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Human Faces Can Be A Great Tool To Increase User Experience

Human Faces
Human Faces Can Be A Great Tool To Increase User Experience

In a quest to increase and better the User Experience, designers try to use plenty of techniques and new ideas. However, they often neglect the fact that human faces can be a compelling tool in a designer’s toolbox. Human faces are bound to get more attention as compared to any other visual graphics. Moreover, they evoke human emotions which can lead to an emotional interaction and increased engagement. The reactions and behaviors of users can be easily influenced by the use of human faces. Here are a few factors that highlight how faces can be very effective in enhancing UX of any website.

1. Creates A Stunning First Impression

No matter what kind of content you have on your web page, images of faces will draw immediate attention as compared to other content. Many eye tracking studies have confirmed this fact and has also stated that the users keep moving their attention back and forth between these face images and other content. A face will create a solid first impression of your website on users. It doesn’t take a long for users to form an opinion about a website during their first interaction. 50 milliseconds approximately. That’s really quick and therefore a face can act as a powerful tool to create a significant impact.

wix

Pic Courtesy: Wix.com

2. Effectively Guides a Visitor’s Line Of Sight

Once a user’s attention is grabbed you can also guide his line of sight with proper placement and use of face images. As humans, we have a tendency to follow the line of sight of other people. It simply means that if a face image is looking in a particular direction or towards a particular section, users will also shift their focus in that direction. Designers can use a strategically placed face image to direct users’ attention to important content and call-to-action buttons.

audi

Pic Courtesy: Audi.com

3. Facial Expressions Evoke Emotional Responses

We all have come across the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words ” and this could not be truer in case of a face image. The human face is capable of expressing and showcasing a large number of emotions. A designer can convey emotions through facial expressions on human faces. The expression on the faces of images used can evoke similar emotions in users. If users view a genuinely happy face, they will most likely develop the same emotion which will influence their feelings for your website or the brand as a whole. Studies confirm that emotions in designs directly impact the conversion ratio.

spotify

Pic Courtesy: Spotify.com

4. Builds Trust

Building trust among users is very critical to the success of any business. Human faces can help a lot in establishing a sense of trust. Trust is the foundation of any successful and loyal customer base. The digital world is full of products, services, and brands. Users are always skeptical and don’t trust anyone easily. Showcasing real faces on the website portrays your openness and trustworthiness. A lot of companies have followed this and have opted a new kind of personalized ‘About Us’ section. They depict faces of CEOs, teams, and other members of the company to boost up trust. It is very useful for industries like medicine, childcare etc. where trust is a big factor.

founder

Pic Courtesy: foundr.com

5. Generates Visual Appeal

To a great extent, a product’s success is related to its visual appeal. A poorly packaged product might not get the sales it deserves. Same is the case with websites. No one wants to see an ugly design. Everyone prefers an attractive design. Human faces are a great way to enhance the aesthetic aspects of your design. Human faces provide a personal touch to users and they feel more connected. A website with human faces makes the users believe that there are real people behind this design. A lot of websites lack this personal touch which cost them deeply in terms of conversion ratio.

dove

Pic Courtesy: Dove.com

To Sum It Up

The effective use of human faces in UX design can create a huge impact on user experience. They are a great source to catch eyeballs immediately, evoke emotions, build trust and influence the behavior of users. Designers must use human faces more often while designing a website to shape up the overall experience of users. We have a team of experts who constantly infuse similar design tricks to scale up the user experience. Have a word with them and get a stunning website design.

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Technology

How To Pick A Name For Your Mobile App?

Pick A Name For Your Mobile App

What’s in the name you may ask. Well, almost everything. Naming anything is very crucial and holds great importance. A name can create a huge impact or may even become the sole cause of a blunder. The naming process is imperative and must be dealt with caution. The same holds true even when you’re naming your mobile app. The name needs to not only suit your business and brand, it should also instantly ring a bell in people’s mind. Whenever someone hears the name, they should picture the image of your brand in their mind in a way that you wanted them to.

Think of all the great brand names like Adidas, Mercedes, Audi, Coca-Cola, Subway, Walmart etc. Do you think these names were pulled out of thin air without any thought process? Absolutely not. Moreover, a lot depends on the name of your app when it comes to search rankings. It’s great to have an amazing app, but it might not get the deserved attention if the name just sucks. In this article, we have compiled a few tips that you must consider while zeroing down on the name for your mobile app. Take a look.

