Blog : Mobile App Marketing

The iPhone 15: A Game-Changer

The tech world is ablaze with excitement as September 2023 heralds the arrival of Apple’s latest masterpiece – the iPhone 15. Apple, known for pushing the boundaries of innovation, continues to set new standards in the smartphone industry with each new release. The iPhone 15 is no exception, poised to dazzle consumers with a slew of cutting-edge features that promise to redefine our mobile experience. In this article, we’ll delve into the details and explore what makes this release a true game-changer.

Apple has always been synonymous with sleek and elegant designs, and the latest iPhone lives up to that reputation. Its bezel-free, edge-to-edge display not only maximizes screen real estate but also captivates with its refined form factor and premium materials. Holding this iPhone is like holding a piece of the future in your hand.

Under the hood, the iPhone 15 is fueled by the most advanced chipset ever seen in a smartphone. Its lightning-fast processing speeds and unparalleled graphics capabilities ensure that it effortlessly handles any task you throw at it. Whether you’re a multitasking pro or a mobile gamer, this iPhone is your trusty companion.

Apple’s commitment to smartphone photography shines brighter than ever in this release. The device boasts a state-of-the-art camera system featuring a triple-lens setup with unmatched low-light capabilities and cutting-edge image processing algorithms. No matter the lighting conditions, expect stunning photos and videos with unparalleled detail.

Privacy and security are paramount, and Apple goes the extra mile in the September 2023 iPhone. The device incorporates advanced facial recognition technology, ensuring that your phone is truly yours alone. Furthermore, Apple maintains its unwavering commitment to data encryption and secure payment options, granting you peace of mind in a digital age.

Prepare to be transported to new realms of multimedia bliss. The edge-to-edge display enchants with vibrant colors and razor-sharp visuals, breathing life into every photo, video, and game. The device’s enhanced stereo speakers complement the visuals with immersive audio, making every moment a sensory delight.

Apple’s ecosystem continues to be a testament to seamless integration between devices. The iPhone seamlessly connects and syncs with your other Apple devices, elevating your digital life. The latest iOS iteration introduces a myriad of features and improvements, ensuring a user-friendly and intuitive experience.

As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of the iPhone 15, it’s evident that Apple is once again poised to redefine smartphone innovation. From its groundbreaking design to its formidable performance and cutting-edge features, this release is set to rewrite the rules. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a professional, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty of cutting-edge technology, the September 2023 iPhone promises to leave an indelible mark. Prepare to embark on a new era of mobile excellence.

Ready to experience the future of mobile technology? Contact Colure Media today to explore how we can elevate your brand with the latest in digital advertising, app development, and social media marketing strategies.

The Art of Hyper-Personalization: How AI Elevates Customer Experience

The Art of Hyper-Personalization: How AI Elevates Customer Experience

The business landscape is continually evolving, demanding companies to be innovative and customer-centric to maintain a competitive edge. One of the most potent strategies for achieving this is through hyper-personalization, an art that AI has mastered to perfection.

Hyper-personalization involves leveraging customer data to create highly tailored experiences. By mining and analyzing data from various sources, businesses can deliver personalized content, products, and services that resonate with individual customers. AI plays a crucial role in this process, enabling companies to harness vast amounts of customer data effectively.

Understanding Hyper-Personalization

Thanks to advancements in big data and machine learning, companies can now gather and process copious amounts of data, providing valuable insights into their customers’ preferences. When coupled with AI capabilities, businesses can craft hyper-personalized experiences that feel tailor-made for each individual.

The Benefits of Hyper-Personalization

Hyper-personalization goes beyond improving customer experience; it fosters loyalty and trust. By creating an emotional connection through personalized interactions, customers are more likely to remain loyal to the brand. Furthermore, targeted marketing campaigns built on AI predictions can enhance brand awareness through positive word-of-mouth.

The Power of Hyper-Personalization

The potential of hyper-personalization is immense, but it requires businesses to invest in data analytics and AI-powered tools to reap the benefits fully. As AI continues to evolve, its capabilities in delivering hyper-personalization will only grow. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to stay ahead of the curve by embracing AI’s potential and integrating it into their strategies.

Incorporating AI-powered hyper-personalization can revolutionize the way businesses interact with customers and create long-lasting connections. By utilizing customer data effectively, companies can deliver experiences that stand out in today’s competitive market. Embracing AI-driven hyper-personalization is not just an option; it’s a necessity for businesses looking to thrive in the dynamic world of tomorrow. 

If you’re ready to take your marketing strategies to the next level, contact Colure Media, a leading NYC branding and digital advertising agency. Whether you need assistance with social media marketing, influencer marketing, or building your next mobile app project, our expert marketing consulting services are here to elevate your brand in the bustling landscape of New York.

The Impact of AI Is Already Being Felt in Digital Marketing

By now, the ability of the fast-paced evolution of modern technology to disrupt should come as a surprise to nobody. In 2021, a group of Reddit users employed the Robinhood app to change the way we think about the stock market, likely forever. In that time, the ability of a  single mobile app and of other areas of tech like artificial intelligence to upend entire industries has proven itself time and again.

AI in particular has become an increasingly common part of the public conversation thanks to the debut of solutions like ChatGPT. At a basic level, the premise of ChatGPT is simple – it leverages natural language processing, coupled with state-of-the-art AI technology, to let users have human-like conversations with what is essentially a chatbot.

In the short period of time since it launched, however, ChatGPT itself has been filled with surprises. Organizations are using it for coding help – and indeed, there have been entire mobile apps created using AI. Business leaders use it to support their decision-making. It’s been leveraged for customer support, language translation – you name it and ChatGPT can probably do it.

Which is a major part of the reason why artificial intelligence has been so disruptive in such a short amount of time. One industry that is asking a bevy of existential questions is digital marketing. In a world where AI can be used to effectively manage most touch points on the buyer’s journey, what role do actual humans play in the lives of customers everywhere? The answers to questions like that one bring with them a number of fascinating implications that people should be aware of moving forward.

AI and Digital Marketing: Where Does One End and the Other Begin?

To take an optimistic approach to the topic, AI does bring with it a number of benefits in the short-term for human digital marketers. It allows them to automate a lot of the time-consuming and menial tasks that make up their day, letting them focus on matters that truly need their attention. It helps them understand their target audiences better than ever through things like data analytics, all in a fraction of the time it used to take.

But keep in mind that AI is also being used for content generation. Right now, people are using these tools to write everything from blog posts to entire novels and just about everything in between. If a business owner can use it to generate exactly he type of digital marketing copy that they need at a much smaller cost than it would take to hire a team of people to do the same, one can’t help but wonder – what do you need that team of people for after a certain point?

Right now, the digital marketers themselves are still in control of the marketing experience. But how far off is a day when that is no longer the case? Artificial intelligence is supposed to get better at whatever task it is programmed to do over time. When it becomes better at connecting with audiences than human marketers are, it will reach that point objectively. Then what?

All this is somewhat ironic within the context of an industry like digital marketing – something that was founded based on the principles of disruption to begin with.

For decades, marketing was a fairly straightforward affair, driven by ad agencies filled with copywriters who spent time crafting a message that would be effective with the largest possible audience in an instant.

Then came the Internet and the increased level of personalization that came with it. This disruption was massive – marketing success was no longer about the broadest message, but instead focused on getting the right hyper personalized message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. Seemingly overnight, the focus of an entire industry changed for all-time.

Now, it seems poised to happen again. It is being shepherded by an extension of the very technology that supplanted teams of ad men on Madison Avenue all those years ago.

The Future of Digital Marketing is as Disruptive as Ever

Perhaps the most important question is this: is the level of disruption on digital marketing brought on by artificial intelligence even a problem at all? Likely not from the perspective of the end users, who still get the personalized experiences they crave. Probably not from the point of view of the businesses who need marketing collateral to sell their products, either.

So what does digital marketing – and its ability to employ countless people – even look like a year from now, let alone in five or ten? Nobody can say right now, but it’s something that many industry professionals will be thinking carefully about for the foreseeable future. 

Unveiling the Insights: Understanding Costs and Calculations in Marketing Agencies

Marketing agencies have become indispensable partners for businesses seeking to elevate their brand, boost website traffic, and drive revenue growth. In the digital era, where consumers reside predominantly online, the role of marketing agencies has gained even more prominence. While partnering with a marketing agency entails an investment, when executed effectively, it can yield substantial returns. In this article, we delve into the intricacies of marketing agency costs, spending, and offer valuable tips for calculating your marketing expenses.

Understanding Costs and Calculations in Marketing Agencies

Defining a Marketing Agency

A marketing agency is a versatile entity that provides a wide array of services aimed at assisting businesses in promoting their products, services, or brand. These services encompass an array of tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing, content marketing, and web design and development. The ultimate goal is to enable businesses to reach their target audience, enhance website traffic, augment brand awareness, and drive tangible sales and revenue growth.

Exploring the Diverse Agency Landscape

Marketing agencies manifest in various forms, each possessing unique strengths and services. Some agencies specialize in specific domains, such as social media marketing or SEO, while others offer comprehensive marketing suites. Choosing an agency that aligns with your business goals and industry experience is of paramount importance.

Understanding the Agency Workflow

Marketing agencies typically engage with businesses on a project or retainer basis. Initially, they invest time in comprehending your business, existing marketing strategies, and objectives. Subsequently, they tailor a personalized marketing plan with specific tactics and timelines.

