Mobile App Necessary For E-Commerce Websites?

Posted on 8th Feb 2013 by David Shaw

In these days where there are millions of users surfing the internet, accessing information and even purchasing things online via their mobile or tablet, it has made many E-Commerce companies and businesses consider the possibility of developing a mobile app of their own to reach out to that market. In fact, the numbers are only increasing and the market trend has shifted towards being mobile/tablet dominant.

It is a fact that the mobile market cannot be ignored if not you might be missing out on a large pie of the business. So are we left with no choice but to flow with this trend?

Not known to many perhaps, but the development and design of mobile apps can be very costly and tedious, especially if you compare the costs and effort required with a website. Particularly, solutions where mobile apps are supposed to work alongside an e-commerce website can cost quite a hefty sum of money.

In the category of retail and e-commerce, due to the fact of not wanting to lose that market ground, there are many business owners adopting these expensive solutions which might end up working against them for some.

There is an alternative!

There is an option for these people to consider though, a less expensive alternative which serves both purposes. This term isn’t new to us and it is called Responsive Websites. And for this particular topic,Responsive E-Commerce Websites.

As many of us already know, responsive websites appear very nicely on mobiles or tablets, and this function appeals well to our tablet and mobile users. Dimensions and resolutions do not get thrown off and nothing is compromised aesthetically. Of course, the disadvantage to this alternative is that there isn’t a customized app on their mobile for them to simply launch, but I believe that this alternative is one which is practical and economical, especially for new e-commerce business startups.

This article isn’t to discourage or diminish the importance of mobile apps, but rather provide a cheaper alternative for people who are thinking of starting an E-commerce business, desiring to reach out to the wider market, and do not have the means to afford the design and development a mobile app. And only when your e-commerce business is established and when you have a steady stream of business, it is then a good time to consider customizing a mobile app to give your buyers more reasons to visit you.

Tagged with: app, business, ecommerce, Mobile
Posted in E-commerce, Mobile

5 Mobile Apps To Enhance Your Social Media Marketing

Posted on 4th Feb 2013 by David Shaw

The phenomenal rise of social media is testimony to the fact that everybody wants to connect to somebody else and use the awesome power of the Internet to do so. So whether it is an individual posting photographs of his latest holiday or a business owner using his social media account or page to foster brand recall, marketing via social networking is here to stay. So let us focus on the business owners for now.

The power of social media marketing is relevant, immediate and massive. It is a rather easy way for any business owner, regardless of the size of business he runs, to stay in meaningful contact with his customer.

It therefore, makes perfect sense to use all available business and technology tools to enhance social media marketing. One of the easiest tools to use in this domain is mobile applications. The convenience and portability, if one can call it that, of mobile applications means that you can manage your social media presence 24 x 7. In a world that never sleeps as far as global customer base is concerned this “ever connected” business activity can make a critical difference to anybody.

Google Currents

Check out the power of this mobile application called Google Currents. At some point of time or the other one may run out of ideas about the kind of content you should be posting on your social media site. This brain freeze can be cured with the help of Google Currents.

Plume

Opening a Twitter account may be easier said than done but managing a large number of Twitter accounts can get pretty complex. Not to worry! Plume is a mobile application that will help you become a master juggler of your Twitter experiences.

Flipboard

For sheer beauty and innovativeness you must use the mobile application called Flipboard. Imagine being able to navigate through every bit of news, celebrity happenings and sports events or any other content that interests you. Now imagine being able to do so by flipping up the pages of such content! This is exactly what Flipboard promises you. You can connect virtually every social media site that you are on and use the content generated by this application to add marvellous zing to your accounts.

Buffer App

Buffer App allows you to share various kinds of content to social networks. Right now, you can link three social networking sites under the scheme of a free account. And yes, you can see what is working and what is detracting from your social media presence with the help of its analysis capability

Facebook application

Finally, perhaps no list of mobile applications connected to social media marketing will be complete without an addition of something related to Facebook! Yes, there is indeed a Facebook application that makes it easy and interesting to see what is happening on your Facebook account from your mobile phone. You can choose content, deploy analytics to see what is happening on your pages and sort through information such as uploaded pictures, status updates and links being shared as well. With the help of all these applications, managing and more importantly improving social media marketing is a breeze indeed!

For more information on mobile appdevelopmentiphone, log on to Appsquare.com.

Posted in Social Media

How To Increase Your Social Media Followers

Posted on 3rd Feb 2013 by David Shaw

Within the last few years, social media has very quickly taken over our every day world.

It has become our main source of communication between friends and family and businesses are jumping onto all outlets as fast as they can. It’s a great way to spread a message or marketing campaign quickly to a large number of people. Many times, it can start a wild fire of communication with ‘friends’ sharing with their friends and so on and so forth. But how do you increase the amount of followers you have in order to maximize your efforts and see some real results?

First, your account can’t be private. We all have people in our lives that we’d rather not share information with but it’s just something you will have to get over if you truly want to be available to the masses. There are ways to hide your true identity so that your social media accounts don’t pop up in Google should someone try to find you that way. You can use an alias or abbreviation to avoid that happening. It’s next to impossible to gain followers on a private account because anyone who stumbles on your page won’t know anything about you or your brand. They won’t be able to read any information and will be stuck making a judgment call based on a picture and brief description.