1. Analyze The Competitors

It’s always a wise step to take a look at the already established players in your genre. Visit the app store and go through the top performers in your category. Understand what kind of names are grabbing more popularity. Long names or short names, common names or distinctive names, names related to some person or nonperson names etc. Check all these factors to know what is the safest bet. No need to be over innovative and swim against the tide. Just go with the flow with a little stroke of uniqueness. Do not try to be way too close to your competitor’s name or you may end up with legal issues.

2. Understand The Market Rules

It goes without saying that if you wish to play a game, you must know all the rules of the game. In case of launching a mobile app, you must be aware of the best practices of the store that you want to launch your app in. Whether you want to hit the Apple market, Android market, or both, it totally depends on you. But knowing the market rules and best practices is a must.

Apple store allows only 30 characters in a mobile app name. They recommend simple names with simple spellings and the name should have a connect with the functionality of the app. Apple also suggests maintaining distance from generic terminology and names similar to the already existing app of the same genre.

On the other hand, Android app store allows 50 characters in a mobile app name. They have strict terms about keywords stuffing in the name and description of the app. It can call a suspension if you don’t follow these rules religiously. Even if Google allows more characters in the app name, it’s advisable to stick to 30 characters as its an appropriate length for a mobile app name. Moreover, if you are launching the app on both the platforms, it’s good to have a common name.

3. Select A Brand Name Rather Than An App Name

Yes, we agree that technically you’re selecting your app’s name, but the name is not merely the name of your app. It’s the face of your overall brand. Thus, the name must look apt on all the platforms, social media pages or even on merchandise. Don’t just be an app, be a brand name. We don’t say that you will scale exponentially to become a global brand name like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, but they would have been there if they would have thought the same.

The branding strategy must also focus on a clean and crisp logo which directly relates to your app name. This way it can be used as the app icon as well. It helps the users to identify your brand distinctively yet keeping the uniformity at place.

4. Stay Away From Unique Spellings

In a quest to be different and innovative, people sometimes cross the line. That’s when the trouble starts. It’s good to inject innovation and distinction when it comes to app names, but the innovation should have a limit and must not cost you the overall success of your app. One good advice on this label is to stay away from unique spellings. Don’t play with the spellings and please stick to the official ones. It has a very negative impact if you spell your app name in a way that is not standard.

Let’s see an Example: Suppose a user suggests your story app to his friend. He says “Dude check out this awesome story app by the name of Freaky Stories”. He searches it on the app store and couldn’t find you. Why? Because you wanted to be uber cool and thus spelled your app as FreeKey Stories. Unless you hold the formula to immortality and selling it for free, chances are that the user will not waste more time and efforts to search you. You will lose more and more potential users like this.

5. Consider A Third Party View

While you are the owner of your business, app, and brand, it will never hurt you to consider someone else’s opinion. This exercise can sometimes provide a new perspective or dimension to the whole process. You can select the names that top your list and can take opinions from friends, family, closed ones, knowledgeable, and even experts. They might give you the best suggestion or may even scrap all the ideas with a solid logic behind it. Both the things are for your good. You can even hire a consultancy firm for the same. They can conduct a study on a sample group, collect responses and provide you valuable insights.

Conclusion

There is always an unsung hero in any epic story and I think a mobile app name is that unsung hero of the epic success story of an app. There are plenty of advantages of selecting an apt app name considering the overall business and branding goals. The process may sound very simple, but sure needs a lot of brainstorming keeping the above tips in mind. Thus, naming an app must be amongst the top 5 on the ‘To-Do checklist’ if not at the very top. Talk to our experts to know more and discuss your mobile app development requirements.

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Technology

How To reduce App Churns By Using Push Notifications

push notifications

The focus during the initial stages of any app development is purely on growth. Adding more and more users is the primary objective so that the app is launched in flying colors. However, the focus must quickly shift towards retention of users rather than adding more and more one time users. It’s a proven fact that retaining customers is more fruitful for long-term traction. Thus, any and every strategy which seems to work towards this goal must be implemented instantly. Push notifications are one of the methods to boost customer retention rate. This article will cover the details about how we can better our push notifications to reduce app churns.

1. Focus On Quality Rather Than Quantity

It’s not necessary that a high number of notifications will create a bigger impact. In fact, in some cases the reverse is true. The frequency of notifications is directly proportional to the type of product/service that you offer. It’s all about the correct timing of your notifications and the value that they create. If you keep bombarding users with notifications every other minute, they will surely get annoyed and will opt out of the notifications or worse they may simply uninstall the app.
The copy of the notifications is the key impact creator. However, creativity is also must and often decides the success rate. Personalization is utterly important while targeting through notifications.

