App-making is a good capacity to develop in your business, since the app market is in a big boom right now, and there are still plenty of gaps left for new app-makers to fill.

While there isn’t a lot of movement in the top ten apps overall in the main app stores (iTunes and Google Play), there is plenty of movement within the app categories, and there are a number of utilities that still haven’t been “done right” for mobile.

When I talk to someone looking to make an app, I remind them that it’s most important to get a working app, even if it’s not feature-rich, out to the app stores as quickly as possible, for a number of reasons:

1. Bootstrapping

It’s one of the most popular buzzwords in the business world these days. Venture capital and seed money is hard to get, and even setting up a Kickstarter or IndieGogo campaign requires more than just twenty minutes of writing out an idea.

Most funders — and C-level executives within a business — want to see some kind of working prototype before they put their cash or resources into the mix.

That means that developing a mobile app capacity often needs to be done on a shoestring budget, and the first stage is to get a working app out rather than collecting the money to build a working app.

2. First To Market

Being the first to market isn’t a guarantee of success by any means, but it’s a much better bet than being tenth to market. The reality is that often the second to market, which has had a chance to learn from the first, does very well, sometimes even surpassing the first to market.

On the other hand, the guy who gets into an app niche a year late is going to have trouble building a following. Sitting on a great idea until it’s perfect just isn’t an effective way to make an app succeed. By the time it’s been honed to perfection, six other companies have gotten into the niche, and even if they’ve built inferior apps, they’ve already gotten customers used to them.

Getting a customer away from an established competitor, particularly from a large company, is hard. Unless they’re unhappy with what they’ve downloaded, once they’ve paid, it won’t be easy to convince them to pay for something else that basically does the same thing. In short, get into the market as soon as you can.

3. Improve

This might sound like a silly reason to rush to market, but the sooner you get out there, the sooner you can start getting feedback and improving your app. For example, you might think that your app absolutely needs to use its own mapping system, separate from Google Earth, but your customers prefer to use Google Earth.

Give customers a chance to give feedback before adding expensive features. You can build a virtual focus group into your free app, and get feedback to use for the paid version at no cost. Interviewing a real focus group put together by a marketing firm will cost you plenty.

Even if you don’t get feedback directly from users, using analytics can help you find out which features get the most use and where users are getting stuck.

How Do I Make an App Lean and Mean and on a Tight Budget?

There are a number of options for making an app on a tight budget. The most obvious is to learn how to develop. If you have the precise specifications for your app, you can use a service like vWorker or Odesk to connect you with a freelancer who can get your project built quickly and inexpensively.

Of course, there are also services that make it easier to make an app. The service most highly recommended for those who are good with HTML but don’t want to learn to code for iOS or Android is PhoneGap, because it’s an Open Source, Open Standards platform, meaning it’s always free with no strings attached.

There are some other excellent services like Andromo (monthly fee), iBuildApp (freemium), Conduit Mobile (monthly fee or one-time fee, depending upon level), Google App Engine (freemium), and AppsGeyser (free with ads — and my employer).

In short, don’t wait to find the perfect developer. Don’t wait to perfect every element of your app. Get a lean, mean version of your app into the market, and use it as the beginning of the process.

A few weeks ago, Rachel Pasqua posted an article on mobile website optimization. Her analysis of the options is quite thorough, and an excellent read. My goal here isn’t to cover the territory she already covered, but to give you the specific names of services and how their options work.

I’m Building A New Website On My Own Domain. How Do I Make It Mobile-Friendly?

If you don’t have a website, then building something that’s mobile-friendly from the get-go is likely your best option. Most sites today are built using a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.

For each of those systems, there are plugins which can make the site mobile-friendly with a few clicks here and there. Personally, I’m a big fan of WordPress as a CMS, and a plugin like WPtouch is a great way to make a WordPress site work well for mobile. Joomla’s Mobile extension is a good way to make your Joomla site mobile. Drupal’s Mobile Plugin is great for Drupal developers.

To build a site without a CMS, you have a few options. Creating a site with Responsive Design requires a good knowledge of both HTML and design, and takes quite a lot of patience and time. A good guide to the basics of responsive design is available on HTML 5 Rocks. Another option is to use a tool like Gridless as the basic CSS on a website. It’ll ‘bake-in’ the responsive design.

How Do I Make A Mobile-Friendly Site For Free?

