Beginner Guide: Building Your Business App

Congratulations! Your business has finally decided to go mobile and implement a mobile app into your digital marketing for 2014. But you might be faced with some questions about starting out, which is why we have you covered. 

Many businesses out there are finally catching on about mobile apps and the effectiveness of their use. They are not simply a glorified mobile website, but rather a problem solving money making machine when used right. What you must take into consideration when starting out with your businesses mobile app is beginning to think like the app user. You want to build the app with features that are both useful and helpful solving daily problems. 

Useful Features

But what are these useful features? Well, that would depend on the industry you're in. But for example, restaurants would greatly benefit from mobile ordering as it allows app users to order food in minutes from their device. This saves the restaurant time and money because it keeps employees off of the phone and reduces order error because the end user is placing the order. If you are a hair salon, possibly introducing a mobile app scheduling service to clients would allow them to book on the fly. If you run a hotel, think about adding a room service app ordering feature. 

There are tons of ways apps can be useful, but when building yours for your business just keep in mind the end user during this process. What would you like in your app if you were the customer? 

Did you know Grand Apps actually offers all of the features we mentioned above. Give us a call today and let us brainstorm with you the industry your in and the features that can help. 

Engagement

You also want the app to be filled with engaging opportunities that harness social media sharing. We are all witnessing the power of social media sharing right before our eyes. It is the modern day word of mouth marketing for your business. When people share something with their friends, they are recommending those close family and friends to try your business out. Our apps are packed with social sharing opportunities and your businesses app should be too! 

Another amazing engagement feature we found useful for businesses was the integration of push notifications. We allow our clients to send out unlimited push messages to app users. You can inform app users about specials, services and even holiday messages. Push notes beat SMS marketing any day of the week! It's hard enough to get people to 'opt-in' to your SMS plan because they know they will be getting coupons & specials. Some people just get annoyed with these. But push notifications are more than plain messages. You can add useful content like links, pictures and even link to your app. 

Takeaway

When you decide to build your businesses mobile app, make sure you are packing it with tons of useful features that will engage customers to keep them coming back! Again, we offer a full mobile app marketing suite that is packed with features like this. Feel free to give us a ring or shoot us an email at support@grandapps.com

Thanks for the read & best of luck in 2014! 

Get Plugged In!

It's time to get plugged in & stop resisting change. 

Many times we often hear entrepreneurs & business owners say statements like "I hate technology" or "I don't need to upgrade, I'm fine with where I'm at". Maybe your target market are all older and the likely chance of them using an iPhone is low, but reality is that times change and so do markets. It is better to get plugged in now, adapt & learn before it's too late. As a business owner you should always strive for continual growth for your business in every way possible and yes technology is one of those areas.

So for all of you resistant business owners out there, we just wanted to show you that adapting to mobile technologies is a must and pain free.

Begin with a Smartphone

The reason many business owners do not see value in a mobile app for their business is because they simply do not have a smartphone device. They do not use apps and it seems as a foreign language to them. But reality is, tons of people are using mobile phones & apps. 91% of Americans use cell phones and the number of people switching to smartphones is exponentially growing year by year. Currently, 34% of Americans go online primarily using their smartphone. This is amazing! Just a few years ago you could only access the web from a desktop or laptop computer. Now people use their mobile device over the other devices.

Start by buying yourself a smartphone, downloading apps & seeing the value. These apps provide so much value for your life! You can deposit checks from your device, transfer funds, check business analytics and much more. Just think, no more bank trips three of four times per week. Think how much gas you would save! So get mobile & get plugged in.

Next, is your business mobile?

Now that you are familiar with using mobile technologies, you'll find yourself using it almost daily. Checking emails, browsing the web and even catching up on your favorite Netflix series. But it is time to focus efforts on your business. Go to your website on your mobile phone and see if it is optimized or not. By optimized, we mean if you have to pinch and zoom...it's not mobile optimized for customers, leaving a very poor mobile experience that can turn away business.

