Author: Jayanthi K

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Solutions

Everything you need to know about Cloud Computing

cloud computing

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of services that include server, data storage, software, databases and network through the Internet. It is a method of delivering technology to end-users over the Internet. In simple terms, instead of buying and maintaining your own resources utilize the resources over the Internet and pay for the services availed. Some common examples of cloud computing include using online services to send emails, store data, watch movies, listen to music, etc.

This emerging technology is considered a boon for small and medium organizations that want to experiment with ideas within less budget. Organizations are reducing their investment in IT infrastructure, servers and storage devices and moving towards cloud services.

Cloud computing Advantages:

Shifting towards cloud computing offer numerous advantages that include:

  • Cost – As cloud services can be availed on a need basis (by the hour or by the minute), users can pay only for the resources consumed. Organizations need not invest in infrastructure and maintenance.
  • Scalability – Organizations can easily scale up and scale down the IT resources (less storage, more bandwidth) based on demand.
  • Productivity – Organizations can save time on hardware set up, software updates and maintenance activities and focus more on core business.
  • Security – The cloud providers have policies to protect your data from security threats. Data backup and disaster recovery are also easier.

Cloud Models

Cloud computing services are broadly categorized into three main models.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

In SaaS, the vendor provides access to a software product on a subscription basis. SaaS is the most widely used cloud services model. In this model, instead of installing the software on your system you access it through the Internet. The advantage of this is you need not install, update or maintain the software or worry about the underlying infrastructure. It is also easy to manage privileges and monitor usage.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

In this cloud computing service, the vendor provides a platform on which the application can be built. Organizations can build their business application without maintaining the infrastructure. The services can be accessed through a web browser. Some of the PaaS services include operating systems, application hosting, languages, libraries, and tools. In short, anything that is required to build an application like operating system and development tools can be accessed through the Internet.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Iaas is a model that provides hardware, server, virtual machines, networks and data storage over the Internet. The vendor hosts the infrastructure on the cloud and makes it available to customers on demand. IaaS offerings include load balancers, disk storage, IP address, VLANs.

Cloud Computing Service providers

Some of the leading cloud service providers include:

Hope this article gives you an understanding of cloud service offerings and helps you decide what services can be hired for your needs.

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Web App Development

How to choose a technology stack for web application development?

web app development

Choosing the technology stack is the first step for successful web application development. Organizations should spend time and effort in selecting the right technology stack for building a web application. 

A technology stack is a combination of tools, programming languages and frameworks used by developers to build an application. In short, it is a collection of software used for web development.

Web application development involves front end development and back-end development. The front end is where the user interacts with the application and back-end refers to the server-side of the application that communicates user requests to the server.

Technologies for front-end Web application development include:

Front end development involves three primary coding languages that can be used to build a basic web application.

  • HTML – Hypertext Markup Language used for describing the structure of displayed content
  • CSS – Cascading Style Sheet used to describe the style of content.
  • Javascript – used to make web application dynamic and interactive through animations, forms and visuals.

In addition to these, there are some open-source Javascript frameworks that are taking over the front end development which includes React JS, Angular JS, Vue JS, and jQuery.

React JS is the most trending technology for front end development. React JS is a flexible Javascript library as it enables faster UI development using reusable components. It can be integrated with external libraries like jQuery.

Angular JS is the preferred framework for creating interactive and dynamic web applications. It supports MVC programming structure and two-way data binding which makes it unique.

Vue.js is a progressive Javascript framework for building web interfaces and one-page applications. It is easily adaptable and helps to build robust and reliable applications.

jQuery is a feature-rich Javascript library. It has a collection of plugins and makes front end development easier with ready to use elements like a countdown timer, auto-complete functions.

Technologies for back end Web application development include:

The challenge lies in selecting the technologies for back-end development. Though it is not visible to the user, it defines the logic and allows the user to perform actions and interact with the application. The back-end is developed using server-side programming languages.

Back end technologies consist of an operating system, web server, framework, server-side programming language, and the database. Some of the popular programming languages for back-end development include Ruby, Python, PHP, Javascript, and .NET. Databases include MongoDB and MySQL. Some of the frameworks include Ruby on Rails, Flask, Django, Swift or Objective-C. The most popular web servers include Apache, Nginx, etc.