There are a lot of good options for making a mobile-friendly site for free. My personal favorite is Google Sites. The mobile site design works, and building a site with Google Sites doesn’t require a lot of technical know-how. You choose a template, choose some colors, add your text, and the mobile site is ready for action. 

If the site you’re planning on building is a blog, then WordPress.com offers free hosting with many of the benefits of a hosted WordPress site. To make it mobile, you’ll need a mobile theme.

Blogger gets a bad reputation, because there are fewer plugins, and it’s harder to customize than WordPress, but it’s a no-fuss solution.

Tumblr is another blogging platform that just works. To make it mobile-friendly, follow these instructions from tumblring.

I Have A Site, And I Want It To Stay The Same. How Can I Have A Mobile Site, Too?

GoMo and DudaMobile are two widely-used tools that take your web content and style and turn it into a mobile site. GoMo is powered by DudaMobile, so you won’t see huge differences between the two, and you’ll need to look at specific plans to see which one is a better fit for your website.

WixMobile and Mobify are options that work on a freemium model, so you may end up paying later on if you need better service. Again, they’re a quick way to get your site mobile and be sure it works correctly.

With the tremendous increase in mobile traffic online, it’s really crucial to make sure that you have a website that answers the needs of your mobile users. There are new services cropping up every day, and I’m certain I’ve left out some excellent options. Leave a comment to let me know how you’ve made your website mobile-friendly.

]]> http://marketingland.com/ten-or-so-services-to-make-your-site-mobile-friendly-15527/feed 2 http://marketingland.com/the-value-of-google-analytics-for-mobile-11219 http://marketingland.com/the-value-of-google-analytics-for-mobile-11219#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 13:00:10 +0000 Leah Goodman http://marketingland.com/?p=11219 In the marketing game, numbers are crucial. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. There’s a reason why MarketingLand has a whole area designated for analytics. If you’re a website owner or marketer, chances are you spend a lot of time looking at Google Analytics for your website. Do you give your mobile site and app the same kind of attention?

Why Use Analytics For Mobile?

The main reasons to use analytics for mobile are the same as the reasons for using analytics on any website. Analytics answer a number of important questions:

1. Where is traffic coming from (for mobile web)?
2. Where is traffic going within the site or app?
3. What features in the site or app are getting the most use?
4. Are people getting stuck trying to perform some function?
5. Are people meeting (sales) goals when using the site or app?

How do I use Google Analytics for mobile?

For a regular mobile website, when you make a new account, go to the “Advanced” tab, choose “A site built for a mobile phone”. You’ll need to select the site’s server-side language from the list, and then you’ll get the right code to put into your mobile website. Tests have determined that regular Google Analytics do not always work correctly. In fact, one test showed that as many as 88% of mobile pageviews did not show up using regular Google Analytics.

For an iPhone or Android app, though, you’ll need to use the iOS or Android SDK.

Four Things to Look For In App Analytics

There are a lot of things that you can learn by adding analytics into an app. Here are some that can make a big difference in your business:

• What features are users using? This is probably the most important thing to find out. There are two reasons that certain features get used more than others.

The first is that those are the most important features. The second is that the other features are difficult to access or use. If the features that are being used are those that meet your company’s goals best, then the app is on target.

Imagine an airline app, for example, that has a number of features. One goal might be to tell people about flight delays and restrictions to prevent trouble at the gate. Another goal might be to help people book seats for the same reason. A third goal, however, might be to allow customers to purchase tickets.

It’s important to define the goals you have for an app, and to measure whether people are accessing them. If people aren’t accessing them, it might be a sign that the app design doesn’t encourage using that feature.

• Where are users getting stuck? Let’s go back to the airline example. It’s important to see whether people trying to purchase tickets are abandoning their carts. It’s equally important to see whether people trying to save their seats succeed.

If people often abandon their carts, there may be some difficulty in booking tickets this way. There might be a good way to solve it, or it might be useful to put in a phone number link to help people with complicated processes.

• Are users returning? Which actions do users come back for? For an app, usage numbers are almost as important as installation numbers. While some company goals might be met with a single use (for example, purchasing tickets for an airline), most apps can only be judged to be effective if users come back regularly.

• Is there a problem with use on certain devices? This can catch simple mistakes like Flash-based functions which won’t work on iOS or on many Android phones, but can also catch errors that are deeper in the app use, particularly on Android where there are so many different devices.

