Category: Marketing

Startups. Startups all around. Everybody is coming up with killer ideas and rush to find their target audiences to turn these concepts into beneficial businesses. As people become more and more open to new exciting experiences, a lot of projects really shoot up in quite a short term.

There always is another side of the coin, which is financing the whole venture. Here we come to an important decision because not everybody is able to support a business project independently.

Happily, nowadays freedom of communication and all these cosmopolitan trends in business present a lot more opportunities to young and creative people than back in the day. So in fact, you are not limited by only going to a bank and ask for a loan, you can find a lot of alternative funding options online.

Joining a startup accelerator, for instance, will ensure you not only with free office facilities or consulting services but also seed fund you. You can also barter your skills and this way get some service or facility for free or find an investor – angel or venture capitalist ones. You can even pre-sell your product before it’s actually done. Finally, you are able to apply to some business grants, which spring up like mushrooms overnight.

The objective of our today’s talk is two antipodal ways to fund your business:

• Bootstrapping – which is basically doing your best at crafting business with own resources;
• Investment funding – this is all about selling your idea to an investor, get your money, and give ownership equity to your creditor in return.

After reading the article, you’ll know exactly what do these financing methods mean and in what way they are different; what questions should be asked before committing to any of these models and which way can be more beneficial to pick.

First things first: explaining bootstrapping and investment funding

Bootstrapping

It’s essentially a way discovered by every entrepreneur at least once in their business journey. So anyone who’s started his or her business, tried to stretch any sort of available recourses as much as possible, right? And I don’t only mean startup thing, it can be a to-go strategy at various stages of business life.

The term bootstrapping comes from that very famous legend of Baron Münchhausen who pulled himself out of the water with the help of his own bootstraps.

The vital idea behind bootstrapping in commercial means is to borrow as minimal finance as possible. In two words, you only rely on either on your own budget and savings, on some crowdfunded amount, or simply on loans from friends and family. That’s totally the opposite of, for instance, selling your business idea to investors.

Bootstrap financing is also considered to be one of the most effective ways to assure a positive cash flow for your business and for a good reason. This scenario urges you to borrow insignificant amounts of money and this way keep interest costs minimal. You are turning your home into an office, follow a strict diet, and manage every penny of the budget narrowly for the sake of the flourishing future.

What does bootstrapping mean in business? In fact, this strategy doesn’t seem to be a huge trend internationally, but there is a list of really big brands, whose creators eventually bootstrapped them. And they nailed it.

I will just leave these names down below:

• Apple;
• Microsoft;
• Dell Computers;
• Hewlett-Packard;
• Coca-cola.

Investment funding

It is another alternative to arranging your business. And this strategy is different in all ways.

To make a long story short, this is a way to sell your idea to investors, who are interested in getting profit out of your one-of-a-kind idea in the future. So they finance your project for some ownership equity in return, evaluating closely the business potential beforehand. The most popular ones recently are an angel investing and venture capital investment funds.

Angel investors

These are usually wealthy businessmen, who are passing their funds onto well-selected businesses and promising start-ups. These guys are usually very cautious in making decisions because these are their private money. What’s more, angels also expect really high returns from their investments, as high as 15 to 30% of the company’s ownership. On the other hand, angel investors share not only funds but also knowledge, experience, and advice with us, fresh entrepreneurs. To get these guys’ attention, you should be well-prepared, competent, and have a thought-out strategy.

Venture capital investors

This option makes your contributors the decision-makers in a venture, not you. At the same time, getting under some high profile investor’s wing can give a rapid start and some extra credibility to your business. Without a doubt, they will also ask for the ownership equity of your company – that is a common scheme of such funding. You’ll also agree to various restrictions on your salary, cooperation with other companies, etc.

According to recent studies, the venture capital funding field is expanding and there is a growing number of start-up accelerators detected. The overall number of these funds also increases and stockholders become more and more open to smaller companies.

Described ways of financing your business are totally contrasting and offer various approaches to managing recourses and building overall commercial strategy. Both of them have proved to be realistic to implement. The decision is only on you – which one to pick. You are the creator of your success after all. Let’s just dive into the details and find out what details and questions should be considered before adopting any of these concepts.

4 major questions to ask yourself before picking a strategy

Apparently, you’ve already passed the stage of asking yourself a question “To be or not to be?”. Now it’s time to ask further, more complex, questions.

In the context of selecting one of the above-mentioned ways to go, let me outline and systematize topics for you to study in order to make a wise decision.

First and foremost: what is the focus of your [future] business?

If your ultimate priority is steady growth, then you better fix an investor’s support. With funders, it will be much easier to achieve. In this case, you want to clarify if the speed is important for you and in general throughout the market and if you’re able to keep up with it.

For example, if your startup is tech-oriented, here the tempo is quite high and it’s an inevitable part of the market. Technologies develop real quick and you have no chance but move with them, and even be a step ahead.

