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.

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.

Mistakes to Avoid in Mobile App Development

If you had a killer idea and wanted to make it actionable, you would be developing a mobile app to implement it. That’s the easiest way to ensure that you’re idea is visible, taken note of, and most importantly, put to use by millions. What you require is a clear plan, good strategy, proper programming structure and user friendly implementation. But there are pitfalls even for the trained. We look at some of them in this article.

1. Be very clear about your platform

Android, iOS, Windows....reading them back and forth? Well, just look at who you want to target. If it’s the global market that you’re targeting, android must be your choice. If you are looking at a US centric market, you could go for iOS. Either way, avoid ambiguity on the platform front. If you intend to launch it on both the platforms, know that your engineering costs will double accordingly.

2. Mobile is NOT web experience downsized

A majority of website owners do not focus on developing a mobile application that is optimized for all mobile platforms. All that they do is rely on responsive website features or consider that mobile app development should be done with just few necessary elements and features of a website.

3. Don’t confuse the Designer for the Developer

Whatever it is that the designer creates; it will have to go through a developer. It is important the design follows the functionality since we often find that apps where design dictates functionality inevitable fail.
For example, if your app has been planned to include a search box, but the designer might envision one with a type-ahead search that generates live results as the user types. This is a nice add-on, but could mean significant undertaking for the developer.

4. Avoid overlooking User experience

Say Apple and ask people what comes to their mind first. The reply would be its elegance/user experience. So, it’s important to know that a mobile user is more demanding and intuitive when it comes to UX. This is borne by the fact that 26% of the are opened only to be never used again and 48% are opened less than 10 times. Make sure you test your app with Craigslist or better find early beta testers.

5. The app won’t sell by itself


When your app goes live, thousands of competitors are going to look at it and use it. If you do not have a well planned strategy to increase visibility, you are only increase the risk of your app disappearing into oblivion.

5 Questions You Should Ask Your Mobile App Development Company

Companies jump into the mobile arena to attract more customers, and to ensure greater visibility for their companies. Most companies hire a mobile app development company for this purpose. But just as deciding upon a business venture requires careful analysis, it's important for you to ask the right questions before committing to a mobile development company. Here are the five questions that you must ask: 

1. where are your developers and engineers located?
One common trait among mobile development firms is to place a liaison to the development team in a particular market to claim the company is "local". But in reality, the designers and developers would be based in another country. So be sure the company which claims it is "local" actually is.



2. What are the project costs, as well as future updates?

Obviously, you'll want to have a clear idea as to the total project will cost. Mobile app developers might not be able to give you an exact figure before they start to work on the app, but they should be able to quote reasonably based on their experience. Also, make sure the developers provide you with updates, as apps can become obsolete within a matter of months.

3. The platforms and the company’s experience?

You'll have to determine if your app will be available for Android, iPhone, Windows, and/or Blackberry devices. If you want your app to be multi-platform, get the cost estimates beforehand. And make detailed enquiries regarding them before you commit yourself.

4. How will users be able to download my app?


Beyond building a user-friendly website, you must also know which third-party sites will sell your app to the end users. Also, if you want your app available on iTunes, and the mobile development firm can’t give you a reasonable guarantee that it will be approved, then that is not a company worth its name. Just move on.

5. of all the company’s previous projects, which one(s) are you most proud of and why?

Mobile app development companies, like everybody else, will want to showcase their strengths, so they will show you what (they think) their best work is. If what is shown doesn't seem very appealing to you, then you should think long before signing them. This is because it's often more easier to design a goody-goody app than to create an effective, functional, user-centric app. A good thumb rule for an effective app is that it should be easy for your mom to use.