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How to create Breathtaking Animations In 3 Clicks, With The World’s Easiest Full-Auto Video Animation Software!

11/7/2017

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A Video Marketing Software Tool I Fully Recommend!

If you are into video marketing,  here you can create breathtaking animation videos by just following 3 easy steps:

1. Choose a template 
from a wide array of professionally crafted animations.  
2. Customise your template to your liking and personalise it for your brand.
3. Hit render & watch your video being built in the cloud in just a few minutes!

Don't take my word for it!  Check it out for yourself!  To find out more, click on the link below:

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Click here!

It is an amazing & incredible web based 3D animation software platform.  It lets you to create 3D animated video elements, such as Intros, Segways, Outros, Social Actions, Call To Actions & more. You can easily mach create anything 3D animated within your videos.

It is a web based cloud platform. So, it’ll work with PC as well as Mac easily. You do not have to install anything on your computer. All you need is an internet connection & you can easily access the platform from anywhere & at any time.  All you will need to do is just enter the platform, select a template, click a few buttons & within seconds you have a cool animated sequence carried out in your video.


When you login to the platform, you will have all the videos & animation you created stored within your account. This is a great plus for the platform. So these videos will not take up space on your device & you always have them handy & can download them, whenever you need those animations.
It is a very cheap, simple & automated way to create wonderful videos without having any technical skills.

Are you still reading?  Go check it out here:
 Click here!
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Mobile Apps and Small Business

14/5/2017

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Mobile apps are available for nearly every task imaginable. From predicting the weather to encrypted messaging, sharing photos with friends or requesting a personal driver, there’s an app for most imaginable needs. but how many of these apps come from small businesses?
For small businesses, creating a mobile app was not realistic even two to three years ago, when the cost to build a mobile app required the contract and commitment of a mobile app development team. However, with the rise of app development software and more specifically, app builders, small businesses can now easily make both consumer dedicated and internal facing apps with relative ease.
So, small businesses are beginning to enter the mobile app realm by investing in mobile apps to further engage their customers and to streamline internal business processes. With the various ways that small businesses can utilize mobile apps, the growing need for mobile-optimized information, and the accessibility of easy to use app building platforms, the stage is set for small business mobile app adoption. 

Slow Start for Small Business Mobile App Adoption

Overall, small businesses have been slow to adopt mobile apps. Currently, less than a quarter of small businesses have a mobile app and nearly a third are unlikely to build one. However, 27 percent plan to build a mobile app in the near future, and 22 percent are unsure, but still could be convinced to build a mobile app in the future. ​
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This slow adoption of mobile apps does not come at too much of a surprise especially since, in the past, building a mobile app meant spending an exuberant amount of both money and time. Additionally, for small businesses, building a mobile app has not been completely necessary for customer engagement or internal use. However, as more people turn to mobile devices for both personal and business tasks, mobile accessible information will become more of a necessity.

Future Looks Positive for Small Business Apps

As the practicality of mobile apps increases for small businesses, they will find that creating a mobile app is both valuable and highly accessible. So, while the percent of small businesses that currently have a mobile app is low, it does look as though small businesses will have viable reasons to turn to mobile solutions very soon.
In fact, the survey data does show an increase in small business mobile app adoption in the near future. Looking at the trend line of those who plan to build a mobile app, nearly half of the small businesses will be likely to have a mobile app by 2017 or later.

While search volume and accessibility will have an influence on mobile app adoption, internal business needs and productivity could also contribute to the growth of small business mobile apps.

Small businesses have the opportunity to utilize mobile apps for consumer facing purposes as well as for streamlining business processes and improving productivity. Given these vast possibilities, many of these industry experts predict that mobile app adoption will continue to increase in the near future.
To put future mobile app adoption in perspective, we further look at the types of small businesses that are currently building mobile apps and their reasons for building them.

Who are Building Mobile Apps?

Currently, the small businesses that have mobile apps stem from a variety of industries. The obvious adopters are those in the more consumer-facing industries.

