mike Hutson to get all the information regarding Mobile App Development. He is well known for his creative and informative writing. You can find him on Twitter

Posted by:


These days, building an app is almost like child’s play, but the challenge lies in building and maintaining loyal and engaged users.  The ultimate goal of most mobile apps is to achieve the optimum of customer satisfaction in order to obtain rich ROIs. In today’s high-profile tech world, the consumers are instinctively looking for smartphone apps that will give them information on the go and look ravishingly sleek in design. Mobile app design plays a very important role in user engagement and retention as it is the first line of interaction between the mobile app and the users, and it is vital to every mobile app marketing strategy.

By Liz Rustia

How do you increase User Engagement in your app?

1.Go Deep with Deep Linking

With deep linking you can give existing user what they need and send them back into the app, but more importantly, you can get more users by engaging them with a great experience. Deep linking can also be used to direct inactive users to specific content to encourage usage, rather than the generic home screen. For example, you may re-engage a user by sending them a push notification that links to an exclusive deal, a new feature, or something else that will incentivize them to engage with the app again.

Google indexes mobile app deep links, meaning that app content can show up in search engine results pages as a website would. This increases the chances of new users finding your app through search.

To make the experience as seamless as possible, you want to ensure that deep links take users directly to the content without any logins required or interstitial pages displaying. But note, that if you fail to plan how deep linking structure will work in relation to the architecture and logic of your app, it will result in a poor user experience.

2. Use Push Notifications

Apps that go quiet for long periods of time can be forgotten about and eventually deleted. That doesn’t mean you should SPAM users, but you should think about relevant push notifications that draw them back into your app.  

Push notifications can keep your application users updated about any new message or event. This way you can keep interacting with them and also can get back the aloof users.

You can try having push notifications in form of text, image, videos, and any external link that will redirect them to a specially planned page. The latter largely depends on the kind of users you have for your mobile application.

3. Harness the power of email

You have a captive audience in your email list. Chances are, when you first released your app, you heavily promoted it via your email database. If that was months ago, consider releasing another newsletter about your app.

To start building a mobile app re-engagement strategy via email, you can use a general email marketing tool like Mailchimp, which is effective and free for start-ups to use. Meanwhile, more advanced email tools will allow you to automatically email users who haven’t interacted with your product in a number of days, re-engage users according to their geolocation and interests, and carry out many other high-level tactics that can seriously increase your retention.

4. Get social

Today, social media marketing is a necessity, so it’s likely you already have business accounts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. While these three are huge players in the world of social media, adding other platforms to the mix could be helpful for introducing your app to new audiences.

Take Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and even YouTube, for example. These platforms are heavier on visuals, making them an ideal place to promote your app. By posting across platforms (posting a YouTube video link on Twitter or sharing your Instagram image on Facebook), you can get entirely new portions of your audience curious about your app.

Building a social media presence is an amazing opportunity to re-engage your users organically, as long as you maintain profiles across multiple social networks. Go where your users spend most of their time, and begin building your brand’s presence on each of those platforms.

5. Keep your app updated

Neglecting to update the application on a consistent basis is typically something that makes users leave looking for different alternatives fairly soon. Updates featured in application stores convey to your clients that you’re focused on your application, and users who have installed your app may get prompted to open it again when they see it is up to date. 

6. Let users share their experience

In order to make your users interact on a more personal level and remain committed to your app, you may try creating a community. Allow users to share their experience. In fact, what better way to market your app than actual customers vouching for it? Such activities will greatly enhance user engagement levels and will improve their brand loyalty manifold.

User engagement and retention are thus as important, if not more important, as acquiring new users. Keeping these 6 steps in mind when you design the app experience will help you transform new users to committed long-time ones and thereby (hopefully) produce more revenue. To keep your users engaged in your app, you need to constantly review the points above as you are improving your app experience and building your app business.

Posted by:


Smartphones have become an extension of our very being in recent years. We use them for music, alarms, clocks, messaging across multiple platforms such as good old SMS, to Viber, WhatsApp and FB messenger, catching up on news, watching YouTube videos, checking email, corporate apps for time management, project management and many other tasks. It’s this usage that helps drive innovation, new ideas and exciting development trends to meet a growing demand on how we engage with our devices and the apps on them. And according to trend watchers, more than 50% of search queries globally come from mobile devices. Here are some of the most exciting and important trends and tech ideas to keep an eye on in 2018 and beyond, some of which are described in MMA’s Mobile Trends report.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is set to offer business users some very mouth-watering insights via advanced analytics, cognitive interfaces to complex systems and machine learning tech.

With Microsoft Pix, SwiftKey AI and Hound, we are seeing just how powerful AI is proving to be in the mobile app space. The main reason being that mobile devices are the easiest way to get customer feedback.

2. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR / AR)

Virtual Reality defines the online virtual world whereas Augmented Reality serves as a game changer. The success story can among other be found in the popular Pokémon GO game. The experts across the globe state that the overall revenue of VR and AR will be $150 billion by the next two years.  We are likely to see VR and AR move away from the mobile phone form factor though, to being embedded in things such as lenses on your glasses, or your car window.

3. Internet of Things (IoT)

Smart cities and homes are the future of today’s generation. The year 2018 will witness a drastic change in linking IoT with the Mobile Apps. Businesses are watching out to implement IoT in the manufacturing, health, automotive and retail industry.

Under the IoT environment, the people will be able to use their Smartphones, tablets and Smartwatches to integrate varied apps and tools. Forbes states that the Business-to-Business IoT segment will generate nearly $300 billion by the year 2018 and beyond.

The watches by Apple are the latest example under IoT. Moreover, to meet the IoT demand, Google made available Android Things.

4. Blockchain

Blockchain are big business networks; way beyond currency exchange. “Bitcoin was just one of the technology’s successful implementations” – says Fulvio Xavier, co-founder at Smartchains, a Brazilian startup specialized in blockchain.

According to IBM and Moller-Maersk, the goal is to use block chain to digitize supply chain, and to speed up the global market and help the sector save billions of dollars – bureaucracy and paperwork respond to up to one fifth of the total cost of this mode of transportation. Disney has already developed its own blockchain, called Dragonchain. It has dozens of different uses, such as ticket sales, a marketplace for intellectual property and the security platform for IoT.

5. Wearable Apps

This market is diversifying and is set for substantial growth over the coming years.

The market is focused on offering greater availability of cost effective fitness apps, supporting an ever-increasing rise in the total number of lifestyle diseases, which is being boosted by a drop in the cost of wearable devices, and the growing demand from the market for sports and fitness based apps.

There is a now huge range of wearable devices available, from smart sneakers that analyze your walking pattern, to smartwatches that count your calories, wristbands that assess your sleep quality and smart gloves that help you with your golf swing. Expect this to only get bigger.

6. Location-based services

Application for this tech is vast across hotels, museums, sports and event venues, restaurants, retail outlets, healthcare and much more.

Helping people and business with relevant location-based information is only going to rise.  While location now is giving context information to apps and advertisers, it is expected that AI and Machine Learning will lead the next chapters on location-based services.

7. Cloud-based apps

Cloud computing has earned its buzzword status in recent years. For apps, it’s all about reducing the impact on a mobile devices’ internal memory. Think of Dropbox or Google Cloud.

8. Mobile payments

The way technology develops which change the lifestyle of people along. Mobile Payments is one such trend which is implementing everywhere. Customers widely used internet banking or credit/debit card for their purchase both online and offline.

Which implementation of Mobile payment technology people are gradually changing to m-commerce, by paying through mobile apps.  With the increasing demand and easy method, Mobile payments looked to be important trends for mobile apps in 2018.  In certain markets, like China (>600m active ewallet users) and India, mobile payments have completely transformed the societies – in India, arguably as fast as the last 12 months.

9. Personalization

Personalization is huge, and the demand for it from business has grown exponentially.  Examples of personalization that many of us understand come from the likes of Airbnb, Netflix and Spotify. They monitor your preferences — the trips you take, the movies you watch and the searches you perform on their platforms, and then they tailor content to your behavior — to offer you a far more personalized, targeted experience.  Common for these services is that the mobile platform is by far the biggest usage platform.

The trends are clear: The usage of mobile apps has been on the rise and in the upcoming year, there will be various innovations of latest technologies and platforms that will make the work easier for the companies and the end-users. As a developer, this can help you to be at the top of your game with either a new innovation or leveraging these trends in your mobile app development and mobile app marketing strategies.

Posted by:


New Apptentive Benchmark Data: Engaging More Customers and Measuring Customer Satisfaction – the Way to Customer Success

The Benchmarks Provide Metrics for Companies to Measure Their Mobile Apps’ Performance in Surveys, Ratings and Reviews, Net Promoter Score, and More

Apptentive, the leading mobile communication suite for Fortune 500 brands, announced the release of their third-annual Mobile Customer Engagement Benchmark Report: 2018 Edition. Using data from thousands of unique apps, the benchmark data presents a comprehensive look at how customer centricity has become a requirement for the survival of brands across all industries. The data included in the report serves as a benchmark for companies seeking to understand how effectively they’re measuring their customer experience, communicating with their customers, and earning customer love.

The benchmark data presents a comprehensive look at how customer centricity has become a requirement for the survival of brands across all industries. As industries across the board start taking the need to be customer-centric seriously, talking with more customers and measuring customer sentiment daily will play a key role in their ability to execute on their CX strategies.

