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Why Does Your Fitness Center Need An App?

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Fitness centers and fitness clubs nowadays face a high competition level on the market. These must try to get a competitive difference from each other to acquire more clients, and having a mobile app for the fitness club’s customers is a great advantage. Most of the people use their smartphones while working out, and you can include your fitness club app into your clients’ digital fitness routine, too. In this article, we will describe several ways that would improve your fitness center, and guess what? All of these need an app: Attracting new clients By asking your potential clients to install your app and giving them a discount for, let’s say, the first training, you gain one more channel of contact with them! Do not be scared to use push notifications with the users that haven’t been in touch for a long time — this is a great way to connect to your possible clients. You can also integrate social media sharing features for existing clients to share their progress with their friends. The more people see this user-generated content, the more free ads your fitness club will get. What do I have to do with all of this? You should understand that some clients will come, some will go, and your job is to get as many of the newcomers, as possible. It is also incredibly important that attracting new clients needs to be the first task on your list, and having as many communication channels as possible makes the accomplishment of this task easier. Getting to know your audience By getting to know your customers, you can define what kind of clients are the most loyal: when do they visit your fitness club, how much time do they spend there. What is more, you can also define whether these are men or women, what is their age, and other demo graphical characteristics. What do I have to do with all of this? By having this information, you can target your ads in a more precise way. What is more, you can find out which group classes are the most functional and visited by your clients. Improving your clients’ gym experience With a mobile app for your fitness club, you can ensure that your customers have their group classes schedule ready whenever they have their smartphones in hands. They will also have the possibility to book individual training, sign up for a group class, pay for any extra services right from their phones which makes their lives so easier! What do I have to do with all of this? By showing that you care about your customers through some extra digital services, you increase their loyalty. This means that your fitness club will be on the top of your clients’ list when their annual contract is over. Finding new sources of income It is well-known that your fitness club has to have 10x more members than its capacity is to stay profitable. It is not a small number if you are working in a competitive environment, that is why your team has to think of other income sources — and that is where the mobile app comes in! It is not that hard to develop an online shop for your merchandise and equipment. You can also sell fitness foods and other healthy accessories in your app to generate the highest revenue numbers. What is more, payment methods in a mobile app can be much more convenient (for example, integrating Apple Pay or PayPal ensures these are). More than half of your gym customers are coming to you because of your gym’s proximity to either their workplace or home. If you record some online classes with the best coaches on your team, you will gain some more clients. Yes, they will only stay with you online, but who forbids you to charge for access to online courses? What do I have to do with all of this? Generating a higher income is the ultimate goal of any business. Having an additional source for that is something that isn’t bad for your team. Increasing your outreach (or making it effective!) It may be hard sometimes to stay connected to your customers — email and social media marketing do not ensure a 100% reachability anymore. It is different with the push notifications, though. Most of your app users will see the information you will send them over the app news feed. You can tell them whether there will be a schedule change or any kind, or if their contract is coming to an end soon. You may also want to surprise your most loyal customers with bonuses or gifts! What do I have to do with all of this? It is excellent that your marketing team sends (or plans on sending) an incredible number of messages to your customer database, however, you may see that the “opening” and lead statistics are not the best possible. Try to work with the push notifications — this is an excellent way for you to interact with your customers since the reachability rate will be higher. Finally, we should once again underline that there is a high level of competition in the fitness and healthcare market.

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Why an App Is Crucial for E-Commerce Business and How to Promote It in the Right Way

