7 Mobile Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

Get mobile marketing wrong and you can do far more damage to your brand than the worst email or marketing campaign imaginable. When using SMS, be sure to avoid these seven deadly sins in order to ensure maximum impact from your campaign.

1.       Forgetting a call to action

Don’t forget to tell the customers what they have to do next, and remember to include relevant contact details. 75% of people prefer to receive offers over any other form of call to action. Be sure to add either

·         A reply option

·         Address to visit

·         Website to visit

·         Coupon to present in the store and

·         A number to call

2.       Forgetting to test and check

In the haste to send a message, don’t forget to test and check it for errors first. Think you are a customer receiving the message.

·         Does it make sense?

·         Are the details correct?

·         How could it be improved?

Remember to check the text, contact details, web addresses, spelling and grammar and phone numbers.

3.       No Option to Unsubscribe

By omitting an unsubscribe option, you are not only infuriating your clients, you are also breaking the law. Unsubscribe options include a link to a preference centre, a link to automatically unsubscribe, allow replies of ‘stop’ or ‘unsubscribe’. Also, include a number to call.

4.       Treat everyone the same

With mobile you can segment your customers into far smaller and precise categories, allowing you to give your customers services that they want.

5.       Overloading customers

By their very nature, bulk SMS’s are intrusive. So don’t overload customers by sending them lots of text messages all at once. The rules to follow are:

·         Don’t repeat a message exactly

·         Don’t  include a call to action that has been completed

·         Make sure you wait to-3 weeks before sending more texts

6.       Focussing only on selling

Add value to what you do, rather than just relying on sales. Alternate message types by using local information relevant to the recipient, useful information about your niche and interesting videos relevant to your niche.

7.       Developing a pointless app

Unless your app is providing something or genuinely useful to the customer, then it’s really not worth going through the pain, cost and distraction of developing something that most users will ignore.

If you can avoid these, then you can assume that you are well inside the safe zone.

5 Things to Remember When You Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Browsing the web via mobiles is no longer the future. It is already the norm among millions of mobile users in the west and is seeing massive growth in Asia as well. With India standing second in the world in terms of the number of active mobile users in the world, the trend is only expected to swing further upward. With Google’s latest update, mobile friendliness has become a must for all websites. So, how do website owners make their websites mobile friendly?

In this article we give you five ways by which you can make your business website mobile-friendly:

1. Make sure your developer is clear on the objective

You need your website to be mobile-friendly and your developer or the development team needs to be very clear on this. This means that the website should incorporate smaller layouts and designs according to it. For this, the web developer needs to have the experience that it takes to actually see through the development process. Look for sample website that the developer has built, go through them in detail, and proceed further only if you and your team are fully convinced as to the competence of the developer concerned. 

2. Keep it simple

It’s not the time of animations and flash anymore. They are past. With customers keen to look at an app for only as much as a few seconds, you need to eschew long text and the like. Use images wherever possible, and if you need to explain something to the customer, do it through videos. Focus on the smaller but important stuff like highlighting your company logo and contact information so that the user may contact you when needed.

3. Use short forms with drop-down menus

Short forms and drop-down menus are the order of the day. They not only make the job easier for the user, they are also more attractive. Try using a long form and see how difficult it is if you have doubts. Cut the text and have radio buttons instead.

4. Focus on finger-friendly navigation

Mobile usage happens on the go. When you design your app remember that users are going to use the app when they are going out for a stroll, waiting for their train or having their lunch. So your app needs to be easy on the fingers and thumbs of the users. Make sure you have large buttons for form submission. Eschew longer menus as well.

5. Give each page a quick call to action

This is important from the usability point of view. You need to give your customers the option of taking quick actions like signing up for a subscription or downloading an eBook. Don't include call to action that are complicated.

How You Can Ensure Mobile Security in Your Organization?

A majority of IT firms today allow Bring your own device (BYOD) due to the consumerization of IT in the modern workplace. That the mobile phone has become a can’t-do-without in today’s life is a reality that cannot be ignored. When employees are given the choice of using their own consumer-based devices in the workplace, it is imperative to counter theft and move towards ensuring security and control. Recent surveys underscore the seriousness of the problem data pointing out that four out of 10 businesses being affected by a security breach.

