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5 Most Productive Digital Marketing Strategies Along With Quick Tips for Startups

Digital Marketing
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Marketers believe that marketing has changed more in the past two years than in the last 50 years. Most of the startups are utilizing the power of digital weapons but not all tools in their arsenal are effective. In this article, we will put forth 5 of the most effective digital marketing strategies.

Inevitably accepted Email Marketing: Despite predictions of its death, Email marketing is still shining on the checklist of marketing experts. I can still see my email marketer delivering long spreadsheet of responses he gets out of his email marketing campaigns. The responses are generally blended with a variety of queries, requests for quotation, suggestions etc. Email marketing still delivers a handsome ROI, specially to the newly started businesses. Email marketing is not dead but has taken a new birth with personalization. Nowadays, more and more companies are indulged in hyper-personalization to get most of their email marketing efforts convert into sales.

Quick tips for startups:

A. Do-not buy readymade email databases from third parties. If you send your emails to the people who have no idea about what you do, then you will soon sound fake to them. I feel pity for one of my friends who registered herself on a matrimonial site and started getting emails from 3 more unknown sites. Selling or purchasing data is a false practice. Focus on people who have subscribed to your emails or shown interest in any of your advertisement or social media campaigns. Always give an option to unsubscribe at the end of your emails so that you may know when a person is getting irritated due to your emails.

B. Make your email look good with a clean, catchy and good design. It should not look like a boring lump of text. Create your own sleek templates or you can even hire a good Digital marketing company to carry out the designing as well as execution work.

C. Make your email subject line look exciting because you have just one millisecond to convince your potential client to click and open mail. It is half the battle to getting people click and read your email.

D. Make sure to send emails from a person’s account rather than some no-reply@whatever.com. People prefer to engage only when they trust that you are a real person and not some robot.

E. Make sure to include a strong call to actions like “Get your free course now” which strikes the reader’s mind firmly

Social Media Marketing for an effective brand promotion:  According to a report by Statista, it has been found out that 90% of marketers believe that Social media marketing is important for a business. It majorly gets its significance in branding of business. Especially, if you are a startup and want to get known in the industry or among audience, you need to focus upon your social media strategies. More importantly, Social media sites give you a wide range of advanced filters to refine your audience at a deep level which enables a better targeting & increases the chances of 50-80% conversion.

Quick tips for startups:

i. If you are a startup then beware of your own random acts of marketing like tweeting about the launching date of your brand or about your USPs. Every step is to be well taken. Do extensive research of your target market, their choice and preferences. Notice their response on your competitor’s posts and efforts.

ii. Once you are aware of your target audience, you need to see where do they remain active the most. Find out which platform they are using. Instead of coming up with a rigorous marketing on all the platforms at once, you need to focus on one or two good platforms that are relevant to your business. Suppose, you are coming up with CRM solution then you need to target professional class, probably the ones who are running their own firms. You will find such crowd either on LinkedIn or Twitter. On the other hand, if you are about to launch a picture/video editor then chances are you must be targeting the young people which can be found on Facebook or Instagram.

iii. At the initial phase of your marketing, create a high level social media marketing plan which can include your daily or weekly goals of acquiring 10-100 followers. Draft platform based marketing plans as per your research.

iv. Be consistent with your posts as per the crafted marketing plan. After you have delivered your brand message, it is the time to keep your audience engaged with consistent posts.

v. Usage of social media automation tool is highly recommended. These tools come up with such features that you have to invest time in crafting your strategies and posts, the rest of the work is managed such tools. These tools help you schedule and deploy updates from one single dashboard.

Pay-per-click for making a quick reach to your target audience: PPC also profoundly known as Google Adwords is a widely accepted tactic nowadays to swifty reach target audience. It allows you running advertisements on Google listing as well on various relevant sites on which your potential audience comes. It is known for generating sales ready leads. For example, when you type any keyword over Google like “Buy Black Shoes”, what you see at the top are search ads tagged with symbol ‘Ad’. If done properly, PPC can build heaven for you but it can destroy your venture and eat all your budget if not done with care. If we talk about startups, they generally come with little budget. So here are some tips on how to run PPC on small budget.

Quick Tips for Startups:

a. You cannot hit and try too much as far as PPC is concerned because it constantly eats up your marketing budget. Being a startup, you need to spend enough time understanding Google Adwords like how the Ad auction works, how to set up negative keywords, how to run a successful campaign and more. So, hit the library and start reading. If you do not want to spend time in reading then there is a quicker way to reach your goals- Hire a leading Digital Marketing company & it will not only assist you but also would also bring results.

b. Focus on what problem are you solving or what changes are going to bring in the existing market. Do not just keep pushing your product name or category on to people, instead focus on the problem solving keywords. For example, if you are selling a weight loss tracking bracelet then rather than targeting “Weight loss tracking bracelet”, you need to target “Weight loss help” or “Weight loss equipments”.

c. What startups are generally restricted at is budget. They generally make a big red flag with creating a big list of keywords and running multiple campaigns. This is the reason why most of the businesses are scared of running PPC. Your campaigns should always be determined with budget with two-three campaigns at starting.

d. Keep an eye on your competitors! If you are a startup coming up with a unique offering then you will not have direct competitors but if you are into something mainstream then obviously how can you can your Ad alongside Northface or Levis. Show you ad along with the companies that are lesser known or new to the market.

Search engine optimization for stable business generation: Now that you have built a website with a great design, it is also important to make it visible. You cannot rely on advertisement for long hence it is important to appear in organic searches. Search engine optimization is a set of techniques adopted to make your website appear high on search engine results mainly, Google results. Any digital marketing company you approach would first work on the on-page issues of the site so that it can be made search engine friendly. Later, time is spent on link building and other activities so that high ranks can be achieved and hence leads can be generated.  

Quick Tips for Startup:

1. A startup needs to first decide on to its goals and desired outcomes from SEO. For example, an ecommerce website owner would aspire to get transactional sales out of his efforts whereas big publishers care all about personalization and traffic. SEO goals can be even broader depending upon the business line. It can be done for increasing the topical authority of a website or increasing awareness in a particular industry.

2. Take some required foundational actions such as Setting up Google Analytics, Google conversion tracking, Search Console, Marketing automation tool, CRM etc to execute and analyse your strategies.

3. Perform a high level SEO audit including a check for duplicacy, robot.txt, meta robots, broken media assets, 404 pages, improper redirects etc. These are some of the onpage factors that affects your site’s ranking. Before proceeding with linking, influencer marketing or other costly tactics, you need to first make sure that the website is at least search engine friendly.

4. Check website’s UX, navigation and most importantly, mobile friendliness. Nowadays, it is the most important thing for your target market as well as for Google. Google is nuts behind providing a great User experience to its users. Even if the user jumps on your app or website somehow, only a good UX and navigation can keep him/her engaged. You can consider tracking the engagement with heatmap or may be mouseflow which would help you understand the weak points of the website.

5. Search for the relevant directory and make sure you get listed and linked there. Search for the influencers of your niche and convince them to put your product/service’s reviews on their sites or social media platforms. With the high usage of social media, influencer marketing is gaining popularity, since they have a great followers base.

Content Marketing to create a long term relationship with your potential audience: When they say Content is King! It is not a statement to ignore. Content is the base for all types of marketing you perform. It helps you develop a long lasting relationship with your target audience. Apart from hundreds of other benefits, it also lets you build an authority and credibility in your niche.

Quick Tips for Startups:

!. If you are a startup then chances are that you must be a big lost in terms of what content is to be written. It is simple! You need to visit and analyse some of the great doing blogs of your niche. Means, suppose you are coming up with a digital marketing blog then you should be following Moz, Searchengineland, Searchenginejournal and more such blogs which are already doing well.

!!. If you are new to the industry then Guest posting is a great opportunity for you to reach a great audience. Guest posting is done on high authority and high traffic sites relevant to your niche. These sites might or might not charge you for the blogs. You need to seek such sites and ask them for a link so that people can travel from their blogs to your site. There are a number of guest blogging opportunities out there and some of them would be found in the form of “Write for us”, “Contribute”, “Guest Blogging” or “Become a competitor”.

!!!. Content does not mean posting a 100 words text on social media. Its is about pictures, videos and infographics as well. When you scroll down to social media, which type of content catches you attention the most- A 100 words post or an infographic with a catchy and engaging presentation? More likely, the infographic!