More conversations = more revenue

It’s difficult to truly be customer-first and build an experience customer love if you don’t know who your customers are, how they feel, and what they want. While efficacy on all other channels is decreasing, efficacy on mobile is steadily increasing. The data shows that brands who are interested in learning about their customers are capitalizing on mobile’s unique position to drive maximum engagement—and customers are responding positively to their increased involvement in companies’ decision making. There’s been a 100% increase year-over-year in the number of customers brands interact with in-app, and a 17% year-over-year increase in the number of customers who respond to those interactions.

Daily Customer Sentiment Measurement

Customer centricity has evolved quickly, shifting from aspirational ideology to action-oriented strategies in which mobile serves as ground zero because of the always-on, always-with-us culture that exist today. According to Ryan Hart, principal analyst at Forrester Research, smart companies should deepen their customer understanding to build a customer experience (CX) strategy that lasts. The benchmark data in the report demonstrates that brands that prioritize a frequent cadence of customer interactions and measuring sentiment daily are gathering the building blocks necessary to create a CX that customers love.

Brands that measure customer sentiment on a yearly, quarterly, or even monthly basis experience a disconnect between their actions and the consequences of how their actions make their customers feel. To truly understand the cause and effect of brands’ actions on customer happiness, and to be able to take immediate action based on how their happiness levels change, measuring customer sentiment daily is a powerful tool in building a successful customer experience. Using Apptentive’s Love Dialog—a yes or no question of, “Do you love our brand?”—brands get an honest look at customer sentiment and how it changes over time, garnering an average response rate of 93%.

When measured on a daily basis, at a large scale, large brands are able to measure a “Love Ratio,” the percentage of customer who respond ‘Yes’ to the Love Dialog, that gives them an active and accurate pulse of customer happiness. The average Love Ratio is 61%—a slight decrease year-over year, which could be related to the increase in the number of customers companies are interacting with. Companies are asking more of their customers how they feel, which means they’re getting a more accurate, holistic look.

The 2018 Apptentive Benchmark Study

There is no single customer engagement method that works for every company across all industries; however, a sincere focus on empathy, clarity, and simplicity in your dealings with customers and prospects should be the basis for all of your customer engagement activities. Not only is proactive communication and frequent measurement important for understanding how to build experiences customers love and to serve them better, it impacts retention, loyalty, and revenue.

The full report is available for download here: Mobile Customer Engagement Benchmark Report: 2018 Edition

Posted by:


Over the past few years, Android has become the most popular mobile operating system in the world and Google Play store is the most popular go-to place for users when finding an app. As a developer, often the most difficult questions after finishing an excellent app are: How am I going to earn money from the app and to get the most installs of my apps? Is the Play store enough to reach the optimal amount of users? Will it generate good income? Chances are that publishing your app in the Play store is not enough, as every single other app is a competitor vying for attention, which means your competitors number in the millions.  Does this mean the answer is to spend money on ads, which can get very expensive? Luckily, there are alternatives on the distribution side which means you can get exposure and installs without paying for it. There are numbers of alternate app stores you can utilize to promote your apps.

by Liz Rustia

While most opt for Google Play as it has the most guaranteed audiences for a fee of $25, and of course, for SEO purposes you must be there, there are several other options you can consider to help you promote an Android app. According to AndroidHeadlines  a study conducted by 451 Research found that the number of alternative Android app stores has been steadily increasing in 2017.  Though some stores require your app be submitted on Google Play first, there are also numerous other stores that publish your app even if it is not on Google Play.

(article continues below)

How can alternative Android app stores be useful?

 

Easier promotion:

Aside from the fact that Google Play asks you to pay a $25 fee per submission while most alternative stores offer free publishing and promotion,  Google Play has the most competition! Google Play contains over 2 million apps, so it’s quite difficult to get your app to be listed on early pages where most of the download action is, and chances are users may not even find your product. So, if you are just starting the app business, trying to get noticed and reach a broader audience, opting for the alternative stores can be very helpful. The alternative app stores, while obviously having less traffic, also has fewer apps, so by simply publishing your app, you will get installs you would otherwise never get.

No restrictions:

Google Play has several restrictions and some apps may not be available in certain countries. But most alternative play stores support localized applications from various countries so you reach users where Google Play doesn’t.

Our Top Three Picks:

Amazon:

The Amazon Appstore for Android is currently available in 200 countries. Powered by the world’s web retailer, the Amazon Appstore for Android has grown rapidly due in large part to the success of the Amazon Kindle. Amazon’s well-known merchandising capabilities makes this store a must-have distribution outlet for top Android publishers.

