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Content Is King In 2016: The Year Evergreen Content Will Explode!

12 Dec, 2016

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As we enter 2016, look for evergreen content to grow in prominence.

Once utilized by large brands with deep pockets, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the future of content marketing lies in the ability to create rich, immersive, and engaging content that lasts. If your content schedule for this calendar year only contains on-site blog posts and the occasional syndicated article, then you’re missing out on a major opportunity to expand your reach and grow your brand.

From beginner guides to infographics, evergreen content needs to be a focus.

5 Types of Evergreen Content…

As you can guess, the term evergreen content gets its name from evergreen trees, such as pine trees and fir trees. These trees, which are often used to decorate the home around the Christmas season, serve as a symbol of perpetual life. They retain their leaves throughout the season, as opposed to shedding. Well, much like the trees, evergreen content is sustainable and long-lasting.

Whereas traditional forms of content, such as news articles, statistical reports, and pop culture pieces, are date-oriented, evergreen content has no expiration date. In most cases, an evergreen resource is made to provide value for years to come.

But what exactly does evergreen content look like? As a marketer or business owner, you’ll want to pay attention to the following five formats, which are widely used across many industries.

1. Beginner Guides

One of the most popular types of evergreen content is the “beginner guide.” This is an in-depth resource that familiarizes the reader with a new concept or idea. Beginner guides can provide immediate and lasting value – and are regularly shared amongst social media users. This Penny Stocking 101 guide is the perfect example of an evergreen beginner guide that will provide value for years to come.

2. How-to Resources

Very similar to beginner guides, “how-to resources” are a little more advanced and targeted. Whereas a beginner guide may introduce someone to a broad concept, how-to resources provide very specific advice for a tangible problem or need. This resource, which tells readers how to use the Google Analytics URL builder to track campaigns, is a great example.

3. Infographics

Whether you realize it or not, some infographics are considered evergreen content. The difference between a standard infographic and an evergreen infographic lies in the content. If you’re using data and statistics that are only relevant for a few months, then it’s a standard infographic. However, if you’re referencing thoughts, ideas, and trends that are always true, then the infographic is evergreen. This coffee infographic is an example of the latter.

4. Annual Posts

One of the most popular types of evergreen content, especially around this time of the year, is annual posts. These typically come in December or January – wrapping up a year or predicting trends for a new one – but can theoretically be published whenever. Here’s a prime example of an annual post that’s also considered evergreen in nature.

5. Interviews

Finally, interviews can be considered evergreen content. This is especially true when the interview is discussing a basic concept or idea, as opposed to a recent issue or newsworthy topic. Interviews can be published in written, audio, or video form. This iBlog Magazine interview with Scott Jangro, founder of Shareist, is the perfect example of valuable evergreen content.

There are obviously plenty of other types of evergreen content, but these are the five most commonly used formats in the content marketing industry today. Start with these types and then feel free to get creative and try some new strategies.

The Value of Evergreen Content…

It’s challenging to put your finger on the exact value of evergreen content. As the name suggests, it stays relevant for an extended period of time, but relevancy isn’t the ultimate goal. What is relevancy without the subsequent conveyance of tangible or monetary value?

In other words, you shouldn’t invest in evergreen content for the sake of developing content that lasts. You should create evergreen content for the purpose of building brand equity and driving value. In today’s digital marketing landscape, evergreen content does many different things.

1. Lead Generation

When your target market consumes quality content that’s relevant to their individual pain points, they’re more likely to become comfortable with your brand and do business with you in the future. It’s this lead generation aspect of evergreen content that is most valuable to businesses.

While content of all formats can generate leads, the true value of evergreen content is that it generates leads for a long period of time. Theoretically, something you post today could still generate a lead in five years. This offers the potential for huge returns and more than justifies the upfront cost of creating and publishing quality evergreen content.

2. Authority and Thought Leadership

The quickest way to establish thought leadership in your niche is to invest in quality content that delivers substance and positions your brand as knowledgeable and progressive. Evergreen content accomplishes this very task in a natural, cohesive manner.

