Tag Archives: iPhone applications

Increase Retail Sales with High-powered Mobile Applications

Over the past 7 years the way consumers shop has dramatically changed.

With the introduction of the smart phone, consumers found they had a wealth of information right at their fingertips, which opened up a whole new era of retail. Retail shopping is not longer a distinctly different activity from online shopping as customers are now able to integrate the benefits of online shopping into their retail shopping experiences.

Consumers shop with their smart phones in their hands | Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns (Flikr)

Consumers shop with their smart phones in their hands while in the store. Utilizing their devices to compare prices and read reviews on products they are interested in. Mobile devices are also used to look for coupons and deals.

Savvy businesses have followed this trend and are providing consumers with the tools they want in their mobile applications. Understanding the needs of your consumer is crucial before beginning a mobile app development project. These needs should be communicated to your iPhone application developer or Android application developer.

In a study created by SessionM, it was shown that when shopping for everyday items, 65 percent of consumers used their smart phones during shopping to search for coupons, compare prices or to access a shopping list.

Clearly with numbers this high, applications built for businesses that have retails outlets should consider that their customers will be looking for prices, reviews and deals while in their stores and provide the appropriate information in an easy to use format.

Look at mobile apps as a way to augment the in-store shopping experience by being able to provide the info customers are looking for all in one place in the palm of their hand. Studies like the above provide a general idea of what consumers are looking for but don’t assume a one-size-fits-all approach works. What information are your businesses’ customers looking for? Great apps begin with the customer.

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Improve Your Customers’ Shopping Experiences with Mobile Applications

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Technology has transformed marketing. Yet, in a world of what seems to be boundless possibilities it is important to to remember that technology is a tool and that it must be used to improve the customer experience if it is going to be useful.

In other words, if you are just using technology for the sake of using technology with no real plan how to improve the customer experience, you run the risk of turning away customers.

Your approach should keep the consumer in mind | Photo: Vincent Lee (Flikr)

In the mobile age, it is more important than ever to take an approach that starts with the consumer. What are your customers’ needs? Work towards addressing those needs with your iPhone application development or Android application development project.

Don’t get so caught up in what you want to accomplish that your app fails to resonate with users, the app stores are full of apps that are rarely used that were created to drive corporate agendas.

Popular applications that engage users understand consumer behavior and fulfill the needs consumers have.

Be customer centric

Make sure you build your application to improve your customers’ shopping experiences, a key component of this is personalization. One of the greatest opportunities with mobile devices is personalization. Consumers are generally more willing than you may expect to give you access to some personal information if it is used to improve their user experience. In fact, these days consumers basically expect that your are tailoring the experience and messaging to them and their preferences. Apps should offer unique personal value, recommendations and in general, improve service to consumers.

Improve the in-store experience

Physical stores have had a similar feel for years, but now you can improve your customers’ in-store experience with mobile. Consumers now expect to be able to find answers instantly and on the showroom floor is no exception. Analyze the in-store experience you offer can compare it to what mobile savvy customers expect to find areas you can improve in-store shopping. Modern consumers use mobile to read reviews, compare prices, check availability and more. Mobile is the perfect medium to deliver personalized content to consumers at just the right time in the right location.

Have a coordinated program

Evaluate how your in-store program relates to you web site and mobile apps and how they all fix together. Remember that the path to purchase has changed and that consumers now follow a path that could be both online and offline. A coordinated effort is needed to makes sure consumers have seamless experiences. Consumers may start shopping on your app or in your store and complete the transaction later. Make sure that you have the systems in place to allow consumers to do this as this is how people shop now.

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Supercharge Your Marketing with Geolocation

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Businesses have more opportunity than ever to understand what their customers want and how to give it to them. Mobile location services allow to businesses to develop programs to cater to their customers in ways they never could before and savvy marketers are turning location based data into improved customer experiences.

Mobile geolocation can help you interact with customers in a better fashion then you were able to in the past. Geolocation data can help you understand what your customers doing. This will allow you to better engage customers by being able to give them relevant, meaningful experiences. By doing this you will be able to strengthen the relationship between your brand and customers.

Turn location based data into improved customer experiences | Photo: William Hook (Flikr)

This will also allow brands to better respond to changes in the market over time.

In studies, around 55% of consumers responded that it would be useful to receive marketing promotions on their smartphone while in a store. With an established data program and beacon technology you can now deliver just the right message at exactly the right time and place as customers are in your store.