Once the plan is in motion, agencies implement the outlined tactics, such as launching a new website, curating engaging social media content, or executing an email marketing campaign. Throughout the process, agencies meticulously monitor and analyze campaign performance, making adjustments to achieve the desired outcomes.

Deciphering the Optimal Marketing Budget

The ideal marketing expenditure varies based on industry, business size, and marketing goals. As a general guideline, businesses should allocate around 7-8% of their revenue towards marketing. However, businesses aiming for rapid growth or in the initial stages may require an increased marketing spend to achieve their objectives effectively.

Deconstructing Marketing Agency Costs

Marketing agency costs encompass a broad spectrum and depend on the project’s scope and required services. Agencies commonly adopt pricing models such as hourly rates, monthly retainers, or project-based fees. Hourly rates can range from $100 to $300 or more, contingent on the agency’s expertise and location. Monthly retainers typically start from a few thousand dollars and can extend into tens of thousands, depending on campaign complexity and service levels.

Calculating Your Marketing Costs

To calculate your marketing costs accurately, identify your marketing goals and specific tactics necessary to achieve them. Research agencies aligned with your requirements, requesting quotes or proposals that consider factors like expertise, track record, industry experience, and level of service. While cost is essential, consider the agency’s understanding of your industry, past successes, and ability to provide tailored strategic insights and creative solutions.

Investing in Success

Partnering with a marketing agency represents a sound investment in your business’s growth and triumph. By entrusting your marketing endeavors to seasoned professionals, you tap into their expertise, skills, and industry insights to generate substantial outcomes. It is vital to carefully assess your goals, budget, and agency proficiency to ensure a fruitful partnership.

Concluding Thoughts

Marketing agencies serve as pivotal catalysts for business success in the fiercely competitive digital landscape. By grasping the intricacies of marketing agency costs and spending, you can make informed decisions and craft effective marketing strategies. Whether you are contemplating your first agency partnership or reassessing existing collaborations, meticulous consideration of your objectives, budget, and the agency’s expertise will pave the way for substantial returns and long-term triumph.

THREADS: The New Way to Stay Connected with Your Closest Friends

In today’s fast-paced world, where we are constantly bombarded with notifications and messages from acquaintances and strangers, it can be challenging to stay connected with the people who truly matter to us. However, Instagram’s new app, Threads, aims to address this issue by providing a dedicated space to connect and share with our closest friends. Threads offers a streamlined approach to sharing photos, videos, and status updates, ensuring that our updates are seen by those who matter most.

Streamlined Communication:

Threads simplifies the process of staying connected with close friends by creating a designated space for interaction. Instead of scrolling through endless feeds or attempting to keep track of who has seen what, Threads allows users to curate a list of their closest friends. This ensures that updates are shared exclusively with the intended audience, fostering a more intimate and focused communication experience.

Auto Status Feature:

One standout feature of Threads is the “auto status” feature, which allows users to automatically update their closest friends about their activities. Whether you’re “on the move,” “at home,” or “in the office,” your friends can stay informed about your current situation. Additionally, the app enables users to personalize their status messages, enabling a more detailed depiction of their activities, such as “studying for finals” or “hitting the gym.” This feature enhances real-time communication and facilitates spontaneous interactions between friends.

Privacy Considerations:

Given Instagram’s affiliation with Facebook, privacy concerns may arise. However, Instagram has taken steps to address these concerns with Threads. The app is designed to be a more private and intimate space, devoid of public posts or algorithms that determine the content you see. Furthermore, all communication on Threads is end-to-end encrypted, ensuring that only you and your friends can access the shared content. This emphasis on privacy helps create a secure environment where users can comfortably share their moments with their closest circle of friends.

Enhancing Social Connections:

Threads is a valuable addition to the social media landscape, offering a distinct purpose and focusing on cultivating meaningful connections. As our lives become increasingly inundated with information and notifications, having an app dedicated to staying connected with our closest friends is refreshing. Whether you use Threads to exchange silly memes with college roommates or maintain relationships with loved ones who live far away, it becomes an essential tool for nurturing and strengthening friendships.

Conclusion:

In a digital world often characterized by superficial connections, Threads stands out as an app that prioritizes genuine friendships. By streamlining communication, offering an auto status feature, and emphasizing privacy, Instagram’s Threads facilitates intimate and authentic interactions between friends. In an era where we are constantly overwhelmed with notifications and messages, having an app specifically designed to stay connected with our closest friends is a welcome addition to our social media arsenal. Threads helps us reclaim the essence of meaningful relationships and ensures that our connections remain strong and vibrant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

<em>How Can Modern Day Disruption Pave the Way for a New Future? Ask ChatGPT and You.com</em>

How Can Modern Day Disruption Pave the Way for a New Future? Ask ChatGPT and You.com

One of the dirty little secrets in the worlds of business, technology, and just about every other industry that you can think of is that “disruption” is only a bad thing if you’re the one being disrupted.

One minute, Wall Street is cut off to everyone but the largest among us. The next, a group of savvy “nobodies” on Reddit used the Robinhood app (among others) to disrupt the entire system. With one beautifully simple move, they changed the game – likely forever. It’s time to start paying attention to others who are trying to do the same.

Case in point: ChatGPT and You.com. Both are leveraging artificial intelligence in entirely different ways, and both are poised to upend what we know about the Internet along the way.

Disruption Today Can Create a Better Tomorrow

The concept of a chatbot – that is to say, a digital service that can answer basic questions and respond conversationally the way a human might, is nothing new. They’ve been used in the customer service field for years. But ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot that only launched in November 2022, is something entirely different.

It all began innocently enough. It’s a deceptively simple tool that allows you to create original text by giving it a prompt, by asking it questions, and through other straightforward tasks. It’s easy to use, it functions essentially like a normal chatbot, and for a short time after it launched, it went largely unnoticed.

A very short time. Flash forward to today, and ChatGPT is poised to become the fastest growing mobile app in history with over 100 million monthly active users in just three months. Everyone is trying to get in on the action – to the point where Microsoft recently invested billions of dollars in the tool’s parent company, OpenAI.

Why? Because people understand that for impressive as ChatGPT already is, the surface of its full potential hasn’t even been scratched yet. Such is the nature of artificial intelligence – it gets better, smarter, and more efficient the longer it is used.

The same is true of You.com – dubbed as the “AI search engine you control.” It’s a privacy-focused search engine that, on the surface, looks a lot like Google. But rather than displaying a list of links to any query as Google does, You.com uses artificial intelligence to accurately summarize web results using various categories.

Rather than simply showing you what it thinks you want to see, as is true with other engines, You.com gives you total control over the experience. You can sort through the results, emphasizing what you want and what you don’t, all via an innovative interface that promises to never sell your data and to always put the user first and foremost.

So what do these two disruptors have in common? One factor, obviously, is artificial intelligence. But the other is that they both take concepts that were once innovative that were allowed to grow stale. They examine what works, what doesn’t and, using the power of AI, innovative the experience all over again. They used the past as a rock solid foundation upon which the future can be built.

Think about it this way: how much has life changed since Google first debuted in the 1990s? It became so synonymous with Internet search that “to Google” became a verb. But when was the last time it was truly innovative? When was the last time it pushed the envelope?

That’s exactly what both ChatGPT and You.com are attempting to do in their respective areas and, by all accounts, it very much seems to be working.

The Top Mobile App Trends to Be Aware Of For 2023 and Beyond

According to one recent study, the average American has about 80 different apps downloaded on their phone at any given moment. That makes sense, given the fact that there are an estimated 5.7 million apps on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store combined.

Steve Jobs disrupted and revolutionized a lot of things when he first walked on stage and introduced the iPhone to the world in 2007 – and the hardware itself had little to do with it. Apps have changed the way brands communicate with consumers, how people communicate with each other, and how we live our lives.

That’s why paying attention to the top mobile app trends for 2023 and beyond is so crucial. They can help give you an incredible amount of insight into just how far we’ve come… and where this all might be headed before you know it.

Essential Mobile App Trends: Breaking Things Down

Maybe the biggest trend in mobile app development for 2023 is actually contrary to why this type of software became popular in the first place.

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, desktop applications were the “Swiss Army Knives” of software. They did as many things as humanly possible, all from a single screen. Then, mobile apps debuted as a straightforward alternative. Instead of doing 100 different things moderately efficiently, they were instead dedicated to doing one thing incredibly well.

As they say, “everything old is new again” – and the era of the “Super App” may be upon us. Indeed, Super Apps are single applications that perform a variety of functions, all within the same piece of software. Sound familiar? It should.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you want your mobile app to become bloated. You never want to be looked at as a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None.” But if you can solve multiple problems for your users within a single piece of software, you should take the opportunity to do so as this is what people are looking for more and more.

2023 also looks to be the year when the marriage between mobile apps and voice technology is finally ready for prime time. People have had voice assistants like Siri on their phones for years, but recently more and more industries have started to take advantage of this to create better experiences on behalf of their users.

If you open your bank’s mobile app right now, you can send a payment to someone in a matter of minutes. Or, you could tell your voice assistant to send the payment in seconds and you don’t even have to pick up your phone to do it. You can have a voice assistant make a purchase on Amazon, send a message to your spouse, and more – all without physically interacting with your device. This, too, is a feature set that people are looking for more and more.

