Would you expect to speak English to the French, Brazilians, Chinese and Germans and expect to always be perfectly understood? Do you see marketers using English on every billboard in those countries? Most likely not. Localizing language in app marketing is crucial – and while some apps can get away with English because there is little text, even minor localization can have a huge effect. Learn more in this infographic.
With thousands of apps out there, it’s not always easy to discern which are the most useful. Here we give a run down of the top eight apps for digital marketers to save you the trouble. These apps will aid any digital marketer aiming to improve the quality of their campaigns and communications, but technology can’t do it alone. If you want to improve your digital marketing, you can always benefit from the expertise of experienced digital marketing gurus like http://www.ben-austin.co.uk.
1. Hootsuite
One of the longest-running apps, founded back in 2008, Hootsuite will be familiar to any seasoned digital marketer. The social media monitoring and posting service has multiple functionalities enabling marketers to post simultaneously across more than one account, with a handy scheduling feature – perfect for long running digital marketing campaigns. Users can also check their accounts’ mentions and direct messages. The app is free, available on both iOS and Android, and the web package comes in different tiers to suit any budget.
2. Perch
Perch allows marketers to check social mentions of their company – and their competitors. Allowing you to follow different companies, the app creates a news feed of constant updates and mentions across multiple social platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Foursquare and Google+, and sends you alerts when someone gives you a mention. Some reviewers have noticed that the app has a local focus, so Perch particularly is perfect for small businesses – and it also suits small budgets, as it’s free on iOS and Android.
3. Nimble
On the surface, Nimble might not seem directly related to digital marketing, but there’s more to the industry than creating and running successful campaigns. You also need to cultivate a thriving social network of marketing contacts, and this is where Nimble comes in. It helps professions build their digital relationships and provides a unified place for contacts, their profiles and information, and all your conversations with them. As with Perch, Nimble is free on iOS and Android.
4. Redbooth
Another communications-based app, Redbooth is a project management app that allows you to chat with team members about your latest marketing campaigns, as well as offering productive and organizational functions – it allows you to sort your tasks based on due date, for example. This handy app should be in any digital marketer’s back pocket to help you stay on track of your jobs.
5. Google AdWords
Currently free on Android, with an iOS release sure to follow soon, the Google AdWords app offers digital marketers one of the most precious commodities today: data. You get an app packed with real time alerts and campaign stats for you to monitor your performance, and you can update budgets or bids as you go.
6. Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is perfect for marketing campaigns you’re already running, as it allows you to see which content is most shared across various social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn. You can run detailed analysis reports to see which platforms encouraged most consumer engagement, and then integrate the results of this research into future campaigns.
You can also find influencers for particular topics and see which content they react to and share, which gives you potential for offering free products in exchange for reviews. Not only that, you can track your competitors and see when they publish new content, so you’re always keeping an eye on the competition. Access to Buzzsumo starts at $79/month for small companies and individuals.
7. HubSpot
HubSpot is a free app on Android and iOS – though access to the service can be a little pricey with a subscription costing over $200 a month, you can upgrade as your company grows. A management and analytics service, HubSpot gives you the platform to boost customer relationship management, marketing and sales.
8. Google Analytics
Almost so obvious it goes without saying, any run down of apps for digital marketers would be incomplete without mentioning Google Analytics. Tracking basic information has never been more simple – Google Analytics offers you a mine of information like visitor numbers, website conversions and more advanced data features that are invaluable to any digital marketer.
According to mobile app intelligence provider, Priori Data, 4,648 app developers pocketed more than 1 million USD in revenue in 2016. That is quite an impressive number, although if one is to divide by the estimated 12m app developers, that makes for only 0.04% of all app developers.
So how does that compare to say the US population? Well, according to the IRS, about 400,000 US tax filers in 2014 made $1m or more, or approximately 0.42% of the people filing a return. Of course, not all app developers are from the US, but given the number of app millionaires income earners are at best only about a tenth of “regular” US millionaire income earners, it seems like app development is not for the faint at heart.