“The main industries we work with are restaurants, bars, gyms, night clubs, realtors, religious services, and also professional services such as carpet cleaning and air installation. Any company that wants to engage with its clients on a deeper level, and wants to have their services available in its client’s pocket, is the type of business we work with.”
– 
Zach Cusimano

“There are a few typical verticals, including restaurants, churches, small events organizers, car dealers, and stores, which want to build loyalty programs and keep their customers informed, and so on.”
– Viktor Marohnic

While the businesses in the mentioned industries typically build mobile apps to appeal to their customer base, there are a variety of businesses that benefit from building internal apps as well. Praveen Seshadri explains who the 1,500 unique users are.
“These users come from all over the world (about 125 countries), roughly 50 percent from the US. They are not just from small businesses, but also individuals and teams in larger businesses. Anyone who uses a spreadsheet is a potential user and in fact, almost all our users are already using spreadsheets or web-based forms, and are looking to go beyond the desktop/web to mobile devices. There is a broad diversity of the users and the apps they are building.”

With an assortment of different businesses building mobile apps, what are the reasons behind the movement?​


Customer Engagement Encompasses Main Reasons for Building Apps

Overall, the main reasons that the majority of small businesses built a mobile app were to:
  1. Increase sales
  2. Improve customer experience
  3. Become competitive in a specific market
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These reasons are very understandable, especially when considering the advantages of creating a consumer-facing app.
“A good mobile app can facilitate quick checkout for a purchase, leading to an increase in sales. Customer experience amounts to simply browsing through an inventory, seeing what's available. An app can definitely improve that experience, compared to a mobile website, where the user has to login again every time they use it, provide payment details, and so on.”
– Viktor Marohnic



Building on to these reasons, Zach Cusimano emphasizes the advantage of having a constant presence on a customer’s phone. A key benefit that other technologies, like a website, cannot provide.
“Cutting down the time in which someone can make an order or a purchase is a key factor. Having that ability in their pocket is much easier than visiting a business or going on a desktop. All of the reasons mentioned are key in seeing the value of a mobile app. Aside from those, if a business can convince someone to download their app, that person is essentially giving them a place in their pocket at all times. It's an extremely valuable concept which has never been a part of business outside of the last three or four years.”
– Zach Cusimano



Further examining the website vs. mobile app quandary, there are viable reasons to invest in a mobile app alongside a website. A mobile app can offer engagement with customers that a website cannot quite match.
“A mobile-friendly website and a mobile app are both very valuable tools, but they have different purposes. A mobile website is fantastic for user discovery. If someone is searching for a restaurant in their area and hit their website through either Yelp or Google search, ensuring the site is mobile optimized will greatly increase the chances the user will visit the business in the near future. But mobile apps are separate tool best suited for user retention and engaging with clients. They're not aimed at random people finding a company's website, but are more about rewarding loyal customers.”
– Zach Cusimano



Mobile apps can help build a business’s relationship with its customers, providing a more accessible, personal, and customer-centered experience. Beyond the customer-oriented reasons for building a mobile app, businesses can also benefit internally by creating an app for their own use.
The survey results show that 17 percent of the small businesses built a mobile app for internal reasons. What are some of the ways that a business can benefit from building an internal business app?

“By investing in a mobile app, businesses can take their most important tasks and put them into a mobile app, greatly increasing productivity.”
– Praveen Seshadri



In addition to organizing tactical processes and increasing productivity, businesses can greatly benefit from building an app that progresses the way their business is run. In fact, industry leaders contend that the need for mobile optimized business solutions will propel the amount of internal business apps forward in the near future.
“We’ve found that small businesses in particular are eager to find ways to be more productive. Improving productivity is critical to their success. They are cautious in terms of spending before it is obvious that the returns are clear. However, they are full of ideas on how mobile technology can help them run their business better. As a tech community, we need to build tools that match their needs (easy to adopt, low friction, solves their problems, self-serve, no initial cost to try) and just drive awareness.”
– Praveen Seshadri



If a business can build an app that solves various internal problems, and they can build it with an easy to use app builder at a relatively low cost, there are clear reasons for a small business to investigate internal app options.
Another reason for investing in a mobile app includes the mobile app specific features that websites, computer software, and other technologies do not offer. So, further delving into the specifics, what mobile app features are most useful to small businesses?