If a certain Android build can’t access an important feature, it could cost the company hundreds, or even thousands, of sales. This is why analytics segmentation is critical.

Obviously there are many other uses for analytics on a mobile site or app, but they differ for different types of apps. Leave a comment on what information you’re looking for in mobile analytics.

That number has been steadily rising since December 2009, as you can see on this chart from Eric S. Raymond based on data from ComScore. And there’s no reason to believe that the trend is tapering off.

As breaking into the English-speaking market gets harder and harder, there are abundant reasons to translate apps into other languages. One of the most obvious reasons is the “big fish in a small pond” situation. The English-speaking app market is saturated. App discovery is getting harder by the day. Other languages are still somewhat more open.

The AppsGeyser team has been researching where to begin localization efforts and following are some of our findings.

Consider Chinese Or Russian

Eighty two million Chinese have smartphones, and 25.2 million Russians have smartphones. It seems obvious, then, that Russian and Chinese are great languages to translate your app into.

Unfortunately, it’s very hard to break into the Chinese market. Android isn’t popular there, and even Apple is still having trouble competing with Nokia, Windows, and RIM. Moreover, standard app stores like Google Play have been banned in China.

Still, for an app-maker looking for maximum market exposure, Mandarin Chinese is a logical language to consider.

Skip Indian Languages, Unless You Really Want That Audience

The second most populous country in the world is India, and English is one of the major languages spoken there, so there’s no need to translate your app to break into that market, especially since smartphone penetration is only at 3%, according to Wired.

Obviously, if you’re looking to make it into niche markets in India, Hindu, Urdu, and other local languages can make that a reality. But if you’re just looking to maximize your audience, India’s other languages aren’t at the top of the list for translations.

¿Se Habla Español?

The language that is the mother tongue of the most people in the world is Mandarin Chinese. No surprise there. The second language on that list is not English, though. It’s Spanish.

It’s true that more people speak English than speak Spanish, but for a substantial number of those people, English is a second language. There are around 400 million native Spanish speakers, and another 100 million who speak Spanish as a second language.

Mexico, with a population of over 100 million, is the largest Spanish-speaking country, followed by Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, and Chile. Around 34 million Americans speak Spanish at home, too, and many of them are more comfortable in Spanish than in English.

Unlike Chinese and Russian, Spanish uses the same general alphabet and keyboard layout as English, which means that localization of your app should be easier and less costly than Chinese or Russian.

Additionally, from a cultural perspective, China is a very different target market from the United States, while the Spanish market has more similarities. It is important to remember to target Latin America, which is very different culturally from Spain, to gain the maximum benefit from translating your app into Spanish. Note, also, that there are country-specific and even regional differences in language, so be sure your translator takes that into consideration.

5 Things To Consider When Translating Your App

1. Be sure to translate all relevant text, including your bio/about page and all menus and buttons.

2. Consider how you want your app translated. One easy method is to use a service like One Hour Translation. You may be able to find better translators or a better price elsewhere, but this service saves you the headache of looking for a translator, and they’ve already pre-screened the translators for you, so you know that you’re getting someone who is capable.

3. Consider carefully whether you want to have two separate apps or an app that localizes based on locale. In the case of Android, it may be advantageous to create two separate apps with different names, descriptions, and screenshots, and have the two link to each other in the description easily by putting the words “looking for this app in English? Try SuperApp” into the Spanish description and putting a line of Spanish into the English description directing Spanish-speakers to the English app. There are three advantages to this method:

• You have two different opportunities for search in the Google Play.
• Having more than one app lends your company credibility.
• People living in the United States who speak Spanish, for example, will not have to fight with the app to get the Spanish version despite their location. They can simply choose to download the Spanish version.

[There is a disadvantage in the fact that each app will likely receive fewer downloads and ratings than one would if listed individually. This will affect its overall ranking in app stores.]

4. Consider whether a different demographic group may need different graphics or other adjustments. For example, if your app has a date and time feature, you may wish to change the format to DD/MM/YYYY in order to conform with the European standard. (As opposed to the American MM/DD/YYYY format.)

5. Above all, consider whether your app is likely to interest Spanish speakers or speakers of any foreign language. If the app features the library hours for a small town with an exclusively English-speaking population, then translating the app is a waste of money. If the app is an international e-commerce site selling cosmetics worldwide, translate early and often!