2. Segmentation Is Must

Use of generic push notifications has depleted over the last few years and segmented push notifications are on the rise. People feel more connected when the message is directly related to them. Every user is different from each other and on the whole, not all users can be grouped under one umbrella. The type of messages received by every user must be based on his/her preferences, past choices, behavior, and engagement with the application. Proper and accurate segmentation can be done by using the in-app data. User-specific messaging leads to an increase in lead conversions as well.

3. Provide Users What They Really Seek

With the help of in-app data, you can get to know what a particular user likes or dislikes. You also can determine their behavior which can help you to zero down on things which a particular user is really looking for. Personalization of notifications to provide any user exactly what he is looking for is critical for the success of any notification strategy. The content should be tailor-made to be super relevant for the user. Another great way of using personalization is to use Rich Notifications. These allow you to include text, images, audio and other interactive features in your push notifications. Even clickable responses within push notifications can be included which allow users to like, share or save particular content.

4. Constant Re-engagement

Push notifications are an excellent method to re-engage users who weren’t converted previously or may have otherwise disengaged. Re-engagement is an integral part of any mobile marketing strategy and depends heavily on personalization. Study of behavioral patterns plays a crucial role in properly implementing any notification strategy. Users have their own reasons to withdraw and sending them a bunch load of irrelevant messages will drive them away further.

5. Tracking Various Key Engagement Metrics

There are a lot of key engagement metrics that can be used for tracking the success of the app. With the help of this analysis, you can improve your retention rate, improve the content of push notifications, improve segmentation, reduce app churns, and improve performance to drive more loyalty. You should fetch data related to location, device, frequency etc. to analyze what’s really working and what’s going in vain.
The acceptance and success of push notifications is a very subjective matter. However, keeping the above-mentioned points in mind will definitely help you in improving the user retention percentage and also will squeeze down your app churns. Talk to our experts and learn more.

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Technology

Taxi Businesses Must Invest In Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development
Taxi Businesses Must Invest In Mobile App Development

How we book a taxi today is completely different from how we use to book it a few years ago. People have shifted from the conventional taxi booking process to booking a taxi through an app. With the rise of mobile taxi booking app giants like Uber and Ola, conventional taxi businesses got a big blow. People find it much easier to book a taxi with just a tap on their mobile rather than following a rigorous procedure. It’s time that conventional taxi operators realize the fact that they cannot run their business without investing in mobile app development to get their own app.

Benefits Of Having A Mobile App

Increased Profits

As a taxi business, if you join hands with popular aggregator apps, you need to pay a large commission to them. This leaves a very narrow profit margin and eventually leads the business to low earnings or even losses. Having your own app will cut down on this commission paid and thus the overall profit will substantially increase.

More Visibility

Having a mobile app boosts your overall visibility to a whole new level. People reach out to their smartphones to perform any and every task today and booking a taxi is no exception. Tourists normally depend on their smartphones to locate taxi services. All the taxi operators without a mobile app are losing out on these customers.

Cost Reduction Through Automation

With the adoption of new technology, customers can directly get in touch with your drivers. This will provide them better cab booking experience through a reduced ETA. The overhead costs will also plunge down through automation and the driver’s performance will also improve. You get an added advantage of customization and branding when you have your own app.

Creating your own taxi-booking mobile app may be a savior for your falling business. It’s always wise to ride the tide (technological advancement in this case) rather than trying to flow against the tide. You might have understood the importance of a taxi booking app by now, which leads us to the next step and the nitty-gritty related to that. Once you have decided to develop a mobile app for your taxi business, you must understand that there are certain golden rules to follow in order to create and manage a successful taxi booking app.

Here are a few mantras for any taxi booking app to be successful:

  • The process of locating a suitable and quick means of transport must be as simple as possible.
  • The primary objective of the app must be to conveniently connect the driver and the customers.
  • Drivers must also be benefitted, especially while offering their ride to the people close to their location.
  • There must be a provision to share a ride in order to cut down the cost.

The business model of taxi booking has changed drastically over the years and having a mobile app is mandatory for any taxi business. By no means developing a taxi booking mobile app is a simple task. There are a lot of technicalities that need to be taken into consideration while developing it. Talk to our expert developers and understand these technicalities. For sure you will let our experts do the job for you after the discussion.