Newzoo does indeed point out that only the brave make money in F2P. Of the four thousand plus app developers who made over a million, 81% of them did so in games, and Free-to-play (F2P) is by far the dominant revenue model. What is the advise given based on Newzoo data? Increase the price of your digital goods:
(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)
According to Gamesindustry.biz, it’s all about being daring to charge more – and that games that charge twice as much tend to make twice as much revenue. Not exactly rocket science, and of course the game has to be good in order to justify the charge, but it apparently seems games developers should be charging more. Any price point lower than $2 seems to devalue a game.
There you go. Perhaps next year we will see that 9,000 app developers make over $1 million in revenue. One can always hope.
ASO (App Store Optimization) is often perceived of as an art, rather than a science. Especially given the need to constantly fickle and A/B test your app’s marketing assets. But is it really worth spending the time? Well, one app owner claimed they got 6 million downloads from only focusing on ASO.
The article entitled “How I got 6 million App downloads without investing in marketing” definitely has a misleading title as ASO is definitely marketing, although it’s something you can invest time in rather than pay someone else. The article summarizes some key lessons:
Click the image for THE site on ASO
So what are things to avoid? Well stuffing your keyword in the content can end up hurting you instead of helping you, as the language in your description gets muddled. Changing the title of the app is also not advised, as even though you may hit different targets of users, if those users like you and recommend you, and the title now has changed, you may not be able to take advantage of your app’s popularity.
But one thing cannot be emphasized enough: ASO is an ongoing activity, and not something you need to do “when you need it”. And you should certainly look into a multi-lingual approach. What works in English may not work as well in Spanish or Portuguese for instance. Doing ASO on a global basis is hard – but perhaps a better investment than paying for installs.
We sometimes hear developers or product managers say – “tips” are a sign your UI has failed. But Google, with the biggest B2C interactive audience (if you include search) globally, use tips and modals very creatively.
by David Jones, Founder and CEO of Pointzi.com – codeless on-boarding
You would think that Google have:
So the logical conclusion is that “Progressive On-boarding” is an initiative across many Google products, and it is successfully driving deeper engagement. Otherwise, they wouldn’t do it, right?
So let’s examine a few of the tips, tours, modals that Google has used in their mobile products in the last 6 months.
The Opportunity: Google recently introduced en-route destinations but I bet you didn’t know. They used a tip to promote the new feature.
They did it the right way. The wrong way is more of a 2015 style “dumb” approach used by most Apps – throwing up a “What’s New” carousel for existing users when they open the App. This blocks the user from the utility that Maps exist to provide. Dumb.
Context: Google keeps out of the way and lets you set your primary destination – this is Map’s main navigation use-case. So they don’t interfere with that. But after the trip is underway, this tip was shown.
On this day we had a passenger to be dropped off at a train station, so we added this to our route and the default route was changed to support this. Smart!
Wow Factor: by being contextual and delivering enhanced utility it is now burned into my brain that is a normal method of using Maps in navigation mode.
Get out of the way: Look at the tip design:
So we know tips are great for education, but also tips can be contextual delivery methods for offers. We’ve seen a few media Apps introduce offers in the context of the UX – it’s a light-weight context-based approach, that does not consume developer resources or steal from screen real-estate to drive an upsell.
Selecting your navigation method is an interesting interstitial for Google to promote their partnership with Uber:
I’ve got more Maps examples for another time….
We’ve already shown how Netflix encourages off-line viewing of videos. This is obviously a method for increasing consumption and usage of their service. Here we see 2 Youtube variants: top and bottom – one with a bold title. We also see some of the buttons are changing, so it’s possible they can A/B alter the App render on-the-fly.
So this is a good lesson that Youtube is trying different variants to see what creates conversion – after seeing these I started to download audio books over the home wifi to listen to while commuting.
This tip is on the subscriptions Youtube page. “Channels” are your fave subscriptions. But Youtube recommendation engine overwhelms you and you never get back to your favorite content. It just gets lost. This simple tip reminds me I can see all my channels and skip the recommendation engine that is taking 90% of the screen.
This tip is an example of a great reminder how App features get buried and you need to help user re-discover them.