In the end, it’s important to acknowledge that the way we think about what a mobile app can be is constantly changing. Once upon a time, they were seen as little more than a minor convenience – a way to check your email or watch a video while on-the-go. Flash forward to today, and Reddit users literally employed the Robinhood app to disrupt just about everything we know about the stock market. That’s no longer a minor convenience – that’s a legitimate way of life.

Therefore, it’s always in your best interest to pay close attention to where things are and how far they’ve come. Once you understand why today’s trends have been able to make such an impact, you’re in a better position to anticipate where things might be going tomorrow, a year from now, and beyond. At that point, you’ll be able to get there before any of your competitors have a chance to do the same – which is a very exciting position to be in.

How Mobile Food Tracking Apps are Helping Patients Monitor Chronic Illness

As we steamroll through the age of connected living, there’s not one facet of our lives that can’t be improved via the use of a mobile app. In the past, many users would argue that tracking apps that recorded things we did would only work to disrupt our daily routines, offering little more than a glorified journal that…really didn’t do anything. 

But the mobile application has grown leaps and bounds over the last half-decade, turning into an integral part of how we manage everything. Our schedules….our social lives….our entertainment….multiple segments of our financial profiles. Everything from your mobile banking to your Robinhood App allows you to do it all, from paying your rent to optimizing your portfolio. What a time to be alive. 

The return of the food tracker

But emerging from the smoke comes a small portion of the mobile application market helping those with chronic pain better manage their conditions, accomplishing everything from minor relief to downright shifting the entire outlook of a diagnosis. 

No, it’s not WebMD or some big medical community app you’d see on Reddit with millions of members in its Sub. No, these are actually food-tracking apps. Turns out they’re more than just a show of effort for those who aren’t making progress with their fad diet. They’re tracking everything they eat..it’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle. 

No, it seems in the hands of users who really benefit from tracking what they eat, these applications are far more useful than one could have ever imagined. To be fair, some of these get pretty technical and are a far cry from the glorified notepad you downloaded in the Play Store a decade ago. Let’s check out the top examples. 

Food Diaries and Symptom Trackers

Apps that fall under these categories, like mySymptoms have proven to be invaluable for those suffering from things like IBS, GERD, celiacs, and all types of gnarly food intolerances….allergies – you name it. So what’s so special about mySymptoms? Well, this app, like others that are similar, allow users to record their medication intake, drink, food, environmental factors, stress, quality of sleep, bathroom trips, and all other. types of intrusive information in a VERY detailed log, allowing you to export it in a handful of ways. You can analyze the data yourself and get to the bottom of what’s ailing you or what has the worst effect on you – or submit it to your doctor for a more detailed analysis. It’s basically giving you the ability to do your own detailed medical study with little to no effort and actually make some headway and fix your gut problems. 

Incredible Results for Underactive Thyroid

Underactive thyroid is the leading cause of hypothyroidism, and causes a vast array of yucky, undesirable symptoms. The problem is, with this autoimmune disease – like many others of its kind, it’s difficult for doctors to provide relief or find answers because it literally affects every part of a person’s body. In the short term, we’re talking about brain fog, fatigue, and low hormone production. In the long term, though – some patients are looking at potential cases of heart disease, poor mental health, obesity, and even fertility problems – all because doctors can’t get an efficient grip on what areas to treat. 

One patient, Vedrana Högqvist Tabor, was sick of wasted doctor’s appointments and constant frustration. So she created her own app. It tracks different metrics, like the things she eats, and then it tracks symptoms by severity and medication intake. All this data is cross-referenced and given to an expert physician, and by making changes that focus on a better diet combined with decreased stress, 96% of all users of this application (BOOST Thyroid) have experienced some amazing results. 

You mean it matters what we put into our bodies? 

Finally, it seems some attention is being given to the importance of what we put into our bodies. Hopefully, as applications like this continue to change people’s lives – as a nation, maybe we’ll slowly begin to float away from the Battle of the Bulge and an all-Big Mac regimen. Maybe. 

Baby steps….

but the future does look a bit more promising thanks to these new applications that focus on the quality of what we digest. 

Colure Media is a advertising and mobile app development company in New York. We can help your organization to develop mobile app development and advertising. If you are interested, then contact us now.

What the Latest Google Algorithm Update Means For You

 According to one recent study, the vast majority of all people still find a brand for the first time in the exact same way: via a search engine. A massive 93% of all online experiences still begin that way, which is why concepts like search engine optimization are so important.

More than that, the same resource indicated that about 70% of the links that users click on when they make a search are organic. This means that while PPC (pay-per-click) advertising alongside the search results do make somewhat of an impact, they can’t match the power – or the reach – of ranking organically.

Google uses an algorithm – the mechanics of which are a closely guarded secret – to determine which pages rank highly for which terms. If you check enough of the algorithm’s proverbial boxes, your content is deemed both valuable and relevant and you rank highly as a result. If you don’t, you might appear near the bottom of the page or even on page two – which is a location that roughly 95% of all users will never reach.

So if you’re a business that wants to connect with as many new customers as possible, ranking as highly in Google as you can should always be a top priority. It’s also why it’s critical to pay attention to whenever Google updates their algorithm – as they’ve recently done once again.

The Situation With Google’s Algorithm

Again, the precise way that Google’s algorithm works tends to be kept from the public to keep people from gaming the system. It’s a little like how keyword implementation used to work in previous years.

Once people figured out that keywords mattered and that Google used them – and their volume – to determine how a page should rank, everyone began the practice of keyword stuffing. This means that the quality of the content itself didn’t matter – so long as you had the right keywords inserted into the page as many times as possible, you were virtually guaranteed to rank highly.

Once Google tried to put a stop to that practice, people got tricky. They would hide keywords on the page that were the same color as the background. Your average reader wouldn’t ever see this – but Google’s “spiders” would. Once discovered, Google updated their algorithm to put a stop to this as well, penalizing pages that practiced it in a way that saw their average traffic rates eviscerated.

Indeed, that’s why Google updates its search algorithm many times per year – in part to help provide more accurate results, and in part to try to catch people who are “cheating” their way to the top. Remember that Google makes the vast majority of its money via ad revenue, and that number is so high because it has a 90% marketshare on all searches around the world. If Google continually returns low quality or spammy links to searchers, those users will soon look for alternatives. That means ad revenue will drop.

Google doesn’t want that. Which means that you can’t want that, either.

The Recent Update: Breaking Things Down

In September, Google confirmed that it had rolled out an updated specifically related to product reviews. Essentially, Google is now “rewarding” high quality product reviews that “share in-depth research” about a brand’s products and services.

Those product reviews where someone is overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative? The ones where someone is either so happy you think they must be a bot, or so upset that they clearly aren’t recognizing that they didn’t know how to use the product and made a mistake and should be embarrassed? Those don’t matter as much anymore compared to the ones in the middle.

The product reviews that matter are the ones that include photos and videos. That provide detailed breakdowns about the benefits and disadvantages of a product. The ones that compare how something works with competing products. The kind that you’re most likely to see on a site like Reddit. The list goes on and on.

What you’re thinking is correct – your average customer or user of a mobile app like Robinhood app absolutely does not want to do any of this. They don’t have time. It’s just not a realistic idea. They have lives to lead, mortgages to pay. Kids to feed and play with. But Google, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that all of this is important. Which means that if you’re looking for an opportunity to supplant your larger competitors, you need to encourage your own customers to leave reviews that are as detailed as humanly possible.

Note that you’re also not allowed to offer them anything for free in exchange for them doing so. You need to hope that your average customer is someone with enough time on their hands to want to do this all on their own. Is this a tall order? Sure. But again – if you want to play the game, you have to play by Google’s rules. At least for the foreseeable future. 

The Top Trends for EOY 2022

Currently, we exist in the age of the trend – a world where attention spans are measured in nano-seconds. We live in a true walking contradiction in every sense of the word, where time and technology seem to be moving faster than ever before. 

There is no constant anymore, young grasshopper – there is only the trend. Honestly, we just exist in a world that’s more conducive to ideas, and innovation, with unlimited information at our fingertips. It’s a gift and a curse, but it does make for some amazing concepts – and some may actually stick. Maybe..

These are the top trends for EOY 2022..

1. Metaverse Real Estate

We’re in the age of the mobile app. First, we had Robinhood App…allowing all of us to trade, invest, and sell at the drop of a dime. Then, we ushered in the NFT.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have the Metaverse Real Estate. Reddit is rife with information and advice – and plenty of…blunt..opinions regarding this trend. 

Just so you’re up to speed – an NFT (nonfungible token) is a digital item that’s bought and housed within a virtual world or landscape. 

In the same manner, Metaverse real estate is acquired with crypto. After finalizing your purchase, you receive your deed or title – a piece of unique blockchain code. 

These transactions go through real-life property managers or brokers – seriously. Pick your metaverse platform and stake your claim – but be warned: There are no regulations, and no special certification is required. So, pick and choose wisely who you work with. 

2. EVs

Just a decade ago, EVs were still a prototype for most auto manufacturers. Now, they’re on the highways and streets of every state and city, continent and country – they’re everywhere. And apparently, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. With new legislation signed in California and other states following suit, many auto makers already have the wheels turning for plans to completely eliminate the manufacturing of fuel-powered vehicles. 