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In the following lines, we will talk about the significance of mobile applications for companies or businesses, mainly due to the boom of smart mobile devices and how users reach the network to execute purchases. Mobile applications are already an indispensable element for every effective online marketing strategy. Users have changed our consumption habits. The smartphone is the device through which we access the Internet the most. That has influenced the creation and development of various mobile applications created by business owners to ensure their market position. For any company, it is essential to define a strategy and digital identity, which goes through having a presence on the Internet through a web page and opening up to the virtual world with social networks. However, this is not enough. Here at Play Media we think that companies have to adapt to the present and obvious future of eCommerce nature in order to maintain the formidable market position and invest in the development of a custom mobile application for their business. With that being said, it’s clear that mobile marketing has become one of the most important marketing strategies and everlasting members of business investments. A Mobile Application Is Essential for an Effective Market Presence It would be very difficult for any of us to imagine one day without the mobile phone. From that conclusion the important question for all business owners arises: Do you think that it is good for your brand to be present on someone’s smartphone 24/7? Undoubtedly, some mobile applications have become indispensable in our lives. We use apps for everything that has to do with the work environment and numerous applications are integrated so deeply in business processes that it is unimaginable to think about finishing tasks without them. Whether you are an owner of a small or large company, this interest or behavior that users have shouldn’t go unnoticed by your brand. In short, having a personalized mobile application and being present on the user’s smartphone means occupying a privileged place. Experience from successful business models has shown us that mobile apps have become a great support for customer care and an indispensable tool, both for the relationship and contact with employees and customers, as well as for their commercial and business development. Every contemporary company bets and invests in the development of a mobile application since they only present an added value and make a big difference in a great battle with the competition. Direct Contact with Customers Having your mobile application allows you to stay in touch with your employees and customers anytime, anywhere. In this way, it ensures you effective, safe and fast communication. For employees, it is a way to manage and organize time better, which means both cost savings, collaboration, and greater productivity. Still, the situation is simply not the same when we talk about potential customers. Having direct and personal interaction with them positions you in a point of their trust and interests. This means that not only will you need to meet their requirements or solve problems, but you can open or access new markets and potential customers. Having the opportunity of examining and observing products or services clearly, quickly and easily influences the purchase decision like anything else. The custom mobile application is available for the instant execution of the customer’s desires and that is exactly what is the most beneficial fact about them. Users prefer to access your companies services through a mobile application (simply by touching a few icons) that will take them directly to the services or products for which they are interested without opening a browser, writing web addresses or using search engines. It requires less time and effort, and next to the low price that is exactly what every customer wants the most regardless of the type of business. It Influences the Minds of Customers It is an advertising tool above all. The image of your company will be visible at all times with the icon that identifies you. In this way, you can influence the minds of consumers, as you remind the user of your existence, both when using the mobile application and when performing other actions in the terminal. A mobile application improves the status of your business. It allows you to be always updated and at the moment. Moreover, it’s becoming the most effective tool through which you can offer users a bonus on the products, services, special discounts or present reward and loyalty programs for faithful users. Customize Your Brand The mobile app effectively enhances the expansion of your business. For this, your application must be intuitive and practical as well as manageable and above all accessible to consumers. It’s about creating a mobile marketing strategy based on the type of business you manage. It also presents an easy way to customize your brand and business image. You can establish how and what is the best way to interact with your customers. Figuring out the most successful form of a business mobile app is a harder challenge then it maybe seems. You will need to slowly go over numerous facts before figuring out that definite questions and answers that you need to show off the customers daily. Think of the ultimate goal that must translate into purchases and satisfaction. In addition, you can obtain real data about your situation and your target audience. With your mobile application, you can create specific strategies for consumers. This means that you can get hold of user data with their permission to later send much more personalized offers and notes. Improve Positioning Of course, it’s clear by now that changes and technological advances go hand in hand, so your business or business mobile application must always be up to date. Not only in content but in code and development. You must adapt the app to the latest versions of the operating systems, as well as take into account suggestions, correct errors, review efficiency and improve usability for our customers and users. Finally, having a mobile app for your

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How to Promote a Mobile Application to Increase the Number of Installations?

