HCM Technology

HCM Technology

Today’s human capital management technology is a volatile marketplace. No one provider dominates the market. Dozens of established vendors vie for your attention. Hundreds of niche, boutique, and specialty vendors offer solutions tailored to specific needs. Startups elbow in with new ideas, prompting established vendors to innovate.

What that means for you, the buyer, is a wealth of choices. By following a few well-established guidelines, you can arrive at the right solution for your business. You have a lot of decisions to make along the way, and you may need to make compromises. However, with the solutions available today, you do not have to compromise on what is important to your people.

Start with an Assessment

Before you can begin, you will need to evaluate your human capital strategy, which includes alignment with your organization’s purpose, culture, and business strategy.

The way HR does business is evolving. Technology has automated much of the tedious administrative work. HR leaders help business leaders make strategic workforce decisions, design and support the entire employee experience, and manage the systems that support their development. Decision-making is evolving from bench marking, “best practices,” and gut instinct guided by experience to data-driven analysis and prediction.

This new model requires a holistic approach to strategic alignment to build the right workforce and the systems that support its evolution.

Purpose, Culture, and Strategy

The best-performing organizations are aligned to a central purpose, with a strong culture that governs how people do business and interact with partners, customers, suppliers, and each other. And they have a well-defined strategy, aligned to their purpose.

Does that describe your organization? If not, do you want to use this opportunity to change it? If so, consider how your people strategy will support your efforts.

Strategic Alignment

Your human capital strategy aligns with the business in four ways:

• Workforce strategy – the size, shape, and skills of  the workforce, now and in the future.
• Talent strategy – how you acquire, nurture, develop and retain the right talent.
• Technology strategy – the master plan for the organization’s digital future and how HCM technology fits into the picture.
• Data analytics strategy – this may be a new discipline for HR, but it is becoming essential to supporting better talent decisions.If your organization doesn’t have a master data strategy, now might be the time to start a conversation.

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6 low-cost ways you can improve the employee experience in your HR applications

           

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Building Your Business Case for Human Capital Management Initiatives

To some business leaders, people are an expense to be minimized. Getting approval to spend money on people programs can be a challenge.

These same business leaders are bombarded by industry experts to improve employee engagement, perks, and pay to improve their company’s performance. The wagging tongues tell them that their company will be more profitable if their employees are happier.

They leave it up to you to make the connection.

You can do this.

You don’t need a team of data scientists, and you don’t need a gaggle of consultants. The resources you need are in your organization.

Create a new conversation about people and performance by making the connection between people and performance in the language business leaders understand.

Download our free e-book:

"Building Your Business Case for Human Capital Management Initiatives"

Learn how you can get started now. We show you how to:

• capitalize on the data and knowledge that already exists in your organization,
• start with a low-risk, high-impact project to start building your momentum, and
• Build credibility by having financial impact on the business.

Get your e-book here to start your journey to data-driven excellence.

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MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES NEWS

LATEST MOBILE NEWS & UPDATES | SUMMARY

Introduction

Nowadays, more than five billion people have a mobile phone connection today. There are more mobile subscriptions than there are human beings on the planet Earth. Today’s 4G connectivity will give way to higher-bandwidth 5G access in the near future, ushering in another mobile technology boom that will further revolutionize the way we work and live (by Mobilebusinessinsights.com). Today we will have an overview of the mobile technologies news, that are directly related to SECURITY & SAFETY: safety of your data, business and even live. The current article is the summary of the major mobile news and latest updates (sources of the news are provided within the article), created by one of top mobile app development companies in Malaysia – Blueninja.io.

Better data security?

According to Google & New Atlas, two-factor authentication (2FA) has long been an effective protection against account hacking – meaning would-be intruders need something else besides a username and password, usually a SMS code from a mobile phone, to gain access – and today Google is taking 2FA one step further with its own mobile security keys.  