!!!!. Consistency is the key to success if you are doing content marketing. If you are able to generate engagement then you should make such type of content available to the readers on daily basis else they might feel betrayed. It was just yesterday when I cleared out  some of the unnecessary pages that I once followed on Instagram as there is no regular content I am getting from those.

Influencer Marketing as it is catching on really very fast:

Influencers are the ordinary people who have power to influence the decision of buyers. They operate according to various industry lines like Fashion, Travel, Food, Healthcare and more. Generally, they are seen to increase and serve their followers through their websites, apps or mostly social media platforms. Big brands are still indulged in celebrity endorsements while the new entrants use the power of influencer marketing. Even the popular brands now know its importance. It is a great off page tactics these days which leads to a good branding for a business. Suppose, you provide digital marketing services then chances are- you will reach out to Neil Patel to review your ideas or may be give you a link.

Quick tips for startups:

a. Start with finding the influencers that are ideal for your industry. There are several tools available on the internet to filters influencers on that basis of engagement rates, platforms, category and location. You need to keep your focus on both relevance and popularity.

b. You need to provide freedom in terms of creativity to your influencer. Do not impose your thoughts on them as they know their audience more than you. You just need to tell them about your products/services and USPs. Rest, suggestions should be given but not forced. People do trust influencers for expertise and authenticity. Almost all the good influencers spend a lot of time on crafting their post to best suit the audience.

c. Choose to start with micro influencers of your niche who have a 1k to 100k of followers rather than celebrities. A study has found that 82% of people are more likely to follow micro influencers than celebrities. Choose micro influencer would increase the chances of conversion as they know your target market the most.

d. Influencer bloggers are always seeking for fresh content so you can consider guest blogging for them. If you are coming up with something new in your industry then your chances of getting published automatically increases.

e. If you do not have monetary values to deliver then you can consider providing free products to the influencer in return of the reviews. Some influences might agree whereas some might not. It is a technique adopted by Startups generally who do not have much funds to spend on paid advertisement of the products.

Startups have started emerging more than ever before because of the rising business opportunities. It is not just to come up with an idea and maintain digital presence, you also need to promote and market your products well enough to reach your target audience. If you fail to make a reach to your target audience then it is a waste of time and effort even if you reach 1000 of irrelevant people in a day. The above given tips would be helpful for you to step into digital marketing world. Do not forget to mention in the comment box about  which strategy do you think is the most effective out of all.

Also Read: Whatsapp Business Model : How Does Whatsapp Work And Make Money?

##  How does Amazon Work: A Look into Amazon Business Model and Revenue Analysis

## Facebook Business Model: How Does It Work & Earn Money?

10 Quick Ways to Market An App in Post Launch Phase

Mobile Application Development
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In our previous article, we presented the ways to market your app in the pre-launch phase. Incase, you have missed it, here you go. After your app is there in the market struggling to get prominent among people, it is the time to carry out rigorous marketing. If you want quick results then it better to hire a professional mobile app marketing company. For your information & awareness, we are putting some of the crucial must-haves in your marketing strategy.

App Store Optimization:

When your app is live on app stores, you need to perform app store optimization just like you need search engine optimization for your website to highlight it on Google. It includes insertion of target keywords with appropriate density in your app title, description, content and many other practices. For ASO, mobile app marketing companies use a descriptive title, relevant keywords, add preview video of the app, use app store analytics and more things that support your app’s high ranking over App search engines.

Selection of appropriate app category:

You need to choose the right category for your mobile app according to your target segment. It should be a forsighted decision so that you can reach the type of people who are interested in what you are coming up with. It would be helpful for the mobile users who are browsing apps through category. If you think that your app belongs to more than one category than consider putting it in the least competitive one so that you have higher chances of being at the top.

Social media promotion:

Nowadays, you can fetch most of your traffic from social media as people remain engaged on it for more than 15 hours in a day. It is a good idea to include giveaways and offers to attract the potential people. You need to share your unique most and interesting blogs on social media as well which is also a great way to bring people from your social media account to your website. You can also adopt other interesting ways such as posting a video trailer and spreading it through social media and influencers. It should be full of excitement and energy with a call to action button within itself or in the description. Once you have started with posting, you have to be consistent so that the connected users do not lose interest and choose someone else over you.

Paid marketing:

Since reaching people organically needs patience, in the initial days after launch you can go for paid marketing so that you can reach people and increase your installs. You can go for Search Ads which are paid advertisements within the app store. You can bid for your keywords so that whenever user types that particular keywords on app store, your app can appear. Talking about social media, Facebook and Instagram are considered to be very effective marketing channels. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook only, it is very easy to put app install ads on both.

Create your presence everywhere:

Create your appearance in webinars, interviews, podcasts both before and after the launch of applications. Choose the platform where you think most of your target audience is present.

Guest posting is important:

Since the app is live, you can search for the high PA DA sites and consider them for the quality backlinking purpose. Post unique and interesting content on those sites which allow guest posting with links back to app or its landing page. It would help you create an authority in the market. It is rather beneficial to go for the sites which are relevant to your business.

Get your app reviewed by influencer:

Influencers are the people who have great following in a particular domain. People already have trust on them and what they share. They should a crucial part of your app marketing strategy. Approach the best influencers and convince them to review your app and post it on their social media so that the people who are following them can know about your app. You need to tell them about the USPs of your app so that they can highlight the same in their publishings. If you are facing difficulty in finding the appropriate influencers  then you can contact any mobile app marketing company for the help.

Encourage forum discussion:

Forum discussion is one thing that can keep your brand awareness alive during the launch and even after it.  If you have a strong banding message to convey then you need to go for building forums and communities. It is the best way to reach to your customers and solve their problems thereby retaining them for a long time. It would help you out in making new customers as well as retaining the old ones.

Offer a good customer service:

Remember that any business can run well only if you are able to satisfy the needs of your customers. Focussing on customer service during the launch is very important as only one bad review is enough for a big set up in your marketing efforts. If you are received even one negative review, try to sort it out by responding in a good tone so that you can gain back your customer. If you are unable to handle your customers, then you can think for appointing a customer service team who remain available 24*7 to assist the customers.

Give sharing options to the users:

Give your users an option to share the app with their friends and families. There is nothing better than mouth to mouth  publicity. You can also give them a link which they can post anywhere on their social media. This link would be taking users to the landing page of app or on app itself on app stores.

There are many more ways to promote your mobile app like attending industry meet-ups, making consistent updates and more. You can make use of all the above strategies or some of them initially to see what works for your brand. Also, proper analysis and improvement of strategies is important so that you can climb on the ladder of success with your application.

Important Features to Have in Your Food Delivery Application

Mobile Application Development
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If you are planning to enter a productive business stream and considering Food delivery mobile app development for the same then here is the important information to look at. You will be amazed to know that Online Food Delivery Segment has a total Global revenue amounting to USD 95413 mn in passed months of 2019. It is also reported from the same source that the revenue will increase at 9.3% growth rate yearly and reach $134,490 Million USD by 2023. Now that you know Online solution for Food delivery is worth a spent, let’s have a look at the current revenue stream of popular apps in the industry.

A deep study of Swiggy & Ubereats figures revealed that they have experienced an increased revenue in every quarter of 2018. Grubhub which is another popular food delivery platform posted the revenue it has generated in the fourth quarter of 2018 which is USD 288 million. This is the reason such apps have been seen continuous with their operations & efforts. Before you dive deep into the figures, it’s important for you to understand the features important for your app to be a sales mill for your business.

1. Easy-to-use UI:    

Your app should be so simple that even a child does not face any difficulty in ordering the food. When the user logs onto your app, the landing page should be helpful enough to let him/her know from where to find popular restaurants, specific dishes, local restaurants and more. For example, your mobile app development company can create a powerful and smart Search bar located at the top of every page so that the food lover can search for anything even if he/she is stuck in the inner pages of the app. You can make use of diversified grids and video tutorials to let users understand the easy way to reach their choices. Your app is not restricted to merely food delivery instead, you can also be open for the online reservation, event management or more.

2. Safe and Secured Payments:

Every now and then, we hear a news of hacking which has made people rethink their expenditure through online mediums. Online payment security is a big concern today and hence you should ensure that you have secured payment methods over the app. You need to keep customer data safe right from the start so as to maintain long term relationship and trust. Also, consider keeping Cash on Delivery option so that even if the user does not have any means to do online payment, he/she does not switch over your competitor’s site which allows cash on delivery.