When you think about brands that are considered thought leaders in your industry, what types of content do they publish? While they probably invest some time and energy into timely, date-oriented pieces, it’s more likely that they produce timeless content that’s used and shared for long periods of time. This isn’t a coincidence. Evergreen content directly feeds the growth of thought leadership and brand authority.

3. Search Engine Optimization

Evergreen content is an excellent tool for growing SEO prominence and moving up the search rankings. The more sustainable content you develop, the higher your authority becomes. Search engine algorithms reward brands that attach their names to in-depth, timeless content.

“The biggest challenge small business owners face these days is creating quality content that is highly rated by both humans and machines,” writes Julia McCoy of Search Engine Journal. Evergreen content – and Google’s in-depth article feature – allow users to research certain topics and get more detailed information. Understanding this, business owners can publish evergreen content and then optimize their websites to finally appease both human readers and search engines.

4. Social Sharing

Finally, evergreen content drives shares. This is a huge benefit of creating evergreen material in the social age and will continue to grow in significance in the coming years. When readers see content they like, and find valuable, they’re more apt to share it on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And while news stories come and go with each news cycle, evergreen content can be shared for months and years to come.

Develop Content That Lasts…

As you can clearly see, evergreen content is a valuable tool for brands and organizations across many different industries. Regardless of the type of business you’re in and what your competition is doing, you can benefit from the creation and distribution of sustainable evergreen content that touts your brand as authoritative and high quality.

While thousands of businesses are already investing in evergreen content, 2016 will be the year that it explodes. As a forward-thinking business owner or marketer, now is the time to get involved. By making an investment today, you’ll reap rewards for years to come.

Source of the article:
http://www.business. com/

Introduction to Brand Strategy: 7 Essentials for a Strong Company Brand

12 Dec, 2016

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Digital Marketing

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What is brand strategy?

By definition, brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brandin order to achieve specific goals. First, let’s clear up the biggest misconception about brand strategy: Your brand is not your product, your logo, your website, or your name. In fact, your brand is much more than that — it’s the stuff that feels intangible. But it’s that hard-to-pin-down feeling that separates powerhouse and mediocre brands from each other.

So to help you rein in what many marketers consider more of an art and less of a science, we’ve broken down seven essential components of a comprehensive brand strategy that will help keep your company around for ages.

7 Components for a Comprehensive Branding Strategy

1) Purpose

“Every brand makes a promise. But in a marketplace in which consumer confidence is low and budgetary vigilance is high, it’s not just making a promise that separates one brand from another, but having a defining purpose,” explains Allen Adamson, chairman of the North America region of brand consulting and design firm Landor Associates.

While understanding what your business promises is necessary when defining your brand positioning, knowing why you wake up everyday and go to work carries more weight. In other words, your purpose is more specific, in that it serves as a differentiator between you and your competitors.

How can you define your business’ purpose? According to Business Strategy Insider, purpose can be viewed in two ways:

Functional: This concept focuses on the evaluations of success in terms of immediate and commercial reasons — i.e. the purpose of the business is to make money.
Intentional: This concept focuses on success as it relates to the ability to make money and do good in the world.

While making money is important to almost every business, we admire brands that emphasize their willingness to achieve more than just profitability, like IKEA:

IKEA’s vision isn’t just to sell furniture, but rather, to “create a better everyday life.” This approach is appealing to potential customers, as it demonstrates their commitment to providing value beyond the point of sale.

When defining your business’ purpose, keep this example in mind. While making money is a priority, operating under that notion alone does little to set your brand apart from others in your industry.

Our advice? Dig a little deeper. If you need inspiration, check out this post on inspiring mission and vision statements.

2) Consistency

The key to consistency is to avoid talking about things that don’t relate to or enhance your brand. Added a new photo to your business’ Facebook Page? What does it mean for your company? Does it align with your message, or was it just something funny that would, quite frankly, confuse your audience?

In an effort to give your brand a platform to stand on, you need to be sure that all of your messaging is cohesive. Ultimately, consistency contributes to brand recognition, which fuels customer loyalty. (No pressure, right?)

