Mobile app development ideas to turn your boring mobile app into an interesting one!
There was a time when mobile app development was good enough to guarantee you high installs. But standing in the present times, no matter which user group you are serving, just having an app up there does not always guarantee success. While the end users are expecting entertaining apps, the mobile app developers on their part are struggling to give an interesting turn to the otherwise boring apps. The psyche of the modern day users is to get more out of their time investment, every time. And as an app developer you have to cater to user's interests; if you want to win the hearts of your clients. This is why we thought of bringing some mobile app development ideas that turn a boring app into a fun-filled affair.
- Design a Mascot: Your transition from boredom to fun starts by designing a good (happy going) mascot for your app. Remember, this mascot appears in most screens and accompanies your content through the app. So, the mascot has to be designed after much thought. It should not only symbolize your brand values but also carry a certain emotional context. Moreover, it should imbibe a sense of fun!
- Crack some Jokes: You might be dealing with a very dry subject, but it does not hold you from cracking a joke or two while showing the users their exact results. There are two ways about cracking jokes. Firstly, some of the apps are adding one-liners with their search results itself. A weather app in the US, shows you weather readings with an additional funny comment, and no wonder the app is seeing the highest installs. The second way is a bit safer. While you load pages or show results, there is always a couple of seconds where you can play with the users. A friendly banter or some jokes, even while the users wait for the actual results to show up, keeps the users engaged and they love it!
- Sprinkle some animations: If a static image is worth a hundred words, then an animation is worth hundred static images! At least that is the norm as far as mobile app development goes. So, you have to find a way to utilize this in your UX. Some of the apps do it smartly. They use attractive animations in their results screen. While the users get their usual results, they get add-ons in the form of hilarious animations. (NOTE: You might also use your mascot in this screen to create brand bonding.)
- Add some artwork: Including some artwork in your relevant pages is also a good way of giving an interesting turn to your app. If you have the Google Calendar app, then you would well understand what is being referred to here. Google Calendar not only allows you to set the day's schedule it also gives you the opportunity to name tasks. And when you name the task, they would intelligently allot an artwork resembling your task. Artworks often take us back to those childhood days, and they become a reason for using one app over the other. Smart use of artwork, can be a game-changer for your app.
As the competition for installs intensifies in the mobile app world, it is important to cater more to the users every time. To attain success with your mobile app development you need to choose a capable service provider. At Keyline we have been fulfilling dreams of our clients with mobile app development projects. Do care to take a look at our offerings.
Why is selecting a free web hosting service a bad business decision?
As a business owner you might be in search of ways to cut down on your expenses, but there are certain key business areas where taking the immediate shortcut leads to huge future losses. And the selection of a free web hosting service is just one such decision. When the "free web hosting" services first hit the Internet world, they became an instant rage. Most businesses found it a very lucrative deal. And each year they were surely able to save some money from their business operations. But as the years passed, the business owners quickly realized the flaws of choosing a free web hosting package. If you look at the web hosting world today, not many businesses are relying on the free web hosting services. They are ready to pay for web hosting in expectations of superior services. But having said that, we have still not answered the question as to: why free web hosting is not a good business decision. So, let us go through some reasons for such an assumption.
- Least Security Options: As history proves it, free web hosted sites are most vulnerable to the hacker’s raids. The web hosts who are providing free services, do not earn sufficient revenues from their services. And this they are incapable of spending resources and technology to beef up their security. In 2009, a free web hosting service provider named 2ip became the heartthrob of the web hosting world. They offered free web hosting to thousands of business owners. But within some months, they succumbed to an attack by hackers. As a result, the data of their users was lost and went out there in public. You do not want such a predicament to befall you, right?
- Lackluster Services: In the initial days you might be impressed by the services of your free web hosting service provider. But those days of happiness quickly vanish. As the hosting service gains popularity, you will soon find your website loading times going in the wrong direction. More and more visitors leave your pages in the wake of slow loading time. You will find many pertinent options missing from the dashboard, making a large work of simple tasks. Most of the time, such free services do not even have a quick problem resolution mechanism. By opting for a free web hosting service, you are allowing your competitors to race ahead!