3. Live tracking of order:

Live tracking is important for both the buyer and the seller. The person who is ordering the food must know whether the order has been accepted, food has been dispatched or not or how many minutes would it take for the delivery boy to reach you. On the other hand, it is also important for the restaurant owners to know whether the food is being delivered on time or not. In order to survive in this highly competitive restaurant and food industry, it’s important for the companies to achieve customer satisfaction. To make the services streamlined, most of the restaurants are leveraging the ultimate power of real time tracking. With the real time tracking, kitchen staff also becomes able to notify fleet manager to assign the route for next orders. Through this, the fleet managers may know where their vehicles are at present and what they are doing through which they can provide exact information to customers about service time and expected delivery.

4. Offering Rewards & Offers:

No matter how popular you get, customers are always looking for more value propositions and hence you should make such announcement prominent on your app so that the user immediately make a decision rather than moving to your competitor’s platform. If you are able to attract people with discounts and provide an ongoing fantastic service then they would surely choose you over others even if you do  not run any offer in future. But yes, it is important to keep coming up with offers so that the interest that people have shown on your platform remains the same.

5. Multiple mediums to order:

You need to have both Android and iOS apps to capture the market. iOS apps are definitely on the costlier side to develop and maintain but with hybrid apps taking over the market, it has become simple for the business owners to afford both android and iOS apps. Along with mobile presence, your business should also have a desktop version so that people do not feel restricted if they are not in access of mobile.

6. Use the power of push notifications:

Push notifications enable you to attract customers at certain touchpoints by sending reminders and real time updates. Mobile apps generally have a lot of downloads but only 40% of people use them. Push notifications serve a good way to activate these potential customers. You need to take care of the type of notifications being sent to the users according to their behaviour. The notifications should be personalized as per user’s interest buying frequency. Timely messages are a good way to increase the conversion rate as these can notify customers and create a sense of urgency. It helps businesses to target the right users. For example, if the users grant the app permission to access location then businesses get an opportunity to personalize the experience of customers with the location specific notifications.

7. Order Scheduling:

It is one of the exciting features of the popular app Ubereats. You are able to order food in advance, even for the complete week. It is handy if the user wants to set the complete week’s meal and do not want to waste time everyday in deciding. By this way, as a business owner, you will be able to  retain your customers & grow your business.
Once the development is complete, you need to promote and market the application so that the users come to know about your app’s USPs and start using it. Here are some of the important marketing tips for a quick and wide reach.

8. Spend time in defining the target audience:

You need to collect information about your potential customers such as their interests, location, lifestyles, demographics and more. With its help,  you will be able to create buyer’s persona and with an understanding of the same you can create your message, content marketing strategy and communication channels. For example, you can target working people who are too busy to cook.

9. Work on your USPs:

USPs are the unique selling points means the features that are exceptional in your model. In this competitive arena, it is very important to come up with something different so that your potential customers choose you over your competitors. Let’s talk about two of the biggest players in the industry. Ubereats which has emerged greatly in past years targets 24-35 year olds for whom the top most priority is the timely delivery. It delivers local food as well as food from big chains. Whereas, Caviar targets higher average incomes and hence delivers only quality food from big restaurants rather than fast food. Just like these two, you need to tell your customer what’s unique about you.

10. Content marketing:

Content marketing is important for brand awareness as well as for acquiring good ranks on app search engines. It is a cost effective way to attract and make a reach to your target customers. It has been found out that 70% of the internet users want to learn about the services and products before making a purchase and 84% of the people expect  companies to provide content that provides solutions, tell stories and entertains.

11. Social media marketing:

Social media can act as an effective tool for your business as most of the youngsters remain active on social media most of the time. It is important to choose the right platform for marketing like Snapchat and Instagram are helpful if you want to reach out Young people while Facebook is better if your target is old generation. You can consider approaching influencer like in your case, you can approach Food bloggers who have a great following. Ask them to share the link of your app along with its USPs on their account so that their followers can reach out to you.

12. Blogging:

From individuals to big businesses, everyone makes use of blogging for marketing purposes. There are a number benefits of blogging including increased website traffic, customer relationship improvement, more help in SEO and hence more sales. It gives you a good opportunity to create unique and relevant content for your audience so that they can feel more connected with your brand.
There are more ways to market your app like Email marketing, Paid marketing and more. You just need to be consistent with your efforts and then wait to see the wonders. Digital platforms are becoming powerful day after day which is the reason behind why we should include them in our marketing strategy.  

Also Read: Whatsapp Business Model : How Does Whatsapp Work And Make Money?

##  How does Amazon Work: A Look into Amazon Business Model and Revenue Analysis

## Facebook Business Model: How Does It Work & Earn Money?

An Analysis of Facebook Business Model: How Does It Work & Earn Money?

News
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Facebook has gotten a picture of staggering rise in revenue despite facing unexpected challenges last year. With the support of over 2.38 billion users at present, Facebook is set to break all the records set by prominent digital platforms so far. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder cum CEO of Facebook said in a press release, “Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018. We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together.” Unexpectedly, there was a 50% increment experienced by Facebook in its advertisement revenue and a 49% increase in the overall revenue after this statement.

These should not be astonishing figures for you if you are a daily user of Facebook. On an average, Facebook is browsed more than five times by students/working people to stay updated of posts by their friends, family members and favorite brands. It is not just confined to this section, but nowadays business owners are also taking special interest in Facebook due to it being a prominent business advertisement & promotion platform. If you have ever wondered about the Business Model of Facebook or intrigued by How Facebook earns money or How Facebook Works, here is a complete account.

How Does Facebook Work?

It was an era of Orkut back in 2008 when it was one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. There came a time when people started switching just like you! Switching from Orkut to Facebook! Yes, it did happen with all of us. Let’s talk about how it all started. Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 way before the mobile apps came into the picture. The main target of Facebook were college going students of US. People just needed to fill out a registration form for which a valid email address was mandatory. Slowly and steadily, Facebook became the social media king by covering almost all the countries and over 2 billion users.

You need to fill out certain fields on Facebook to make use of its hundreds of exciting features. For example, Facebook asks you about the place you live in, the company you work for, your interests and more to show you the ‘People you may know’. It is a great and aiding feature as Facebook is all about social networking and you never know, one day you meet your fifth standard pal on Facebook with whom you had already lost connection years ago. Let’s take a close look over the crucial features.

Facebook Wall: It is the landing page of Facebook after you login into your account. Here, people write stuff, post pictures/videos, check in and do many more activities. Earlier, the wall used to show posts in chronological order but now it shows according to popularity and relevance. Facebook has evolved a lot by years. There was a time when we used to see status updates from friends and it was a 60:40 ratio between text updates and picture updates. Very few used to come up with videos. But the past few years are more about promotional videos. Either, you directly see the sponsored posts or the posts that have been shared by your friends. People now prefer less to make their own updates and more to share others’.

On the other hand, businesses are perceiving a great opportunity on social media, mainly, Facebook for promotion of their newly set business or old business running in loss. There are millions of pictures and videos being shared by businesses on a daily basis which pays Facebook to show them as Ads or elicit people to share the same.

Some of the current prominent features of Facebook wall include sharing status, photo/video, activity, tagging, check in, Live video, GIF, Watch party, Play with friends, Ask for recommendations, see story updates & posts by friends, Top picks on marketplace, suggested friends and advertisements.

Notifications: Sending notification is another big responsibility of Facebook. It keeps you updated on who has liked your post, commented on it or shared it. Not confined to this, it also lets you know if someone has tagged you, today’s whose birthday, likes on your page, app/game invites and everything that might concern you. But from past some time, Facebook might also send you some notification that might not concern you like ‘XYZ friend added a new photo’. We are talking about just push notifications here.

If you are Facebook desktop and mobile user, you get three types of notification: Red alert, email and push. Red alert notifications are the ones which appear with a red bubble and number over the head icons shown on your wall. Email notifications are the updates you get via email while Push notifications appear when you are not active on Facebook so that you can engage again with your friends.