This suite of products has a lot of utility and designed for everyone from the casual user to displacing MS-Word and Excel in the workplace.
Originally I was intended to include examples in this post but its way too meaty that I’ll devote a later post to it.
This is an important initiative by Google to tough it out in the battle for IoT in your home. Google Chromecast became Google Cast and attacks Apple TV and AirPlay which had significant start and usability advantage.
But the big game will be more devices under your control like Nest, Amazon’s range of Alexa devices and a raft of smaller sensors and controllers like LIFX lights.
In the example, Home is showing a more directed initial onboarding experience. The goal is to get you to Wow! AND THAT IS YouTube or Netflix on your telly.
David is a serial founder and CEO. His companies include surfcontrol email filter, ThreatMetrix, StreetHawk and Pointzi.
AppAnnie recently released their market forecast report. Revenue from mobile apps are expected to exceed $139 bn in 2021. That is a staggering amount, and is more than 3 times as large as the total annual revenue generated from global music sales last year. So what does that mean for app developers?
There is no denying the top line prospects look good:
While the revenue action has largely been concentrated around mobile games, this is expected to change in the next 4 years, where other apps expect to capture 24% of all the revenue, as opposed to 19% today. Games publishers clearly dominate the mobile user acquisition stage today, so it will be interesting to see how other players position themselves in order to drive revenue. I somehow doubt we will see Superbowl ads about productivity apps for instance, but you never know.
While downloads will increase more dramatically in emergent markets, the revenue is expected to still be concentrated where they are today, although China is expected to have a far more dominant position:
While we have previously written about the huge potential in India, AppAnnie forecasts that revenues will not materialize in the same way, given the lack of purchasing power in that market. In fact, AppAnnie expects less than 2% of revenues will come from India in 2021.
This does not mean you should ignore the market in India by any means, but it perhaps means you need to have different monetization strategies for different markets. All in all, the future looks bright for mobile apps usage and spending, but questions remain on whether the market is big enough for small as well as large players to survive.
Over the last couple of years, the mobile app industry has created a buzz in the market, giving a lot of opportunities to businesses worldwide. With the inception of mobile apps in the online market, various online shoppers depend on mobile to alter their different interests as well as tasks. Apart from their laptops, they are also turning on smartphones, tablets, and even smart watches to get more information.
by Mohd Sohel Ather
Hence, mobile is not just the future, but it is revolutionizing the way businesses are performing tasks. Today, mobile devices are the major key communication tool for most consumers in the US and growing numbers across the world.
As mobile apps hiding desktops at a faster pace than ever, mobile app marketing becomes the important thing and it is no longer just an option. Now, marketers are looking forward to developing stronger relationships with their consumers to get on board with this competitive digital age. So, if you want to make your mobile app marketing success in this year, go through these tips that will assure your success.
Ensure That Your Mobile App is User-Friendly
Professional marketers come to know that there are some of the consumers, who want to pinch and zoom their way to buy. Some of the new and latest changes are also started, prompting a livid rush by various companies to implement those changes so that their mobile app to make it user-friendly.
We are in the year 2017 and marketers, who did not get on board, are already feeling the effects. For all those, who are yet to get user-friendly mobile apps, the upcoming months will not be forgiving for them. However, marketers, who have already taken the required steps, can move on to optimize their users’ mobile experiences.
So, if you are developing a mobile-friendly experience, which modernizes a customer’s’ checkout process, will make all the difference. You can begin by reducing the length of your bandwidth. All the mobile app users are far less patient than all those, who are using a desktop.
You can make use of social media logins so that you can decrease the complexity of having to develop an account. So, customers, who have the time to rethink purchases, can possibly re-shelve products. Your main aim must be to get consumers out of the door for a user-friendly application.
App Store Optimization (ASO)
Do you know that both Google Play store and Apple’s App store algorithmically rank some of the apps in search results, considering different ranking factors? However, not like SEO, app store optimization is not a one-size fits all type of game.
When it comes to talking about the most important ranking factor of app store optimization, app’s title that plays an essential role. It is recommended to use train time checker in the title if you have developed a train time checker.
User Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool to know which terms/phrases pertinent to your application people search for the most on mobile. Talking about the ASO, it is imperative that you fill out the fields with required details when you submit your application to the app stores and pick your categories carefully.
Likewise, social links are also incredibly important as is the authority of the app developer. You can focus on endorsing your application through Google+, Facebook, and Twitter and search interesting ways to incentivize real social sharing.
Increase Reviews & Ratings
Reviews and ratings are considered as the most important aspect of the app store optimization and essential for convincing people to download your app. Make sure that you find an actual way of increasing reviews in a way that’s natural and won’t trigger Google or Apple’s spam filters.
It is recommended that you offer them something wonderful for a review approach, so be it some free credits or a lengthy subscription, delivering the user something important in return for a review is the best solution that sounds to work well.
Strive to Maintain Loyal Users
The highly effective way of marketing is rewarding your loyal users with some of the extra benefits. You can send push notifications to your users, delivering them different benefits through your app.
Dependent on your app’s business, the advantages can range from extra lives in a game to a discount on a product or service. The obtainable options are enormous and will cost you nothing. Every company requires making sure that their audience members are kept feeling special.
Mobile Precise Ad Networks
Are you considering making use of an affiliate ad company for your application to help you boost revenue? These are some of the companies that are working for you and promote your app through other apps and banners.
For advertising applications, the click-through rate through ad network is approximately 1%. Though the rate may not sound high. But the number can increase your ratings in the Apple store and boost up your organic rankings.
It is essential to source an ad company, which will issue your application ad with your target audience. However, it can take some time playing with different ad networks before you decide which ones best suit your requirements.
So, these are the top mobile marketing tips of 2017 that will assure success. In case, if you are facing any difficulty while implementing these tips, you can get in touch with a mobile app development company as there are lots of companies that deliver mobile app marketing services.
This article is contributed by Mohd Sohel Ather, He is a content marketing professional and work as guest blogger and enjoys exploring the latest technologies and taking on new challenges. He contributes on high quality blogs like https://blog.codengo.com/ and shares his experiences with the blog’s readers.
Mobile gaming is growing massively, and with this huge growth in demand, many casinos and slots are turning to mobile devices to broaden their audience. Mobile games are fast-paced and instant, and developers are beginning to take advantage of this by releasing new mobile-compatible games on a regular basis. Here, we’re taking a look at some of the very best mobile slots apps of 2016 and analysing the ones that are almost certain to continue their success into 2017.
Wink Slots
If you’re looking for hundreds of games all in one place, then Wink Slots is the perfect choice. There’s everything you need from video slots to standard 3-reel and 5-reel slots, providing players with instant wins. It is the UK’s number 1 home of slots, and is available on all iOS devices. There’s plenty of classic casino games too, and with regular bug fixes to continually improve playing experience, all you need to do is learn how to manage your money with these online slots games. One of the best parts about the Wink Slots app is that it rivals the experience of offline slots with how immersive the gaming experience is! There’s plenty of offers and instant wins for players to enjoy, and with such a huge catalogue of games, there is no better mobile slots app – and we are highly likely to see it topping the charts in 2017, particularly if they expand onto Android devices.
Monopoly Slots
If you’re looking for a slots app that you can combine with your love of board games, then Monopoly Slots it is. Powered by Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), this app features a variety of themes from across the world, including London, Vegas, Ancient Egypt and more. The quality of the app is sublime, but one of the only things holding it back is the limited amount of games it provides. While the app is set to implement more games, the app does have a lot of catching up to do when compared to the likes of Wink Slots. This app is available on both Android and iOS.
DoubleU Casino
One of the biggest benefits of this app is the fact that the entire app is free. It has an immersive Vegas-themed experience, and there are plenty of free video slots to enjoy. On top of this, there is the chance to enter tournaments, play other games like video poker, and even interact with other players who are active on the game at the same time. You are given a number of chips when you sign up which you can win and lose as you play – all without putting your own money down. If you run out, you have the chance to win more on a regular basis by playing mini games like spinning a wheel. You can invite your friends to play the game too and send each other gifts and chips if you are in need of more. The only downside to DoubleU casino is the fact that there are no real-life winnings – but that doesn’t mean that the app isn’t worth a download for some casual gaming. This app is available on iTunes and Android.