  If you've set up 2FA on your social networking accounts, or your Google or Apple IDs, you might be familiar with the process of entering a code sent over SMS or generated via an authenticator mobile app. Security keys replace that extra code with something physical that needs to be connected to the computer during the login process. There's always the chance of losing your key, of course, in which case you would need to nominate a backup method for getting into your account again (like a message to a separate email account). In theory though, the technique is more secure than a text or mobile app code, because those codes can be more easily intercepted. What's more, security keys such as the new ones unveiled by Google can work without a network and without battery power, which is useful for people on-the-go. Google's new product in the world of mobile technologies is called the Titan Security Key. Matching up with existing 2FA standards, it comes as either a USB stick for laptops and desktops, or as a Bluetooth dongle for connecting up to mobile devices. "We've long advocated the use of security keys as the strongest, most phishing-resistant authentication factor for high-value users, especially cloud admins, to protect against the potentially damaging consequences of credential theft," says Google's Jennifer Lin in a blog post. Security keys as part of 2FA aren't new, and you can already log into sites like Gmail and Facebook with keys from the likes of Yubico. That Google is now making its own products emphasizes just how secure the company thinks they can be, when used correctly. Earlier this week, Google revealed its employees have been required to use security keys since early 2017, reducing the number of successfully phishing attacks down to zero in the meantime. Even if hackers get hold of usernames and passwords, they can't gain access to any accounts without the physical key. Google is providing them for cloud business customers first, but says they will go on sale to everyone via the Google Store in the near future. Prices will be in the region of US$20-25 for a single key, or $50 for both the USB and Bluetooth models, CNET reports. It's definitely worth the few minutes these keys take to set up to keep your accounts better protected, whether you buy from Google or invest in a third-party alternative. However, the account itself also needs to support security key access: The likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Dropbox already do.

Technologies can save lives

App developer magazine, the urgent challenge for security personnel to noninvasively scan people in real time and in public to detect and “see” if they are carrying weapons or explosives without physically searching them could soon be solved with the launch of SWORD by Royal Holdings Technologies Corporation (Royal Holdings).  


  SWORD attaches to a Google Pixel 2 XL smartphone and Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus mobile app. It is accessed and controlled via a fully customizable and dedicated mobile app (Android / IPhone). From a distance of up to 40 feet, security agents or law enforcement personnel can scan individuals in a crowd or an approaching person of interest simply by pointing their smartphone at them with the SWORD device attached. They will be able to non-invasively determine if someone is carrying a weapon or explosive - all without the need for a physical search - and rapidly identify a person of interest. SWORD can be used to scan backpacks and handbags that are being carried or have been left unattended. It can also detect listening devices used for espionage and intelligence gathering. A featureless outline of the person being scanned is displayed, alerting agents to location and type of concealed weapons or explosives. Royal Holdings employs artificial intelligence (AI) to crosscheck and verify weapons and explosives with its cloud-based database. In addition, built-in facial recognition operating in real-time compares suspects to watch lists for positive identification. SWORD operates globally and features real time location sharing and generates real time alerts in the event of a mass shooting, terror threat, or terror attack.

Health and Technology are now interlinked

Healthcare is an area that has embraced mobile (application) technology, and while it's still in the infancy of adoption of this technology, it is already making profound improvements for many.  


  As reported by Duethealth, a full 31 percent of cell phone owners report having used their mobile device to access healthcare information, up from 17 percent two years ago. This growth is led by a diverse group of users: African Americans, Hispanics, people aged 18-49, and college graduates are the groups most likely to have used their phone to look up healthcare information. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for healthcare providers. By utilizing mobile technology platforms such as Duet Health, providers can increase the quality of healthcare in many ways. Mobile technology improves healthcare by solving common problems. 80 percent of what doctors tell patients is forgotten by the time they reach the parking lot and half of what they remember is incorrect. Platforms like DuetHealth allow healthcare professionals to communicate with patients through features like care-focused timelines, surveys, and journals. Now is the time for 21^st century healthcare providers to adopt mobile health technologies. One-half of U.S. adults now own a smartphone. This percentage has nearly doubled in just two years, and the growth is driven by a diverse group of users. By offering mobile content, healthcare providers can reduce costs and attract new customers. Forward-thinking healthcare system would be well served to invest in the mobile app space, enabling them to meet the 21^st century patient where he or she wants to be met: online, anywhere, at any time.

Conclusion

Mobile technology, in the variety of forms, including mobile apps, software, phones, tablets, and notebooks, is making our lives better than ever before. It happens in many ways, not the least of which is making communications routine. We can be in touch with those we need to reach immediately, whether work-related or personal in nature. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, and PDAs have given businessmen unprecedented access to their employees, customers, and vendors. Would you want Blueninja.io help you with the development of a great mobile application for your business? Give us a call anytime! The highly-qualified team of Blueninja.io provides an unforgettable experience for businesses and their clients through innovative digital solutions. Website design & Mobile Development, Web Application Development services, E-commerce web systems, Progressive Web Applications Development, SEO, Google Adwords and Social Media Marketing are just a small part of a wide service portfolio, opening doors to enormous opportunities for your business success. Stay connected with the best mobile application company, Blueninja.io, and be the first who will read our next article!