Middleware

Middleware acts as a communication interface between the front end and back-end. It performs tasks such as parsing and authentication.

Things to consider when choosing a Technology Stack

Users without a strong technical background will find it difficult in choosing the technology stack for their application. Here are some factors that will help users to select the right stack.

Project complexity – The first step in choosing the technology stack is to analyze the size and complexity of the application to be developed.  Applications can be small, mid-range or complex projects. Understanding the requirement makes it easy to choose the right technology stack.

Scalability – The selected technology stack should support application growth in the future. The application can grow in terms of the number of users or add more processes and functionality. Developers should select a flexible technology stack that supports the growth of the application.

Maintainability – The application should be easily maintainable. If the code is lengthy, it becomes complicated to process the code. So, select technologies that are easily maintainable and can be updated easily.

Cost – Some of the tools and frameworks are free and open-source while some require a license cost. Depending on the features and usability of the software, opt for technologies that will reduce the software development cost.

Team’s expertise – Team’s expertise on the tools and technologies has to be considered while deciding on the technology stack. The team must be experienced in the technologies to develop a quality application within the deadline.

Project-based – Don’t choose a technology stack used for previous projects. Each project requirement is unique and technology components that proved successful for one project may not be relevant for another.

Ability to process data – If the project deals with loads of data, the application should be designed to handle the load. Select a programming language that can balance heavy loads of data.

Development time – The selected technology stack should facilitate faster development and reduce development time. The faster an application is developed the cheaper the development cost.

Security – Cyberattack is the biggest threat to online applications. Make sure that the technology stack you are considering is not vulnerable to security threats.

Some of the commonly used tech stacks are .NET stack, LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), MEAN (MongoDB, Express js, Angular js and Node js) and Ruby on Rails.

Advantages of choosing the right technology stack

Choosing the right technology stack is important for any business and offers numerous benefits:

  • The software product will be robust
  • Faster time to market
  • Less maintenance cost
  • Easy to fix bugs and enhance the product

Selecting a technology stack can be a challenge. A wrong choice of a technology stack may result in project failure.

Discuss with our experts who can help you decide on the right technology stack for your product based on your business requirements and budget.

Categories
Technology

How to Improve the quality of your code?

improve code quality

Clean code is essential to create a scalable and maintainable product, bad code can make product maintainability a disaster. Writing clean code makes it easier for programmers to understand.

Good code can be defined as a code that is of high quality. Good software should have clean, consistent and easy to understand code. Sometimes programmers write ambiguous code due to time constraints and deadlines. This might result in bugs and take more time to fix it due to code complexity.

What makes a clean code?

Attributes that define code quality include:

  • Readability – The code should be readable and understandable. Enhance the readability of the code by using meaningful names for variables and functions. Add proper whitespace, indentation or line breaks to make the code more readable.
  • Consistency – Programmers working on different modules should follow formatting and coding style to make the code consistent.
  • Reliability – Reliability refers to a reliable codebase that will make a product run without failure.
  • Maintainability – Maintainable code relies on factors such as testability and understandability. To have a maintainable codebase, the code should be consistent and well structured.
  • Modularity – The code should follow a logical structure. Independent blocks of functionality should be enfolded in a module so any change in functionality doesn’t affect the entire code.

Steps to improve code quality

Code quality can be checked as the code is written, when running a test or when the code is committed.  Here are some methods that can help improve the quality of the code.

Use a coding standard

A coding standard emphasizes that every programmer uses the same coding style. The Coding standard helps to write consistent and readable code. Some of the coding best practices include using meaningful names for variables, functions, classes, arguments and methods. Coding conventions for the project should document information on naming convention and coding guidelines. Add comments wherever required to explain what a chunk of code does and to help in future code enhancement. Don’t clutter the code with comments as it might distract the programmers. Ensure to update the comments section when code is being updated.