3. Selfie vs. POV

The selfie existed just fine – ruling the world of narcissism with an iron fist. There was even a selfie song. Then the selfie’s arch enemy, the POV, had to disrupt everything. In the end, it looks like there’s room for both, as the selfie is a young person’s game, and the POV is for all of us old timers over the ripe old age of 21. 

4. Permanent Remote Work

When Covid ushered in the single biggest change in our workforce in history, we’re not sure if anybody quite thought it was here to stay. But when many companies discovered the innovation it brought and other advantages – the remote worker became a permanent fixture. And it doesn’t look like it’s changing anytime soon. 

5. The Focus On Employee Wellness In the Workplace

This is another silver lining regarding the pandemic. When half the world was laid off, those who had no choice but to adapt and press forward discovered how empowered they could be as freelancers. Soon, those who had known nothing else but the hourly grind were transformed overnight into entrepreneurs – and making a pretty penny doing it. This allowed a large portion of the global workforce to collectively tell their bosses to take this job and shove it – or treat us better. And guess what? The corporate world obliged. Companies everywhere are rolling out new packages and programs that place more emphasis on employee wellness and appreciation. High five. 

6. Collaborative Technologies

With the explosion of remote workers came the sweeping deployment of collaborative technologies. Offices around the globe have left the cubicle and are currently Slacking, Microsoft Teaming, Google Workspacing, tweeting, ticking, and Zooming away. Who said the remote worker would kill the collaborative environment of most organizations? Another high five. 

7. Lead Agencies, Agency Tools, SaaS, etc. 

The fiery battle between marketers of cold, modern ad agencies, and other parties is extinguished. There is no separation of the old way and the new way – but instead a focus on the user. Just a year ago “content was king,” but now efforts are being placed on eliminating ad fatigue through unique creation, a clear message, and user intent. In other words, agencies must make good on their promises by reaching the target demographic like never before. 

Pricing and proofing aren’t the only items on the table during the initial negotiations with an agency. It’s hands-on now. We’re in the age of workshops, meetings with real experts in the field, and seminars – any way that a client can digest real knowledge and understand how their target audience is captured. Nowadays, it’s not about the bells and whistles – it’s about the relationship and the trust factor. The good guys are winning. 

8. SMS Marketing

Here’s the talk of personalization again. The balance of power has shifted to sending coupons, promotions, and messages that pull the hearts and strings of your customers. Even live conversations with “real people.” The intrusive “old way” has left the building and customers have the choice of opting out. We’re possibly in the most polite age of advertising and marketing that’s ever existed – and it’s working. 

9. Influencer Marketing

Partnering with the top influencers in your industry can expand your options to a MASSIVE pool of potential buyers. Just how big is influencer marketing? Try to the tune of $13 BILLION just since 2021. That’s a hell of a “trend.” But a new trend has emerged within a trend – the micro-influencer. Instead of hundreds of thousands of followers companies are leaning to influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers – and gaining a more intimate experience…and no doubt reaping the benefits. 

10. TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts

In the battle for capturing the minds of audiences with the shortest attention spans, the short-form video content battle is being waged between the behemoths of the industry – TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts. So far, TikTok seems to be winning. Now we also have IG Reels emerging as a third participant. Moving into 2023, it will be interesting to see which platform consumers, advertisers, and creators gravitate towards. This could get ugly. 

Colure Media is a New York based advertising and marketing agency. We can help your corporation gain exposure and increase revenue. If you are interested in exploring various marketing possibilities for your corporation, Contact us now.

What are you reading? The most essential resources for a disruptive founder today

So, you want to disrupt the world with your mobile app. But like all things, disruption and entrepreneurship occur on the shoulders of giants. Steve Jobs didn’t come up with the iPhone on his own. He took things that were already popular and made them better. 

Life isn’t always about innovation. Often, it’s about implementation. You identify best-in-class technologies and find opportunities to apply them. And you do that by knowing what’s going on. Let’s take a look at some essential resources for a disruptive founder today.

Mainstream Periodicals: Let’s Get It Out of the Way

Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes — you should read them all. But be aware that once something’s in a mainstream periodical, its time has expired. In the old days, investors used to say: “The best time to invest in a stock is before your Aunt Sally is talking about it.” The same applies.

Still, these mainstream periodicals are critically important because they provide insights into the general zeitgeist is thinking. Mainstream periodicals will tell you what people are already talking about. It’s your job to be ahead of the curve.

And there’s always the exception. Did you know that Zuck was talking about the Metaverse since 2014?

Innovation and Tech: Futurism, MIT Technology Review, and Wired

Frequently, new technology breaks quietly. There are one or two articles on an advanced, open-source machine learning platform… and then silence for literally years. Tech frequently develops unevenly. You bring radio to the internet before internet speeds have caught up to streaming. We’ve understood the principles of artificial intelligence and machine learning for decades, but it’s only recently that cloud technology has advanced to the point where it’s feasible.

So, new technology is an opportunity to grow. And it’s not always obvious what will or won’t be critical. Look for the trends under them; if you’re starting to see things pop up in multiple talk spaces, then it’s probably important.

Podcasts: Masters of Scale, The Week in Startups, Mixergy, and The Growth Show

You know what? There are thousands upon thousands of podcasts targeted toward entrepreneurs. But these are some best. Whether riding the bus to your Silicon Valley day job or going for a stroll in your suburb, listening to the opinions of experienced founders will help. 

These podcasts give you a good mix of inspiring startup stories, current news, and actionable tips for growth. Don’t ignore the importance of inspiration. Podcasts are uniquely inspiring: they are designed to keep you going, thinking, and innovating.

Books: The Startup Owner’s Manual, Who, Zero to One, and Leading at the Speed of Growth

Read books, whether you’re listening to them in the car or reading them on your Kindle. In particular, Zero to One (by Peter Thiel) encapsulates the startup experience from someone who’s lived it. But don’t forget that there’s a lot of survivorship bias out there. Just as you should read information about those who succeeded, you should also read information about those who failed. 

Some other critical books include Why Startups Fail, Build, and How to Ruin Your Life by 30. If you prepare for the worst you can move toward the best.

Entrepreneurship Means a Lifetime of Learning

Don’t stop there.

You want to create the next Reddit or Robinhood app. It starts with learning more — about everything. If you never stop learning and never stop thinking, you can keep innovating. Be open to new ideas and be willing to learn from anyone.

Which Startups Are Resilient to Recession?

A downturn doesn’t destroy startups. Rather, it separates the startups that are in recession-proof arenas from the startups that didn’t think about the economy at all. Silicon Valley is no longer a pinata full of cash; you can’t just take a whack and bleed green. You need to be thoughtful about your enterprises. Well-run companies will thrive. The others will perish.

Lean it up

Strip your tech, drop your weight. Startups that were getting fat need to lean it down; they need to pare down to the barebones now. Now is not the time for rapid expansion or hyper-scaling. It’s time for hunkering down and building real muscle. Start cutting areas that you can cut while still retaining your core technology, talent, and identity. You don’t want to be the people scrambling to pick up talent later, but you also don’t want a thousand excessive tools and utilities that you really don’t need during a time when you can’t build strong scale.

Build homes, not castles

Focus on the major pain points of companies and create technologies that they need. Okay, a decade ago, you could make millions solving some minor “problem” that a company had or giving them some luxuries that they didn’t want. But now you have to concentrate on the issues they have. And they’re going to have a lot of problems. Think about what’s going to happen to people when the economy crashes? How can you help them lean it up themselves?

Learn from success

Hey, Amazon’s doing great isn’t it? Walmart, Amazon, anyone who sells stuff online, really. But who isn’t doing great? Oh, Facebook, Twitter… social media. It turns out that during a recession, companies that don’t produce anything of value don’t do great. Take a look at the companies that are posting record profits during these recessions. It has to do with the technologies that are making it easier for people to survive during a recession, doesn’t it?

Make less go further

Don’t just lean. Think about what you can do to grow your client base from within. Think re-selling, re-targeting, re-marketing, rather than raw expansion. What other problems can you solve for your customers? How can you help them succeed? Their success is your success, after all. It’s easier to sell to people who already love you. And, as Amazon has discovered, clients are more likely to stay onboard if they rely on you for multiple things. How many people still have Amazon Prime because they don’t want to lose Prime Video or Prime Music?

Look to the debt/credit/finance industry

And finally, look, it’s a raw deal, but the reality is the industry that’s gonna be doing great is in debt, credit, and finance. At minimum, diversify your interests. Fintech booms when deals go bad, and there’s no way around that. Forge partnerships within industries that are going to last. The real estate bubble, for instance, might crash, sure; but it’s not going away.

Alright, so you’re on your way to building a mobile app to disrupt—which industry? Choose a lean one. A recession doesn’t have to stop your startup in its tracks, but you’re doing it wrong if it isn’t changing at least some of what you’re doing. 

Geotargeting & Geofence Marketing: How a small company can disrupt a big market

Geotargeting & Geofence Marketing: How a small company can disrupt a big market

If you feel like social media and online marketing is shouting into the void, you’re really not alone. Many small, local businesses are told to invest in online advertising and mobile marketing only to discover that it’s really not effective for them.

Imagine if you advertised your company to every 10,000th person on earth. How many of those people would actually be able to use your products or services? Probably none of them. There are a lot of people on earth and there are a lot of people online.

Geotargeting and geofence marketing focus on hyper-local leads — so you can stop shouting and start earning.

