Blog

The Pros and Cons of Mobile Websites vs. Mobile Apps

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 14:30:00 GMT

More people are choosing mobile devices over desktops to consume digital content. Mobile websites help bridge the gap en route to a native mobile app, but many companies are still without a set plan to provide the best experience possible for smartphone and tablet users.

Native mobile apps are a clear leader when both options are put under the microscope and understanding the pros and cons of each technology helps make a decision easier and educates those without a firm background in mobile technology.

Mobile Websites

Most website visitors expect to easily consume content on smartphones and tablets; mobile websites provide a streamlined version of the desktop website and fulfill basic needs for sharing a brand on mobile. Pages and functionality are typically limited to give visitors the most important information from the desktop experience. Anyone with a smartphone and web browser may access a mobile website and view content.

Native Mobile Apps

Native mobile apps are software applications developed separately from websites and used specifically on smartphones or tablets. Many mobile apps serve as a companion to a company or organization's website. Others provide an entirely different and specific experience: conference engagement, game guides, and a wide range of other content needs may be fulfulled with a native mobile app.

Mobile apps drive the majority of marketing and content sharing on mobile as end users are increasingly expecting entites across every industry to provide engaging experiences on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

Mobile Website: Pros

Inexpensive

Mobile website development is often a simple process when a desktop version already exists. Responsive websites and plugins for popular content management systems such as Wordpress can quickly make content mobile-friendly.

Reach

While native mobile apps must be developed for each unique operating system (e.g. Android or iOS), mobile websites are available to anyone with a phone and web browser. The increased availability ensures people with less-popular phones such as Blackberries recieve the same content and experience as those with iPhones and so forth.

Mobile Website: Cons

Not Available Offline

Mobile websites are only available when a user has connectivity via internet or cell reception. For people traveling internationaly, a lack of data plans and countless hours on airplanes limit content consumption.

No App Store Presence

Mobile apps give companies an additional market to leverage their brand. Individuals around the world browse app stores such as Google Play to find their latest apps for content consumption; companies that have a presence only improve their credibility and reach.

Lack of Features

Perhaps the biggest drawback of mobile websites is the simple fact interactive features and functionality such as push alerts are unavailable. Coupled with a more difficult time branding a mobile website and generating ROI through sponsor dollars, the lack of features places a constraint on brands hoping to engage with its audience. Even when certain features can be replicated, such as PDF viewing or live polling, the experience is much slower and unreliable.

Native Mobile App: Pros

Engagement

Sending scheduled push alerts and enabling features such as user authentication or live polling are either impossible or realistically untenable on mobile websites. Native mobile apps open the door for a host of engaging features and ways to personalize the user experience for every individual.

Improved UI

Native mobile apps also give audiences a snappy and responsive user interface that incentivizes more time in the app and increased content consumption. While mobile websites often take time to load and provide no more than text with scant images, mobile apps enable users to bookmark favorite content, quickly share pages to social media, and switch between countless sections with a few taps of the touchscreen. Native apps are also optimized for different screen sizes; tablet owners receive a better experience to compliment their added real estate.

Return on Investment

Making the decision to develop a mobile app is a forward thinking investment. The technology includes potential to pay back development costs and even turn into a profit generator. Sponsor strategies, marketing efforts, lead generation, and content sharing are all unique in native mobile apps and give companies new avenues to put eyes on their products or services--as well as partner with others in their industry.

Native Mobile App: Cons

Added Cost

Native mobile apps inevitably cost more money to implement than their mobile website counterparts. The ability to creatively add sponsors and other intuitive features geared towards ROI, however, greatly decrease costs and often turn the mobile app into a revenue generator.

Additional Setup

Determining the hiearchy of content within a mobile app and its feature set, as well as uploading content, places an increased workload on whoever is responsible for coordinating the mobile app project. Yet much of this process is streamlined with a competent mobile app development team; dedicated product specialists outline transparent milestones and content management systems or custom data connectors make the content side of things increasinly simple.

The Bottom Line

Companies and organizations covering all their bases realistically need both a native mobile app and mobile website to ensure full coverage of their brand to an increasibly diverse global audience. Native mobile apps, however, provide an enhanced user experience, interactive features, and many more options to enjoy a return on investment. Content consumption on mobile devices is exponentially rising and the majority now occurs on native mobile apps.

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How Mobile Chat for Apps Drives Engagement

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 14:08:00 GMT

Companies and organizations with a mobile app must provide a personalized and engaging experience to win a coveted spot on the home screens of users and truly build their brand on a mobile platform. Mobile chat helps win the battle by enabling users to instantly connect with your brand and other users on-the-go.

Continue reading to learn more about mobile chat and how the feature can play a big role in improving any company or organization’s big-picture goals and boost the value of a mobile app to its users.

Mobile Chat’s One-of-a-Kind Feature

Social media, while great for communicating with others in a public space, lacks personalization or any semblance of privacy. Emails may be personalized, but saturated inboxes are overwhelming and lead to people purging all but the most important messages. Both options fail to provide a trusted method of communication that’s both personal and hard-to-miss.

Mobile chat provides a win-win alternative with an interactive feature seamlessly integrated with an app’s core features; users may browse game guides or product materials one minute and instantly connect with fellow gamers or a sales associate the next. The feature also alleviates the complexities of hunting down contact information for an important lead, colleague across the country, or stranger who may offer insight into industry news.

How Mobile Chat for iPhone, iPad, and Android Works

Mobile chat for iPhone, iPad, and Android works much like traditional text messaging. But imagine chats are contained within the mobile app experience—incentivizing users to engage in the application for all of their needs without leaving to send an email or text. Users simply register a profile and login for access to other users in the chat area. Find a colleague, tap their name, and initiate a chat; all messages are also stored in the mobile app for easy reference at a later date.

Leverage Mobile Chat for Support

Options for mobile chat aren’t limited to user-to-user communication or even chatting with prospects about your products and services. Create an official support profile for your company or organization, whether it’s to simply answer questions about your organization or troubleshoot a product, and advertise the channel as a way for audiences to instantly communicate with for questions, clarifications, and more. Give users the peace of mind are a knowledgeable resource is only a few taps of their mobile app away instead of relying solely on a phone and email support.

Other Benefits of Mobile Chat

Mobile chat’s real-time functionality often helps drive campaigns for things like scheduled contests and distributing coupon codes—in effect, options to gamify a mobile app or provide exclusive perks to users. The feature may also be used as an alternative to push messaging for marketing messages and updates. More tools in the arsenal for companies and organizations means added creativity and better options to interact with users.

The Bottom Line

Mobile chat enhances levels of engagement for users. Its level of interactivity rivals and feature available to mobile apps and equips companies and organizations with a new tool usable in an unlimited number of scenarios.

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Key Insights from Mobile App Analytics

Mon, 10 Oct 2016 19:59:00 GMT

Nearly every discussion of mobile content consumption references the benefits of collecting data. Knowing the specific metrics to track, however, and how these numbers might improve long-standing company goals is a less-talked about idea that needs to be visited in order to maximize the benefits of a mobile app.