Adopt Test Driven Development

A well-defined test strategy can improve the quality of the code. Developers can adopt test-driven development that involves creating test cases that well-written code should be able to pass through. The key idea is to figure out all the loopholes that could make the code goes wrong and fix them in advance.

Manual Code Review

Manual code review can be done by reading the source code line by line to check for structure, style, logic and readability. The problem with manual code review is it requires patience and skill.

Use Automated Code Review Tools

Integrate automated code review tools into your project. These tools help to improve the code by suggesting feedback after commit. The code will be reviewed after each commit and issues are categorized in a dashboard. Common mistakes include coding style, compatibility, security and errors.  Fixing the issues suggested by the tool can have a positive impact on the code.

Some of the popular code review tools include:

  • SonarQube
  • Code Climate
  • Github
  • Visual Studio Code

Use a Linter

Linters can be used to reduce coding errors. Linter is a tool to analyze the code and they are different from the code review tool. The Linter reads the code and throws warnings if the code is not compliant with the syntax requirements and standards of a language. It enforces code guidelines and makes developers follow the syntax. Lint tools are available for most programming languages like Javascript, HTML, CSS, Python and PHP.

Some of the popular linters include:

  • ESLINT
  • TSLINT
  • JSHINT
  • StandardJS

Conclusion

The above methods can drive programmers to improve code quality. The tools can increase the productivity and effectiveness of the developers.

Categories
Technology

Know the difference between UI and UX

UI vs UX

When talking about web and mobile app design users often get confused between UI and UX. Although UI and UX are often used interchangeably they are actually two different terms. UI stands for User Interface design and UX stands for User Experience and both are crucial for the success of a product. This article defines each of these terms and briefs the differences between them.

What is UI?

The term User Interface is derived from User Interaction. The term user interface relates to how a user interacts with an application. The Interface is the graphical layout which includes screen layout, animation, buttons, text fields, color scheme, and sliders. All these interactive elements should guide the user through the application interface. The UI designer should ensure that the design is coherent and appealing to the user.

What is UX?

UX refers to the user’s experience with the interface. The aim of UX is to give relevant experience to the user while interacting with the application. User experience is directly proportional to user retention and can result in customer satisfaction.

Differences between UI and UX

UI refers to how the interface functions whereas UX refers to the feel of the interface. UI is applicable only to software products whereas UX is applicable to any kind of product or service.

During product development, UX comes before UI design. UX designer conducts research about the product features and user journey and develops a prototype. The UI designer then develops the application considering these factors.

It is the responsibility of the UI designer to translate the research into an attractive experience for the users. The UI designer creates a responsive design that is compatible across all screen sizes.

Elements of UX

To achieve a holistic user experience, the following design aspects should be considered.

  • User Research – The UX designer should analyze the product and do research about the end-user and their needs as interaction design is focused on user behavior.
  • Design Strategy – Do study about the device on which the application will run as the device poses challenges in terms of layout and smaller display.
  • Design Structure – Usefulness of the website depends on the user-friendly architecture. The content should be organized allowing users to find the information they are looking for.
  • Usability – Usability is an essential component of UX as it increases user engagement. User testing and performance testing can help evaluate usability.
  • Prototyping – The UX designers should build a prototype and evaluate them to understand how the application will respond to real-time inputs. There are many prototyping tools available to speed up the process.
  • Visual Design – The designer aims to improve the user experience by considering visual aspects of the application like colors, layout, illustrations.

Elements of Great UI

The following components are essential for designing a good user interface

  • Clarity – An effective UI should allow users to understand the design and how to use it. The screens should be clutter-free.
  • Intuitive – Designer should keep the interface intuitive by making it familiar for the users to understand how the application behaves.
  • Consistency – The UI should have consistent design elements, typography, buttons, icons, and color schemes throughout the application for easy interaction.
  • Easy Navigation  – Provide an easy to navigate interface. Good UI should have page titles and highlights to help users understand the interface. Navigation should be simple and self-explanatory.
  • Progressive disclosure – Adopt progressive disclosure to show only the necessary information on the screen.
  • Forgiving – The interface should be flexible allowing users to delete or undo their mistakes.