Connect to the Customers Closest to You

It’s the customers that are closest to you that you want to connect with. It’s better to connect with 50 people in your neighborhood than 5,000 people across the world. And it’s cheaper, too. When you connect with customers close to you, you greatly enhance the viability and effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. 

How Does Geotargeting/Geofencing Work?

Geotargeting/geo fencing works by identifying where customers are inside of a broader, third-party advertising network. For instance, Google Ads shows throughout the world but can show your ads only to those who are in your vicinity. Geotargeting is broad; it just means that you’re sending your ads to those who are in your country, state, city, or even zip code.

Geo-fencing is a little different. Geo-fencing specifically defines an area, such as an area that is located in a highly-trafficked region around your business. Once individuals are inside this area, they are targeted. Geo-fencing can be used to deliver ads through PoS systems within your neighborhood, for instance, or to send ads to phones and other devices detected in your region.

The Advantages of Geotargeting

Really, the advantages of geotargeting are clear. You can spend $100 to connect with 5,000 people in the world or $10 to connect with 50 people in your area. It’s cost-effective and far more useful.

But it also enhances public perception of your brand, as you’re no longer trying to reach out to individuals who wouldn’t be interested in your advertising to begin with. Geofence marketing creates more relevant, useful advertising, as well as more profitable strategies.

Implementing a Geotargeting Campaign Strategy

To implement a geotargeting campaign strategy, you (obviously) need to know where your customers are. There are third-party ad platforms like Google and Bing, but their usefulness will actually be vanishing shortly; action is being taken to reduce third-party tracking cookies.

There are two better options: social media marketing and third-party behavioral targeting databases. Social media marketing works because individuals already provide where they live to the social media platform. Even better, they provide information such as whether they’re married, whether they have children, and even where they work and where they went to school.

Third-party databases seek to identify consumers based on their behavior and contextual information without the help of cookies or files stored on the user’s device. These third-party geotargeted databases are likely to grow dramatically once cookies become ineffective for geofence marketing.

Summary

With the right geofence marketing, your company can focus all its efforts on advertising directly to the people who are closest to you. When they look at their phone or check their email in your location, they’ll get information that relates to your business. If they’re halfway across the world, they won’t.

But this type of advertising and mobile marketing really does require that you use the right technology. Social media marketing provides some of this targeting, but mobile marketing is about to get a lot more challenging.

What is the Law of Diminishing Returns in advertising? If your mobile app marketing, or ecommerce campaign is no longer hitting your KPI thresholds it maybe time……

What is the Law of Diminishing Returns in advertising? If your mobile app marketing, or ecommerce campaign is no longer hitting your KPI thresholds it maybe time……

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle: 20 percent of anything will yield 80 percent of your results. It’s a general rule of thumb for anything. 20 percent of your employees will do 80 percent of the work. 20 percent of your customers will make up 80 percent of your sales. And 20 percent of your advertising spend may make up 80 percent of your revenue brought in.

The Law of Diminishing Returns is similar.

Under the Law of Diminishing Returns, investments and returns don’t have a one-to-one relationship. Rather, your returns start to drop off at a certain point. Your returns plateau; once you’ve hit the peak, every subsequent dollar you spend may gain you nothing at all.

And that’s why you can sometimes throw money at a strategy over and over and just not get the results that you desire. 

Let’s take a further look at the Law of Diminishing Returns — and how to disrupt it.

Caring is a Finite Resource: The Law of Diminishing Returns

Consider this: You’re a florist. You sell bouquets. You have about 10,000 people in your town — and you’ve got about $100 in media buying budget. You decide to send out mailers.

So, you spend $100 to send out 10,000 mailers. 500 people respond and purchase $10 bouquets; you make $5,000. That’s a great ROI!

Why not try it again?

You send out another 10,000 mailers. This time, 250 people respond and purchase $10 bouquets; you make $2,500. That’s still great ROI, but it’s significantly less.

Next time, only 50 people respond. And the next time, only 25. Your strategy hasn’t changed. But the audience you’re marketing to has been saturated. You’re getting diminishing returns because there are fewer and fewer people who are interested.

Now, you’re a little smarter. You decide to send 10,000 mailers to the next town over. But you still don’t get 500 people — you get 300. Why? Because the first audience set was your ideal audience — they’re in the area. Now you’re moving to people farther away who are less likely to spend. So you’re still getting diminishing returns.

This doesn’t mean that you’re always going to be doing poorly. Eventually, that first batch of 500 people who responded are going to be in the market for flowers again. But it does mean that your initial strategies can often do better than follow-up attempts, for a variety of reasons.

(But let’s disrupt a little. Consider if this time you spent $50 of your media buying budget on mailers and $50 on digital advertising instead. You might be able to take advantage of both with less saturation.)

Let’s take a look at another example: You have a company that does mobile app development. You spend $25,000 on paid digital advertising and you make $125,000 in sales. Then you spend $100,000 on paid digital advertising. Do you make $500,000 in sales?

Probably not. Your audience is probably already saturated, so the same people are seeing your ads multiple times rather than new people being connected with each time.

And that’s the Law of Diminishing Returns: the first $25,000 you spend may have substantially greater results than the last $25,000 you spend.

You’ve Plateaued: Detecting the Law of Diminishing Returns in Your Advertising

How can you determine whether you’re hitting the Law of Diminishing Returns?

As our VP of New Product Clifton Pierce stated, “In terms of advertising, the Law of Diminishing Returns only applies if the advertiser isn’t truly paying attention.” It’s pretty easy as long as you’re reliably tracking your metrics. You should see that the more energy you’re putting into something, the weaker results you’re getting. If everything else remains equal about your strategies, then it should be easy to see that you’re pumping money into the Law of Diminishing Returns.

That isn’t always a bad thing. Think back to the florist. Even though the florist is getting diminishing returns, they’re still getting returns. As long as your ROI is positive, your advertising is still being effective. It’s more a question of whether your advertising is being as effective as it can be.

Rob Palumbo CEO at OutPoint, splits everything into the Most Productive Zone, Diminishing Returns Zone, and Negative Returns Zone. From there, he is able to better determine the right course of action for each marketing channel.

With mobile app marketing, you might see that your mobile app installs have slowed. But that doesn’t actually mean that it isn’t bringing you in revenue.

And, of course, understanding the Law of Diminishing Returns is critical when you’re doing your cash flow projections. You should never assume that you’re going to get identical results from the same expense outlay; that’s just too optimistic.

Can There Be a Law of Increasing Returns?

Of course, not everyone believes in the Law of Diminishing Returns. Jonathan Ivanco says, “There is no such thing as the law of diminishing returns, it’s lazy marketers that don’t understand what goes into real advertising and marketing.”But Richard Heinberg points out that the Law of Diminishing Returns applies to everything, including civilizations — generally in reference to the abundance of resources available.

In the examples given, returns started to diminish immediately because saturation had been met. But in real life, it usually takes some time to reach that saturation point. Usually you’ll see increasing returns, a plateau, and then diminishing returns. And diminishing returns really means you need to move on to other strategies; hence Ivanco’s statement that it relates to lazy marketing.

But is it possible to grow exponentially? Is it possible to continue to see better and better returns?

There are very few advertising campaigns that will never plateau or that will never start going downhill.  You will always need to steadily invest more if you want to continue getting the same results. And it’s not always money you’re investing. With social media advertising, for instance, you’re usually investing time.

But it is possible to have a very significant ramp up.

Look at influencer marketing, social media marketing, and other types of traditional marketing disruption. Companies are able to exponentially grow and continue to grow; they have such broad appeal they don’t meet saturation. With new realms like augmented reality and virtual reality coming, there are new opportunities for brand development and product development.

So, the Law of Diminishing Returns doesn’t always have to be a law; there can be exceptions. But they are rare ones.

Using the Law of Diminishing Returns to Your Advantage

Realistically, what does the Law of Diminishing Returns mean? It means that you’ve done the best you can at a certain technique. Mobile Marketing? Mailers? Email lists? Social media? You’ve peaked, baby. I mean, it’s all downhill from there. But you’ve done as good a job as you can — and now it’s time to move on.

If you’re struggling with the Law of Diminishing Returns right now, you’re throwing good money after bad. You’re probably spending $25,000 in paid advertising to generate 90 percent of your results and another $25,000 for that last 10 percent.

That’s great news.

Because that means that you can take that $25,000 that you’re using in digital advertising and generate even better results elsewhere.

Ultimately, the Law of Diminishing Returns just means that it’s time to try something different. It’s a way to show that you’ve capped out on what you can get (for now) from a certain advertising technique, strategy, or channel. And that’s an exceptionally valuable thing to know.

Advertising is a wild arena. It’s always changing. The strategies that work today have no guarantee of working tomorrow. You need to be able to identify your key metrics, track them reliably, and pivot when you can. By studying things like the Law of Diminishing Returns, you can become more astute at recognizing the signs — and more confident and competent at reacting to it. Here at Colure, we know that the success of our agency is built upon the success and growth of your business. Contact Colure’s Advertising Advisors today to make sure you have a balanced Go To Market Advertising Campaign for your next project or to be interviewed and featured in our next series of “Project Venus”. Let’s grow!

What is IDFA? Can Apple Disrupt the Advertising Industry? And Why is Facebook Afraid of the IDFA changes?

