Real Estate Agents & Mobile Apps: How A Mobile App Can Increase Your Business.

Mobile is big business and can help increase your real estate business. 

About one-fifth of real estate searches are done on mobile devices and smartphones. Over the past few years, mobile searching activity for property has increased year by year. Within the next few years, mobile searches are projected to overtake desktop searches.

What this means for your business. 

This means that you must form some type of mobile marketing strategy because soon the majority of your clients will searching for you via mobile devices. We also noticed this industry tends to be a slow mover into technology so if you get in now, you'll be way ahead of late moving competition. Get to the mobile party earlier than later.

There are huge benefits in going mobile!

The number of benefits in going mobile are countless, but here are a few to name some. Number one; having some type of mobile optimized web page or mobile app will be key in providing a great user experience for customers looking to buy. Nobody wants to browse a mobile app or website on their smartphone only to find out they must pinch and zoom to get information. Having an optimized website or app will provide a better customer experiencing, helping build your brand. Number two; when you develop a mobile app, you are developing the most powerful communication marketing tool we have today. You can send out property information to app users via Push Notifications. We also have custom push note feature built into our platform that allows you to fence areas around a house and when app users enter, they will receive information about that property. Read this article for more information about geo fencing technologies and push notifications.

Offer something NOBODY else offers. 

Again, as we just mentioned...the Real Estate market seems to be a slow mover in technology. Real estate agents don't be offended, this notion actually came from a recent client of ours. He understood the power of going mobile before anybody else in the market. He looked around and found no other agent was offering a mobile experience quite like his. So you want to make sure you are early to the party and launch your mobile app before anybody else. There is going to be a learning period when you are telling your clients about the app, getting them to download it and fully use it, so it is key you start sooner than later.

Still not sure about apps & your real estate business? 

Well just get in touch with Grand Apps and we will be happy to walk  you through an app demo, more statistics & benefits of a mobile app. Visit our website today, like us on Facebook or just email us at support@grandapps.com. We would love to show you the power of mobile!

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! 

New Mobile App User Interfaces

We are pretty excited for our new feature update that is coming soon and wanted to give you another sneak peak for our "more" navigation tab. Designing an easy to use user interface is not easy and making it simple, yet effective can be very challenging. Our apps have come a long way since we first launch Grand Apps in 2012 and our UI have improved drastically. If you have used some of our apps at your favorite local business, you will know that majority of our apps have a "more" button. This more button has all of the remaining app features in there.

More Button Changes
We are now changing the way this looks in our apps. The app screenshot above is a fitness app and notice how it has a "more" button. When you click that button you will be taken to the more page. Checkout below the before and after pictures of our newly designed more page.

Before

After

Users can now swipe to the left to get to the "more" screen with all of the app features. 

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

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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A Mobile App Development Company | Grand Apps

Grand Apps is a mobile app development company based right out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our humble beginnings started us developing mobile apps for local businesses to clients across the country and even a few international businesses. Since our early years, we have grown from a mobile app development company to a full fledged mobile marketing firm. We pride ourselves in being the Go-To for mobile app marketing in Grand Rapids and everywhere else in the world.

But let's take a step back very quickly for those of you reading who are not familiar with Grand Rapids, MI. Our city is one of the most up and coming cities in the US. We have made Forbes list a few times under the following;

• 4 out of 10 best cities for finding employment (Forbes, 2013) 
• 15 best cities with emerging downtown's (Forbes, 2013) 
• Number 1 city in the country for raising a family (Forbes 2012) 

These numbers don't lie, we can vouch that Grand Rapids is an awesome city! Grand Rapids is also exploding in Tech as well. This explosion is providing tons of opportunities for new mobile app development companies. There are many great marketing & tech companies throughout the city, with Grand Apps one of them. 

But don't take it from us...take it from some of Grand Rapid's businesses we have worked with. We have developed mobile apps for some of the best known restaurants in the city such as Brann's Steakhouse, The Score, Kitchen 67 and more. We have even developed the Fifth Third Riverbank Run mobile app as well as the Snap Fitness Michigan mobile app. We pride ourselves in helping local businesses out with their mobile marketing needs. We also take great pride in showing the world stage what we can do. 

What to look for in an app development company.

Enough background about Grand Apps. Let's get to the material that will help you, the business owner. We wanted to list a TOP 3 of what to look for in a mobile app development company. 

• Reputation - Make sure they have worked with some well known local businesses. Even if you decided to have your mobile marketing taken up from an out of state company, make sure they have a sufficient amount of reputation and experience. 

• Mobile Features - This relates primary to the mobile app side of the mobile marketing campaigns. Make sure that the company is always providing you new mobile app features. Also you should note, they should already include features that will show your business some return for your investment. 

