Month: May 2019

Categories
Push Notifications

Push Messaging: After you hit send

Once you have created the push messages and sent them out, it is important to remember that the process doesn’t stop there! There are some key elements you want to track to help you create more effective push notifications in the future.

Here are the key metrics to track:

 
Opt-ins
Watch for the changes in this number. If it goes down, that’s a warning sign. This means you are doing something wrong, which is probably a problem of frequency and relevance. Therefore, you will want to change up the times you send your notifications and create topics for people to opt-in to.
 
Delivery Rate
The sent and delivered totals should be close to equal. If not, this could be issues with the message length, link or image on the message.
 
Clicks
See how many people truly engaged with the message. This is the statistic that will matter the most to you when you are tracking these messages. This allows you to see if you got the right number of clicks to your push message to lead your mobile app to success.
 
By tracking all three of these key metrics it will show you what you need to improve to engage your audiences. By having strong calls to action, it will truly help all of these three metrics be on track. Messages that are purely information are fine, but it’s hard to tell if you message lands at all. Therefore, overtime you need to look for trends from message to message.
Here’s some questions to consider overtime:

  • Are your messages too long?
  • Are the messages opened at a certain time of the day?
  • Does a shorter message open more rather than a longer one?

These are the kinds of things you want to look at! The object is to continually improve your messages to improve your results! And remember it does take time to nail this down!
Check out our webinar on Push Messaging 101 and contact Sari Zalesin to learn more about our push messaging solution!

Categories
Push Notifications Radio

Event Announcement: Catholic Media Conference

We are excited to announce that we will be attending and presenting at the Catholic Media Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida June 18th – 21st. The Catholic Media Conference is one of the top religious radio conferences of the year… you won’t want to miss it!
This Catholic Media Conference offers: Networking with the leading Catholic media professionals, hear from national and international speakers, unite as one in faith, as well as a great tropical destination for you to have fun in the sun!
Along with our excitement of the attending the event, we are excited that our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin will be giving a presentation as well as providing breakfast to the attendees on Wednesday, June 18th from 8:00am – 9:30am! 
Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Mobile apps in the religious radio industry
  • Revenue and underwriting opportunities
  • Push Notifications
  • Smart Speakers
  • Connected Car

This presentation will not only give you insight on how to reach and engage with your listeners on a daily basis, but Sari will also be providing you with details on what has worked in the past for religious radio stations and how they have success with their mobile app, push notifications and smart speakers.
Mobile is the #1 platform in the world and it’s the key element for you to take your listener engagement to the next level. We have limited spots for our presentation, please contact us today to reserve your spot!
If you are unable to make it to our presentation, we would like to schedule a FREE one-on-one meeting with you!
Contact us: erin@jacapps.com or 248-353-9030

Categories
App Everywhere B2B Apps Mobile Apps

How to Build Customer Retention in Your App

Build Customer Retention in your APP

For modern businesses, an app is one of their most important sales and retention tools. Customers are just as likely — if not more — to judge you on your digital presence as they are to judge you for your retail space.
Because of this, your business is smart to focus on four keys to retaining customers through your mobile platform. What are these four keys?

  1. App Functionality

First of all, make sure that your app works consistently. A problematic app or one that is too slow will not only fail to contribute toward customer retention, but it will also turn off potential customers before they even get started.
Start with a simpler app experience as you begin. This allows you to focus on getting the core process right without a lot of distraction. As you create an app that works well for everyone on a regular basis, add features and functions to boost the experience.
Be sure to base additional features on thorough testing as well as customer feedback to avoid creating any functional issues.

  1. First-Time Experiences

Think about the app from the perspective of a first-time user. Many customers today won’t give your app more than one chance to impress them, so don’t waste it.
The process of signing up and making an account should be intuitive and easy to navigate. Create a short walk-through for new customers, emphasizing only the most important functions but making it clear how to use them. And avoid wasting users’ precious time and attention with obnoxious ads or unnecessary side trips.

  1. Habit-Forming Activities

Using the app needs to become habit for your customers. You build this habit in a variety of ways. Push notifications are an excellent and effective tool, as long as you don’t overwhelm users with too many notifications. Tailor reminders for the individual user based on their interests or choices. Make notifications fun and gentle rather than aggressive or repetitive.
Help customers in your brick-and-mortar locations see the benefits of the app as well. Make it useful for the most common of your transactions, such as refilling goods they’ve already bought or scheduling appointments in less than a minute. And offer helpful tips, special discounts, or new products to appeal to (or intrigue) customers between visits.
In short, make the app into the go-to place for repeat and low-level activity with your business.