To summarize, both UI and UX are essential for a successful product. UI and UX designers work closely with each other to build a functional and delightful software product.

Categories
Marketing

Email Marketing Made Simple

email marketing

What is email marketing?

Email Marketing refers to the use of email to promote products or services among a selected group of people. It is an essential tool for online marketing and business can leverage email campaigns to boost sales and reach potential customers. The commercial emails feature information about the brand, product promotion, discount, upcoming events or product launch. In short, every email sent to a potential or existing customer can be called email marketing.

Why is email marketing important?

Email marketing is used by businesses across the globe to promote their product or services. 94% of internet users use email. A study shows that 75% of adult users prefer email marketing over other forms of marketing. Email marketing helps to keep customers informed about the brand they care about. Email marketing need not always be about offers and discounts, you can send emailers that can be informative to the customers. Through emails with unique content, you can retain your subscribers and people will look forward to receiving regular updates.

  • Emails have a larger reach than social media. Every user who is active online has an email id.
  • People prefer to receive promotional content through email rather than through social media.

Benefits of email marketing

Enhance customer relationships

It is important to keep your customers informed about your latest product, new offers, upcoming events and much more. Sending regular emails to your customers is the best way to build customer relationships.

Market your brand

Your brand may not be popular or recognizable in the industry. Email is a great way to make your brand well known among potential customers. Send regular emails with your brand name, logo and style and use it as an opportunity to register your brand identity among the customers.

Budget-friendly

Email marketing can be beneficial for small or mid-size businesses that operate on a strict budget and timeline. An email marketing campaign is inexpensive and takes less time compared to traditional marketing. Instead of designing, printing and delivering flyers you can directly reach the email box of thousand potential customers in no time.

Targeted campaign

Email marketing allows you to plan your strategy and target potential prospects. You don’t want to reach people who are not interested in your product. It allows targeting a specific group of people or individuals. Identify target customers and reach them with product information they are interested in. For instance, an apparel store can send exclusive offers to women for women’s day.

Tracking results

Tracking ROI is easy with email marketing. The use of a marketing tool allows you to track the number of users who opened your email and how many clicked through the link.

Tips for successful email marketing

Here are some tips to make your campaign successful:

  • Email list – Build your email list by attracting users with an offer that will pay off in years to come. To send personalized emails to group users based on interest, age group, gender, etc. Strategies to grow your email list include a coupon, free trial, quiz, etc.
  • Subject line – Subject line needs to be appealing to the user and convey the intention of your email within the right character limit. An eye-catchy subject line is sure to get a better open rate.
  • Schedule – Email marketing is effective when it is sent consistently on a schedule.  Sending emails regularly on a specific schedule helps your customers understand when to expect emails.
  • Personalize emails – Spend some time in cleaning your mailing list and segmenting your audience. Targeting users and sending personalized emails will lead to higher opening and click-through rates.
  • Unsubscribe – Marketing and commercial emails should comply with the Spam act. According to this act, emails should be sent only with the permission of the recipient, emails should clearly specify the sender or business name, there should be an option for the receiver to unsubscribe from your mailing list.
  • Insightful Info – Avoid sending commercial advertisements in all the emails. Send useful tips and information relevant to your product that will educate and add value to your customers.
  • Mobile friendly – Emails should be mobile optimized as the chances of the emails opened in the mobile device is high.
  • Social Media buttons – Emails can include social media buttons to increase your brand reach among customers.

Email marketing tools

Setting up an email marketing campaign is now easy with email marketing software. There are many automation tools available in the market that come up with standard templates. Some of the popular ones include Mail chimp, SendinBlue, Drip, and constant contact. The email marketing tool is flexible and allows integration with CRM. These tools monitor and analyze the results of your email marketing campaign and help track metrics such as open rate, click-through rates, bounce rate, and conversions.

Email marketing is the best tool to grow your business.  Well-planned strategies can make your email campaign successful.

