Were you ever annoyed by an apps messaging or couldn’t determine any value so uninstalled it?  Make sure users don’t uninstall your application by asking the following questions putting yourself in their shoes:

Think about how to get the user to take action and what screens/messages top include in your app to get them to do so.

• Frequency/Timing
• Are you prompting action screens immediately, before the user starts using the app or are you delaying the action screen until an appropriate time during use?  You don’t want to overwhelm the user.
• Are you messaging the user subtly or are you overwhelming them with different messages? Don’t bombard the user, but make sure you are engaging them.
• Think about the purpose
• Is the action screen necessary? Can you combine two action screens into one if you are now using multiple screens? Can you minimize the messaging so it isn’t overwhelming, but still communicate to the user that you want them to take action?
• Location
• Do the action screens pop from the taskbar, in the browser or within the application?  Wherever the messages are popping, make sure that they make sense and feel integrated with the application.

• Functionality
• Does the application function correctly when installed with other applications?
• Does the application require additional software to be installed for the user to be able to use it?
• Does it do what it says it will do?
• Does the application work in all browsers and browser versions (if it is a browser add-on)?
• Does the application play nice with direct competitors’ applications or does the user suffer due to conflicting technologies?

Give the user Options

• Give users the option to put specific features of the application on snooze if the app pops during certain actions.  This can decrease attrition so be careful that it doesn’t decrease the use of the application too much.
• Give users the option to customize the application if possible. This allows users to make it fit their needs better and increases engagement making it less likely for them to uninstall.

Target

• Find ways to target users that are more likely to use your application. Many distribution channels will allow you to target different criteria.

When creating an application, it is important to keep all of these things in mind.  Usability should always be top of mind; you don’t want to spend resources creating something users will not value and uninstall.  Around W3i we have a saying:  “We did it that way yesterday but is it the right way today?”  Continual optimization gets the best results.

Have you learned any messaging tricks?  If so, please post in the comments.

Nicole Virnig, Account Development Manager, W3i, LLC
Nicole focuses on growing W3i business relationships, making sure the  client has what they need to make them successful. If they aren’t  happy, she isn’t happy.

Good day, App Marketers, we previously wrote about how to improve your ranking in the App Store.  I just listened to a 30+ minute podcast by a couple app developers with a few more tips that boiled down to the following:

1.  Be realistic and follow the money.  It is tough to get started marketing apps these days.  If you find a niche, it is all-out war to conquer the space.  The title of your app is very important; try to capture a key search term. Colin from Spreadsong mentioned that his success was due to recognizing that “free books” should be in the title to capture the searches for free books.  He then tweaked the title to Free Books – Classics to capture the audience of the competitive app.  Rishi & Anirudh from Fliplab mentioned that they created one of their first apps around a “hot trend” in the UK—Barclay bikes (a new start-up business) and received a tremendous amount of  press.  They also mentioned that the app was high quality and offered the user value.

2.  Their second tip was focusing on the icons.
You MUST have an icon that stands out and gets attention.  The first icon for Free Books used loud  colors—red and yellow but was of fairly low quality so they felt it did the job initially but also turned off some of the audience.  In order to succeed in the current app stores you need pop, quality and brand.  Colin recommends comparing the app to the top ranking apps in the app store charts to see if it pops out so it catches potential new users eyes.  Think  outside the box and do something different—what do you have to lose?

London Cycle App Icon

Talking Gremlin App Icon-Make sure it POPS!

Free Books App-Quality images draw quality app users.

To listen to the entire podcast: http://www.appteardown.com/

Do you have any additional tips on getting better ranking in the app stores?  If so, please respond in comments.  Contact W3i to consult on monetization models for your app.  We would love to share what we’ve learned in monetization, distribution and optimization; and will work with you to grow your app business.

Debby Manthei, Director of Marketing Communications, W3i, LLC

Debby’s focus is on app marketing—strategies for increasing user acquisition and monetization for mobile and desktop apps. 

HTML5:Everyone’s either talking about it, writing about or experiencing it. But who’s really using it and how?