  1. Innovation

Be always on the lookout for new ways to make the app work better for you and for your customers. If you’re a medical provider, you may add a patient portal where clients can view their medical information or interact with providers when they have questions. A hair salon, on the other hand, might add a virtual queue or offer ways to save styles or nail ideas into a portfolio for use in their next visit.
Keep your app on the forefront of your business promotion as well as social media plans. It should be an integral part of your overall marketing and customer service strategy, leading the way with promotions, services, and new ways to help your customer. No matter whether a customer visits a social media site, your app, or your store, they should recognize the experience and feel like they’ve been here before.
Focusing on these four key elements in your app will help you retain more customers and make a more enjoyable experience for everyone. At jācapps, our team of experts will help you build an easy and efficient app that works well to keep customers engaged. Call us today to make an appointment to learn more.

Categories
App Everywhere

Web Apps vs. Native Apps: Advantages & Disadvantages

Happy mature business man sitting at cafeteria with laptop and smartphone. Businessman texting on smart phone while sitting in a pub restaurant. Portrait of senior formal man working and checking email on computer.

Many companies choose can offer both native apps and web apps to their customs, but how do you know what one to choose?

Native Apps: Pros & Cons

A native app is stored on the device itself, and while most people are more familiar with browsing and downloading native apps, with there being so many different versions out there the developer can’t guarantee that every user is using the same version of the app at all times.

Pros:
  • They open and perform faster than web apps
  • Since native apps work with the device’s built-in features – like the camera, microphone, location services, etc. they can offer richer functionality.
  • App stores and marketplaces give native apps full support. This allows users to easily find and download apps of their choice from these stores.
  • The user can be assured that the app is secure and fully compatible with their device, since the apps have to get approval from the app stores.
Cons:
  • The cost of app maintenance and app updating is higher for native apps, especially since there are two mobile platforms to support sometimes.
  • The approval process in the app stores for native apps can sometimes be challenging for the developer.
  • When users all use different versions of the app, makes it challenging for the developer to maintain updates and offer support.
Web Apps: Pros and Cons

Web apps are easier to access because anyone is able to access them online at any time, and they’re always up to date. However, web apps aren’t as easy to find because there isn’t a centralized store of web apps for all mobile devices.

Pros:
  • Web apps are easier to maintain because they use one code base across multiple mobile platforms.
  • Web apps can be made compatible with older mobile devices and more versions.
  • You do not have to submit your app for approval to the app stores. This is because Apple App Stores do not list web apps.
Cons:
  • Mobile web apps have only limited scope as far as accessing a device’s internal features.
  • Web apps can be expensive when they need to support multiple platforms
  • It is difficult for the developer to maintain and track the usage patterns and provide support for all the different platforms.
  • Web apps are hard to find because they are not listed in any app stores.
  • There is no quality control system for web apps, therefore users are not guaranteed safety and security of the app.

Overall, we can see that there are both positive and negative aspects to both native apps and web apps. One thing to always remember is that they world is becoming more mobile each and every day and having a mobile app will allow you to engage more with your audiences.

If you are interested in learning more about our mobile app solutions, contact our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin today!

Categories
App Everywhere

Web Apps vs. Native Apps: Advantages & Disadvantages

Happy mature business man sitting at cafeteria with laptop and smartphone. Businessman texting on smart phone while sitting in a pub restaurant. Portrait of senior formal man working and checking email on computer.

Many companies choose can offer both native apps and web apps to their customs, but how do you know what one to choose?

Native Apps: Pros & Cons

A native app is stored on the device itself, and while most people are more familiar with browsing and downloading native apps, with there being so many different versions out there the developer can’t guarantee that every user is using the same version of the app at all times.

Pros:
  • They open and perform faster than web apps
  • Since native apps work with the device’s built-in features – like the camera, microphone, location services, etc. they can offer richer functionality.
  • App stores and marketplaces give native apps full support. This allows users to easily find and download apps of their choice from these stores.
  • The user can be assured that the app is secure and fully compatible with their device, since the apps have to get approval from the app stores.
Cons:
  • The cost of app maintenance and app updating is higher for native apps, especially since there are two mobile platforms to support sometimes.
  • The approval process in the app stores for native apps can sometimes be challenging for the developer.
  • When users all use different versions of the app, makes it challenging for the developer to maintain updates and offer support.
Web Apps: Pros and Cons

Web apps are easier to access because anyone is able to access them online at any time, and they’re always up to date. However, web apps aren’t as easy to find because there isn’t a centralized store of web apps for all mobile devices.