Continue reading for an overview of the important big-picture metrics related to mobile app usage and how each number reflects on a company’s bottom line.

Demographics

Advances in technology means business owners and leaders of organizations are able to track the types of individuals consuming their content online. Much like website analytics, mobile app statistics offers insight into demographic information such as age and location. Marketing messages and strategies for how to find leads may very well change based on an audience’s makeup; consider diving into demographic information to achieve a better understanding of who is consuming content.

Downloads

Download numbers are often the most talked-about metric, but simply knowing how many people downloaded an app isn’t taking the data analysis far enough to set real milestones and keep momentum moving forward. Track downloads on a month to month basis and notice correlations between spikes in numbers and promoting new content in the app or other actions that might help to hone in on the best content marketing strategy.

Retention

Is your mobile app a one-hit wonder or do users keep returning to consume content in subsequent weeks? High download numbers don’t tell the entire story; track retention analytics to ensure the mobile app is providing lasting value to users. Converting users to leads or customers typically requires more than a quick 30-seconds in the app. Work to nurture existing users and prove the app’s value as soon as possible to first-time downloaders.

Engagement

Are users engaging with social media functions in the mobile app or loving the user feedback feature? Dive into engagement metrics to determine how to best communicate with users. Another example is push alerts: are users interactings with the deep link provided in the notification? If numbers vary by push alert, consider how the messages vary in wording or timing. Understanding engagement gives app owners the ability to focus future efforts on the most successful strategies.

User Activity

Track individual user’s activity in the app to understand if their path from point A to point B is ideal. In other words, is the most vital content accessible from the homepage and are visual queues to perform everything from a contact form inquiry to downloading a PDF performing as expected? Make changes where necessary and ensure users are funneled to the most important content within the first few minutes of interacting with the mobile app.

Crash Reports

Keep your mobile app developer honest by routinely reviewing crash reports. Are iOS devices greatly outperforming Android in terms of reliability? Schedule a phone call with your developer to discuss concerns and ensure the app is performing for each and every user. Crash reports, along with A/B testing, provide the best overview of the actual experience and can be combined to make structural changes to the app in the best interests of end users.

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New Research from comScore's 2016 Mobile App Report

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 14:29:00 GMT

comScore’s new 2016 Mobile App Report, which draws on extensive mobile app usage data, indicates smartphones and tablets continue to dominate digital media consumption. Notably, companies without native mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android miss countless opportunities to engage their audiences.

The findings not only paint a picture of widespread digital media usage on mobile devices, but provide insight into the importance of loyal user bases and becoming a full-time resource for valuable content.

Continue reading to learn more about recent mobile app usage statistics and how to best leverage your company or organization for the future.

Overall Digital Media Usage

Website-only content now fails to leverage the majority of content consumers:

“Mobile now represents almost 2 out of 3 digital media minutes, and mobile apps are approaching 60% of total digital time spent.”

Smartphone apps in particular “have driven the overwhelming majority of growth in digital media usage over the past 3 years.” Native mobile apps with digital media integration—in other words, PDF documents, YouTube videos, and more—take advantage of prevailing momentum carrying mobile devices to the front of the pack.

Companies with a unique age demographic need not worry about isolating its audience, as “smartphone app usage time is increasing among every age group in the past year.” While consumption unsurprisingly remains highest among millennials, older generations are also embracing mobile apps and consuming more content on smartphones and tablets than ever before.

Mobile Apps versus Mobile Websites

The gap in popularity between mobile apps and mobile websites continues to remain miles apart:

“Mobile app continues to outpace mobile web by a 7:1 margin in time spent.”

Mobile websites are indeed a great catch-all for sharing content in a mobile environment, but lack the interactive features to consistently engage mobile audiences. Native mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android—enjoying an overwhelming market share—provide features like live polling, push alerts, and interactive tools unavailable on mobile websites.

Creating a Loyal User Base Through Quality Content

Loyalty is hard-earned in any industry—but once the bar is reached, content consumption skyrockets:

“Establishing app audiences is harder, but their real value is in their loyalty. They spend 20x more time on apps than mobile web visitors.”

Audiences constantly revisit mobile apps and help drive ROI through sponsorships, as well as generate more leads and social media activity. There’s also “a strong correlation between home screen position and how often an app gets used.”

Making evergreen, highly valuable, and constantly updated content in native mobile apps available to audiences helps to shape preferences and swings the balance between casual usage and a must-have resource visited multiple times a day.

The Bottom Line

Native mobile apps continue to drive content consumption across all age groups; companies without a mobile strategy run the risk of missing out on significant audiences as a result.

Simply making a mobile app available, however, isn’t enough to become an integral part of your user’s daily engagement. Loyalty must be established through exclusive and timely content either unavailable elsewhere, or provided in a format superior to alternatives.

Discuss a mobile strategy with potential providers to best take advantage of this important, growing trend in today’s mobile landscape.

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Current & Future Trends in Mobile App Marketing

Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:07:00 GMT

Smartphones and tablets have surged in popularity to a point where mobile apps are embedded in the daily lives of users. Marketers are quickly coming to grips with this fact and releasing mobile apps to help sell products and services to their audiences. The current landscape and future of mobile app marketing involves a number of key technology innovations and fresh ways to both discover and leverage app content in 2016 and beyond.

Native Mobile Apps Leading the Way

The majority of digital media consumers now prefer content access on native apps over mobile websites and traditional desktop experiences. Native apps, available on tablets and smartphones, bypass much of the need for websites and enable marketers to provide more interactive features and personalized services in the process. Any company with a product or service to market is now able to reach the biggest audience possible and enjoy a variety of content sharing options with native mobile apps.

Accessible Content Via Deep Linking

Sharing information with users needs to include context and sources to obtain more information; companies not implementing this strategy run the risk of losing users who fail to see the value of mobile app messaging. A popular example of deep linking involves sending a push alert with a highly relevant link to content inside the mobile app. Users receive a short message of value and are able to immediately access more information without wasting time or questioning the importance of 140 characters without additional context.

Content inside mobile apps are also indexable by Apple and can appear in a Spotlight search, which further enhances the ability for users to find specific content pages in a mobile app without necessarily being in the app itself.

Mobile-Based Social Media

Users have traditionally been able to harness the powers of social media by posting a link to Facebook or sending a tweet directly inside of another mobile app. Yet integrations are becoming more advanced and services such as LinkedIn and Google+ are also gaining steam in the mobile community. Make sure options exist to +1 content on Google or other functions most important to the industry and user expectations.

Options should also include the ability to add a user location and choose from multiple accounts when applicable. Also consider the growing importance of platforms like Instragram, which almost exclusively rely on mobile usage. Integration with these services will only increase as mobile marketing continues to take the place of traditional methods.