Also, on twitter and Instagram, a great way to earn more followers is by ‘hash-tagging’. Creating a hash-tag means you take a popular buzzword or phrase and put a ‘#’ in front of it. These hash-tags are searchable so other users can find accounts and content that is similar to what they are posting. Private accounts can create hash-tags but they won’t be visible to the public. You should hash-tag any relevant keywords and even your city if you want to connect with the locals.

Another great way to build more followers/friends/fans is to seek some out yourself! Follow hash-tags or look for accounts that post content that you find interesting. ‘Re-tweet’ (resend) some of their content to get them to notice your account. Interact with other users and encourage open dialogue and communication. Consider posting giveaways and contests to encourage more people to join you as a follower or share your account and content with their friends.

You should follow Agency Fusion Utah on twitter and become a Facebook follower here.

Posted in Social Media

Integrating Tabs with a Facebook Page Template

Posted on 2nd Feb 2013 by David Shaw

With Facebook’s new timeline it’s hard to have a welcome page that fans can look at when they search for you through Facebook. However, there are still ways of implementing a Facebook page template and having fans appreciate them.

Welcome Tabs

Facebook still allows you to add a welcome tab to your page. This isn’t the first thing that fans will see when they search for you through Facebook. However you can still have them directed to that tab when navigating the internet from an exterior source. For example, if you have a blog that allows you to install a Facebook widget, you can have them directed to the tab by embedding the URL to the app that runs the tab. Then, you can add a “like” generator that “locks” the content until the user “likes” the page. Once the user has become a fan, they are able to interact with the content on the welcome tab. You could provide a description of the company, a sample from collections, and a description of a contest that you may be running or a picture slideshow from an event that you hosted.

Content

There is come limitation to what you can share on Timeline. However you can pretty much add anything that you want to the tabs at the top of the page. Welcome tabs are completely customizable and you are only limited by your imagination. There have been some instances where people will add an emailing portion that would allow users to email directly from Facebook to the company. This is a great way to allow people to express their concerns while giving them a simple method of emailing. Also, if the Facebook page belongs to a retail boutique, they can showcase their new lines of clothing and link to a landing page on the company’s website that would direct them straight to that product. It can be an easy way to establish a call to action with a corresponding landing page.

Tabs

There are a variety of tabs that you can now add to work with conjunction to a Facebook page template. Some of the tabs include Instagram, where you can showcase your company’s Instagram photos. This is perfect since Facebook business pages don’t allow you to directly link Instagram accounts. The Instagram tab is developed by a third party software company that allows you to link the two profiles. You can also add a Pinterest tab that allows you to share single or multiple boards on the company’s Pinterest profile. It’s a great way to link all of your social media accounts to one source. For example, an educational institution may decided to use Scribed, which is an app that allows the page to share PDF files, to share major check off lists and graduation applications. They may also use Facebook’s notes tab to share upcoming internship and job opportunities in order to get the word out faster. It’s worth a company’s time to look into what can be done with the tabs, especially since more and more of them are available.

Tagged with: Facebook, Facebook Pages, Pages, Tabs
Posted in Social Media

Creating An Email Marketing Strategy That Will Work For You

Posted on 1st Feb 2013 by David Shaw

Many people interested in creating an email marketing strategy have no idea how to go about it. The idea itself has a feel of complication and there is the fear that it could be highly time consuming. Most people are too busy to dedicate the time and effort required to come up with good and effective consumer email lists.

email-marketing Email marketing is a smart choice for any company. Research has shown that email marketing is amongst the top cost-effective tools of marketing available. This marketing tool will guarantee positive results. Here is a guide that should help you to set up an effective email marketing strategy.

1. Define the readers. The first step is to have it clear in your mind what your target audience is. Knowing the category of people you want your information to reach is the first step to advertising and marketing, no matter which form of advertising you are using. Email marketing must be on the list.

Once you know the people you are targeting, it will then be easy to determine exactly what you want to communicate to them. For example, peers, family members, potential customers, current customers and industry leaders are all different categories of people that will each require a different set of words in their email, in order to communicate to them effectively. Define the people in each category and state down the more likely thing each category would require or desire from your marketing campaign.

Sending a common email to this whole group would be a big mistake and an expensive one too. An example of a set of needs that a certain category of people would have is peers. The interest of peers would be to get information about the most fashionable and trendy products in the market, intense consumer research about which are the fastest moving products, and gossip about various people in different industries.

2. Define your purpose. This next step tells you why you want to communicate with your target audience. Why would your customers or prospects want to read your email? Answering this question will help you get clear about exactly what you want to say to your target audience. Keep in mind that this should be said in words that communicate clearly, what your point is, and in an email that is not unnecessarily long and or boring.

People want to hear or read something that will relate to them or meet their need, put this in your email. Arm yourself with such knowledge and you will have clients queuing up in your premises seeking your services.

Tagged with: email, email marketing, Marketing
Posted in Email Marketing