Messenger: Earlier Facebook had an integrated tab to see the messages but now it has a dedicated app for the same which is for instant messaging. Along with Facebook messages, if you allow, it also syncs your phone’s text messages. Messenger comes up with the message requests you have along with the messages you have received from your friends. It also shows you the stories updated friends. There is no sponsored tab so far but we can predict its presence in future. In addition, Messenger lets you update your story or wave to active friends. You can even search friends by their names and start chatting. It also lets you add contacts by scanning code, inviting or requesting friends. Then, there is a tab through which you can discover businesses or games which is rarely used by people. For example, right now, in my Messenger, I can see a featured post by HDFC Bank under the business section of Discover.

The other exciting features include creating events, browsing through marketplace, upload stories and more.

How Does Facebook Earn Money?

As we all can see, the prime source of revenue for Facebook is Advertisement. It allows advertisements over Facebook wall, Instagram, stories, Messenger and all the possible places. Facebook has not yet included some membership levels that other applications have through which they get a monthly or yearly membership fee. Another source of revenue are the in-app purchases of virtual goods for which it gets commission.

There are various types of ads on Facebook including Ads of local vendors and sponsored ones. Suppose, you are searching for something over Google or visited some sites to purchase a particular thing. If you leave it unpurchased then Facebook might show you the same thing on your wall. You might wonder at that point that how come Facebook knows your history. The reason is the browser that you were using, saved your search as cookies and shared with other apps to show you sponsored related to that only. Facebook is also planning to include the ads over frequently visited groups which can become the next source of revenue for the giant.

Talking about last year, Facebook generated a revenue of about $25 million which means around $4 million every month. Before the year 2017, Facebook was dependent upon majorly Advertisements, In-app purchases and very less on selling VR devices. After 2017, it relied heavily i.e. 84% on advertisements so we can think that it is all about Ads. Still, it owns a platform which is absolutely Ad free. It is also heard that we might see sponsored stories on Whatsapp as well after some time.

Nowadays, most of the businesses are considering social media, majorly Facebook and Instagram for branding and sales of their services/products. A business might lose 30% of its potential customers if it does not exist on social media. Gone are those days when Facebook was all about Branding, now it is raising figures for a lot of businesses who do the advertisement and marketing accurately. There are a number of reasons behind why you should include Facebook Advertisement in your marketing strategy.

1. People spend most of their time on Facebook or Instagram.

2. The organic search of Facebook is almost dead so you cannot expect results until you spend in advertisements.

3. Facebook is kind of a big deal with 2.38 billion active users.

4. When you share the content on your business account, Facebook Ads help you amplify its reach.

5. It offers you fantastic targeting. You can target users on the basis of Gender, Age, Interest, demographics, behaviour and more factors.

6. Remarketing is another exciting thing on Facebook through which ads can be shown for your business to people if they have made a visit to your website, used your mobile app, or given you their email address.

7. Through this, you can turn your visitors into customers.

So, if Facebook is charging you that much, it is offering you more than that.

Facebook Business Model

The concept of Facebook is a little different from most of the firms. While other companies focus on generating revenue, it focuses more on collecting data. It has introduced status update, picture sharing, check-in and more features to know more and more about you. Even though Facebook does not consider it, any company would be willing to have this large data about users in return for handsome amount. By enhancing its features, Facebook encourages users to share about life and happening. If there is someone doing Bungee jumping for the first time, the first platform, he/she would choose to share his/her experience on would be Facebook or Instagram which is also owned by Facebook. Nowadays, we can see video reviews shared by people on Facebook of movies, events and shows. It has become a biggest platform and first choice for the people to share their views and experiences.

If we go back in time, TV commercials or hoarding used to be major source of advertisement where the former cannot be afforded by new brands or low budget businesses. Facebook ads are most useful then those as these ads keeps you more informed about users. You will know their likes, dislikes, opinions, choices and more things which will create a feedback that can be used for your future marketing.

Key partners: TV shows, advertisements, News, Articles

Key Activities: Web & App development, Maintenance, User data management, Game development

Key Resources: Network, Platform, Technology.

Value Propositions: Publish brands and companies, connect people across the world, Daily activities sharing, Playing games, Communication with connected people

Customer segments:
-Person who wants to connect with other people and know about them, simultaneously keeping them updated by sharing views and experiences.

-Business who want to promote themselves

-Users who want to play games

-People who want to buy and sell products via Facebook marketplace.

Channels: Website, Internet and APIs

Cost structure: Development, Maintenance, Marketing, Platform, Client servicing

Revenue Streams: Advertisements, Games, Promoted posts.

By the time, Facebook has become very popular among both individuals and businesses.Businesses can make a rich use of Facebook by promoting their brands and with a blink of an eye reach millions. To take advantage of Facebook promotional capabilities, you need to target your potential customers very carefully. If it is not done properly, it might turn the biggest loss for you.

While many of the giants are taking advantage of monthly or yearly subscriptions, Facebook is not even blinking an eye on it. It clearly talks about the aim of the founder which has always been all about connecting people to people and now, businesses to people as well. Now, with Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, we are really looking forward to see what is next on the mind of Zuckerberg. With such two big acquisitions, we can understand that the founder hunts down all the competitors who try to lock horns with him. It is simple, if you can’t beat it, acquire it!

Also Read: Whatsapp Business Model : How Does Whatsapp Work And Make Money?

##  How does Amazon Work: A Look into Amazon Business Model and Revenue Analysis

10 Useful Practices to Make Your Mobile App User Experience Better

Mobile Application Development
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Designing has always been a subjective notion. What you like, your friends, relatives and most importantly target users might not like which leads to unsatisfactory or bad business outputs. We are talking about the design and performance of your mobile application here and whether it is able to meet your central goal or not. To carry out a good business through your application or website, you need to focus on and examine the in-app user behaviour very carefully. A good user experience is not only concerned with having a good design but should also be blended with easy navigation and bug free functionalities. Many mobile application development companies are working towards blessing businesses with fully fledged mobile apps but very few of them actually keep the user experience in mind when the app gets launched in the real world.

For you to not fall in such condition, here is a quick list of useful practices through which you can bestow fantastic user experience to your users.

1. Bug free & promising functionalities: According to a report from Localytics, it is revealed that 21% of the users uninstall mobile apps after one time usage. It happens because you fail to provide a good level functionality for which the user had installed the application. Now, once the app gets uninstalled there is only 10% chance that user re-installs it so you have already lost 21% of your potential buyers. During the product roadmap phase, you have to prioritize the core functionality of the app and its accuracy. It has to be bug free and should be accessible to the user easily. Mobile app developers need to focus upon mobile-only functionalities so that it can encourage more and more users to use your mobile app rather going back to your website.

2. Effortless usability: Usability of an app consists of many elements such as design, content, information, pictures and features. You need to help users in differentiating between tapping, swiping or selecting. Also, you need to be consistent with the operations means if swiping on page means deleting then it better to keep swipe functionality for deletion only. You have to make sure that the buttons are sized properly and there should be enough space between them so that user can comfortably tap according to his/her requirements.

3. Efficient onboarding: The purpose of an excellent onboarding is to make target users aware of the functionalities, navigation and basically the tasks which can be done through the application. You have to teach or guide your users properly so that they do not bounce back. An efficient onboarding can increase user retention to a great level. You can adopt multiple ways to guide the users about your application and its features. You can put up a tutorial in the form of a video or include tool tips so that user may know how to perform a particular function.

4. Integrate searching: If a mobile user has given time to download and install your application, then he/she must be looking for a quick solution that website could not provide. For quick results, give them searching option on the top of the screen so that they can directly searching whatever they are looking for. Though, the basic searching has become an old school technique now. You have to enhance it with some modern features such as providing suggestions as you get from Google, provide autocompletion of common keywords or allow them to save the search. You can include necessary filters and sorting options so that even if the user has a big list in front of himself/herself, he/she can easily find what’s required. It would help you increasing the conversation rates.

5. Ensure trustworthiness: You have to keep users rest assured that their personal data is not being misused. Asking for unnecessary permission at the time of app install or registration leads to significant decrease in the brand loyalty and trustworthiness. For example, if you are asking for credit card details even when there is no ecommerce function integrated on the app then it would reduce the level of trust that your app users have for your brand. Keep the permission policies transparent and give user ability to manage permission in-app as well. The user will feel comfortable in approving the permissions if your business policies and terms would be clear.

6. Offer prompt assistance: Even if you are offering the same old functionalities that other apps are offering, the user might look for assistance at some points. Give the user a direct button for call or message. Keep live chat modules integrated on your application so that user can get their concerns clarified there and then.