What is IDFA? Can Apple Disrupt the Advertising Industry? And Why is Facebook Afraid of the IDFA changes?

Why does Mark Zuckerberg want to inflict pain on Apple? 

Apple’s making some significant changes to IDFA, the utility that app developers use to get information about who someone is. Understandably, some consumers take issue with being tracked. But IDFA is essential to the way that a lot of advertising works.

Advertisers aren’t going to be able to target audiences as effectively once Apple initiates its changes; they’ll have to ask customers to provide access. 

So, Apple could really disrupt Facebook, because Facebook isn’t really in the social media industry; it’s in the advertising industry. Facebook makes most of its money through ads and the less effective ads are, the less money it will make. But Facebook is not the only company that will be disrupted it will ripple through the whole advertising industry. We reached out to Ankit Minocha at Shop2App to get his thoughts on if he thinks IDFA trend will disrupt the advertising industry, and he stated “It certainly will, what this is doing is putting all players, small or big, on a level field. Because there’s a big unanswered question of what percentage of people are going to opt-out of that data privacy pop-ups, it’s hard to say how extensive this change is going to be.”

Advertisers will have until mid-Spring 2021 to adjust to these changes. With location sharing being more opt-in, the effectiveness of ads can go down considerably. Even if ads are able to target audiences they may not be able to track their success.

Google in response to the pressure from Apple has announced similar changes, as reported by Wired that they will be phasing out third-party cookies from its Chrome browser by 2022. These IDFA and Cookie changes are both beneficial for the end user’s privacy, bit it radically changes the way advertisers and apps have historically worked.

Ultimately, the fact is that users are becoming more concerned about security and more wary about sharing data. Users are increasingly eschewing services like Google in favor of Duck Duck Go, to improve their own security and anonymity online. This represents significant disruption in how advertisers will function.

The success of our agency is built upon the success and growth of our clients. Contact Colure’s Mobile App Development Team to discuss your next project or to be interviewed and featured in our next series of “Project Venus”.

Mobile App Marketing With Indexing & Deep-linking

Mobile App Marketing With Indexing & Deep-linking

Mobile search has been transformed from a simple search of the Internet’s content to an index that includes downloadable mobile applications into the results. The evolution is called mobile app indexing. Although Google introduced app indexing in 2013, businesses are only now realizing the advantages it produces. The benefits of app indexing do not only pertain to businesses, but to the entire marketplace, especially mobile users. As the awareness and understanding of app indexing increases, the installation of apps by businesses and users will skyrocket.

In prior years, the results of a Google search (via a mobile device) would primarily be a list of recommended website links. Due to the introduction of app indexing, the results will now include suggested applications pertaining to the search terms. Just as users can click on and connect to a web page link, users can also launch the app directly from the results page if that app has been installed on the device prior to the search. However, if the app is not downloaded onto the device, there will be an option to install the app to receive the desired content. This addition opens up a whole new and innovative way of mobile searching.

If your business does not have an app, it may be smart to adopt one, if you have a valid need. If your business does have an app, make indexing a priority. Since the majority of businesses have not yet adopted app indexing, this act will immediately set you apart from the competition. Now is the best time to take advantage of the numerous opportunities and benefits mobile app indexing will generate for your business. Advantages of app indexing include an increase in customer loyalty, app installations, and user traffic. Additionally, your business will become more visible to the eye of the user through the presence of the app on the results page.

For mobile users, app indexing has created an improved and advanced search experience. The indexing of both websites and apps broadens search results. The expansion of search potential will result in an increase in the amount of useful information that can be utilized by the mobile user. Not only a development in marketing for businesses, app indexing is also a way for mobile users to access information more effectively and efficiently. To help you define your mobile app indexing experience, contact Colure’s project management team. 

Geofencing in mobile applications

Geofencing in mobile applications

Allowing a mobile device to recognize environmental elements can truly make an application dynamic. Because consumers live and breathe by their mobile devices, having environment-awareness available in mobile devices keeps users on their toes and engaged in their environment. This concept is called geofencing, also known as context awareness. 

Awareness of their physical environment for mobile applications brings more depth and attractiveness to an application’s user experience or UX. It engages the user by sending individually tailored data to their phone based on their geographical location. This plays a critical role in executing in-app mobile marketing and mobile app retargeting campaigns. 

Context awareness is a property used in mobile devices to identify where the user is using an application and how that might affect what the user is doing,” – Matt Carver at Bigspaceship.

In a context-aware environment, wireless devices such as environmental sensors, radio frequency identification tags, and smartphones send location, presence and other status information across the network. Specialized software captures, stores and analyzes the data, sending it back over the network to provide context to the end device as needed,” – Computer World. Having a mobile device react to its environment and offer advertising suggestions in terms of retail therapy or even a coffee shop facilitates the needs of each user.

Goals of context awareness

The ultimate goal of a context-aware system is for the system to arrive at a representation of the surrounding world that is close to the perception of the user,” – Interaction Design Foundation.

The layering of data allows the use of time of day and GPS coordinates to create a customized, ever-changing source of space and time relevant content for the consumer. They might provide breakfast suggestions in the morning, clothing suggestions relevant to elevation and weather, and locations for cocktails in the evening.

Geofencing is the ability for a mobile device to pinpoint the context of the user’s geographical location. “Context-aware applications look at the who’s, where’s, when’s and what’s (that is, what the user is doing) of entities and use this information to determine why the situation is occurring,” – GA Tech.

Challenges of context awareness

Mobile devices allow consumers to always be connected to the world around them. These connections can have difficulties. Computer World sheds light on challenges involving context awareness. One challenge of context awareness is privacy issues. Because context awareness uses data from the mobile device as well as environmental data, data breaches can occur. Being able to balance the security risks against the rewards is something that will be answered in time.

Geofencing is an interesting feature for mobile devices and applications. This functionality advances the capabilities of the smartphone for the specific user’s advantage. By having a more dynamic experience with your mobile device, it is no wonder that consumers fill every moment of the day looking at their phone. Advertisers and marketers will continue to take advantage of this desire for customized content and hyper focus audience targeting.

Vital customer engagement (or how not to leave your customers at the door)

Vital customer engagement (or how not to leave your customers at the door)

Customer engagement (CE) is the living and breathing relationship that exists between a customer and a company. This critical relationship is a critical factor that helps to determine the success or failure of a company. The challenge to every business is that almost all buyers have different needs and wants. Consumers aren’t unanimous, even within similar demographics. There are different ages, lifestyles, ethnic backgrounds, etc. There’s an excellent chance that the motivating factors for one middle-aged customer may differ significantly from another. It’s incredibly important for a business to operate with their customer base as individuals.

So how do we go about the act of engaging a client? Here’s a few starting points to orient your mobile app marketing and digital advertising efforts:

  • An engagement marketing strategy is crucial. How will your company reach out to potential customers? How will you respond to their inquiries? Detailed analytics are necessary to help answer these questions. Actively learning about a customer’s lifestyles, rather than lumping people together based on a singular demographic. Remember, numbers are cold, your customers are real people. Think of them in that fashion. The more accurate and detailed your customer database is, the stronger foundation you will have for engagement.
  • Learn to predict consumer behavior. When looking at the unique lifestyle of your consumers, where can you see areas where they can benefit from your service or product? Big-box retailers like Walmart and Target do so by using data mining to notice trends in purchases. Walmart used data mining and discovered that Strawberry Pop-tart sales increased sevenfold before a hurricane in southern states. The reaction? Place Strawberry Pop-tarts at the cashier area of a store. More exposure to the pop-tarts increases sales even more. In the end, all parties benefit. Walmart and Kellogg’s experience increased sales, while customers have an emergency food source in case of natural disasters.
  • The benefits of customer engagement are limitless. Customer retention is critical. Customers can see the value in a company that puts the effort into satisfying their customer base. Satisfied clients can be the most powerful form of marketing. The family and friends of current customers are potential future customers. Nothing is more valuable than a recommendation from peer-to-peer. One survey even concluded that 92% of customers trust peer recommendations, compared to 47% trusting TV or magazine ads.

Customer engagement is beneficial, if not necessary, to a company’s success. Perhaps one of the most satisfying aspects of customer engagement is the company-client relationships built upon it. Increasing interaction cultivates and grows these relationships. Knowing that your company makes a positive difference in the life of your customers is a huge reward.

If you are interested in exploring various marketing possibilities for your business, Contact us now.

Content is the core of all media

Content is the core of all media

Business Basics

A brand’s voice and personality depend on the type of content used to craft that image. How you decide to manage that content is intimately involved in every step of the purchase decision-making process. It is the most stable mechanism for a brand promotion.

Customer engagement, which is a strong predictor of company growth and brand loyalty, is built by providing value to the consumer. This action is most often achieved through value, usually achieved through useful content. “Emotional engagement is far more important to consumers than promotional content,” thus making the quality of the content the main factor in its success.

A reputation…is it owned or earned?

While everyone recognizes the role of content in owned and earned media, it’s harder to determine if the content has a place in paid media or if paid media is rendering content useless. Owned, earned, and paid media sources are almost always used together in unison. They’re used to build off each other, but they have key differences worth elaborating.

Owned Media refers to all channels that a company manages and curates, like websites, blogs, and social media. Its main strength is the control it gives a company over their brand image. Its main weakness is its limited reach—though 89% of marketers are using social media around 16% of Facebook fans see the brand’s content on their newsfeed.

