Smashing Magazine released a fantastic article about Marketing Your Mobile App. The article was written by Michael Flarup who is an interface designer based in Copenhagen. Competing against 150,000 apps in the App Store and counting, Michael provides great ideas for marketing your mobile app. What does it take to get good media coverage? How do you get people to talk about your app? How do you get people to buy your app?
Michael says the first thing is to be unique. Yes that may seem like common sense, but it is important to be the first developer in your category of product or you reinvent the existing category with something unique. Remember that whoopee cushion app that was a hit? Within days there were a few copycats in the market. There are hundreds of developers who are out to make a quick dollar, so it is important to be first or so unique that it will take a while before anyone can duplicate your efforts.
[By the way, did you know you can receive notices for Mobile Marketing and Mobile App Developer jobs from FoneGigs.com? Join us on FB, Twitter, or LinkedIn now!]
Michael further explains that when marketing a mobile app, one should be tweetable, be interesting, cater to blogs, think like media, control the hype, and launch big. Read the full article here.
If you have ever used TNS to try and figure out how much your competitors are spending on online advertising, you know that the numbers can be way off. Moreover, you don’t have access to their web analytics tool so you don’t know how many unique visitors they are getting every month either. I like using Compete.com because you can pull traffic data on your website and your top 4 competitors based on a sample that Compete collects.
Compete is a very powerful tool that can help you track the competition and online sov. In addition to providing website traffic, it will also tell you what keywords are popular for all brands, what affiliate links, and more.
Back to analyzing online sov, I not only like to compare competitor unique visitor data for my clients, but also show an estimate of how much money the competition is spending online (since we know that paid search and online display have the highest correlation with website traffic). By pulling unique visitor data from Compete, we can show the percentage of ‘online share of voice in the market’.
From looking at the example above, we can see that recently Budlight.com has been increasing its online share of voice the past couple of months. How is this helpful? Tracking this will provide a benchmark as to how much share of online voice you have with your online advertising budget. This is just one of the insights you can get out of Compete.com. There is much more insight you can pull especially when it comes to paid and organic search.
Well what about Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers? “My brand has more fans than my competitors, but we have a smaller online sov?” Good question. My suggestion is that you ‘weight’ a Facebook Fan and Twitter Follower. To be more specific, a Facebook Fan can equate to 50 unique visits. Why 50 and not 1, 10, or 100? It doesn’t matter how you decide to weight a fan or follower, the important thing is to keep it consistent across your brand and your competitors. Again, I am not saying a Facebook Fan is worth 50 unique visitors to your site, I will leave that discussion to other analysts and social media experts.
[By the way, did you know we have directories of Mobile Analytics, Mobile Ad Networks and more at FoneGigs.com? Download them now for free!]
Consumer Reports is now available on your Mobile Phone
While you are out and about shopping, check out reviews, ratings and reliability studies from Consumer Reports on your mobile. The company is charging $0.99 for a 24-hour access and $4.99 for 30-day access. If you are already a subscriber, the mobile service is free. The company believes that people will be more than willing to pay $0.99 when they are in a store and confronted with a tough purchasing decision.
The company’s mobile site provides data by category including vehicles, appliances, electronics, home and garden and babies. Users can browse information from any mobile device with internet access. Consumers can access ratings, reviews, product comparisons, poll results, buying advice, user reviews, brand reliability information, the latest news and blog posts. Moreover, video content can also be accessed via iPhone and Android devices.
An sms (short message service) message has a limit of 160 characters including spacing and punctuation. An example of an sms message from a movie studio would be:
“Check out Robin Hood @ theatres. This wknd only, $2 off movie ticket. Msg&Data rates may apply. Reply RATES for more info. Reply STOP to end.”
The sms and mms difference is that MMS (Multimedia messaging) allows you to add an image or video to the message and there is no limit in the number of characters one can use. Using the Paramount example, an MMS message can include a link to a video trailer turning the message into a multi-media experience.
“Check out Robin Hood at theatres. Click HERE to watch the video trailer and see scenes from the movie! This weekend only, $2 off movie ticket. Message & Data rates may apply. Reply RATES for more info. Reply STOP to end.”
[By the way, did you know we have directories of Mobile Analytics, Mobile Ad Networks and more at FoneGigs.com? Download them now for free!]
Launched in London and hopefully will be available across the pond, Streetspark is like “Foursquare for dating”. When there is a suitable match or ‘spark’ nearby, you are alerted in real-time. Streetspark has plans to integrate both Foursquare’s API and Facebook’s Open Graph to help provide more relevant matches and match people with friends of friends. After checking out the other person’s profile, and if both users decide to chat using the secure chat service, users can decide to meetup – mobile dating free and spontaneous! This gives people a reason to put on some decent clothes, groom, and bathe every day! Gotta love it. Streetspark just may be the best invention ever if it motivates the general public to get out there, lose some weight, and dress properly. The app currently works on the iPhone and is currently being tested on Blackberry and Android. Check out the StreetSpark video below.
If you are straight, then you can skip to the next app. If you are gay, then Grindr is the app for you. This mobile dating free app uses location-based technology to help you meet guys in your area. See pictures, stats, and map locations in seconds. Grindr is the largest all male location-based mobile social networking tool available. Have fun.