App Specific Features Invaluable for Small Business ​

Survey respondents revealed what they deem as the most valuable feature of their current mobile app:
  1. Customer loyalty features
  2. Social networking features
  3. Push notifications
  4. Personalization
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For customer-focused apps, it makes sense that customer loyalty features, social networking features, and push notifications are the most valuable. These features allow small businesses to better engage with their customers.
“Most businesses work on the 80-20 paradigm: 80 percent of business comes from 20 percent of their customers. It's important to engage with the clients that have the biggest stake in the business and are most likely to come back. Rewarding them through coupons or allowing them to easily make reservations, order food, get advice, contact the business (or vice versa, easily sending push notifications or geo-targeted coupons) is very important.”
– Zach Cusimano



These features allow businesses to stay in contact with their customers in ways that were previously not available. In particular, businesses can personalize interactions and involve a plethora of customers through push notifications, location alerts, loyalty rewards, and easy access payment systems. As customers expect more features and functions to be available on mobile devices, mobile apps will only become more valuable to all types of businesses.
The mentioned features mostly highlight what businesses find useful in regards to consumer-facing apps. In terms of valuable features for internal business apps, there is a slightly altered list of features that focuses on improving productivity and streamlining business processes. Praveen provides a useful commentary on the ideal features for these internal and productivity business apps. 

“For internal apps there is a very different list of valuable features. The number one is that the app has to work offline. If people want control over their data, photos, and workflow, the app must do all of this offline and then synch with the backend.”
– Praveen Seshadri

For internal apps, valuable features include those that contribute to the overall organization and documentation of business processes, while subsequently refining productivity. Other important features hinge on how the app can be created, including flexibility and cost.
“We’ve found that business owners want to design their app. So an app building platform needs a lot of flexibility without the cost and time that it takes to develop a custom app. The improvements coming are focused on allowing businesses to build apps as quickly and as easily as possible from spreadsheets.”
– Praveen Seshadri

While the identified mobile app features vary slightly between customer-facing and internal business apps, what remains the same are the recognizable benefits that the unique features of mobile apps provide.

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Conclusion

With a distinguishable need for mobile accessible information, small businesses are slowly finding ways to increase their mobile presence. While the majority of small businesses still have a long way to go in terms of mobile app adoption, the good news is that there are accessible ways for small business to build a mobile app.

​Mobile apps provide diverse advantages to small businesses that other technologies cannot match. With the advantages and the easily accessible platforms available to create a mobile app, it looks as though it is highly possible that small business mobile app adoption will dramatically increase in the next few years.

Survey Respondents

Clutch collected this survey data from 352 small business owners or managers in the US. The largest respondent group is made up of companies with less than 10 employees and less than $1 million in annual revenue.
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Source from clutch.co
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6 Ways to Optimize Your Site for Social Media Sharing

6/7/2016

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Are readers sharing your content?

Assuming you have content that’s worth sharing, you could be lacking the right social optimization and sharing tools necessary to make it simple and easy for readers to spread the word about your content.
And while SEO and paid advertising will always be around, there’s nothing more powerful than word-of-mouth via the reader's’ social channels.
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Give your website the boost your content deserves and use these tactics to optimize your site for better social sharing.

1. Content Worth Reading & Sharing

It’s not a technical tip but it’s still worthy of the top of this list. If you don’t invest in content that’s worth reading, then no one will read it, let alone actually share it with others.
All the SEO, share tools, and design tricks in the world can’t save bad content, so put your time, effort, and money where it counts - post and write great content.

2. Display Your Social Shares

Great content is the most important, but a high number of social shares can also convince a reader he or she is looking at a world-class article. Showing off your social shares gives an article clout, and readers are more likely to share a piece they know has already been passed around hundreds or thousands of times.
And as an added bonus, this'll give your evergreen content exponential sharing power the more times you repost or reshare on your own social channels.

3. Use a “Social-Friendly” Website Builder

If you manage your own Wordpress, then you can download and install your own social tools from scratch. But for those with less website experience, most website building platforms have their own social tools you can install with the click of the button.
There are resources comparing the different social features between website builders so you can pick a service that fits your website’s needs.

4. Integrate Facebook Comments

If you’re even considering allowing comments below your content, this is a no-brainer. There are arguments to be made concerning the negatives of Facebook comments (the content belongs to them and is subject to Facebook’s Terms of Service), but it’s all shadowed by the pros.
Creating an account and logging in just to comment is a huge deterrent for most casual readers, and Facebook’s comment plugin makes it easy for anyone (most everyone has a Facebook account) to interact and share your content.

5. Create Good Metadata

Have you ever tried to share a great article on your Facebook Page and ended up with nothing more than an unrecognizable link that no one will click? A good share should feature a picture, title, and description - it’s called metadata and no piece of content on your website should be without it.
Readers won’t hesitate to mash the backspace button if your content doesn’t look good on their Facebook Page.

