You’re a business owner who’s looking to make your brand content accessible to customers with smartphones and tablets. That means creating your own app for the mobile devices.
If you’re an entrepreneur or owner of a small business without the deep pockets of a large corporation or well-financed startup, the cost of creating an app that will attract and engage customers is an essential factor.
YouTube is telling its fans what’s coming next.
The video content platform announced a new initiative called Creator Preview, a rundown of what the company is working on for its followers. According to YouTube’s Creators blog, the company is responding to its followers’ top request in a survey, to let them know what YouTube is working on ahead of time. The followers, in turn, would tell YouTube if it is on the right track.
Among YouTube’s upcoming plans is the development of a separate content creation app for smartphones. The timing could not be more fortuitous; a new report says smartphones now account for more than 87 percent of total handset shipments, a new high.
Also coming from YouTube is a crowdfunding feature that allows fans to directly contribute to their favorite YouTube creators, and a feature to create captions and subtitles for video content in multiple languages.
The company says its Creator Preview will come out regularly.
Here’s what YouTube’s engineers are saying.
We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.
We posted some time ago how over a quarter U.S. companies, 28 percent, do not have a mobile strategy. Here’s more proof that some companies are still lagging behind when it comes to using mobile devices as part of an overall marketing plan.
Only a small percentage of retailers are using push notifications — messages that are delivered and displayed on a mobile device — as a tool to engage their customers.
San Francisco-based mobile marketing analytics company Other Levels recently examined retailers’ use of mobile messaging tools like push notifications, in-app alerts and the rich inbox, an email-like inbox within a mobile app. In its 2014 Retail Mobile Messaging Study, Other Levels found that while 77 percent of the top online retailers have a mobile app, just 31 percent of retailers send push notifications as part of their messaging strategy.
Push notifications play a large role in driving app usage. The majority of the top 100 retailers’ apps ask users for permission to send push notifications, yet most of the companies never actually send those messages.
The report goes on to say that fewer than 2 percent of the top 500 online retailers have a mobile app with a rich inbox that can display unique customer-focused content within the app, from special offers to confirmations.
Retailers are seizing upon mobile apps to expand and enhance their brand presence and awareness. But their limited use of mobile messaging content means a lot of missed opportunities to engage customers.
We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.
Why do people buy educational apps for their mobile devices?
For kids and their parents, educational apps offer fun and creative ways to learn. Apps like Sprout Games and Videos for the iPad and First Words with Phonics for Windows motivate kids to work on their reading, math and other classroom skills, often using a familiar character like Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat.
A study by global trade organization MEF finds that 17 percent of mobile device users worldwide download an educational app. In its recently released report analyzing regional and global trends for mobile education products and services, MEF finds that educational apps rank ninth among all app categories.
But learning is not the prime motivation for people downloading education apps. Many users see them as playful or fun; the MEF study finds that 47 percent of people who buy an app from an educational site cited the entertainment value.
You can read more about MEF’s study in the infographic below.
We are MyMobileLyfe and we can help your company develop a content marketing strategy to reach people on the go. Click here to contact us.
Did you buy a pair of Google Glass eyewear at this week’s one-day only blowout? You now have a use for them.
One day after Google — according to some reports — exhausted its stock of the computer-equipped eyewear after offering the $1,500 devices at a one-day public sale to U.S. residents, Starwood Hotels announced plans to release an app that lets Google Glass wearers search its 1,100 hotels and resorts and reserve a room with voice commands.
The SPG for Glass app also allows users to get turn-by-turn directions, access up to date account information and explore hotel photos. A beta version of the app is undergoing testing.
It’s the latest tech-savvy move for the Stamford, Conn.-based lodging chain. As we posted recently, Starwood is working on a new virtual door key system for its hotels that allow guests to enter their rooms using an app on their smartphones, which would unlock the door via Bluetooth technology.
As the population of consumers using mobile devices continues to rise, companies have decisions to make. Should they develop mobile device apps, or optimize their websites to be viewed on smartphones?
This infographic by Boca Raton, Fla.-based MDG Advertising helps break it down. Let us know what you think.
What makes good content marketing for a mobile device?
It informs the consumer, and engages them. It helps the consumer make decisions and connect with the brand. The content goes beyond advice on making a purchase or finding a store nearby. Over time, it builds customer loyalty.
Content Marketing Institute recently came up with five solid examples of retail content created for mobile devices. For those focusing on effective mobile content, these should be worth a look:
Teavana’s mobile site (shown at left) is unique and informative content for fans of the specialty tea shop found in many shopping malls, offering tips from a tea blending tool to brewing instructions for the perfect pot.
An app created for Lowe’s stands out for its “My Lowe’s” feature that helps shoppers remember what they bought at the home improvement store before.
A user-friendly Domino’s Tracker shows what stage a customer’s pizza order is in, whether it is still in the oven or is on its way to being delivered in 30 minutes or less.
Best Buy’s mobile app features content that helps educate consumers as they make their in-store decisions, like a scanner that they can use in the store to compare product features and check out reviews.
The MyWendy’s app (shown at left) has content geared toward the calorie conscious. Customers can set the calorie range for their meal, and they can view a list of items they can choose from to help them stick to their goal. The customer can save a customized meal that displays on the app what each item looks like, as well as the nutritional information.
These five apps have common content characteristics: They engage and inform the customer and give them a reason to stay interested in the brand. For content marketing creators, that is the goal.
If you’re a smart shopper, you’re likely using a smartphone to do this.
A recent survey of smartphone users finds that a majority of users believe the mobile device is essential when it comes to the shopping experience. Framingham, Mass.-based IDC’s research done during last year’s holiday shopping season reveals that 70 percent plan to use their smartphone more to help their shopping experience in 2014, while 69 percent say their smartphone is critical to a better shopping experience.
They’re researching deals, checking prices and reviews, and exchanging information on social media.
They’re also posing challenges to retailers trying to stay ahead of the digital wave. According to IDC, online retailers are capturing a larger share of the market from smartphone shoppers.
Online giants Amazon, eBay and Groupon attract the most shoppers, far more so than bricks-and-mortar retailers like Walmart and Target. And, according to the IDC, one in five smartphone users shoppers buy from a competitor while in the store they’re shopping in.
Read IDC’s infographic here for more
Facebook Paper looms as a game changer for content marketers.
The social media giant’s recently launched media delivery app puts an emphasis on quality images and solid content for the user. Users can select sections featuring content created from news sources for their optimal and personalized media experience.
They’ll look for unique and compelling images, attention-grabbing headlines and blog postings that feature original, well-written and researched material.
This poses a challenge to companies when it comes to creating the brand content that Paper users will be drawn to.
Business2community.com has a few tips for those that want to create high-impact content for Facebook’s Paper:
You can read more about this here.
Academy Awards host Ellen DeGeneres broke new ground in social media when her star-studded smartphone “selfie” at Sunday’s ceremonies became the most retweeted item on Twitter ever.
Now, there’s an app that puts you in the picture.
Members of Urturn, which calls itself “a social platform for self-expression,” are joining the party by plugging their own selfies into the Oscars night image and sharing the results on urturn.com’s “My Best Celebrity Selfie Ever” page as well as to Facebook and Twitter.
While Urturn’s followers can only hope to duplicate DeGeneres’ Twitter results – it was retweeted more than 1 million times since Sunday night, crashing Twitter in the process — it’s all an exercise in fun for the users of the site.
Urturn’s app is downloadable for iOS.
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