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ONLINE STORE INSIGHTS AND TIPS

WHAT DO CUSTOMERS LOOK FOR IN YOUR ONLINE STORE?

Online business is becoming a high income generating trend, taking a significant portion of GDP in many countries nowadays. This is making our world a very small village, with a distance no longer serving as an obstacle. In fact, cyberspace is gaining more importance than real world markets, with physical stores often acting only as a shop front and the real income being generated in the online space. Businesses around the Earth are becoming greatly attracted towards this virtual world. There are no limits as to what and where they can reach, the variety of products and services they can easily offer, the detail and specifications they can provide and the number of prospects and clients they can reach. Online shopping stores remain one of the main trends of the 21^st century. In this article, we provide customers insights and important tips for your e-commerce business.

Availability of Free Shipping

This is an almost essential option as nowadays customers tend to expect it from every online shopping store. In addition, buyers are found to spend up to 40% more if an online business offers free shipping. If you cannot afford this, then it is good t try to offer free shipping on specific promotional items to attract customers. A huge number of people prefer buying online to save time and money spent on going to a store, if they have to spend on shipping then they might just prefer a trip to the physical store itself. Plus, reports say that buyers are even willing to wait a few extra days if they get free delivery, giving online shopping store sellers a chance to offer even more.  


  In a 2014 case study, Red Door Interactive reported that a free shipping offer had increased ecommerce business orders by some 90%. Last year, Stitch Labs found “that retailers who always offer free shipping can directly increase revenue by 10 percent.” Monetate released a case study in 2011, reporting a 48% increase in new customer acquisition with a select free shipping offer. Brandon Eley, owner of 2 Big Feet, reported in 2012 that free shipping had boosted his site’s conversion rate 50 percent. In a survey from 2010, 93 percent of respondents said that free shipping encouraged them to purchase online more.

Available Payment Methods

Make sure to offer your customers the most common payment methods. The regular credit card, debit card, and Paypal are a must. Additional options will also be useful in driving up conversion rates. In addition, if you are a local store then ‘pay at door step’ may also be a convenient option for buyers since a number of users still are not sure of giving credit card information online due to security concerns.

Allow Payments without Requiring an Account

Forcing people to sign up for an account is just too intrusive for first-time customers, and it’s a main conversion killer. A usability study by Smashing Magazine found that the main reason users hate setting up an account is they expect to be flooded with promotional emails. It also pointed out that a lot of customers don’t understand why they need to sign up to buy a product when physical stores don’t require an account to buy from them. Another key disadvantage is that it adds more fields for people to fill out and prolongs the payment process.

Ease of use

It might have happened to everybody: you find in the search engine a link to the product you need, click it and close the page in a few seconds. Simply because the e-commerce website design puts you off. Or vice versa: you come to the beautifully designed online shopping site, but understand nothing of how to navigate through it. Thus, we provide few useful tips to make sure your existing and potential customers won’t experience such problems.  

Mega Menu: a huge fly-out menu with categories and subcategories list which overlays most of the page. We can see such menus on large sites such as eBay, which sells almost everything. Solution of this kind allows the simple navigation even if the catalog structure is complicated.  

Final price: Show the final cost on the product page or a shopping cart page. There is nothing more outrageous than extra charges for delivery which a customer finds out about only on the last stage. It puts off him immediately.  

Stand out from the crowd: In any case, the ecommerce website design should be original and unique, at least in some elements. To invent something completely new is difficult, but if your site doesn’t have any distinct feature at all, it is easy for it to be lost among other competitors.  Web store original feature is the first thing a customer will remember, such as in the case of One Kings Lane:  


  “Add to cart” button: An obvious rule in online shop usability: the Add to cart button is call-to-action, so it should stand out from the rest of blocks and elements. It shouldn’t be less visible than, for example, “like” social media buttons.  