6. Optimize Your Social Images

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest all have different dimensions, naming conventions, and even rules for how much content is on the image for optimized sharing.
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all image for all your social channels (and the social channels of your readers who want to share your content), so you need to optimize your image suite for each channel.
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Five Reasons for Businesses to Go Mobile 

30/6/2016

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Step onto any subway car, go into any café and walk down any street. One thing you are sure to see is a smartphone being used.
Twenty years ago, we simply used phones for making calls or sending text messages. Now, we carry our whole world around in them.
From bank details to social media contacts, office apps to learning tools, if you can turn it into a digital platform, you’ll find it on a smartphone somewhere. For businesses, to go mobile is communication dynamite and it’s changed the way employers work, not only in the U.S. but around the world.
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Mobile Photo via Shutterstock
For businesses across all industries, mobile tech has provided new and innovative ways to engage with employees, boost productivity and cut the cost of operating in an increasingly competitive world. Companies are now less worried about how they can stay secure when their staff are using their own devices in work. They are ultimately more concerned how to leverage all this great technology so that it benefits staff and customers. 64 percent of Americans now own a smartphone with the number of users rising above 200 million across all states.
And it’s not just big organizations that can reap the benefits of mobile. For small businesses, the cost cutting advantages are pretty good and the opportunities to work smarter mean that there is more chance of success and grow in both the short and long term.

1.  Better Employee Engagement

In many businesses over the last few years or so, the concept of better employee engagement has become a hot topic. Greater understanding of the needs and thought processes of those who work for you is paramount in getting the best out of them. Effective engagement also allows businesses to come up with diverse strategies that help maintain and nurture top talent.
The upcoming millennials are virtually inseparable from their smart devices and use them for everything from shopping to talking to their friends. Deeper employee engagement can also be achieved by updating and communicating more effectively, allowing individuals to work and innovate wherever they are in the world.

2.  Increased Productivity

Having access to information in the blink of an eye, when it is really needed, helps to boost productivity and stay ahead of the game. Employees don’t have to wait around for calls or paperwork to come in. It is sent to their smartphone or tablet immediately and that means they can act and react more quickly.
Combine this with employers who are committed to working more flexibly in order to get the best out of staff and you have a recipe for tighter working and greater engagement. Because businesses can respond more quickly to customers as well, this means service and sales are improved across the board.
Networking and collaborative working can be undertaken anytime, anywhere. An employer can send a project update to an employee and he or she can receive it while travelling to work on the subway, return comments and get the conversation moving rather than wait to log on or attend a meeting once at work.

3.  Affordable App Builders for Small Businesses

Businesses are not constrained by the need for big movers and shakers such as Microsoft to provide the relevant app for them. It’s now possible to have bespoke apps built for any business and at a cost that won’t drain dollars out of the budget using an affordable app builder. Employers can pick and choose what they need with little or no programming experience required and have the advantage of scalability which means they can start small and build their app to something more complex at a later date.
These kinds of apps can be easily rolled out to relevant staff and used to improve productivity in a variety of ways. This could be anything from a push notification about an important deadline or calendars for employees to something more complex such as ordering supplies and undertaking projects between several staff members.
Apps can also be built to define a business brand and be given out free to consumers. This works well for businesses such as restaurants or take away outfits who can give customers more opportunity and easy access to purchase from menus. It also means customers have a ready reminder of the company brand on their mobile device as well as easy access to the service or products it supplies.

4.  On the Spot Learning

One area where employee engagement often falls down is providing staff with the right level of training and learning. Sophisticated educational apps can now be added to mobile phones that allow staff to learn at their own speed and in their own time.
Modules can be downloaded, progress tested, tracked and stored. You can also update employees with office regulations and strategies that enable you to keep everyone in the loop without the need for time consuming meetings. Research suggests that firms which promote a culture of learning in their office environment are 52 percent more productive. That can only lead to one thing: greater profits.

5.  Out of Office Working

One of the major changes that new technology has brought about is how many employees no longer need to be tied to their desks. With cloud services and smart devices such as mobile phones and tablets, they can work anywhere in the world. This has led to many businesses, particularly small to medium sized ones, actually moving away from the traditional office environment. Employees can work from home, connect via the Internet, update on their smartphones, engage with each other through conferencing and video sites. Even if employees do need to come into the office every day, the likelihood is that they will check in at home or when they are off on vacation, sorting emails and responding to clients and other staff members while on the move.