Categories
Mobile App Development

iOS Mobile Application Development Process

mobile application development

Mobile applications are transforming the digital world. There is an exponential rise in the number of apps being developed and deployed.  Mobile apps are developed primarily for two dominant players – iOS and Android. 

iOS is the second most popular mobile operating system. The iOS platform is used across iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad. Developing applications for iOS involves using an iOS SDK and a different set of tools. The apps are uploaded to an apple store for customers to download.

iOS Mobile Application Development Cycle

The different phases of Mobile application development include Planning, Design, Development, Testing, and Release.

Planning

Planning is an important phase. Before developing the application, it is necessary to ascertain the time required to develop the product. A suitable project development approach has to be selected. Due to frequent changes in the mobile platform, developers prefer agile methodology for mobile app development.

Research and Analysis

There are millions of Apps available in the market. To make your app unique and downloadable it is necessary to do market research. Identify the purpose of the mobile app and the target audience. Analyzing your competitor app can help figure out what are the features to be added or removed in your application.

Design

Design involves creating a prototype or wireframe which helps to picture the flow of the app and helps to develop the application in a structured manner. The wireframe includes all possible screens and the complete functionality is captured as part of the design. Apple provides a style guide for the UI. Designers can adopt these guidelines to develop great apps that integrate seamlessly with Apple platforms.

Coding

The coding phase is the actual mobile application development phase. This phase involves choosing the right technology to build the application. iOS application development tools include:

  • iOS SDK – It is a software development kit used to build native iOS applications.  It includes tools like XCode IDE, iPhone simulator and compiler for developing applications.
  • XCode – XCode is Apple’s IDE and it includes everything to create amazing apps. Although there are other IDEs for iPhone app development like Coderunner and AppCode, XCode is preferred by developers as it is provided by Apple.
  • Programming language – iOS developers can choose either Objective C or Swift to develop an iOS app.  Swift launched by Apple is the primary language for developing iOS apps. Prior to Swift, Objective C is used to develop iOS mobile apps. It is still preferred to build robust and secure applications.
  • TestFlight – online service for testing mobile applications. It is used by developers to test the beta version of their app and get users feedback before launching the app in the App store.

Other factors to consider while developing the application:

  • Mobile app with heavy visual elements like animations is more complex to develop
  • APIs that need to be integrated with the app like push notification API
  • The App should be developed to use minimum memory while functioning

Testing

It is crucial to test the application before the launch.  Bugs and errors should be fixed prior to the launch of the application. The developers must test the application for performance and security issues. The app should be tested by actual users on different devices (iPhone versions). The more you test your app for bugs and device compatibility the better the chances of app store approval. Beta Testing is also mandatory. TestFlight provides an online testing environment to test your app.

Compliance with App store guidelines

Apple has laid out clear guidelines on their site about creating an app. All iOS app has to meet the requirements for the design, technical, content, security and privacy aspects. Developers should adhere to the guidelines while developing the app. Make sure to review the guidelines before submitting the app for review.

Submitting to the app store

To submit to the app store, register for the Apple developer program account and submit your app version for review. Mostly the app will be reviewed in 1 to 3 days and you will be notified about the status. While submitting the app the following information has to be provided – website URL, privacy policy and company name. Publishing the app in the app store involves annual charges (approx. USD 99)

Avoid common mistakes

The App will be reviewed for content, performance, and technical aspects. Apple follows stringent review guidelines. Over 40% of the app is rejected due to common mistakes mentioned below:

  • Crashes and bugs
  • Broken Links
  • Placeholder content
  • Offensive / Objectionable Content
  • Requesting permission to access data
  • Incomplete information
  • Misleading users

Releasing your app

After review and approval, the app will be released in the App Store. You can opt for either manual or automatic release. Automatic refers to a phased release where the app is released in phases to a percentage of random users. In a manual release, the app is made available to potential users within a day after releasing the app.

iOS Mobile application development is less complicated provided the development team follows the app store guidelines. iOS mobile apps generate high revenue per user and also the cost of development is less.

Hire an experienced iOS mobile application development company to kick start iOS mobile app development. Contact us to get a free quote.

Categories
Web App Development

What Makes an Effective e-Commerce Website

effective eCommerce website

Over the years, there is a steady increase in online selling. More and more businesses are adding an e-commerce website to their physical store to sell products online.  An effective e-commerce website should have certain features and functionalities for better user experience and to increase sales. Here are some things to keep in mind prior to designing an online store.