- Free can become paid: Again, many web hosts are today launching their free services as a promotional ploy. Once they get enough publicity, they will eventually go for the Paid model. As a result, you might have to shift all the content to a new server within a short time, and that can lead to a huge business disruption. There even instances where the free web hosting service providers decided to close their business, leaving their users high and dry! You do not want to be stranded like this, right?
- Free is never Free: You would have heard: there is nothing free in this world! And free web hosting makes you experience the same. As a first, you cannot monetize with a free web hosting site, here all the cards lie in the hands of the web hosting service provider. You are just populating their websites with your unique content and designs. You will also not have an original domain extension, which makes you look novice to the visitors out there. So, free can cost your business dearly.
If you are looking for an affordable web hosting service then take a look at our offerings. Keyline has been hosting websites of some of the leading brands, for many years now.
Why travel websites need to upgrade from shared web hosting service, right now?
As Indians are travelling more than they ever did historically, travel portals are becoming their go-to destinations for essential travel related services. While leisure travels in India do not follow any particular season, there are definitely the high and low seasons. Once, the summer vacation rush is over most travel portals would see a sharp decline in their business. So, this is the ideal month to start a revamp of your website and the first thing that you need to change around is the web hosting plan. But, the question that would be lingering on in your mind is: why do I need to change my existing shared web hosting plan? Well, we would give some logical reasons for this.
#1: Festival Season is Coming, are you ready?
After the lull during the monsoons, your website would again start receiving a high traffic. These visitors would come with an intent to perform some business with you. During the festival season, travel portals receive an unimaginable surge in traffic and most websites struggle to handle this surge. Your shared web hosting plan will not be able to support the volume of traffic during the upcoming months. So, you should start looking for dedicated web hosting plans right away.
#2: Downtime means Doom
Indian travelers are today wasted for options. If they find your website slow loading or even come across a “Time Out” message they will quickly move away and not return back anytime soon. Your loss would be the gain for your competitors! Quite a distressing scenario, right? You can avoid the downtime and manage the website speed with a reputed dedicated web hosting service. Make sure you do not disappoint another web visitor, ever. And for that you need to switch to a dedicated web hosting plan.
#3: Slow in Loading, sluggish in revenues
If the online statistics are to be believed: then modern day Indian web surfers are wary of those slow loading payment gateways. Even if you have the best services and most affordable rates, they will not be willing to do business with you. Fast loading and smooth payment gateways can be dished out only if you have a high speed web hosting running in the background.
#4: For that Wow Factor
Travelling is often realizing a dream! And it is the content coupled with high resolution images, videos and sliders that instigate people to dream about a travel destination. To get the desired impact, you need to run all or some of these media at the same time, to create the desired impact in the minds of the visitors. This can be achieved only with the help of a dedicated web hosting plan that offers a seamless experience to your web visitors.
#5: To Scale up
As a business organization your goal is to offer an array of travel services which the travelers find to their liking. And this means, you might have to add some new services and packages from time to time. A good reason than to choose a web hosting plan that will not only work for your present needs, but have enough scopes for your future proliferation as well.
If you are looking for the perfect web hosting services that would support the needs of your travel website, then Keyline’s services would delight you. We have various web hosting plans to choose from. Please take a look at our plans before moving on.
How to make your interior designing company logo design stand out in the crowd?
When a homeowner wants his/her property to look good, they turn to a reputed interior designing company. And in the present era, every homeowner wants a chic and trendy home décor! That opens up all new opportunities for the interior designing companies. It is no wonder than that the reputed brands in this domain are earning huge profits each year. But the word "reputed" should be taken a note of in this respect. In the intensely competitive interior designing business niche, people only trust companies they are familiar with. And this is why branding is the most important criteria to survive in the business domain. The basics of your branding campaign should be started with logo design or re-designing. So, here are some essential tips to get the best web designing output for your logo designing.