With this post, that’s exactly what I wanted to determine.  The result as you’ll find out, is that HTML5 is at the brink of creating a shift in the way we discover, interact and share the content we love, but still has a long way to go.

HTML5-Changing the Way We Live?

In a nutshell, HTML5 is the natural evolution of HTML, the backbone of all things web. HTML4, the previous iteration of the language, debuted in 1997 and was updated, tweaked and revamped to keep up with all the changes in the web and mobile, not to mention users.

One of the biggest pro’s of HTML5 for developers is the freedom to deploy once and have their app available everywhere. From a consumers’ viewpoint, buying something once with the freedom to use it on multiple platforms is a major plus.

The HTML5 standard supports video, offline reading, touch and gestures – all functions that, until recently, were available for mobile devices on native apps. That being said, when it comes to mobile apps, native development currently wins out over HTML5, especially when trying to deliver apps that take advantage of some of the smartphone’s advanced functionality such as access to the camera.

The HTML5 Mobile App Store Landscape

Currently, the simplest way to distribute HTML5 apps is via the web, which end-users can then connect to via a hyperlink to their mobile device. This, of course, eliminates the need to go through Apple’s lengthy and somewhat confusing approval process. Alternatively, there are HTML5 app stores cropping up that are ready to make an impact in this new market. Very much like the app store, third party developers can list and sell their HTML5 mobile app modules and components in the stores, usually with the usual 70-30 revenue split.

Appcelerator just announced their new marketplace at the company’s Codestrong Developer Conference. The HTML5 app store includes mobile app modules, templates, design elements, cloud extensions and other components for the Appcelerator developer community to use.

OpenAppMkt, launched in 2010, is a web app that can be accessed from openappmkt.com. Installing it is super simple if you’ve ever added an item to you device’s home screen. You can browse through it like you would the App Store or Android market. Most of the apps are free, however, like with most good things in life, the best things cost a little money.

Openspacestore, which was recently launched at TechCrunch Disrupt, recognizes the type of website–gaming, entertainment, news, travel or other and notifies the user in real-time that new apps are available for download. A perfect example of this is a visitor going to TMZ.com and being notified of the top gaming and entertainment apps such as DailyHoroscope and Angry Birds. Another example is visitors going to CNN.com and being alerted of of CNN’s free app web app, as well as other breaking headline apps like NYTimes, Fox News, Good Morning America and others.

 In Conclusion - Future updates to HTML5 (or will it be HTML6?) will surely deliver the freedom to access the mobile devices’ advanced functionality such as storage, in-app notifications, camera access, use of the GPS and so on.  The truth is that most of this is already achievable by utilizing services such as PhoneGap. At the end of the day, it all comes down  to one thing; great apps deliver a rich, user-friendly experience, regardless of what technology is implemented.

How do you see HTML5 evolving? Share your thoughts in the comments or reach out to us via Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros.

Oren Todoros, Consultant, W3i, LLC
Oren has more than 9 years experience in online marketing and is now specializing in app marketing.

A great opportunity for add-on partners is to ensure compatibility on all browsers/browser versions. In addition to providing new opportunities, expanding into all browsers presents new challenges.  Being proactive about browser releases and ensuring compatibility is essential for remaining competitive in the browser add-on marketplace.  This is no easy task when looking at the release schedule for the leading browsers:

Chrome-
Automatically releases updates every 6 weeks.

Firefox-
Increased releases to every 4-6 weeks, now Firefox 8 is believed to automatically upgrade the user to this latest version once the user opens their Read More »

Minneapolis, Minn. September 19, 2011- W3i, a leading network for app distribution and monetization for personal computers and mobile devices, is very pleased to announce the following promotions: Read More »

With more and more retail shoppers using their mobile devices to find product information, compare prices, get advice from online friends, receive coupons and, not to mention, make actual purchases on the go, is it any wonder that many brand names in the retail industry are scrambling to dominate the mobile shopping experience?

Traditional purchasing decisions are evolving faster than you can say customer journey. According to a recent ForeSee study of nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-commerce websites in the US, over half of mobile shoppers used their phones to compare price information (56%). Shoppers also used their phones to compare different products (46%), to look up product specifications (35%), and to view product reviews (27%).