Make sure you give your application users the opportunity to opt-in or out of your program and vary the amount of participation they are interested in being involved with. Customers are often interested in improving their shopping and app experiences and will allow you to track certain activities if the data is protected and used to deliver more relevant content. Tell your users what data you will collect and how you will collect it. Don’t forget to tell them the benefits of allowing you to this info, like being able to personalize content. People always respond more favorably to requests if you tell them why you are doing something.

Before you can do anything you will need to begin by collecting data. Start with a plan. What data do you want to collect? Do you know how or if you can? Talk to your iPhone application developer or Android application developer about what type of data you can collect and how best to plan ahead for a program that is data driven. Companies that commit to understanding their customer can learn how to improve processes from the user’s perspective.

Once you start collecting data you can provide timely and relevant communications and offers. You will be able to customize your marketing to each customer’s needs as revealed by their movements and your data collection. Use this data to provide an enhanced, enjoyable shopping experience tailored especially for them – let the customer’s data help create the customer experience you provide.

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What’s all this talk about DATA?

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Over the past several years you have heard mobile application developers talking about using data.

In the past market research may have seemed out of range to many SMBs, but mobile devices have changed the equation.

As the mobile market is maturing users are expecting more and more from their mobile devices and the best way to give them more is by using the data they create using their mobile devices.

Users are expecting more and more from their mobile devices | Photo: tec_estromberg (Flikr)

But how do you utilize data for your app?

First of all, you must collect it.

If you want to create a successful mobile marketing program around your mobile application then need to make sure that you deliver the right message, whether push notifications, native content, or other to just the right person. This is where most businesses and mobile applications miss the mark. Without gathering the appropriate data you will not be able to deliver the proper content.

Before you begin your mobile application development project, talk to your iPhone application developer or Android application developer about the data you would like to be able to collect and how you would like to be able to utilize it to personalize your messaging.

What information should you collect?

Start with the basics, asking for demographic information may not seem exciting but it can be very useful when creating campaigns.

Next keep record the device and OS. While this may not seem particularly useful, you will need to segment groups for campaign delivery. Nothing tells your audience you aren’t paying attention faster than announcing a new Android update is available to iOS users or vice versa.

This is the easy stuff, now you need to move on to user events. Events are user behaviors you want to track. These are made up of items such as screen opens, button clicks, etc. This will help you determine how users are utilizing your application. What screens are opened and which are never touched?

How are users interacting with your messaging? Did they open it? Click on it? Before sending new messages to a user it would help to track previous responses.

By collecting this information you will be able to deliver messaging to your user base that meets their interests and is seen as an asset rather than a nuisance. Additionally you will be able to refine your application to how your customers use it.

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3 Ways To Developing A Better In-app Mobile Advertising Program

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Not only have people embraced mobile but businesses have as well.

Businesses around the globe have seen the value and we are seeing a big shift in where ad dollars are being spent. While the amount spent on desktop ads is currently higher, eMarketer expects the amount spent on mobile ads to be double of desktop ad spending withing two years.

Within the mobile realm, it has become clear that users prefer mobile applications to the mobile web.

It has become clear that users prefer mobile applications to the mobile web | Photo: Luke Ma (Flikr)

Research has shown that users spend significantly more time using mobile apps than they do on the mobile web. Brands are increasing budgets for in-app ads and we are going to see tremendous growth in this area over the upcoming years.

But how do you take advantage of this trend? You plan ahead.

A mobile app will take time to develop and gain traction. You need to look forward to the time when your app will be on the market. Take a good look at trends so that you aren’t left offering something that was out of style before you even stated. Talk to you iPhone application developer or Android application developer about the trends they are seeing as well as they are on the front trenches and will be a wealth of information.

Prepare to capture data

What does the user do after they install the app? Do they purchase goods? Read reviews? Share content? As the market for in-app advertising grows and matures advertisers will want this data. The more you can offer to advertisers in terms of data the better.

Consumers want interactivity

Look for growth in terms of interactive ads. Why? Because they are more effective with higher click through rates. Many of these interactive ads give users controls with the ad which makes them stand out due to being fresh and new. For instance, some new ads even offer game play. Brands are looking for opportunities to advertise where they get results.

Marketers want automation

Marketers want to be able to buy ad space in an efficient and automated way. Create an interface to allow your advertisers to easily buy ad space and control their advertising. We have all gotten used to convenience and marketers are no different. Offering an easy way to interact with your advertising can be the difference between you and other apps that makes the difference to ad buyers.

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