Don’t imitate the competitors
Every brand has a persona of its own. Yes, there are some characteristics which are similar in all interior designing brands, but there are also bound to be certain differences. You should ask the web designing services to create a logo that clearly depicts your uniqueness. Most brands just try (and fail) to emulate the logo of their well established counterparts. Place the facts in front of the web designer and judge the output (without thinking about the competitors).
Create a scalable logo
A logo can be used in endless promotional campaigns. Most of the business owners fail to see this bigger picture. They tend to think about the website, brochure and some other promotional materials where the logo would be used in the near future. You might have to use the logo in hoardings, company letterheads, trade fair booths, etc. as the company moves forward. So, you need to think of the bigger picture and finalize a logo that looks good on smallest of materials as well as the largest ones!
Don’t go for font cluttering
Ask any web or graphic designer and the person will tell you that each font has a different meaning. Each font is meant to depict a separate mood. So, you have to select a font (based on your brand persona) and stick with it. Using too many fonts complicates the brand image and does not convey the right message across to the customers. Logos are best kept neat and tidy, and font cluttering is against this philosophy.
Focus on the message and not the color
Most interior designing brands get very rigid about their logo color. This is a wrong practice. Yes, you might have a favorite color as a business owner, but that color has many shades and may appear with many variations. It is important to tell the web or graphic designer what message you intend to portray through the logo.
Logo carries a business value through its unique design. Like IIHM Kolkata have a text logo as for the "best hotel management college in Kolkata".
An experienced logo designer would be capable enough to work with colors (including some from your favorite color palette) and give the perfect output.
Add an element of Surprise!
Best logos are so appealing because they are creative. You cannot play safe when you are after fame! Let the designer play around with the designing repertoire. There should be at least one element of “Surprise” in your logo that grabs the attention of the onlooker. So, allow the designer to stay creative, do not cloud his mind with a long list of safe suggestions.
If you are looking for the best web design and development services that suit your interior designing company, then Keyline is the place where your search ends. We have create envious logos for reputed interior designing businesses. Check out our web design and development services.
How to set Facebook Ad Budget to fulfill your Digital Marketing goals?
Facebook Digital Marketing opens up huge business scopes, and it is no wonder that every brand today has great expectations from their Facebook paid advertising campaigns. With millions logging into this social media site, a well-planned ad could do wonders for your business prospects. But, the core business philosophy lies in getting more for less! And this is what most business owners want to achieve through their Facebook advertising campaigns. As a result they either under-budget or over-budget for their Facebook campaigns. We want to help the business owners overcome this dilemma. Our suggestions would help you set the perfect budget and help you achieve the business goals. So, let us continue...
What are your goals with Digital Marketing?
There are various business goals that the brands want to attain through their paid Facebook advertising campaigns. Some of them can be categorized (on a broader level) as:
- Getting new Facebook Fans
- Thousands of new Email Subscribers
- Millions of Website Referrals
- Getting trackable Product Sales
- Increasing the app installs
Now that we have shortlisted the prominent business goals, it is time to help you set Facebook advertising budgets against each of these.
Goal #1: Earning Facebook Fans
You might have long dreamed of having thousands of loyal fans for your FB business page! Your dream could come true with a well thought out Facebook advertising campaign. Generally speaking, you need to spend $.50-$1 per Facebook fan. But you end budget should also account for business niche, brand reputation, presence in social circles and country (where the fans are sought). Based on these you might spend a bit less or more. There would always be some agencies offering unbelievable rates for getting you Facebook Fans, but cheap rates do not guarantee a good quality Fan club! You can start with a budget of $50,000 and take it from there.
Goal #2: Seeking Email Subscriptions
Facebook gives you a great scope to create a list of potential customers. The pricing for such a Facebook campaign varies on many factors. If your ad has an attractive giveaway, then the prices could be significantly lower. The landing page, in such instances, should also have convertible content. Your budget would fluctuate based on whether you are after simple subscribers or leads. Generally speaking, you could expect a spending of $.50-$1 for such a campaign. So, if you are after 10,000 email addresses stay ready to shell out $10,000.