7. Personalizing the UX: Personalization prompts visitors for making quick purchasing decisions by offering relevant and unique user experience. There can be N number of ways to target potential customers. For example, if your customer has purchased Sports shoes from your app then you can prompt him for the related products such Socks or other Gym accessories. If your customer likes to purchase a particular brand then you can show him the new products that brand has come up with on the landing page itself. You can also call the user to visit the relevant products by sending push notifications. Though, implementing irrelevant push notification might irritate the user and consequently, he will restrict the notifications or simple uninstall the app. So, it is important to offer personalized information.

8. Take limited user input: User has chosen to install your app rather than going to your website because he wanted a quick access to a particular product/solution. Now, if you indulge him in completing too many steps to access the actual product or services then he might bounce back. Ask least possible questions and allow him to access your services with minimum efforts. Do not run behind collecting the information and building your database, rather work upon building the customer base then focusing on other things like sending personalized newsletters.

9. Time for decluttering: It is good to evolve new features in a system but do not lose focus on the main feature. Two many features in an app can make it a bit messy. If you want the user to buy a particular product then simply give him a call to action button on the product detail page and it should be predictable for him/her that what would happen when he/she taps on that.

10. Adopt responsive designing: The app should take an appropriate shape according to the device on which it is operated. Obviously, there should be no feature hidden even if it is operated on smallest supported screen. Even if you fail to do so, you need to keep tap-targets on the neutral area, probably on center of the app. After a deep research and well executed testing & monitoring, you will come to know users’ behavioral patterns. Bear in mind to provide a seamless experience to the user through mobiles as it rarely happens that user is just looking at your products/services from phone and goes to laptop for purchasing. So, you have to make sure that all the features are working properly on all the devices.

If you are just stepping in the market then it is natural to commit mistakes due to lack of experience but consistent efforts towards improvement can surely make you achieve your goals.

Let me introduce you to some of the very popular examples of excellent UI you can take inspiration from.  

YouTube, which is the World’s largest video sharing website, offers so easy-to-use features to its mobile users that today more than half of its users come on its mobile app. It has done a really commendable work by keeping the design fresh and accessible with bringing updates every two weeks according to user behaviour and trends. If we talk about Pinterest, then it is one of those new contenders that has kept its design interesting and at the same time very simple. It has added many details to the UI but has kept content and images at the center of focus.

Slack is another example which is becoming a widely used tool among professionals. It is not even a specialized mobile app but the user experience it offers on mobile is not any level down from desktop. On the other hand, Trello is also setting a good example in terms of User experience. It does not have so many unnecessary features which makes it a prevalent option for professionals. It has the basic features of project management and everything which is there on the homescreen is easy to understand. These were some of the popular examples while there are thousands of other apps as well which are setting a good example in terms of UI. In this highly competitive digital age, it has become really important to attract and retain your target audience with your services. Mention in the comment box, the application which you think, is offering the best UX this time.

How does Amazon Work: A Look into Amazon Business Model and Revenue Analysis

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Amazon’s success as world’s biggest online retailer isn’t a stroke of luck, but genius. A genius that one could easily see in some of the earliest decision of the company’s owner; Jeff Bezos, predicted to become the first trillionaire of the world. Talking of his genius decisions, you can go back in the time when he changed his company’s name from “Cadabra” to “Amazon”, when his lawyer misheard the first one for “Cadaver”.

Come 2000, and Bezos his company was all set for greatness as he called for a new logo, the  Turner Duckworth design we have today.

Today, the online seller is the undisputed king, and sometimes one of the kings, in many fields. Among all its titles, here are a few that tell us what makes Amazon a force to reckon with:

1. It’s the 6th most prominent website on Internet,

2. It’s  one of the  five most valuable companies of world

3. It is the leading eCommerce in United States, with 136 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 net sales!

4. It is the eighth largest employer in the United States

5. It has acquired some big companies over time, Whole Foods Market being one of their recent purchases.

A quick glance over these states would easily reveal that a lot of planning happens inside the walls of Arlington and Seattle, that has successfully turned this once “in a garage bookseller” into  world’s biggest eCom giant. Given this fact, it simply means that Amazon has done some serious experiments with their business model, which has been a journey full of rewards.

Amazon Business Model

Amazon Business Model Canvas

The success of Amazon has been its diverse business model, which entails not or two, but many moving parts. A plethora of products are directly offered to customers through Amazon business model. All the products are offered for a very small markup by Amazon business model, and the company stores its products in an extensive network of stockrooms. Customers like and approach Amazon and Amazon business model with the belief that the company offers products on a reasonable prices. An add-on to Amazon business model is its retailers, that could easily list their products on Amazon’s website, and sell directly to purchasers. Amazon business model is also aided by it prime membership program, wherein the members pay a yearly fee of few dollars, in exchange of special discounts on various Amazon products. Amazon business model finds an additional source of generating revenue by selling Kindle, an e-reading device and mobile application.

Amazon Business Model Canvas

Amazon Business Model canvas here clarifies the key partners, , customer relationship, customer segment, key accomplices, key activities, value proposition cost structure and revenue streams of Amazon.

How does Amazon Business Model Affect its Revenue Model?

In an article named “Note on Business Model Analysis for the Entrepreneur”, there is much said about on steps that businesses and entrepreneurs should take when judging and identifying their business model. To quote, “In order to assess a potential business model, entrepreneurs must uncover the nature of its ‘profit engine’ which is often obscured by ambitious financial and market projections. Entrepreneurs must ask themselves whether their business concept can be translated into a viable, profitable business venture and how much cash it will take to achieve that result.”

There are 3 factors that are responsible for the growth Amazon business model.

The success of Amazon’s business model was not entirely dependent on factors listed above. During its early years, the company heavily relied on old school SEO and AdWords programs, and targeted hundreds and millions of keywords to become the success it is today.

Vision and Mission of Amazon Business Model

Amazon described its vision in 2008 as

“Relentlessly focus on customer experience by offering our customers low prices, convenience, and a wide selection of merchandise.”

And now, the vision has now turned into a humongous version of itself with the company’s dream to become “Earth’s most customer-centric company”. and provide the biggest selection of customers. Repeated purchase and customers’ loyalty has been the key to the success of Amazon business model. Some of the key decisions that have proven to be an add-on to Amazon’s business model are:

A. providing easy-to-use functionalities to users,

B. listening to their customers very well.

C. providing feedback and review section on their app and website, so they can focus on complaints and demands of their customers.

D. free shipping policy on expensive purchases

The aforementioned factors, along with many others, are responsible for bringing back customers to Amazon. The effects are undebatable, as the company, with its vision and rigorous steps taken in directions to make it possible,  has its data to to show for them. In 2004, Amazon business model was given a score of 88 by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which was highest for customer satisfaction score for both online and offline service industry till that time.  A fun fact, to help themselves understand their customer better, every employee of Amazon.com spends two days a year on the service desk, taking customer calls. No one is spared from this drill, not even the CEO.

Marketing Strategies of Amazon Business Model

Amazon doesn’t like to talk much about its advertising strategy in its yearly reports, but it is a no brainer that focus on internet promoting channels has always been a major part of it. In a bid to attract more and more customers to its website, the online retail king focuses on:

a. associates program

b. portal promotion

c. sponsored search

d. email advertising, etc.

But just focusing on the above channels isn’t all what the company does to place itself on its customer devices. The company officials have agreed in past that Free shipping and benefits offered through Amazon Prime services have been a major part of their every advertising campaign.

Who was Amazon’s First Customer?

The reason behind the tremendous success of Amazon business model is definitely its customers, who keep placing their trust in the services of the company. But anything starts from one, and Amazon is no different. The company’s first non-company customer was a California based Australian software Engineer, John Wainwright, who purchased “Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter ” in year 1995.

Who are the Competitors of Amazon

Who are the Competitors of Amazon

This is a list of Amazon’s direct competitors in different areas.

eCommerce:

Alibaba, the chinese multinational, is the biggest competitor to Amazon in world of online retail. But if we talk only about America, then Costco and Walmart take Alibaba’s position.

Traffic and online advertising:

In attracting online traffic and advertising, Amazon is sure a big name, but trails behind Google and Facebook. It’s also notable that both Google and Facebook help Amazon get majority of its traffic.

Cloud computing:

Microsoft Azure and Google .