Otherwise, if you decide to concentrate on taking your product to a new quality level instead of spending time in meetings with investors, you should certainly try and bootstrap your biz. Besides, more money can solve a lot of problems and bring real decisions, but not always. For instance, if you’re limited on budget, you’re forced to make creative decisions and it will ultimately play into your hands.

Second important question: how much control do you want to have over your venture?

If that is one of the major principles for you, then cut off the idea of calling external funding in and look at bootstrapping or alternative self-funding schemes. You appear to be the only decision-maker and free to pivot from one corner of the market to an absolutely different one.

Unlike any venture investing scheme, which works approximately the same: you are expected to provide some ownership equity to your investor and they gonna rebuild your strategy and advise you what actions to take and decisions to make. In other words, many opinions are about to meet, a lot of meetings and discussions to handle.

Questions #3: what returns are you expecting from this enterprise?

Now we all know what does bootstrap means and obviously, you cannot expect some fixed income or salary to come to your pocket with this approach, right? Most of your cash flow from this project is going to be injected back into it – that is how companies with limited budgets develop and grow.

In the case of investors’ involvement, it’s easier. Even though a salary will be somehow limited at early stages and fixed in the contract, you are still guaranteed a monthly payment, which sounds secure, doesn’t it?

And last, but not least: what knowledge pool is required for growing your biz?

Are your skillset and knowledge base enough to craft a successful venture from the scratch?

What I mean is if your product or niche particulars require specific experience, knowledge, or access to any resources. And if you are able to fix it independently. Because investors bring in not only extra money, they own and share their widescale experience and professionals, who really know what they do and how to make things work the best they can.

Differently, if you rely on your own knowledge, connections, and potency, then it’s easier to go for the bootstrapping option.

Which path to take: the pros and cons of bootstrapping and investment funding

Now it’s time to only shortlist all the advantages and drawbacks of both financing strategies for your startup idea or any other business. Afterward, I will leave you with this food for thought and study so that you make up your mind and definitely go for your dream!

Best of luck and happy crafting new businesses, guys!

Smartening up your home is going mainstream. And this hi-tech area is supposed to simplify and improve our lives in a matter of minutes. Everybody’s home is about to get smarter, no matter what. We, potential users, expect all these devices to fix the new level of comfort, safety, and entertainment quality for us.

For the majority of people, the smart home concept looks a bit complicated: too many options, gadgets tend to be too smart, and much time is needed to set them up. That’s not what a common man hopes for, I bet, when thinking Smart Home.

This paper is going to outline the current situation and trends in the Smart Home integration market, spell out challenges Home Automation companies face when offering technology to their potential clients and finally, will demonstrate the benefits of incorporating a smart home automation app. It’s also going bust a hefty myth of the hi-tech home being too complicated to deal with instead of simplifying life.

All things Brainy Home

For your potential clients, smart home technology is all about order, safety, automation, control, and most importantly, simplicity.

The idea is quite sophisticated – usually implemented as a system of switches, sensors, and security units together with a controlling wall-mounted console. It covers things like doors, windows, lights, bells, water heaters, clocks, thermostats, ventilation, and all kitchen devices, etc.

Other than that, there are a lot of smart devices, that are handled independently through the web interface, gateways, or else.

But again, let me emphasize that – Smart House for a common man like myself is potentially my improved living. I don’t really want to spend hours configuring plenty of things and checking if I switched off heaters or closed the garage through the integrated tools.

As mobile phones invade all spheres of our lives and people get more and more engaged with their devices, we get used to reaching and working out most tasks on the smartphone within a couple of clicks. Also considering that there are no reliable unified technologies of incorporating home control science yet (still a huge number of implementations), a company that will do a smart home app development for you comes in handy.

That being said, competition in the home automation sector increases as demand among consumers escalates:

User challenges when integrating Smart Home

The current curve of Smart Home app development and penetration into everyday life can be marked as infancy – with a huge number of options of how to start up one’s home.

Let me proclaim one thing – there is a couple of deciding obstacles users face trying to implement “Smart Home” and this stops a lot of people from invading this cutting-edge venture:

• no common platform – currently everybody interested in the latest technologies and willing to “go smart” needs a lot of time and enthusiasm to choose a system and then make it work. Not to mention, there are so many remote controls, switches, and consoles around the house… That’s can get too confusing;
• study how to use your “new” home – if you wanna own a smart house, you’ll definitely need to go through a bunch of “how-to’s” to be able to manage it and adapt your life to these innovations. Do you have enough time for that, why is that so complicated? Isn’t this technology all about simplifying life?

This graph shows a significant influence on how people recognize “Home Automation” nowadays. The technology-savvy part of the globe is already implementing “Smart Home” elements, but there is 85% more of a blank marketplace to be fulfilled. By your simplified and user-friendly smart home system. The idea to build a smart home app is an amazingly obvious and easy solution for controlling a full house altogether.