In terms of engagement, mobile is one of the most personal mediums that also allows brands to reach individuals in scale, largely due to a number of new and innovative apps. It is predicted that m-commerce will eventually surpass e-commerce because of the ubiquity of devices and the unique role they play as a “continuous channel” for marketing throughout the day.

Retails brand names in m-commerce

Walmart may still be a long way from dominating the mobile sphere, but make no mistake the retail giant is very focused on mobile and increasingly building their mobile app based offering. In fact, their latest project, @WalmartLabs aims to redefine commerce for the world’s largest retailer using social media and mobile technology. With an estimated 30% of customers taking a smartphone with them while out shopping, there’s an opportunity for Walmart to utilize that device in order to increase in store purchases.

H&M customers can stay on top of news and share their favorite clothese via the brand’s native app. Developed and designed by ustwo, the H&M application lets consumers browse collections and receive special offers as well as daily news updates. Additionally, customers can add pieces they like to the My Wishlist section.

Sears and their sister company Kmart both have iPhone , Android and BlackBerry apps and SMS alerts. Additionally, Sears’ iPad application complements these offerings, providing added customer engagement. When developing tablet based apps, retailers must take into account how it fits into their overall mobile strategy, and the similarities and unique value of tablets compared to other devices.

Tablets: Fueling the Mobile Flame

Retailers see the tablets as a more appealing backdrop for presenting their goods. On the web, anyone can put up a site and compete with large scale, established retailers. But when it comes to tablets, it’s still very much a game for the big boys. Brand name retailers have deeper pockets and can higher developers to set up eye-catching mobile apps with m-commence functionality.

In conclusion

The true beauty of mobile is that retailers can leverage it across multiple channels, including catalogs and location based services, increasing sales and customer loyalty as well as driving consumer analytics to learn more about their clients. Most big brands have already started placing their chips on the table. Those who haven’t yet, are surely feeling that the time is ripe.

How do you see the retail evolve due to mobile apps? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Share them in the comments or reach out to us via Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros.

Oren Todoros, Consultant, W3i, LLC
Oren has more than 9 years experience in online marketing and is now specializing in app marketing.

One of the most useful features for iOS users is the ability to have relevant content delivered right to the device.  Push notifications allow you to send messages directly to people who have installed your app (whether the app is running or not).  Sending push notifications is a great way to engage your users and provide value.

 If you’re an app developer thinking about adding push notifications (and you should be!), you may have a build vs. buy decision to make.  Is it better to purchase push notification services from a 3rd party provider or does it make more sense to build them in house?  There is a great deal to consider when making this decision and no single answer for everyone but let’s take a look at some things you should consider.

 The Basic Push Notification Architecture

There are three basic parts to push notifications: client registration, push notification provider, and the notification service itself.

 Client Registration and Tracking

The process for sending push notifications starts with some code in your app that registers the device with the notification service and acquires a unique ID for your app on a given device called a device token.  The device token is used to identify the target for your notifications.  It is the responsibility of the developer to store and manage the device tokens.  

 Push Notification Provider

The push notification provider is a server process created by the app developer to compose the notification package.  The notification package includes the device token for a client application and the payload message. The provider server sends the notification to the Apple Push Notification Service which in turn pushes the notification to the device.

 Apple Push Notification Service (APNS)

The Apple Push Notification Service sends the payload message to devices. If a notification for an app arrives when that app is not running, the device alerts the user that the application has data waiting for it.

 Feedback Service

The Feedback Service is another service provided by Apple.  You’ll need to write the software to call the feedback service and get a list of device tokens for devices that no longer respond to your push notifications.  In other words, if your app is uninstalled from a device, it will no longer respond to your push notifications and Apple gives you the device token for this device.  Apple requires that developers check the feedback service periodically to keep Apple Push Notification Service from having to process undeliverable notifications.

