However, in creating an elevator pitch, it is important that it should be clear so you can be sure that your pitch is creating curiosity and not confusion to the minds of your possible clients. There are several considerations that you have to consider in making an elevator pitch. One of these is by creating it and revising it several times and making sure that it will really arouse the interest of the customers. To ensure that you can catch the attention of your prospective clients, you have to practice delivering it by speaking it in loud and clear voice in not more than 30 seconds. The 30-second length in delivering it is based on the time that an elevator rises in 30 floors. Elevator pitch should be tailored to the benefits that the business can provide to the customers.

Your elevator pitch is one of the effective practices used in networking. It helps in drawing the attention of potential clients or employers that can be interested in working with you. These are some of the best practices that you can use in creating 30 seconds elevator pitch.

The first thing that you must do is to introduce yourself and the product or service that you are offering. Make sure that you emphasize the benefits that customers can get from your product and create their needs for it. Make it direct to the point so that you can do it within 30 seconds.

You can include in your elevator pitch some promotions that your business is offering such as discounts, coupons, gifts, or other free services. Use the most simple but catchy language that can be easily understood by the possible clients. Choose words that will surely arouse the imagination of the customer until you can create their needs for the product or service. Make sure that you use descriptive words that are apt to the products and smartly deliver it to the customer.

In creating an elevator pitch, you must ensure that it is appropriate to the person or customer whom you are offering it. Selection of words should be suitable for every individual or group of customers so to ensure that it will be clearly understood by them. Make sure that the speech should have an appeal to the clients so that you can surely capture their attention thus make them interested in the products or services that you are offering.

Making a 30 seconds elevator pitch is an art that you have to master to ensure that you will leave a lasting impression to possible clients or prospective investors that will patronize the products that your business is offering.

Press Release
Create a detailed press release describing your app.  Be sure to include keywords relevant to your app’s category, contact information, web address, iTunes link, and a great screenshot.  Submit your press release to PRWeb.com or PRNewswire.com.

Facebook Page
Launching a Facebook page is free and a great way to connect with users.  Keep your Facebook page simple, yet engaging to readers.  Don’t post items that are not related to your app or app’s category.

Twitter
Create a Twitter profile to streamline communication with your audience.   Add in your apps color schemes and include a background image that reflects your app, either your logo or a screenshot from the app.

Website
Create a 1 page website to provide information about your app.  There are plenty of free tools out there to create a simple website, including Wix, Google Sites, and GoDaddy.  Having the website will also drive SEO and make your app more accessible to folks searching for your app.

App Store Optimization
ASO is key, hands down.  If your app is not fully optimized for app stores, it will never be found.  Check out our recent blog post around tips to enhance ASO.

Submission to blogs (technology and mobile blogs)
Submit your press release or app overview to various industry blogs.  Keep the write-up simple.  Don’t SPAM authors or your PR will never get reviewed.  Keep track of who you are sending to and who has acknolwledged you.

Domain name
Register a domain name for your app through GoDaddy.com.  You don’t want a cyber-squatter posting negative reviews about your app on the domain name.

Analytics
Setup a free Google Analytics account to track of the app’s usage, this can be added to the app as well as your website for the app.

Video (YouTube & Vimeo)
Create a demo video of your app and upload it to YouTube and Vimeo.  The video should be no longer that 2 minutes in length.  Be sure to be very descriptive in your video overview, including all relevant keywords.

Pinterest page
Setting up a Pinterst page is free.  Take great screenshots of your app and pin to Pinterest.

Competitive analysis
Keep an eye on your competitors.  Review their apps and research to see what they did when they launched their apps.  You may find a new technique we don’t have documented here (highly doubt it).

Know em Registration
KnowEm.com is a service that checks and registers your name (or in our case, app name) across hundreds of social networks.  Again, you want to lock down social networks with your profile.  You don’t want someone posting negative information on sites such as Facebook with your app name.  There is a cost for the service.

Hacker news submission
Hacker News is another free outlet to submit your press release or app overview.  It’s a great news website read by millions in the technology industry.

Reddit submission
Reddit is an open source community.  Registration is free and offers the ability for your press release to be read by millions.

All mobile apps need a communication plan.  The plan starts during the strategy phase, continues through design & development, and kicks into high gear once the app launches.  It is very important to review the analysis of the app on the web.  Adjustments can be made throughout the marketing of the app.  Stay flexible yet focused.  This list is intended to be a Do-It-Yourself list, but feel free to contact us if you don’t have the time to implement a plan like this.  We would be happy to help you with the marketing of your mobile app.