And it sounds absolutely effortless as users tend to see Smart Homes!

Look out for the Smart Home Control app

What’s the difference between a web interface, control panel, or application, after all, you say, if you’re getting the next level of security, comfort, and resources?

Here is why:

Read also: How Much Does It Cost To Make an App?

And the cherry on top – 90% of time spent on mobiles actually goes to mobile applications.

The thing is that invisible, but well-tailored improvements are what really helps your leg up on the competition. Not to neglect all these little things, let me outline the range of benefits you’ll get after developing the mobile app for the smart home system:

• Computer challenged part of a population is yours – remember those who get distracted just from checking their e-mails on the web. The simple one-tap management of the full system will make it easy and quick to get used out of the full Smart Home. It means that a huge stack of potential clients will be much more open to your particular product;
• Centralization is everything – a single platform seems to be a dominant concern and here is yours – “all in one place” control app gives the opportunity to check everything is even far away from actual home is your game-changing benefit;
• Updates, updates – new features spring up like mushrooms overnight, and all you need to do to renew the platform is to download an upgrade altogether – saves time and makes sure you’re always on the edge;
• IoT in action – connected to one system, all devices are able to communicate with each other and ensure smooth and close-knit performance;
• Combinations are endless – this integral connectivity amongst devices allows to set various modes, options and relations in between and customize it non-stop;
• Staying informed – the average user interacts with about 10 to 20 mobile apps daily, and one single “Smart Home” app interface and alerts will help not to get totally confused;
• One remote control, not tens of them – this is an enormous benefit for all mobile apps included the one for smart home control – you got access and control over your house while being on the go. Car, boat, airplane, even remote island – enjoy!

Vital features for your Smart Home Control application

The mobile app that aims at controlling a range of other devices and applications might have a variety of features. But there are a couple of crucial ones, which build a skeleton of an entire engine:

• Remote access to all integrated gadgets – this is basically a feature, which makes all application. You can operate any device from within your smartphone – switch off a lamp or close the garage doors in a matter of clicks. Similar access to computers feature, but for corporate docs turnover, was successfully implemented by our team in a SkimDoc application:

• the wide net of settings/configurations/modes – just like any other personal profile, this one needs, even more, customization opportunities for tuning all possible options for personal convenience. For our clients we develop one-of-a-kind settings logics, implement and test it narrowly for the sake of absolute customer satisfaction;
• connectivity within all devices – any custom configuration won’t be possible if devices are not talking to each other. If you want your morning coffee right off the bat, make sure your smart mattress will send a notification to a coffee machine once you’re up;
• push notifications – yes, of course, how will you know that TV is left turned on after you left home other than receiving a notification. This is also a major tool for mobile marketing strategy, that will keep your consumers updated with some add-on products or services you want to up-sale.

Read also: Ten Ways to Build a Bulletproof Push Notification Strategy

Once you know what functionality to expect from your application, you can get a prototype and the cost of your smart home app development – that’s a very convenient way to visualize the whole system and calculate the overall cost and profits for the future.

Putting it all together

To nail down the whole idea of the post, let me just say it out loud: when hitting a worldwide market – go simple! And no need to worry about terms “smart” and “simple” to go a bit apart in their basic definitions.

What we suggest is simplify usage of all these smart goodies as you can and people will end up loving how little it takes them to use the latest technologies with your help. And that’s what you want after all, right?

Modern people are working and living with digital devices. With some powerful and ever-moving developments in the space of mobile app development, the products give clients great experience and convenience. Here are some of the upcoming trends of the smart age.

E-commerce

E-commerce market leaders in India (Flipkart and Myntra) have shut their websites and started to use mobile apps only. They have found even more popularity and demand of clients: around 95% of traffic was collected from smartphones and tablets. The mobile applications caused bigger sales. Some experts predict that this trend is going to show itself in 2016 and become the best scenario.

Messaging apps

The war between social networks and mobile messaging applications becomes stiffer. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp app, Viber, and Telegram have more than 2 billion active users around the world. The same numbers equal to Twitter,

The same numbers equal to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram users. However, the messaging apps have higher influence and great chances to win the battle. 35% of smartphone users use messaging apps.

Security matters

In 2015 5 of 6 mobile applications failed in security tests. This is what developers were working on the next year and in 2016 this goal must be achieved. The mobile apps are strengthening their security protocols and data encryption strategies this year.

It is natural, that sometimes apps store confidential or personal information and users cannot allow any security issues within the apps.

Cross-platform on the stage

The need for all devices is a number of platforms. Today a single platform is a thing from the past since users require advanced features and functions. Cross-platform proves to make the user experience much better and developers focus on multiply platforms to keep up with the most modern trends.