Earned Media includes all mentions of a brand on third-party channels. Sometimes referred to as organic advertising, search engine optimization and mobile app store optimization. It is the shared, the reviewed and the viral. Its main weakness, that of having no control over what is being said when, is counteracted by its main strength, the power of word-of-mouth to influence people’s decisions. The skepticism people have when viewing ads is equivalent to the trust that comes from another person’s recommendation.

Paid Media is comprised of all of the advertisements that you have paid. These include Adwords, sponsorships, and content written by others for a fee. Many times, this can appear as sponsored items, appearing in a news channel feed. Another name is “native advertising”. It is expensive, yet, far-reaching. This is a highly targetable resource. While many have frowned upon it, paid media is important to a marketing campaign because, without it, your best content might remain hidden. It is not a replacement for “true content”, but it is a valuable tool in taking owned media and pushing it to possibly blurring the line toward earned media. Competition online has made it hard to sift through information on the basis of interest alone and paid media allows one to place an ad before eyes who are searching for it.

At the core of all three strategies lies content. It is content that draws people to your website. It is content that makes people want to talk about your brand and share it with their friends. And it is content that keeps people engaging with ads even when they’re savvy enough to recognize and avoid them. Paid media will reach an audience, but it will rarely keep them watching more than they have to.

Content is what makes consumers say, “Wow, I didn’t even know that was an ad for something!” Questions for the ad industry become “Where do we draw the line between advertising and content?” and “How visible do we make that line?”

Exploring a complementary user experience

Exploring a complementary user experience

An excellent user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) is necessary in today’s interconnected world. In our lives, it’s common for users to use multiple smart devices in multiple environments. As users move between devices, it makes sense to transfer a user’s UX across those platforms. An example of this type of event may start by watching a Netflix movie on your living room television. After a while, you get up and continue watching that film on a laptop in the garage while you work on the lawnmower. That singular experience is maintained through different environments and platforms.

The key is providing a seamless UX within a user’s network. Each device becomes an extension of that network; each is a compliment for the other devices in that network. A complementary user experience allows for mobile applications and experiences to intermingle across these platforms. The true essence of the event is found in the experience, not the network.

Mobile gaming apps are another type of application that can benefit from complementary designs. SMHK Funklab’s game Padracer uses an iPhone as a steering wheel and an iPad as a racetrack. Extra iPads can be added to the game as well. The creativity behind Padracer led to its success as one of the first mobile games with a complementary design.

There are two main types of complementary designs: collaboration and control. In a collaborative design, two different devices have different functions. Padracer falls into this category. Control designs allow for one device to remotely control the other which typically serves the main function. An example of this would be using your smartphone to switch the song playing off Spotify from your laptop. Devices in the complementary ecosystem can also fall into two categories: must-have or nice-to-have. A must-have device is required for the app to function. In the case of Padracer, an iPad and iPhone are must-have devices that are necessary to use the app. Additional iPads add to the experience but aren’t required. These extra devices fall under the nice-to-have category.

A complementary design can unlock endless options for a business to provide an enriched experience for app users. More and more companies are discovering how a complementary UI/UX can lead to company growth. A study by AppDynamics discovered that 65% of people have very high expectations for app performance. Additionally, 30% of customers would spend more money on a company with a good app. If your business uses a mobile app, consider how multiscreen compatibility could boost your user experience.

Explore consumer-generated content

Explore consumer-generated content

There is probably no greater assurance in life than that of human testimony. Seeing someone provide support for a product or service may be all you need to make a final purchase decision. If you take a look around, user-generated content is everywhere. Content created by actual consumers is becoming the go-to method to increase customer loyalty. The first-person narrative is quickly becoming a primary marketing channel.

This technique, coupled with the growth and effectiveness of social media interaction, is a deadly combination. This method gives businesses the ability to pass the brand-building responsibilities to the consumer. The purchase cycle begins with the customer and ends with another client. Why create external content when original user-generated content is available?

This new advantage leans on the customer’s interest to hear more views of people who were once in their position. The direction selected by those and have had a positive outcome with a particular product or service.

The more convincing a user can be in their first-person content, the more enriching the experience will be for the customer who is receiving that message. Satisfaction can come from a picture filled with joy & commitment, a story with an excellent description, or an experience filled with uncontrollable emotion. Comfort can come in many forms, as long as it is a testimony that inspires your users to investigate an innocent way to brand your business. Close to 60% of retailers and 61% of brands are using consumer-generated content in their social media campaigns. The most efficient campaigns focus on these five principles:

  • They concentrate on the basics
  • They stay in it for the long run
  • They listen to the customer
  • They let the customers share their story
  • They allow everyone to be a stakeholder

86% of millennials say that user-generated content is a good indication of the quality of a brand. Let’s help each other and share the experience.

If you need guidance to cross that bridge from one customer to the next, contact our Development Team.

Voice activated digital components (AKA – digital assistants)

Voice activated digital components (AKA – digital assistants)

The recent developments in voice activated technologies have opened the door for explosive growth in the realm of digital interaction between humans and machines. Technology platforms across the board have embraced user control activated by voice commands. Individuals can ask their phone any question and a response will be given. The voice recognition by the operating system is as valid a command input as that from a computer keyboard. These developments created the birth of the ‘digital assistant.’

With the sound of your voice, random data can be searched, reminders can be given about certain events on your mobile calendar, requests become completed actions. Convenience for the user plays a huge factor: it is easier to talk to your phone than to type on it.

The range and depth of these computer responses are impressive. Joe Hindy, The Android App Guy on Youtube, posted an interesting side-by-side comparison of three frontline voice activated platforms – Siri, Google Now, and Cortana. It’s not a perfect demonstration, but it clearly demonstrates how the competing products perform.

Siri

When Siri was introduced in 2011 on the iPhone 4S, it was a sensation.  Back then, PCMag described this new technology “Siri is a speech-recognition computer application. It has both speech input and output, meaning you can speak to it, and it can speak back to you.”  Prior to Siri being introduced as part of the operating system, a voice-activated app was available at the Apple App Store. The technologies were focused on a specific market share, those who may have had difficulties working with a smartphone. The function was similar to Siri but had nowhere near the capabilities of the current Siri. That company was acquired by Apple, and the mobile app was pulled from the App Store. Later, that same technology emerged as the Apple tool we now call “Siri.” It was a cool new addition that Apple built into its iPhones. From then on, it has become a staple of the iPhone user experience.

Google Now

In 2013, Google Now was created.  This program is Google’s answer to the virtual assistant. Google Now “can answer questions like Siri and search the web, but more importantly, it cannot only assist, but pre-empt your requirements using your calendar, email, historic behaviours, and location.” quoted from Koozai.com. Google Now is like an upgraded version of Siri.

Cortana

In 2014, Cortana for Windows Phone 8.1 was introduced.  Cortana is a Halo-inspired personal assistant.  It is Microsoft’s answer to Siri and Google Now.  What started for the Windows Phone is now on every desktop using the Windows 10 operating system.  “Cortana is powered by Bing, and can perform many of the functions one has come to expect from artificial intelligence-style assistants, such as setting reminders and powering vocal updates to one’s calendar” – CNET.

Amazon Echo

Also, in 2014 was the unveiling of Amazon Echo.  Amazon Echo is an at the home tower and  “lives as a piece of hardware, not just a layer of software available through a mobile device. It has built-in speakers and lets users sample and purchase music as well as stream that music on demand,” according to CNET.  Amazon is trying to make a statement with Echo by offering this virtual personal assistant.

“A June 2014 study by Thrive Analytics found that over half of US adult smartphone users (56%)” use their voice-activated assistants. – Emarketer.

The Future is Now

Millennials will continue to drive the use of virtual personal assistants and will be the deciding factor on whether this trend will stick or be a bust. The digital stage has been set to respond to the sound of our voice. Interaction with a digital assistant is now part of our daily routine. How that interaction is crafted will depend upon the minds of the users and dreams of mobile app developers.

Click-through rates

Click-through rates

Click-Through Rates (CTR) are one of the most important pieces of data for measuring the success of your advertisements, but it can be confusing to interpret the numbers and apply them appropriately to your mobile app marketing and advertising campaign. Here’s a breakdown of what a CTR is and how you can maximize its use:

What is a click-through rate?

A CTR is the number of clicks that a pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement gets for every number of impressions (views). In essence, it tells you how many times your advertisement is viewed before someone clicks on it.

Why do click-through rates matter?

A higher CTR ultimately leads to lower costs for advertising. Google and other search engine platforms commonly offer lower prices for ads that offer a higher relevance to search engine users. Google, for example, determines the cost based on your Quality Score. The higher your quality score, the less you have to pay for a PPC advertisement.

How do click-through rates work?

What makes a CTR “good” really depends on your industry and the ad’s position, but overall, Google AdWords has an average CTR of 1.91% for search network and 0.35% for display network. With this in mind, your CTR should be as high as possible while still maintaining relevance.

How can I increase my click-through rate?

  • Use targeted keywords. If a keyword isn’t relevant to your business, it could end up costing more money than it’s worth because your ad is leading to click-throughs but not conversions.
  • Use visual content. Images and video boost engagement. In fact, research shows that using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts click-through rates by 65%.
  • Offer freebies. Consumers love free stuff, so promoting an offer like a significant discount off the price of a product is likely to increase CTR.