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The mobile app marketplace has reached its peak and consequently, the competition is high. Every new innovator is bound to find app marketing a challenge. Among so many apps, explaining how your app is useful and unique won’t be an easy task. So, the question arises – How to boost mobile app installations and maximize your chances of success? The best way is to approach advertising from different angles and spread your marketing efforts across different channels. Here are some actionable ways that can show you how to promote your mobile app effectively. Focus on App Store Optimization Surprisingly, not many apps are optimized for the app store. The way that people come across their apps is by searching for specific terms. You can have an upper hand if you focus on app store optimization. By refining your app store presence, your app can be permanently visible in the results. What you need to do in order to improve your app store optimization is to have: An optimized app name should be under 11 characters, unique, memorable, and descriptive of your app’s purpose. Also, atypical spelling should be avoided because it affects the app store stats and analytics negatively and hurts the search process. Offer a Referral Bonus This tactic has proved to work very well for app owners and developers. Dropbox is a perfect example of how what it can do. Their referral program resulted in a 3900% growth rate. They started with 100,000 registered users in 2008, and after 15 months, the number grew to 4,000,000 registered users thanks to the referral program. Offer the app’s existing users a bonus if they recommend your app to their friends and get them to install the app. At first, their friends might do it just to help them out, but once you’ve got them to use the app, you should rely on it to retain their attention. The bonus can be in the form of bonus points, an extra 10 free days, exclusive content or whatever you find applicable and useful for the app users. Start Blogging/ Collaborate with Bloggers Blogs have become one of the preferable means for a recommendation. When you are browsing for a new product or an app, you’ll probably check out a blog or two to see a detailed impression of someone who explored that product fully. If you have a set website and a blog, you can use it to write posts about various subjects. What you should do is to choose topics that are somehow related to your app and then mention your app in a relevant manner. “Blogging is a very specific marketing channel. It helps you with creating a bond with potential users because the posts are more elaborate and informative. You can even create a specific post that talks more about the app and helps the users understand its benefits,” shares Hannah Ciligot, a marketing expert at BestEssayEducation. Those who don’t have a website or a blog, don’t need to worry. Another option is to collaborate with bloggers. Look into bloggers who are relevant for your target audience and then ask them if they are willing to cooperate. One simple post can lead their followers to install your app and give it a try. Boost Ratings and Reviews Reviews and ratings have a large impact on potential users. Users mostly rely on reviews and ratings when deciding whether they will install the app or not. Not only do positive reviews influence people to download the app but they also have a psychological effect that affects people to leave a positive review for an app that has mostly positive comments. You can use an in-app prompt periodically to encourage users to leave a review. However, make sure that you give users some time to explore the app before you ask them to share their opinion. Another crucial aspect is addressing negative reviews. While you can’t forbid people to leave negative reviews and you can’t delete their negative comments, you can address them promptly. If other users see your response which explains the problem, they’ll perceive the situation more objectively. Use Social Media Advertising People are mesmerized with social media and many of them focus their searches on these platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube can play a major role in your app marketing campaign. The important thing is that you adapt the promotion to each social media platform. For example, when creating content for Instagram, focus on attractive images, Instagram Stories, or quick videos. On the other hand, for YouTube, you should create a high-quality video that will engage the viewers and present your app in the best light. It is crucial how you describe your apps in the posts so if your writing skills aren’t the best, use writing services. Find top-notch writers and post only well-written and high-quality content. Besides creating different posts, you can use paid advertising as well. The burst campaign has a very good result. The process presents aggressive social media buying which is performed in a short period (24-48 hours). The goal is to expose the app to a large audience and attract the attention of as many people as possible. Start Influencer Collaboration Influencers help their followers discover new products, services, and apps. They hold a lot of power over the people who listen to their advice like it’s a religion. You should take advantage of this Millennial marketing force. Do the research and find influencers whose followers match your target audience. Reach out to a few influencers that you find to be beneficial to your advertising. Discuss what type of collaboration works for both of you. Depending on their willingness and your resources, you can go for a one-post promotion, several-posts promotions, or an ongoing partnership. Some Final Thoughts App advertising is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that consists of ups and downs. Throughout your marketing campaign, keep track of your install and uninstall rate. Also, track how

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Why Every Aspect of Your Business Is About To Change