You might even find it frustrating yourself that you cannot see your web page from your phone. So now it's time to begin your marketing for mobile. We recommend contacting a great company like Grand Apps to help you out or another local web firm to help you out. We suggest planning your steps before beginning. Here is a layout order for your mobile presence.

-New Website
-Mobile Freindly**
-Mobile App for your Business

So if your website is outdated, get a new modern website. After make sure it is responsive or mobile. Then launch your mobile app. Even though we are a little biased when it comes to mobile apps, we still recommend making sure you have a strong mobile presence before the app stage.

Takeaway...people are changing, so should you. 

The main takeaway here is that people are changing. They are adopting mobile apps, surfing the web with their smartphone and using for many other things. It's time to stop being resistant to change if you wish to grow your business. Taking small steps (with an open mind) can do wonders for growth. We hope this helped a little and we really hope to see you on the other side, the mobile side. Great success to your business and if you have any questions please email our support team.

support@grandapps.com

How Many Small Business Websites Are Not Mobile Friendly?

A recent report released from a company BaseKit surveyed over 500 Small Businesses and a shocking 91% said their websites are not optimized for mobile users. This report covered a poll of small and medium sized businesses and questioned them about a variety of technology related topics, including the functionality of their website and more.

Out of this poll, only 2/3 said they managed and updated their websites & 2/3 of those business owners used social media to help with online marketing.

There is a missing gap between business owners & consumers. More customers than ever before are accessing the web via Mobile Phones & Tablets. 

Slowly but surely, small businesses are starting to understand the magnitude of this mobile movement and are picking up on this optimized trend. Recent numbers are showing that 50% of new traffic to the web comes from smartphones. We can also back this with a client of ours, read this article to see the mobile traffic numbers from their Google Analytics report.

There is no doubt in our mind that mobile is not just a movement, but it is a lifestyle shift. Users are unplugging from the wall of tangled cords into freely roaming the streets on mobile devices, accessing apps & the web. It does not take detailed reports to see the trend, just look around at all of the people who own smartphones & tablets. Mobile is here and it is here to stay for quite some time. There is still huge opportunity for the early adopter business owners to get mobile and gain competitive advantage over their slowly advancing competitors.

But for those business owners ready, contact Grand Apps today to learn how we can help!

Grand Apps Company Update

Spring is almost here, which means spring cleaning. Grand Apps is actually doing a little pre-spring cleaning ourselves and wanted to give you a full company update about what we have been up too as we have not posted in a few weeks. 

New Website

We are in the process of redesigning a new website for Grand Apps, which is projected to launch Mid March. We will email everybody on our email newsletter when this is ready. 

New Feature Update | Grand Apps 4.0 Software Update

This is possibly our largest feature update in Grand Apps history and we are in the final stages of implementation of it. We are in final stages of testing and will be launching this sometime in Mid March as well. Again, all of our app clients & followers will get an early insight to this. 

Checkout our latest article for our Grand Apps 4.0 Software Update. 

New Partnerships

Restaurants, listen up! We are forming a new partnership with Sysco Grand Rapids and will be offering special discounts for Sysco Members for mobile apps, website and all services we offer. 

New Blog

We will be switching the blog to our website instead of Blogger, for all of our followers on here we will still keep posting on there but senselessly transition to our website.

Better Customer Support

Thank you for all the support. We are working hard to make your user experience the absolute best which is why we need a new website, new features and even better customer support.

We are integrating Live Chat to our website so you can actually chat with us during business hours 9-5 Monday - Friday.

Thank you again for your patience as we transition in this new direction and we look forward to serving you better very soon. If you have any questions please email support@grandapps.com

Event Mobile Apps | App Features

Mobile Apps are making businesses more efficient in many different ways. We recently worked with Halloween On Ionia 2013, Grand Rapids largest Halloween party. This event featured a Halloween costume contest that gave away $5,000 in prize money. We were contacted by them in regards to building a mobile app that would make their event run smoothly for event voting. 