To see a great example of consistency, let’s look at Coca Cola. As a result of their commitment to consistency, every element of their marketing works harmoniously together. This has helped them become one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Even on the surface of their social media accounts, for example, the seamlessness of their brand is very apparent:

To avoid leaving potential customers struggling to put the disconnected pieces of your business together, consider the benefits of creating a style guide. A style guide can encompass everything from the tone of voice you’ll use to the color scheme you’ll employ to the way you’ll position certain products or services.

By taking the time to define and agree upon these considerations, your brand will benefit as a whole. Want to learn more about style guides? Check out this article my colleague Austin Knight published on the web design style guides of big companies like Apple, Google, and Starbucks.

3) Emotion

Customers aren’t always rational.

How else do you explain the person who paid thousands of dollars more for a Harley rather than buying another cheaper, equally well-made bike? There was an emotional voice in there somewhere, whispering: “Buy a Harley.”

But why?

Harley Davidson uses emotional branding by creating a community around their brand. They began HOG — Harley Owners Group — to connect their customers with their brand (and each other).

By provided their customers with an opportunity to feel like they’re part of a larger group that’s more tight-knit than just a bunch of motorcycle riders, Harley Davidson is able to position themselves as an obvious choice for someone looking to purchase a bike.

Why? People have an innate desire to build relationships. Research from psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary best describes this need in their “belongingness hypothesis,” which states: “People have a basic psychological need to feel closely connected to others, and that caring, affectionate bonds from close relationships are a major part of human behavior.”

Not to mention, belongingness — the need for love, affection, and being part of groups — falls directly in the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which aims to categorize different human needs.

The lesson to be learned? Find a way to connect to your customers on a deeper, more emotional level. Do you give them peace of mind? Make them feel like part of the family? Do you make life easier? Use emotional triggers like these to strengthen your relationship and foster loyalty.

4) Flexibility

In this fast-changing world, marketers must remain flexible to stay relevant. On the plus side, this frees you to be creative with your campaigns.

You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, how am I supposed to remain consistent while also being flexible?”

Good question. While consistency aims to set the standard for your brand, flexibility enables you to make adjustments that build interest and distinguish your approach from that of your competition.

In other words, “effective identity programs require enough consistency to be identifiable, but enough variation to keep things fresh and human,” explains president of Peopledesign, Kevin Budelmann.

A great example of this type of strategic balance comes from Old Spice. These days, Old Spice is one of the best examples of successful marketing across the board. However, up until recently, wearing Old Spice was pretty much an unspoken requirement for dads everywhere. Today, they’re one of the most popular brands for men of all ages.

Their secret? Flexibility.

Aware that they needed to do something to secure their place in the market, Old Spice teamed up with Wieden+Kennedy to position their brand for a new customer base.

Image Credit: Works Design Group

Between new commercials, a new website, new packaging, and new product names, Old Spice managed to attract the attention of a new, younger generation by making strategic enhancements to their already strong brand.

So if your old tactics aren’t working anymore, don’t be afraid to change. Just because it worked in the past doesn’t mean it’s working now.

Take the opportunity to engage your followers in fresh, new ways. Are there some out-of-the-box partnerships your brand can make? Are there attributes about your product you never highlighted? Use those to connect with new customers and remind your old ones why they love you.

5) Employee Involvement

As we mentioned before, achieving a sense of consistency is important if you wish to build brand recognition. And while a style guide can help you achieve a cohesive digital experience, it’s equally important for your employees to be well versed in the how they should be communicating with customers and representing the brand.

If your brand is playful and bubbly through Twitter engagements, then it wouldn’t make sense if a customer called in and was connected with a grumpy, monotone representative, right?

To avoid this type of mismatched experience, take note of Zappos’ approach.

If you’ve ever been on the line with a customer service representative from Zappos, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, check out this SlideShare which details some of their most inspiring customer support stories.

Zappos is so committed to ensuring that not only their brand, but all brands, remain consistent across digital and human interactions that they’ve dedicated an entire department to the cause called Zappos Insights.

By holding all Zappos employees to their core values and helping other companies implement the same approach, Zappos has built a strong reputation for solid, helpful, and human customer service.