SBDC syncs your listings on more than 35 sites… so your listings appear correctly in more local searches.

• Correct any wrong information (name, address, phone numbers)
• Automatically add missing listings
• Add categories (keywords) to your listings so you show up in local searches you actually care about
• Lock down your listings so your info stays correct

Stand Out From The Pack

SBDC enhances your listings with premium fields like photos, videos, & specials… so your listings stand out and more people pick you!

• Add photos to your listings
• Upload business videos to your listings
• Add a business description, your Web site URL, hours of operation and payments accepted (this can help your SEO)
• You get a highlighted special offer on your listing that you can update instantly to make announcements or promote deals

Detailed Analytics

SBDC lets you see exactly how you’re doing in local search

• Track the number of times your listings appear in local searches (Impressions) – by time and by location
• Track the number of clicks to your listings (Profile Views) –  by time and by location
• SBDC continuously monitors your listings to make sure they are up and correct – so you don’t have to worry about it

The Why?

Control… a hub to sync your listings puts you in control of your own info.

Time Savings… save hours with single point control.

Amazing Local Search Results… show up in more local searches, stand out from the pack, and get picked more.

Contact us today to learn how we can move your business forward through optimized local search listings.

1.      Visitors (potential clients) are asking for it.

Check your website analytic reports.  If you use Google Analytics or Web Trends Reporting, both of these reports will tell you where your traffic is coming from.  Google Analytics offers a free analytic report with great details.  To check your mobile traffic, click on the Audience link, then Mobile.  This will show you how many mobile visitors have visited your site.  In greater detail, click on the Devices link to show you the exact device the person used to visit your site.  This will also help you determine your platform development strategy (iPhone vs iPad vs Android vs Windows).  If you have a significant audience reaching your website from a mobile device, make their viewing experience pleasurable by providing a mobile friendly app or website.  No “pinch and zoom”, but an enhanced user experience.

2.      Employees are asking for it.

How great would it be to have your entire sales presentation loaded to an iPad for a client sales presentation, with no internet connection?  No more worries about loading a thumb drive, or carrying a bulky laptop, or hoping the client has internet access to download from SlideShare.  Wow your clients by presenting from your iPad and showcasing your mobile design skills at the same time. View the SBDC Sales Presentation App in iTunes.

3.      Competition.

It is time for you to create a mobile app for your business when your competition has created apps for their business.  Don’t let your competition get ahead of you in sales because they have a mobile app.  Bars, restaurants, realtors, contractors, etc are all great candidates for mobile apps.  Proudly display the work you performed, take high-res photos of your establishment and of your products, show off your great skills and services.  Blow away your competition with a custom, intuitive mobile app.

+1   Bonus: Budget.

If you are coming to the end of your calendar year or fiscal year, all of your planned projects are complete, and you have some funding remaining, it is a great time to start thinking and developing your mobile strategy.  Hire a mobile consultant to help create a mobile strategy for your business.  With the boom in smartphones and tablet devices, mobile is the future for businesses and consumers.

Furthermore, by engaging with your target audience on the Facebook platform is informative and can be fun as well. You can get to know your consumer and potential consumers on a more intimate level, understanding what they like best about your brand, their interests and behaviors. By interacting and building relationships with your fans, your brand is more likely to develop a loyal following that will grow over time. By building a loyal community, this will help your brand to be discovered, liked and talked about. By building a Facebook app, you are creating a tool for your business that consumers can use and share the brand experience with their friends.

But the research and build of a Facebook application will require time before you are able to launch it. Keep in mind that the consumer’s privacy may be at risk. Applications give you the opportunity to allow you to have access to consumers who opt-into the app their Facebook information, such as name, age, gender, location, etc. Over the time, Facebook updates their privacy terms and conditions, so it’s important to keep up to date on new editions and rules. Taking advantage of the information that you opt to have the application record for your business can trigger some of your fans to un-like your Facebook page, if they feel as though the app is too invasive with their information on Facebook. If you see that many fans are un-liking your page, it may be due to the application and the information that it is requesting to share with your business, or they simply may not be interested in your services anymore.

The cost of a small business using Facebook applications is not very costly and there are many simple and cost-friendly services to consider. To start, it’s important to build your brands Facebook community by updating and engaging with your fans. If the relationship amongst the brand and the consumer is strongly built with trust, then the kind of business that you are running will be spread to other potential fans and consumers, which is a great way to help your business grow.