Pros:
  • Web apps are easier to maintain because they use one code base across multiple mobile platforms.
  • Web apps can be made compatible with older mobile devices and more versions.
  • You do not have to submit your app for approval to the app stores. This is because Apple App Stores do not list web apps.
Cons:
  • Mobile web apps have only limited scope as far as accessing a device’s internal features.
  • Web apps can be expensive when they need to support multiple platforms
  • It is difficult for the developer to maintain and track the usage patterns and provide support for all the different platforms.
  • Web apps are hard to find because they are not listed in any app stores.
  • There is no quality control system for web apps, therefore users are not guaranteed safety and security of the app.

Overall, we can see that there are both positive and negative aspects to both native apps and web apps. One thing to always remember is that they world is becoming more mobile each and every day and having a mobile app will allow you to engage more with your audiences.
If you are interested in learning more about our mobile app solutions, contact our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin today!

Categories
App Everywhere B2B Apps Mobile Apps Push Notifications

Push Messaging: Before you hit send

Woman being unhappy. Resolute serious short-haired woman showing stopping gesture to laptop camera during online conversation

Push messages can be one of the most beneficial elements to your mobile app, but you need to make sure you are creating and checking them correctly! Remember, you are interrupting someone with your message, so you need to make sure that you aren’t making any mistakes.
Here are a few common mistakes we have found in push messages that you should double check and avoid.

Sending too many messages

The main thing to remember, don’t get carried away and start sending too many messages – you don’t want to spam your users, this will push them away.

Messages with typos

Remember to proof read your messages! Make sure it is correct, the details are accurate and there aren’t any typos. It won’t enhance your user’s feelings about the brand or the message.

Vague call to action

Make sure your call to action is clear and compelling. A vague call to action is not going to get the click that you are hoping for.

Message isn’t relevant to the people you are sending it to

Make sure your message is relevant to your audience, this is very important in order to get the successful click rate. One thing we offer is creation of topics. We can create topics that your users can decide what type of messages they would like to opt-in to, therefore, you will be able to reach the right people for the right reasons. This is an important technique because when people get messages that are not relevant to them, your push messages will not be successful.
It is important to keep all four of these mistakes in mind when you are creating your push messages, in order to have that successful click rate! Check out our Push Messaging 101 Webinar for more information and contact our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin to learn more about our push messaging solution!

Categories
App Everywhere Apple CarPlay B2B Apps Connected Car Mobile Apps

Mobile App Development Process

Hands sketching of screens for mobile responsive website development with UI/UX. Developing wireframe sketch layout design mockup on smartphone screen.

Investing in a mobile app is a significant commitment and you want to be confident in the mobile app development company who develops your company’s app. Another concern for companies is not knowing how the complete mobile app development process really works.
Our team of developers, marketers, and strategists will guide your company through a four-step process that takes your project from conception to completion.

  1. Discover

This is where you’re apps take root. We draw inspiration from our conversations with you to brainstorm ideas and discuss the requirements needed to develop them. This part can be a lot of fun for companies – we get to sit down with you and truly craft what you want your app to do, look like, and how you want it to engage your audience. This discover point is where we like to emphasize that we truly create your company’s app different from any other app we’ve done.

  1. Design

Once a concept has been approved, we combine skills and strategy to make sure your apps look great and are easy to use. Our progress will be presented to you in the form of a specification document. This is where we get to sit down together again and make sure your app looks the way you pictured. Once this step is approved, we move into the actual development of the app.

  1. Develop

After you’ve green lighted our specification document, our in-house development gets to work. This phase culminates with rigorous QA testing.

  1. Deploy

We submit your apps to their respective stores and watch the numbers skyrocket! But we don’t stop there… we keep a look out for rate potential problems and help you navigate new devices and OS versions as they become available.
This simple four-step process keeps your app development process stress free and organized in order to create the best possible mobile solution for your company. If you are interested in our mobile app process, contact our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin to being your mobile app development process today!