6) Loyalty

If you already have people that love you, your company, and your brand, don’t just sit there. Reward them for that love.

These customers have gone out their way to write about you, to tell their friends about you, and to act as your brand ambassadors. Cultivating loyalty from these people early on will yield more returning customers — and more profit for your business.

Sometimes, just a thank you is all that’s needed. Other times, it’s better to go above and beyond. Write them a personalized letter. Sent them some special swag. Ask them to write a review, and feature them prominently on your website. (Or all of the above!)

When we reached 15,000 customers here at HubSpot, we wanted to say thank you in a big way, while remaining true to our brand … so we dropped 15,000 orange ping pong balls from our fourth floor balcony and spelled out thank you in big metallic balloons:

And while it may have seemed a little out of the ordinary to some folks, for those who know our brand, the gesture made perfect sense.

Loyalty is a critical part of every brand strategy, especially if you’re looking to support your sales organization. At the end of the day, highlighting a positive relationship between you and your existing customers sets the tone for what potential customers can expect if they choose to do business with you.

7) Competitive Awareness

Take the competition as a challenge to improve your own strategy and create greater value in your overall brand. You are in the same business and going after the same customers, right? So watch what they do.

Do some of their tactics succeed? Do some fail? Tailor your brand positioning based on their experience to better your company.

A great example of how to improve your brand by learning from your competitors comes from Pizza Hut:

When a pizza lover posed this question to his Twitter following, Pizza Hut didn’t miss a beat. They playfully responded in minutes, before Domino’s had a chance to speak up.

If Domino’s is keeping an eye on the competitors, they’ll know to act fast the next time a situation like this arises.

For HubSpot customers, keeping tabs on your competitor’s social mentions is easy using the Social Monitoring App. Check out this article to learn more about how to set up custom social streams.

And while staying in tune with your competitor’s strategies is important if you want to enhance your brand, don’t let them dictate each and every move you make.

Sure, you probably sell a similar product or service as many other companies, but you’re in business because your brand is unique. By harping on every move your competitor makes, you lose that differentiation.

What other components do you focus on when building out a brand strategy? Let us know in the comments section below.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Source of the article:

http://blog.hubspot. com/

Do you know the Difference Between UX and UI Design?

21 Nov, 2016

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We’ve all overheard conversations, walking down hip streets of the world’s tech capitals, discussions about the great ‘UX’ of a product, or the poor ‘UI’ of a website. Is it a secret language you will never be privy to? Are these people just using slang to look cool? Well, ok probably yes to the latter, but a determinate NO to the rest. Read on to learn what these terms mean, which jobs are better paid, and how to become a UX designer or UI designer. Scroll to the middle of the post to watch a video of me speaking about this article, and giving you some extra info on what being a UX or UI Designer really means.

The Acronyms Unveiled

The people you have eavesdropped on are actually discussing two professions that despite having been around for decades, and in theory for centuries, have been defined by the tech industry as UX and UI Design.

UX Design refers to the term User Experience Design, while UI Design stands for User Interface Design. Both elements are crucial to a product and work closely together. But despite their professional relationship, the roles themselves are quite different, referring to very different parts of the process and the design discipline. Where UX Design is a more analytical and technical field, UI Design is closer to what we refer to as graphic design, though the responsibilities are somewhat more complex.

There is an analogy I like to use in describing the different parts of a (digital) product:

If you imagine a product as the human body, the bones represent the code which give it structure. The organs represent the UX design: measuring and optimizing against input for supporting life functions. And UI design represents the cosmetics of the body–its presentation, its senses and reactions.

But don’t worry if you’re still confused! You’re not the only one!

As Rahul Varshney, Co-creator of Foster.fm puts it:

“User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are some of the most confused and misused terms in our field. A UI without UX is like a painter slapping paint onto canvas without thought; while UX without UI is like the frame of a sculpture with no paper mache on it. A great product experience starts with UX followed by UI. Both are essential for the product’s success.”

Below I break down the history, debate and definition around each term in detail. But if you don’t care for them jump to the end of each section for a simplified description. And make sure you don’t miss the professional stats below it.