Identify your customers

Understanding the Demographics of the target customer is an important aspect of site design. Numerous variables like age gender, education qualification, location are analyzed to know the shopper and learn their behavior. This data plays a paramount role in designing the product pages, structuring the layout and defining the check out process.

Mobile friendly

There is an increasing number of online shoppers from mobile devices rather than from desktop or laptop. The e-commerce site should be a responsive website keeping mobile users in mind. All functionalities of the e-commerce site should be tested on mobile devices to ensure they are functioning properly.

Every second count

A site that loads faster is the most preferred by end-users. A delay of more than two seconds in loading time increases the bounce rate. The site should be optimized to reduce the loading time. Site speed is directly proportional to the conversion rate.

Easy to navigate

The site should be designed and structured well to facilitate easy navigation around the products and categories. The design should be in line with end-user searches. The design team and the client should discuss how the products should be categorized.  The site layout should be based on product categories.  The categories should be clickable and there should be filters to allow advance searches.

Policies

Utmost importance should be given to list policy information about product return and exchange at a prominent place on the website. The policy should be easy to find and listed in layman terms for easy understanding.

Secure

To gain customer trust, an e-commerce website needs to be secure. Keeping customer information and their shopping preferences confidential and providing secure payment gateway are some ways to gain trust.

Seamless checkout

Customers tend to leave the site if they face hurdles during a checkout. The site should provide all functionalities for a seamless checkout experience. The checkout screen should clearly show the items in the cart and should allow editing till the last minute of checkout. The site should remember customer information and prefill information wherever required. For the first time quick shoppers, the site should allow check out as a guest.

Design matters

It is incredibly important that an e-commerce website design should be visually appealing and engaging to the users. Simple design elements and clutter-free design is essential to make a first impression.

Product images

The product images should be good enough to make an impression on the buyer. A gallery of images can be added for each product. The image size should be optimized without compromising on quality to reduce the load time. Some products are best explained through a video.

Product descriptions

Clear product description and specification helps to avoid return due to incorrect purchase.

Payment

The e-commerce website should provide secure payment options and make it seamless for customers to complete a transaction. Customers expect all possible payment options like credit cards, debit cards, internet banking, and digital payment platform.

Testing

Do ample user testing to ensure that the site functions as required. Test the site across all devices and all browsers.

Each business is unique. We listen to your needs and understand your business.  Our developers have experience in various e-commerce platforms like Magento and Shopify. We have expertise in designing exceptional e-commerce websites for different markets.

If you are looking for e-commerce website design services get in touch with us today.

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Mobile App Development

Give your business that extra edge through mobile apps

mobile application development

The number of smartphone users (2.7 billion) across the world is growing rapidly. You can grow your business by taking advantage of mobile users. 

The increasing number of smartphone users has made it mandatory to consider having a mobile app for your business. 

A study on smartphone usage reveals that Mobile apps are expected to generate 188.9 billion US dollars in revenues in 2020.

What are mobile apps?

Mobile apps are software applications designed to run on a mobile device. They are different from a mobile website that runs on a mobile browser. 

Mobile apps need to be downloaded and installed on a mobile device. A mobile application doesn’t need a browser to run. 

The app pulls data from the internet. Some apps are designed to run offline. A mobile app has a touch interface for better interactivity.

Everything you need to know about mobile apps

The first step to building a mobile app is to familiarize yourself with the latest technologies that are being used.

Basically, there are three types of apps:

  • Native apps: Native apps are built for a specific platform, say iOS or Android. Since they are native to a particular operating system, they cannot be used on other platforms. For instance, an Android app cannot run on an iPhone device. Native apps have to be downloaded and installed from the app store. The advantage of native apps is high performance, the downside is higher cost as we need to create multiple apps for different platforms.
  • Hybrid apps: Hybrid apps use technologies such as HTML, javascript. They possess the features of both native and web-based apps. They run on multiple platforms (Windows, iOS, Android). They can be installed from the app store. The advantage is single code can be used for all platforms, the downside is they lack speed and performance.
  • Web-based apps: Web applications are basically mobile responsive websites written in HTML or javascript. They run on a web server. They need not be downloaded or installed on a mobile device. As they are available on the web, there is no additional cost to be spent for an app store. The drawback is that they may have design issues and can be accessed only through the internet.

