A massive amount of the entire global population is currently in their den due to the catastrophic pandemic – COVID-19. Some of the questions that are haunting individuals these days are:

How are businesses of the various sectors going to sustain themselves?

What will be the next step of the numerous economic engines that are scattered all over the globe?

Even if the situation is dangerous, you cannot put a hold on any of your business marketing efforts. Social Media Marketing is now the saviour of numerous businesses all over the world. Mobile App Development Company of today’s time is equipped with a highly talented team of people who can curate the best Social Media Marketing Strategies for coping with the pandemic.

These companies are also presenting Work from Home opportunities that are bringing in loads of talented and experienced individuals. As you work with those teams, prospects for your own business also increase. All you need is patience, dedication & drive to maintain a stable life in times of such uncertainty.

Why Social Media Marketing is gaining momentum?

The reasons why COVID-19 business days will flourish with social media strategy services are as follows.

1. As per reports, approximately 70% enhancement in time is noticed in context to the time spent on browsing and using various mobile applications. This is mainly because people need to kill time, calm themselves, and seek information, etc during the days of lockdown.

2. Influencers these days seem to have everything figured out. For instance, they have a stable following, the resources needed for self-creating content from home, fantastic expertise & a lot more. They are very much familiar with all types of online marketing. But as the economy has slowed down, they will also face challenges. However, you can grab this opportunity for putting their services to work for your brand as they will be accepting reasonably priced deals.

Powering social media strategy marketing during the pandemic

Worried about how you will amp up online advertising efforts? Begin with social media strategy & everything else will take place automatically. Let us learn how.

• Post content on social media more than usual – When you witness your very own social media utilization during COVID-19 business days, do you feel that you are allotting much more time on Instagram and Facebook than usually you do? If you are hooked more onto these networks, then there is no doubt about the fact that the market is as well. For example, suppose you post stories or feeds 1 to 2 times in one day, simply amp it up to 2 or 3 times. However, spacing the various posts at an interval of 3 hours in between is paramount.

Some ideas that you can follow for posting on social media are:

1. Take a sneak peak in all the various elements of social media strategy you were operating on. For instance, were you working on a fresh product or preparing for a new service? You need to offer your existing as well as potential customers something really valuable when all this virus hocus-pocus gets over.
2.   Whatever the genre or niche of your business is, you can opt to post some fun ideas that customers can engage in that are directly linked to your business. For example, if your business is a salon, you can share DIY hair tips for preventing your precious customers from chopping off their own hair. On the contrary, when you are a CPA or attorney, you must share few applicable tips that can help people. Everyone in the current world is escaping to numerous social media networks and apps for distraction & fun. Take advantage of it completely.
3.   You can display contents like videos and images as updated about your business & the employees. As you post the pictures or videos, people will automatically get a feeling that they are all together in this pandemic and they shall overcome it together. By showing your audience what you are actually working on, you offer a shared experience for the entire world.
4. Ramping up email marketing – If unable to understand which social media strategy for small business you need, go with this one.

If your business is actively engaged in email marketing already, then kudos to you. But if you have placed not so much focus on this, then you must send out a few emails informing the subscribers about the current updates. It can include anything starting from new products or services to be launched after the lockdown, update about when the business will resume, any new offers or discounts after lockdown, etc. Sending emails and newsletters on a regular basis is important.

• Targeted social media & Google ads – We know that the COVID-19 business days are challenging & difficult but by following effective social media strategy tips, we can do it all. For instance, this is the time when you need to benefit from digital ads. What do you want your audience to witness? Whatever it is, simply create a post & upload on Facebook. Is the business doing well from all the search ads? You can position some targeted Google ads. You can really keep the happenings of the business in front of your target audience with the help of digital ads.

Final Say

Weathering storms like COVID-19 is no joke. This is a time of scarcity, uncertainly, worry & anything catastrophic. But if you are blessed with your own Mobile App Development Company or if you work for one, assign & divert your time and effort in developing social media marketing strategy that will help businesses of numerous corporate, media, industrial sectors thrive successfully. Only way we can deal with this pandemic is by staying in unity & looking out for each other’s requirements. Not to forget we all need to stay home to stay safe. Use this ultimate social media guide for chalking out the next plan. Also, we are always here to serve you when it comes to social media strategy services. Our social media marketers are the best in town. Connect with us to know more.

We all will fight this together & win gradually.

Manan Ghadawala is the founder of 21Twelve Interactive which is one of the best mobile app development company in India and the USA. He is an idealistic leader with a lively management style and thrives raising the company’s growth with his talents. He is an astounding business professional with astonishing knowledge and applies artful tactics to reach those imaginary skies for his clients. His company is also recognized by the Top Mobile App Development Companies. Follow him on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Learn How Businesses Use Instagram Stories (Infographic)

Having a perfect marketing (or in our case, SaaS sales) campaign is of utmost importance as it is the best way to increase sales. Nowadays, the internet is considered the perfect place for companies to advertise products and services, and with such a huge online audience it is no wonder why.

Ever since it was released in 2016, Instagram Stories became a hit among marketers. One of the reasons is that it has more than 400 million users on a daily basis.

Whether it’s a product promotion, an inside look, or an influencer takeover, companies use different types of Stories to bring their products and services closer to the customers.

For instance, Apple’s AirPay mobile payment service made Stories to drive app installs among millennials. This eventually resulted in a 17% increase in app installs, 52% decrease in CPR, and a 35% decrease in CPM.

Another great example is ecommerce platform Tokopedia. It created a mobile app install campaign using Stories, which led to a 54% increase in app installs, a 35% lower cost per app install, and an 11% increase in reach.

Let’s take a look at several figures which show the current trends in business usage.

24% of businesses rank Story engagement as a measure of success.

88% of businesses state that they want to increase posting to Instagram Stories in 2018.

30% of businesses plan to create Instagram Stories ads in 2018.

Don’t stop here! Scroll down and take a look at the infographic below to find out more about how businesses use Instagram Stories.

While many companies with a one-on-one with the clients, SaaS companies fill in a unique niche that caters to other businesses that are in need of a solution. Because of the important role that SaaS companies play in business efficiency, there are a lot of companies that seem to offer similar solutions.

If your SaaS company is operating in an oversaturated vertical, it can be difficult to differentiate your tool and win over more clients.

This is where reputation management comes into play. No matter how great your website looks, how effective your solution is, or how on-point your marketing strategy is, the fact remains that more people than ever are looking at what other people are saying about you first.

What is Online Reputation?

Online reputation is, essentially, anything and everything that someone could find out about your company as they’re doing a search. This could be a direct search for your company’s name, or information they find when they are searching your particular SaaS vertical.

Search engines, like Google, have set their algorithms to seamlessly take your business’s overall rating and customer feedback into their ranking method. Because the majority of businesses have listings on rating and review platforms, especially Google My Business, it’s more important than ever to get honest feedback posted on those profiles.

Consumers are also becoming smarter. They understand that many companies can have a legitimate-looking website and great marketing that says “We’re the best!”