User experience is important

User experience dominates in the modern marketing. Developers have to analyze user experience constantly to match the demands and know about their failures or mistakes. No matter what kind of app it is, it must be functional and effective among other apps and across all mobile devices. Developers who pay maximum attention to this aspect become the most successful.

Smooth advertising, marketing, and purchasing

Mobile apps are a perfect source of income and 2016 foretells a high level of expense on purchases made inside of the app. Apps will allow more advertising in different formats including text, images, and video. Advertising inside of the applications, paid downloads and purchases will appear in a new format in 2016.

In fact, some of these trends will change the market and will become the main drivers of the progress this year. Commerce apps will become more popular, while cross-platform apps will improve user experience.

All in all, mobile app development will make even more impact in the digital world. 

As a mobile developer you dream about three things: 1) create killer mobile apps, 2) get them downloaded by millions of users, and 3) create more killer apps that get downloaded by even more users. But hard truth is that this path is tricky and misleading.

There’re lots of stumbling blocks and misconceptions which might take you away from the right path. That’s why avoiding crucial mobile app development pitfalls comes into the first place. 

Myth 1: Pay-to-download apps are the deal-breaker

When you come to Wal-Mart, you pay once to get a product you need. However, this rule of thumb isn’t the only monetization option (and definitely not the most effective!) in the world of mobile applications!

It might sound crazy, but FREE apps bring developers MORE MONEY! Check out these figures: in 2016 free apps were downloaded by users 287 billion times in comparison to only 3 billion paid app downloads. Consequently, mobile users prefer FREE stuff and apps, which must fix your marketing efforts in the right direction.  

So, the first myth is busted!  

Myth 2: Trusting your gut is better than trusting a team of paid experts

That’s your app, that’s your brainchild, that’s your masterpiece, that’s you…  Continue the list as you wish. “My app, my rules, right?”

Wrong, this line of thinking leads to zero profits. Trusting your gut is good, but modern mobile marketing is all about thorough data research, analysis, testing, reaching out to clients, gathering feedback, and deliberate decision making. Trusting your sixth sense led you to set forth a mobile app, but now it’s time to trust proven figures instead of pure intuition.

Thus, the myth is busted too.

Myth 3: Eye-candy beats the content value

Some developers make their apps aesthetically appealing but somehow forget to fill it with proper content. First impressions are most lasting, yet no matter how grand the sweetie paper is, a candy must be as good. Otherwise the only time a user opened your app and viewed an ad would be this first time when nifty visuals but poor content had risen to view.

Remember – arty package is the thing that draws attention and makes a user download your app, while it’s engaging content that makes people open an app time after time, watching ads and making your bank account fatty.     

‘Eye-candy over mind-candy’ myth busted.

Myth 4: When an app is done, the job is over too

So, you’ve developed an app, published it on Play Market, landed an advertising deal, now it’s high time to sit back and wait for the money flow to you like from the horn of Amalthea. Offering relevant content and updating features isn’t necessary either.

Well, with such an approach users will simply forget about your app and delete it for good. To keep ad money makes you happy every day you have to work on that product 24 hours a day, gather statistics, look for new channels to engage the audience, elaborate on usability, etc. Just as you stop working, revenue will stop flowing. Those ads won’t just watch themselves, you know!

Lazy app developer myth busted.

Myth 5: Number one or none at all

Many app developers, especially beginners get carried away by the pursuit of being this number one add so much they forget about other things that matter at the moment. To make an app being the most downloaded in Apple Store, for instance, you have to first raise a bump or two, step on some rakes on the road, learn and adopt best practices, and only then watch your product climb the popularity ladder straight to the top.

Plus, if your app isn’t in at least TOP-100’s most popular applications, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. So…

…the fifth and final myth just has been busted too.      

Slow and steady (and definitely not greedy!) wins the race

What’s wrong with today’s app developers? Meaning, why so many great ideas never make it to users’ mobile devices? It’s a lack of consistency and promise of quick enrichment!

Too many catch an idea to quickly set up a simple app and earn publishing ads. However, few actually make it to the production stage. First-week development zeal shrinks to a nullity right till week number two, and so another brilliant idea gets buried under laziness and inability to draw up a business plan or code a couple of coherent functions.

But those who are persistent usually win the cash race. Even if moving gradually, step by step you’ll reach success given you’re dedicated, result-oriented, and have a solid plan to guide you further. Getting rich quickly creating a simple app is a myth, perhaps the biggest out there, so have a cool head on your shoulders to bust it from day one working on your new app.

Isn’t it a great achievement to launch a hundred applications for employees? However, according to the recent study that looks into this sphere, a better deployment strategy is based on the targeted and small launches, regarding the fact that companies find enterprise application development too expensive.

The findings also found some obvious facts, such as that IT and technology organizations are leaders among mobile enterprise apps producers, and that applications that encourage and support those who work in the sphere of marketing and sales are widely used. Thus, they have also found an interesting fact: the best and the most successful launches were made in the organizations that limited the number of apps to one or two for a small group of workers.

