"Go Mobile or Go Home", is the message for businesses and marketers from trend watchers and industry experts. The focus of 2018 will be to cater to the exponential growth of consumers who now use smart phones and/or tablets as their first – and many times only – device.

Before we go into the 2018 trends, let’s set the mobile stage. It’s no longer a question of whether mobile marketing is important – we know it is – it’s now the case of understanding how consumers behave on mobile devices. By 2018, more than half of all consumers will be using mobile devices first for anything they do online, according to Gartner.

Across the globe, mobile devices dominate total minutes spent online. For example, in the US, 71% of total digital minutes comes from mobile devices. Even more stagerring, in Indonesia 91% of time spent online comes from mobile. The average time spent browsing on a smartphone per month is 87 hours in the US, compared to 34 hours on desktop. And these numbers have only increased in the past year.

According to official Google statements, more than 50% of search queries globally come from mobile devices (experts say this number is now closer to 60%). The category with the highest percentage of mobile search volume is “Food & Beverage” with 72%. Following the restaurant industry, is Health, Sports, News, Lifestyle, and Retail. Businesses in these industries, and many others, will instantly see results when going mobile.
Now that you’re up to date on the current mobile landscape, let’s take a look at the 9 mobile marketing trends that will define 2018:

Reputation management is crucial for any business, big or small. Even a company, which doesn’t have a dedicated Reputation Manager, is or should be engaging in reputation management and amelioration on a regular basis. With the growth of the internet and social media, the notion of reputation management has transformed into online reputation management. The online search results are core part of a company’s reputation. So you should control what shows up when someone looks you up online.

An important piece of the online reputation management puzzle is online reviews. Online reviews are crucial to any business that wants to keep control of their online reputation. According to The Online Department, “Online reviews have created a new form of marketing and communication that bridges the gap between simple word-of-mouth and a viral form of feedback that can move virtual mountains for a business.” The importance of online reviews for businesses is truly mind boggling.

The above stats speak for themselves! When it comes to word of mouth, online reviews have taken the spotlight. They are now the ultimate “word of mouth endorsement.”

Before we get into the importance of positive reviews, we should discuss why it is at all important to have reviews. In other words, what are the consequences of having no reviews? You might think that no reviews is better than bad reviews, but this is not always the case. Without reviews, people doing research on your company are lacking the evidence that you are a real brand that they can trust. Without a number of online reviews to your name, you are missing out on new business.

Imagine this situation: You own a restaurant. Someone is visiting the area and looking for a place to eat. They use their smartphone to determine which restaurants are available to them. The search results show yours and one other establishment on the same street. Your restaurant does not have a single review on Yelp, Google, Facebook or any other platform. The other restaurant has several 4 or 5 star reviews. In that moment, it does not matter that your restaurant has tastier food or better service, the customer will pick your competitor. Without reviews, your business lacks credibility and looks questionable. Prospective customers will wonder why there aren’t any reviews, thinking “Is this business not popular? Does no one know about it? Is it a bad restaurant?” Every time a potential customer comes across your business online – and 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business – you might be losing them to the competition.

Even more noteworthy is that for every $1 of online revenue influenced by reviews, that impact is multiplied offline by 4x or 5x. 

This is what it comes down to: online reviews will lead to increased profit. Reviews give customers the information that they need to make the decision to purchase a product or service from a business. Today’s consumer is highly informed, conducting their own in depth research before buying anything. Reviews are an important part of this research and can be the tipping point in decisions where there is little-perceived product differentiation. Again, imagine you are picking between two hair salons. If both salons offer the same services, fall around the same price point, and are in the same area, the reviews will be the tiebreaker. A consumer will almost always pick the establishment with better reviews as this is the differentiating factor between the two.

More Customer Loyalty

Reviews go hand-in-hand with loyalty. Customers who take the time to leave a positive review for a business are far more likely to feel a certain loyalty to that business. There is a much higher chance that they will keep coming back. The act of leaving an online review establishes a relationship with the business, allowing customers to feel like they have a voice. Consumers want to be able to provide feedback in a meaningful way and know that their voices are heard by both the business and their peers. These reviews will then drive new prospects to your business, making it a tool for both customer acquisition and customer retention.