That’s why they are more likely to trust what’s being said in an online review, by other customers, than even a friend or family recommendation. So, in addition to having that great website, efficient tool, and great marketing, amazing SaaS sales team (internal or externa) you also need to make sure that online reviews are treated as a cornerstone to your online reputation.

What Differentiates Your Solution from Competing SaaS tools

If you are interested in managing your online reputation, or at least learning more about the topic, it’s likely that you are part of a SaaS company that is actively working on helping customers with a great tool.

However, it’s likely that there are a few other companies who are looking to fill a similar niche that you are.

This is where managing your company’s online reputation comes into play. At a basic level, all that separates your solution from someone else’s is how well it can be represented online. Without an in-person demonstration, it can be difficult for a potential customer to see the nuanced benefits that you offer.

However, it they’re able to read about someone else’s true experience, they’ll be able to understand exactly how well your SaaS tool can help their processes.

How to Manage Your Online Reputation

Managing your SaaS company’s online reputation means you’ll need to put in a little bit of work and planning to make this a successful project. Thankfully, online reputation management isn’t something that requires a lot of your time.

If you want to successfully  manage your business’s online reputation to gain the most amount of revenue from online outlets, continue reading to find out what you’ll need to do.

Create or Claim Your Professional Profiles

In the world of SaaS companies, having profiles created on review platforms, like Google or Yelp, isn’t as much of a guarantee as it is for more traditional businesses. That’s why you’ll need to take some time to research your company and find out what sites you already have a listing on.

If you have a profile already, you will need to take the appropriate steps to claiming it. In some cases, you may already have the login. When that isn’t the case, you’ll need to input some business information to verify that you have the right to claim the profile. Many platforms lay out how to claim a profile clearly, with most requiring you to receive a robo-call or postcard with a special code  as the final verification step.

When you have found all of your existing profiles, it’s time to narrow down what  other websites you should have a profile on. Some of the most important platforms include Facebook, Yelp, Google My Business, and Bing. You should also claim or create profiles on any industry-specific profiles to ensure that you are represented where your potential customers are looking.

Update Your Business Information

It’s important for you to review and update the business information that’s publicly available. This includes your business name, industry category, phone number, operational hours, address, and website.

You will also want to update your profiles with high-quality photos and any additional information possible. Some platforms will allow you to add a mission and value statement. Others will give you a free space to write a bio and description.

Remember, the more information you give potential customers, the better you’ll fare next to competitor profiles.

Solicit Customer Reviews

Once you have all of your profiles claimed, set up, and updated, it’s time to start getting feedback.

The best part about this step is that it is beneficial in two ways: it helps boost your business’s ratings and it helps you to improve your services.

Many SaaS companies elect to use a reputation management tool that allows them to upload a CSV of their client list and send out review solicitations in bulk.

When you are sending out these requests, make sure that you are pointing your customers to a specific profile. This will allow you to build up your rating on your most important profiles before circulating to different profiles. Over time, you can build a solid rating on each website before returning your focus to more important profiles, like Google.

Respond to Customer Feedback

Once someone has left you a review, your job doesn’t end there. You should be responding to each and every review, whether it’s positive or negative, with a thank you or an invitation to discuss their problem privately.

By responding to each review, you’ll be showing potential customers that you care about your customer experience. Not only that, but you’ll be demonstrating to your current customers, who are leaving these reviews, that you are actively listening to their feedback and appreciate their business.

To best manage your online reputation, you should be checking in on your professional profiles regularly. The sooner you are able to respond to a review, especially a negative one, the better.

Showcase Your Customer Feedback

One of the final steps to successfully manage your SaaS company’s online reputation is to showcase your company feedback. Every reviewer can become a brand ambassador if you pull quotes from their reviews and distribute it amongst your social media profiles and even your website.

That way, customers will know that you are proud of the services you offer and listen to your customers. Potential customers, on the other hand, will get exposed to real customer feedback while they are learning more about your company while not necessarily looking at your review profiles directly.

Why Inbound Marketing is so Important

The changing landscape of marketing has led to drastic changes in the skillset of contemporary marketers. No longer is there a requirement to be bombarding prospects with offers and specials that are supposedly “just for them”. This has seen a rise in the need for an SEO consultant.

The world has moved on and the changing digital landscape has meant that customers are changing too. Their demands are different, as is their behaviour. The internet and social media has meant that people and businesses now interact in vastly different ways to what they did 20+ years ago. And the ease of access to information makes it more difficult to gain a competitive advantage.

Outbound marketing used to be the way for the big companies as they would regularly reach out to prospects in the hope that a small percentage would take the bait. This involved cold calling and relentless advertising to almost force the attention of the consumer.

Inbound marketing is different and it is more about making consumers do the work, seeking information about your business as a relationship builds. It is about gaining the customers attention through relevant and informative information pieces in an attempt to improve their experience.

Gaining a deeper understanding of the specific customer prior to purchase will aid in the purchase experience. Consumers now find businesses through search engines and social media and having the appropriate mechanisms in place is therefore pivotal. An SEO consultant will ensure that a site is designed to maximise the rate of discovery, or impressions, for a business.

There are 3 key reasons as to why this is so important in the digital, modern world.

Changing Customer Needs

Customers now demand a higher standard of service but it can be difficult to do so, especially with the reduction in face-to-face interactions for sales people. This is where the magic of inbound marketing comes to life.

Because inbound marketing is designed around the customer discovering your business and then learning about it, businesses get a head start on the type of customers that are reading their material through Google Analytics.

Should a site be optimally designed, the customer will then be presented with an opt-in email sign up to which the company gains further information. As the relationship then develops through email and messages, the organisation is able to create a customer profile and therefore when it comes to the purchase stage, the customer is treated in the appropriate manner.

The Internet and Social Media

As was touched on previously, people and businesses now interact very differently than they used to. With the majority of interactions happening online, either through social media or other sites, it is important that consumers are reached out to with relevant and information content.

People are willing to share helpful information with their online community of ‘friends’ and this increases the opportunity for businesses. Without quality online content, the reach of all marketing efforts is significantly reduced and will likely force a given company to resort to the customer un-friendly outbound marketing. With an SEO and marketing consultant, quality content can be ensured and presented in the right places to the right audience ultimately maximising reach.

Information and Mass Media

This is the point that ties in both the increased customer needs and social media community. As information is so easily accessible and the distribution of advertising through social media channels is so easy, people believe that they are now well informed about everything.

This makes it really challenging for marketers to get their point across unless the content is compelling and original. Inbound marketing is all about providing quality, original and readable content to engage consumers and draw them in. getting consumers engaged will then increase the chances of them providing your organisation with personal details for tailored marketing.

How to Decide on Your SaaS Marketing Strategy

Knowing where to start is always difficult. How will you structure your SaaS marketing strategy comes down to your pricing, market, expertise of your team and a myriad of other factors. Will you settle with an inbound, content driven strategy, try to make one of your content pieces go viral, go with a direct response marketing, of perhaps a combination of all?