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Technology

5 Mobile App Development Trends To Notice in 2018

Mobile App Development Trends 2018

We are in the last week of 2017 and what a great year it has been for mobile app development. Plenty of new app development trends surfaced and some of them have changed the mobile app development process forever. The popularity of mobile apps is increasing rapidly. The number of free app downloads has increased from 57.33 billion in 2012 to approximately 254 billion in 2017. This number is going to increase even further in 2018. So in this last blog piece of 2017, we have selected 5 mobile app trends that one must watch in 2018.

1. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Google launched AMP in Feb 2016 and since then the page loading on mobile apps has accelerated substantially. Besides the awesomeness of accelerated page loading speed, Google has also declared that it will provide a separate search index for the mobile web. This completely transforms the approach towards mobile app development in terms of SEO. Accelerated Mobile Pages will ensure that web apps load swiftly on mobile devices, thereby decreasing the bounce rate. Publishers will also be benefited as their ads will get more visibility which will eventually lead to higher traffic. AMP will lead to higher CTR, easy content placement, easy visitors analysis, and elimination of sitemap. With so many positives, AMP will surely be trending in 2018 and will impact the mobile development process.

Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page)

2. Internet Of Things (IOT) & Wearable Apps

The concept of smart cities, smart offices and smart homes is growing like never before. IOT and wearable apps have become popular in a variety of sectors like health, education, automotive etc. Although it’s still in the growing phase, 2018 looks to be a promising year for the Internet of Things and wearable apps. Apple watch apps are already becoming quite popular and Google has also launched Android Things to pace up the acceptance of IOT. Experts predict a 33.3% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) by 2021. A rise in IOT directly impacts the mobile app development process as the devices are controlled by smartphones under IOT.

The Imminent Security Fiasco of IOT

3. Android Instant Apps

Android Instant Apps are native apps that function exactly like websites. They are very convenient to access and thus can attract a huge crowd. Android Instant Apps provide a seamless experience by fading all borders between an app and a website. Apps can be accessed from anywhere without actual installation. They are compatible with all the android versions clocking back till Jelly bean. It saves a lot of space on your smartphone as you don’t need to install unwanted apps. They are also easily shareable. The mobile app development process will definitely be impacted by the rise of these instant apps in the year 2018.

Android Instant Apps

4. Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality Apps

2017 has been a great year for AR and VR. AR and VR have found their way beyond gaming and entertainment. The growth trends have suggested a spike in demand of AR and VR not only for consumers but also for businesses seeking new technologies. Healthcare, retail, real estate, and engineering are the key industries which are more likely to continue the growth trend of Augmented Reality, whereas Virtual Reality will be driven by gaming and event industries. The future mobile apps will be developed hand in hand with AR and VR.

AugmentedVirtualReality

5. Lazy Loading

One of the biggest factor to increase bounce rate is the slow loading of a page. Often pages that contain high image content takes forever to load which irritates the user and forces him to bounce off. The industry experts have identified this threat and have developed the concept of Lazy Loading to address this issue. Under Lazy Loading, the images load only when their turn comes which quickens the page loading process and avoids overcrowding of the web page. Mobile app developers will surely need to implement lazy loading while developing apps in 2018.

Lazy Loading

Mobile app development has witnessed a huge change and advancement in the past few years. 2017 was a terrific year for mobile app development and the future looks very promising. The world of mobile technology is constantly changing and it’s very important for the app developers to keep themselves abreast of the latest trends. Implementing the latest trends in mobile app development will ensure that the app is updated and doesn’t get written off in the app market. Ask our expert app developers how you can create or modify your existing mobile app to match the latest trends.

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Technology

What Are The Key Components Of A Flawless Chatbots?

Chatbots

Any business that wishes to reach new heights of success relies heavily on its customer service. No matter how good your product or service is, a poor or average customer service can cause a serious dent in its success. For long, humans proved to be the best option when it comes to customer service representatives. However, customer-centric chatbots are quickly taking their place. Communication is the key to any successful business and that’s the reason why several marketing top heads are integrating AI-enabled chatbots into their system.

Today, when a visitor lands on a webpage, a chatbot welcomes him with a message. This creates a positive impact on the customers and engages them in a conversation with the company. The leading developers across the world have developed amazingly intelligent Chatbots that can quickly process all kind of information like text, photos, videos etc. So what should you keep in mind while making a chatbot for your website? Here are a few key ingredients to make a perfect chatbot.