Contact options: Among UX tips which professionals usually mention is the way you let your customers contact you.  Naturally, many customers may want to get in touch with you with some questions. Ideally, internet-store should have a number for free of charge calls. Try, at least, indicate your email address and telephone number, and offer your site visitors an option to send the letter via special contact form. Live chat – a window with instant connection to the manager – can be a valuable addition to the contact options you online store is equipped with.

Return & Cancellation Policies

The rules for returns and order cancellations play a role in the customer’s decision. Customers today want increasing flexibility from merchants. Online shopping trend is seen as a risk because the customer does not physically verify the purchase. Being able to return the product and getting refunds is an added bonus for the customer. Businesses should clearly state their rules and procedures for cancelled and refunded orders.  


  Managing the logistics of returns is one thing. The process of refunding shoppers the money they spent on the item being returned is far from smooth either. Though retailers are definitely getting better at processing refunds faster than before, they still fall short of customers’ expectations.  

Online Reviews of your Business & Blog

 Encourage your customers to leave reviews and feedback, this will help you build a credible online business reputation. Customers will make purchases quickly from a business that has positive reviews. People don’t just check the Facebook page, they tend to look at objective third-party websites for reviews of the business as well. So pay attention to comments and complaints on major websites and respond appropriately. About 88% of customers say that they read reviews in order to determine the quality of products and businesses. Also, having your own blog helps as well. According to reports, about 13% buyers are influenced to buy a product after reading a blog. Below we provide few interesting statistics showing the importance of online reviews for your business: 90% of customers read online reviews before visiting a business 88% of users trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations 92% of customers will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating  

Conclusion

Customers and prospects like to visit online shopping stores. They enjoy the convenience, the speed and therefore time-saving, ease of transport, the way they can compare prices and check online product reviews, the lack of pressuring by sales people and, of course, the infinite choice. Running an online business is potentially profitable, but challenging task, requiring to take an enormous number of factors into account. Would you want Blueninja.io help you with the development of a great online shopping store for your business? Give us a call anytime! The highly-qualified team of Blueninja.io provides an unforgettable experience for businesses and their clients through innovative digital solutions. Website design & Mobile Development, Web Application Development services, E-commerce web systems, SEO, Google Adwords and Social Media Marketing are just a small part of a wide service portfolio, opening doors to enormous opportunities for your business success. Stay connected with Blueninja.io and be the first who will read our next article!  

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The New Kid In Digital World

Is this once again spelling the downfall of another titan?

In the first decade after the millennium, websites used to be that ‘in thing’ which every individual or company craved for. Businesses bloomed and everyone seemed to be following the trend to move into tech. Software developers, both individual freelancers and companies seemed to be selling their services like hot cakes. It was ‘the business’ to be in. The turn of the tide came in July 2008, when apple introduced the app store with 500 mobile applications whereby only 25% were free. During that weekend, over 10 million downloads took place and with android coming into the picture, the rest remained as history. Although, websites still remained hugely popular for quite a bit, its popularity progressively decreased over time.

Mobile Applications: Insights of the titan

In general mobile applications are developed in either one of the two methods; native or hybrid. Development of native applications would require a lot more time and skill as compared to the development of hybrid applications as native applications are built on a cross platform focusing on specific languages such as swift or Objective-C on iOS and then, Java or Kotlin on Android. Mobiles running on windows would be developed in C#. Each native application would be developed and designed individually to suit the platform it is created for.  
On the other hand, Hybrid applications are built using web technologies. In simple terms, imagine a website being compressed and converted into an application. The basis of building a hybrid application simply requires JavaScript, CSS and HTML and the bottom line would essentially be that you would be building one application that would work on both platforms. In comparism, native applications would usually require more time to develop as compared to its hybrid counterpart. On the contrary, as native applications are developed individually to the platform’s requirements, it is often less buggy and it is optimized for performance. Hybrid applications are generally much cheaper in cost and would also require less time to develop but the time taking to fix bugs might require more time for hybrid apps as they are built on one platform catering to many platforms (iOS, Android and Windows). In recent times, hybrid applications have become less popular as react native is used to build applications. So what is react native? React native allows an application to be built cross platform through a JavaScript API, exposing the native controls of the mobile device, which the application is running on. Overall, apps developed via react native are native applications, which would only require the software developer to develop it once. Developers using this method should be skilled and well experienced. It will definitely help a software engineer to reduce the development time.