Promotion Through Mobile App Video Integration

Video usage on mobile devices is increasing and most of the surge is attributed to consumption on native applications. Instead of simply linking a YouTube video on a website, companies are embedding videos directly into the mobile app so users do not have to leave the experience to view media. Advanced features such as adding a splash screen video at launch enable marketers to promote their most important product or service at the onset.

App Store Optimization

Google Play and Apple’s App Store are inundated with mobile apps competing for users attention. Ensuring a mobile app stays apart from the crowd with optimized images and video per each store’s requirements helps promote increased download numbers. Companies also need a landing page that detects a user’s device and redirects to the appropriate store—ideally branded for the company and linked from QR codes, websites, and advertising.

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How Mobile Apps Strengthen Employee Engagement & Company Culture

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:08:00 GMT

Companies primarily interested in leveraging mobile apps for internal use can greatly benefit from employee engagement and even a boost in company culture. Yet the impact of a mobile app risks falling short of expectations if employees or partners fail to embrace the technology. Learn how a number of best practices helps ensure everyone gravitates towards sustained mobile app engagement and reaps the rewards.

Identify Key Participants

Companies often fall into the trap of releasing a mobile app and promoting its features to every employee in equal measure. The benefits of a mobile app, however, are almost always directed at a specific department within the organization or other subsets of employees.

Does the mobile app primarily contain brochures and presentations perfect for the sales team? How about internal contact information perfect for human resources or staffing departments? Identify who benefits most and pilot the app for that specific group to iron out quirks with functionality and content. A targeted approach saves both time and money for everyone involved and ensures those who are most likely to benefit from the mobile app see its value early and often.

Create a Mobile App Vital to Workflows

Another common oversight amongst companies publishing a mobile app for employees is to not make the technology an instrumental part of the day-to-day workflow. People are used to doing things a certain way and only buy into a new process if it’s the only way to get get a job done or access certain data. Consider what type of content is best suited for mobile (e.g. PDFs or contact directories) and remove other options to submit or consume the information.

Ensure Employees Provide Good Data

Mobile apps are a two-way street and employees also need to be strongly encouraged to share quality data with employers. Integrate surveys and other feedback tools in the mobile app and give employees the confidence their data will be treated with respect and used to improve the company culture.

From anonymous feedback about team members or managers to suggestions on how to improve office life or company initiatives, interactive mobile app surveys or live polling during meetings can give employees a much needed voice.

Leverage Data

Data might come in the form of aforementioned feedback or usage metrics on popular app content. Companies must devise a plan to share what they’ve learned with employees and be willing to make improvements where necessary. Are product brochures being consumed and shared more than any other piece of content in the mobile app?

Let employees know about the popularity of the content to spur others into action and make additional content available. Also consider upgrading the feature with better organization, more options, or a combination of both. Continuing to engage with employees and share what's popular (or not) amongst the group keeps everyone engaged in the process and eager to consume more content.

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Use Mobile Apps to Incentivize Customers with Coupon Codes & Loyalty Rewards

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 13:32:00 GMT

Companies with a product or service to sell often leverage coupon codes to drive sales and incentivize people to follow social media accounts or subscribe to a newsletter. Offering exclusive coupon codes via mobile apps is another valuable option to consider and ultimately gives companies greater flexibility to engage its audience with relevant messaging.

Learn how including coupon codes and deals in a mobile app greatly helps businesses sell more products or services, attract new users, and better understand its audience.

Coupon Code & Deals Feature

Integrating coupon or promo codes and deals in a mobile app is a straightforward process for both company and customers. The former needs only to generate the codes via their e-commerce platform and include the code—along with additional marketing verbiage, call to actions, or media—in a section of their mobile app. The code may then be used by users who access the mobile app and enter the characters into their shopping cart upon checkout on the company’s website.

A Case Study

Co-founder of AppBurst, Mike Haldas, also co-founded CCTV Camera Pros and recently launched a new coupon code and deals section in his CCTV Camera Pros Mobile App. The feature is simple yet effective; a coupon code is shared with users followed by a call to action to visit the store. Additional coupon codes may be added or rotated to serve different purposes and provide discounts on specific or site-wide products.

Coupon codes available in the mobile app are exclusive to the mobile experience and incentivize users to not only download and use the app, but share app benefits with friends and colleagues. Coupon codes and deals also give CCTV Camera Pros an additional subject for their successful push alert marketing strategies.

Other Benefits & Options

A handful of additional useful features may be implemented to better engage customers and use the promo codes as effectively as possible. Consider prompting users to login to the mobile app for better discounts or promotions. The unique device ID generated for each mobile app user, correlated with a company’s e-commerce database, enables companies to target recent purchases and send push alerts to a customer when an order ships.

Recent purchase history, or lack thereof, may also be used to send specific coupon codes and messaging to customers. The ability to personalize the experience for each user and provide the best benefit possible only serves to increase sales and retention.

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How Product Support Pages in Mobile Apps Better Engage Customers

Sun, 10 Jul 2016 23:41:00 GMT

Customer satisfaction is vital to a company’s reputation and success. The ability to provide accessible support for products represents a huge win for companies with products requiring setup, maintenance, or troubleshooting.

Learn how support pages integrated into a company’s mobile app not only gives customers ongoing access to product documentation on their smartphones and tablets, but also serves to drive engagement numbers and potentially generate even more revenue in the process.

Mobile App Support Page Feature

A product support page leverages the ability to integrate web browser views inside of a mobile app. Additional effort to create mobile-ready support pages isn’t necessary if the content already exists online; companies can simply embed web pages in their mobile app as a stand-alone support area or to supplement product pages.

Product support pages enable customers to receive 24/7 assistance in cases where help may be otherwise unavailable. While the same information might be viewable on a company website, the ability to access support from the convenience of a smartphone or tablet often enables customers to better consume information next to their product in a living room, workshop, vehicle, or other places away from their desktop computers.

Better Engagement via Mobile Support

Mobile app product support pages provide bigger benefits to companies than simply offering another avenue of support for customers and clients. Highly useful documentation serves to turn the mobile app into a must-have download for product owners and is instantly a recommendable resource to family, friends, and colleagues.

Social media integration, interactive surveys, and other engaging mobile app features give users the chance to share app content and send valuable feedback to companies. Questionnaires related to product reliability and customer satisfaction can be used in conjunction with support pages to improve a brand and give customers a much needed voice.

A Case Study

Mike Haldas, a co-founder of AppBurst, also co-founded CCTV Camera Pros and recently launched a new support section in the official CCTV Camera Pros Mobile App. Support content is easily accessible from the home screen and divided into various support and how-to guide categories.

Future or existing customers may view PDF manuals, setup instructions found on CCTV Camera Pro’s website, and various other highly detailed documentation aimed to give users a one-stop resource for everything needed to install and maintain their recently purchased products.

Understand Customer Activity

Businesses who provide the same support pages on their websites and mobile apps can differentiate visitors to better understand customer activity and preferences. Track unique users who visit support pages via mobile or send automated emails to customers who purchase a product letting them know support is also available via mobile.