Categories
App Everywhere B2B Apps Mobile Apps Push Notifications

Push Messaging: 4 Ingredients of a Good Push Message

As we have covered before, push messages are one of the key elements to your mobile app to engage your listeners and users. However, there’s a technique behind push messages that help you create the most successful messages to send your listeners and users.

Here are the 4 ingredients of a good push notification:
  1. Relevance

Make it meaningful and personal. Make sure the message is import to your audience and not just to you. The topic must be relevant, actionable and timely to your listeners. Sending a lot of messages will reduce the impact, so you really got to nail down what your listeners what to know.

  1. Brevity

You have a very small space and people have very small attention spans, so this point cannot be over emphasized. Push messages are really consumed at a glance. The user probably only has a few moments when looking at this message, so you need to be quick and get straight to the point. Just because you have a total of 140 characters, doesn’t mean you have to use them. We have seen more successful push notifications with characters between 20 and 90!
Think more like a tweet than a Facebook post!

  1. Timeliness

When you schedule your message, it really matters! There is actually an optimal time to send your messages. It will be different from brand to brand, and station to station but you can look at your statistics of your push messaging and see when you get the most responses. It is important to keep track of this and overtime you can fine tune your strategy to get the most engagement possible with your audience.
As what we found so far, the most engaging time tends to be around lunchtime, between 12pm – 2pm!

  1. Call to Action

This really has to be an important element of how you use your messages. The whole point of sending these messages is getting your audience to do something. So, make sure you are clear on what you want them to do and make it easy for them to do it. Once your user does click on your message make sure your link has a clear connection to the message. In other words, don’t make your users click around your app trying to figure out where they need to go for that specific notification. Your message should flow naturally and clearly! Push messages are a strategy to make your listeners life easier and more engaged, don’t make it difficult!
By using those 4 ingredients you will create successful push messages to engage your audience. Check out our Push Messaging 101 Webinar and contact our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin for more information regarding push messages! sari@jacapps.com or 248-353-9030

Categories
App Everywhere B2B Apps Mobile Apps Push Notifications

6 Key Signs Your Company Needs a Mobile App

Group of friends watching smart mobile phones - Teenagers addiction to new technology trends - Concept of youth, tech, social and friendship - Focus on close-up phone

With the world becoming more mobile every day, it is important to stay ahead of your competition. With more and more of us spending most of our days glued to our smartphones, a mobile app may be the best way to reach your target market.
You may not know how to dive into a mobile app or may not know why a mobile app would be useful for their company, but there are unlimited problems that mobile apps can solve, and they can be created to be the perfect fit to your company’s needs. Also, companies can learn a thing or two on how they can step up their branding and customer relations.

Here are some signs your company needs a mobile app:
  • Your competitors have an app 

It is important that you stave above your competition and with technology today, most companies will be investing in and creating their very own mobile app to be able to reach their customers no matter where they are. Investing in designing your company’s application and you will know you have the app that perfectly reflects your brand and ideals.

  • Your site is not doing well on search

Ranking high on the Google index often equates to brand visibility. If your website has not been ranking well, you may be close to becoming obsolete. With your very own application, you can become more noticeable in the public eye, especially when you offer everything your customer could ever want.

  • You don’t have customer or public engagement 

With a user-friendly application, you can send out push notifications which provide customers developments in your business. By keeping your customers and the public in the loop, you are creating a variety of engagement among the community.

  • Build brand recognition

Companies are always looking for a way to expand their brands, you want to be able to create an effective program and solution that is up to date with today’s technology and generations. Aside that point, you want a program that can reflect the values of ideals of your organization. By putting out a mobile app, you can provide whatever features you decide that will certainly get your customers to know your brand.

  • Gain customer insight 

Mobile apps have the power to let business owners know the patterns, performance, and preferences. Through the features put forward in the program, developers can monitor and track the behaviors of the users. This knowledge allows your company to fine tune your services according to your consumer’s tastes.

  • Stand out from the crowd

Not only will having a mobile app create a competitive edge in the industry, but it will also have the public in aw about the way you approach your venture.
Working with a reliable and highly advanced local app developers and designers is well worth your investment. If you aren’t offering a mobile app to the public, seeing the wealth of advantages these companies bring might be worth considering.
We would love to talk to you about mobile strategy and help you take your company mobile. Contact our Director of Business Development, Sari Zalesin at sari@jacapps.com or 248-353-9030.