Media segment:

Time Warner Cable, Netflix, eBay, Apple, and Google.

Amazon Investors

Two leading investors of Amazon

1. Kleiner Perkins

An American venture capital firm specialising in investing in early stage and growth companies. It invests globally in internet start-ups

2. AOL

An American online service provider and global digital media and technology company, having a focus on: mobile,  video, and ad technology platforms,.

Valuation and Statistics of Amazon Business Model

Valuation Measures

Valuation Measures

Fiscal Year

Profitability

Management Effectiveness

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Cash Flow Statement

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/key-statistics/

How does Amazon Make Money?

General retail

Amazons buys directly from manufacturers and third, and sells at a slight profit. This strategy accounts for more than 80% sales of Amazon business model.

Third party sellers

Amazon has a separate place for independent merchants intending to sell their product online via Amazon’s online selling platform. Third-parties can sign-up for Amazon by simply listing their products on the platform. In return, Amazon promotes and ships their products to the doorsteps of their customer, charging a small commission for its services. This third-party selling makes up for 12% of Amazon business model and Amazon’s total revenue. Of all the products sold on Amazon, 40% belong to the third-parties.

Amazon web service:

Amazon Web Services is the name of Amazon’s cloud computing business. It offers back-end services to organisations ranging from private startups to government bodies.

Media and content:

The company has stepped into online entertainment industry, and now offers numerous web series. The content can be accessed and streamed online using the app “Amazon Prime”

Amazon prime:

Amazon Prime is a customer loyalty program that offers product discount and other benefits to its members. Prime has around 97 million members as of 2018.

Amazon Kindle family:

The Kindle helps Amazon make money by tempting users into buying Amazon products and content. Kindle Fire comes with a free 30 day Amazon Prime trial. It doesn’t take much time for users getting used to awesome 2 day shipping and a host of other perks, and they fall for the amazing Prime. So, Amazon business model doesn’t make any money from Kindles directly. But by driving traffic to a prime membership plan.

Value Proposition of Amazon

 

i. Convenience, choice and speed, and. Convenience to shop from the comforts of home by making few clicks on website or app.

ii. Choice of going through a wide range of products, without spending even a fraction of time of what one has to spend when shopping physically in  a store.

iii. If you know exactly what you want you can order it in few minutes. And speed of delivery proves to be a real deal breaker.

 

Amazon Business Model’s User Segmentation

Amazon divides its customers into three groups based on certain characteristics.

Group#1 :Based on interest:

As Amazon collects critical data that tells it about the interests of its users, it becomes easy for the company to segment its customers based on interest.

Group#2: Based on engagement:

Given that Amazon is not the only player in online retailing, people have many options to buy their products from. SO the company focuses on loyal, revenue generating customers, by tracking engagement metrics.

Group#3:Based on personal information:

This includes making a data based on customer’s age, language, geographical region,gender.

How has Amazon evolved over time?

This is how Amazon has improved itself over time

In 1998, there was just a simple listing of products on a name of website. The left side had categories of product in a vertical panel, while the right  showed advertisements

In 2005, things changed a bit, and the list view was replaced by the gridview.

In 2012,  Amazon business model underwent drastic transformation, and so did the website. Festival offers were displayed at the top, along with the normal plain listing. Many new were added in the menu on left. Social media were provided to take customers to Amazon’s numerous social media handles.

amazon

In 2017, we see an attractive view of Amazon’s website. Banner can be seen being displayed at the top. Categories option under the name of departments has been turned into a drop-down list.

You can see all these pages of past by visiting https://archive.org/web/

How to Start an eCommerce Business Like Amazon?

This guide helps you understand how to start a business like Amazon. There is no need for having a rigorous know-how of coding. What we will see is how one can easily build a platform where others can list their products for sell.

Creation of multiple stores:

Creation of multiple stores:

Merchant/sellers can be allowed to make more than 1 stores on the website. The administrator, you, set a limit on how many stores a merchant/seller can make. For instance, the one merchant should only be allowed to make two stores, like Jewelry and Watch, on your site. The choice of coming up with the combination of products to be offered on the two stores should be entirely left on the merchant/seller.

Expense Configuration:

Expense Configuration:

Taxation is important when you are conducting an activity to the level of online retailing.

So special considerations should be given when preparing a taxation plan. You can club merchants/sellers residing and selling in areas having comparative tax rules.

Transportation Configuration:

Transportation Configuration:

Robust shipping is an important part of this kind of business. Setting up zones is obligatory.  Strategies for product delivery should be made according to the transportation supplier. Grouping delivery techniques can make it less demanding for the store proprietors in keeping track of their products. You can choose to disable the transport option if you don’t wish to get into that.

Numerous Product Attributes:

Numerous Product Attributes:

You can characterize any number of item attributes with positive or negative impact in price. As an example, you can choose the following attributes: size, Color, Storage Capacity and so on.

Stock Management:

Stock Management:

Only stock available for sale should be listed on the website. A product should only be subtracted from the stock after a successful purchase.

Least and Maximum Order Quantity:

To avoid customers from buying an unnecessary quantity from your platfrom to secure it as their stock, you can set a max. And min. Limit for every order

Also Read: Whatsapp Business Model : How Does Whatsapp Work And Make Money?

Whatsapp Business Model : How Does Whatsapp Work And Make Money?

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We all know the founder of Facebook but very few of us are aware of the masterminds behind inception & success of Whatsapp. The Founders of Whatsapp, Brian Acton & Jan Koum, saw a huge future in the creation of an IM app which could save users from spending a lot on costly messaging services. Once upon a time, both the founders used to work for Yahoo! and applied for Facebook but their application was rejected. It is ironic that some years later the number of Whatsapp users were very near to Facebook’s and it was the time when Facebook acquired it for $19 billion.

The journey started with naming the application after a common phrase “What’s up”. After the founders managed to convince 5 Yahoo! Colleagues and one russian coder, the app was launched in 2009.  The logo was designed by the founders themselves but the initial programming work was outsourced. In the year 2009, the Apple app store was new but the founders saw a lot of potential in it for the growth of application. With the immense success, you might be wondering what must be the Business model of Whatsapp or How Whatsapp makes money and How does Whatsapp work.

Whatsapp Business Model: Key resources, Activities & User Base

A. Customer Segment: Jan Koum, one of the founders, had come from Ukraine and realised a big problem of not being able to remain connected easily with family and friends. Whatsapp had worked as a solution to this big problem. Whatsapp lets you connect with your family, friends and share unlimited texts & pictures. So its customer base is made up of all the people who wants to connect with each other for personal or professional purposes.

B. Key Resources: The proprietary software platform of Whatsapp is its major key resource. The developers, marketing and PR team make a huge part and Sequoia Capital’s investment is also a key resource for the company.

C. Key Activities:  Whatsapp has always been focussed on single motive of being the best Instant messaging app. It has not diverted from its aim to enter any other major media or activity. Due to the same reason, it does not take any kind of advertisement applications, even from big brands. It encouraged zero usage of conventional PR and advertising strategies.

D. Key Partners: Whatsapp involved itself in tying up with over 50 carries across the world. The app used to come pre-installed on a number of phones. The association of the company with Sequoia Capital is assumed to be a big uplift in its success and further development.

E. Revenue Stream: It is the most puzzling thing about Whatsapp. It has a lot of ways to run its revenue stream but it has always given importance to the user experience. For iOS users, Whatsapp has a yearly membership fee of $0.99. Though after getting acquired by Facebook, more ways have been planned to monetize the platform that we discuss in further sections.

F. Client Relationship: The customer relationship of Whatsapp is a self service. It gives you answers to Frequently asked questions and you also have an option go get assistance by emailing support. From the time I have been using Whatsapp, I never got any chance to avail this service in years which depicts that it is very much automated in nature.

G. Cost Structure: There are expenses to Whatsapp just like other startups such as cost for organization arrangement, furniture, setup, server utilization, utilities, programming authorizing charges etc. With just 32 engineers, it is able to support 450 mn clients.

How does Whatsapp work?

Firstly, Whatsapp was launched on Apple’s app store in 2009 the on Blackberry phones two months later. Now, after 9 years have passed, it has become very difficult to find even one person without Whatsapp. Whatsapp started off as just a messaging app with which you could send unlimited threads to your peers without having any kind of message pack. Only internet connection and a phone was needed to send out and receive messages. A software engineer named Rick Reed at Whatsapp explained that Whatsapp does not link two devices, instead, sends messages to server of recipient and then the message is sent to the device by server.