The Bottom Line

Providing product support to customers via mobile enables companies to serve their audience around the clock. The feature also helps drive overall mobile app engagement and eases the ability to gather information from users—ultimately selling more products.

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Best Practices & Tips for Sending Mobile App Push Messages

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 01:06:00 GMT

Push notifications are a vital tool for any company needing to interact with its user base. Studies show users who enable push are exponentially more engaged in the mobile app and unsurprisingly more likely to be retained as loyal content consumers.

Understanding how to best utilize push notifications and send the best alerts should therefore be a top priority for any entity using the feature to engage its audience.

Consider Value

Users expect tangible value in the form of vital updates or exclusive information with push alerts—not fluff material or repeated promotions. Does the proposed content really warrant a push message? Ask this question before sending each notification to users and learn to respect "mobile inboxes".

Other options for less-important content include featuring an updates area inside of the app or sending a single push alert for a series of new content (i.e. PDF documents) versus a single alert for each item. Learn to leverage other tools so users continue to eagerly await push alerts as a source of true value when real-time communication is most relevant.

Keep Push Alerts Short

Push alerts are much like email subject lines; the shorter an idea or point can be made, the better. Avoid wordy or confusing messages and keep sentences as short as possible to avoid user confusion. Experts and studies often cite 10 words or less as the best choice to ensure higher click-through rates and more eyes on promoted content or a vital update.

Direct Users to Specific Mobile Content

The deep linking feature in push alerts enables companies to send users to a specific content item in the mobile app. Consider the following comparison: a push message notifies users of an exclusive promotion or the same message notifies the user, but also includes a link to the specific promotion details accessible within seconds of tapping on the alert.

The former option is nice, but serves no real purpose and fails to engage the user with valuable content inside of the app. The latter, however, gives users everything they need to know in one concise message with the option to immediately learn more.

Leverage Scheduling Features

Timing is everything when it comes to engaging user bases around the world. Be conscious of time zones, working hours, and the best moments to send a specific message. Scheduling alerts in advance with a clear strategy not only helps the timing aspect, but ensures messages aren’t forgotten all-together amongst other responsibilities.

Take Advantage of a Mobile App’s CMS

A mobile app’s content management system enables admin users to queue messages days, weeks, or even months in advance and enjoy a “set it and forget it” workflow. It also provides the tools for embedding deep links in the app and typically includes a character counter to serve as a subtle reminder for messages erring on the lengthy side. In a nutshell, a CMS gives companies a one-stop source to devise and publish the best possible push alerts from the comforts of their home or office.

Track Results

Mobile app analytics give insight into how many devices received and read a push alert. The popularity of content linked from alerts can also be tracked. Did promoted content see an increase in page views? Ask the right questions and track results to improve the timing and content of messages.

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Six Strategies to Retain and Grow a Mobile App's User Base Over Time

Mon, 13 Jun 2016 16:46:00 GMT

A significant number of mobile apps are removed within days or weeks of installation on a user’s device. Remaining relevant and competing for attention is thus essential to prolong high levels of engagement with users and remain popular for years to come. Learn how six strategies serve to ensure a mobile app is setup for long-term success.

Sustain Marketing Efforts for App Features and Content

A successful mobile app needs often-updated content and interactive features. Yet failing to constantly talk about these benefits misses the biggest chance to retain users and even increase download numbers through word of mouth. Promoting features and content when the app is launched or during significant updates simply isn’t enough to sustain momentum.

Develop a marketing strategy with constant reminders to users about updated content (e.g. blog posts or PDF documents) and new features. Ensure the messages are relevant and helpful, but use every excuse possible to reiterate the value of retaining and using the mobile app. Social media, email marketing, and in-app features such as push alerts should all be leveraged for weekly marketing efforts.

Send Surveys with Incentives

Audiences appreciate having a voice in the conversation outside of social media. Give mobile app users the ability to raise concerns, answer questions, and submit suggestions via interactive surveys. Post a new survey to the mobile app once a month or on a similar timeline, market the survey with push alerts, and get users accustomed to answering a handful of questions.

Surveys work much better with incentives and feedback. Offer coupon codes, access to exclusive content, or other perks to a handful of survey entrants drawn at random. Also make sure to actively address survey results by making some of the suggested changes and noting these decisions on social media. Consider even giving direct thanks to those who provided the best advice.

Connect Outside of the Mobile App Experience

Too much focus on the mobile app experience loses sight of other useful platforms ripe for engagement—some of which might not even be digital. Perhaps a significant number of event attendees spend time at a local networking function or gaming enthusiasts engage with one another on a specific message board.

Leverage a mobile app’s features ranging from surveys and live polling to user authentication and back-end analytics to better understand a user base’s preferences and activities. Collect whatever information is relevant (e.g. usernames or email addresses) and consider one of two options: Integrate these other sources of popular engagement into the mobile app or simply provide complimentary content for a better and more well-rounded experience.

Understanding users and pro-actively adding value to the mobile app is a win-win and ensures less people uninstall the technology.

Ask For Referrals and Social Shares

Retarget conversations with users to ask for referrals and make promoting app content a priority. Referrals are easily gleaned from survey submissions by including one final request at the bottom of the form. Other options include urging users to invite others to be a part of the mobile app’s contact directory or to join social media accounts.

The first step to ensure users share content is to make sharing via popular social media platforms readily accessible in the mobile app. The next step entails urging users to share; leverage some of the incentives used for surveys or create contests asking for the most creative or popular social media shares.

Reward User Loyalty

Are a subset of users constantly engaging with app content over time and sharing with friends or colleagues? Reward loyalty with access to exclusive content or give these users discounts on the events, services, or products the mobile app is marketing.

Cultivating existing users is much easier than acquiring new users; the latter must be taken through the same stages, see value, and feel compelled to keep the mobile app on his or her device. Start by rewarding existing users and word of mouth quickly helps spur growth as others want to be rewarded in kind.

Schedule Brand Overhauls

Everyone knows the experience of opening their phone to find an app favorite refreshed with new branding. From an updated app icon and splash screen to color scheme and homepage tweaks, mobile apps can greatly benefit from subtle aesthetic overhauls. A new visual look (however small) gives users a sense the app is improving and evolving along with their device’s operating system updates and so forth.

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A Native Mobile App Upgrades These Six Things for Modern Companies

Wed, 18 May 2016 14:31:00 GMT

The majority of mobile apps are available to the general public as a tool for consuming content. Many companies, however, are also taking advantage of the technology to give their internal employees a better way to access documents, network with colleagues, and a host of other benefits.

Continue reading to learn six major improvements a mobile app brings to any modern company.

Document Libraries

Every company needs to share some type of required reading and resources to employees. Handbooks, instructions, presentations, and tutorials can all be made available via PDFs or Microsoft Suite documents in a mobile app. Enable employees to access the documents on their smartphone or tablet from the office, at home, or even in flight. Documents may be organized into categories and made available for offline access or on-demand.