1. Contextual Understanding

The biggest challenge while automating human communication is to understand the contextual meaning of a statement. For this, the chatbots need a much higher level of intelligence which will enable it to extract the real context from a customer’s statement. It must analyze a number of variables like conversation history, date, day, tone etc. present in a customer’s statement. These variables vary from customer to customer. Intelligent chatbots can effectively streamline the internal communication process to strengthen the customer support.

2. Comprehendible Responses

No matter how intelligent these chatbots become, the key to their success will always be how human-like they are. When visitors land on a webpage and start interacting with these bots they must feel as if they are really interacting with a human being. To ensure this, it’s essential to maintain a particular tone and dialect while talking. The focus should predominantly be on creating a natural communication process with responses that are clearly understood by the visitors.

3. Predefined General Responses

Chatbots must be designed to not only give custom replies, but they can provide general responses based on a predefined mechanism. These flows are designed in order to take the users from introduction stage to conversation. An AI-enabled chatbot must be used to enhance this marketing mechanism and save time for the customer support desk. Predefined responses will help in gathering the initially required information hence shortening the customer support process. Chatbots are most used in the banking and healthcare sectors where it has helped a lot in saving time. An analysis showed that chatbots helped in saving almost 4 mins per customer in comparison to a phone call. This can help these sectors save billions of dollars every year.

4. Data Gathering Tool

Chatbot is an amazing data gathering tool. Brainstorm and zero down on the key data metrics that you would like to collect from your customers and design your chatbot in a way that it captures this information. For example – Ask the zipcode from your customers to know their location. You can collect information about their shopping preferences to push relevant information to them. Information about their eating habits, shopping preferences, exercise habits etc. will help you to push relevant offers and promotions to them.

5. Constant Evaluation and Updation

This is the most important component to consider while developing a chatbot or for that matter any new application or feature. Chatbots are pretty new, which means there is a huge scope for improvement and enhancement. Keep a close eye on your competitors. Figure out what they are doing well and implement it in your chatbot strategy. Pick out the innovative features and see if you can use it in your chatbots. Also, learn from their mistakes and shortcomings. Monitor your app on a regular basis and evaluate it thoroughly. Determine the scope of optimization based on your overall goals.

Concluding Remarks

A chatbot is a brilliant digital marketing tool which can boost the conversion ratio of any business. It also is a cost-effective alternative to human customer service representatives and has a very bright future ahead. The only tricky part is to maintain a balance between the automation and human aspect. No matter how much the technology grows, human touch will never lose its value. The upcoming few years will be very exciting and it would be real fun watching these chatbots evolve. Talk to our experts to know more about chatbots and discuss your digital media requirements.

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Technology

The Most Popular Frameworks For Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development

We live in an age where we all are surrounded by thousands of gadgets. The role of various gadgets in our day-to-day life has become more prominent with every passing day. Today we are gonna talk about our favorite gadget, the smartphone. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, mobile phones are something which we can’t live without. Our entire life is packed in this little device. Be it birthdays, contacts, exercise regimes, daily schedule, banking, shopping or anything else, it’s all tucked in neatly in this device. With the demand for more and more apps, mobile app development has become a serious business leading to a high demand for app developers.

App developers use a lot of different mobile frameworks to develop the desired app. However, there are certain frameworks which are more popular and effective than others. Here are 7 of the most popular mobile app frameworks which can boost your mobile development skills.

1. Ionic

Over the past few years, Ionic has established itself as the new superhero in the hybrid mobile development community. Ionic gets an upper hand as it is fairly easy to use and learn. It also offers a library of optimized HTML, CSS, JavaScript CSS components, gestures & tools, and works with predefined components. The best part about Ionic is that it provides all the functionality which can be found in Native mobile app development SDKs. This means that when users build their apps on Ionic, they can access all native functions of the device including camera, contacts etc. Ionic also provides custom components and methods to interact with these native functions by using Angular.

Ionic

2. Mobile Angular UI

Angular UI is an extension to Bootstrap 3 but without any dependencies on Bootstrap or Jquery. Angular UI uses fastclick.js and overthrow.js for a smoother and better mobile experience. This is the perfect combination of Angular and Bootstrap that maintains Bootstrap 3’s amazing syntax and adds popular mobile components such as witches, sidebars, overlays, scrollable areas, and fixed-positioned navbars.