The event voting was strictly limited to mobile, no pen or paper submissions. So, Grand Apps built them a simple voting platform that utilized live number tracking. Every hour required live results to pick a winner every hour for five hours. This event had over 10,000 submissions on the mobile app voting platform and worked perfectly. The HOI2013 mobile app saved tons of tress by allowing users to vote on the mobile device. HOI2013 also utilized our Push Notification system by sending out live updates throughout the event. Every app user got updates when to vote, hourly winners and more exclusive updates. 

If you have an annual event, chances are that a mobile app can benefit you by helping your event run smoothly. Here is a list of some other app features we included. 

More App Features

-Send Pictures. This feature allowed app users to snap a picture with their device & submit it to the event with email approval. 

-Sponsor List. This list featured event sponsors for app users to browse. 

-Alerts. This was utilized with the Push Notification system. Users could get exclusive live updates for the event while attending. 

-Vote. This feature allowed users to vote for their favorite costume. 

-Share. This app feature allowed users to share the mobile app for Halloween on Ionia 2013 with Facebook & Twitter friends. 

-Events Calendar. All app users could check out upcoming events with the calendar feature on the mobile app. 

-Ticket Link. Mobile App users for HOI2013 could buy exclusive cheaper tickets using the app. 

Just for fun...here are some pictures taken with the app at the event. 

Hope you enjoyed! As always, if you need anymore information. Please contact Grand Apps with questions. Email support@grandapps.com

www.grandapps.com

So Your Business Is Shopping For Mobile Apps?

So after reading many of our articles about the mobile marketing movement in small business, yours is finally ready to pull the trigger on a mobile campaign. But you are now left with another decision, who to choose? Of course we want you to choose Grand Apps as your mobile app, website & mobile website provider but even if you don't we wanted to help guide you in the right direction.

Tip One - Credibility

As you already know, being credible in business is key to building a successful long term relationship. You want to make sure the company you choose has a strong dependable track record. Here are some questions you can ask the company you are seeking out to get you going on mobile marketing.

- How many mobile apps have you currently developed?
- How many businesses have you worked with?
- How many businesses in our industry have you worked with?
- Do you have any recommendations, news articles or publications about your company?

These questions can gauge the level of expertise that company has in mobile development & mobile marketing.

Tip Two - ROI

This is probably all you really care about as a business owner...the Return On Investment. Many people will not care if the company only has developed 10 mobile apps, but if it shows an ROI then your business is in. Make sure you check to see if the app has increased traffic to that business.

- Has your mobile marketing (mobile apps) increased foot traffic to businesses?
- Do you have solid numbers proving you increased that business with a mobile app?

These two questions alone are powerful enough to make a decision. If the businesses mobile app & mobile marketing strategies have actually increased traffic, people are using it and there are solid sales with a mobile app then that is really all you would need to invest in mobile.

Tip Three - Development Time / Implementation Time

You can't buy time, even with trillions of dollars. We understand that and want to help you out with this. The world has become so fast paced with technology that business works 24/7 with no sleep. So it is crucial that you gain a competitive advantage before your competition. This is done by showing up to the party first aka going mobile first. So, make sure you ask your potential developers this.

- How long until my app is live in iTunes & Google Play, ready to download and start marketing?
- How much time will it take to make changes to my mobile app?
- Any other time constraints I should know about in development?

These questions will help every business owner gauge how fast this app developer can work. Some are faster than other and some are slower than others. Just make sure their time of development fits your marketing efforts internally.

Tip Four - Is it affordable? 

You are a small business owner with limited capital in any investment, we understand this. But still many other developers or companies do not. We have worked with many small businesses with large budgets & very small budgets. This is your ultimate determining factor...can you afford it? So we recommend asking these questions to the potential company you will be working with?

- How much is it?
- Will you work with me?

Don't be shy as a business owner to tell the truth and try to work out a payment plan. That company should be open & willing to work with you. We believe they would if they truly understood small businesses and how they work.



Summary

So we have concluded four key tips for shopping around for companies that will help you kick start your mobile marketing efforts.

- Are they credible?
- Is there proven ROI or ROI Features?
- Implementation Time?
- What is the investment?

These might be basic, but still many people forget asking these basic questions. If you want to find out our answers for each of these questions to see if we live up to the standard, simply email our support team at support@grandapps.com.