Another example of transitioning to document libraries is making brochures and marketing material available to employees to share with potential clients and customers at events or in day-to-day activities such as social functions or waiting on a flight. While paper documents are easily misplaced or wrinkled, their digital counterparts are always available to share and consume. Document libraries in a mobile app also cut down on wastefulness and costs associated with paper usage.

Contact Directories

Communication between company members is vital and mobile apps provide an easily solution for contact directories. Share phone numbers, email addresses, and other information such as bios or headshots to keep everyone connected. Employees may email others directly in the mobile app to schedule appointments or ask questions. Online email address books do provide much of the same convenience, but employees typically only save frequently-emailed contacts and need another source for the entire company directory.

Planning & Reminders

Give employees digital tools to stay organized and increase productivity. Mobile app features may include a personal notepad and event listings with calendar integration. The former is a great way for employees to take notes at internal meetings or about educational documents in the mobile app—as well as conveniences like lunch reminders and work to-do lists. The latter, which can make up sessions for a bigger event or simply showcase a list of internal meetings, gives employees the chance to bookmark applicable appointments or sessions and directly add reminders to their favorite calendar app such as iCal or Outlook.

Engagement

Features like document libraries, contact directories, and notepads all increase engagement, but so too do less talked-about options for internal company apps. Consider implementing interactive surveys to receive employee feedback on a wide range of information from catering preferences at the next company-wide meeting to anonymous feedback about a supervisor or initiative.

Push alerts with deep linking also enable company admin users to alert employees of internal news and happenings when it’s most relevant, as well as link to specific content in the mobile app such as a new set of educational documents. Engagement via mobile can be a two-way street giving employees a sense of empowerment and higher-ups the chance to easily interact with everyone at the company.

Data Availability

The global nature of many companies and organizations means reliable data access and attention to detail with employees and end users of different backgrounds is more important than ever before. Leading mobile app providers ensure mobile apps are available to download quickly and reliably—regardless of a user’s location around the world. The majority of application data is also available for offline access and can be consumed in multiple languages.

Mobile technology, in a nutshell, greatly alleviates the difficulties associated with sharing content in paper formats to people spread out near and far from the home office. The majority of digital media consumption also occurs on smartphones and tablets—not desktops, which means sharing company content in a mobile app trumps traditional websites. Employees who spend an increasing amount of time on their mobile devices will readily adopt to consume company information on their iPhones, iPad, and Androids.

Security

Alternative distribution options means mobile apps can be made available outside of the app stores to give companies the peace of mind their internal content remains secure. For mobile apps needing a public presence, but with sensitive data, user authentication or password protection can secure certain sections of the mobile app and enable admin users to track user activity and register authorized access.

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Digital Media & Mobile App Usage: Future in Focus

Fri, 29 Apr 2016 07:32:00 GMT

comScore’s recent Cross-Platform: Future in Focus study for US-based digital media usage in 2016 reveals new insight into adult’s preferences and tendencies for consuming content. Digital media usage is unsurprisingly on the rise and smartphones are leading the charge:

“Total digital media usage has nearly tripled since 2010, and since 2013 it’s up 35%, with smartphone having grown 78% and contributing to 92% of the total increase in time spent. Tablet is also seeing strong growth… while desktop is down.”

As consumption of digital media decreases on desktops and continues to rise on mobile devices, businesses and organizations must adapt and turn their attention to smartphones and tablets.

The following statistics from comScore’s study provide deeper context and meaning into today’s changing landscape.

Mobile-Only Usage is Becoming More Prominent

A lesser-known trend is the fact mobile-only consumption is becoming more prominent; more people are ditching their desktops all-together to consume their digital media on smartphones and tablets.

“Mobile now represents almost 2 out of 3 digital media minutes, and smartphone apps alone are approaching half of all digital time spent.”

Mobile-only consumption has doubled in ages 35+ since beginning of 2014 and 97% of millennials are now mobile users. Focusing on traditional websites for content sharing with audiences (young or old) puts companies at risk of missing large swathes of their target audience.

Tradition Gives Way to Mobile

A turnaround in the print industry speaks volumes to the long-term future of print media versus its digital counterpart. Companies focused on mobile over print, or those entirely converting to the latter, experienced 20% gains in 2015. More companies continue to shift to mobile and other industries are following suit.

“A number of traditional print publishers leveraged mobile to capture new, often younger audiences on digital.“

Print material also involves higher costs and inflexibility with editing content for new initiatives or marketing campaigns. Coupled with the ability to instantly target digital audiences with features like push alerts in newer mobile technology, it’s becoming more and more untenable to focus on print solutions for sharing content with consumers.

New Mobile Penetration Led by Informational Content

Industries such as health and travel have experienced significant gains in mobile penetration. Generally speaking, industries with information content to share are reaping the rewards of providing digital media such as PDF documents, news items, and more to an increasingly global audience.

Accessing information about a company or brand on-the-go -- with both offline and sharing capabilities -- only extends the reach of content and enables users to share vital information with friends and colleagues.

Smartphone Penetration Increased At Every Age Demographic

While overall smartphone ownership appears to be reaching a saturation point around 80% of all American adults, each demographic is still experiencing gains—led by millennials at over 90%. Android and iOS account for a combined 96% market share. Apple leads the way in devices at 43%, while Samsung and “All Others” are split at 28-29% each.

The relative stagnation in terms of mobile device ownership is inevitable; the penetration levels are already incredibly high, however, and see no signs of weakening. Providing native mobile apps for Android and iOS devices gives 19 in 20 people a product tailor-made for their device.

Social Media is Most Popular on Smartphones

Nearly 80% of all time spent consuming social media occurs on mobile devices, with native smartphone apps leading the way at 61%. Networking and communication with friends or colleagues represents one of the most natural and organic methods to spread the word about a brand.

Companies and organizations must have a social media presence and integrate these platforms into a mobile app, enabling users to quickly access official accounts for updates and share in-app content via Facebook, Twitter, and more.

The Bottom Line

Digital media consumption on mobile is continuing to rise. Mobile-only consumption is making the importance of native iOS and Android apps, which account for 96% of the market share, a near-necessity for any entity with content to share to people around the world.

Taking advantage of tools like push alerts, in addition to social media integration, maximizes engagement and create the momentum needed to keep pace in the evolving digital landscape.

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Four Reasons Every Growing Business Needs a Mobile App

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 01:03:00 GMT

Mobile apps are becoming more instrumental to business success as adoption of smartphones and tablets reach an all-time high. Business owners are often aware of the many features and benefits mobile apps offer without understanding the inherent reasons behind the technology’s growing popularity. Learn four big-picture reasons why every growing business needs a mobile app to keep pace with competitors and reach bigger goals in the digital age.