Well, Mobile security actually begins with protecting the actual mobile device. Today, a plethora of apps exist to prevent data theft on case a mobile has been stolen. It is also possible to track down the device with iPhone’s having special apps to track them.  But what do businesses actually do when faced with security issues?

1. Maintain and control security settings in one central location. It is important to never rely on devices that allow the user to make security decisions. It would also help if organizations require enforceable access control on all mobile devices i.e. users should not be able to disable the access control that IT has put in place.

2. Always use two-step authentication for devices and apps where possible. This makes it necessary to provide both a password and additional information such as a code sent to an email address in case the device is lost or stolen.

3. Have regular Consultations with various departments such as finance, HR and legal departments about their needs. This is because your mobile device policy doesn’t affect just the IT department.

4. Establishing cloud-based servers or URL filters for websites that are either blocked by the company or known to be malicious. This precaution will help to protect the endpoint by not allowing an employee to visit websites that could compromise security.

5. Frame a policy for mobile devices depending on your requirements and the company’s exposure to risk. Although BYOD has now more or less become the norm, it does pose a higher risk than policies such as choose your own device (CYOD) and corporate-owned, personally enabled (COPE) which may be more appropriate.

Custom Android Development is the Future!

Since it was first introduced in 2008, Google Android development has been going places. Though primarily designed for touch-screen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets its use is not confined merely to them. Android is increasingly being used for other high-end applications such as digicams, game consoles, cars, televisions, watches, and other electronic equipments.

For this reason, custom Android application development services have gained high prominence the world over. Android because of the secure environment that it provides has risen rapidly to become a convenient development platform for mobile devices. Added to that, it also has the openness and complete support environment of Google. This is what makes Android a complete mobile operating system.

Custom Android application development services now covers a vast spectrum of categories such as multimedia, travel, Internet, ecommerce, games and other areas. The market for Android apps is steadily rising because of the increasing popularity of Android smart phones and the ease of use of Android apps.

Since Android is an open-source OS, it is opening up several possibilities for third party developers keen on exploiting the open-source nature of Android and taking Android development a step further. Thus, the prospects for Android development are now potentially infinite as more and more unique Android apps are being created every day. Android comes with a large collection of libraries to extend an application's potential. The Android Software Development Kit also provides developers several ways of creating unique and interactive apps for Android enthusiasts around the world.

Android takes the possibility of custom development much further than any other mobile OS. Written in Java and C++, Android comes packaged as a group of programs especially for mobile devices. Android offers great possibilities in the form of features like multi-touch, multitasking, accessibility, portability, streaming media support, web browser and voice based features, Java support and storage.

There are several companies that offer customized Android applications. But it is your duty to ensure that they are secure, robust and scalable. These characteristics can only be ensured by developers who have the talent and experience to deliver these. Above all, the development team you choose should also conform to your budget! Have you found the right Android development partner yet?

Mobile App Development- What You Need To Get Right?

Looking back at the days when mobile phones were primarily a device to make calls, it almost seems like they were stone-age. But now, with the mobile phone or rather the Smartphone having intruded every part of our lives, and means of communication like emails, browsing, banking, payment software, gaming and ecommerce, business too has been forced to go the mobile way. There are a number of different elements that combine to make a successful mobile app. But, if you want all of these under one umbrella, then you have to outsource your mobile development to a trusted and experienced partner.

But before that you need to be sure of the purpose of your mobile application and the platform that you’re going to choose along with your target audience and your budget. So, let’s look at these factors closely:

1. Platform

You’re creating an application for a particular platform and you can’t make one application cannot run on different platforms as each mobile application is different in itself. For example, an iOS app can’t run on Android just as an Android application cannot run on Windows. Hence, it is important to choose the right platform for your mobile app development.

2. Customer base

When you want to outsource your development to a company say in India, you need to first determine your target customer base. This is important because this determines to what extent your application will be received or used by the customers. This in turn, would help you figure out the design and development for your mobile software.