Part 1: Websites vs Mobile Applications- How the titan took its stage

In the current era of the 21^st century, majority of the population clearly suffer from ‘nomophobia’. Okay, this might be a bit of an exaggeration but then again have you noticed that the current generation are somehow hooked unto their mobile pretty much 24/7? The point being made here is that the usage of mobile phones has become a necessity in the general life of the average human being out there.  
  Since you already can see that mobile phones play a huge part in the lives of most people, you should be able to see why mobile applications are hugely popular. Websites in general are 1.5x slower than mobile applications. Secondly, mobile applications are accessible offline where as websites cannot be. Imagine this, you are in the aeroplane or if you do not have access to data, you would not be able to surf the net. However, you would still be able to carry out with whatever application you are browsing since most applications have offline features (unless they are live games). To add more misery to the website cause, websites are not able to give push notifications unlike mobile applications. Push notifications would allow users to get updates on the things they want and hence, proving to be much more personalized.  
  However, websites do bring opportunities that mobile applications do not. With the app store being flooded by millions of applications today, getting to the main page will require an enormous amount of luck. The chances of you appearing on the first page of the app store is literally 0.001%. It’s like purchasing a lottery ticket and hoping that it will hit. With websites, you can create content, and with the content created, you can climb up the Google search rankings. This is known as SEO. Another downside of mobile applications is that once you have created a mobile application, you will have to upload it to the app store where by you will be regulated and it may become a bit sticky in certain situations. Similarly, as a user downloading the app, you will rather not download so many applications since mobile applications in general do take up a lot of space. …how nice would it be to have something right in between a website and a mobile application. Literally the best of both worlds… Guess what? Yes! There is such a thing. Progressive Web Application is the new upcoming prince, whereby it brings the best of both worlds to the table.

Part 2: The arrival of the prince, HRH Progressive Web Application. But will PWA become king?

 A term coined by Alex Russell, Progressive Web Applications are web applications built using modern web technologies but feels like a native application. To put it in my own words, progressive web applications would be the revival of websites whereby it carries all the ‘awesomest’ functionalities of websites and native applications, combining the best of both worlds.

How does it work?

Using a supported web browsers such as chrome, progressive web applications are accessible to anyone on the web. Just imagine yourself scrolling through a website and then you realize that you like it. You decide that you would want to receive updates and you feel that you would probably want to check it out pretty often. Using the URL of that particular web application, you will now be able to download it via the web browser and the application would run just like a native application. How cool is that?

How Progressive Web Application carries itself against its counterpart, the native application…

In terms of responsiveness, the user interface has to fit into the form factor of the device, be it in a desktop, tablet or mobile view. Clearly getting inspiration from Bruce Lee, this is literally the form that progressive web applications take.  
  “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” Users should not be able to differentiate the difference between a progressive web application and a native application while using it. The app like feel has to be paramount. With the availability of service workers, a progressive web application has to be able to work offline just like most native applications. The availability of this offline feature was what was lacking in websites. Just like a native application, progressive web applications are able to provide the push notification service whereby, users are now able to constantly get updates on the topics that are of interest to them. Besides that, a progressive web application is also secure from content tampering as it is served via HTTPS which is clearly, very relaible. The progressive web application is called progressive for a reason. Regardless of the browser choice, it should work for every user. Currently, all browsers but ‘safari’ are able to support the usage of progressive web applications. However, there is a silver lining to this, as Apple has recently announced that they are working on the safari browser to support the progressive web applications cause. This would basically define most of the similarities between a progressive web application and a native application. So what are the differences? Discoverability wise, for a native application, the chances of it being spotted on the app store is literally 0.001% as mentioned above since it is mostly based on luck even if you do everything right. However, with progressive web applications, you are now able to carry out the content creation to help with SEO. This would simply mean, just like a website, progressive web applications are able to be discovered as long as you provide the right content in order for Google to ‘like’ you.  
  Secondly, downloading a progressive web application is easier as you do not need to use any sort of application store to carry out the task. Updating the application would also be simpler as it auto updates by itself rather than you, having to go to the application store to update the application, which does get annoying at times since in most cases, native applications do not work very well if it is not updated. However, if you need an application that requires the tablet’s hardware features such as the Bluetooth, NFC or a device’s sensor package like fingerprint sensors, a progressive web application is currently not able to support that. Hence, if you are planning to build a wearable tech application or in some instances, a proper full scale fitness application, a native application might be more ideal for you.