The Evolution of Content Consumption

Brands continue to market their products and services via traditional means such as print, radio, and television, as well as newer options like official websites and online advertising. Yet traditional options lack content flexibility and interactive features. Content available on computers offers more benefits and a global reach, yet still fails to engage audiences at vital points throughout the day.

Enter the age of mobile applications. Most people are willing sacrifice virtually every material possession before giving up their smartphone and over half of the population checks their phone several times per waking hour.

Mobile apps enable companies to dictate the timing and message of marketing with a much better chance their target audience consumes content. From sending a push alert about a time-sensitive sale to uploading a new splash screen video promoting an upcoming product launch, content is more easily consumed by users 24/7.

Remote Working On the Rise

More people work away from the office and enjoy increased flexibility in the form of flex days or working in the field. Laptops might follow employees or the self-employed from place to place, but smartphones are the go-to resource for checking email, posting on social media, and consuming content throughout the day.

Businesses must take advantage of mobile apps to communicate with internal employees, provide resources for potential clients, or promote products and services with convenience and accessibility simply unavailable on websites or traditional means of content sharing.

Push Notifications and Email Marketing

Email marketing remains an integral part of many businesses, but spam blockers and new wrinkles such as Google’s promotions tab in Gmail means reaching audiences through email are increasingly difficult. While the benefits of email marketing are still significant, businesses need to recognize its pitfalls and use push alerts to supplement outreach efforts.

Push alerts do not have a spam filter and deep links enable businesses to target a specific video, product brochure, news post, or other mobile app content item to provide added value and reach potential customers at all times of the day.

Transform Education for Employees

Not every big-picture benefit of going mobile helps only clients and customers. Businesses spend significant time and resources educating employees and partner organizations on their products and services. Hours are wasted gathering people together in one place or sitting through webinars.

Consider an enterprise mobile app to promote company culture and present digestible information employees can access around the clock. Surveys, live polling, and user logins enable companies to hold employees accountable and ensure everyone learns information as needed.

For more information and to speak with an AppBurst representative about mobile apps and benefits to any business:

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Going Mobile and the Benefits of Reduced Paper Usage

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 12:55:32 GMT

The advent of mobile technology has reshaped the way companies and organizations share content with their audiences. Going mobile inevitably reduces or even eliminates the need for printing everything from conference agendas for attendees to marketing and sales brochures for prospective clients.

Environmental Considerations

Concerns over the environment are more relevant in recent years. Establishing a position that not only recognizes important environmental issues, but also takes the initiative, is a positive step under any circumstance and shows progress to end users engaging in a brand. Utilize the mobile app to discuss reduced paper usage and promote going green in other elements of life and the business world.

Lowered Budgets

Going mobile immediately reduces reliance on paper products. A related benefit is the reduction of costs associated with sharing content with an audience. Developing a mobile app and its associated costs are most often offset by avoiding expensive print runs not only subject to the market costs of paper, but the company outsourced to put together, print, and ship the material. Beyond the initial costs to print a brochure, for example, the costs of updating and reprinting the same content due to a typo, change in marketing strategy, or new product release often doubles printing costs—even if 99% of the content remains the same.

Most mobile app development companies provide a CMS for admin users to easily make changes to content. The feature translates to less headaches and costs associated with keeping material up to date. Mobile apps, unlike printing material, also provide interactive features for promotions and sponsor ads—updated on a more consistent basis and offering media options for videos unable to be included in printed material. The flexibility to showcase a better variety of content with easy updates gives mobile app owners an outlet for additional revenue and a more balanced budget.

Greater Mobility of Content

Consider a scenario where traveling sales reps are tasked with promoting a product or service all over the world. From packs of brochures getting lost in checked luggage to demand at a trade show simply outweighing supply, relying on paper material is a risky business—even before considering the risk of potential customers discarding or losing the material before it ends up on their desks or in the hands of decision makers. The scenario is similar in other industries and cases where content needs to be shared with an audience; event attendees using programs and gamers needing a game guide are two prime examples in different industries.

What better alternative exists than putting all content in a mobile format easily shareable via social media and available via smartphone or tablet at any time of day? People take their mobile devices everywhere and readily use apps for a myriad of day to day activities. Build an mobile app full of useful content and get added to homescreens for unparalleled levels of engagement, as users are able to access and share important PDF documents, company updates, resources, and any other relevant piece of content.

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Use the AppBurst Dashboard for All Mobile App Content Integration

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 23:05:00 GMT

Mobile apps give companies and organizations a unique opportunity to engage user bases around the world. Those responsible for managing content, however, must still contend with getting data into the app and managing subsequent changes. The AppBurst Dashboard greatly simplifies this process by placing full control in the hands of admin users to upload and edit content via an intuitive content management system.

Content Examples

The following examples are not an inclusive list of content types available in a mobile app, but rather highlights the ease in which content is uploaded and edited in the AppBurst Dashboard.

PDF Documents

PDF document integration represents an extremely popular method to share everything from marketing brochures to educational material. The process to upload PDFs is simple: select a PDF file and upload the document in a similar fashion to adding a file attachment in emails. Additional information may be added such as title and category, while each file may be downloaded with the initial app install or available on demand.

Text Pages

Simple text pages are useful for presenting information to users when a PDF doesn't make sense. While PDFs offer a number of advantages such as easy sharing and a consistent views across all platforms, the files can are not easily editable without changing the document and reuploading to the AppBurst Dashboard. Showcasing content as native text in the app, however, may be edited in minutes and offers additional options such as font size enlargement--along with the ability to style and edit content directly in the admin system similar to Microsoft Word or other text editors.

News Items

Create a blog or news feed and include information such as a title, category, thumbnail image, published date, and links to keep everyone updated on industry news, company happenings, or any other content relevant to users. The news items are added and maintained directly in the AppBurst Dashboard to create an easily editable source of news sorted by title or date. Consider small news updates or lengthier content like press releases and articles to provide a must-have resource of information.

A Selection of Other Features

In addition to managing 100% of mobile app content in the AppBurst Dashboard, admin users are also able to take advantage of other tools to greatly enhance both the user experience:

Full Branding Control

The AppBurst Dashboard provides more than content integration. Companies and organizations managing a mobile app in the content management system are able to manage branding (i.e. splash pages, title bar, etc.) and color schemes directly in the admin system and publish changes in real time.

App Analytics

A streamlined version of app analytics is available directly in the AppBurst Dashboard for admin users to quickly access metrics like app downloads. A more robust set of analytics is available via trusted 3rd-party provider Flurry.

Push Alerts

Push alerts may be sent or scheduled in the CMS and can include a deep link directing users to a specific content item. Push alerts offer great value to app users when utilized correctly to provide real time, insighful content when it matters most.

User Authentication

Segment content and assign users roles to restrict access of confidential data or create exclusivity to incentivize more users to download the app or pay for additional perks. User authentication requires a registration process that enables admin users to track and manage individuals for everything from email marketing to demographic studies.

