Promotion and Branding with Mobile Marketing and SEO

Posted: November 22, 2011

The basics of a lecture the author gave recently are simple, mobile market is developing faster than anyone imagined, so more users are using mobile search and mobile transfers than ever, and according to predictions in 2014 there will be more users accessing internet using their mobile phones and smart devices than desktop users.

The basics of a lecture the author gave recently are simple, mobile market is developing faster than anyone imagined, so more users are using mobile search and mobile transfers than ever, and according to predictions in 2014 there will be more users accessing internet using their mobile phones and smart devices than desktop users.

BizBuzz Conference November 4, 2011, Nis, Hotel Tami Residence.

Yup, I gave a lecture at an IT conference titled Promotion and Branding with Mobile Marketing and SEO, follow the link and you will be able to see the English version of the presentation, since the original one was in Serbian.

For those of you interested in mobile application development the following shortly describes the lecture I gave. On the other hand, this presentation and some of the guidelines I drew for it can be applied when creating any tool, plugin or other useful applications that’s intended for the user but with a possibility of branding and marketing.

The basics are simple, mobile market is developing faster than anyone imagined, so more users are using mobile search and mobile transfers than ever, and according to predictions in 2014 there will be more users accessing internet using their mobile phones and smart devices than desktop users.

Mobile marketing should already be a part of our marketing strategy; digital marketing has taken over the common forms of marketing, so we should be aware that mobile form of digital marketing will soon be one of the most important factors to count on. Those of you that dismiss this idea will pay dearly when the competitors start winning over new markets and bringing in new customers while improving their brand reputation and picking up the fruits of vertical mobile marketing combined with all of their digital marketing efforts.

With that being said, projections, graphs and examples seen in this presentation let’s go over the basics of creating an app, branding it, focusing on marketing and SEO to reach new potential, new markets and new wave of loyal users, visitors and consumers.

Basics of Creating an Application

There are 4 basic things you need to think of from the beginning when creating a mobile app:

-          Application usability

-          Uniqueness

-          Promotion and Branding

-          Maintenance

Usability of the mobile application in question is of the utmost importance, this is ground zero. No one wants have to learn how to use a mobile app, I do mean no one. A few of us tech geeks might, but only for some really rare ones, the rest of the time users want their applications to be easy to understand and use. So nothing complicated that at the same times gives the user all the value expected, no cutting the corners.

Uniqueness is an obvious one, for a sated market like Android market it is hard to come up with something without competitors already there, but you have two choices, either create something new and worthy or create a better app than your competitors with something new included, something they haven’t thought of. That is the only way to bring in new users.

Promotion and branding of your application also need to be implemented from the start. We will talk about promotion a bit later, but branding needs to be implemented into the core of the application starting from the design, colors, logo and everything else you would put on your website in the first place, as well as an about page on your app.

Maintenance, well, every good program, plugin, addon or application is only good if its constantly updated, cleared out of bugs and improved to a degree that will keep the majority of users satisfied, so that is one more thing to plan on from the start.

Branding Through Mobile Applications

This all brings us to a very important step in creating a mobile app for business, branding within the application and how to use it effectively. The first step is developing an app for your own market. Developing a game or a general app is great, it can give you an opportunity to test the waters, but if you want to achieve some results and improve your standings as a brand and increase the brand awareness you need to build something for your market. Example, if you run an online radio the logical move would be to create a radio app, or if you have a language tutoring school a basic app for languages makes sense.

Next step is putting your logo, known colors, about page, and of course some links to offers, products and services you offer for users that want more. This is the whole point of the app, to get new customers and keep them with you. And one of the most important parts of branding and promotion through mobile applications is embedding social sharing options, review, tweet, like, plus or whatever you use, foursquare even. All of which mention your brand name or like your Facebook page directly increasing your brand reputation.

SEO Implementation

This is where the fun starts for us SEOs, as we always recommend building something of value that the users will promote on their own, infographics, tools, plugin’s, videos, or anything that can be seen as linkbait with potential to become viral, and a mobile app is just that.

Promoting of such an item can be very easy if we are talking about a useful app, you have a great number of ways to promote and build links for your brand and app. The application on its own will attract links if it is good, some tweets, a few posts and once people start using your app they will be talking about it on their own. Of course no need to wait for the users to take matters into their own hands, you can pitch the idea to bloggers, review sites, submit the app to tool and app directories, and offer incentives for people to download you app, like a free version to first 100 subscribers.

Of course a great deal of visitors can users can be gained by cross promotion with other apps, which you will find is a common practice. But there is one rule, never cross promote your app with a similar market, you will be just tossing your customers around. Instead, find a related but a non competitive app which you can cross promote with. Give incentives to like and tweet your app, review it or whatever comes to your mind.

Of course, make sure that you have either a standalone website or a full custom page on your original website for the app, offering updates, tutorials, news, and of course easy copy and paste code with links and banners.

The Benefits of Mobile Apps for Branding and SEO

Most of you have already hinted some of the great benefits of using mobile applications for branding and promotion, the number one being a direct attack on the local market, which is the best thing for any location based business. Also, unlike other forms of marketing and pitching to your audience, a mobile application is always accessible to the user, so you are always near your users, unlike desktop internet, tv ads or radio ones.

You have clearer access to the demographics of your users and all the other analytics data, especially with real time analytics, so you can learn more about your customers which will help you target the users even better.

We also said that mobile apps have a great potential for viral marketing, which is what we all want, natural links and citations. And one of my favorites, this gives any business a chance to expand and reach new markets faster than any other form of marketing.

This is basically a short summary of my presentation at the BizBuzz IT conference, and I would like to thank a few bloggers that covered the event live:

Milos Petrovic – http://www.milosblog.com/wp/dogadaji/i-taj-treci-dan-bizbuzz-a-2011-uzivo/2098.html

Ivan Minic – http://ftw.rs/bizbuzz-2011-dan-poslednji-nazalost-uzivo/

Milos Lekovic – http://www.miloslekovic.com/mobile/bizbuzz-2011-vip-mobile-dan-iii-dan/