• Support - The old saying is "you get what you pay for". If there is a monthly cost associated with your mobile app, ask why. Make sure you are getting mobile marketing support from your app developers. Too many companies will simply develop an app without producing or providing any type of marketing help for their clients. So you should make sure you are getting full support, tech too. 

We believe these quick tips will help you effectively choose your mobile app development company. Quick note: Grand Apps fits all of these categories, just saying.

If you would like to view some quick simple marketing strategies for mobile apps, Click Here.

As always, if you have any questions you can reach us at our website or email us. 

www.grandapps.com | support@grandapps.com

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New Mobile App Feature Update

New App Feature Update

Hey Everyone!

At Grand Apps, we're always looking at improving our app features and improving our mobile app management system. Below you will find our latest upgrades we have made over the past few months. 

• New Global Fonts
• New Instagram Integration
• New "Music Tab" Design
• New "Around Us" Tab Design

If you have any questions or would like to learn how to get these new features, simply contact support@grandapps.com for a quick reply! 

Thank you again for ALL of your support. We will continually work hard to keep updating our features to be your Go-To Mobile App Developers. 

New Fonts!

New Instagram Integration! 

New Event Icons!

New Music Bar Customization!

New Around Us Design

Chiropractic Marketing and How Mobile Apps Benefit Chiropractors.

First and foremost, we welcome all doctors and chiropractors. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post as well as watch our videos. We are very excited to announce our launch in the Chiropractic Industry and becoming the Go-To for Chiropractic Mobile Marketing. Grand Apps specializes in Mobile Marketing and Mobile App Development. Our apps are not simply informational apps that are non-engaging and leave the users bored, but our apps are useful, functional that leave the business owner with a great return on investment. 

If you have not watched the video series "Adjusted Marketing" on our Vimeo page, we will briefly cover it here in this post. 

The Idea

Dr. Jacob Canfield and I sat down one day to discuss how mobile marketing and mobile apps could benefit a Chiropractic business and solve a few issues Dr. Canfield noticed around the office. The main issues we found were;

• Easy Scheduling
• Increasing Awareness
• Increasing Traffic

After we settled that these were the three biggest issues faced, we decided to begin planning how we could help eliminate these from his office. After weeks of planning, we solved the problems and figured out how mobile marketing could help!

The Videos

Again, we believe we have solved these three main problems Dr. Jacob was having and believe we can help you solve them if you face these challenges in your chiropractic offices. But, we must require you to watch the videos first. (They are only 7 minutes each on average). Below are links. 

Mobile Marketing Tips | December 2012

Mobile Marketing Tips | December 2012

Grand Apps Followers,

Mobile app marketing should be apart of every business owners marketing strategies in today's world, which is why Grand Apps is here to provide our followers some inside mobile marketing tips that will help increase awareness of your app. This increased awareness will increase app downloads, which will help business owners increase more repeat traffic to their business. 

First, learn more about the: Mobile App Industry


QR CODES

An effective way to increase traffic to your app is by linking your iTunes app and Android App with a QR code. Here are some benefits of having a QR code linked to your app;

• Users can find it easy
• Users can download it quickly
• Users like scanning QR codes

We have also listed some QR code statistics below;

• Consumers ages 35-44 lead in QR code scanning, with 26% of the market
• QR scanning traffic has increased a dramatic 4,549% since Q1 2010
• In June 2011, 14Mm mobile users in the U.S., representing 6.2% of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR code on their Mobile Device
• 65% of smartphone users had previously seen a QR code

Marketing QR codes

Social Media: 

Post your QR Codes in all forms of Social Media from your business Facebook page to your company LinkedIn account. If you have social media, post the QR code there!

Marketing Material:

Post your QR codes in ALL marketing materials; Yellow Pages, Direct Mailers, Newspaper Ads, Service Trucks, Business Cards and everywhere else. If you have any type of marketing material you use, post a QR Code on there. 

E-News:

Send out an E-Blast to all of your subscribers with a huge QR code in the email encouraging people to download your app. 

Incentives:

When you give someone an incentive, they are twice as likely to do a task. In this case, tell everyone that "Scan the QR code to download our app to receive a coupon when you download it". People will flock to your QR code, scan it and download your app for the coupon. 

Grand Apps Update | December 2012

New Features Update | December 2012

Grand Apps Readers;

We are are very excited to announce our biggest launch of new feature updates this quarter! We believe companies should be focusing heavily on creating beautifully designed products, and that's exactly what we did in this update. We made tons of our existing features beautiful. Take a look at the images below for an overview of what the new update has to offer.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

-Grand Apps

Loyalty Tab Update

Reservation Tab Update

Email Photo Update

Contact Us Tab Update

Mailing List Tab Update

Fan Wall Update

Tip Calc Update

Music Tab Update

Podcast Tab Update

Info Tier Tab Update

New Layout Designs

Authorize.net Payments Integrated