While you may hope that your software would sell itself, unfortunately, that’s not how it works. You need to build a solid strategy, based on actions with measurable impact.

First, there are a few things you’ll have to take into consideration about your customers.

B2C vs B2B

Your approach to your SaaS marketing strategy will vary when dealing with B2C (business to customer) or B2B (business to business).

B2B customers are more likely to have a deep expertise in their activity and have more specific needs in terms of what problem they need to solve. You won’t have to use laymen’s terms with them, and your content should be professional yet informative. The B2B customer also seeks to have a very close relationship with your brand (and people in your business), so keep that in mind.

B2C customers, on the other hand, can be novices or have intermediate-level skills in your type of service. Why do these customers need your service, and why should they choose you over others?

That is a common issue for the B2C customer, so your content should inspire them to choose your brand and service with content that is a bit more personal. At times, a little humor would help as well. Above all, make sure you are always making an emotional connection as b2c, high emotion, utility and easy of adoption leads to viral growth.

Content Marketing Institute compared B2C vs B2B content marketing tactic usage, and found that ebooks are a valuable tool for B2B sales, while B2C is better focused on social media campaigns and blog posts.

Of course, social media campaigns are still a great tool for B2B as well – consider creating an ebook and then promoting it on your social media.

While considering your marketing strategy, it’s also helpful to keep in mind that the value you deliver to your audience needs to be consistent over time. Not only prior to the sale, but also after. Consistently helping your users with content will eventually increase your SaaS customer lifetime value.

Customer type

Before you can start selling SaaS, you have to tailor your SaaS marketing strategy to your customer type!

Very small businesses (VSB)

This is the very small business. VSBs can range anywhere from two to 50 employees, so approach them with this in mind:

• Most VSBs have a small budget, so they won’t have several thousands of dollars to spend on your service. The way you structure your sales and marketing campaign, should reflect the ROI expectations
• VSBs may tend to favor a freemium plan with a low-cost monthly or annual fee
• Many VSBs will focus on instant ROI and want to see the immediate value they get for their money
• There is likely to be only one key decision maker responsible for purchasing decision

SMBs

• Small to medium businesses employer fewer than 250 employees
• The SMB are likely to have a bigger budget than the VSB, but it must grow as a business in order to survive, so your service needs to facilitate and encourage that growth.
• However, like VSBs, SMBs often opt for freemium or low-cost plans for an easily accessible service
• Show your SMBs the value of your service – how will it benefit them and save their time?
• The decision making process is likely to involve more than one person, and therefore your marketing needs to be tailored for numerous decision makers
• Establish a relationship of trust, and make sure you follow up and use other best practices for SaaS customer success

Enterprise

• These are the big players, with thousands of employees. Oracle, for example, and have a much bigger budget than SMBs and VSBs.
• Enterprises are not concerned with growing the way SMBs are, but with maintaining their position and value. Their survival is not at stake (in the short-time frame anyway)
• Tackle enterprises using Account Based Marketing or ABM – strategic business marketing that treats each company as its own market, heavily focusing on that one account.
• For effective ABM, as with all customers, you need to know your target audience. Do your research on numerous decision makers and tailor your content to all.
• Look into the company structure and the core players, if possible. Really familiarize yourself with these details.
• Choose the right social media platforms. Enterprises tend to favor LinkedIn for its focus on professional connections and business updates.

How price points determine SaaS marketing

Consider your target audience in tiers, as the great thing about SaaS is that you can target all customer segments depending on the depth of use of your solution, all different tiers will have its own pricing structure for your users. Let’s go back to the example of VSBs, SMBs, and Enterprises. Devote a certain budget for each one.

Average annual contract value (ACV) below $1000

For a customer with an annual contract value below $1000, your pricing will be approximately less than $100 a month.

• Focus on web-based sales. You will generate less revenue from this kind of customer, so adopt a low-touch sales process that will save you time and money normally required for outbound sales development reps
• Choose low-cost marketing methods, particularly content marketing. Create informative blog posts, and interesting social media posts that are relatable and shareable
• While content marketing will help establish a relationship with your customers and build your brand awareness, keep in mind that there’s a lot of competition out there, so your content has to consistently make a connection with your audience
• Another option is paid advertising, and ideally, it’s best to use a combination of content marketing with organic social media and paid advertising. Paid advertising via Facebook ads, Google ads, Instagram ads, and more is designed to pinpoint your ideal customer, and it’s quite effective

ACV above $1000

On the other hand, for a customer with an annual contract value above $1000, you will have a bigger budget to work with.

• Rather than a low-touch sales process, opt for more direct selling.
• Stay in touch and follow up regularly, using a combination of email, phone calls, other web-based options (Skype and Google Hangout, for example) and face-to-face interaction,
• Create a lasting connection with this kind of customer with a close, nurturing relationship.
• Embrace ABM and adopt a high-touch sales process with exclusive content and tools.

In a Nutshell

To decide on a SaaS marketing strategy, you need to know your target audience. Do your research, foster relationships, and choose your content and channels carefully, while delivering value before, and after the sale.

Consider your customers based on business size, their needs, budget and sales cycle duration. Then, tailor your SaaS marketing strategy and sales approach accordingly – preferably using a combination of inbound and outbound process.

4 Beginner Tips on How to Start Selling SaaS

Using SaaS appears simple enough at first glance – and if only selling SaaS was simple as well. So how do you go about selling SaaS? That’s something that many companies and vendors tend to struggle with, and it’s not hard to see why.

Most of us have anywhere between 5-10 software subscriptions or more, and the average consumer shies away from getting more than they feel they need. When selling SaaS, you need to set yourself apart from the rest and build a good relationship with your customers and earn their loyalty.

Fortunately, we have some tips to help you get started on the right path to selling SaaS. We’re going to take a look at how to establish a real connection with users and turn them into devoted, loyal customers.

But before we go into the tips, there’s something to keep in mind.

Who are your customers?

What kind of person does your service benefit? Create a buyer persona for your customers, and keep that in mind throughout every step of your sales SaaS strategy. Once that’s done, move on to these tips to create your strategy for selling SaaS.

1. Show customers the benefits, not just the features!

Put yourself in the mind of a potential customer for a moment. You’ve seen ads for a particular software, and it looks interesting, but you have to do some research before you make a decision.

Of course, before you make a purchase, you need to know how that software is going to benefit you and suit your needs.

Purchasing a subscription is only worth it when it makes a positive impact in the buyer’s life, so showing that positive impact will help sway prospects to become customers.

Show value, not just features!

Contrary to common practice, it is much more effective to tell customers what the product does for them, the customers, rather than focus on the many features of the product.

It seems like common sense, but if you’re well-versed in all the features of your product, you might forget that everyone else is not. Get to know your potential customers, what they want in a service, and then show them the unique benefits that only your software can offer.

Instead of using demos as a mini-training session, use them to show these benefits to the customer. Pinpoint those features that are particularly useful for the average user, and make sure to highlight them. Once a user signs up for a trial, make sure to restate these benefits throughout the trial.