Here are six of the most popular:

• Press releases
• Social Media
• Blogging
• SEO
• Advertising in ad networks
• Advertising in magazines and other offline offerings

Obviously, those are all excellent parts of a campaign for popularizing an app, but there’s another method that increases app usage quickly and efficiently and its power shouldn’t be underestimated.

That method is App Store Optimization (ASO). There are numerous elements involved in ASO. They include:

1. Great app icons. Your icon is the first thing people see when they look for an app. Make sure your icon stands out.
2. Great app name. Make sure the name tells people what the app does.
3. Great screenshots. They don’t all have to be actual screenshots. You can show someone using the app, too.
4. Sharp app description. Aim to describe the app thoroughly in the first five words, and then explain why it’s needed. Be sure to include important keywords.
5. Good app rating. Get your friends and co-workers to take a look at the app and rate it. Hopefully the app is good enough that they won’t be lying when they rate it highly.
6. A good app review. If necessary, solicit one from Fiverr. Just be sure that they don’t lie.
7. A network of apps.

Creating a network or family of apps is probably the most underused, under-rated methods of ASO. Simply put, if you have a network of apps, then every discovery of one app is an app discovery of all your apps. By creating a family of apps, you can have apps in a number of categories and banners in your apps that refer users to other apps.

As an example of how this could work, I’ll use juggling, since it’s my most accessible hobby. Imagine a system of apps including:

1. How to Juggle Balls — A written guide.
2. Learn to Juggle Clubs  – A video guide. (I made this one, using AppsGeyser when I first started working for them.)
3. Siteswap simulator (Siteswap is a notation which tells jugglers how high a ball should go and to which hand — it’s useful for creating interesting patterns. Link included because siteswap is very cool.)
4. Juggling Wallpaper — Pictures of jugglers doing exciting tricks.
5. Buy Juggling Equipment — A mobile juggling equipment store.
6. A Juggling blog — Perhaps it would just carry the dates for upcoming juggling events.

By creating six different apps in at least four different categories, I’d open up my app for discovery. Any search for anything related to juggling would bring up an app of mine, leading people to every other app.

Of course, the more an app is looked at, downloaded, and rated, the higher up the charts it goes. It doesn’t matter which app goes up the charts. What matters is how users are siphoned into the primary app — the one that makes the money. The ASO potential here is amazing, and many app makers neglect it. Remember that not every app has to be perfect. It’s enough to make a mobile blog app and wrap it with a tool like AppsGeyser or Mippin. (Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I work for AppsGeyser.) Make sure that your flagship app is great, but don’t hesitate to put in a supporting cast of apps, even if they’re not as robust.

And then the placement of some QR codes make no sense at all, like on a street billboard where traffic moves fast. Think about it, how is someone supposed to drive and scan your QR code at the same time (and not have an accident)?

I’ve also seen QR codes on websites that brought you back to the exact same website when used. Just on your phone. If you’re seeing the QR code, you’re already on your computer. Please, don’t do that.

QR codes can give a variety of different types of information. The most common uses are internet links, links to apps, and text.

How To Make A QR Code

Making a QR code is easy. Googling “Make QR Code for free” yields sites like Kaywa and Qurify, both of which work.

Be sure to download the QR Code image to your computer and then upload it to your website, if desired, rather than depending upon the QR Code maker sites to host it for you. That way, if the site stops working, your QR code isn’t affected.

Bad QR Code Use

Unfortunately, there is so much bad QR code use out there that it’s hard to know how to use QR codes effectively.

To give you some examples, I’ll let you see Scott Stratten’s take on bad QR code use:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are some bad uses that he mentions:

• QR codes that don’t lead to mobile-friendly content.
• Sending a QR code by email. (You have to see the video to appreciate the folly of this fully.)
• QR codes on Billboards (as mentioned above).
• Subway platforms where there is no signal.
• Airline magazines – you’re in a plane and can’t use the internet to follow them.

Scott Stratten is perhaps, a little forceful in his explanation, but he’s right. It’s clear that not every QR code campaign is well thought out.

A QR Code Checklist

Here are the keys to a well thought-out campaign using QR codes:

1. Give people something useful on mobile with your QR code. (Don’t send people to a website that isn’t optimized for mobile with a QR code!)
2. Use QR codes only in locations where they can easily and safely be scanned.
3. If the code is in a digital format (email or website), it must also be a link to the same content.
4. Make sure there is WiFi or 3G access in the place where the code is placed.
5. The QR code needs to be big enough and clear enough that even the lower-quality phones can scan it.
6. There should be a clear indication of which types of mobile devices can use the QR code. If it’s for Android only, iPhone users will be irritated if they try to scan it and get poor results.