Promotional Tools
– Amazon pays developers 70% of the list price for all sales including in-app sales.
– In-app sales require Amazon’s in-app billing solution

Opera:

The Opera store is a store run by Norwegian browser company Opera. Opera offers a single point of distribution for multiple distribution channels as its platform is white-labeled by a wide range of OEMs, carriers and distributors. Working in 57 countries Opera is an ideal partner to reach deep into several local markets with your apps. While the Opera web browser has a small market share, their mobile browser has a significant presence in top markets like India and also in emerging markets like Africa and Indonesia.

Getjar:

GetJar is the world’s largest free app store. Established in 2004 they currently see 3 million downloads per day and have had over 3.1 billion downloads to date. In addition to Android, Getjar also supports apps for most major platforms including RIM, Java, Windows Mobile & more. Even your mobile site can be published through Getjar! Getjar has been at the forefront in this space for almost a decade now.

App stores will only help you publish your app, but how do you go about getting downloads and installs?  Well, that depends on YOU. Regardless where you publish your apps, the app quality, its resolution and SEO efforts still play a big part in your success.  Our blog contains plenty of information on this topic, so we welcome you to explore more.

 

 

 

Posted by:


So, you’ve officially launched your baby into this world. A world filled with sorrow, wonder, love, joy, and thrill, it is often difficult to nourish your baby without taking meticulous care of him. But, before you call for the celebration, you need to take some rapid-actions which will make it easy for your baby to mingle in the over-crowded world of apps.

What to do after launching an app. Guest post by Mohammad Ali from Branex.

by Mohammad Ali

Firstly, you need to stop treating your app as an app, instead of from this moment onwards you should start treating the app as a business. The thing with business is that you need to learn the art of attracting customers to your business, you need to make sure that your app appears in the search result of Google, and finally, your app needs to reach out to your target market.

  • Celebrate the birth of your baby

In south-east Asia, there is this concept of throwing a party on the birth of a kid to let people know that parents are happy about the birth. The same ritual can be applied to your mobile app. No, you don’t need to throw a party you need to introduce your product to the people.

It is not just about telling people about your product, it is about asking them for genuine feedback.

In a study done by Apptentive, it was concluded that more than 55% of the customers stop using an app if the customer feedback is not given any value.

Avoid the agony – the distress of customers by long feedback forums. A tiny email will just do the trick.

Just let your friends and family members know that you’ve launched an app and ask them for their feedback. The good thing about family and friends is that they will provide you with honest feedback. They will criticize and love the app for what it is.

An honest feedback will help you celebrate the birth of your app for the right cause. Try it out and see how things turn out.

  • Optimize the title and description of your app

The mobile app downloads for the year 2017 was estimated to around 197 billion.

The stats won’t matter much to you if you are just another mobile app user. But, if you’re a mobile app development company this stat will force you to think of optimizing your app for the app store.

The easiest and fastest way to optimize your mobile app is to start with the title and mobile app description of the app.

Jump-start your mobile app keyword research by Neil Patel’s brilliant blog post.

Once you’re done with the research you have to include those keywords in your title and the app description.

One thing that you need to ensure when writing description of your app is to write the description for the human, not for the search engine.  Of course, you can add keywords to the search engine, but try to make it long-tail and in a subtle way.

  • An in-app review pop-up

If you fear of taking direct feedback from the users by messaging each of your friends, you can always add an in-app pop-up review for the user.

Asking common people to review your app will help you get a different perspective from the people that are non-technical.

Using this simple technique Twitter improved it’s rating from a poor 2.5 to grand 4.5 in just a month’s time.

Furthermore, you will get the feedback from a common user and based-upon that feedback you can iterate your app.

 

  • Go for a consistent improvement strategy

Just getting the feedback is the easy part. The hard part is using that feedback to gain something valuable.

Your feedback is a great way to help you improve the retention rate of your mobile app.

In a study, it was revealed that only 24% of the people abandon the app just after using the app only once.

You cannot afford the luxury of losing that much customers. Your app or your business needs to bloom with new customers every single day. You need to work on mending and evolving your app for the betterment of your customers. And of course along the way making some money out of it.

For the final touches

No matter how naughty your baby turns out to be. You’ll always work on nourishing your baby with good values. Same goes for your mobile app.

No matter how much critics love your app, it is the customers who will decide the future of your mobile app. Work on fixing the bugs in your mobile app before the users get fed-up by your app.

It is necessary to take care of your app before the judgment day happens.

Whatever your result maybe, there is no shame in failing and trying again. After all, failure is the gateway to ultimate success.

 

Guest author Mohammad AliMohammad Ali is an experienced digital marketer and a search engine marketing specialist who is currently associated with Branex, as senior digital marketer and brand strategist.