At that time, the messaging was one way with emails and texting. Yahoo messenger used to work only on computers while BBM was restricted to Blackberry phone users. Whatsapp had come up with a motive to change the way people communicate. Since, there was no competitor as such, Whatsapp had a big ground to play. In December 2009, people could send photos and videos. Now, you can even send documents, share location and enjoy many more features. You can enjoy video conference call as well which is one of the exciting features it has come up with. Have a look at the newest features below.

Newest Features of Whatsapp in 2019

1. Whatsapp Business app for iPhones: After spending a significant amount of time in testing, Whatsapp has finally made Whatsapp Business app available to iPhone users in seven countries including India. It is mainly targeted at small and mid sized firms struggling to get instantly connected with their prospects. Whatsapp Business is available to Android users from past one year. It can be downloaded from the app store.

2. Whatsapp Tipline:  “Checkpoint Tipline” has been introduced by Whatsapp to check if the news forwarded is verified or fake. People can submit information to Checkpoint tipline (+91-9643-000-888) and after verification, it gets classified as True, False, Disputed, Misleading or Out of Scope.

3. Improvement in Whatsapp PiP mode: Whatsapp has come up with an update in February 2019 to provide web users an ability to utilize Picture-in-Picture mode for almost all the video links with support for YouTube, Facebook, Streamable and Instagram links introduced.

 

4. Reply privately feature: Whatsapp has come up with a new feature for iPhone users in the first week of 2019 through which they have become able to reply privately in Whatsapp Groups. It has also given them the ability to photos & videos.

 

5. Biometric authentication support: iPhone v2.19.20 users are able to use biometric authentication allowing users to lock Whatsapp by deploying Touch ID or Face ID.    

In What Way, Whatsapp Makes Money?

We are well aware that for a non-ecommerce app, advertisement is one of the few mediums from which it can make money but Whatsapp is ad-free till date. The founders did not want to make the app messy with advertisements, instead wanted to serve the best user experience. The only source of income for Whatsapp was yearly fee of $1 that it used to charge its Android users. In some countries, it was free for the first year. This was considered a loophole though as people from other countries used to change their country selection in the app marketplace & download free WhatsApp.

Initially, Whatsapp got funding from Sequoia capital which invested around $8 million for over 15% shares. in February 2013, Sequoia again invested $50 million seeing the success of the app.

There is a very interesting story connecting Sequoia and current owner of Whatsapp which is Facebook. When in 2004, Zuckerberg was planning to give up on Facebook, he was searching for investors. Sequoia contact him but he did not show much interest because he was already linked with Sean Parker whose faced a big loss after Sequoia invested in one of his ideas. Zuckerberg though that it would not be liked much by Sean. Now that, Whatsapp is acquired by Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has to pay $6.4 billion to Sequoia who were 40% stakeholders of the messenger WhatsApp. It dropped a lot of jaws when a small company with 50 employees was acquired in $19 billion. The founder of Facebook claimed that it is the only app which has a user base nearly equal to Facebook.  About monetization of app, Zuckerberg said, “Once we get to being a service that has a billion, two billion, three billion people one day, there are many clear ways we can monetize”.

What would be the Future of Whatsapp?

Whatsapp is currently missing on some of the huge markets like Japan, China and Korea where WeChat is massive. The acquisition is not the only solution here. It is lagging because of ideologies of different nations. But still, if Whatsapp is covering a huge country like India then there is a great scope for its bright future.

A number of companies are seen to have partnership with Whatsapp to offer customer care to their clients. Strategic partnership can open the doors of monetization for the app. Facebook might consider including sponsored stories on Whatsapp like they do on Facebook itself and Instagram. If Whatsapp has survived so many years without adding Ads then it can survive very well in the future as well. If you are attracted to the facts and figures of the giant messenger Whatsapp then keep coming as we are planning to bring more feeds for you.

10 Easy Ways to Market a Mobile App in its Pre-launch Phase

Mobile Application Development
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According to a statista report, it is expected that the mobile apps would generate a revenue of 189 billion USD by 2020.You can clearly see the demand and growth of mobile applications by these figures so why not jump into the market and not let even one of your potential customers move away from your business due to lack of mobile presence. Once you decide to develop an app, you have to get hold of a professional mobile app development company that can assist you with its suggestions and development skills. However, developing an app is not the way to reach the mobile users, you need to carry out an efficient marketing for it to reach the right people. Let’s have a look at the marketing you need to do pre-launch.

Set a Launch Date:

You need to set a launch date for the application to come and hit in the market. If you do not specify the launch date in advance then it would definitely get delayed due to one or another reason. You have to mention it to the mobile application development company so that they can keep up with the pace.

Know your target customer:

Whenever you approach to any marketing company, there first question would be- Who are your target customers? To start with the pre-launch or post-launch marketing of the app, you need to know who can be your potential buyers, where do they reside, what do they do and more. Suppose, you are starting off with an Ecommerce app selling Fashion jewellery, then you should at which location there is most demand and which category of yours would they be interested in. You are selling just women wear then your marketing should be gender specific. There are more factors which comes in the picture while knowing the target audience. It would help your search engine marketing as well as Social media marketing team to do proper tagging according the location, age group, gender and more.

Know your competitors:

Before landing on the market, you need to know how many strong competitors do you have. You need to keep an eye on their recent development and marketing strategies. It is natural that both of yours target audiences would be same. So, by following their posts, you will know that what captures the interest of a particular audience. You may follow their social media pages or subscribe to their newsletters.  

Have a clear brand message:

Your brand messaging should be clear and written down in a style guide. Remember to keep it as simple and as clear as possible so as to make people know what you are all about. It should be capable of conveying the brand message and values.

Get ready with PR material:

When you are near to the actual launch, you will be needing a lot of PR materials to be given to the agencies containing press releases, app screenshot, flow, logo and more. It is going to be the first thing that would connect your brand with the potential people so first impression has to be good. If you do not get the materials and strategies right then you have to suffer at this initial stage.

Do not skip on creating a landing page for your app:

If you are coming up with an application, great chances is you must be having a website. You need to make a separate page on the website for the app launch with all the necessary features with a downloadable link of app. Even if you do not have any website, you can consider creating a landing page having relevant information and features so that if you are running an advertisement of app anywhere, then users can land somewhere to provide you with the information associated with their interest. There is also a trending practice carried out by website owners. They put a timer on the landing page which tells you how many days, hours or seconds are left for the app launch. You can make it more interesting by introducing offers for the early subscriber.

Email marketing is never out of fashion:

By following the above practice or by other means, if you were able to collect the email addresses of your potential buyers then you can shoot mail to them about the services you are coming up with, the difference you are going to being, the cost effectiveness of your services and more.

Frame your monetization strategy:

You get so engrossed in the branding and marketing of your app that the monetization gets overlooked. If you are coming up with something new, then you should focus upon how to monetize it. You need to frame a monetization strategy and consider it even when the app is getting designed or developed.  

Frame content marketing strategy:

It is said that Content is king. It can make you reach the heights. By reaching heights in digital market we mean highlighting over search engines, app stores and social media channels. You need to work upon your keywords so that search engine optimization can be carried out. Along with this, you need to work upon the social media creative posts, content, hashtags, group posting and more. Nowadays social media and search engines are giving importance to useful and user-friendly content rather than keyword rich.

Approach influencers:

Influencer belonging to your app category should be an important part of your app marketing strategy. Since, they have a good reach, they can make you reach a large section of potential audience. Reach out to them to explain about your application and once it is launch, ask them to review it. You need to pitch those influencers with the USPs of your application like fast loading, great design, smooth functionality and more.

It’s a long way from the time you plan your app to the time you finally have it on app stores. You have to utilize this time to cover maximum of your potential audience.  

Why are React-Native Powered Applications the Future of Mobile App Development?

Mobile Application Development
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Whenever a business considers the development of an app to serve mobile users, the prime question pops up, is whether to go for Android or iOS platform. Android apps are cost effective to develop and run for business while iOS apps are comparatively on costlier side in terms of development and maintenance. But iOS apps are known to provide the best user experience to the users. Both have their own advantages so it is a little tricky to choose. With the advent of Hybrid mobile apps, it has become possible for the business owners to have both the apps at one app’s cost.