 Conclusion

Employers who engage with the latest technology and go mobile will no doubt have a head start on their competitors. The way we work is changing and keeping up with all the latest developments is vital if businesses want to grow and succeed. The mobile revolution may well be one of the most defining moments of the next twenty to thirty years.
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The app boom is not over

27/6/2016

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There’s a new wave of reporting focused on the post-app era. Recode announced “The appboom is over.” Quartz points out how most users never download any apps. Let me be very clear: The app boom is not over.
The reporting on this topic made me think of an imagined Yogi Berra quote: “Nobody downloadsapps anymore, it’s too crowded.”
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The $100 billion, 20 percent CAGR market

Let’s start with the facts. The real numbers are amazing —  we are in an unprecedented era of growth when it comes to revenue from apps.  Revenue is hard to manipulate because it ties back to financial filings by Google and Apple and needs to be audited.
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App revenue is growing and is expected to reach $100 billion dollars by 2020.
Source: App
 Annie
Take app download news as an example. It talks about how app downloads have stalled by pointing out the numbers for top apps.
In truth, the newer apps like Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat are all growing fast, while, expectedly, most top apps that have been there for a while and have saturated the users, like Facebook, are not growing any more.
To use this data to point to the end of an app boom is somewhat misleading.

Never has it been a better time for apps


There has never been a better time to be an apps developer. Billions of users have access to cheap new smartphones, data plans are becoming available globally and the app store owners like Apple and Google are being more generous than ever.
Related ArticlesThe Apple App Store graveyardApple releases new App Store Review Guidelines, doesn't yet clarify rules around subscriptions
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Apple's App Store hits 2M apps, 130B downloads, $50B paid to developers
Apple is supporting lower fees on subscription revenue —  going from 30 percent to 15 percent in year two onwards.

As a SaaS guy, let me tell you this is an amazingly insightful decision by Apple —  if most developers can be nudged to think subscriptions, in turn making consumers pay more per month, you end up with a very long-term, sticky revenue base. Even more importantly, this revenue is cheaper and results in a virtual lock-in as consumers with more subscriptions are much less likely to switch ecosystems.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/25/the-app-boom-is-not-over/

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Are you or your business on Google?

18/4/2016

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Inclusion in Google's search results is free and easy;  you don't even need to submit your site to Google. Google is a fully automated search engine that uses software known as "web crawlers" that explore the web on a regular basis to find sites to add to our index. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in our results aren't manually submitted for inclusion, but found and added automatically when our bots crawl the web.

So, is my site on Google?

To determine whether your site is currently included in Google's index, do a site: search for your site's URL. For example, a search for "site:wikipedia.org" returns these results.

Oh, my site isn't on Google!

Although Google crawls billions of pages, it's inevitable that some sites will be missed. When our spiders miss a site, it's frequently for one of the following reasons:
  • The site isn't well connected from other sites on the web.
  • You've just launched a new site and Google hasn't had time to crawl it yet.
  • The design of the site makes it difficult for Google to crawl its content effectively.
  • Google received an error when trying to crawl your site.

Well, how do I get my site or mobile app on Google?

We offer guidelines for building a crawler-friendly website. While there's no guarantee that our site crawler will find a particular site, following these guidelines should make your site appear in our google search results.
If you want to get your mobile app on Google, be sure to implement App Indexing in your app.
Google Search Console provides tools to help you submit your content to Google and monitor how you're doing in Google Search. If you want, Search Console can even send you alerts on critical issues that Google encounters with your site or mobile app.

All you need to do is "sign up for Search Control"!

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Businesses Need Both Apps and Mobile Websites - The debate is now over!

29/3/2016

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Until recently, you needed to employ a custom developer at considerable expense if you wanted to create an app for your SMB. The good news is that, for your average small business operating on a tight budget, there are now cheaper options if you want provide your customers with a dedicated app.

You may still ask if it’s worth it.  After all, you have a website and that works just fine.​
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When you realize that over 80% of moms always have their mobile phone with them and make 33% of their online purchases on them, you begin to see level of disruption smartphones have caused. In the next 10 to 15 years, it’s possible we’ll buy from our mobile or tablet only. If you look at the large millennial demographic, 69% buy products on their smartphones, many from dedicated apps.
  • Nearly half of us nowadays make trips to the mall with a mobile phone in our pocket or bag.
  • One in three of us who shop in multiple ways use a mobile phone to browse.
  • Typically, Hispanics spend 6 more hours than non-Hispanics on their mobile phone each month.