Where the applications are now?

It is quite natural that Technology companies are moving ahead with mobile applications. There are more than 25% of organizations utilize mobile apps. After them goes the IT-sphere (11%), consulting (11%), public sector (11%), finance (8,5%), healthcare (7,5%), and mass communications (6,5%).

Most of these applications were developed for such roles as sales marketing, field services, HR, IT utilities, and office productivity. Launching mobile applications for enterprise lead to even more applications. Some companies have really big app portfolios that contain more than a hundred of them.

Where the applications are going?

Rebecca Wetteman, vice president of research, enterprise applications at Nucleus Research, says that the pulled down prices for app development changes the entire policy of the creating and utilizing process. The lower cost changes what exactly is made, for whom it is made, and how long it is going to serve. This also is related to the new concept of  “single-use application”, she claims, which is expected to appear in 2017.

“The decreasing price for mobile applications also means that I can start one for a promotion or an event because the cost is low,” she says.

Another turn she expects in 2017 is to focus on the tablet features and applications since more and more companies send their employees on the road with tablets which are more convenient to use than traditional laptops.

The other predicted change is more communication – extending video, voice, text messaging, etc. These apps will be dedicated exclusively to employee contact and communication. Moreover, the productivity applications will also develop within themselves allowing even more opportunities to access a lot of databases and sources from any place.

Of course, these applications that allow communication and data access are amazing, and apps are conquering companies becoming mandatory to have. Today you will hardly find a successful and large company that ignores the convenience of enterprise-oriented apps. Applications are touching not only IT and Technologies spheres, but almost every industry under the sun somehow utilizes mobile applications. There is no such CIO who does not think about the ways of encouraging and enabling their employees.

Applications are touching not only IT and Technologies spheres, but almost every industry under the sun somehow utilizes mobile applications. There is no such CIO who does not think about the ways of encouraging and enabling their employees.

The Progress company released the results of the “State of Mobile Development” investigation in order to highlight some interesting tendencies in the world of application development. 3,000 respondents, the developers compose the majority (49%), CEOs/owners (14%), architects (14%), IT professionals (8%), CTOs (6%), and others.

One of the most remarkable and surprising results of their research show that 57% of developers have never created a mobile app. For comparison,  47% of developers, on average, produce just one dynamic app every year.

The main reason for developers not investing time and money in creating a mobile application is a constantly changing technology; Also, there is an understandable disappointment as new-but-attractive technologies and projects are finding their niches such as the IoT, wearable devices, and connected cars.

“It is a well-known fact that software developer community needs to access easy-to-use tools and processes in order to push forward their mobile applications in a more substantial way,” said Karen Tegan Padir, President, Application Development & Deployment Business Unit.

Another curious moment of Telerik’s research is that 44% of developers take into consideration a user experience as the most critical factor when launching mobile applications.

It’s clear that developers feel the pressure more than ever to supply their applications to the market – 19% blame a lack of time as one primary reason for instability in mobile development.

The research also shows that developers prefer cross-platform development over web or native to ensure a balance is made between the capability to target various platforms and performance. 33% of developers name “hybrid” their leading form of development, followed by native at 25%, and web at 19%.

Android has won the race in the smartphone world, and due to new market projections, Google’s OS will reach an 81.1% market share in 2019. The survey demonstrates that 76% of developers are building applications for Android, followed by 63% for iOS, and 40% for Windows Phone. Of those who make progress in iOS, 83% also create apps for Android showing that developers are attracted by the big market share owned by Google’s platform. 36% of developers in the survey consider cross-platform development as the most demanding part of the mobile development system.

In general, this latest report provided us with a good understanding of the top reasons and potential benefits for building mobile apps, where the mobile industry is going to, and how developers have to deliver their applications to the new market. This report also paid attention to that developers are waiting to make a profit from new technologies such as the IoT and wearables.

If you are a firm believer in the “first impression” theory, then the “picking a creative name for apps” story is without a doubt the brightest example of it.

Surely, you have one single chance to get recognized and make a favorable impression on your potential user… or opposite. Your app’s icon and name are going to provoke a particular emotion and that’s something you want to work correctly and make sure to get a response you expect.

Many factors are to be considered when selecting a good name for an app. So let’s just list them and give you all tested tips and tricks on state-of-the-art app naming.

READ ALSO: Perfect SWOT Analysis for Mobile App

Start from basics

Initially, as with the entire application development process, identify your target audience and the purpose of the app you are building. It will give you an absolute ground for adjusting messages to your people and making sure you evoke a desired emotional return from their interaction with your app. It’s simply that you crave different reactions from financial app users and entertainment app younger audiences.

Next, you want to work your way down to what sort of images and emotions are likely to pop up in your crowd’s fantasy. That will make a great basis for designing an icon for your application. So, take time and brainstorm with your team. Pick the brightest ideas and dig further to broaden this range.