Each of the above apps has its own pros and cons. Get expert advice to know which of these will work best for your business.

How does your business benefit through mobile applications?

If your business is ignoring mobile users, then you don’t have a clue about what you are missing out on. It is a myth that only large businesses need a mobile application. But in reality, small and mid-size businesses see tremendous benefits through the mobile app. A mobile app for your business can help you stand out from your competitors. Here are some of the advantages of having a mobile app.

Better visibility

Gone are the days when people used their PCs to connect to the Internet. Now, People spend more time on their smartphones rather than on a desktop computer.

Target young customers

More than 92% of Millennials own a smartphone. They get connected to the internet only through a mobile device. If your business is targeting young consumers, don’t have a second thought in building a mobile app. Millennials prefer using an app instead of calling to buy a product or a service.

Increase customer engagement

Pamphlets, advertisements and billboards can reach only a limited number of people. With the mobile app,  your customers are just one click away. You get a chance to be connected with the customer 24/7. You can engage your customers with info about new products, offers and deals thereby increasing sales.

Brand outreach

Users get to see your app icon whenever they see the apps installed on their mobile. It is also easy to share the app among users. This creates brand awareness and gives free marketing for your business.

Personalized notifications

It is easy to send a notification to users who have installed the app on their mobile. You get to know your customer’s geographic location and demographics. The notifications can be customized based on this info which will result in enhanced customer experience.

Better analytics

You get better insights into how users interact with the app. You can take advantage of this data and get to know your customer’s likes and preferences.

What are you waiting for? Having a mobile app can never be a wrong decision. Contact us now to make an informed decision about building a mobile app for your business.

Categories
Marketing

How social media can help your business?

social media marketing

Social media provides an easy way to market your business to potential customers. It is estimated that there are 3.2 billion users on social media across the world and this number is expected to grow in the coming years. Social media sites help generate leads and drive sales, engage directly with the audience and interact and respond to customers by replying to their queries.

For businesses, social media provides ample opportunities to promote their brand. Businesses can start their own social media pages and create a marketing plan on how to promote their product or service locally, regionally, or across the globe.

Benefits

Similar to interacting with friends and family on social media sites, users can now interact with a brand and get to know a product better. Businesses can engage the audience with new updates about the product, informational videos, promotions, and offers. Apart from connecting with people, there are other benefits offered by social media platforms.

  • Brand visibility – People log in to their social media account at least once a day. Social media offers the opportunity to increase brand visibility whenever fans and followers log in.
  • Generate leads – Lead generation is an important aspect of social media marketing. Social media platforms allow you to get direct leads who can be potential customers.
  • Boost traffic to websites – One of the simplest ways to drive users to your website is by promoting content on social media.
  • Engage customers – Social networking helps to create brand awareness and engage customers with one to one interaction.
  • Grow sales – Social media presence is a cost-effective advertising strategy that can significantly increase conversion.
  • Target advertising – It helps you to target customers based on demographic information. The advertising can be targeted to the right audience.

Social media adverts allow you to target the right audience who are interested in your product or service and make the most of your marketing budget.

Social Media Sites

Top Social media platform for business include:

  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Whatsapp
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest

SMM trends

To have successful social media marketing, the business should have a clear vision of their business goal. Here are some strategies for businesses to have an effective social media presence.

Right platform

There are a multitude of social media pages. Analyze and choose the right social media platforms that will work well for you to reach potential customers. Facebook is a popular social media platform with a large number of users. It also offers features like groups, ads, analytics, and insights to make it easy for marketers.

Analyze your competitor

If you are new to marketing, look around, and observe your competitors. For instance, analyze the Facebook page of your competitor to understand how they engage the audience.

Target audience

Identify the target audience and understand their requirement. Engage them with useful information and respond to their feedback and queries.