What is User Experience Design?

As is found on Wikipedia:

User experience design (UXD or UED) is the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the product.

Clear, right? Well you might note immediately that despite what I implied in the introduction, the definition has no reference to tech, no mention of digital, and vague at best. But like all professions, it’s impossible to distill the process from just a few words.

Some confusion in the definition of the term itself is due to its youth. Don Norman, a cognitive scientist and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy, is credited with inventing the term in the late 1990’s declaring that“User experience” encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

This implies that regardless of its medium, UX Design encompasses any and all interactions between a potential or active customer and a company. As a scientific process it could be applied to anything, street lamps, cars, Ikea shelving and so on.

However! Despite being a scientific term, its use since inception has been almost entirely within digital fields; one arguable reason for this being that the industry started blowing up around the time of the term’s invention. Another arguable reason being that it was just a fancy way of rewording a practice that has already existed for hundreds of years known as “Market Research”; and boy do designers love fancy.

But don’t let me confuse you, User Experience Design is not a market research job.

Though it does utilize many of the same techniques to achieve a complex end goal: The structure, analysis and optimization of a customer’s experience with a company and its products.

If you’ve never seen User Experience work in practice, never even used the term at work, it’s still difficult to imagine what User Experience Designers actually do. At CareerFoundry we’ve developed a UX course that focuses on the process which I will use to illustrate the profession.

Here is a cliff notes example of a UX Designer’s responsibilities as laid out by our course. It is targeted at development of digital products, but the theory and process can be applied to anything:

Strategy and Content:

Competitor Analysis
Customer Analysis
Product Structure/Strategy
Content Development

Wireframing and Prototyping:

Wireframing
Prototyping
Testing/Iteration
Development Planning

Execution and Analytics

Coordination with UI Designer(s)
Coordination with Developer(s)
Tracking Goals and Integration
Analysis and Iteration

So part marketer, part designer, part project manager; the UX role is complex, challenging and multi-faceted. You see that iteration of the product, as connected to analysis or testing is indeed mentioned twice, but in reality you would put it in between every other item on the list. Ultimately the aim is to connect business goals to user’s needs through a process of testing and refinement to that which satisfies both sides of the relationship.

So in conclusion:

User Experience Design is the process of development and improvement of quality interaction between a user and all facets of a company.
User Experience Design is responsible for being hands on with the process of research, testing, development, content, and prototyping to test for quality results.
User Experience Design is in theory a non-digital (cognitive science) practice, but used and defined predominantly by digital industries.

The lesson to be learned here, is that if you’re interested in sociology, in cognitive science, in people and in great products, User Experience is a good place to be; but if you understand those principles and are more visually inclined, you might look at its brother-in-arms: User Interface Design.

Want to know more about me and this post? Check out this video we put together with even more info for our readers on what being a UX or UI Designer really means. You get to see my lovely face too. Let me know what you think!

What is UI Design?

Despite it being an older and more practiced field, the question of “What is user interface design?” is difficult to answer by its ranging variety of misinterpretations. While User Experience is a conglomeration of tasks focused on optimization of a product for effective and enjoyable use; User Interface Design is its compliment, the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of a product. But like UX, it is easily and often confused by the industries that employ UI Designers. To the extent that different job posts will often refer to the profession as completely different things.

If you look at job posts for User Interface Design, you will mostly find interpretations of the profession that are akin to graphic design. Sometimes extending also to branding design, and even front end development.

If you look at expert definitions of User Interface Design, you will mostly find descriptions that are in part identical to User Experience design. Even referring to the same structural techniques.

So which one is right? The sad answer is: Neither

But both are close in some ways. Like User Experience Design, User Interface Design is a multi-faceted and challenging role. It is responsible for the transference of a product’s development, research, content and layout into an attractive, guiding and responsive experience for users. It is also a field that unlike UX, is a strictly digital profession as per its dictionary definition:

user interface

noun Computing

the means by which the user and a computer system interact, in particular the use of input devices and software.