If you want to attract more customers, you need more than a simple mobile-enabled website. You need a dedicated app—something that is there as soon as a consumer looks at their screen and is accessed with the touch.

Small Businesses Are Creating More Apps Than Ever

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The growth of white label app builders and off-the-shelf Software Development Kits (SDKs) has been helpful. Many businesses now see app development as a primary part of their marketing strategy. With ready-to-use frameworks available that are both feature-rich and scalable, things are looking good. App developers are responding to this by creating better provisions, like ongoing management and user metrics that inform design and further boost performance.
According to TechCrunch, it’s not only small businesses that benefit from the new landscape.
“Even large enterprises that have a thing for custom development have started appreciating the need for tools that play nice with their incumbent IT landscape — and many SDK providers have matured to address that need.”
While cost was once a prohibitive factor in the app development, app builder address that problem. Now features, scalability and ease-of-use are the primary concerns for businesses building apps.
What types of small businesses are actually making apps?
It’s not just one industry driving demand. Of the 40k+ Android, iOS, and HTML5 apps published between June 2014 and March 2015, 6.4% were for health and fitness businesses and 7.7% were for the food and drink industry. 5% were also published by hairdressers, 3% by spas, and 3.9% for the automotive industry. Religious organization, charities, event organizers, and legal eagles are producing their share of apps as well.

Reports state that developing a “small app” can cost $3000 – $8000. More complex apps can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000!


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The flexibility of today’s apps benefits more businesses and organizations than not. You can preview hairstyles to see which one suits you, order food before you get to the restaurant, send a prayer or make a donation, and much more. The low cost of development means businesses can offer apps for free without burning a hole in their operating budgets. They can also provide value-added extras that websites often can’t, like immediate push notifications.
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How are small businesses benefiting from mobile apps?
Mobile apps make it easier and quicker for existing and potential customers to use an online store. Businesses can send notifications of the latest offers and monitor buying behavior both online and in-store, then adjust their marketing strategy to suit individual customers relatively easily. 20% of businesses currently use their app for branding purposes while 30% use it primarily for revenue creation.
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Half of businesses use their app to provide some sort of support or customer engagement. In the future, app development is going to cover all three fundamental purposes.
  • You increase customer retention by providing more personal service.
  • Apps elicit more frequent purchases than mobile websites, leading to greater profit.
  • Mobile apps are designed to complement mobile websites, not compete with them.
  • They are the value-added extra that sets your business apart from the competition.

What does the future hold?
Mobile apps are not just another place to sell your products. The amount of revenue generated from mobile apps is set to increase from just over $41 billion in 2015 to a staggering $101 billion by 2020, with Android platform Google Play being one of the primary drivers. Non-game apps are expected to grow by 23% by the end of the decade.
The mobile website vs mobile app debate is over. The cost of mobile apps has come down considerably, putting them ahead of the game. Customers are beginning to spend more time on apps as their trust in the technology grows. Yes, there will be customers who prefer to use a standard website, but there are more and more who want the personalized experience that an app, if properly developed, can provide.
Additionally, Google is beginning to index mobile apps, inserting them into search results. That includes app-only content, which means marketing agencies across the globe face a new search engine optimization challenge.

Escaping the Doom of Agencies Working with Small Businesses
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For agencies looking to provide the best digital solutions to their clients and attract new ones, offering app development should certainly be part of their provision. That doesn’t mean websites have had their day—at least not quite yet. But adding mobile is a must if you want to provide businesses with the cover and potential opportunity they need.
Of course, everyone needs to be looking ahead to the future. This year is supposed to be the tipping point for virtual reality, and its impact on businesses and their customers will soon be revealed. All we know is that new things are on the horizon and agencies that provide a more holistic, forward-thinking approach will be the ones to survive into the next decade.

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8 Differences between Mobile Apps and Mobile Websites

22/3/2016

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80% of the devices used to search internet today are smart phones. 47% are tablets. For any business, in almost any industry or sector, it only seems reasonable to have a mobile marketing plan. But when it comes to that, most people get caught up in a superficial tussle between mobile websites and mobile apps. It might help to know the differences between the two and the ways in which they affect the purpose of each:
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  1. A website has inherently more scope than an app

The beauty of the twenty-first century is that sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between lazy and efficient. And that’s just the way it is. We want to get more results for less input. Browsing websites is less work compared with downloading and using apps. In fact, websites come with a sense of trust. Users know that they can probably find the most important information about products on them. On the contrary, the department of trust is still not doing well for apps, thanks to developers who somehow decide to not include essential expectations of the user in the app. So all in all, a website targets more people because it’s the easy option, and because there’s more common ground in developer-user expectations in websites.