Impact of Progressive Web Application

Ever since Google launched progressive web applications, they have carried out various tests with several conglomerates such as The Guardian, Washington Post, Alibaba, Channel, Flipkart and many more. The majority of the companies saw an increase in active sessions per user, a rise in engagement and reengagement, as well as conversion rates that increased up to 10 folds on average.  
  Let’s take Alibaba for instance. Alibaba implemented AliExpress as part of their trial for the progressive web application and saw that the conversion rates for new users increased by a whopping 104%. Eventhough the progressive web application is not supported by Safari, AliExpress saw a 82% increment in conversion via the mobile web browser in Safari. Imagine what would happen when Safari begins supporting PWA! Overall the new strategy proved to deliver a much better experience whereby, users now show to visit twice as many pages per session and time spent per session increased by 74% on average, across all browsers. So Progressive Web Application or Native Application? With the benefits that progressive web applications bring, it could be said that that it would certainly be a no brainer for any company to choose this path. With the usage of progressive web applications, people would be able to improvise and grow progressively with the technology. The rate of inactivity would also go down, since it is easily accessible and with the push notifications and offline availability, it just makes it more sensible especially when Search Engine Optimization works perfectly on this platform. However, native applications would still be needed if companies run businesses, which require hardware features or the device’s package sensors.  
  Overall, it can be concluded that in the long run, as progressive web applications continue to improvise, I would not at all, be surprised if progressive web apps support the usage of all hardware features and sensors as early as the end or this year or early 2019. All in all, progressive web application would certainly gain more market share and could potentially freeze out the usage of native applications one day. …Maybe we should all pave way for the future. The future for progressive web applications is now!

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Mobile Application Marketing

5 MOBILE APP MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Does Your Business need a Mobile App?

If you think that mobile apps are solely for big name brands like Walmart and Bank of America, you are wrong. More and more small and midsize businesses are following the mobile trend, understanding that an effective mobile strategy involves more than just a mobile-friendly website (Forbes, 2017).   In fact, these days you’ll notice that many small businesses you interact with in your everyday life have their own dedicated mobile app — be it the corner coffee shop or the beauty spa downtown. These companies are ahead of the game when it comes to taking their marketing to the next level. And they are doing it the right way! Do you know why? The digital era demands everything mobile-optimized and for this reason, companies are investing a huge share. Not because every company is investing in mobile app development, makes it necessary for you to invest in it to gain a competitive edge. It is because people want it – it includes everyone from your customers to everyone around you. Have a look at some of the statistics presented by IQVIS to know how important mobile application development for your business is.

• By 2020, global mobile app downloads will reach 284 billion
• Google Play will top 166 billion by 2020, and iOS will reach 35.2 billion.
• Non-game app downloads will exceed $182 billion in 2020, accounting for a quarter of all app store downloads
• Digital radio and photos now generate 96% of their total engagement from mobile devices
• Total mobile engagement on social has grown 55% in the past year
• Mobile ads perform 4-5 times better than online ads
• 62% of smartphone users are “ok with 15-30 second ads” in exchange for video content

How Small Businesses Benefit from Mobile Apps

According to Smallbiztrends, a recent survey showed that 62 percent of the businesses asked already had mobile apps or were in the process of building one. Of those, 20 percent used their apps purely for branding purposes, 30 percent have revenue generating apps and 50 percent use them for support and engagement. Even businesses that you wouldn’t have thought would benefit from an app are proving critics wrong by producing innovative and engaging apps. For example, an independent pet food supplier could have an app that encourages users to upload comical photographs of their pets for a chance to win a prize. A product for new mothers could build a community of local mums and arrange meet-ups. A realtor could create an app that compares local house prices now to five years ago. The possibilities really are endless. All it takes is a little imagination to devise a system that consumers will enjoy engaging with. Similarly, in essence to Clutch.co, the amount of small businesses with mobile apps is set to experience a huge jump over the next year. Currently, 42% of small businesses have built a mobile app. However, two-thirds (67%) of SMBs plan to have an app built by the end of 2017, a whopping 50% expected margin of increase over the course of the year.  
  This evidence of small businesses’ increased interest in building a mobile application represents a fairly significant departure from just a year ago. The 2016 Mobile App Survey indicated that 54% of SMBs were either unlikely to build, or were unsure about building, a mobile app in the future. Compare that to this year’s data: only 35% of SMBs in this year’s survey don’t plan on having a mobile app built by the end of 2017.