Mobile Angular UI

3. jQuery Mobile

Built on the already popular extension to JavaScript, there was no surprise when jQuery was also included for mobile development. jQuery is an excellent mobile framework to create cross-platform apps for desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets or e-reader devices like Nook or Kindle. jQuery mobile is built on solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation which makes it a complete framework to build apps that can run seamlessly on mobiles, tablets, and web. jQuery focuses more on the performance of the app rather than providing a Native look.

jQuery Mobile

4. Xamarin

Xamarin was introduced back in 2011 and has gained massive popularity since then. It works with the mono framework to communicate with the API. It comes with a C# Codebase which allows developers to write Native apps for Android, iOS, and Windows. One of the most interesting features of Xamarin is that you can directly test your app on the cloud while you are monitoring them.

Xamarin

5. Appcelerator

Appcelerator writes applications in JavaScript and runs them on a Native platform with the use of its Titanium SDK. This cross-platform development software focuses on producing Native apps and offers more than 5000 APIs for Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and HTML5. Appcelerator is not that easy to use as compared to its counterpart but is best known for its performance and extensive feature set.

Appcelerator

6. PhoneGap

PhoneGap is the brainchild of Adobe. PhoneGap is a combination that not only allows users to create their apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript but also package the app, make it portable, and release it to multiple app stores. It can also extend the features of HTML and JavaScript to create apps with Native look and feel. Cordova provides a set of JavaScript APIs that allows the app to use Native functions such as Camera, Compass, Geolocation, and Contacts. PhoneGap also supports multiple operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, Web OS and many more.

PhoneGap

7. React Native

React Native separates itself from rest of the frameworks in this list by shifting its focus from creating Hybrid apps to creating real Native apps. React Native was designed by Facebook on the basis of React and was derived from their Ads Manager app. It comes with fast development cycles and declarative self-contained UI components while retaining the feel and speed of Native apps. The application logic is written and run in JavaScript while the UI is fully Native. This offers developers a chance to maintain the look and feel of a Native app without using the traditional languages.

React Native

To Conclude

While there are plenty of other mobile development frameworks available for users, these are the topmost frameworks that offer a simple and easy way to develop apps. If there are any other frameworks which are your personal favorite, do let us know in the comment section and for any other discussion related to mobile app development, talk to our experts NOW !

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Technology

How To Generate Revenue Through Free Mobile Apps?

Generate Revenue Through Free Mobile Apps
Generate Revenue Through Free Mobile Apps

There are a lot of crucial decisions involved in the process of mobile apps development. However, the most crucial decision is taken once the app is all set to be launched. That decision is to choose between a free app or a paid app. One of the biggest misconception people have is that only paid apps can generate money as people pay a fee to download the app. But, it is completely false. Almost all the popular apps are free to download and they still generate a healthy revenue.

Majority of the mobile apps that get downloaded are free for download. This clearly points out the trend that people are more keen to download free apps rather than paid apps. So, it’s best that you keep your download free, get as many downloads as you can, and then look to generate revenue by other means. What means you ask? Let’s go through a few monetization strategies which will help you to earn real money through free mobile apps.

Preliminary Ground Work:

  • Figure Out Your Customers
    Before you jump on anything else, take this very basic step. Try to analyze who are your users? Understanding your users is very critical and forms a solid base for further steps. If you have an existing business, the demographics of the users will be a replica of your current users. However, if you are completely a new business, you will need to focus on your potential customers.Even the smallest of the things like availability of your app on different operating systems can help you in understanding user behavior. According to a study conducted by Plots Projects, the notification opened rate on Android is 13.6% as compared to 4.1 % on iOS. Apple and Android users are poles apart in terms of behavior. Analyze the Who, What, and How in terms of app usage to understand your users better. Once you get the answers, compare it with your app and find out if it meets these considerations. If Yes, then you are good to go ahead.

  • Perform A Thorough Competitor analysis
    Sometimes we focus so much on our own app that we forget to check and compare other competitor apps. This is again a very crucial step in order to place your app appropriately in the market. Perform some of the key analysis like:
    – Traffic Analysis
    – Site Analysis
    – Content Analysis
    – Keyword Analysis
    – Link Analysis
    – PPC Analysis
    – Feature AnalysisYou can gather huge insights by performing these analyses. Learn from the best practices of your key competitors, follow them and on the other hand try to find out their shortcomings and mistakes. Avoid doing the same mistakes and fill the gap of shortcomings in your app. Differentiate your product by doing something which no one else is doing. This would become the focal point of your marketing strategy and will boost your brand image.

Monetizing Methods In Free Apps

We have covered the preliminary components of the monetization strategy in previous points which will provide a good launchpad for implementing the real monetizing methods in your app. Let’s now get to the real action. There are 2 basic ways through which free apps generate money:

  1. In-app purchases
  2. Advertisements

Either one of the methods can be applied to generate money, or even both of them could be applied together. Let’s understand each one of them individually.