   2.   Apps are a litmus test for marketing success 

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The basic element in play here is the dependability of apps on an OS to run on. While apps need to be installed, websites simply need a one-for-all browser. Although a browser is an operating system of sorts, it isn’t that complicated. For the common internet user, it’s an app just like any other. Modern browsing has almost achieved its true essence; it doesn’t involve typing, instead it involves links which open new pages in new tabs. It really is browsing. And that’s the problem with browsing and with websites. If you just ran a marketing campaign and saw a surge in your website visits, it might not necessarily be a big deal. Why? Because the campaign might have brought a majority of “browsers”, people who like jumping from tab to tab, barely making purchases or buying subscriptions. On the other hand, an app is usually serious business. If a user has downloaded your app, he or she has taken a serious interest in what you have to offer. This goes on to show that through apps, you can really know how many people actually want to connect with your company because of your recent marketing.

  3.  Customer apps cost more – on both ends (Luckily, there are cheaper options) 
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The cursed part about apps is that they have to run on more than one platform.

Building an app might be easy if you choose a service like Miomobi Apps. But generally speaking, you’re going to have to pay your developer extra money for the same app to be developed for Android, iOS, and Windows and other Operating Systems. And if you decide to share the burden of cost with the consumer, the demand goes down. So it’s the sort of let down that has no fix. However, in the long run, an app may turn out to be a very profitable deal. Website development, on the other hand, won’t cost you so much. In fact, you may even choose to use a CMS with a minimal monthly or annual price.


  4.  Websites let you take a passive approach in sales, while apps allow you more active control

The thing with websites is, a viewer has to visit them to get any sort of message out of them. If someone’s not visiting your website, you can’t do much about it, other than putting ads or sending them emails, inviting them to your website. So basically, it’s a passive marketing approach.

​Whereas in apps, you can put up pop-up messages that catalog offers. More importantly, depending on the platform, apps are capable of self-launching and displaying offers or sales to the user. That can be a huge plus when you’re offering a sale on a product with high elasticity of demand. You won’t have to put extra ads for marketing; your app will take care of it.

  5.  Websites are great for customer discovery, whereas apps are better for customer retention
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Websites are a great option for landing new customers, given that they can be optimized to rank better in search engines and links can be shared across social media websites and forums.

If you want to get new customers to buy your product, it’s a reasonable assumption that they’d prefer buying it on the website rather than downloading an app they might not even know about already.

Apps, on the other hand, are great for retaining customers. A customer may choose to come back to your website, or not. There’s not much you can do about it other than sending promotional emails that end up in the “promotions” tab on their Gmail. But apps are magical in the way that they just lie right there, in front of the user’s eyes, daring him or her to tap the icon, and they’re more powerful in terms of what they can and cannot do.

Apps can send you analytics for each of your customers, so that you can offer them better, customized products and keep track of their purchasing patterns.


  6.  Customers spend more on websites

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According to a study, customers spend 1$ on websites for every 42.7 cents they spend on apps. This shows that customers are not willing to pay for a product without considering competition and discounted prices while using the mobile app. Somehow, they’re ready to do that when they use the mobile website to make the purchase. That probably has to do with the 7th point.


  7.  Customers spend more frequently on apps
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Studies show that people who regularly use their smart phones to make purchases prefer using mobile apps.

​The number of transactions that take place on mobile websites is much lower than the number of transactions taking place on mobile apps. That might be one reason that shoppers are willing to pay more on mobile websites; they don’t buy from there very often and don’t have a sense of entitlement of discount.
  • Related Article: Mobile App Users Are More Loyal than Mobile Website Visitors
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  8.  A website is a catalog. An app is retention and loyalty machine   

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If you’re thinking,"Should I get a mobile app or a mobile website for my mobile marketing strategy”, you might want to think again.

Apps and websites aren’t interchangeable.

The differences listed above do not try to prove that you should opt for one instead of the other.

In fact, they only try to help you with prioritizing things and setting reasonable expectations. For example, now that you know that websites have a higher reach than apps, you may decide to use your website for the pre-launch marketing of your product. You also know that websites are better for customer acquisition, so you might want to bring customers to the mobile site, earn their trust and direct them towards the app. In fact, you can create your own marketing strategy by using this list the way it suits you.