3. Pricing and time

Now, we come to the costing and time of release of your product. You need to know that getting your product right is not the only thing that matters. It is how you get it right that’s most important. In other words, you need to a thorough research into your competitors’ apps in the same category and see where you can beat them. This is crucial to differentiating your app.

5 Tools That Simplify Mobile App Design for You

Design of the app is crucial to ensuring its performance in the market. A good design ensures that users continuously use the app, not just visit it once and move on. The main aim of your app design should be to create a better user experience. At each stage of design and development, you must ask yourself, how is it going to benefit my customer? And if what you’re going to do doesn't, then better be done with it. This is how you identify what stays and what gets out. So, without further ado, let us look at the 5 tools that simplify mobile app design for you.

Android App Patterns – This website offers a wide range of impressive designs, exclusively designed for Android. It has in total 31 categories that contain more than 16,000 screen shots of attractively designed and functional apps.

Pttrns – Offering more than 3K iPad and iPhone user interface patterns, this site is akin to a curated library. The popularity of this site can be attested to by the fact that it’s got over two million views till date. The website is already quite popular among users and has over 2 million page views per month. When designing your app, this provides one of the best platforms to get a design inspiration. The designs of this can be adapted for android apps too.

Unsplash – Photographs form an important feature of every app irrespective of its type. Unsplash is a great resource wherein you can find good quality stock photographs free of cost. You can avail these high-resolution photographs, free of copyrights, use it for app and its associated micro site. In addition, for iPhone app marketing also, adding catchy graphics and photographs is of great value.

 iOS Fonts – This resource features a collection of iOS fonts with above 260 faces for iPad and iPhone. Here, you can have the visual of all of the available fonts and gives you the ability to enter text and view result in preview box how it overall appears.

App Icon Template – Yet another good resource to create exciting designs, App icon template lets you create app icons for just about any version of iOS. It is a free Photoshop tool that has built-in textures, colors and gradients with easy to export actions that delivers a smoother output. Having an appealing app icon along with an impressive design, plays a great role in iPhone app marketing as well.

If you seek a development partner who can create mobile apps for your company with the tools like these, then reach us at openwavecomp.com – 212.209.1537!

8 Tips to Make a Mobile-Friendly Website!

A mobile-friendly website is not something to be decided upon today. Post Google’s search ranking update, it has become imperative for everyone to have a mobile-friendly website. But for those of you who have not begun it yet, there is still time left as Google’s is only a real-time dynamic update which means you can recover any lost traffic provided your website becomes mobile-friendly soon.

Making a mobile-from website is not as complex as it is made out to be. In fact, the key is in keeping it simple. Simplifying content and streamlining the design process are key to getting your strategy right. Here’s what you should remember while designing a proper mobile website.

1) Keep things simple. It is important not to use too much content on your website as it puts off users. Whenever you want to detail an issue to the user, use a video. It always clicks.

2) Choose the foremost information to include: direct means of communication (e.g. phone numbers, click-to-call function, online booking); main information about services; locations on a map. Long bios and other texts of secondary importance should be left solely for a desktop website. Include only the things your visitors are most likely to look for.

3) Users need to access the pages they need as quickly as possible, and with minimum actions. Enable easy navigation. This means users must have sufficient space so that they don't click the wrong icons or buttons.

4) Do not ask your users for too much text input. They don't like it. Not one bit.

5) Reduce the number of pages without stuffing in lot of information in one page. Ensure that your design allows your users to tap and swipe around your website easily. Also avoid excessive use of images, popup and Flash.

6) Liberally use your company logo and colours in your website. Making good use of images is an essential component of a good mobile-optimized site.

7) Keep in sight a link to the desktop website. Many visitors may want to proceed there for the information that is left out in the mobile version.

8) Check how your website works on a number of mobile devices: Smartphone’s and tablets running various platforms. Screen size is important when you’re dealing with mobiles.

These are just some of the things that you need to keep in mind as you go along. But once you get these basics right, you can rest assured your development strategy is on the right path.