Thank you all for reading & we look forward to working with your company soon.

*If you want exclusive Grand Apps mobile marketing & mobile app updates just subscribe below by entering your email.

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How Can Mobile Grow Your Small Business?

Many small business owners truly believe that mobile would benefit their business in a positive way, but they just do not know how or where to start. Before we continue, let's break down some quick statistics from this year so far.

• Qualcomm says that about 29% of Americans check their phone right when they wake up & right when they go to bed, everyday. 
• Pew Research Center says that 44% of cell phone users have slept with their cell phone by their side so they didn't miss a notification. 

Let's just stop right here. Are you picking up on a common trend from just these two powerful statistics? Maybe you can look around your business during peak hours and take tally of how many people are on their smartphones. You will see couples on a date, both looking down on their smartphone at times. People are attached to mobile smartphones and this is an opportunity of a lifetime for small businesses to cash in. 

So we know that almost everyone is on a mobile smartphone or going to be on one soon. Don't believe everybody is going mobile? Even the large cell phone companies are advertising people hate their "dumbphones". Remember this commercial from T Mobile? Guy gets robbed for his phone but the robber won't even take his non smartphone. 

So in this conclusion, we can all agree that everybody is going mobile and will be very soon. So where do I get started and how can I grow my business with mobile? 

That is simple. 

We have mentioned this in past articles, but maybe you  missed it. Grand Apps highly recommends that you begin with two main center-points for your mobile marketing campaigns; Mobile Website & Mobile App. 

Mobile Website

It is crucial today that every business has a mobile website, if not you're getting left in the dust. Over 50% of Google's searches are on a mobile device and you can believe that if they come across your site and have to pinch and zoom they will not be happy. We found in our research that if your business does not have a mobile website that consumers will turn to competition that does. Just think about it for a second, you stumble across a business but can't even view their website because you must pinch and zoom to find information, almost like finding waldo. 

People do not have time to sit there and try to find important information. Our society is fast paced and on the move, so you need to display relevant and important information in a user friendly way. If you do not know if your website is optimized, open it up on your phone and check it out. Chances are if you do not know, then it probably is not and you could have already lost a few customers by now. So we recommend you get a jump on this. It is only a baby step in growing your business with mobile but it is a start. 

Mobile Apps

Next we come across a more interactive way of introducing mobile marketing to your customers with a mobile app. These unique marketing apps are used for customer interaction. Grand Apps builds mobile apps for small businesses with over 40+ features targeted towards showing small businesses ROI with every feature. 

The reasons mobile apps can help you grow your business are unlimited but here are a few ways. 

• Push Notifications. With our platform you can send out Push Notifications sharing a message only with app users about your business. We remember reading that people even sleep with their phone to get notified and check it every morning. So our business owners can send out messages for example: "Merry Christmas from (Business Name)". This will keep your customers feel appreciated by your business and help keep them coming back. 
• Loyalty: It is always smart to reward your most loyal customers to make them feel appreciated to keep them coming back and bringing others in. Our mobile apps have tons of loyalty features that will help you even save money. Do you currently waste money ordering paper punchcards for your business? Stop. These are a waste of money because people always say, "Oh I forgot it". But how many times do people say "Oh, I forgot my phone". Chances are people think about their phone over a punchcard. Then they might get a new one and you just wasted more money. So if you have mobile punchcards, like the Grand Apps platform can build, you can save money ordering them and stop giving out doubles. 

These were just two reasons, remember we have 40+ features like this. 

Let's Grow Your Business!

So, we have concluded that virtually everyone will soon own a smartphone and it is important that you get started. As we mentioned, the first two ways to grow your business is to save money and retain customers. Getting a mobile website will stop driving customers away and a mobile app will retain customers with engagement. These two simple ways can help generate your business tens of thousands of dollars per year. 

We haven't even told you the best part. We really hate selling in our articles, so we won't...but we must inform you of some special information. Usually 9 times out of 10 it will take months or years to see your return on investment. But Grand Apps provides small businesses with a fast, easy and affordable solution for getting started in mobile and growing your business. 