What most people overlook when it comes to the App vs. Site battle is that websites can be best utilized as catalogs for the products that the company offers. On the other hand, apps can be created to run efficiently the complex and dynamic functions that a user needs to carry out, like sending customized orders and other database related operations.
  • Related Article: Mobile App vs. Mobile Website – How to Decide?


If you’re thinking about going with either a mobile website or a mobile app, then, quite naturally, you are bound to miss out on the quirks of the other. To create a mobile marketing strategy that works in a smooth and rewarding manner, it’s very important that you associate your expectations and priorities with probable results.

In summary, mobile websites and mobile apps complement each other, so we strongly recommend having both.

​Mobile websites are great for customer discovery while mobile apps are great for customer loyalty and retention — all of this together creates a mobile strategy that will benefit any business.
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Number of mobile internet users in the United Kingdom

27/1/2016

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Number of mobile internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) from third quarter 2013 to second quarter 2016 (in million users)

Have you ever wondered how many people, young and old actually go on the internet,  using a mobile device?

Considering that the UK population records under 65 million,  these are staggering numbers!

This statistic displays a forecast of the number of mobile internet users in the UK from third quarter 2013 to second quarter 2016. It is forecast that there will be 43 million mobile internet users as of quarter two 2016.

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To view the complete graph click on the link below:

​http://www.statista.com/statistics/277719/forecast-of-mobile-internet-users-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

If your business has a website,  which is not mobile friendly then I highly recommend you get that website mobile friendly or you will start losing customers.

Don't you get frustrated when you visit a website on your smartphone but find that you cannot read the text,  or images are way too big or small?  Now you know what your customers feel like!

So,  GO MOBILE!
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How do I know if my website is mobile friendly?

5/1/2016

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Some websites recently built in the past few years are already mobile friendly.

So, if you have doubts and are wondering whether your website is mobile friendly,  Google has a tool to help.  

Indeed mobile friendly sites qualify for Google’s new mobile-friendly labels or be ready for a potential mobile-friendly ranking boost? 

The new tool is at google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly and it basically gives you a pass or fail grade.

Either it tells you that you are mobile friendly or you are not mobile friendly.

The messages I was able to generate included:

Fantastic.  This page is optimized for mobile devices.

Google will give more information such as:

Reasons why this page is not mobile friendly:  
*Text Too small to read
*Mobile viewport not set
*Links too close together

However, it will also give advice on how to fix the problems.



Obviously, sites that fail the test, will not get a mobile-friendly label in the mobile results.


Here is a screen shot of a typical website that failed the test!
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This website uses Flash, hence the black screen on the top of the mobile device and that is exactly how you would see it when calling up this website if using any of the apple mobile devices.

So, checking to see if your website is mobile friendly is not a bad idea after all.  Here is the link again:
 
​​https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Perhaps you owe it to your clients anyway to have a mobile friendly website!
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    Who am I?
    A short introduction of myself! My name is Paolo Benvenuto, and I've grown a passion for internet + mobile marketing, since the first of March, 2009. In 2012, I saw mobile marketing as the future trend for growth in mobile websites and mobile apps.  Among these,  my passion grew for SEM and SEO, Social Media and much more, managing company websites to achieve their goals in awesome increased sales, using web marketing strategies that proved to be successful.
    A few questions that could help you or your company are as follows:
    1. How do you market your product at present?
    2. Is it or what is working for you?
    3. What are the biggest challenges your business faces?
    4. Have you planned a system which will help your business grow?

    Italiano 

    Chi Sono?

    Sono Paolo Benvenuto, e mi occupo di internet e mobile marketing dal 01 Marzo del 2009.  Da Nov. del 2012 mi sono dedicato anche a realizzare siti e mobile apps. Ho una passione per SEM e SEO,   Social Media ed altro.
    Aiuto le imprese ad incrementare il loro fatturato usando strategie di marketing che hanno già avuto successo. 
    Domanda 1.
    In questo momento che tipo di marketing utilizzi per la tua impresa?
    Domanda 2. 
    Cosa funziona per te?
    Domanda 3.
    Quali sono le sfide più grandi che ha il tuo business?
    Domanda 4.
    Hai previsto un sistema per l'avvenire della crescita del tuo business?  

    Paolo Benvenuto, EzineArticles Basic PLUS Author
    View my profile on LinkedIn
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