If you have done your research and contracted a company to build an app for your business, now you need to get out there and promote it. One of the deciding factors that most likely motivated you to get an app is the fact that mobile app usage has gone up 35 percent in just the last year. This means that just as many people who watch TV also use apps every day.

When marketing your app, it naturally makes sense to turn to social media platforms as a starting point. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are free, and currently Facebook has more people using it than Google.

Facebook fan page

Let’s face it, Facebook is the grand master of social media platforms. By giving your app a home on Facebook, you will be setting it upon a stage with a massive audience. Be sure to customize the page and make it look attractive, professional and interesting. Use your company’s logo as the profile photo—you will want to brand your logo anywhere you can, as often as possible. Then try to get as many likes as you can. Be sure to find a fair balance between being proactive and pushy. Send a very non-abrasive invite to people in your Facebook circle asking them to support you in spreading awareness the awareness of your new business app. Most people will be completely willing to comply. Make sure you post content to your Facebook page a few times a week, and be sure to interact with your followers. This includes responding to all of them when they leave statements or questions. Another great way to engage your followers if to offer giveaways or contests. Remember, interaction is huge.

Have your app reviewed

You can’t review your own app without people turning up their noses in the name of biased insight, so have others review it for you. Submit your app to various sites for critique. A few that offer some great feedback include the following:

• iPhone App Storm
• Big App Show
• My Daily App
• AppCraver

Be sure you don’t blindly pitch these sites. Check to see if they have guidelines for submitting an app for review. Also, read some of their reviews on apps and personalize a letter to the appropriate department stating that you enjoyed a particular article, why you liked it, and why you want their site to review your app. Doing this will make you stand out as someone who is serious, and not a lazy person writing generic letters and shooting them off to hoards of contenders.

Blog about it

Blogging is big in the business world. In an article published by ‘The New York Times’ that examines business promotion through blogging, the author says that blogs increase business visibility, excite audiences and add revenue. Since the app is itself a marketing tool, be sure you understand that you are using content marketing as a way to market another marketing platform. That may have just been a mouthful, but it speaks volume in that you want to make sure you only publish your blogs to sites that are relevant. Mobile apps for businesses by Simplikate, for example, would fit nicely in tech blogs, ecommerce and business marketing blogs. You will also want to submit your blogs to sites that get lots of reader remarks and shares to social media platforms.

Promote away

Once you have your business app created and ready to fire, be sure you market it successfully. Remember, your app will direct people to your website, so make sure it is mobile friendly. Follow these tips, and watch your app’s popularity climb the ranks of business marketing.

Image source: http://info.padalog.com/Portals/112603/images/best-ipad-business-app.jpg

The post Promoting Your Business App with Social Media appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Mobile users have a much smaller screen with which to view your website, which means your standard website just won’t work on a 3- or 5-inch mobile screen. A mobile website that displays crucial information, such as hours of operation, location, and menu items, will satisfy these users. Displaying the information in a sleek interface with legible font makes your site readable. Once you have a rudimentary website with basic search engine optimization, conduct search term research to understand what your visitors are looking for when they come to your site. Then, optimize your site by following these tips.

1. Have a fast site.
Mobile users need information on the go. If they cannot load your website quickly, they’ll get impatient and look elsewhere. Generally, removing unnecessary elements will speed up site loading time. Clean code also improves load time.

2. Omit Flash.
The Flash plugin is not compatible with all mobile devices. Using Flash means that a percentage of users will be unable to view your site, so ensure you have an HTML alternative and set your site to redirect mobile traffic to that site.

3. Stick to the screen size.
Users of mobile devices don’t have much screen real estate, and the onus is on you to make your content fit. Design with your users in mind so they do not have to scroll to find the information. If you don’t, they’ll rely on search engine submissions and not your content.

4. Link telephone numbers.
Linking telephone numbers requires a snippet of HTML, but goes a long way toward getting you free goodwill among users. Linked telephone numbers allow your users to click on the number to generate a dialog box that asks if they want to call.

5. Avoid images.
This goes back to screen size. Images simply aren’t necessary in mobile websites.

There are a lot of free plugins, tools and templates that can help you get started with mobile website design. This is one area where blending in with the crowd is a good thing. You definitely don’t want to stand out for your poor mobile site.

The post 5 Tips to Promote Your Website for Mobile Marketing appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Click-to-call is one type of mobile marketing campaign chosen by affiliates. Also called Pay-per-call, it allows the affiliate to focus on a set of phone numbers and send them their ads. It is very easy for the recipient to interact with this form of advertising, all they have to do is click and they are taken to wherever the marketer wants them to go. This ultimately gives the marketer great increases in conversion rates.

The next form of mobile affiliate marketing is Smart Phone Applications (Apps). These Apps are very hot these days, mostly on blackberry, iphone, and droid phones. Apps come in different shapes and sizes and cover a wide variety of subjects, but one thing is common on mobile apps, they all are open for ads. Selecting an app that deals with your specific demographic can certainly increase business. The App market is growing at light speed right now and isn’t stopping anytime soon.

Mobile sites are another alternative for mobile marketing. This idea generally means taking your site and making it accessible for viewing on a cell phone. For this online marketers need to do some research about what specifications your site needs in order for it to be phone-friendly. This way of marketing allows people an alternative to viewing your site on the computer, now they can view it on their phones.

SMS campaigning is a fourth way of mobile marketing, it gives the Affiliate an alternative to emails. Nowadays people communicate by two major forms email and text messages. Email marketing has been around for years but SMS marketing is a new idea that is just being explored. One major problem with email marketing is that it barely gets opened by the recipient, winding up in spam folders. On the other side SMS marketing is pretty much guaranteed to be opened by the recipient upon arrival.

Every form of mobile marketing is being adapted every second. It is important to keep up with the time and the trends to capitalize your profits. Technology is growing day by day and soon who knows what types of marketing will be implemented with new discoveries in technology. Don’t be stuck in the past, look into the future, it is full of great opportunities.

About the Author:
Eric Almquist is an Affiliate Program Manager at InfoPay Affiliate Network

The post Mobile Marketing Basics for Affiliates appeared first on AddMe Blog.