  • In-App Purchases:
    In-app purchases are basically upgrades which allow users to get access to additional features and enhances user experience. Studies have proved that only a few people purchase upgrades and iOS users are more willing to pay for upgrades in comparison to Android users. It’s not possible that all your users will opt for a paid upgrade and hence you need to focus on that small group who are more likely to purchase these upgrades. You’ve got to discover a way to get the user glued to your app and push them to come back looking for more.Gaming apps are a brilliant example of in-app purchases. The download is free but access to certain levels and features are restricted. It can only be achieved through a paid upgrade. Coin system and token system are great methods to push a user to spend more per purchase. Rather than saying something costs $1 you can offer it for 100 tokens and offer coin purchase options like 500 coins for $5.

    Apple Support has bifurcated in-app purchases into 4 different categories:

    Consumable – You can buy these items every time you want them, and you can’t download them again for free. Like purchasing coins or tokens.

    Non-consumable – You buy these items one time and might be able to download it again for free. Like an upgrade to a premium version with no ads.

    Non-renewing subscriptions – You can use this content for a fixed period of time, depending on the app, and you can buy these items again after your subscription ends. Like Sports apps offering access to specific leagues (EPL, NFL, NBA season etc.)

    Auto-renewing subscriptions – You can buy these services or this content for a specific subscription period, and the subscription will automatically renew at the end of that period. Like newspaper & magazine subscriptions, Netflix, Hulu Plus etc.

    Analyze what kind of an in-app purchase will compliment your app. Some of these methods might work better than the other but that’s totally subjective from app to app.

  • Advertisements:
    These are pretty straightforward. You would have come across ads on various websites and mobile apps. If you already have a website, then you don’t need to learn anything about how ads work on apps. It’s the same as they work on a website. You get money for impressions & clicks on the ads. The pay rate is different for different types of ads. You can charge more for video ads in comparison to static banner ads.Advertisements are a great source of revenue for an app. Having said that, overdoing it can seriously hamper a user’s experience which can in turn cause damage to your app. So you must know  where to draw the line.

    In-app purchases and advertisements can be applied individually based on which one suits best for your app. However, in some cases, both of them can go hand in hand. For example – You can offer a premium upgrade to users who don’t want to see ads on your app.

Final Words

If you have a question in your mind that whether you should launch your app as free or paid, the answer is FREE. It gives you more opportunity in terms of expanding your reach. Once you achieve a handsome number of downloads, you can implement the above mentioned monetizing strategies to churn money from your app. Don’t forget to perform the preliminary steps to zero down on the best method to get money from your free app. All the best!

Categories
Technology

How To Recognize If a Mobile App Is Due For Major Update

Mobile App Updates
How To Recognize If Your Mobile App Is Due For A Major Update

The recent times have made us more dependant on our mobile phones than ever. There are so many daily jobs which are completed through our mobile phones, unlike the traditional ways. Smartphone users are no longer under the custody of storage limitations which has allowed them to download and use more and more apps. With so many apps being actively used, developers have a task at hand to keep their apps updated and in sync with latest trends. That’s why we see so many app upgrade notifications on our devices every day. But, what are the factors that motivate them to push an update?

There are 2 kinds of updates, a minor update, and a major update. A minor update consists of small changes, tweaks, bug fixes etc. Whereas a major update consists of a handful of new changes, a new user experience or an entirely new visual design. These updates are less frequent and there are certain factors which help in identifying the need for such an update. Let’s check them out!

1. Addition of An Important Feature

The most basic way to identify if it’s time for a major app update is by analyzing the features of the app. If you are planning to implement a major addition to the list of existing features which has a direct impact on the overall user experience, then that calls for a major update. These important features could be an addition of social media element, authentication and syncing features, new revenue model, third-party integration or other application-specific features.

2. Changing The Existing App Design

There’s no rocket science involved here. If you are planning to change the visual quotient of the app, you will need to go with a major update. The change could be in design terms, user interface or user experience. Changes related to scrolling patterns, color scheme, layouts etc. come under this umbrella. A change in the app design is quite a motivator for people to update the app.

3. A Deteriorating Codebase

The world of apps is a strange world and keeps updating every day. In terms of apps, even a 1-year-old codebase can be considered old. Technology is changing and updating at such a fast pace that an aging codebase becomes a big driver for rolling out a major update. There are often more than one hands involved in the development process which helps in a faster release. However, it also makes the code more complicated and hard to manage. If adding a new feature is a daunting task or if new libraries would make a feature easier to implement, you must look out for a major update or maybe even a completely rewritten code.