Goal #3: Boost Website Referrals
To be frank, website referrals in Facebook cannot be bought. If a post has engaging headline, enticing content and some great images - it has a great chance of going viral. On the other hand a boring informational article really struggles to get clicks to your website. Coming to the costs, you might have to spend $.50-$.10 per link click to attain success. So, if you are after 100,000 website referrals it might cost you $35,000 (on average).
Goal #4: Higher Product Sales
The biggest headache on the minds of business owners is how to increase their product sales. And Facebook being ever crowded by prospective customers, opens up many gates for product sales. But there are various factors which impact the budgeting for such a campaign. You have to match the cost of the product. Suppose a product is priced at $100 (and is highly relevant for your selected user group), then you might have to pay $30 per conversion. So, approximately speaking, you can set a budget of $150,000 to get 5,000 sales opportunities.
Goal #5: Improving App Installs
So, your desktop or mobile app has been taking off at a pace that is much slower than anticipated. A well budgeted Facebook advertising campaign can change all that. Given that your app is solving a big problem statement for the potential users, you can set a budget of $1-$2 per app install. So, your end budget should be set at $10,000 for 5,000 app installs (taking $2 per install as the benchmark).
Now, let us give you some words of advice. No matter what your online marketing agency tells us, do not start off with a huge Facebook advertising budget. You need to always start with a small sum and then increase it with time. There are some great Facebook ad measurement tools available which you can use to track the success of your campaign and change it around from time to time. Use Keyline’s Digital Marketing Service and we would help you set the perfect budget for your Facebook advertising campaign.
How to boost sales through systematic email campaigns?
As you might have often heard, leads are the lifeline for any business. But, standing in the present times, leads do not necessarily mean sales. Your sales people might sweat it out to bring qualified leads, but then there is a glaring statistics in front of them. A recent business statistics found that more than 50% of the qualified leads are reluctant to do business with a brand or business they encounter first time! Does this mean, all the hard work done by your sales team goes waste? Not at all, the data they have brought would be useful for re-targeting the leads. And how do you attain that? Through a good email marketing campaign, of course!
Whoever says that email marketing is a waste of time and effort, has not approached this online marketing avenue in the right manner! Most of the brands expect high conversions from the first marketing email they send out. But that is not how the mind of a customer ticks. You have to persist and with time you will be able to convert leads into sales, through your email campaign. Now the question is: how to target the leads and convert them into sales? Here is a series of steps you should take.
Series #1: Educate them
Your first couple of emailers should be treated more like introductions. Think for yourself, how do you connect with a new person over the mail? Don't you give the person all requisite information about yourself? Similar is the case with this first series of emails. You have to educate the recipient about your brand, its history, its clientele and then about your services. You may or may not throw in a special discount to keep the emailer interesting.
Series #2: Project a problem and solve it
With the formalities out of the way, now you need to get down to business. And that too should be done quite tactically. Your products or services are certainly there for a cause. They are solving some problems for the end customers. You need to have an idea about what these problems are. In this series of emails you will talk about the problems that the customers are facing (and at times they don’t even know). Then you will provide a solution, and introduce your service or product. This is a good way of converting leads into sales.
Series #3: Give them examples
The recipient is still not ready to take action. He is still a bit confused. It is time to help him overcome the confusion and take decision in your favor. And the Case Studies do this task admirably. So, pick up some client or customer experiences, talk about the problem, obstacles and then the solution. You might throw in a quote or two from the customer to strengthen your content. In this series of emails you focus on giving real life examples and accolades that your company has won.
Series #4: Throw in some deals
If the recipient has not converted yet, then chances are getting really bleak. This ploy might be the last roll of the dice! So, it is time to come up with a really great offer or discount. Maybe the recipient would somehow have the urge to spring into action and do some shopping. The offer should be for email recipients only, and not just any ongoing offer available at your website.
With this series of emails you will be able to win the hearts of your recipients and convert them into customers. Keyline’s online marketing services uses these psychological ploys to boost the sales of our clients through email marketing.