Mobile apps - how to create a good one?

     This post will look at mobile apps and how to create an app that will spread itself. The first article looks at some dos and don'ts of mobile apps. The author says the first important thing is to make it all about the consumer - the app must be either useful or entertaining to them. By increasing the level of the consumer's engagement the 'purchase intent' is also increasing. A big mistake for the author is crossing platforms - they should be treated individually and an app for iOS should be developed separately from an app for Android.
     The second article also looks at dos and don'ts and here the first advice is to make sure the app's concept is original. Even if the app is developed brilliantly and is very appealing visually, if the concept is old it has little chance of becoming viral. Another advice is to optimise the app for the app store - make sure the description attracts attention. You must also create a detailed business plan before the launch of your app and include some PR activities, teasers & trailers, but also the use of social media. You must remember to advertise your app to the right people - people who are your target audience and will be most interested in your app. Don't forget to release updated to your app regularly taking aboard user feedback and to constantly track your app's progress.
     The third article presents the reader with 11 tips for creating a mobile app people will love. The author asked a group of entrepreneurs to give an example of a mobile app design practice that is not to be ignored and the results are some very important advices. They mention constant testing - something that has been mentioned before and not only with relation to mobile apps. The experts say it's important to keep the users at the heart of the app design and to design an app that is simple, functional and easy to use. What is repeated as well it the advice to tailor the app to different platforms - iOS, Android and others, but what they add to this advice is to attempt to cover as many platform as possible (of course without overloading yourself) as there are many different phones with different platforms on the market at the moment. The last and possible the most important advice says 'Pick One Thing And Nail It'. If your app tries to be too many things at once it will get too complicated for the users and they will not use it. Focus one one thing, one factor that makes you unique compared to other apps and develop it to perfection. After all the 'wow' factor is what most commonly makes for a successful mobile app.

Creating a profitable campaign in Google AdWords

     This post will focus on Google AdWords and how to effectively create a campaign using it. The first article shows the dos and don'ts of Google AdWords. The author advises to take advantage of the keyword planner in order to find the most efficient keywords for your business. It also touches on the subject of re-targeting (which have been also talked about in the post about emails). If someone has already been to your website it is easier to attract them to come back that to attract a completely new person. The author also urges to make sure your ads are actually relevant to your prospective customers. Amongst the don'ts the author includes for example not choosing your keywords solely on the base of the search volume or popularity metrics. Even if a particular keyword is searched by many people does not mean that they are the right target audience for your business. Another advice from the author is to write the ads so that they will entice as many of the target audience as possible. Putting all of the keywords in the same adgroup is also a common mistake, as well as trying to outbid the competitors whatever it takes. The landing page is also very important and it is crucial to optimise it properly.
     The second article aims to give the reader 10 best tips for creating an AdWords campaign. These are for example: having a clear goal and always having your target audience in mind when creating your ads. A very good tip from the author is to remember to always include negative keywords targeting in your campaign - this will prevent your ads from being shown to people who are searching for things different than what you offer. Also use all the types of targeting - exact match, phrase match and broad match, but always bid most on the exact match keywords as they are the ones who will most likely bring you customers genuinely interested in your products.
     Although both articles may have slightly different tips for people creating their first Google AdWords camping they have many similarities and above all they agree on one thing - always be testing. Internet changes very quickly and constant testing is what will help you always be on top of things.

Creating a successful Facebook contest - where to start?

This post will look at how to create a successful Facebook contest. First I will look at some examples of Facebook contest that have been done the right way. The first thing the author mentions in this article is that the contests that simply offer for example a free iPad regardless of what the brand actually is are less likely to appeal to consumer that those where prizes are in line with the target group's lifestyle. There's no rule as to what the contest should require - it can be as simple as a 'Like' or as complicated as creating their own design for a new product. The important part is that all of it (the requirement and the prizes) has to be in line with what the company represents.All of the contest in this article do just that - keep it all in the house - be it with the prize or the contest itself.
     The second article attempts to help you understand why and how to create a successful Facebook contest. It take you though the process step by step - first list the benefits: more Facebook fans, increase brand awareness, get user-generated contend and so on. It gives good tips about knowing your target audience and setting your budget. It also mentions the very same thing mentioned in the other article - it urges to make the prize and contest brand-related and be sure that it is in line with the brand's goals. The article also talks about the visual aspect of the contest - it should have an attention drawing title and be appealing visually.But above all it should be clear about it's rules, prizes and entry requirements - the user must know what they need to to in order to win the prize.
     Whether your contest is just a one-off or a regular thing it should always follow these rules and most importantly always be brand related.

How to make an effective Email Marketing Campaign?

     The following post will be about email marketing and how to get around creating a campaign using email. 

     Today most of the emails you'd find in your mailbox is what you'd call 'spam' or 'junk mail' - emails that you delete automatically and instantly. That is, unless they catch your attention. With the number of newsletters and 'special offers' that are just for you it's hard to interest a user enough for them not to delete the email - let alone read it. So how do you do it? How do you make an email campaign that will actually be effective? This article shows 10 brilliant examples of campaigns that actually worked. All of them are highly visual and most of them don't include too much text (with the exception of 'Brain Pickings'). They are also very clear and neat - you can see all the information right away and all include a very clear and short call to action - probably the most important aspect of an email. It needs to always be short and to the point. You can also choose for your topic to be a question - in which case the answer should appear in the following sentence. If you're offering something in your email - you should let the reader know about it right in the title. 