4. Poor Performing App Metrics

Reaching out to your target audience and proper management of key app metrics are very crucial to the success of any app. Underperforming app metrics like poor app ratings is a leading factor to roll out a major app update. Monitoring the app data can only provide you numbers. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You might see that users are not returning back to your app on a regular basis or not visiting a particular screen. What it doesn’t tell you is that why are they not coming back? It’s essential that you use the insights from these numbers to understand the root cause of the problem. Also, talk to the real users and understand what they feel. Implement the required changes and push it through a major update.

5. App Not Able To Match Latest Design Trends

Sometimes it becomes absolutely necessary to change the design of the app. The design trends are updating every now and then to match the pace of changing technology. This forces the big guns like Google and Apple to define certain guidelines and rules in terms of app designs and you need to abide by them. Not following the latest design trends can be a big factor to push a major update.

Not following the latest design trends could include ignoring Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines or Google’s Material Design. It could also simply mean not living up to user’s expectation. If your app doesn’t look or function like other top apps, it won’t be on a lot of devices.

Releasing a major update gives you an opportunity to brightly shine among your users. You can implement big changes and give your app a complete makeover and upgrade. Even if everyone doesn’t notice the good work you do in the update, there would certainly be some important eyes which will notice it. Writers, analysts, power users etc. will definitely notice it and will appreciate your hard work and commitment towards your app. Lastly, never use the major update as a marketing gimmick. Stick to the above-mentioned factors and consider other important aspects before you decide to go for it.

Categories
Technology

Looking For A Cheap App Development Agency? Think Again

App Development Agency

The popularity of mobile apps is scaling new heights with every passing day. Having a mobile app for your business has become almost mandatory. But with every new advancement in mobile technology, we hear about new heartbreaking stories of clients. In an attempt to save a few bucks, companies choose app development agencies that offer development at a low price. But is it a wise decision? The stats and experience of the industry experts beg to differ. This option will end up costing you more money, time and efforts eventually. Here are a few pointers showcasing the adverse effects of choosing a low price or cheap app development agency.

1. Wastage Of Time

Time is money and a wastage of time means wastage of money. A seasoned digital agency will have experienced players with years of industry experience. This enables them to understand your requirements quickly and they can deliver the end product much faster. Whereas, a low-cost digital agency will not be able to employ experienced staff. A less experienced or fresher app developer will apparently take more time which will increase your overall costing.

2. Lack of Facilities Resulting In A Low-Quality App

A cheap digital agency will always face budget constraints and that’s why they will always cut down wherever it’s possible. They will not have a highly experienced team, no access to premium tools, technological restrictions and even a not so great infrastructure. All these factors will affect the quality of your final product. A low-quality app will require a lot of changes, improvements, and advancements at a later stage which will require more money.

3. Low Ratings & Poor Reviews

The first impression is often the last impression. A user starts judging your app from the moment he downloads your app. As discussed in the previous point, a cheap app agency will end up making a low-quality app which definitely will not sit in the good books of customers. Users will thrash your app ratings and will write negative reviews as well. This will give you a double blow. You will not only lose customers who have installed your app, but the poor ratings and reviews will force potential users to look for alternatives.

4. No Provision Of App Maintenance

A cheap digital agency aims only at the initial development of an app. Their sole objective is to create the app and launch it for you. Very rarely they will provide the support and assistance required after the launch of the app. But, the real game only starts once the app is launched. They don’t spend the necessary time and efforts on testing the app in test and real-time environment which allow some bugs to sneak through the release process. This will result in crashing and improper functioning of the app and your app will die slowly.

5. Lack Of Effective Communication

A cheap digital agency will mostly be without any organizational structure. Most of the times there is not even a project manager or a SPOC with whom you can communicate properly. As a result, your expectations, suggestions, and limitations are not comprehended by the agency. This also results in missing the deadlines and redoing a particular task due to ineffective communication. The launch of your app keeps getting delayed and the cost continues inflating.

The purpose of this article is to make you understand one simple fact: ‘Cheap may not necessarily be the best always.’ Of course, cost saving is an essential aspect of any business. However, saving a few bucks in a short run by sacrificing the overall quality of your app is not a very bright choice. Also, you will end up paying much more eventually. So choose wisely! Discuss your mobile app development requirements with our experts who carry loads of industry experience and get the best solutions.