 Building the Push Notification Provider and Feedback Service

If you are planning on implementing push notifications in your app in house, you will need to develop the Push Notification Provider to call APNS as well as build the software to call the feedback service.  Apple’s developer site provides detailed specifications for calling this service as well as the specs for constructing the notification payload.  It’s a fairly complicated process but fortunately there are several resources available to developers to ease the development burden.

 Open Source Libraries for APNS

There are a couple of popular open source projects that may save you time and headaches implementing APNS on your server.  One of these is built with PHP whereas the other is built with Microsoft .Net (C-Sharp).  Both are solid and fairly well maintained and documented so you may want to pick one of these based on your development skill set and deployment strategy.

 For a PHP platform there is APNS-PHP (http://code.google.com/p/apns-php/).  APNS-PHP is a full set of open source PHP classes to interact with APNS.

 For a Microsoft based platform there is APNS-Sharp (https://github.com/Redth/APNS-Sharp).  APNS-Sharp is a free, open source, independent and mono compatible C#/.NET Library for interacting with APNS.

 Push Notification Service Providers

Until recently, your only option for sending push notifications to APNS was to build it yourself.  Today there are a few companies that, for a fee, make implementing push notifications much easier.

 Urban Airship Push Notifications (http://urbanairship.com/) and Xtify Push (http://www.xtify.com/) provide hosted services for sending notifications, device token management, tools for constructing your payload, and more.  Both companies provide a developer SDK for implementing push notifications.  In addition to iOS Push notifications, both of these services can target Android and RIM as well.

 Pricing varies by volume of messages sent so it’s a good idea to have an idea of how many messages you plan to send now and in the future.   All in all, pricing is very competitive.

 If you’re looking to get push notifications out quickly and avoid the development effort of implementing a push notification provider yourself, be sure to check out these companies.  If you have any additional insight on push notifications, please add it in the comments.

Read More »

It boggles my mind every time I talk to developers who spend weeks defining their app concept and marketing strategy, but haven’t put any thought into how they’re going to be tracking and analyzing their app’s usage and success.

Apple’s iTunes Connect only offers a rudimentary log of you app’s activity, and a delayed one at that. Using these logs to produce any useful data to optimize your app is essentially impossible. The good news is that there are a few great tools out there to help.

Here’s a rundown of 5 app enhancing and optimization services that any developer would be silly not to use.

1 – AppFigures: Simply put, appFigures is a reporting platform for iPhone developers that automatically downloads and visualizes iTunes Connect sales data with App Store reviews and ranks for all of their apps. In a nutshell, the service delivers detailed reports, hourly ranks, translated reviews and tons more.

2 -Appoxee: Appoxee is a mobile engagement tool for app developers. Use appoxee to build and maintain a constant communication channel with your app’s users, which in turn substantially increases the lifetime value of an application and allows the developers to maximize the revenue potential.

3 – Flurry Analytics: Flurry Analytics delivers powerful insight into how consumers interact with your mobile applications in real-time. Over 50,000 companies have chosen Flurry Analytics to use in more than 100,000 applications across iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and J2ME.

4 – AppViz: Download and view your sales and statistics in beautiful, colorful graphs. See sales overviews by date range or do in-depth analysis for trends.

5 – Distimo Monitor: Distimo Monitor collects all relevant statistics about your applications, automatically and every day. View daily downloads and revenue figures of all your applications and analyze their ranks, worldwide.

Bonus: If you’re already familiar with AppFiguers and simply want to track your stats from anywhere, there’s an app called appTrends for iPhone that lets you do just that. Developers can use appTrends to check their app rankings in different countries while formulating marketing strategies.

In conclusion - There’s really no reason to step foot into the app industry blindly, especially if you’ve invested hard word and energy in developing your app. Once it’s out there, you’re going to need all the help you can get, and these services are sure to give you the upper hand.

Do you have your own secret tools in your app marketing tool-belt? I’d love to hear about them. Share them in the comments or reach out to us via Twitter @W3i and @OrenTodoros

Oren Todoros, Consultant, W3i, LLC
Oren has more than 9 years experience in online marketing and is now specializing in app marketing.