Will Apple fans have a mobile dating free app to turn to? Launching in June 2010, Cupidtino is a dating site created for fans of Apple products. No news yet on whether or not this will be a location-based dating site, but we do know that it will be exclusively on Apple platforms – Safari, iPhone, and iPad apps. So far they have 12,000 people who have signed up. I guess we will have to wait and see if this will be a location-based dating site or not.
Lovestruck is another online singles network that is working on providing real-time location based single ads. It is working with mobile ad servicing company Admob to make this possible and currently works on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
In the market for Mobile App Jobs or want to reach out to App Developers?
For companies who are looking to hire a mobile app developer in or near their location, they can find experienced mobile programmers, developers, and UX designers at FoneGigs.com – the first job board dedicated for mobile app jobs. Experienced developers can also upload their resumes listing their mobile apps they have developed and let employers find them.
If you are trying to find out where mobile application developers hangout, check out some of these groups. Furthermore, if you’d like to recommend a group that is not listed here, please email me at eric@fonegigs.com and I will include it in this post. Thanks.
Need a little help with your Android App? Ask questions regarding the filesystem, user interface and more at the The Android Developers community
[By the way, did you know we have directories of Mobile Analytics, Mobile Ad Networks and more at FoneGigs.com? Download them now for free!]
Want tips about game programming fundamentals, graphics and audio programminng, scripts and more on the Mac, iPhone and iPad? Check out iDev Games
Brands who desire to create mobile apps, but are not sure where to turn to can look into a new community called AppMatchMaker. Before you do though, make sure you have a budget and timeline set. This community was created to help connect app developers who are waiting for Fonegigs and companies who are lacking a mobile application. In order for a mobile app developer or programmer to be a part of the community, they had to have already built and submitted mobile apps to various App Stores. In other words, they can only be selected to build an iPad app if they have already proven that they already built an iPad app that is currently distributed through the App Store.
What kind of ctr mobile should you across mobile devices?
Based on a study in Oct-2009 by Chitika, overall average CTR for mobile across five major smartphone operating systems is 0.49%. Here is how the mobile ctr resulted for each system:
· Other (Blackberry, Symbian, Nokia, and HTC combined) 0.89%
· Palm 0.89%
· Windows CE 0.61%
· Android 0.45%
· iPhone 0.30%
In April 2008, another research company, Bango, reported that mobile ctrs were between 2-8%. Obviously this is a huge difference. The likely reason is that in 2008, people were probably not used to seeing ads on their mobile phones and were curious to click on them.
[By the way, did you know you can receive notices for Mobile Marketing and Mobile App Developer jobs from FoneGigs.com? Join us on FB, Twitter, or LinkedIn now!]
What happens after the mobile click?
According to mobile analytics firm Amethon (June-2009),
on average consumers view 1.53 pages when visiting a m0bile ad site
Only 33% of consumers make it past the first page
Movie campaign sites performed the best, averaging 1.65 page views and attracting 21% of the audience
Content downloads like branded wallpapers or videos don’t improve engagement much.
The iPhone’s mobile payment app is called Transaction
This summer Apple will be testing the iPhone mobile payment app in various markets. Visa and DeviceFidelity are reported to have been working with Apple on making the iPhone into a credit card that could be used in bars, restaurants, and retail stores.
Read about other mobile bill payment solutions here
Patentlyapple reports that Transaction patent is directed to various techniques for conducting peer-to-peer financial exchanges using a handheld, portable electronic device – which for the sake of simplicity is represented throughout several transaction-based patents – as the iPhone. Read more here.
If you are looking to buy digital content and goods using your mobile phone, then you should check out Bango. Bango works with credit cards and PayPal internationally and works across all kinds of mobile devices. Bango is a web-based mobile payment provider.
Send, receive and pay money using your cell phone with Luup. Partnering with banks around the globe, Luup is building an international mobile transaction network that specializes in the hosting of stored value account for financial institutions.
Don’t have access to credit cards or a bank account? Not to worry. Mopay offers a quick and simple billing solution for small online purchases (mainly virtual goods) through mobile operator accounts.
Now you can send money via text messages. With Xipwire, you can fund your account with money from a debit card, bank account, or credit card and with just a couple of steps, you can send and receive money using a simple text message.
If you are into social networking and online gaming and don’t have a bank account, Zong allows you to make small purchases with your mobile phone. The charge is directed to the mobile operator and then charged on your cell phone bill.
See a list of 3rd party in-app billing solutions for developers, link here.
FoneGigs – the FIRST job board dedicated to jobs in mobile advertising – lists dozens of mobile account manager jobs that are currently available around the globe.
What does a Mobile Account Manager do?
In general, they are responsible for the development and execution of all mobile marketing efforts and are tasked to meet sales goals and cost per lead goals. Experience in online marketing is desired along with the strong interest in becoming knowledgeable in the mobile ecosystem (mobile platforms, types of mobile apps, mobile payment systems, mobile ad networks, etc).
Find all the latest Mobile Marketing jobs at FoneGigs.com
Technology is moving so fast in the mobile industry that a Mobile Marketing Career will be fast-paced and very rewarding for those that love anything to do with mobile. Creating, planning, and executing mobile marketing campaigns that generate brand awareness and a good return on investment will be challenging yet exciting. Some of the skills required to land a Mobile Account Manager Job would be knowing how to:
Track visitors coming to a website from mobile phones
