Posts Tagged ‘Apps’

What Performance Should You Expect from In App Ads?

Mobile is on everyone’s minds these days. Whether you are talking about iOS v. Android devices or wondering just how many people have smartphones these days, there is plenty to discuss.

As marketers we are most interested in who has them and if they respond well to advertising. eMarketer points out some data around the performance of in app ads that is, well, not exactly awe-inspiring. First, there is a look at some data from a Lab42 study about just how many in app ads users click on.

Of course, I can only speak from a personal perspective but I don’t know if I have clicked on more than 10 ads anywhere in my life so to see that even some 30% have clicked on 6 or more in app ads is interesting to me. Of course, the other 70 percent is at 5 or less clicks with 20% of those surveyed never clicking on an in app ad.

The article then looks at another angle of the mobile advertising space which is the in app ad that asks the user to get another app so they can receive an incentive. People like incentives but the apps they download to get them don’t get the same love as this chart from a Pontiflex study shows.

With only 3% of the respondents using the new app often and 37% uninstalling the app and the rest of the respondents being pretty indifferent to the app this makes for an interesting discussion. If someone has downloaded your app for an incentive, received the incentive then ditched the app is that a success? What we need to know is if those incentives are redeemed and turn into business. The staying power of this method of advertising is questionable, though, at least based on these findings.

Part of the problem is that there is simply too much noise. The winners in anything in the Internet space will be those that are able to keep it simple while cutting through the excess crap that clutters up the Internet like a side street bazaar.

In 2012 how do you plan to fight the noise in the online space? Is there a way to get it done consistently or is this simply an exercise in hoping you can do enough that some messages rise above the din to be a success?

Retailers Get Creative With Recordable Codes and Snappy Apps

According to IBM, a record number of shoppers will shift their shopping from PC to mobile this holiday season. For stores with a brick and mortar component that means finding a way to tie together traditional retail shopping with a digital twist.

Come On Get Snappy

Old Navy is doing it with their Snap Appy app. Use the app to scan the Old Navy logo as you wander the store and you’ll get rewarded with games, coupons and other surprises. You can also scan special “snap marks” to get more information about that piece of clothing.

Old Navy spokesperson Deborah Yeh says the app is part shopping tool and part entertainment. It’s designed to keep the customer in the store longer as they engage more deeply with the products on the shelves.

I’m an on again / off again Old Navy shopper and this app makes me want to go to the store right now, so well done. It’s currently available for iPhone and will be released on Android in the near future.

Personalized Greetings

JC Penney is running full speed ahead with their “Who’s Your Santa” holiday campaign that ties together online, mobile, and social media with in-store shopping. In addition to a Facebook game and a presence on Google+, they’re using QR codes in a whole new way.

This season, when you buy a gift at JC Penney, you can include a “Santa Tag” which will deliver your holiday greeting in your voice. When the gift buyer scans the QR coded tag, they’re taken to a voice recorder where they can leave a 60 second message. When the gift getter gets the gift, they play back the message by scanning the code with their mobile phone.

It’s brilliant. Especially for those who will be sending their gifts to far away friends and family.

The holiday season is upon us! How are you using mobile to give your customers the best possible shopping experience?

Online Holiday Shopping Expected to Rise to 36 Percent

Online sellers and shoppers are both optimistic about the upcoming holiday season. According to Shop.org’s eHoliday survey 68% of online retailers say they expect to see growth of at least 15% over last year.

On the consumer side, data from the National Retail Federation, shows that consumers plan to do 36% of their holiday shopping online. This is an increase from 32.7% in 2010.

Fiona Swedlow of Shop.org says,

“There’s no question consumers are eager to hit the Web this holiday season, and online retailers are prepping by optimizing their sites, beginning their marketing and promotions early, and planning plenty of free shipping promotions as they aim to provide value and convenience for their shoppers. Online retailers will also leverage their social media and mobile platforms for savvy shoppers on the go, knowing how important customer reviews and comparison shopping applications are to holiday shoppers.”

Timing is Everything

If you think holiday promotions start earlier every year, it’s not your imagination. 52.9% of retailers say they’ll start their promotions by Halloween. This is up from 40% from last year.

Nine out of ten retailers said they’d be offering free shipping this holiday season and one-third will be doing it sooner than later.

The Social Mobile Mix

This holiday season, mobile shopping will be hotter than ever, and 51% of retailers say they’ve “significantly invested” in mobile-optimized websites. Only 19.6% have invested in tablet apps, but 35.3% are using QR codes to bring in customers.