Click-through rates are used as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI), used to evaluate performance against the market competition. It allows for an apples-to-apples comparison. Numbers can be tricky sometimes. To understand those numbers, it’s important to see your company’s marketplace performance from another angle.

Colure Media is New yok based advertising and digital marketing agency. We can help your business to grow and increase your websites CTR. If you want to discuss your business marketing and advertsing needs and budget, then contact us Now.

Push notifications, how they drive engagement in mobile apps

Push notifications, how they drive engagement in mobile apps

An ever-growing mobile audience is challenging the mechanisms needed for marketers to interact with the audience’s fluid movement. Desktop Marketing finds itself struggling to keep up with the quick pace and instantaneous engagement on mobile devices. Despite the statistic that desktop still accounts for 42% of internet time. Web push notifications, also known as browser push notifications, are a new channel of marketing that brings the personalization of the mobile medium to the desktop.

Web push notifications are pop-up messages from a website that, when clicked, send the user to a specific link (for example, a new blog post). They’re not the same thing as web notifications, which are active only on an open web page. Instead, web push acts much like mobile application notifications, which are initiated only when the user gives permission to receive them. After the user gives permission, the company can send push notifications at any time, even if the website isn’t open in the browser.

A clean example of this is when a newspaper can notify its readers about the content of the most recently posted story. This immediate interaction helps to provide additional context to the story at hand.

Unlike the more common medium of email marketing, web push allows websites to engage users without having their contact information. Users are more likely to opt-in to the push notifications because they’re generally less invasive and make it easier to unsubscribe. Research has shown that less than 10% of users who opt-in for web push notifications unsubscribe within a year. This is despite the ease of opting out.

These are not the only benefits to using web push notifications:

  • Web push notifications deliver immediately to users, eliminating the possibility of being sent to a spam folder, like email.
  • Web push notifications have conversion rates 30 times that of email.
  • Push notifications are less content-heavy (generally between 40-120 characters) and better appeal to the shortened attention span of the consumer audience.
  • Web push offers the benefit of mobile app push notifications without investing money in developing an app.

Web push is supported by Safari 7.0.3, Chrome 42, and Mozilla Firefox. The channel continues to grow, pushing email marketing to the wayside and offering companies a more direct and concise avenue of communication with consumers. While there is yet to be much research on the direct success rate of websites using web push notifications, it is expected that it will be close to that of push notifications in mobile apps, which boost engagement by a notable 88%.

Web push notifications allow for a low-profile and noninvasive way to communicate with customers. Its low cost makes it a great investment for small and medium-sized businesses, so we can expect it to be on the uprise within the coming years.

Explore a mobile app “Test Market Campaign”

Explore a mobile app “Test Market Campaign”

The development of a mobile application is a significant event for any corporation, team, or individual. As the app approaches its final stages of development, there is a tremendous temptation to rush that nifty new mobile application directly into the hands of consumers. Before that action, the product owner should ask one critical question: “Are we ready?”

A critical path to confirm the app’s market viability is to conduct a test market campaign. Establishing reliable numbers allows the development team to understand what is functional and what is lacking. A market analysis provides insight to what you don’t know about the marketplace.

Within the test market campaign, individual goals should be established on a timeline, and if those goals aren’t met, the company needs to be prepared to go back to the drawing board. An active test marketing campaign will answer many new questions, some of the benefits include the following:

  1. Seeing if the product/service is viable in the real world
  2. Analyzing if the marketing strategy needs a revamp
  3. Measure how consumers will respond to the product/service
  4. Gain feedback from customers before product launch

Overall, conducting a test market campaign before launching a major media buy and mobile advertising campaign is beneficial to the company. It can help to work out the minor (and sometimes major) details of the product/service. A major advantage is that it provides the product owner with insight into the relationship between the market and the product. It lets the consumer be a part of the overall process of creating something new, and that is good for business.

A test market campaign would be wise to use in this situation if time and money permit the organization to do so. The test marketing can be used to tweak the final product or modify how to market it better to the public.

Jumping into major campaign without a marketplace analysis is like jumping into a puddle of muddy water. You have no idea how deep the water may be or if there is broken glass just under the waterline. In short, it can be a terrible decision. Before you risk the fruit of your labours, take the time to investigate the viability of the marketplace.

What is a mobile application “cost per install”?

What is a mobile application “cost per install”?

Mobile apps are a critical component of our everyday lives. They affect our interaction with almost everything and everyone. Our actions often revolve around some type of mobile application. As companies maneuver to create new apps, they have to decide what is the most cost-efficient manner to market their application.

One question that surfaces is “which is the best way to measure the client acquisition and marketing costs for our mobile application?” One of such method of measurement called “Cost Per Install” (CPI).

The Cost Per Install model measures the net cost to the application developer for each download of their application to a single user. In other words – how much does it cost to deliver a single copy of an application to a single consumer. Media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, for example, might advertise your shiny, new, mobile app on their high traffic sites and garner countless numbers of clicks and impressions. With CPI, your advertising budget pays only when a user actually downloads and installs the application – not for the volume of click traffic on your advertisement (or Cost Per Click – CPC). Therefore, the more installs the advertisers gain for your app, the net cost per download to the application developer is reduced, thus creating greater profits. By using this method, it guarantees that you, as a client, pay for only as much as your campaign is actually producing. The downside is that your user loyalty or activeness volume is not accurately documented. This measurement is calculated through Cost Per Loyal User (CPLU).

In late 2015, Twitter introduced Cost Per Install as part of two models for clients to advertise on their platform for mobile downloads. According to their beta partners, the CPI model presents the highest cost efficiency – lowering the cost for advertising by nearly 30% compared to its previous model of Cost Per Click (CPC).

According to Fiksu’s Cost Per Install (CPI)Index for November 2015, it measures the cost per app install due directly to its advertising to cost approximately $1.54 for iOS acquired users and $2.27 for Android acquired users.

As business owners, ideal conditions would call for acquiring the highest amount of quality users with expenses that would maximize their Return on Investment (ROI).

At Colure Media, a mobile app marketing firm based in New York City, we structure advertising campaigns that would guarantee downloads, lowering your cost per install and increasing your mobile app users. Contact our campaign advisors to discuss your operating costs for your next project.

Projected advertising revenue trends for 2016 – TV vs. Digital

Projected advertising revenue trends for 2016 – TV vs. Digital

As new types of mobile devices are introduced, digital advertising and mobile app marketing are projected top television advertising trends and revenue in 2016. Previous advertising trends are becoming mundane as new kinds of technology are introduced to the public. Smart watches and virtual reality goggles have made their way into the mainstream. Users of all demographics are excited about them. Shifting mediums equate to shifting advertising markets.

The way in which information is delivered will be a driving force for the future of digital advertising. Device users are devouring both the flexibility and the speed at which information is provided. The choice of format and flexibility is driving users to change their buying habits.

Millennials

Millennials, also know as Gen Y’s, will shift advertising trends more towards digital than television. Prior generations had to park themselves in front of the tube to get their fair share of publicity. Millennials are taking those mobile ads everywhere, in every format. Marketers need to move their ads to where their audiences are going. Millennials like to be involved in a brand and a product. Advertising agencies can use this type of behavior to their advantage. “Millennials want their agencies to stand for something more than pushing products on consumers.”

Predictions

Forecasting trends and predictions are showing digital advertising surpassing television advertising. “Digital media will continue its meteoric rise. Digital ad spending will grow 17.2 percent this year, to nearly $160 billion, and 13.5 percent in 2016, and is expected to overtake TV as the biggest advertising category by the end of 2017,” according to Sydney Ember of the New York Times. One reason for this is how often an individual uses their mobile device. Advertising companies have taken full advantage of habits of consumers by engaging them where they spend most of their attention.

New Mobile Devices

Smart watches and virtual reality goggles are two of the new mobile devices to make their debut in the market recently. For something as small as a smart watch, advertising companies have taken advantage of it. “Smart watches advertisers grab consumers’ attention immediately, no matter what they are doing.” Even though it is a small space, advertising companies have utilized the space to their benefit. They have the ability to keep their brand/image fresh in the consumers’ mind by being able to consistently display ads on the smart watch. Companies will have to discover the users’ boundaries, learning to not overly advertise and annoy a consumer. Even though the medium is ready and available, doesn’t mean it should be overused. Be engaging, but not bothersome.

A new mobile “toy” debuting this year is the “virtual reality goggles.” These goggles attach to most smartphones and allow for a virtual world to be seen through the goggles. What is expected to rise out of the virtual reality world is a new evolution of video ads. Even though video ads are not new, many still think of them as time-consuming and irrelevant. However, Google is incorporating video-based advertisements in their SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), rather than just pictures and text. By doing this, consumers are more susceptible to accepting video ads. Eventually, those ads will be second nature to users, not perceived as the annoyance they may be viewed as today.

2016 is proving to be a very exciting year for digital advertising. Millennials have set the stage for mobile advertising and will continue to do so for years to come. They want to be involved in the ‘life-cycle’ of a brand. Millennials want to be engaging with companies. This generation will lead the direction of new trends in digital advertising. As new mobile devices introduced, they will become a gateway to how mobile advertising will surpass television advertising. We will just have to wait and see how virtual reality and smart watch advertising will affect the future.

Advertising Budgets 2016: 4 Trends You Need To Know [Infographic]
Infographic
by MDG Advertising