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Making a small business successful is no easy job. The world of small businesses is filled with competition, which is why you need to find a way to make your business stand out. The best way to do this is by using the power of technology. Over $4 trillion is spent by businesses around the world on technology each year. Your main goal should be investing in the right technology. Most business owners fail to realize just how much a great app can change the way they interact with customers and consumers. Read below to find out how every aspect of your business will change if you invest in the development of a mobile app. Make Cultivating Customer Loyalty Easier Keeping your small business successful will require you to focus on keeping existing customers engaged and loyal. The modern consumer has more choices than ever before when it comes to the businesses, they can use to fill their needs. Realizing how important customer loyalty is can help you make the right business decisions. With the help of an effective and engaging app, you will have no problem cultivating customer loyalty. The best part about developing a mobile app is the fact that you can send push notifications to customers that download it. These notifications should be used sparingly so they retain their impact. Sending out notifications to inform customers about current sales you are running or to provide them with an exclusive coupon is a great idea. By reaching out to customers via their mobile device, you can keep them interested in what your company is doing. Increasing customer engagement levels is a key component of keeping modern consumers loyal. Improving Your Company’s Visibility Some business owners think that using old forms of advertising like billboards and other types of signage is the best way to make an impression on potential customers. In reality, modern consumers spend more time looking at their phones than they do checking out billboards in their area. Capitalizing on the fact that the average American spends up to two hours a day on their phone is easy when investing in a great mobile app. With a mobile app, you can stay connected to your audience. Ideally, you want to update your app on a regular basis to ensure it looks fresh and modern. Making sure your app features accurate information regarding your industry and how to get in touch with a member of your team is also vital. When making changes to your mobile app, you need to test and monitor it closely. The last thing you want is for these changes to affect how your app functions. Allowing app developers to perform an analysis of IIS logs will help you pinpoint any problems that may exist. Trying to do this complicated work on your own will usually backfire. This is why paying knowledgeable professionals to manage the technical aspects of your app is so crucial. An App Is a Direct Marketing Channel Each year, business owners spend billions of dollars on marketing and advertising. For most business owners, creating an online presence is something they are very passionate about. It will usually take a long time before the fruits of your online marketing efforts are evident. If you are looking for a way to create a direct marketing channel to interested consumers, then a mobile app is a must-have. Inexperienced business owners fail to realize just how many different functions a mobile app can perform. For instance, your app can be used as an advertisement for your products/services. You can also create an app that allows consumers to book services or buy products with the push of a button. During the app planning phase, you will have to figure out what type of program you want to provide consumers. Regardless of what your app goals are, there is a developer out there that can make them a reality. Sending out push notification reminders to the users of your app regarding your products/services can help you increase revenue substantially. However, you need to be selective regarding the notifications you send out. Ideally, you want to break your audience into segments and only send these segments notifications and offers that apply to their needs. The only way to do this is by collecting data with your app and using it to optimize your marketing campaigns. A Higher Degree of Customer Service As an experienced business owner, you have probably dealt with your fair share of irate customers. While this is not something most entrepreneurs look forward to, it is the price of doing business with the general public. Most business owners fail to realize that a mobile app can help them provide a higher degree of customer service. Making your new app multi-dimensional is the best way to get the most out of it. Not only should your app act as a marketing tool, you also need to provide consumers the ability to send messages or call a member of your team if they have a problem. The easier you can make it for a consumer with a problem to address their issues, the easier it will be to defuse tense situations and avoid losing customers. Incorporating chatbot software into your mobile app can be a game changer. These programs use the power of artificial intelligence and information you input to answer questions that consumers may have. Allowing this AI-infused technology to handle frequently asked questions will help to save you time without skimping on the amount of customer service being offered. The last thing you want is for a customer or consumer to leave your mobile app without all of their questions answered, which is why chatbots are a great investment. Finding the Right App Developer Takes Time If you want to take advantage of the benefits that mobile apps can offer your business, then finding an experienced app developer is vital. Before hiring an app developer, be sure to take a look at

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How to do App Market Research