Some Ideas For Using QR Codes

With that said, here are some great ways to use QR codes:

1. At a conference or meetup, put a QR code on your name tag or shirt, and people can scan it rather than taking your business card, which will inevitably be lost in a pile of received papers. Be sure to have business cards too, though. Some people like having something tangible.
2. For local businesses, put a QR code on the door that gives people a file with your opening times, phone numbers, and website. A PDF hosted on a website is good for this. If your business has an app, of course, that’s even better, but be sure to include your hours and phone numbers in a tab in your app!
3. If you’re having a t-shirt giveaway, you might want to put your QR code on the shirt, so that anyone with questions about your business can just scan a code and get answers. My favorite place for these codes is in the upper area of the back, between the shoulder blades. Putting the code on the front makes the t-shirt unattractive.
4. T-shirts are more effective than keychains, because they are more visible, but if you’re giving out keychains or other trinkets, put your QR code on them. Just be sure to do it in a way that doesn’t make the item ugly. I was recently at a conference where one of the speakers gave out keychains with a QR code. You could scan the QR code for a chance to win a prize, too. This will, of course, dramatically increase the number of people who scan the code.
5. Banners – at convention tables, in public spaces, anywhere someone might be interested in your app or product, have a banner with your QR code. (Use banners in places with pedestrian traffic.)
6. For businesses that service cars, put a QR code sticker on the sun-visor, and have it lead to an app where you can both track regular car service and schedule your next maintenance online. To make it even better, offer coupons!
7. For a restaurant, give a QR code with the receipt or on the menu. Have it lead to a place to sign up for an email newsletter that includes coupons or freebies.
8. In emails and on webpages, I have to disagree with Scott Stratten – often people are reading an email or webpage on their computer and want to move the information to their mobile device. Just make sure it’s also a link to the information, in case they’re reading the site or email from their phone.

*And for Heaven’s sake, please don’t put a QR code on your belt buckle! Do you really want people photographing down there?

Be sure to let us know in what ways you’ve used QR codes to power your mobile marketing!

Photo by Fluid Forms on Flickr

I Have a Website. What Can I Do to Go Mobile?

Most companies now have websites, and if you have a mobile version, you’re off to a good start. There are a number of tools designed to help non-developer create apps, or let developers create apps in the programming language they’re most familiar with and convert it to the appropriate format for iOS or Android. For programmers, the options include Appcelerator, MotherApp, and PhoneGap . For non-developers, there’s AppsGeyser (disclosure: I manage content and community for AppsGeyser), as well as RunRev, AppMakr, Genwi, SassMob, MobBase and many more. (Note: these mentions don’t constitute endorsements — do your own due diligence before choosing a solution.)

Benefits Of Apps Include Search And Branding

Having an app won’t necessarily help your ranking in search engines directly. Rather, it will increase your traffic in other ways. The main way in which having an app increases traffic is by giving you a whole new avenue for search. Mobile users often don’t search the web. They often search the Apple App Store or Android Market to find the information they want. Having an app allows you to appear in market searches.

You don’t care about Android Market or the App Store? Ok, ok. Remember how Google added that +1 button to the entire internet? They also allow you to add it to your apps. Since your app is connected to your webpage, that +1 button can be in your app, positioned prominently, and gaining you +1s  – assuming, of course, that your app provides users with value they’re eager to endorse.

Beyond visibility in search, it’s worth noting that recent research has found that consumers interacting with apps show more brand favorability and purchase intent. The study also found that apps that were more informational — providing product reviews, deals information or cooking tips — were more effective in engaging users, as compared to experiential game- or entertainment-oriented applications.

What About Increasing Visibility In Local Avenues?

There’s a lot of debate about the value of QR codes, and I’m not going to go into it here, but it’s clear that well-placed QR codes do get attention. People often scan them just out of curiosity. While a QR code can lead to anything, a QR code that leads to an app is more effective than one that leads to a mobile website.

This is true because a mobile website is browsed momentarily for anything interesting and then the browser is closed. An app is installed, used, and remains on the device until the owner chooses to remove it. As such, an app is likely to be opened again and used again. If the content is valuable, the user keeps the app. This means more repeat traffic. This is a great way for local businesses to drive engagement with customers.