The smartphone war is heating up, and although it is still unclear where Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Web OS will eventually fit into the crowded mobile operating system market, it is very clear that iOS and Android are the market share leaders.

Gartner reports that Google and Apple are the “obvious winners” in the smartphone category. The combined share of iOS and Android doubled to nearly 62 percent in Q2 2011, up from just over 31 percent in the same quarter last year. Google’s mobile operating system now accounts for 43.4 percent of all smartphone sales, up from 17.2 percent in Q2 2010; and Apple reached 18.2 percent, up from 14.1 percent at the same time.

Many app developers ask me for my perspective on how to develop and scale a profitable user acquisition strategy for their app. One of the primary gaps in knowledge I see from app developers is a clear understanding of how the operating system impacts user acquisition.

As the first post in a two-part series, we’ll explore how the iOS operating system impacts user acquisition for apps. For the second post, we’ll focus on how the Android operating system impacts user acquisition for apps.

How Differences in Smartphone Operating Systems Impact App Promotion

Smartphones as a whole skew to a younger audience – 18 to 34.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, as reported by eMarketer

IOS devices have a hands-down great user experience, but at a higher price. With elegant style and the best integrated hardware and software, iOS devices are the simplest to operate. Apple oversees a more regulated, closed environment than Google. This creates positives and negatives. For example, users can only buy apps through the App Store, making the transaction more streamlined and thus driving significantly higher conversion rates for premium billing or in-app purchasing because Apple has so many credit cards on file. Apple also regulates the apps that are listed in the App Store based upon its App Store Review Guidelines, making it problematic for some new apps to get published, as they must play by Apple’s rules. To complicate things even more, Apple’s rules are not always black and white and are subject to Apple’s evolving interpretation.

Key Points About User Acquisition on iOS

1. Because of the reliance on a centralized App Store for all user acquisition, it is important to rank high overall or in your category for driving organic traffic.
2. Popularity also impacts where you rank in search results, another driver of organic traffic.
3. Editorial features in iTunes can drive significant installs. “The only promotion we’ve found to be consistently effective in driving paid downloads has been promotion via iTunes, either as a ‘Staff Favorite’ or a ‘New & Noteworthy’ selection on iTunes itself. The reasons and process by which Apple makes these selections are a mystery to us, but we have found it useful to always consider Apple’s interests when positioning a new product,” said Paul O’Connor, brand director, Appy Entertainment, developer of Trucks and Skulls, FaceFighter, and Tune Runner, all featured in iTunes.
4. Unlike Android, carriers have little impact on user acquisition on iOS.
5. Third-party ad networks, especially those focused on apps, perform well to drive user acquisition. Seek performance-based campaigns, whether CPC or CPI, with these networks. Be mindful of limitations in behavioral ad targeting.
6. The social impact on user acquisition for apps (i.e., the viral coefficient) is not as strong in iOS as it is for Facebook, but one marketer at a leading social game recently told me that they get a 3/10 viral coefficient (i.e., for every 10 new users they acquired outside of social means, they get their audience to incite three more users to play with them). I would speculate that Zynga’s Words With Friends has a much higher coefficient than the average on iOS. Read more about “How Mobile is Getting More Social.”

iOS Demographics

Possibly because of the higher price of devices, iPhones skew to higher income users.

Source: The Nielsen Company

IPhone users buy more paid apps – half of them buy at least one per month – compared with 21 percent of Android users and 35 percent of iPod touch users.

IPhone users are the most loyal at 91 percent, iPod touch at 88 percent, and Android at 84 percent.

As far as mobile ads, the average click-through rate (CTR) is 0.52 percent. IPhone users are by far more willing to click on ads, with an average CTR of 0.78 percent, while Android users are at 0.47 percent.

IPod touch skews to a young audience – 65 percent are 17 and younger, according to a chart from AdMob.

IPod touch users love their apps – especially free apps, downloading an average of 12 apps a month – 37 percent more apps than iPhone and Android users. They also spend more time using them: 100 minutes a day.

For the second post , we’ll focus on how the Android operating system impacts user acquisition for apps.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.