Multi Language Content

Users likely hail from all over the world and mobile app content can reflect this diversity. Ensure more users are comfortable experiencing mobile app content with multi language support and manage duplicate--or different--sets of content in the same AppBurst Dashboard area to streamline the process. Menu options and other native functions are typically managed by AppBurst, while content itself if managed by the admin users.

The Bottom Line

Managing the ins and outs of mobile app content in a single user-friendly admin system from the comforts of home or the office speaks volumes to the feasibility of creating an engaging mobile solution and managing its features without the need to devote unavailable resources or spend countless hours learning how to manage multiple interfaces. While other options exist to integrate content via 3rd-party data management systems, the AppBurst Dashboard is meant to give any company or organization 100% control of mobile app content when it makes sense.

For more information about the AppBurst Dashboard and to speak with a representative about mobile app solutions:

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The Increase of Digital Media Usage in Mobile Apps

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 19:43:00 GMT

Digital media usage continues to rise with every passing year and native mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android are paving the way at unprecedented rates. comScore, a trusted internet research company, released their annual digital media usage study using 2015 data.

The findings are notable for any company considering going mobile, as well as those with an existing mobile app, but lacking key features to truly engage its user base and rise above the competition. Continue reading to find out the highlights of the study and AppBurst’s takeaways as they apply to mobile app development.

comScore 2015 Digital Media Usage Study

The amount of minutes individuals spend on digital media since 2013 has increased substantially; while desktop minutes have increased at only 16%, mobile app minutes have soared—increasing 90% in a matter of years. This surge now means that 2 out of every 3 minutes spend engaging in digital media now occur on mobile and native apps in particular enjoy a majority. Simply put:

“Digital media usage time is exploding right now, and it’s predominately being driven by mobile apps.”

“Smartphone apps have driven most of the growth in digital media usage in the past two years”.

Other Digital Media Usage Findings

- Mobile apps greatly outpace mobile web.

- App usage is largely driven by Millennials

- Tablet usage increased with age—mostly outside of the 16-24 segment

- Establishing loyalty is key; established app audiences spend 18x more time on apps than mobile web visitors.

- Winning a spot on a user’s home screen reaps huge usage rewards.

What Does it All Mean?

The fact digital media usage continues to rise on mobile apps is hardly surprising. Recent studies—both from comScore and other respected sources—all point to an exponential increase in usage of mobile apps over their mobile web counterparts and on traditional desktop computers. Companies and organizations without a plan to give their audience a mobile app are quickly falling behind competitors.

The biggest obstacle to ensure success in a crowded mobile space is winning the loyalty of users. Spending 18x more on a mobile app than mobile web counterparts is extremely significant and shows just how important a mobile app’s value becomes to a company's overall impact on content marketing. Develop a mobile app with custom branding, interactive features, and value that translates to year-round relevancy for users to win a coveted spot on home screens and enjoy the type of usage and engagement unavailable on any other medium.

Consider the fact users have their smartphones and tablets on their body almost every waking minute with the screen turned on virtually every hour. The exposure is unobtainable via paper material, desktop computers, or anything else. Develop a plan to resonate with users via a native mobile app and use the engagement as a springboard for marketing, sponsorships, and more.

The Takeaway

Developing a mobile app because the vast majority of digital media usage occurs on mobile is the first step. Yet making a mobile app available to an audience and expecting results ignores the competition; individuals only have so many minutes in the day to spend on mobile devices and fall back on their favorite apps more often than not.

Work with a mobile app development team to ensure the end product stands out from the crowd with value-added tools and features, as well as a highly branded look and scalable content with easy management from admin users to send new content to users at any time of day or night. The right strategy enables companies and organizations to become a go-to digital media provider for a significant portion of its audience—a benefit with untapped potential in today’s digital world.

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Strategies to Boost Mobile App Engagement & Generate More Downloads

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 12:44:00 GMT

Attention to detail often makes the difference between a mobile app with average usage metrics and one that becomes a vital part of a user’s daily life. While the best apps offer a combination of interactive features, custom branding, and relevant content, work still needs to be done to ensure maximum adoption and engagement once early users download the app.

Year-Round Content

The biggest driving factor in engagement—mobile or otherwise—is giving audience relevant and timely content on a year-round basis. From popular blogs to mobile apps, content is king and updates should occur at least weekly based on the industry and expectations of each user base. Individuals who visit an app and see a lack of activity or new content are much less likely to return to the app when other options are ready to engage on a daily basis.

Convenient Social Sharing

Mobile app engagement relies on users who share content with their family, friends, and colleagues on social media. Avoid forcing users to send screenshots of apps or copy and pasting content into an email. Make social sharing convenient and integrated inside of the mobile app. Users should have the ability to share via every popular social media platform and send emails to others without leaving the app experience.

The Concept of Mobile Exclusivity

While people are consuming digital media on smartphones and tablets in more numbers than ever before, it helps to create and promote the concept of mobile exclusivity. In other words, make certain content only available on mobile to incentivize more downloads and hopefully find a valued spot on user's homescreens due to important and exclusive content.

Also consider mobile-only rewards or prizes; perhaps the incentive is based on coupon codes or promotions only accessible via the mobile app. Drawings and weekly or monthly giveaways to all users also creates additional demand to engage with app content.

Opt-In for Push Alerts

Ensuring the majority of users opts in for push alerts can be the single most important step to accomplish in the early stages of attracting and retaining a mobile audience. Push alerts—also known as push notifications or messages—occur in real-time to notify users of updates, happenings, or a new launch. Build a positive track record regarding push message content to ensure current users are only receiving informativ and timely messages.

Assuming the first obstacle is cleared and users understand the importance of receiving push alerts, make sure the notifications continue to be useful by including deep links directly to app content. Consider a push alert announcing a new product or service and then imagine that same message containing a link to a page in the app with information, resources, and potentially mobile-exclusive offers. The latter is simply much more effective.

For more information about mobile engagement and to speak with an AppBurst representative about native app development for iPhone, iPad, Android:

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Tips for Retaining Mobile App Users

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 13:33:00 GMT

An effective promotion and marketing strategy increases download numbers and puts a mobile application in the hands of more users across the world. What happens next is critical to retaining users and not succumbing to the common problem of individuals viewing an app once or twice before reverting to more familiar experiences like email and Facebook. Consider the following tips for retaining mobile app users to ensure engagement remains consistent each and every day.

Prioritize the First Month

A relationship must be established early with new app users. Encourage engagement from the onset and ensure the mobile app is user-friendly; otherwise people downloading the app may not receive the right information or worse yet be turned off by the entire experience. Provide something of value in the early stages—such as a coupon code, PDF abstract typically reserved for members only, or another option based on the industry—to make it nearly impossible for users to justify deleting the app.

Leverage Push Alerts w/ Deep Linking

App users want value and sending generic push notifications seldom do the trick. Instead, consider linking specific content to the push alert directing users to valuable information in the app. Keep notifications short and to the point; save wordier messages for the in-app experience once users have been directed to the content.