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2. Sell SaaS through loyalty by establishing emotional connection

Loyalty and emotional connections are easier to build on a human level. That’s why most people prefer to speak to a person rather than a robot, so make sure your company has a personable approach to customers.

Always follow up!

Don’t just sign up prospects for a free trial and leave them alone. Follow up with them, as often as you can. As soon as you can, send them an email, or give them a phone call if you have access to a phone number.

When sending them an email, make sure there’s a human element to them, especially in the sender’s address.

Think about this one for a moment. Are you more likely to open and respond to an email from the sales or marketing department of a company, or an email from someone with an actual human name?

The human element here is vital. Customers are more likely to be interested in a company or service recommended by someone they know, so make sure you have an affiliate program in place.

The importance of an affiliate program can’t be understated. Offering bonus features or a temporary discount for users who refer friends and family can do wonders for your company, and make sure to promote these offers often. That’s how Dropbox gained thousands of customers!

Dropbox offered any user who invited a friend to join 500 MB of free storage. Users took advantage of the offer, of course, and Dropbox went from 100,000 to 4 million registered users in a mere 15 months.

Is your software in the form of an app, or does it have an app that supplements the website? Don’t forget to promote and maintain the app. Ideally, you would want the app to go viral, but don’t leave that to chance. Do all you can to create a viral app – it’ll be great for your SaaS sales, too!

The more a customer can emotionally connect with the software, the more likely they are to use it often and recommend it to friends and family. That’s how you make successful SaaS sales.

3. Revamp your email campaign

Don’t email your customers once and then forget about them, or email them every once in a while out of the blue. Customers need to know that you care, that they are important to you, and that needs to be apparent in your email campaign.

Be consistent!

After your initial follow-up, make sure you’re sending enough emails on a regular basis. One or two a week is effective. You don’t want the customer to forget about your company or service, so keep in touch with them.

Wondering how to increase customer lifetime value? Take steps to retain your customers. Make your emails interesting and create engaging subject lines that will compel your customers to open them.

Test your subject lines to see which ones perform better. Do your users like emojis in the subject lines, or are they put off by them? What kind of language makes customers more likely to open an email?

Within the content of the email, you also need to have a call to action in each one, so your customers don’t just skim the email and then forget about it, and your company.

4. Make sign-up as easy and smooth a process as possible

Getting the interest of prospect users is only half the battle. Once they’re on your site or app, make sure your interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Free trials are a great option, but be careful.

Make sure signing up for a free trial is as easy and hassle-free as possible. A potential customer may be interested in your service, but off-put by needing a credit card just to sign up for the free trial.

To avoid that kind of situation, consider allowing sign-ups without the need for credit cards. Once the trial ends, simply prompt the user to purchase a subscription if they enjoy the service.

A user who is confident about the benefits of a subscription and has seen them first-hand will happily reach for their credit card, and that’s a lot better than making a prospect reluctantly submit their credit card information, or turn away altogether because they’re not sure it’s worth their time and effort!

How long are your trials? Some companies offer 30, 60, or even 90-day free trials, but is that really a smart move? Shorter trials tend to perform better than long ones.

14 days is long enough for a free trial. Making it any longer poses the risk that these users forget about the service entirely, or decide it’s not worth it, never actually becoming customers (hence you need a robust onboarding strategy for your SaaS).

Or worse – they sign up for a 60 or 90-day trial, use the service as much as they need, and cancel their account as soon as the trial is over, because they’ve already gotten all they need out of the service.

Make the sign-up process as easy and smooth as possible – users will appreciate it, and it will give them more time to focus more on the benefits of the service.

These 4 tips are what you need to get started as a beginner to selling SaaS, but they’re far from the only effective ways to increase your SaaS sales.

It may not be an easy process at first, but we have plenty of more information available to you on our blog, including the 4 best practices for SaaS customer success.

Understanding When To Integrate Technology into Your Bootstrapped Startup

Startup CEOs have to make hundreds of decisions every single day to properly manage their small companies and help them gain traction and get off the ground. Some of these decisions are small. However, some can be quite significant. Big investments into new technology may be one decision that many entrepreneurs have to make several different times over the course of their careers.

There are many ways technology can benefit a company. However, sometimes making such investments is a mistake that allocates important resources without much return on the large investment. You have to be smart about it. With that in mind, here are some tips for understanding when it’s the right time to make an investment to integrate new tech into your business.

Keep a Tab on Macro Market Trends

One pitfall for many startups is making large investments much too early. Especially, if it’s into technology that fails to last for the long term.

You may remember Betamax videos or HD-DVD, home video formats that did not last the test of time and were wiped out by their competitors, VHS and Blu-ray, respectively.

Companies that plan to be around for awhile need to plan for the long term. Tech that may seem fashionable one year may be obsolete only months later.

This is especially true for small businesses. An upstart vape shop, for example, might topple before it gained any traction if it put too much money into an atomizer that appeared to be the next big thing, but turned out to be a flop.

While it can be hard to predict what tech will stand the test of time, you can get a better handle of the situation by studying macro economic trends that affect large swaths of the public.

Smartphones and mobile devices, for example, are one example of a kind of tech that is here to stay. Proving so is quite easy as well. 90 percent of the American public now owns a smartphone. The statistics released also suggest extreme growth trends of near 50 percent since 2010.

With all that data in mind, the trend is clear and extremely substantial. As such, investing in apps and other mobile related campaigns is likely to pay off since most consumers are using smartphones regardless.

Do the Math

However, just because the market trends seem favorable to the technology in question, it does not mean investing in that kind of tech is the right course to take.

Instead, you need to be very deliberative about the decision. This requires determining exactly how much the investment is going to cost and whether you have the extra funds in reserve to make the investment.

51 percent of companies plan to invest into big data analytics. This decision was only reached after extensive research by those businesses.

Part of this process means trying to gauge the profit that could be made from the investment. While you won’t know for absolute sure, you should perform the research needed to get a close approximation as well as the odds for that outcome occurring.

If you find that there is a 70 percent chance that making the investment will produce an additional profit of $1 million, it may be a good idea.

Alternatively, if the foreseeable profits are moderate at best or only pay for the expense required to make the investment, that money would probably be better allocated somewhere else within the organization.

Investing in Technology Requires Investing in Training

You also need to actually consider costs related to the technology apart from the hardware and software itself. One of the biggest expenses will be related to training employees on how to use that technology to reach the company’s goals.

Companies spend $1,208 to train each employee. With more tech training, this expense could increase. If the tech in question is needed to effectively manage the company, you will also need to integrate that technology into your leadership development program.

Technology can make the difference between developing a strong competitive advantage and losing your profits to more tech savvy competitors. Certainly consider different ways to invest in tech in your company. However, do so strategically and only when you have substantial research and reason to believe it will increase your bottom line.

Mistakes to avoid while developing a mobile app

App development has recently undergone a lot of changes, and it still keeps changing. Nowadays, more and more innovations are introduced to the app development – new coding languages, technologies, etc.