     The second article focuses on the do and don'ts of email marketing. Amongst the dos the author list for example personalizing the emails, but that doesn't just mean using your consumer's first name in the email - it means taking the time to send them content that is actually in line with their interests (ex. don't send a vegetarian an offer for a 'cheap steak'). Also, use follow up leads - if a customer researched something on your website recently send them an email with a special promotion for that specific product. The author also talks about making the emails more mobile friendly and showing the brand personality in the emails.Another tips the author gives is to make the subject line sound enticing so that it draws attention, This goes in line with the previous article and what it said about subject lines being a call to action to attract attention. The don'ts that the author includes is avoiding 'spammy' sounding subject lines or not embracing new technology (also forgetting social buttons). Other important mistake is relying too much on images - while the emails are best to be more visual and not include too much text - it can't consist solely of images.

Writing a fashion blog and creating relationships with bloggers

     This post will be about writing a fashion blog and how to make it successful, but also about creating relationships between brands and fashion bloggers.

     First I will focus on the topic of writing a fashion blog - even though in my case (or rather my presentation's case) they blog would be a brand-own blog, which would quite obviously promote their own products the general rules for blog writing remain the same.The main things to not do, according to the first article is to avoid featuring only high-end brands (or in this case the brand's products) but also show some low-budget styles. Also, show your own genuine style that is unbiased and not 'bought' by any sponsors. What you should focus on is showing your style and the story and inspiration behind it. 

     The second article has a similar topic and there the author gives another good advice that is often overlooked - make your blog look presentable and don't go overboard (too much colour of unreadable fonts). The content is very important, but if your blog is nearly unreadable people won't read it no matter how good your style is. The author also encourage to make the blog interactive - use social media ans SEO to attract more readers.

     This part will be about building relationships between brands and bloggers. It's easy enough to pay them for mentioning your product/brand or putting your banner on their blog, but how do you create a relationship that is genuine and will last for a long time? This article makes it clear that the key is the carefully management of the relationship. It stresses that what works for one blog may not work for the other - each relationship is different and each has to be managed with equal attention. The brands should not try to dictate the content to the blogger or try to change it - they must respect their personal style and work around it. Also, they shouldn't try to simply pay the blogger but to adjust what they offer to each blogger - some may appreciate an early peak of the new collection more than money.

     The second article agrees with the statement that each blogger is differed and must be dealt with differently. It also stresses that integrity and honesty is the base of a strong relationship - both brands and bloggers must clearly express what they expect from this relationship to avoid misunderstandings. Another advice is to 'nurture' the relationship - constantly keep in touch with the bloggers and make sure that your visions are still the same.

How to create a successful and effective Facebook app

     Since Facebook apps are taking the internet by storm I thought I'd have a look at what people say makes an app successful. Today, with a small budget and basic skills almost anyone can create an app, but getting people to actually use it - no that's another story. So I had a look at some articles on creating a Facebook app. The first one looked at the dos and the don'ts. The author mentioned different things, but the most important lesson from it would be to 'keep it simple' - make the app very visual, simple and intuitive, limit the amount of text and keep it in like with the Facebook standards and appearance.
     Since I have chosen a fashion brand for my assignment I was looking primarily at articles about Facebook app for fashion. The next article showed 8 top Facebook fashion apps. Some were shopping apps, some help find fashion inspiration and some let users share their style and receive feedback. Whatever they are, they are all very visual but also simple and interactive - ex. allowed the users to see products in 360 degrees. Their purpose is to make the users' life easier and save them time. The third article was very similar to the second ones and explored different fashion app available.
     The last article I looked at gave tips on how to make a successful Facebook app. It highlighted what have already been said in the other ones - keep it simple, make it interactive and personalized. It also said to make it an experience and give it a 'wow' factor, which is probably the hardest thing to do with an app.

     As hard as it is to define it a successful app must have the 'it' factor - something the users have not seen before. The best apps either combine two uses, ex. Pose - it lets users get inspiration and at the same time give them info about item prices and where you can buy them, or are very new and fresh - be it thanks to the content or the appearance. And because it's fashion they contain hardly any words - it's all pictures - which makes it easier to use.
     The most viral apps are also not too 'pushy' - there's not too much promotion behind them and they don't ask users for too much private information - users decide themselves to send it to their friends or share it on their page. The goal in the app is to give the user an unforgettable experience and not (as much as we'd want to) ask to much in return.

Email Analysis

This weeks post is gonna be about email analysis. The example used here will be an email I received from PayPal titled 'Dominika, say hello to your new wallet'. I'm gonna analyse it using a list of questions to make it a bit more organised.

 Would you ever open it? Yes, I do as it provides information about a service I use quite often and this particular email informs about a new app version of this service .

Any personalisation? The email is relatively personalized - it uses the customer's first name in the title as well as in the main text. I doesn't however have any personalized offers or links to other pages.

Template? The design and the general look of the email is very simple - it's not very colorful, there's not too many images (there are two interchanging pictures of a wallet and a smartphone and a few fashion shops logos for which you can already pay with the new app).

Call to action? There is a call to action: 'Download the free app' and 'Check in to pay with the app at hundreds of shops including…', which are the only two in this email, the rest of it is just information.

URLs of images? At a first glance there doesn't seem to be any embedded information in the URLs of the images (such as my email address), however that may be due to my inability to find it.

Critique? In general the email is informative but not very exciting. Perhaps a use of a bit more images or colors could brighten it up.

Landing page? The page that opens after clicking the big button is where you can download the app for either iPhone or an Android phone. It also roughly explains how to use the app (by linking your bank account or debit/credit card to your new app account). After that, there are a few example of how this new app can make your life easier.

Calls to action? There is only one call to action that is repeated on the top and bottom of the page: 'Download our all-new app'.

Personalisation? This page is not personalized at all - there is no use of the customer's first name of any customized offers or links.

Critique? Visually the page looks good, it's not overloaded with images or text, yet at the same time there's not much information you get out of it like a guide to actually linking your bank account to you app account.