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How to do the research for your app In the previous lesson we talked about how to begin working on your project. We laid out the three main things that you need to understand before moving forward: your goals, your users, and the list of features for your app. Now let’s discuss the research you need to make before beginning the execution of your project. The research you’ll need to do focuses on your users, their needs and the competition. Your users The first step is researching your users. Here are the categories of information that you need to know about them: Problems users face The second step would be to write down what they need or what problems do they have. Here, start with those problems you already know and are trying to solve but try to brainstorm a bit more and come up with other problems your target users have. As you will be working on your app this will give you an idea for additional features, monetization methods, and much more. For example, if you are a ride-sharing app targeted at people in the age of 25-45 you might understand that a lot of those people have kids and therefore decide to add a feature that will allow customers to transport their kids as well in a car equipped with a child car seat. This will also help you ensure that as you implement your solutions they won’t make it harder for users to do something they already are doing. For example, launching a taxi app with motorcycles might not be a good idea if half of your users are traveling with kids. Other solutions Third, research what are some other ways people are solving the problem now. If there is a problem it is almost guaranteed that people have at least some solution for it. It might not be the best, more convenient, fastest option. But they are likely doing something already. People have been getting from point A to point B before Uber with taxis and before that on foot. Before, ordering coffee with an app people came to the store and ordered in-person and before that just brewed it at home. If people need something they probably have at least some ways of getting it in some shape or form. Make sure you understand all of your direct and indirect competitors. Write down what is good about those solutions and what is bad. Understand, what you can take and learn from others as well as what can you do better. Incorporate that into your future features. For example, one of the good things about getting coffee in person is that you can get a personal touch from a barista who will smile at you, write something nice on your cup and it will make your day a little better. If so, why not add a little personalized sign from baristas on all pickup orders placed from the app? If time allows this might make your customers a little bit happier and that’s always a good thing. Lastly, now that you have researched your users and understand your competition it’s time to adjust your features list or maybe even expand based on what you’ve learned. Make sure that your features help your target audience, don’t make it harder for them to achieve some of their other goals and make sure that your solution is an improvement from everything else on the market. Blog Source- https://messapps.com/allcategories/marketing/mobile-app-market-research/

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App Development: Native vs. Hybrid

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Nowadays, 99.6% of all smartphone apps run on either iOS or Android. The two basis businesses build apps on is: using them as a channel to raise brand awareness, or the app being the business in itself. It’s important to distinguish between these two as what you choose could either save you money or trouble. There are two ways one could go about developing a mobile app: native or hybrid. These two methods vary in programming language and will play a significant role in how the mobile app will be received on each platform. Hybrid apps or native mobile apps: what’s the difference? Native apps Native apps are developed with platform-specific programming languages. The particular platform welcomes these languages with ease; if the code is correct there will be no miscommunication. For Android it’s Java, for iOS it’s Objective-C or Swift. Apps using these languages are built from the ground up with the intention to only perform on their specific platform. Advantages of developing a Native App: Disadvantages: Hybrid Apps Of course, everyone wants to develop their application as quickly and cheaply as possible. This is where the hybrid app development shines. Hybrid apps are developed with code that can be later tailored to work with the OS of a given platform. This sounds great and all but almost too good to be true. And in many cases, it is in fact too good to be true. As life has taught us, quick and cheap don’t always equal quality. Advantages of hybrid app development: Disadvantages: Blog Source- https://messapps.com/allcategories/development/native-vs-cross-platform-development/

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App Development Process

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Our app development process consists of four main stages: Let’s talk about each stage separately. Project Architecture As with building a house, when working on a software project laying the proper foundation is essential. In the Project Architecture stage, we conduct business research to understand the industry and your target audience better. Thereafter, we will work on creating an optimal use flow to ensure that your users get to their goal in as few taps as possible. Main parts of this stage: Wireframes To build a house on top of your foundation you need floorplans to know what should go where. That’s what wireframes do for digital products. In this stage, we will create black & white mockups of the entire application and plan the layout of each screen. This will be the first visual representation of the product. Main parts of this stage: Design & Prototyping While we are working on prototyping the main user stories, we will also begin our design process. After discussing your design preferences with you and researching the industry, we will present you with a style that we think works best. After that, we’ll work with you to make sure your feedback is applied so that we create a design that will wow you and your target audience. Main parts of this stage: Development The development stage starts with a team meeting after which we’ll assign developers to specific tasks and prepare an updated timeline. After an initial couple of weeks of coding, you can expect to see a new build every week. As a result, you’ll be able to constantly monitor the progress on your own device where you will be able to see/test new features as they appear. Main parts of this stage: Blog Source- https://messapps.com/allcategories/strategy/app-development-process/