Much like Facebook alerts and new emails, users who become accustomed to exciting or valuable alerts on their phone from specific apps are much more prone to engage with content and keep the app in an easily accessible spot. Conduct research in advance to determine what content is most important to future attendees and develop a relevant stategy.

Personalize the Experience

Make indviduals feel unique with features like user authentication to create profiles and unlock content only available to those with certain roles or perks. A personalized mobile app resonates better with users and also gives companies an easier way to track individual's activities for marketing campaigns and demographic research. Incentivize users to register or create profiles to engage users and create a unique experience in the process.

Create Useful Tools

Static content in a mobile app such as PDF documents and images is extremely useful and engaging, yet the ability to provide industry-specific tools (e.g. health calculator) gives users a value-added feature thay may become a part of his or her daily routine. Consider what type of tool, calculator, or other interactive feature is most helpful for the specific user base and work with a mobile app developer to create something users may not be able to get elsewhere on their mobile device. The more a tool can be utilied by a user, the greater retention numbers and more chances to share other types of content.

Don't Assume Others See the Same Value

Never assume users automatically see value in a mobile app. Develop walkthroughs and tutorials to point users in the right direction during the iniitial app launch and highlight key features as early as possible. Tout the best features in e-blasts and social media to drive home the most valuable features to ensure users know the true value of downloading—and more importantly, keeping—the mobile app.

For more information about mobile event apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android and to speak with a customer representative:

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Big-Picture Benefits of Sales & Marketing Mobile Apps

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 12:34:00 GMT

Mobile technology is a necessary tool for sales and marketing efforts in the 21st-century; the ability to share content with users around the world on a greater scale simply cannot be overlooked by companies with goals to promote a product or service. The big-picture benefits of developing a sales and marketing mobile app include uninterrupted access to important marketing material, highly targeted and interactive features used to engage potential customers or clients, and reduced paper usage to help the environment.

Material On-the-Go

Consider the following scenario: A sales rep sits at an airport awaiting a flight. He or she strikes up a conversation with someone who turns out to be a great potential client, yet marketing materials are unavailable--either in checked luggage, or worse, left at home. A business card and promises to contact the person later in the week are always an option, but lack the type of engagement needed to leave a lasting impression when it matters mos. An alternative to traditional paper material is a mobile app for smartphones and tablets with readily accessible PDF brochures and presentations.

Native apps with content caching for offline content enable individuals to share sales and marketing material anywhere—even on a flight with no wifi or cellular reception. Material can be delivered to a prospect’s inbox and potential clients are even able to download the app themselves. The customer's version of a mobile app might be a stripped down version with internal documents protected via user authentication. Quickly accessing and sharing PDFs, Microsoft Suite documents, videos, and more in a mobile app gives companies a marked advantage in dealing with existing and potential clients.

Interactive Features

In addition to sharing digital information once limited to print material, mobile apps give companies the added benefit of providing interactive features to further engage its audience. Providing helpful, interactive tools related to the industry (i.e. an exercise log for dieting products) makes the app a must-have addition for users who will more likely become customers or spread the word to family and friends. Marketing material coupled with interactive tools useful to anyone in the industry reflects a significant shift in sales and marketing strategies simply unavailable in year's past.

Reduced Paper Usage

An altruistic benefit to utilizing mobile apps for sales and marketing over paper material exists in the form of reduced paper usage. Reducing print material in favor of mobile technology is a win-win for any company and end users alike with an added benefit of reduced costs. Print material inflated budgets and is nearly impossible to change at the last minute, resulting in new print runs to account for updates to products or services, as well as new marketing campaigns and any changes to company branding. Mobile apps, however, are easily updatable in real-time via a content management system—resulting in quick, cost effective changes sent to a user’s device without delay. Going green is not only the right thing to do, but can paint any company as a progressive organization on the forefront of modern trends.

For more information on the benefits of sales and marketing mobile apps—both big and small, contact an AppBurst representative:

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Developing a Mobile App for News Articles and Blog Post Content

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 09:09:00 GMT

News articles and blog posts are integral to most people’s jobs and personal lives. From catching up on sports and entertainment to reading about industry updates and company news, access to updated resources is increasingly expected on mobile devices. Providing users with pertinent content in a mobile app enables companies and organizations to capture the attention of their audience to more easily achieve its other goals.

News Article & Blog Post Benefits

Sharing news and blog content offers a number of benefits to both end users and the company or organization managing the mobile app. The most obvious perk is increased exposure to whatever industry or company information is being shared in the app, as an increasing number of individuals--especially decision makers and anyone in the business world--interacts with and uses his or her mobile app more than a traditional desktop for web browsing.

By exposing industry leaders, potential clients, or fans to news and blog posts, the app becomes a go-to resource that can also be used to promote one’s own products and services, generate contact information for mailing lists, and any other goal made easier by engaging with more people in a connected world. Sponsor ad features in a mobile app can also create a profit generator, continually growing in ROI as more users are engaging with the content.

End users receive access to one convenient mobile app for updated information in a given industry or topics of personal interest. From business professionals educating themselves on industry news to press members finding quotes for stories or simply fans of a local sports team, the instances where news articles and blog posts may be shared via mobile to highly interested audiences is limitless. The uses and benefits of providing a news app also extends to social media shares and the ability to email friends and colleagues one's favorite posts; the mobile app becomes a communicator of material and only adds to the ability to share other beneficial content when it makes sense.

Customizations for News & Blog Post Mobile App Integration

Showcasing news and blog content in a mobile app also offers a number of customizable options and additional features furthering its value to users. Content may be categorized by topic, author, or any other criteria to provide more article sections; the integration process creates an intuitive workflow for the user working from the home screen to information they need most. The categories may be displayed in the app in a simple list view or a more interactive dashboard look with the ability to scroll through several content sections in a single view. Other options include the ability to add thumbnail images, published date, and tags to better present and organize content.

Interacting with article content is best when the experience is engaging and interactive for users. News and blog posts may be shared via email or social media such as Twitter and Facebook with friends, colleagues, and coworkers or bookmarked to a “My Favorites” section in the app for easy access at a later date; news content offers much of the same flexibility afforded a traditional web browser experience, only on-the-go to users all over the world. Content already downloaded to the device is also available offline on flights and in areas with spotty connectivity to give users more chances to engage with articles and blog posts.

Integration Options

Integrating news articles and blog posts into a mobile app is typically predicated by where the content currently exists. Posts may be manually entered into a content management system to be categorized and published in real time. Other options include using easily creatable RSS Feeds to automate the process or integrate other data sources such as JSON, which offer even more flexibility to include additional fields in the app. Often a hybrid approach is used; based on current availability consider a scenario such as 3rd-party blog posts coming from RSS Feeds and internal news being entered into a CMS for great flexibility over styling and editing of content.

For more details on AppBurst's mobile apps and to speak with a company represantive:

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