Improved SEO Ranking

Online reviews work towards improving your website’s ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp and so on. The more that is written about your business online, the more important a search engine considers you to be. Besides moving up in ranking, you will also be featured in a wider array of keywords. With reviews coming in, your business website will have a steady influx of SEO keywords that help your business strengthen its online presence. These new keywords will help to bring up your website in search results when customers are looking for the type of product or service you sell. According to MOZ’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, online reviews are thought to make up 10% of how Google and other search engines decide to rank search results. Online reviews are as critical to your local SEO strategy as link building citations and on-site optimization.

Spark Brand Advocacy

If you’ve started collecting reviews, you will soon realize that they are worth a great deal in terms of marketing. Reviews can offer your business benefits that a simple marketing campaign just can’t. They keep working long after the review has been posted. It fosters continual brand awareness, with your customers taking the role of brand advocates. And it’s safe to say that if your customers left a positive public review, they might also be recommending your business offline to their network. Treat these customers well and recognize their efforts, as they are your personal brand influencers.

Give your Customers Better Service

Reviews can tell you where you are excelling and where you might need to improve. By being open to this feedback, your business will be able to better serve customers and adapt accordingly. This will create an even more positive experience, giving customers a sense that their voice is heard and taken seriously. In fact, 78 percent of consumers say that seeing management respond to online reviews makes them believe that the business cares more about them. It’s important to take all reviews into account. Some companies make the mistake of glorifying positive reviews while brushing off negative ones. Both, however, hold equal value and should be handled accordingly. More specifically, ReviewTrackers found that 52 percent of customers expect to hear back from brands within 7 days of writing an online review, particularly one that’s negative or critical.

How to really manage your brand reputation through online reviews? 

With Edify Now’s newest product release, Digital App Factory; small businesses are able to harness the power of positive reviews. Your branded Mobile App or Progressive Web App will become even more powerful, being a consistent source of online reviews.

With our mobile reviews campaign, app users will be prompted to review your business on the most popular online review sites, including Google, Yelp, Facebook, and TripAdvisor. We ensure only the reviews with positive ratings get published, while you can directly handle the negative feedback as a business owner.

The customization component is what really sets our reputation management system apart. You can set up triggers to send review requests when the app users are experiencing a positive interaction with your brand. For instance, users may receive a prompt right after they redeem a reward or after they have enjoyed their meal. Based on a user’s actions within the app, you can determine when they are most likely to leave a positive review about your business.

​Most companies send out emails asking for reviews days or even weeks after the customer’s purchase. By doing this, they are forcing customers to do the hard work of remembering the details of their last interaction with the brand, long after it has happened. According to Groove HQ, “we already know that customer loyalty is built on making your customers’ lives easier, and that principle extends to asking for reviews, too.” So, the best time to ask for a review is when the value that you’ve delivered to the customer is at the top of their mind. This makes it easy for them to recall what happened and write an honest review. The Reviews Campaign, then, allows you to send out review requests at the right time depending on your business.

Once you have set up your campaigns, sit back and watch the results come in. You can track metrics that matter, like total requests sent, total reviews received, and level of satisfaction. And if you have a franchise or multiple locations, you can set up and track performance for each location separately. Each Reviews Campaign will be tailored to reach the right people at the right time. As 72% of consumers will take action only after reading a positive review, this reputation management model will directly drive new business.

Conclusion

Positive reviews will help you get noticed by prospective customers, get honest feedback from customers, improve your online rankings and turn your customers into marketers. These are all surefire ways to increase your profit as a SME. And if that’s not enough, when you have a collection of online reviews to your name, it encourages others to leave their own feedback too. Reviews breed more reviews, which will only amplify their positive impact on your business. Now it’s time to ask your customers for that word-of-mouth endorsement.

Talk to Edify Now today and get complete digital strategy planned for your business to harness the digital growth. 

The numbers around e-Commerce are growing. According to eMarketer report retail e-Commerce sales will skyrocket to $4.058 trillion in 2020. 

For brick and mortar retailers; e-Commerce is not only an additional optional augmentation but it is a must have augmentation, essential for survival in the business. 

Having understood this, we see a lot of businesses jumping into e-Commerce. In this article we shall look at 5 main reasons why e-Commerce businesses fail. 