Social is as hot as ever with 72.5% of retailers building up their Facebook presence and 41.2% going the Twitter route.

This might be overkill, though, as only 29.2% of consumers said they would check a company’s Facebook page for holiday shopping information. 65.1% said they read customer reviews on the company website, so that’s an area that needs your attention.

Why Online?

Why do consumers want to shop online? 43.2% said it was 24-hour convenience. The added incentive of free shipping made 36.3% want to spend more online than they did last year.

Consumers also said online was a great way to avoid the crowds and it was easy to compare prices, so they knew they were getting the best deal.

Halloween is only a week away and then we’re on the full-speed, downhill run to the biggest gift giving days of the year. Is your company ready?

Thumbs Up for Facebook’s New Admin Bookmarks

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference, like the new admin bookmarks in Facebook. All they did was add a permanent sidebar category for pages you administer. Now, when you login, you’ll find a link to each page, along with the number of unseen notifications, in the same place every time.

Prior to this change, page bookmarks had a tendency to disappear under a list of apps. There were times where I had to resort to finding my last page update in my own timeline in order to access a page that I hit daily. Not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but it’s time and effort wasted when it could be so simple.

Unlike most changes, I noticed this one right away. It was so nice to be able to simply login, click and go, and for anyone administering multiple pages, it’s a big time saver.

Now all we have to do is keep Facebook from changing it again. They do like to shift things on a whim and the changes aren’t always in the best interest of the user. In this case, however, they got it right.

Facebook — I “like.” Now leave it alone.

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Google+ Puts Businesses on Hold

Google+ took another step backwards this week when they asked businesses to hold off creating accounts in their new social network. They say it’s for your own good, because the current system is designed strictly for personal profiles.

Google+ blogger Christian Oestlien had this to say:

We’ve seen some really great companies get involved. But frankly we know our product as it stands is not optimally suited to their needs. In fact, it was kind of an awkward moment for us when we asked Ford for his (or was it her?) gender!

How users communicate with each other is different from how they communicate with brands, and we want to create an optimal experience for both. We have a great team of engineers actively building an amazing Google+ experience for businesses, and we will have something to show the world later this year.

While all of this is true, it does make you wonder why they didn’t think this thing through before launching. Surely, they knew that marketers would jump at the chance to get in on the next big thing. At this point, they’re asking that “non-user” entities sign up for a test program but that sounds rather slow and ominous, doesn’t it? Then there are all the small businesses who pay to use Google Apps. Doesn’t it make sense to roll those people right into the program? Same for Google Places users.

The advantage Google has over other social networks is that it already has a large collection of supporting sites and tools that should make it easy to connect and without a lot of effort on the part of the user.

If Google+ can loop in Blogger, Adsense, Google Checkout, maps, places, search, photos etc, it could be the most powerful social network out there, especially for businesses.

In the meantime, Google has said that they will shut down non-user profiles, which could include early adopter Ford who already had events scheduled inside the network.

Yes, Mr. Oestlien, awkward, indeed.

Mobile App Users Are Willing to Pay to Play

Apparently girls aren’t the only ones who just want to have fun. According to a new report by Nielsen, games are not only the most popular category of apps, but 93% of downloaders are willing to pay for the privilege.

As you can see, entertainment of all kinds came in on top, with news at the low end of this scale. Still, 76% represents a nice chunk of change so things are looking pretty sweet for paid app owners.

Nielsen also found that iPhone users spent almost double the amount of time playing games as any other smartphone user. A full 14.7 hours a month for iPhone users, while the rest of the pack averages 7.8. Those are hours spent concentrating on a single screen and though people do multitask while playing mobile games, it’s usually only to listen to music or communicate on Facebook.

A study by Scoreloop shows that people would like it if mobile games were more social. What they aren’t interested in is bragging, competition and leaderboards. The main reason folks said they wanted to play games with friends is to have “fun.”

Never underestimate the power of a good time.

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Twitter to Take TweetDeck?

It’s no wonder that Twitter has told developers that the future is not in developing third party apps to manage Twitter activities. It’s no wonder because it looks like Twitter is about to buy TweetDeck for about $50 million which is reportedly $20 million more than Twitter’s sudden soon to be rival UberMedia was offering.

SAI reports

We had asked sources close to the situation about the TweetDeck-UberMedia deal a few weeks ago, and we were told both companies were still talking.