Mobile app developers are always looking for some new ways and means to develop outstanding mobile software meeting the needs of the modern society. Everyone is piquing the interest in how to develop an app bringing huge profits.

Of course, there are a lot of tutorials, coverages, how-to guides, books available both in paper and online, but there is still one thing to consider – you can’t achieve success in the field without outlining the main pitfalls to evade while developing a mobile app.

We’ve analyzed a great many of surveys and shoveled up hundreds of book on app development.

And here are four top mistakes you should circumvent when developing a successful mobile app.

Building an app for all screens

A common issue developer run into is deciding which OS to run first – Android or iOS. When considering the platform, take into account your target audience. This should help you make an informed decision.

For statistic data, you can use the following platforms:

• Statista
• Developer Economics
• Stack OverFlow

Launching an app for both platforms at once will double(or triple) your expenses since you should develop two different apps making any alterations to design or/and functionality. Note, developing an app for iOS takes less time than for Android because of a limited number of screens.

And this means, it’s somehow cheaper and allows getting an MVP (minimum viable product) as soon as possible to iTunes and see how the market reacts.

Try developing an app for one platform, then fix the bugs and make some iterations before launching for other platforms.

Did you know that Instagram was firstly built for iOS? After its spectacular success – Instagram has got nearly 30 million of active users, it was launched to Google Play.

Packing too many features

Nearly every beginner developer wants to use all built-in features of a cell phone in one app. Most modern smartphones are loaded with a great variety of features such as camera, accelerometer, pedometer, gyroscope, GPS, and so on.

Using them all in your app won’t add more value to the software. You, as a developer, should outline the main do’s of an app. Pack it with unique features designated to serve the customers well.

You’d better load an MVP with the core features focusing on the immediate needs of your target audience. You can add more useful features later in the future app versions.

Adding new features, later on, look like you’re constantly updating the app and think over the users. Hence, the app will gain more and more popularity.

Complicated UIs

Your MVP should have an extremely easy-to-use and highly intuitive user interface. The UI should be such allowing the user to learn quickly how to use it without reading the user manual.

Note, your average user is not a tech geek. Allow the user to experience the basic features of a cell phone to ease the daily routine. Try to create a well-defined User Interface where each screen, button, and function are well-thought-out.

Of course, if you want to develop an app for a real geek with the elaborate UIs, multi-gestures, and virtual reality features, it’ll be great to include a how-to section in an app.

In a nutshell, make your UI consistent and homogeneous in all your upcoming versions, so that the users won’t have to learn how to navigate the updated app.

Marketing after launching app

It’s vital to start your marketing campaign as soon as possible to achieve first visible results within a short period. Waiting until submitting an app to Google Play or App Store to start a press outreach campaign may throw you a wobbly.

It’s better to start contacting media around a month before a planned launch. Before sending outreach emails, look through the Web to find bloggers, journalists or platforms writing about similar apps.

While writing emails, try to keep them short and precise for the bloggers to grasp the main idea of what you want and what your app is capable of. Try to end your email with a call-to-action:

• Do you want to know more?
• Find it interesting?

Conclusions

Developing an app is the very first (and the most important) step in your app development career. Due to the fact, the app market is really overloaded with mobile software and without a proper marketing strategy, it may be hard to succeed.

Try to avoid the common mistakes while developing an own app and your chances to develop a fruitful app is going up and up.

Are there any mistakes that I didn’t manage to cover? Leave a comment below.

About the author:

Tasha Bronitska

She runs a blog at IDAP Group. Tasha stays tuned for more news regarding app development and other geek stuff. Want to be the first to read her must-use guides and ultimate coverages, follow IDAP on Facebook or Twitter.

Sales play a crucial role in bringing in cash flow into the business. A business cannot sustain its daily operation without it, and without it, a business would eventually fail. One of its most important and initial steps is called “prospecting” – the process of qualifying the leads who has demonstrated the desire to make a purchase decision.

Here is an in-depth definition of ringDNA on what prospecting is, and what it involves:

“The definition of sales prospecting is when inside sales reps make outbound calls or send outbound emails to leads in hopes of creating opportunities for account executives. Prospecting can involve cold-calling as well as reaching out to nurture leads that have gone cold. Many inside sales organizations have achieved successful results by hiring dedicated sales prospectors. Prospectors, also known as sales development reps (SDRs) can help achieve predictable ROI by creating a steady stream of opportunities for account executives. This can be highly effective because it frees account executives from having to prospect for their own leads.  Instead, they can spend their time selling to sales-ready prospects that have been qualified by sales development reps.”

Prospecting is pivotal in closing deals, which is the reason why it must be executed properly and in the right time. According to statistics, the first viable vendor to reach a decision maker has a 74% chance to win the deal if they manage to set the buying vision.

Here are the key takeaways from this infographic by Business Coaches Sydney on what it takes to prospect more effectively:

1. Follow a consistent schedule
2. Focus, focus, and focus
3. Implement different techniques
4. Create prospecting scripts
5. Be a provider of great solutions
6. Practice warm calling
7. Establish yourself as a thought leader
8. Know that prospecting is not selling

Check out their infographic to find out more.

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Have you just started your B2B business and wondering how to generate more leads? B2b lead generation can be tricky without a proven track record.

You may have tried some strategies, but the result isn’t what you expected. And all of it is taking too much work and time.

You may also be wondering how some start-ups grow so fast and build their client base in a few months only.

Here I’ll share 15+ tools with you which will help you to find new quality leads to your B2B business, and build up your client base quickly.

Let’s start.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

These days search engines are the map of Internet – especially Google. Search engines have the largest audience to redirect, and you simply can’t ignore them.

If you know how these engines work and how you can get your targeted keywords on top in there, your business will skyrocket like you’ve never thought.

Here’re some tools to help you with SEO.

#1. Google Keyword Planner (free)

All the SEO strategy starts with keywords. In fact, your whole strategy, implementation, and its success are hugely dependent on the keywords you want to rank for. So, finding appropriate keywords for your business is a crucial process.

Google keyword planner gives you keyword ideas, its monthly search volume, difficulty level, and more important things.

#2. Mozbar Extension (freemium)

Another important part of SEO is to study your competition. You need to know your competitor’s strength, so you can do your preparation accordingly and beat them.

Mozbar tool tells you page authority, domain authority, backlinks, and more information while viewing any page or SERP. With premium, you can see keyword difficulty, page optimization and content suggestions, and more metrics.

#3. Yoast (freemium)

When your website is up, and you start publishing content, you need to optimize it for search engines. Yoast is your friend there. It’s a plugin that helps you to make your website search engine optimized.

You get snippet editor, real time page analysis, optimize your page content, image titles, create XML sitemaps, and much more. With premium, you get redirect manager, multiple focus keywords, internal linking, and premium support.

Analyzing Traffic

Have you ever thought of analyzing your website traffic and finding leads from there? Imagine if you can find who is visiting your website, and see the visiting pattern.