We explain in much greater detail what the definition and role of UI Design is, as well as teach you the skills required to become a UI designer in the CareerFoundry UI Design Course. This includes its relationship to brand, graphic/visual, and front-end design. Regardless of whether you choose UX design or UI design, it’s important to understand how the other one works and, crucially, how to work with them.

Let’s have a quick look at the UI designer’s responsibilities:

Look and Feel:

Customer Analysis
Design Research
Branding and Graphic Development
User Guides/Storyline

Responsiveness and Interactivity:

UI Prototyping
Interactivity and Animation
Adaptation to All Device Screen Sizes
Implementation with Developer

As a visual and interactive designer, the UI role is crucial to any digital interface and for customers a key element to trusting a brand.While the brand itself is never solely the responsibility of the UI designer, its translation to the product is.

You’ll also note the final point which states a responsibility for “implementation” of the design with a developer. While this is generally how UI jobs have worked in the past, you should be aware that the lines are blurring, as the term “Web Designer” (essentially a UI designer who can code) is being replaced by expertise of User Interface Designers. While UX has no need for coding, UI is a role that as time progresses, will rely on it as part of building interactive interfaces.

So in conclusion:

User Interface Design is responsible for the transference of a brand’s strengths and visual assets to a product’s interface as to best enhance the user’s experience.
User Interface Design is a process of visually guiding the user through a product’s interface via interactive elements and across all sizes/platforms.
User Interface Design is a digital field, which includes responsibility for cooperation and work with developers or code.

Or in analogical terms, UI design produces a product’s: Skin – a product’s visual/graphic presentation. Senses – a product’s reactivity and interactivity in response to a user’s input or different display environments. And makeup – a product’s guides, hints, and directives that visually leads users through their experience.

Is One More Important Than The Other?

If you’ve read the above paragraphs you already know the answer. But incase you’re unsure, allow me to quote designer and expert Helga Moreno, who her article The Gap Between UX And UI Design put it quite eloquently:

“Something that looks great but is difficult to use is exemplary of great UI and poor UX. While Something very usable that looks terrible is exemplary of great UX and poor UI.”

So you see, they are both crucial, and while there are millions of examples of great products with one and not the other, imagine how much more successful they might have been when strong in both fields.

And let’s face it, both roles are still confused, misinterpreted, and falsely sought after. So if you’re looking to get into these fields, it’s not a matter of which is more important, but based on the descriptions above which is more attractive to you.

Which Profession Is Better Paid?

Salaries are of course dictated by many factors, though primarily:

location
experience
industry
project/product type

On average you’ll find that UI and UX jobs have similar salary ranges across startups and minor tech industries. You’ll find however that in tech industries outside the web and mobile fields (e.g. car companies, medical equipment manufacturers, etc) there are more and richer opportunities for UI designers, as the field is not only more established but has a more direct business driven application.

Pulling upon averages however, it is possible to find both User Experience, and User Interface jobs across the following range of value in central Europe.

Annual:

Junior Level Salary €28k – €33k
Mid Level Salary €38k – €45k
Senior Level Salary €50k – €80k

Hourly:

Junior Freelancer €30 – €50
Mid Level Freelancer €50 – €75
Senior Level Consultant €75 – €100

*Numbers are based on salary data from Germany and central europe. To explore salaries in your area check out http://www.glassdoor.com/salaries

How Do I Learn These Skills?

While there are collegiate institutions who have Interactive Design and visual design programs, there are very few official ways to learn either UI or UX Design skills as applied to working with tech startups.

If you live in a major metropolitan, you may be lucky to have access to a variety of bootcamp or class-style programs, such as General Assembly, or localized programs hosted by Google and other tech giants.

Online and with flexibility, you’ll find an infinite range of free content and courses for both skills. I highly recommend checking the outline and content of every course to see if what is being taught matches the definitions laid out in this article; but if structured correctly these options found on platforms like udacity, udemy, tuts+ are perhaps the best introduction to the field.

For more specialised and personal education, the options are somewhat limited. In fact CareerFoundry’s mentored UX Design course is the only truly UX dedicated mentor program, bloc.io’s being a mixed UI course.