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How to Make Money From an App

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One of the biggest differences between a business and a hobby is that a business must make money. So if your question is “Can you make money from an app?”. The answer is YES. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna talk about. Money. So how do apps make money? Actually, there are quite a few ways to do that. First of all, we can divide all monetization methods into 2 major groups. Apps that are free to download and apps that cost a certain amount to download. Paid apps When the app has a cost associated with the download in 99% of the cases that would be its only monetization. So the way that kind of apps makes money is simply charging people to download the app. Usually, it’s not a good idea to charge for additional in-app content if the user already paid to download the app for two reasons: Free apps On the other hand, if the app is free there are a large variety of ways that can be used for monetization. Those options include: Let’s go through each one of them. Ads & Sponsorships First up are ads and sponsorships. In order to make money with an app through ads & sponsors, you need to have a lot of users that can match the target audience of another company. The amount you can earn with this method depends on how well defined your audience is and your preferred sales strategy. An easy option would be to connect to a mobile ad platform such as Admob. In this case, all you need to do is install their SDK onto your app and then Admob themselves will select which ads to show and how much you can earn per click. Usually, it will be no more than 30 cents per click. And you can expect that roughly 1 in 1,000 people would actually click. So if you have 1,000 daily active users you can expect to get 30 cents per day. As you can see with this method it’d quite important to have a user base in millions in order to become the next Scrooge McDuck. However, if you have a very targeted well-defined user base then you might want to opt into finding a sponsor. For example, if your app focuses on preparing students to take the Law School Admission Test then you have a very well defined targeted group of people. In this case, you might want to reach out to preparation and tutoring companies or even law schools themselves for them to sponsor your app. In this case, you can negotiate a deal with them in which you will be paid a certain monthly fee and in exchange, you will show their ad screen or logo in the app. Another interesting variation of sponsorships is a featured profile. If your app has different types of users and one of them is advertising or selling their services or products then you can go to the featured route. For example, if your app helps users find the best restaurant near them you can make it possible for restaurants to feature their profiles. They will pay a certain fee and in exchange, you can either highlight their profile or put it first in the search results. Consumable & Non-consumable In-App Purchases Generally speaking, all digital purchases can be divided into two types: consumable and non-consumable. Consumables are, as the name suggests, those that you consume after you buy. In order to get the benefit again, you need to buy them again. For example, some game apps make money by offering additional coins for sale. In this case, you pay a fee for, for example, 100 coins. Once you spend them – they disappear. In order to get 100 coins again, you will need to earn them inside the app or just pay for them again. On the other hand, non-consumable in-app purchases are those that once bought stay with you forever. This can often be seen with apps that have a trial and a full version. For example, by default, a certain photo editing app can have 5 filters. But if you unlock the full version it will have 20 filters and other options to edit photos. Or perhaps, your fitness app provides a database of 300 exercises. But exercises on their own are not as effective as a full workout that has a number of those exercises planned together in order to target certain muscle groups. So in this app, you can make it possible for users to unlock those workouts, in addition, to exercise by paying a certain amount of money. Just like with photo filters, here once the upgrade is unlocked it will stay with the user forever. Subscriptions One of the monetization methods that is really becoming more and more popular in recent years is a subscription. And it makes sense. Getting paid each month feels much better than getting paid just once. The premise of the subscription model is fairly straightforward: you pay a certain recurring amount of money each week, month, or year. However, oftentimes this model also has a free trial. So it allows users to get hooked onto benefits by giving them a taste for free but then charges them to continue experiencing the benefits. Only a couple of years ago this model was common among streaming services only. Services such as Spotify, Netflix, and others. Today though, almost all types of apps are trying to get on board the subscription model. Dating apps charge a subscription to provide you with better matches, fitness apps subscribe to you to store your workout history, even chess apps can now sign you up for a subscription if you want to learn chess and go through more lessons. Physical goods & services Lastly, your app can be a storefront for services and products. Think about Uber. Uber is not following any of the monetization options we’ve outlined above, right? Instead, the way

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Mobile App Marketing Strategy in 8 Steps