Apparently Twitter saw an opportunity to swoop in and trump the deal.

Why would Twitter want to get TweetDeck away from UberMedia?

TweetDeck is one of the more popular independent third party Twitter applications out there. It accounts for around 13% of all tweets sent out, and is generally the preferred app for Twitter “power users.”

Imagine if UberMedia had gotten their hands on the tool that is responsible for 13% of the tweets that go out. Twitter might lay an egg out of concern that the long hard road to revenue has taken too long and thus left the door open for another player to come in and do what Twitter seems to avoid like the plague, which is making money.

This entire ‘Twitter needs to make money’ story is getting so old that you almost hope that someone comes along to challenge them and maybe figure out what all of these great minds can’t seem to.

Here are some questions for our readers to consider and comment on. Do you think that we are stuck with Twitter and Facebook as the social media kings in the same way we are with Google? Will there be anyone able to touch them? More importantly how willing would you be to change to another service if it were better than either Twitter or Facebook?

What would it take to make you switch to another service? In the end though are Twitter and Facebook somewhat bulletproof even with the specter of MySpace’s spectacular flameout so fresh in the minds of many?

A Pilgrim’s Look Back, February 27, 2011

Starting today, we will take a look back at the past week’s Internet marketing industry news that we didn’t get a chance to talk about. This feature will occur every Sunday so you can enjoy a quiet Sunday look back at what else happened. Be sure to come back every Sunday to catch up and be a well informed Pilgrim.

YouTube Looking to Stream NBA and NHL Games

Twitter Continues to Clean House on Non Compliant Apps

Google Giving Tips on Making Mobile Websites “Engine Friendly”

Facebook Snags Top Google Latin American Exec

We Love Us Some Google Places Coasters!

Google Taking Liberties With Title Tags

Google Maps Putting Brakes on “Send to Car”?

Stalking the Perfect Mate on Facebook? There’s an App for That!

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A Beginners Guide to SEO Software Every SEO Pro Should Have

Looking for some handy SEO software to help you with your daily SEO chores? Software development companies provide such a dazzlingselection of SEO tools that one can be lost in their assortment. So, here is your guide to SEO software every SEO should use.

Best SEO Software & Keyword Research

SEO begins with choosing your keywords. Of course, your customers will most likely tell you what specific keywords they would like you to use on their sites. But, in any case, you still need to find out how profitable these keywords are in terms of SEO and what other thematically related keywords you can resort to in order to avoid repetition. There are a lot of SEO apps out there to let you know search popularity, competition rate, even profitability index for each single keyword. Besides, SEO software will suggest you tons of thematically close words to use for on-page optimization. So, an SEO keyword research piece of software is a must.

Google Rank Checker & On Page Optimization

You will also need an appropriate SEO program to assist you with on-page optimization. Content optimization is double-level: you have to perfect a site’s overall structure and arrange keywords in all HTM elements. You may say that it’snot hard to identify site’s structural discrepancies such as HTML code errors, broken links, etc. manually. Well, that may be, but what if your site is made up of, say 350 different pages? Then you can use an SEO tool that will scan a site and display its full structure in a click of a mouse. This way you can easily identify duplicate content, not-indexed pages, server response errors, etc. and get rid of these problems. One more thing SEO applications can do is help you identify the best keyword density for your site and tell you where your keywords should go.

What about getting links? Of course, you can bring links to your website the old-fashioned natural way, that is, by offering outstanding content to your visitors. But then it will take a really long time for your site to top SERPs. To speed things up, you can employ link-building SEO software that will suggest you loads of link partners, email them and track your link-building activities. It will keep record of the partners you have already emailed and will allow you to see who is linking back to you. It will also give you a buzz if someone tries to cheat you by using a nofollow tag or simply removing a link to your site. As you see, an SEO application for link building is practically priceless.

After you make that effort to drive your site to the top of Google results pages, it’s high time to check how high it ranks in different search engines, because it’s all about higher rankings and more online visibility, after all. Well, you can search for your webpages among, for instance, Yahoo! or Google search results manually. Or you can make use of an SEO program to easily see where you rank in multiple search engines. Besides, a lot of SEO tools also track the changes your rankings go through in the course or your campaign, which allows you to estimate rankings dynamics and prepare client reports.

The above mentioned SEO programs cover all basic things an SEO usually does daily. If you use them, this will enable you to be through with all your chores much faster and achieve better results.