1. A Poorly Designed Website

Now a days a lot of website designing tools are available. Many of the aspiring entrepreneurs venture into website building using tools such as WordPress, Weebly, Wix etc. The website builders offer some standard templates and standard features required for running an e-Commerce business. But these standard templates don't offer personalised user experience. A website with a poor browsing experience, poor design and navigation will lead to increased bounce rates because people will immediately leave your site almost as soon as they arrive.​

Above are few examples of poorly designed e-Commerce sites. 

Some common mistakes of e-Commerce websites are, 

• Usage of fuzzy graphics and uninspiring words 
• Complexity of purchasing 
• Pictures on the website not connecting to the products 
• Using too bright background making overall website looking dull 
• Too much text, making it hard to understand for the customers 
• Using too less pictures on the website 
• Making the site too cluttered 

Remember if the customers visiting the site are confused then they are not going to buy from you. 

2. Low Web Traffic

Having a well designed website with great content doesn’t really matter if you have nobody visiting your site, does it?
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Once you have your e-Commerce website up and running you need to take advantage of social media, emails, forums etc. to promote your website. Search Engine Optimisation, organic traffic and paid traffic are different ways to boost number of people visiting your website. 

If you build a magnificent website but if nobody knows about it then it is still of no use. Your e-Commerce business will fail if you fail to generate enough web traffic to your e-Commerce website. 

3. Security Issues on Website

As e-Commerce websites handle personal data such as name, address, credit card number, phone number etc. it is essential for e-Commerce websites to implement strong security standards. Remember trust is an important aspect in sales process. So if the customer visiting your site does feel secure then only he is going to buy from you. 

Also remember losing customer data from your e-Commerce website will not only ruin the reputation of your business but also will land you in a soup of legal nightmares. 

Failing to implement proper security standards on your e-Commerce website is a sure way to fail in an e-Commerce business. 

4. Not Building Customer Loyalty

Getting new customers to visit your website and to buy from you takes a lot of efforts. There is always some customer acquisition cost involved. To increase profits it is essential for you to in increase a customer's lifetime value. Once you acquire customers it is essential to develop trust with your customers and to ensure that they continue to come back for more. 'Customer Loyalty' is something that you can’t simply buy with money, you have to provide a unique experience for your customers that they can’t resist coming back for more.

5. Not having Unique Selling Point 

Most of the online merchants try to compete using price system. The price competition badly affects small e-Commerce businesses because large competitors are easily able to offer products for less price and free shipping, while you, on the other hand, might not be able to afford to offer products for the same price.

We can’t simply compete with large e-Commerce websites based on price, so unless we have a great strategy to differentiate ourselves from others, the e-Commerce store will not succeed. 

Conclusion 

It may seem like scary affair while doing e-Commerce business. But there are always great resources available. The activities such as Digital Marketing, Reputation Building, having great reviews on the internet, delivering easy communication options to customer, building customer loyalty and providing great service are now easy with a suit of services Edify Now has built. Talk to us today to have one stop e-Commerce solution designed and implemented for your business. 

In our previous blog post 'PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS: THE FUTURE OF MOBILE EXPERIENCE' we learnt about how PWAs differ from native mobile apps. The installation or usage of the PWA is much more simple than native mobile app due to absence of the 'App Store Middleman'. 

Lets have a look how we can reach more number of people with PWAs as compared to native mobile apps. 

App Installation and Usage Flows

Lets quickly compare the download and usage flows for native mobile app and PWA. 

highly For the native mobile app to run on a user's mobile phone the developer needs to publish the app and go through the App Store's approval process. 

Once the app is available on the App Store the developer will need to communicate the details to the users. Users will have to go their respective App Stores and find the exact app. 

Once the app is found users will need to download it on their mobile phones. 

Once the App is downloaded it will be installed by their phones. This might take some time based on various factors such as bandwidth, size of the app, OS supported version, App Store location and registration and many more. 

Users will be prompted to accept the permissions before the app is installed on their mobile phones. Once the permissions are granted then only the native app will get installed and will be able to run to deliver specific functionality to users. 

In summary we shall have these 6 steps for a native app to run on a users mobile phone, 

1. Load on Store 
2. Find in Store 
3. Download
4. Install 
5. Accept Permissions 
6. Use the App 

According to Skilled at every step in the process 20% users are lost. 
Many users also worry that when they start using the App it will take space on their mobile phone. 