Since Minecraft was released in 2009, it has grown to become massively popular amongst both children and adults. The game allows its players to build and explore a world at their leisure, while constantly building and bringing their imagination to life in the form of cube structures. Minecraft has been dubbed as one of the most successful sandbox games on the market, alongside Lego Worlds, The Blockheads and Terraria. Sandbox games are type of games in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer which allows them to roam and change the virtual world at will. If you are looking for an alternative to Minecraft, be it an app or another computer game, then we have collected a few options that prove to be very strong Minecraft competitors.
Terraria
Terraria takes on a similar style to Minecraft but with a slightly different look. As it is slightly more adventure focused, Terraria will appeal to fans of 2D, side scrolling RPG games. Like Minecraft, you will be able to explore, harvest and craft. Terraria also enables you to team up with other characters to fight fearsome bosses!
Survivalcraft
The mobile app of Survivalcraft is available for Android, iOS and Windows and looks a lot like Minecraft with there being more of a focus on surviving rather than building and exploring. This game keeps you on your toes as you have to make sure you sleep, eat and stay awake for signs of danger (such as wild animals and various weather conditions).
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is a little bit different to Minecraft in that it focuses almost entirely on the creation process. It is great for fans of the creative mode available in Minecraft as it allows people to see what they can build. You will also be able to create your own worlds and view the worlds that other people have created.
Rust
Rust is similar to Survivalcraft in the way that it focuses on survival techniques. With rust there are always zombies to be conquered, animals to hunt and items to be crafted that will help your survival. The game begins with you only having access to sticks and rocks and continues to progress towards you being able to loot abandoned bunkers and find blueprints and equipment that will help you live longer.
Guncraft
This PC game has gained popularity with Minecraft players who also enjoy shooting games. With Guncraft you are able to create and build maps and weapons that you use to fight others in different games within the game itself.
The Blockheads
The Blockheads is available for both iOS and Android phones and devices for free. It offers an alternative to Minecraft and features a large world with environments such as jungles that you can craft and create. The difference with this game is that, unlike Minecraft, you are able to control multiple Blockheads.
If you are feeling inspired by this post and wish to know a little bit more about real-life mining equipment, then why not explore the Sandvik website and see how miners work and what equipment they use today? Minecraft has been known to play an important role in getting kids excited to build and enter a career in this industry, so why not see where their game play could take them in the future?
As the year starts and you are wondering where you should be focusing your app marketing efforts, perhaps it’s time to give India a long and hard look. India is certainly becoming a country where the art of app development is exploding, and searches for app development courses has grown 200% per year since 2014 and surpassed the US.
India is the world’s second largest smartphone market
There are over 220 million smartphone users in India, compared to an estimated 191 million in the US. But there are 980 million mobile phone users (or around 700m if you are to believe Gartner), so the growth potential is huge.
App downloads exploding
It is estimated that 8 billion apps were downloaded in India in 2016. The growth rate is expected to be 26% per year, reaching 20 billion downloads in 2020. According to Unity, India is on par with Japan on mobile games installs – which is quite significant when you consider the history of Japan in mobile apps and gaming:
More important is perhaps the country’s huge dominance of the Android platform:
Massive growth in the developer community
Next year, according to Business Insider, it is expected that 4 million Indian developers will focus on app development. Interestingly, that is 90% of the total developer community in 2014 as estimated by Vision Mobile, so clearly there has been a huge growth in the developer community as a whole – but also in India.
More importantly, the way to reach developers may not all be through Google Play. For instance, Opera is the most downloaded browser in India, so you should certainly ensure Opera and local stores like Mobango are included in your distribution strategy (both stores supported by CodeNgo). And the handsets to target may not be the typical ones you are used to, but heavily dominated by the Chinese manufacturers. India rocked the world in mobile payments last year, and will no doubt continue the path of disruption in mobile apps in 2017.