Hybrid apps are known to get developed & deployed easily and at the same time, provide a great user experience. The most emerging technology for hybrid app development is Facebook backed React Native. Let’s see how it is slowly taking over the market with its ability to offer the best and cost effective solutions.

Cross Platform Compatibility:

React Native was originally developed  to support iOS platform but with its success and demand, it extended its application to Android platform. Facebook has made it open source and hence it has become easy for the developers to use its prospects for cross platform development for Windows & tvOS. Most of the APIs on React Native are for cross platform usage which allows developers to make single code base work on both Android and iOS. If you are a mobile application developer, you can use React Native to write fast and clean mobile apps from a single JavaScript codebase. In comparison to the standard Android and iOS development, it is said that React Native offers much better and stronger developer experience.

Reusing Codes:

One of the most appreciated benefits of using React Native is Code reusability. Developers tend to save a lot of time as they do not have to work separately for different platforms. Interestingly, you can also use your website development code for mobile app development if it is written in React. You can also use the pre-developed components available in the open source library of ReactNative which reduces the time of development significantly as the developers do not have to code the whole app from scratch. In all, most of the code is already written and you have to just spend time in the implementation according to the app requirements.

Developer’s choice:

React Native is most of the developers’ choice as it is based on Javascript that most of them already know unlike iOS apps for which one has to learn Swift, Objective C or Android for which Java is required. Apart from learning, its library gives you an enormous amount of tools and features for debugging, styling, deployment and more. Development can be started very easily after the developer familiarize himself/herself with native UI elements, design features and specific APIs. It is also developer friendly because it allows modifications even when the app is running and on reloading the app gets refreshed.

It has large developers community as it is based on Javascript so most of the developers can contribute. The support of developers community facilitates developers to seek help whenever they get stuck anywhere in coding. Also, they can share their experiences and portfolio on these platforms so as to get better coding opportunities. There is a great platform called GitHub React Native community which allows developers to share their experience and at the same time receive reviews, responses and feedback. Since React Native has been given birth by Facebook, you can also get an extended support from the social media giant.

Third Party Plugins Compatibility:

Due to the good compatibility of React Native with third-party plugins, there is no need for the app to employ WebView for particular features like maps. The framework has the capability to link the third party plugin with native module through which device features like zoom, tap, rotate can be used with minimum usage memory ensuring quick load time. It also offers a good UX even if the app is being operated on old operating systems.

Live and Hot Reloading:

Live reloading is a tool which ensures compiling and reading the file where the changes have been made by the developer. Hot reloading which is based on the Hot Module Replacement can put the changed files at particular places while the app is running. It allows alteration of the source code and you do not even need recompilation of the app to see the code. Using React Native can make you take advantage of these two features. You can see the outcome of changes instantly if there are multiple windows opened including app screen and code. It leads to a significant reduction in waiting time for developers to see the changes.

Cost effectiveness:

As we have already mentioned that it is a cross platform framework using which you do not have to spend in developing different applications for different platforms. You just need one good developer to carry out all the functions and one project handling team. Due to reduction in team size, there would also be better communication while project development and deployment.

Modular programming:

React Native supports modular programming that segregate the functions of a program in different interchangeable free blocks which are called modules. It makes the overall development flexible. The react native developers can easily upgrade the apps at good pace due to this feature.

Apart from the major advantages, React Native gives you the best ready made solutions list and libraries to simply your task. It is the widely accepted technology for modern developers and is easy to learn as well. It also helps in building attractive and elegant UI which are not lesser in any way than native apps. It offers optimal performance through native control and modules. Slowly and steadily, it is becoming a choice for developers due to its fantastic performance and easy to use quality. Though, it is not that powerful from a security point of view.

What are Progressive Web Applications and why they are Getting Popular?

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If yours is a business that feeds on the fodder of its digital presence, then it’s very likely that you already have a mobile application, sometimes also called as a native app, built for it. The reason is quite simple: you want to stay within a hand’s reach of your users. You don’t want them to head to Google or Yahoo every time they feel like taking your services. So basically it is “Anytime, Anywhere” kind of business tactic. But is your mobile application the only option that you have to maintain a constant relationship with your customer? Or is there anything that has all the positives of a native app, but none of its negatives? Ever heard of a Progressive Mobile Application; also known in its abbreviated form “PWA”? If not, then let us take it from the top.

Understanding a PWA

PWAs are applications that are built using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and run on your device’s (PCs, Tablets, mobiles) web browsers. They are:

a.) responsive,

b.) don’t need to be downloaded on a device,

c.) use very less of your device’s resources,

d.) can be used with slow net connections.

Simply put, they are responsive websites that run on your browser but give a feel of native applications. More and more companies today are offering their services via PAWs instead of a desktop or native apps. That’s because they know that users today don’t:

1. want applications to eat up their device’s local storage

2. like to exhaust their precious net-pack for downloading native applications

Why PWA Will Rock Your World. And of Everyone Else’s Too!

There are three major reasons why both businesses and users were in love with native applications.

1. Native apps have the ability to send push notifications to the users’ device. That means you can let your adviser know about your new products, offers, and discounts, as soon as you introduce them. Personalized push notifications have a click-through rate of 30.6%.

2. Native Apps have full access to device resources. That means they can access the camera, microphone, storage, messaging, etc. It means the well-crafted user experience is guaranteed.

3. As they are available in the form of an icon on home screens, they remind users of your brand. That’s basically a marketing tactic that brings your users to your products or services every time they navigate through their device.

Experts touting for a native application over a PWA keep on repeating these three features over and over when a debate on “PWA VS Native App” comes up. But the fact is, PWAs have all the above features and many more. You can add them on your home screen, and they still won’t be a suck-up like native applications. You can have as many of them, and still, not a single one will dare to make your smartphone clunky by occupying space. And users always have the option to enable or disable push notifications.

That’s why people are loving them, and you should too if your mobile application has not been receiving a lot of retention lately. At least that’s what OLX, Pinterest, 9CAG, and Trivago have done so far. And the effort has paid off.

A. Pinterest registered a spike of 40% in the time spent by users on one the portal, and a 44% spike in its Ads revenue.

B. Similarly, OLX saw an 80% decrease in their bounce rate with their PWA platform in the picture.

C. Starbucks has doubled up its number of websites user since its PWA launch.

The data has spoken for once and all. People are loving this new concept. PWA is proof that although people want services “Anytime, Anywhere”, they also want them as undertone as possible. But still, if you are thinking that why progressive web applications achieved what they have today, then let us have a look at the 4 advantages that PWAs have over native mobile applications.

Advantages of PWA Over Mobile Apps

1. They are there. And then, they are Not

Remember the point second that said, “Native Apps have full access to device resources”? This ability of theirs has actually played in their against recently. With PWAs, it’s like a “No strings attached” kind of relationship. As they run on your browsers, they don’t bulk up your device’s memory. Running on your browser is also the reason why a PWA will never heat your mobile phones as a mobile app does. And once you have had enough of them, just come out of your browser, and they are nowhere to be seen. Many PWAs also have the ability to access a device’s camera, geo-location, memory, etc, but as soon as you log out, such activities seize to exist.

2. Users Don’t Need to Download Them

A user doesn’t have to go on an application store just for the sake of downloading a PWA. So they don’t have to sit duck like they always do when an application takes time to download.

3. No Need for Nagging Updates

Users today don’t want to download new updates every time a developer comes up with a new bug fix or UI improvisation. But as said already, applications are an ever developing phenomenon. And also, to stay ahead of the competition, companies have to come up with new and exciting features. And when they do, they have to remind their users of updates. But with PWAs, updates are never a big deal. You can improvise as much as you want, and your users would never have to bother about it. They get to experience something new every time and still don’t have to get new downloads that further bulk up their system.

4. They can Work Offline Too Like a Mobile App

With modern cache techniques of HTML5 and other web technologies, it’s now possible that users get to experience many features of a web app even if they are offline. Starbucks is an example of that. Starbucks’s PWA allows its users to browse the menu, customize orders, and manage carts.

Conclusions

What’s the most important business lesson? It is to learn from others and their mistakes. Giants like Facebook, Tinder, Pinterest, Flipkart, Lancôme-and many others like them have revised their strategies and took to building a PWA for their services. They got what they had anticipated. Now it’s time that you too should go a little less tight on your love for mobile applications, and move on to building a progressive web app for your business.