By studying your audience behavior, you can optimize your website for the maximum conversion. And if you do some more research, you can find the contact details of your potential client.

This is a great strategy for finding quality leads for your B2B business. Here’re some tools to help:

#4. Google Analytics (freemium)

Google Analytics is a website monitoring and visitors tracking system. It helps you to find how many people are visiting your website, where are they coming from, what device are they using, what visiting pattern are they following, and much more. Google Analytics is so powerful and has a lot of other useful features. However, it has a little learning curve. You’ve to spend some time and learn how it works to get most out of it.

#5. Lead Forensics (free trial)

We build our website, attract our audience, and wait for the potential client to contact us. This approach has a flaw because 98% visitors never make a contact. But it doesn’t mean they don’t need your product.

Lead Forensics insert a small code (similar to Google Analytics) into your pages and tracks visitors. After tracking, it matches that information with their database and gives you the contact information of your lead.

#6. Lead Feeder (free trial)

Lead Feeder is another lead capturing tool working on the same concept – tracking your visitors and giving you the contact information. The good part is that it integrates with your Google Analytics account. The process is simple, and the interface is beautiful.

The advantage of integration with Google Analytics is that you can get leads from the last months which means you set this up and get your results instantly.

Lead Magnet Forms

Once you start getting traffic, you must prepare to get a recurring audience. Every visitor is an opportunity to grow your business and his life as well. People must go away with something valuable from your site. It could be an ebook, case-study, cheat sheet, or something else.

You may have seen big brands giving out valuable things to their visitors for free. It helps to grow the authority, getting recurring visitors, and quality leads from there.

Here’re some tools:

#7. Sumo Plugin (freemium)

Sumo is a suite of free tools that can be used to grow your website traffic and generating leads. It’s easy to setup and has features like Welcome Mat, Scroll box, Smart bar, social share buttons, and more. You can integrate your list with email service provider such MailChimp, Aweber, Active Campaign, and all other big email service providers.

#8. Lead Pages (Premium)

Lead Pages is a landing page creator that has an intuitive, drag-n-drop feature which helps you to generate simple and complex forms in minutes. It has hundreds of templates you can choose from and start instantly. It also supports popup box and integrates with your website and email service provider.

#9. TypeForm (freemium)

Another form generating tool you can use to create multiple types of forms like lead generating forms, survey forms, registration forms, quizzes, and more. The interface is minimal, and its drag-n-drop feature helps to design forms quickly. It provides an embedded code so you can display your forms on your website, social media channels, and other places.

Emailing

Email marketing is an old, yet the best strategy to get new clients and grow your business. A study says that email marketing has 4400% ROI. It means for every $1 you spend, you get $44 in return.

Let’s see some tools to help you in your email game.

#10. MailChimp (freemium)

As your email list grows, it becomes hard to handle it and sending emails turns into a nerve wrecking process. MailChimp is an email marketing automation tool that helps you to organize your email list, sending automated emails, analyzing conversion reports and more.

With a free version, you can have up to 2000 subscribers and send 12,000 emails per month. As you grow, you can upgrade your account.

#11. Hunter (freemium)

What if you’re having trouble to find an email address of someone in the company? Hunter comes there to rescue in that situation. You enter the domain name, and it tells you the company’s email format and available email address on the Internet.

#12. MailMentor (free)

The conversion rate of an email is dependent on its subject line and the body. If you’re worried about crafting better emails, use MailMentor as a helping hand. Its algorithm checks your email quality on various parameters and suggests you changes to turn your emails a little better.

Social Networks

Probably the easiest and quickest way of generating leads. Most businesses use social media for branding only, but social networks can be your great weapon for generating leads. Many growth hackers are already using it. Here’re some tools to help:

#13. LinkedIn Pulse (free)

As you know, LinkedIn is a platform for making professional connections. It has a publishing platform called “Pulse” where you can post your content and get recognition in the community. The more quality content you publish, the more eyes you get. It’s a great way of enhancing your credibility and reaching out to hundreds of quality leads at once.

#14. Buffer (freemium)

The most important part of building authority on social networks is consistency. You’ve to provide valuable content to your audience consistently. Only then you may get some recognition and quality leads.

Buffer is a tool that helps you to schedule and automate your social messages publishing on your selected platform. You can connect your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Plus, and Pinterest account there.

#15. Facebook Ads (Paid)

Some people think that Facebook is just for spreading fake news. Well, it’s much more useful than that. Facebook has billions of users, and if you implement right thing in the right order, you may get dozens of quality leads there. Through Facebook Ads, you can reach to your targeted audience quickly by just spending a few dollars.

Another idea to run a contest on Facebook. If you’re giving a good deal, it may go viral, and you’ll get plenty of sign ups.

#16. Quora (free)

Quora is the most popular Q&A community on earth. It covers a wide range of niches. No matter what industry you belongs to, you’ll find your audience here.

You need to find boards and topics related to your niche and start getting engaged there. Ask questions and answer what others are asking. Soon you’ll be known and taken as an expert, which will help you to get quality leads.

Starting a business and taking it to the heights isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work, time, and money. You’ve to keep yourself in the searching and learning mode all the time. I hope this post will help you in the journey. Share your experience in the comment box.

It’s an achievement to Airbnb to acquire Montreal’s Luxury Retreats

Have you ever noticed most of the entrepreneurs and limited partners often ask the same question: what should they do to get the successful exit? The answer is quite simple, it’s optionality.

Is optionality time-consuming?

There will be the complex opportunity of identifying the early-stage tech entrepreneurs, with them we feel confident enough to partner with over the long-run so that both the partnering companies will have the good name and they can expand their business as they desire. The opportunity of selecting the entrepreneurs comes with the challenge of identifying the entrepreneurs with whom we have chemistry, affinity, similar values, and the alignment of interest. Nowadays, there are many emerging entrepreneurs, but the size of each fund and the time commitment will make the companies to partner with a limited number of entrepreneurs and thus there will be a finite number of entrepreneurs per fund. Another complexity is that we need to be selected by the entrepreneur as well.

Not your usual acquisition deal

Usually, the nascent partnership with the founder will happen after the years of efforts in supporting and enhancing the company’s growth and vision. The VC supporting their entrepreneurs in developing the category-leading companies, sound boarding and focus on the three core elements is mandatory they are attracting talent, attracting capital growth, and helping build corporate relationships.

The exit stage is the most challenging one, in which the whole set of dimensions, comes into play. Some believe that exit is not the best term as an entrepreneur should not have to sell his/ her company, but rather you should up the possibility to get acquired or should have the opportunity to IPO to enable their next chapter.

We understand that it will be difficult for the CEO to get into the mindset of early relationship building that may bring new offers. Building towards the optionality is the time-consuming one because it needs the support of the resources and can divert from the daily operations, but the CEO has the option to say no to the unrequested offer that is quite powerful.