Your app’s name should serve as a lighthouse for searching engines. It should make a good and easy target to find.

One critical point here – search for various meanings of the words you are to include in the name of the application. Depending on the diversity of age, culture, and life experience people will read your message completely differently.

Let’s say, using slanguage for the adult part of your audience would create a perfect disaster right away. And you don’t want this misunderstanding, do you?

Also, you should check other foreign languages that have similar words to your desired name. Make sure it doesn’t have any negative or offensive connotation. This is crucially important when targeting an international audience.

Study successful cases

Now it’s the best time to make your research on the market. Yes, only after brainstorming your own ideas. If you start surfing through the topic, you might lose creative thinking and obtain barriers instead.

So run through similar applications out there. Inspect these on the matter of emotions they are reaching to, names and designs they are using. It’s a great way to gain inspiration, the right feelings, knowledge, and understanding of where to go with your own app name and form.

If you’re dying to name an app in a freaky way then go for it. Shazam is the best example of such a strange, but successful app name. But think twice before doing this, if your functionality is really hard to describe with an emblematic title.

Choose an appealing strategy

There are a few separate blueprints when it comes to successful app’s naming:

• The basic and obvious way is a laconic title crafted out of 1 to 3 words. To be clear, Apple has no limits for the names of the apps at all, whereas Google allows only up to 30
• One more technique is to choose an app name is using a two-part head, which would describe both objects of your application and its’ functionality. You can think of Wunderlist or Evernote to get inspired
• The other policy is to use extra keywords to describe the goodies within your app, as well as attract added organic installs. So extended keywords usually go after the main part of the name following with a dash or a colon
• And last, but not least, method – use prefixes or suffixes like “net”, “snag”, “go” for determining your product’s features or motivating to act. Think YouTube, Netflix, SnagFlix

Each of these approaches has its’ pros and cons. Stats claim that short and sharp titles work best, but it’s really more about specifics of your app, trends in the market it is a part of, and your personal feeling.

Yes, your name will look catchier in numerous lists and search results with a short and slick title. But, the other side of the coin is adding extra relevant keys helps increase your search results position. The higher your app is in this list, the more clicks and downloads it gets.

READ ALSO: Google Play Store Optimization

Do not clone the name

First and foremost, your app’s name should be “one of a kind”. It’s important because you’ll be marketed with that name all over. Take into consideration, that your desired name’s absence in Play Store doesn’t mean nobody is using this domain elsewhere on the web. So Google hard before you make a final decision.

And to complete your marketing strategy circle you want a web page with the same title. A devoted app website with a .com domain is a great addition to keep traffic streaming to YOU instead of your competitors.

You equally don’t want to mimic some most popular applications’ names – it can be even more frustrating than just a random one. Any sort of copycat – don’t do this, please. It also applies to design, styles, images, and overall concepts, ok? Your clients will immediately recognize an attempt to ape someone popular.

More than that, you are risking to get serious fraud-connected issues, let’s say, with Google. Better get some primary assistance by using name generators, they will give you an idea and a variety of options to start with. But try to avoid such cliches like “I” at the beginning of the title, or “app” at the end of it. 

Verdict

How to name your app is a QUESTION. It can be a creative name for apps, rather specific title, activating one or, if you go over creative, it can turn into a bummer (just outlining a negative scenario).

A perfect application title states the desired mood first and broadcasts the true value of the product. On the other hand, it’s all put together, easy to market, and rank.

As the popularity of free-to-play games grows, the army of their haters becomes even bigger. At times it seems that an anti-freemium rant is going to push the popularity of the gaming model down. Though, with so many people playing and enjoying all that freemium gaming thing, the industry is almost impossible to stop.

Still, freemium game model critics aren’t going to stop being that fierce about new mechanics of digital fun stuff. But, if they can’t change the situation, probably they better change their attitude?

Even so, the change of attitude is going to be painful. Seasoned gamers will keep blaming the freemium business model for destroying the whole gaming concept. From day one game was designed to entertain but with mobile app trends games turned into a smart mechanism of soaking money out of gamers’ wallets.

Check out stats on the revenue generated by Apple’s App Store during 2016, by app category and pricing model:

READ ALSO: How do apps make money

The majority of wise gamers also claim that the author’s rights on games were violated. There was a moment when game developers created a unique product with outstanding design and concept, whereas now any user can have total control over the process of upgrading it whenever his budget allows for the desired enhancements.

In two words, the scenario looks like that:

• • creating a state of urgency
  • offering various promotions
  • leading free users gradually towards paid updates
  • customizing message for maximum engagement
  • making a shift from free to premium as easy as possible

It proves that the freemium app monetization strategy really works and keeps digging money as it provides entertainment.

Sounds so true, doesn’t it? But, in fact, this isn’t really free to play format itself that is ruining the gaming experience. Games have always been addictive.