Email our support center if you have any more questions. We have a full length PDF with all of our current app features. Just ask our support team for it. 

support@grandapps.com

Visit our website

www.grandapps.com

And lastly, don't forget to join our exclusive mobile newsletter from Grand Apps!  

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The Johnny Puck Mobile App

App Name: The Johnny Puck Hockey Tournament

App Industry: Event App

App Description: The Johnny Puck Hockey Tournament is a one of a kind. It is it's first ever 3 on 3 hockey puck tournament located here in Grand Rapids, MI. This is something you don't want to miss if you are a hockey fanatic who enjoys still playing. Download the mobile app today to register to play.

 

-Contact: This feature allows for one touch contact to the tournament. No more slow wifi loading times for their website. Hop on the app and call them today!

-Inbox: This is where all of the Johnny Puck Push Notifications will be stored. In case you missed an important update, open the app and click inbox to check them out. 

-Fan Wall: Are you a huge fan and want to show it? Go on the fan wall & leave them a comment. 

-Tournament Cam: They want you to snap a picture of the tournament and a friend playing. They will upload these images to the mobile app after the tournament. 

-More: Of course, we can't share what is in the more category. Go download to find out!

 

Malarky's Mobile App

App Name: Malarkys GR

App Industry: Restaurant App

App Description: Malarkys is a restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They have just launched their mobile app and are excited to start getting some app downloads. We have built in many useful features for their mobile app for users to keep coming back to.

- Contact: Users do not have to browse on slow websites or wait for connection times. They can simply open the mobile app, click contact and get a hold of Malarkys.

-Events: There will be current events posted in the Malarkys mobile app. Simply check on these events when you get a chance.

-RateUs: This feature is simply for customer satisfaction. Remember those old outdated feedback forms restaurants encouraged you to fill out? Yeah, those days are over. Leave the old pencil & paper behind and launch your app to give them some feedback!

-Share: This feature is for showing them some love. Share the app with your Facebook & Twitter friends so they can download the Malarkys mobile app to get all these benefits too.

-More: We cannot tell you what is in more, looks like you will have to download it to find out!

Click To Download Now

How To: Increase App Downloads

"How do I get people to download my app?" We hear this question very frequently and wanted to share with you some simple tips & techniques clients have been using.

Social Media

This might be very obvious to most of you but some have not thought about this yet. Business owners everywhere are understanding that Social Media is huge for their online marketing campaigns. You should be posting your mobile app links to your page. Here is an example of our client posting their iTunes app on their Facebook page.

As you see, they have 3 Likes, 2 Comments & 1 Share. This single post can generate more downloads for your businesses mobile app.

When do I post? 

General rule for posting these promotional download links is "put yourself in the customer shoe". Let's say you're scrolling through your Facebook page and see a business posting 2 times per week the same thing, would you get sick of it? We would! So, make sure you post accordingly to what you would want to see in your news feed. Posting once per month would be a great start to sharing the word about your mobile app.

App Share

We actually have an app feature called "tell a friend". App users click the "share" button. From here they're prompted an option to share with a friend by email, SMS, Facebook or Twitter.

Incentives

A business should somehow incentive customers to download their app. If you're a shopping store, maybe offer exclusive app prices for app users only. If you're a restaurant, maybe offer a mobile loyalty punch card that app users can get special discounts & free items when they reach a certain amount of punches. We have tons of ways & incentive features in our apps that will make your customers come back for more. Below are just a few examples of how to incentive your mobile app to generate more downloads.

• Customer Punch Cards
• Exclusive App Prices (Shopping / Retail)
• App Offers (Download our app for special coupons)

Website 

What is another high traffic place where customers visit frequently?   You guessed it, your website! Your website is a highly visible, high traffic area where promoting your mobile app would generate tons of app downloads. Below is a picture of our client who posted their mobile app links on their website.