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So you have an amazing app idea and the development process is moving along smoothly, so it must be impossible this app won’t be successful right? Wrong. Unfortunately, there are plenty of ways your app can fail. But we’re here to help you make sure that doesn’t happen. The most important thing to stay on top of during your development process is marketing so that your app doesn’t fail. The reason why marketing your app is so important is that if your app is so great, but no one knows about it, chances are no one will experience how great your app is. There is so much competition amongst all the apps in the app store striving for users’ attention and it’s obviously no surprise that it is very challenging to get there. The app’s profile page in the app store is crucial to your customers because this is where you’re connecting with your target audience. Your app can either make it or break it with a user on this exact page. Think of it as your app’s selling pitch: there’s a preview video of the app along with some screenshots, a description, ratings, and reviews, etc – all to attract more customers and convince them that they need your app. 1. Research Target Market Research Target Market is the most important thing you should do if deciding to make an app. Proper research allows you to avoid copying existing apps and successfully finding your target audience and disassembling your competition will provide you the confidence necessary in order to progress your idea and marketing strategy. 2. Choose a launch date A good launch date can increase your app downloads from hundreds to thousands. Before publishing your app on the app store, you should do research just to make sure that your launch does not overlap with any bigger events. It’important to remember that both Apple and Google app stores have a review process and this may delay your app release. 3. Design You are building your app from the bottom up and as important as making sure the user interface and content are successful, marketing your app is just as significant. Sometimes, on rare occasions, the experience can be a work in progress but since the app is known and everyone has it, more people will want it and the download statistics will start to grow rapidly. But there’s a reason why people know about it and it’s more than just word of mouth; it’s marketing. 4. App store optimization This is also where app store optimization comes into play. This is the process of improving the visibility of the app in the app store. The art of coming up with the most creative keywords for the app so when someone is looking for an app like yours, it will appear. In other words, your app is easier to find, which is exactly what it needs in order to succeed. If you are interested in learning more about app store optimization, here are some tips. 5.Website As your app is in development, you should also be working on the microsite for your app. You can use this to keep people updated about your app and have it linked to any publicity. Talking about it builds hype and continues to attract people even before the app is actually launched. It’s never too early to create accounts on social media platforms. That’s the easiest and most affordable way to market your app. And once you’ve set a release date for the launch, you already have a following to announce when the app they’ve been waiting for is finally coming out. If you are unsure about how to maintain a social media page, check out these social media experts to learn from and find out the necessities for managing your social media. 6.Bloggers You can also contact bloggers or publications that are always talking about what’s new to look out for. Websites like Pre apps and other tech blogs are perfect ways you can announce your launch. Here are some more blogs and forums to check out for marketing your mobile app. When trying to get in touch with a blogger, you should always have a personalized email just for them to grab their attention. Then you should link them to your microsite and launch date. If they don’t answer, try sending a reminder in reply to the previous message you already sent them. If they still do not answer and your app has already launched and you still desire publicity (as you should), email them again with stats and customer testimonials and maybe that would grab their attention. Never give up on marketing. The more, the better! 7.Advertising Advertising is crucial to marketing your app. Pricing can vary depending on where you advertise and who you are trying to target but in the end, we think of it as an investment. App Install Ads are available via Facebook for you to use and abuse. Create an Ad and share it on Facebook! Any advertising is valuable to your app’s success. 8. Set up analytics Before you launch your app, there is not much you can measure without proper analytical tools. It’s very important to track your app’s data once it is launched. To do this use such tools as Google Analytics, Flurry, and Localytics. Now you know why app marketing is so essential and hopefully, you understand the methods of marketing your app. It is never too early to start marketing your app and it most definitely is never too much. No matter the feedback, rating, and reviews, or statistics, never assume your app is known and cannot grow any bigger. Keep marketing your app. Be an appreneur! Blog Source- https://messapps.com/allcategories/marketing/app-marketing-101/

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Should you develop for both iOS & Android now or focus on one platform?