Even when gamers didn’t feel or didn’t want to feel game’s negative psychological impact on their’s lives, it still has been extremely powerful.

And just like being an addict, games have always been a money-making machine. All gaming industry is built based on psychological tricks that foster deeper and deeper engagement of participants. All of them encourage more play and thus require more money for a gamer to keep the score. But the most important thing is that these tactics had been used long before a mobile phone got smart or even before touchscreen technology became widely used.

Has something ever changed? With the mobile industry’s rapid development, the gamers community grew enormously bigger. Naturally, this has made mobile gaming a trend with millions of users involved, of all ages indeed.

Consequently, when the mobile gaming industry became everywhere, it became truly promising to develop a freemium app. Since then all its’ drawbacks, as well as attractions, have become much noticeable.

This coin, however, has two sides. On the one hand, a larger number of game players results in a gaming niche becoming less pricey and more user-friendly.

On the other hand, such massive folks may be a rich source to monetize apps for freemium game developers who are in a search of ways to make money, selling the shoddy product. Unfortunately, there are lots of second-rate freemium mobile games that require spending quite a bunch of money for the game to become more powerful.

Game quality is really another sore point skilled gamers are 100% grumbling at. They are absolutely convinced that mobile games are less exciting than video games used to be. Not necessarily in fact. This is an argument more against the way some particular games work rather than against the industry in general.

It also sounds like video game lovers just can’t get over the changes the mobile gaming market has to offer. There are dozens of innovative approaches that are going to move the mobile game industry to a brand new level of quality. Let’s just have a sneak peek at hybrid games, for instance, that promise superior gaming experience through a combination of digital games and physical toy components.

Unfortunately, the quality of mobile games is not the only fault freemium haters are picking on. Excessive ads are what drive users crazy. Well, in all fairness, the main reason to develop mobile games is to bring game developers more revenue through freemium advertising.

But as the internet can’t exist without a huge advertising unit, mobile gaming platform as a part of webspace, can’t do without ads either. That means you simply can’t get rid of annoying commercials. But instead, you can expect advertisements to become more entertaining. This is where free-to-play games have plenty of room for improvement.

As for the rest, the freemium gaming industry appears to have more attractions than drawbacks. Its biggest merit is that independent game developers now have more chances to put their mobile game masterpiece on the public display and successfully market it. Of course, they might have a limited budget but it serves more as an incentive to be creative rather than a discouragement.

From here, the more creativity they put into the game design, the higher the quality product they will eventually come up with. This way freemium gaming may become a safer industry for customers.

All sides considered, freemium is definitely not that very destroying element that may cause troubles to the game industry. Instead, it should be taken as a push that game developers should use to multiply their revenue at the same time giving all gamers a unique, customized, and pleasurable playing experience without much worry about their budgets.

Since its long-awaited release, iOS 8 made the IT world adapt to all the new ‘innovative’ features pretty quickly. Perhaps fascinating feature marketers found most nifty was demonstrating the functionality of their app via a video preview.

Such areas as mobile gaming adopted video previews as one of the best ways to highlight all the amazing opportunities and gameplay their apps offered. In addition, those companies that used video previewing were usually listed in Apple’s chart devoted to new apps, which was a quite smart advertising maneuver.

What changed?

A couple of months later, though, video previews quickly lost half of their hype. Why? What’s the reason behind such a dramatic loss in popularity? There’re a couple of pitfalls to consider.

First and foremost, it’s necessary to talk about production costs. The truth is, creating a proper video that is equally engaging, informative, and jaw-dropping is a rather costly and time-consuming endeavor. Even if you had opted for the most essential production rule of thumb, the project’s budget still grew substantially to be turned a blind eye on.

READ ALSO: Mobile app costs

Moreover, a high price of video preview making prevents most marketing budgets from conducting A/B testing, which requires a variety of promotional materials based on different content variations. With video previewing, you have but one asset most of the time, and if it’s not effective, you spent your money in vain.

Secondly, nowadays content gets outdated very fast. When we speak about video content, it can become out-of-date right on the production stage before even being released. While photo assets can be juggled and updated in a jiffy, video production is a way more complex process, which also requires a dedicated expert to manipulate it.

Thirdly, Apple’s content requirements are harsh. Lenient at first, later on, demands regarding photo and video promo materials became pressing. Apps that ignore following Cupertino’s recommendations, which are more of a commanding and imperative nature, are sacked from the store by moderators and then forwarded to owners for reconsideration.

Plus, given these strict video promotion guidelines, the final asset has little creative or entertaining value, which is simply cost-ineffective, especially in comparison to photo materials with much more creative freedom allowed to them by Apple.

Fourthly, another nail in the video preview a coffin was hammered when iOS 8 had been released. The truth is that video materials were visible only to iOS 8 users, which constituted only 78% of the total number of Apple audience. In other words, 22% of Apple devices (150 000 000 users!) were unable to check out video promos.