With PWA all this friction is instantly removed. From the perspective of the end user, they are able to access the PWA without having to download it from an app store. Instead, a PWA is linkable, which means anyone can launch the app straight from a URL. You can share it on social media, email, text message, online ad, or link it to a QR code, and the user will instantly be immersed into an app.

Because PWA drastically reduces the amount of steps users need to take (essentially making it a one-step process), there is a much higher chance of people actually using the app. In fact, we use 4 times as many websites as native mobile apps, resulting in a much larger potential user base with a Progressive Web App.

Same For All Platforms 

Unlike native apps the PWAs do not need to adopt themselves to iOS and Android environments. PWAs work on the browsers taking operating system out of equation. As PWAs use web technology they can work cross platform. You can build one Progressive Web App and it will look and perform the same across all devices. Users will have a cohesive experience on any device they choose to launch the app on.

​Highly Discoverable / Searchable 

Last but not the least, PWAs are highly discoverable. This means they are easily identified by search engines, allowing them to come up in the search results just like any other web content. PWAs will be treated with traditional SEO, so they get indexed for more than just the app name, but also the content within the Progressive Web App. It will not be treated as an app specifically, but as a piece of content that can “answer” someone’s “question.”

According to official Google statements, more than 60 percent of search queries globally now come from mobile devices and this number continues to grow. People are actively using their mobile devices to find content, so imagine your PWA coming up in those search results. For example, someone might be looking for a salon in the area, so they use the Google search bar to start their inquiry. The search results will most likely show directories like Yelp and salon websites. If you own a salon business, your PWA could rank in these searches, driving customers straight from the search results to your app. This first touch is an opportunity to convert your customers. An app-like experience will allow customers to schedule a salon appointment from a UI built for mobile. It’s a seamless process starting with a web search and ending with a completed task in the app.

Progressive Web Apps are extremely linkable and shareable, allowing businesses to make the most out of their mobile solution as a marketing tool.

Native App vs. PWA

​Native Apps running on iOS or Android devices are delivered through the App Store or Play Store respectively. So here the App Store or Play Store act as middleman between App Developers and App Users.

While native mobile apps provide the highest quality user experience, they come with friction for both the App Developers and the App Users. One of the significant differences between PWAs and native apps is the absence of this 'App Store Middleman'.

For Progressive Web Apps, this middleman is completely taken out from the picture. For App Developers, no App Store means you are no longer restricted by iOS and Android’s rules and guidelines. A developer will not have to go through an approval process, allowing the app to be used as soon as it’s ready. There is also no need to manually update the app, as the revised app version will instantly and automatically be available to everyone.From the perspective of the App Users, they are able to access the PWA without having to download it from an App Store or Play Store. Instead, a PWA is linkable, which means anyone can launch the app straight from a URL. You can share it on social media, email, text message, online ad, or link it to a QR code, and the user will instantly be immersed into an app like experience on their mobile phones. 
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For More details read our blog post on HOW PWA CAN HELP YOU REACH MORE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE ON MOBILE?


Mobile Responsive Website vs. PWA

PWAs are a hybrid of native apps and mobile websites, but how do they differ from responsive websites? Unlike 'old school' mobile websites, PWAs are fast. Note that 53% of users will abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. PWAs load instantly, regardless of network state, and provide fast-to-respond interfaces. This eliminates their dependence on the network, as mobile websites do, ensuring an instant and reliable experience for users. A PWA also updates in the background, so users never need to wait for new content to load.

In addition, traditional mobile websites focus on static information, while PWAs are able to provide users with dynamic functionality. PWAs offer an immersive full-screen experience, allowing customers to place mobile food orders, participate in a loyalty program and contact a business. It can also re-engage users with web push notifications, similar to native push notifications.

What does the future look like?

​Native Mobile Apps are definitely here to stay. But PWAa can provide the ideal solution for businesses looking to build a compelling and easily adoptable mobile experience for their customers. PWAs offer the best of both worlds, with all the shareability of the web and all the functionality of the native app. 

Edify Now has been working on PWAs since 2016 and we are excited about this new technology. It gives us the ability to implement native features into customer's existing web presence. We are happy to be part of the future of apps, where the Mobile Apps and the Mobile Web will become one.