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Many appreneur success stories have risen from focusing on one platform at the starting gate. Most startups typically jump the gun when they want to make some noise and usually go iOS first, Android second. However, certain circumstances may make it wiser to develop for Android first, or in some cases both platforms at the same time. The factors listed below will shed some light on the reasons. There are quite a few elements to consider when choosing between iOS, Android, or both These elements include demographics, revenue models, development speed, building and designing UI, and Android tablet apps vs. iPad apps. Demographics Android has the largest global platform share pocketing 80% of the global smartphone market share, with its presence towering in lower-income areas and developing nations. On the other hand, iOS users are deemed more valuable. From in-app purchases to online retail to ads iOS users are known to historically convert at higher rates and have a higher average spend. And, in the U.S., Apple smartphones still hold a comfortable 42% market share. Looking solely at demographics, the Android platform seems like the obvious choice, but when you take in other factors that may not necessarily be the case. Revenue models Android typically has a greater number of ad-supported apps; on the other hand, paying for apps is still more common on the iOS platform (chart below). As a rule of thumb, iOS users are generally more valuable even when taking Android’s market share into account. Development Speed On average, Android apps take 2-3 times longer to build than iOS. This is primarily due to the operating system release cycles and Android fragmentation. However, the Android fragmentation problem has slowly been dying down. As of May 2016, 75.6% of Android users are on Android 4.4 or higher. Release and approval times also hold significant weight. The biggest problem for app developers is to get their app approved on the iOS App store. The Apple review process can take several days. Sometimes apps are rejected for the slightest errors which can prove to be very frustrating for the developer who knows exactly how they want the app to perform. The app submission process for the Google Play store is much less tedious than the iOS app store. Unlike its iOS counterpart and Andriod app will usually get published within several hours. The app developer also enjoys more freedom as concerns the general editorial content of their apps. App updates on the iOS app store are also limited to 3-4 times a month while in theory, an app on the Android platform can be updated at any time, an unlimited amount of times. Building and designing UI With things like Interface Builder built into Xcode, iOS tends to be much more UI/UX friendly than Android. Due to the ease of working with the frameworks on iOS, developers can further immerse themselves in the process of making their users’ experience a great one. If a wider range of possibilities pertaining to customization in building and design is important to you then Android is the way to go. Though it should be kept in mind that all this freedom results in being much more time-intensive. Also, the end-user doesn’t typically care about how cool the back end is, they just care about if it works, favorably in a simple and intuitive manner. Although it should be mentioned that at the 2014 Google I/O Developer Conference, Material Design was introduced, Google’s design guideline to create simpler, better-designed apps for Android platforms. So Android is on track to create a more friendly building platform but is not quite there yet. Android Tablet Apps vs iOS iPad Apps The clear winner in this battle is the iPad. With a greater number of fully optimized apps as well more supported popular apps, it takes the crown. It’s extremely common to see someone using an Android smartphone but keep an iPad at hand as their preferred tablet, which is saying a lot. When iOS is the best choice Generally, at the starting gate, it makes more sense to choose iOS. It remains significantly easier to write quality iOS apps than Android apps. Statistics show that iOS users spend 26 more minutes on their devices when compared to Android users as well as consume more data and spend more on mobile commerce When Android is the best choice If your target audience is Android, then launching on that platform is the obvious choice. This translates to an audience more concentrated in developing nations or certain segments of urban areas. 80% of the global market share is quite appealing if you’re trying to be heard across borders. When both platforms is the way to go If you want to charge into the market at full force, both platforms are the way to go. You’re going in guns blazing, confident in your app’s success. Well-established companies are generally the ones that will take this leap. They have the capital to dish out more freely so it would make sense and in turn, be beneficial. It’s also possible that an app will cause commotion on one platform but fail to get noticed on the other. So if you can scrape up the capital, go for it. Wider availability in the market increases your chances of success. The more individuals that have access to the app, the more downloads it will get. Conclusion During the first stages of any app, the focus should be concentrated on determining what is working and what is not. If you don’t have the resources to launch on both platforms off the bat, don’t worry. Instagram was initially launched on iOS in 2010 and did not launch on Android phones till 2012. The Android version was launched just a week before the company was acquired by Facebook for $1billion. Focusing on one platform and analyzing the results from there is no anomaly, in fact, it happens quite often. But if the time and resources are present,

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