Optionality for luxury retreats

The CEO of luxury retreats, Joe Poulin said that they didn’t raise any venture capital in 2010; at that time they have an option of choosing the investors to fund their vision. Now, Airbnb has acquired Luxury Retreats after many successful attempts. Managing partner of iNovia, Chris Arsenault, was an early investor of Luxury Retreats said that their relationship building with Luxury Retreats has resulted in an investment in the first quarter of 2012. With enough capital on hand, Joe started to pull the high-quality board of directors Hugh Crean, Peter Kern, and Bertrand Cesvet. Chris also has the opportunity to join as a member of the board.

The board was in line with the vision that Joe has already set on and he expected the growth challenges ahead.

Planning the timing

Subsequently, the actions were implemented to solidify the team in order to enhance the growth. Over the few years, iNovia actively concentrated on the work. Joe and the board were helping to attract a stellar executive team with the deep sector expertise. It was really difficult, it took few rounds to attract the right team members, but they eventually found there.

Luxury Retreats were requested a number of times over the years to be acquired and this made them think ever better. It forced the management to check their growth path, which the company has followed over the years. And take decisions concern to how it will step into the next level. This resulted in accelerating the Luxury Retreats. The second financing round was led by iNovia in 2015. This time the company invented three of their limited partners into the round to invest in the fund and it resulted in financial closing internally.

During this whole journey, Joe never moved aimlessly from his original vision of developing and owning the most elegant luxury travel experience for all his guests. He has the ability to attract the top talent, develop technology-based experiences, and concierge management. And he has the ability to build the strong strategic relationships that proved very valuable. According to Joe, building the strategic partnerships was the second nature. Earlier, Luxury Retreats has partnered with HomeAway, VRBO, and Airbnb for their reach and distribution.

Closing the big deal

Joe, the CEO, and co-founder of the profitable company has evaluated every acquisition opportunity and the financing offer as if it was the last. He encourages the relationships and he will make sure the competition and deep pocket acquirers should know about Luxury Retreats, its entire performance, and results. He also makes sure the investors and the key industry players should know about the company and he ensures that the key industry players knew about the company and they are inspired by the team’s execution activities and should know that the company had the exit opportunities and also the financial options. All these relationships were developed over long periods of time and basically, they require a working relationship first. This allows both the sides to understand each other better and better and above all, it discovers the strategic value, which you can bring to a potential acquirer. It considers the unique skills to build the feasible options prior to engaging the company into following any of them. Sometimes, the founders may focus on the narrow set of options, but Joe followed them all.

Making hard business decisions

Optionality was one of the Luxury’s biggest strengths and when Airbnb approached Luxury Retreats to investigate how much deeper the initial commercial relationship can extend. Joe’s vision for the Luxury tourism services was very much clear and for sure the Co-founder of Airbnb, Brian would have fallen in love with it. Along with the powerful management team, and the high growth potential of combining both the partnering companies. The coincidence of interests and the key assumptions would have made Airbnb acquire Luxury Retreats.

To get acquired by another company doesn’t mean that you should have to put up for sale, but as a CEO it means that having an opportunity to review and decline the uninvited order. And if the company is in the situation of optionality requires the investment in the correct time and it also requires the proper effort towards building the key relationship along the same way. iNovia is proud to work with the highly promising company, Luxury Retreats.

The acquisition

With the support of the Luxury Retreats acquisition, Airbnb will gain more than 4,000 best properties in the world. It has the unique technology and the knowledge of 260 main employees with the immense luxury travel and concierge expertise, the vision and clear understanding of the executive team will help to grow this segment like none in the industry have done.

Luxury Retreats, the second transaction iNovia has been involved next to Airbnb. It is an added advantage for the Airbnb to have such a substantial footprint in their history. Great ecosystems happen when this kind of healthy and wise transaction happen. And it is time for the Montreal to raise the bar again. This acquisition will be one of the footpaths in the history of both Luxury Retreats and Airbnb. And it will also help the tech community to grow further. And this acquisition may have the multiplier effect on the Montreal tech ecosystem.

Gaining visibility for your app is increasingly more difficult

So you’re ready with a new app. But have you thought about what you will do to make a huge number of people see your app in order to make its launch a success? Your app launch can either be all “fire” or “all smoke, no fire”; depending on the number of people it reaches after the launch.

The unfortunate reality is, most apps don’t ever really take off, and the reason is there’s no one there to drive the app marketing engine.

Think of your app as a car that requires a driver behind the steering wheel. It can only reach a destination when the driver actually knows what they are doing and where they are heading. Launching your app is the same. If you’re not driving that process, or if you don’t know what you’re doing, your chances of making a splash in the competitive app market are slim.

The booming competition on the major app stores is also making it increasingly difficult for app developers to get significant organic views and download numbers. As a result, many are turning to paid user acquisition and ‘app install ads’ as solutions to this problem. There can be different campaign goals but there is one thing that everyone wants: minimal advertising costs.

How to be a smarter app marketer

Most of the app developers choose Facebook as their favourite advertising platform. The huge user base which is over 700 million daily users on mobile, amazing targeting options, and most importantly, the ability to deliver low-cost app installs and engagement, make it an ideal solution for app developers to make their app successful. On Facebook, if right strategies are used for advertising you app, it is possible to get over 100k people to see your new app within a budget of 100$.

But like anything else, there are learning curves if you want to optimise your Facebook app install ad campaigns.

There are several ways to improve your Facebook ads for apps and your ad campaign can either make it or break it for you when it comes to your app success. In this guide, we will look at the case study of a popular app that gained maximum visibility on Facebook, which can be used to learn the ways to get huge number of people see your new app on Facebook in a limited budget.

Let’s look at the success story of an app that made most of their Facebook ad campaign to find out what can be learnt from them to start a successful ad campaign for an app.

Case study: ServisHero

ServisHero is a mobile app that connects people to service providers for cleaning, air conditioner servicing, moving and more. It was launched in June 2015 and the app operated in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It provides quotations, profiles and reviews so people can hire with confidence.

Their Goal

As a new start-up, the team at ServisHero wanted to learn more about its customer profile and increase conversions on Facebook. It also wanted to increase app installs.

Their Solution

To identify its target audience, ServisHero team used location and interest targeting, showing ads to people within the Klang Valley in Malaysia. With a partner agency, the team tested a variety of core audience sets, such as young parents and people interested in South-east Asian start-ups, for instance, and used Facebook’s audience retargeting and exclusion capabilities. It found that people aged 25–40 engaged with the ads most. However, most of the job requests came from females aged 30–39.

The campaign used ads and an animated video to promote ServisHero’s key services on Facebook. The ad series demonstrated its variety of services with cartoon visuals that positioned the brand as friendly and accessible. The ads also highlighted ServisHero’s mobile app to encourage downloads.

Generating great content for your ad campaign

Their comical 30-second video featured 2 friends in a living room. The clumsy one makes a mess, and the other friend pulls out her phone to call ServisHero. The catchy video, with its upbeat music, demonstrated how easy it is to use the app.

‘Custom Audiences’ (a Facebook tool for app ads) helped ServisHero reach people who had previously requested its services to encourage them to make another booking. The company also used Lookalike Audiences to find potential customers similar to those who had already shown interest.