In my previous post, '7 Good Reasons to Have a Mobile App for Your Business', we saw the reasons why your business needs a mobile app. In today's topic lets see how much it costs to build a captivating mobile app. 

In this post we are not talking about the apps built just because my competitor has an app; but we are looking at the apps which really influence the customer experience. 

First lets look at the different types of mobile apps which we can consider. We need to choose the best suitable for our business before we invest into developing a mobile app. 

1. Simple Information App
These types of apps present simple information to users. Users can select from available options and can be redirected to the right information source. These types of apps mostly rely on the web-view controls and relay the information already available on a website into the mobile app. Apps with fixed information will cost approximately between $10,000 to $28,000. If the information needs constant updating and extracting data from the cloud server, if the app also needs local storage then it will cost somewhere between $14,000 to $41,000. 

2. Sales of Product / Services App
You will need this type of app if you are selling your own products, digital goods or services through your app. You will need gallery, full-fledge e-Commerce function and payment function. For payments you will need to integrate some third party payment service providers. Please be aware that payments directed through iTune and Play Store incur commission of staggering 30%. It is worth investing in outside payment infrastructure even if integrating with it will increase your app development cost. In the long run the investment will pay off. PayPal or Stripe are examples of popular payment service providers for you to consider. 
An app like this will usually cost between $15,000 to $48,000. If you want to go a little advance and include features like geolocation tagging and m-commerce and reservations etc. then price would easily go anywhere between $19,000 to $65,000. 

3. Marketplace / Mobile Platform App 
A marketplace app is what connects two or more distinct groups with demand and supply roles. These applications are extremely complex and need extensive development. these types of mobile platform apps allow businesses to deliver unique features and functionalities to the end users wherever they are and have a significant place in the market. Some of the example of mobile platform apps are Uber, FoodPanda.
The cost of building such apps varied between $25,000 to $85,000 based on the complexity of the app and features required in the app. A small business or a group of small businesses can collectively get benefited by introducing a platform app.

4. Multi User Platform App
These types of apps are capable of engaging users together instantaneously. They have built in functions for submission of listings and reviews, sharing information with each other and communication between users or user groups. Some of the classic examples of such apps are Yelp, Facebook etc.
These apps are complicated and expensive to build. Building such app may cost somewhere between $42,000 to $96,000. Small businesses generally do not get benefited by building such app.

5. Mobile Games
Games applications seem to be all fun but they are actually the most expensive types of mobile apps to build. Simple game development project might cost you from $80,000 to $160,000depending on complexity of the game, visual effects and 2D or 3D graphics. If you add support for multiple devices, API integration and social integration with multiplayer capabilities then these costs can go up to $450,000+ 
I do not recommend small businesses to invest in gaming apps unless there is significant need and benefit from it. Small Businesses can on the other hand tie up with some of the game app partners and think of integrating their mobiles apps with the third party games.

6. User Productivity Apps
These types of apps are generally used for workflow improvements. Most of the times such apps are made available under SaaS (Software as a Service) e.g. Dropbox or Evernote. Such apps which harness the office workflows between multiple users have much more complex database and protocols due to need to interface with multiple parties. Such applications can cost anywhere between $20,000 to $30,000 and up. 
There are standalone type of productivity apps which are installed locally on mobile phones and they provide features for single user. e.g. a photo editing app installed on a mobile phone will provide service to anyone who installs it. It does not need to have a cloud based access control mechanism for accessing the app. Such app would cost approximately $15,000.

7. Business Process Automation Apps
These types of apps are used by businesses to reduce cost in time and money for carrying out common business processes. Even complex business processes can be automated, streamlined and simplified with such apps. 
It is common for businesses to use such process automation apps for managing their Logistics, HRMS, CRM processes or doing activities such as document management and distribution or information sharing amongst different departments. Building such applications could cost between $18,000 to $60,000 based on features and integration to existing systems of the company. If a company requires full ERP implementation the costs can go as high as 1 million for complete business process automation. 