Word of Mouth

Sometimes, good old fashion word of mouth works the best. Educated your employees to tell every single customer they encounter about the launch of your new mobile app. Once you deliver a great mobile app, your customers will do the talking for you. This approach has stood the test of time and we highly recommend this.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, we recommend you do the following;

1. Post links on your website
2. Educate your staff about the launch of your mobile app
3. Post your mobile app on all Social Media channels you are on
4. Send out app links in your newsletters
5. incentivize the mobile app for users

If you do these, we can almost guarantee you will see an increase of app downloads for your businesses mobile app. We also recommend you do what works best for you and find creative ways to increase your app downloads. If there are any ways we missed, simply comment below to share with us and everyone how you have increased your app downloads.

For any other questions, please contact support@grandapps.com or visit Grand Apps.

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Testimonial - Uccello's Ristorante

 

Why did you choose Grand Apps as your mobile development company? 

After looking at some of the mobile apps that Grand Apps had previously built, we were comfortable with their capabilities for overall design, content & service. As technology is continually moving forward, we're confident in Grand Apps to keep our mobile app updated to give our users a great mobile experience. 

What has been your experience so far? 

Incredible! We had a mobile app up & running in just a couple weeks. Grand Apps has been with us every step of the way in making sure all the information is correct, and has effectively trained us to manage our own app. 

Would you recommend Grand Apps to a fellow business owner?  

Of course we would. We love the fact that like Uccello's Ristorante, Grand Apps is a West Michigan based company.

 

How many stars would you give Grand Apps customer Service?

Five Stars!

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Testimonial - Fifth Third River Bank Run

Why did you choose Grand Apps as your mobile development company? 

 Fifth Third River Bank Run selected Grand Apps to create our app due to their knowledge and up-to-date app experience for the users.  Grand Apps made excellent recommendations to create an app that is user-friendly and relatable to those involved in the Fifth Third River Bank Run, and they continue to make excellent suggestions to further enhance the Fifth Third River Bank Run app!

What has been your experience so far? 

Fifth Third River Bank Run has had a great experience!  We have had more than 3,000 download our app, our users are engaged and we are excited for the updates and enhancements Grand Apps is able to provide.

Would you recommend Grand Apps to a fellow business owner?  

Absolutely!!  

 

How many stars would you give Grand Apps customer Service?

Five Stars!

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Feature Update

Feature Update

Hey Everyone;

Here at Grand Apps, we're very excited to announce a new feature update to our Push Notifications. We have possibly built the most robust push notification system known to mobile apps. We have had many requests from you, our faithful clients, and we listened. We have brought you a whole new push notification dashboard. Just because we love our clients so much, we even updated our analytic reporting within our apps. This article is a MUST READ! Checkout our latest updates & give us some feedback. 

Push Notifications, What's New?

•  Target Markets - You can now select either iPhone, Android or both platforms to send out push notes.
•  Social Media - You can now sync your Facebook & Twitter to your push notes. Now all of your app users will get the push notes, as well as your social media followers. 

•  Geo Targeting - You can select a specific area where to send the push notes out. The little Apple & Android will tell you how many app users were picked up in that specific location. 
• All App Users - You can still send push notes out to all the app users. 

• Website Links - You can now add website URL's in your push notes that will drive more traffic to your website. 
• App Links - You can now link the messages to certain areas within your app. 

•  Content - You can now send out pictures & more content within your push note. Example: Come in today from 4pm-6pm for a special offer! Show us this message to redeem. You can even send out holiday greeting cards from your business to your app users. 

Analytic Reporting, What's New?

•  Robust Reporting - We have stepped up our reporting dashboard allowing you to see how many iPhone & Android Downloads you have. You can even compare the two next to each other to see which market has the highest download rate. 
• Time Reporting - You can view reports based on Day, Month or Annual. 

•  Tab Analytics - Possibly the most robust feature in our new analytics reporting. You can now see where people are clicking within your mobile app! You can see which features draw the most attention and which do not. This could be a huge opportunity for our clients that sell ad space. You can sell higher ad price based on which tab is being used most. 

We hope you LOVE the new feature updates! Please drop a comment to let us know what you think. If you have any questions or want to learn how to get started, simply email our support center. 

support@grandapps.com 

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