If your interest is in learning UI design online, we obviously recommend our own mentored UI Design course, curated by long time UI designer Eric Bieller.

Finally, for detailed course searches, check out our favorite course listing resources:

Course Report – Online / USA Market

Springest – Online / EU Market

Resource of the articl: http://blog.careerfoundry .com

Why Your Business Needs Its Own Mobile App?

21 Nov, 2016

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Web & Mobile Development

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Today I’d like to talk about mobile apps in combination with business, and why you should consider building a mobile app for your own company.

If you think that mobile apps are solely for big name brands like Walmart and Bank of America, you are wrong. More and more small and midsize businesses are following the mobile trend, understanding that an effective mobile strategy involves more than just a mobile-friendly website.

In fact, these days you’ll notice that many small businesses you interact with in your everyday life have their own dedicated mobile app — be it the corner coffee shop or the beauty spa downtown. These companies are ahead of the game when it comes to taking their marketing to the next level.

In case you are still not sure why anyone would want to build their own mobile platform, here are the top seven benefits of going down this path sooner rather than later.

1. Be Visible to Customers at All Times

Statistics show that the average American spends more than two hours a day (!) on his or her mobile device. While probably only a handful of applications make up the bulk of this total usage, it doesn’t change the fact that each user has to unlock, scroll, and scan their device for the apps they’re looking for. Being “in the way” can be an advantage to your company, as our mind unconsciously does record every image and text (or well-designed app icon!) it comes across — even if it happens unnoticed.

2. Create a Direct Marketing Channel

Apps serve many functions: they can provide general info, prices, booking forms, search features, user accounts, messengers, news feeds, and much more.

One of the biggest benefits of having a mobile app is that all the information you’d like to provide to your customers – including special sales and promotions – is right at their fingertips. Through push notifications you’re getting even closer to a direct interaction, and can easily remind customers about your products and services whenever it makes sense.

3. Provide Value to Your Customers

Talking about on-hand information, how about digitalizing that loyalty program you have in place? Instead of sticking to the old point-collection card, make it possible for your customers to collect their rewards via your mobile app. The result? More downloads and more return customers. (Check out PunchMe, a service that lets you create smartphone-based loyalty programs.)

4. Build Brand and Recognition

A mobile app for your business can greatly contribute to your brand awareness. I’d like to break this topic down into two aspects, the combination of which will make your app a true winner:

A mobile app is like a blank billboard sign. You can do what you want with it; you can make it stylish, hip, functional, shocking, or informative. But what you really want to do is create an app that has features your customers will love, while at the same time is well branded and beautifully designed.
The more often you can get customers involved with your app, the sooner they will be inclined to buy your product and/or service. In advertising this is called the “effective frequency”: as a rule of thumb, hearing and/or seeing your brand approximately 20 times is what will get you truly noticed.

5. Improve Customer Engagement

No matter whether you are selling flowers or spa services, your customers need a way to reach you. Having a messaging (or help desk) feature within your app can really make a difference in the way you communicate with your customers. Think about it: OpenTable, for example, built its entire business model around this principle. Instead of calling a restaurant for a table, you can book it with less than five clicks on their platform. Now think about it: How many customers would prefer to communicate with you via text than via phone?

6. Stand Out From the Competition

These days mobile apps at the small business level are still rare, and this is where you can take a big leap ahead of your competitors. Be the first in your neighborhood to offer a mobile app to your customers. They’ll be astonished by your forward-thinking approach!

7. Cultivate Customer Loyalty

Last, but not least, the most important reason why you should consider building your own mobile app is customer loyalty. With all the noise out there — roadside banners, billboards, flashing signs, newspaper ads, flyers, coupons, websites, website banners, Facebook ads, and email marketing — we slowly lose our impact on customers because of the immense amount of advertising surrounding us all. It’s time to go back to making a true and sincere connection with your customers, and making them a loyal lover of your product and/or service. I am not saying a mobile app is going to save your business, but it can be a way of staying closer to your customers, and being just a “fingertip” away at all times.

Source of the article:
http://www.forbes. com/

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