For a business, before investing money into mobile app, it is important to determine which type of mobile app will give them optimal benefits. Edify Now provides complete end to end consultancy on defining complete mobility strategy for your business. For small businesses we have a special test offer where small businesses can try if the mobile app is really useful for them or not and can try different mobile strategies for as low as $3,000. Get in touch with us today to get your free consultation for your next big step towards amazing world of mobile apps.  

According to StatCounter, internet usage by mobile and tablet devices exceeded desktop worldwide for the first time in late 2016. Mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage worldwide compared to 48.7% by desktop.

It is forecasted that in 2017 global mobile shipments will reach 1.7billion mark. On an average people are spending 177 minutes everyday on their mobile devices which accounts to nearly one-fifth of our working day. These figures represent an audience of potential customers that are primed for businesses to make a mobile connection. 

Two main reasons for businesses to have their own mobile app are, 

• Because everybody else (competitors) have an app
• Because they want to drive customer behaviour using their app 

The most successful mobile apps always drive customer behaviour. These apps deliver value to their customers. 

Lets look at 7 good reasons why your business needs a mobile app. 

1. Be in Front of Your Customers' Eyes All the Time
People are spending more than two hours a day on their mobile phones. The apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp account the most of this usage. But still we cannot ignore the fact that users have to unlock the phones and they need to scroll and scan through the list of apps while looking for their favourite apps. Human brain unconsciously does record every image it comes across even if it is specifically not looking for it. And so it also records the image or the icon of your company. In the subconscious mind the image is reimposed on the brain again and again and hence it helps the customer to remember your brand easily.

2. Engage with Your Customers
No matter what you are selling, the customers need a way to reach you. Your app can open completely different avenues to communicate with your customers. Imagine your customers can book or purchase your services or goods with less than 5 clicks on their mobile screen. How many customers would prefer to communicate with you via an app instead of phone? Imagine your app running your AI Bot which responds customers for their queries. 

3. Provide Real Value to Your Customers 
No matter how beautiful your app looks customers will not use it unless it provides real value to them. What is the added advantage for them to use your app? Think of old methods of loyalty cards; what if you can provide the loyalty experience on your mobile app? Now the customers don't have to carry additional cards. Take example of order tracking; your app knows your customer and orders he has placed. Instead of going to your website and entering 17 digits of lengthy tracking numbers, your customer can simply tap on screen of your mobile app to check the status of his goods delivery. The result? More app downloads, more customers and more sales. 

4. Mobile App as Marketing Channel 
Mobile app opens up a completely new way of communicating with customers. All the information which you would like to share with your customers can be made available at their fingertips. You can provide users with general information, pricing lists, service booking forms, user accounts, news feeds chat messengers surveys and special offers. With the help of push notifications you can remind your customers about your services whenever it makes sense.

5. Stand Out from Competition
Mobile apps are still rare when it comes to small businesses. You can take advantage over your competition by being the first in the neighbourhood to offer a mobile app to your customers. Your customers will be astonished by your forward thinking approach. If your competition already has an app imagine launching an app which is better than your competition and in turn luring some of their customers to your side. 

6. Build Brand and Recognition 
Create an app that has features that your customers will love. Make it stylish, hip, functional and informative. Get is well branded and beautifully designed. Such app will improve your brand value for the customers. 
More often you can get your customers to open your app, sooner they will be inclined to buy your products or services. As a rule of thumb in advertising, seeing your brand approximately 20 times is what will get you truly noticed. 
A well designed app will give customers many reasons to open the app again and again. This will help you increase your brand value and brand recognition. 

7. Build Customer Loyalty 
The most important reason why you should build your own mobile app is customer loyalty. We slowly lose our impact on customers because of the immense amount of advertising surrounding us all in the form of roadside banners, billboards, flashing signs, newspaper ads, flyers, coupons, websites, website banners, Facebook ads, and email marketing. In this noise you need to make one true and sincere connection with your customers and make them a loyal lover of your products or services. A mobile app is just the way of staying closer to your customers and being just a tap away at all the time. 

Convinced yet? I am for sure! Now that you have understood the wonderful benefits of having your own business mobile app where you are going to start? Check out at Edify Now's special offers for SMEs to build their own mobile apps. Or write to us today to get a free mobile app retirement assessment of your business. This assessment will exactly tell you whether your business can benefit from a mobile application and which features are required in the app for making your mobile app engaging for your customers.
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