“Facebook Ads helped us know our customers better, increase awareness and drive transactions. Collaborating with our social agency, we have improved our business performance while reducing transaction costs. Given our success, we will be allocating a higher proportion of our digital marketing budget to our Facebook campaigns.”- Siddhant Hiremath, Digital Marketing Associate, ServisHero

Products Used

• Video Ads
• Carousel
• Audience Insights
• Conversion Tracking
• Custom Audiences
• Lookalike Audiences
• App Installs Ad

Goals

• Increase views and Raise Brand Awareness
• Drive Online Sales
• Promote Your App

Their Success

Using Facebook to identify its key audience, ServisHero saw a large increase in job requests and app downloads. The campaign, which ran from early February to the end of June 2016, achieved:

• 56% lower cost per job request
• 32X more mobile app installs
• 10% more job requests than from other ad platforms

“Facebook provides effective ways to reach, influence and convert audiences who need the professional services available on ServisHero. Using our prospect-to-conversion marketing recipe, we accelerated business growth, improved return on investment and moved the brand from zero to hero”-Oliver Cheah, Managing Director.

So, now the question that comes to mind is what can be done in order to be as successful as ServisHero with the help of Facebook? Read below to know:

Facebook Ads

Targeting is what makes Facebook Ads so powerful compared to other advertising platforms. Targeting is all about putting your ads in front of the right people.  The right people are the ones who will download, and use your apps.

Facebook offers a huge range of targeting options that was utilised by the ServisHero team. Let’s look at each type of targeting that’s available and what you can do with them.

• Demographics – Target people by location, age, gender, relationship status, the level of education, work, financial income and net worth, generation, whether or not they are parents, political preference, or certain life events.
• Interests – This is where it starts to get really interesting. You can target people based on what they are interested in. This data isn’t just guesswork, Facebook knows because people share this information openly. Use it to your advantage while targeting the audience for your ad campaign.
• Behaviours – In case that’s not enough for you, Facebook also allows you to target audiences based on behaviours. Here are just a few examples of some user behaviour you can target:
• People who often look up for services online
• People who have made a purchase at a high-end luxury store
• or young  parents who live in a household

Yep, all of those are actual targeting options taken straight from Facebook which turns out to be great for app developers and advertisers.

Tips To Help App Developers Improve Facebook App Install Ad Targeting:

• Determine who your perfect user is– Whether it’s through analytics or market research, you need to really get specific about what your most valuable app users look like. That will make targeting much easier and more effective for you. Once you know who the ideal users are, use demographic targeting to find them. Narrow down the demographic targeting as much as you can.
• Be specific with interest targeting- For example, let’s say you have got a running app. You could target people interested in ‘Fitness.’ But health & fitness is a broad topic, right? This means you probably wouldn’t want to show your ads to people who are interested in yoga. The good news is you don’t have to! You can get really granular and target people interested only in running, and that’s exactly what is recommended.
• Target users who are interested in your competitors- Interest targeting also allows you to target people based on products or services that they like. That means that you can often target people based on them being interested in a particular app.

For example, many game app developers used this to target an audience interested in the app ‘Subway Surfers’.  They knew people who liked that game would also enjoy other similar game. And it worked really well for them. With that campaign, they achieved installs from tier 1 countries (The USA, UK, Australia & Canada) for less than $0.40 each.

• Gain Attention with a Stunning Image or Video – Once you’ve got your targeting set up, it’s time to create the app install ad. The image or video that you use is going to be the first thing people see, so you have to make it count.

The role of the image or video is to get the attention of your ideal user and the video made by ServisHome worked for them. By ideal user, we do not just mean anyone. You could use a picture of a pink gorilla dancing in the street that will get the attention of a broad audience, but if 99% of those people aren’t interested in your app, it won’t be effective for your app install ad campaign.

How to create effective image and video ads for Facebook app marketing campaigns

• Observe your competitors to get an idea of what’s working. Leverage the work already done by big marketing departments by studying the images and videos they use for their ad. See what techniques they are using and apply them to your own images or videos.
• Don’t apply the same strategies to all apps. Once you start looking at competitors you will notice that particular techniques work better for particular app categories. Find what works for your category.
• Use something that is bright, eye-catching, and interesting. There is a lot going on in the Facebook feed, so you will have to make something that stands out from the crowd.
• Make it relevant. For example, if your app is a running app, it would be appropriate to show a fit person running than someone sitting on the couch watching TV.
• Don’t use low-quality images or videos. This is going to set the first impression of your app. If you use a blurry, poor quality image or video, people will assume a similarly low level of quality from your app.
• Capture The Click With Great Text

After looking at your app install ad’s image or video, the next thing people do is read the ad title and body text. After the image does its job of capturing attention, it comes up to the text to convince a person to click on the download option.

Writing sales copy for your app ads

You need to communicate the most appealing features of your app in as few words as possible. Here are the tips:

• Think about what features appeal to your audience most and tell them about those features as briefly as possible.
• Always include a call to action. When you create the call to action, use something they enjoy doing instead of just “download now!”

If you’re advertising a multiplayer racing game, think -what your ideal user like doing? It can be racing with their friends. So as a call to action, you can put “Click here to race your friends now!” as that would be much more appealing to your audience than just a boring “Download Now”.

Make Sure Your Non-Keyword ASO Is Amazing

This is something that is often overlooked, but it is crucial for your app success. ASO (App Store Optimization) means managing everything that a person sees on the app store page for your app.

This can include the icon, title, app description, and average rating.

When a user clicks on an App Install ad on Facebook, they are taken to the App Store page for your app. They will then see all of these things before deciding whether or not to take the final step and download it.

It’s great to have an effective Facebook ad, but all the efforts will be in vain if people get to your app store page and don’t download because you haven’t optimised your non-keyword ASO. Don’t let a bad icon or app description ruin an otherwise great ad campaign.

Final recommendations

Another thing here is the importance of your app’s average rating. The average rating is displayed in both the App Store page and Facebook ad.

Having a 4 or 5-star average rating will have a positive effect on your ad campaigns because people love social proof. If someone sees an ad for your app with a 5-star rating shown below, they are much more likely to click.

Spend some time creating different ad combinations and always run at least three per campaign. On top of testing different ads, you should also test different targeting strategies for your Facebook Ad Campaigns. Like the ads themselves, it’s unlikely that you will create the perfect targeting strategy on the first attempt.

Therefore, take the time to tweak and test your targeting based on the data that you get from the reports. The more you can optimise your targeting, the cheaper those installs or engagements will become.

Conclusion

And there you have it. Use these key components of a Facebook Ad campaign for your app to get better results.

There’s a lot to take in and try out, but remember not to get intimidated. You can always start small until you get confident or use an agency to help.

Campaigns can be run for just a few dollars per day, so why not start experimenting.

There are higher chances that with proper planning and effective implementation of Facebook ad strategies, your app will get enough views to be added to the list of most popular apps in the world.