Content

Create relevant and compelling content. Do research on what kind of content will attract your audience, it can be images, videos of product demo, animations, or text. Use a professional tone and voice, analyze the reach of your content, and modify your approach if necessary.

Marketing Campaigns

Take marketing to the next level through social media marketing campaigns. Paid campaigns are another option but come with a budget. Paid advertising helps you target ads to users based on their preferences and interests.

If your business is not listed on the social media platform, consider having your profile now as it is free and can be beneficial in the long run. Select the social media platform for your unique business need and list your business profile.

Categories
Mobile App Development

How to optimize your mobile app and improve downloads?

How to improve mobile app downloads

There are thousands of mobile apps added to the app store every day.  As of 2019, 2.5 million apps were available for download in the Google Play Store and 1.8 million apps in the Apple App Store. A statistical study shows that 204 billion mobile apps were downloaded by users in 2019.

A mobile app is successful if it reaches more users. This article briefs about how to optimize your app to boost visibility in the app store and increase the downloads.

What is Mobile App Store Optimization?

App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of optimizing your mobile apps to rank higher in app store search results such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.  ASO aims to increase the visibility of your app for more users to download it.  Improving ASO can help you to get more downloads for your app.

App Marketing strategies have to be adopted to optimize your app to the app store. Here are some tips to improve your app rating and make your mobile app discoverable among millions of apps.

How users find mobile apps?

Before we get into how to optimize an app for the app store it is important to understand how users find and download a mobile app. Most users search for an app using keywords in popular app stores such as the Apple store and Google Play store.The app that ranks higher in search results gets a greater number of downloads as users don’t scroll down to look at the entire list. If users don’t find your app on search results for keywords related to your app, the probability of download is zero. So, it is important to do ASO for your mobile app.

Choose the right app name and title

Enough time should be spent to arrive at the right app name. When searching for an app, the user first gets to see the app name and icon and it is important to create the best impression. Do enough research on the search keyword by analyzing your competitors. Optimize your app for the app store by including relevant keywords on the title. Brainstorm with your team and ensure that the app name and URL have the core keyword describing your app and the service you are offering. The titles should adhere to various app store restrictions like 30 characters for Apple and 50 characters for Google.

Description

Describe your app in simple and plain language easy for a novice user to understand what your app is offering. The description should be updated with every new update.

Why Ratings matter?

Apps with high ratings are ranked higher, trusted by users and downloaded more. 50% of the users check the ratings before installing an app. The ratings are crucial as they have a positive influence on how your app ranks in the app store.

Reviews

Reviews give detailed customer insight about your app. Apps with Positive reviews gain user trust. Negative reviews can be taken as feedback for product improvement. Though reviews and ratings have a similar impact, ratings are the first thing that grabs the user attention.

More number of reviews and how recent they are can give better visibility of your app in search results. Getting reviews from users might require some effort. Prompt the user to leave a review after a successful booking or a transaction. Never interrupt a task and prompt for a review.

Thumbnail images

Icons used for the app should attract the attention of the users and improve the click-through rate.Use impressive icons to create the best impression among users. Screenshots can be added to description as Images are powerful than descriptive text. Add different screenshots and do A/B testing to figure out which screenshot is attracting more downloads.

Regular updates

Get your app updated regularly based on customer feedback. Users are looking for apps that are constantly evolving and such apps are ranked higher in the app store. Improved app versions attract more reviews and higher ratings.

The challenge with updates is persuading users to download the updated version, which can be achieved through user notification and adding what’s new field on the product page.

App Localization

Now that you have the correct app name, title, perfect description all in English, but some of your target users might benon-English speaking audience.  If you’d like to promote your app to a specific market, you can have the metadata in a local language. This can improve your app visibility among native speakers.

Social Media Promotion

Market your app through social media to create awareness and improve brand recognition. Present your app features in your marketing content and encourage users to download the app.

All the above strategies can boost your app download. The volume of download is directly proportional to the app store ranking.

There are millions of app in the mobile world if you want to stay ahead of the curve implement some of the techniques above.