You have a Mobile App, what’s the Next Step?

Mobile application marketing is an important stage for your business as a whole, and success of mobile app in particular. You have to first understand that your main focus has to be the end-users of your app. You are essentially dealing with people and so, you will have to study their mobile behavior and understand the same, before embarking on a particular marketing strategy. According to App Partner , before jumping into tactics, you need to nail the basics of app marketing ー prioritization and efficiency. Dwight Eisenhower  created what’s known as “The Eisenhower Box” to stay efficient and focus on what’s most critical. We recommend that you write any tactics you want to use into one of these four boxes so you can prioritize what’s important, because as an entrepreneur time is your most precious resource.  
  Clearbridge Mobile defines a Go-To-Market strategy as one of the successful mobile app marketing strategies nowadays. First of all, what is a go-to-market strategy? A thorough strategy will answer these questions: Who is your target audience, and how do you relate to them?

1. How do you provide everyday value to your audience?
2. How do you transition from initial point of contact with a customer to fulfilling brand commitment?

All the major elements that guide your business strategy (sales, pricing, marketing, branding, competitive research, consumer profiling, and distribution) form the foundation for a go-to-market action plan. This plan will define the most effective way to reach a target audience and establish a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Market the Experience, not the App

In the past, when companies made apps for the sake of having an app for their customers to use, it was more acceptable to market the app itself. That is no longer true because you aren’t trying to sell audiences on the app itself anymore. Instead, you are selling them on the experience your app provides. And, more importantly, how that experience is uniquely different and superior to any other experience they’ve previously had on mobile. This is not a new concept, by any means. Today’s consumers look for the simplest experiences offered by brands In fact, 86% of consumers are more likely to purchase when they are not overwhelmed with confusing information. Keep that in mind when you are writing your store descriptions. Market how the app will simplify users lives, not every little thing the app can do. The strategy of marketing the experience rather than the mobile app has caused customer experience to become a front-running issue of businesses across nearly every industry. Don’t market your app—that’s simply is not enough anymore. You have to focus on the experiences that are only possible with your app.

Any other Tips? Yes!

App Store optimization (ASO)

Both Google Play and Apple’s App Store algorithmically prioritize certain apps in search results based on a variety of ranking factors (ratings, tags, screenshots, app title, download data etc.). The goal of ASO is to drive more traffic to your app’s page in the app store, so searchers can take a specific action: downloading your app. Also, the ASO process requires a crucial understanding of your target customer base, including the keywords your potential customers are using to find apps similar to yours. When you learn more about which keywords are being used, you will have a better understanding of the language of your potential customers – a crucial piece of any marketing plan – and you can home in on your keyword choices.  
  The most important ranking factor when it comes to app store optimization is your app’s title. If you’ve built a train time-checker app, then it’s recommended to use ‘train time checker’ in the title. You can use Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool (with the device setting on mobile) to identify which terms / phrases relevant to your app people search for the most on mobile. The CEO of MobileDevHQ, Ian Sefferman has mentioned that: “ASO is having dramatic effects on our client apps. For those who put the time in to understand, iterate, and test, we’ve seen many apps increase their downloads by a factor of 2x-10x, and an increase of revenue by a similar, or bigger, rate due to the increase in engagement of users earned by ASO. ASO is not a simple process, and you might not see the impact overnight, but if you’re willing to invest in it, the outcome can be incredibly worthwhile.”

Conclusion

Mobile application marketing is the science of reaching your targeted audience and let them know your app, and what the most important is to make them like it! Market-to-go strategy can serve as the basis for your mobile app marketing, where the core idea lies in the understanding your audience. Having complete information about your customers, you may proceed to App Store Optimization, where the thought-out keywords research is the key to your success! Also, as the ‘assisting’ tools, you may also use Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing to promote your business mobile app! Would you want Blueninja.io help you with the development of a great mobile application for your business? Give us a call anytime! The highly-qualified team of Blueninja.io provides an unforgettable experience for businesses and their clients through innovative digital solutions. Website design & Mobile Development, Web Application Development services, E-commerce web systems, Progressive Web Applications Development, SEO, Google Adwords and Social Media Marketing are just a small part of a wide service portfolio, opening doors to enormous opportunities for your business success. Stay connected with Blueninja.io and be the first who will read our next article! With creativity in heart, with an idea in mind!

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