Therefore, the fifth reason why video content lost in popularity was the necessity to provide screenshots alongside an original video to cover those 150 mln users still using iOS 7 or lower. It resulted in extra budget money figuratively flushed down the pipe.

Love and hate are just one step apart

You’ve probably already realized that initial hype had quickly gone to naught. Numerous App Store Optimization (ASO) initiatives revealed the biggest problem of video previews. A serious effect on designated page visits in a too great number of cases with a subsequent conversion rate sinking.

According to the textbook, the goal of any landing page is to provide a solid user experience to make a user act the way you originally designed. Thus, the longer it takes to decide if your app is worthy to be downloaded or should rather be skipped, the less is the chance a user will make a target action. With this in mind, app screenshots have once again proven themselves a handier marketing tool with a higher persuasive value and potential.

On the flip side, videos provide users with too much room for doubts and contemplating, which seldom results in taking the actions you need.

To stack up, video previewing is a rather niche tool that definitely isn’t a definitive fit for all of marketer life’s emergencies. While for some apps it might work great, for others it will bring nothing but financial losses spent on production, and subsequent time expenditures spent on waiting for Apple’s verification.

Therefore, in search of flexibility, acceptable conversion rates, and as little as possible expenditures, a video previewing tool is the last to consider. Big brands, nonetheless, with AAA projects might include video previews into their marketing plan without any hesitations.

There was a time, way back when parents hoped their kids would someday become lawyers or doctors. Nowadays, the situation changed, and the meaning of success became much different. So, today people desire to create a viral application, sell it for millions of dollars, and achieve the American dream quickly and easily. Not so fast.

In fact, the app developing business, which is one of the biggest and fastest-growing industries in the whole world, is different than other traditional industries in many points. Furthermore, its daily modifications change the rules of all games. Since the app industry is such a unique sphere, being an entrepreneur – an entrepreneur concentrated on producing applications – naturally demands unique traits, skills, and abilities.

READ MORE: How much does it cost to develop an app

Here’re a few simple steps of what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur in the mobile area:

Think extremely fast

For entrepreneurs, the term “innovation” takes on an absolutely new meaning. If you think that the technology industry changes fast, just wait till you get into the mobile arena. Today, it’s not just about generating original and great ideas, but it’s more about making certain that by the time you complete elaborating your product it’s still applicable and relevant to the market. The app business varies everyday, and innovation isn’t just a part of the initial process but a daily urgency.

This is totally true since the mobile ecosystem is originally made. Many mobile applications depend on other platform with an eye to existing and big changes made by one influential player could lead to a mobile avalanche. Due to this, the professional entrepreneur has to stay flexible all the time.

Embrace simplicity

Most popular applications are focused on performing a single task perfectly well. But think for a minute about the difference between the app industry and other brands. For decades, brands have been trying to sell clients a whole lifestyle that generally consists of multiple products and merchandise. Usually, proposed products were costly and accounted for most of the business’s revenue.

As opposed to such companies, the app market is entirely different. It’s all about keeping it as simple as possible and offering a product that is extremely stylish, refined, and focuses on a single purpose. For example, in contradistinction to merchandise, applications are inexpensive goods that make users more open to installing them.

Define a monetization strategy

There is no trickier business model than mobile applications. Many well-known and successful apps with millions of clients all over the world still haven’t figured it.

Despite being a super popular product, users simply hate paying for applications. This tendency results in appearing challenges for entrepreneurs looking to provide users with what they really want – an outstanding output that’s free of charge.

Thus, entrepreneurs should always be confident that the used app monetization model doesn’t push away potential clients, whether it’s a freemium, in-app ad, or download fee model.

Flexibility is the answer

We all know the Coca-Cola myth about a company that intended to produce a new cough syrup and, as a result, ended up with a famous drink. The app business is full of fantastic examples of products that began with one purpose and ended up changing their track.

Truly speaking, applications are always required to add new useful features and remove less-desired ones to guarantee clients a well-functioning and reliable product.

The changeable nature of mobile app market needs entrepreneurs with a flexible mind. Such competent specialists have to accept changes and make their product adapt accordingly to the market requirements. Consequently, applications that don’t comply with the modern evolution of the tech world will simply lag behind.

Remember, it’s all about marketing

Of course, the striking idea is a must and perfect execution is vital, but, on the other hand, what is really significant in making your application a successful one is how efficient your market it.

Nowadays, mobile marketing is a completely new field that is different from traditional marketing. In fact, it allows entrepreneurs to select their target audience. Besides, it gives an opportunity to hit potential clients with persuasive messages that are relevant to their interests and consequently has more impact than billboards or TV advertising.

To prosper in the app industry, entrepreneurs have to get familiar with these options as an essential part of their marketing strategy and allocate appropriate channels to promote their products effectively.