It is not very difficult to advertise your small business with the use of Facebook applications because there are 800+ million consumers on this social media site in which your advertisement can easily be place on their accounts with just a few clicks, and some great targeting of course. For more advice on how to best strategize and build a Facebook app for your business, contact us today.

Instagram is easy and free to use. You just have to simply download the app, take a picture using your smartphone’s camera, then select a filter, changing the look and feel of the photo. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to share the photo on Twitter, Foursquare, Tumbler, Facebook, and other social networks, which includes Instagram itself.

Now, how can one use Instagram for marketing campaign purposes?

You may begin to take relevant pictures using your Smartphone and upload them to Instagram. Afterwards, you share them to your followers who are the people from around the world who may share the unique photos of yours to their family, friends, and followers too. Eventually, these followers may become life-long consumers and brand advocates .

You may even engage your fans by encouraging them to take, upload and tag your brand in their brand-relevant pictures. People of all audiences have adopted the popular app and continue to use it to document their day to day life and milestones. Encourage your followers to use a specific hashtag, or tag your brand’s name, then incentivize those fans who contributed by creating a picture collage on your website, Facebook page, Instagram account, etc., so that other fans can view it. Even so, you may want to hold a contest, or continue to encourage fans to upload specific themed photos with a specific hashtag.

It’s also important to share your brand’s culture with your community so that they can get a better idea into who you are and what’s important to you and your brand. Keep in mind that you should post photos that your fans may want to share with their followers, which will help in the discovery of your brand and business. For instance, you may want to share your employees’ helping customers, new products in a lifestyle setting, trending styles relevant to your brand, etc. This tends to aid in building a strong emotional connection between your brand and your consumers.

Take a look at popular Instagram accounts, you’ll see that they are highly active and post very cool photos, you may gain some further insight in useful techniques.

Participate in the trends that are relevant to your business, and to your target audience. You may take the appropriate theme photos then share it through the existing hashtags in participating to the latest trends. For instance, people who shared the “final laps” photo of Discovery from Washington shared them using the tag #spotheshuttle. This hashtag became a conversation, where, when that hashtag was clicked on, all users could see other photos uploaded with that same hashtag and join in on conversation or discover new users.

Trending or beautifully composed images are really in helpful in bringing life to the business Instagram accounts. Pictures that are eye catching tend to contribute in a high rate of conversion. Also, those people who replace the logo icons associated with the profile picture with a real photo have seen an improved response. As an addition, bloggers who incorporate their Instagram images into their blog posts, have reported an increase in engagement.

Now, if the question still remains, can small and medium sized businesses enhance their marketing campaigns using Instagram? Can these businesses participate in the very new mobile photo sharing app? Well, the answer is absolutely yes. Have questions, or need help with creating an effective marketing campaign? Contact us today!

What is an IPO?

IPO stands for Initial Public Offering. It is related to the company’s first sale of stock to public. Those companies that offer IPO are new or young companies and most of the time are established companies who decide to go public. Initial public offering are frequently risky investments, but sometimes has the possibility for significant increase either immediately, or over time. This process is used normally by new companies in order to gain needed market capital.

Benefits of IPO

Increase in your Capital – by going to IPO the company will have the potential to gain millions of capital. By doing this, the business can upsurge the capital of the business by means of selling the stock on the market. Implementing IPO, the business can increase a substantial amount of capital through issuing bonds, selling stocks, for such establishment’s activities as raising revenue, expanding, marketing, research, business development, eliminating debt and also increase the corporate diversity.

Liquidity –  once the company increase its liquidity the worth of public company, like Facebook and other institutions, can also increase because sellers and buyers are more probable to become involved in participating in the market.

Acquisitions and Mergers – they are able to use the stock as cash when merging or acquiring with other business.

Increase future sustainability and profitability – it is essential to have a gateway to future and new capital, in order to ensure the future as a financially stable company. If the company is considered as safe from risk in investing it will aid in getting better financing relations when looking for loans.

Pitfalls

The main drawback in IPO is the loss in controlling the company by the founder or the owner. It is very uncommon for a private equity company or Venture Company to own a mainstream interest in the establishments and there will be instances that you are almost forcing to use the service advisers or providers.

How to Obtain IPO

The first step to obtain IPO is to get various investment banks as being underwriters. They are responsible in assessing the establishment, operational as well as financial background to determine the worth of the company that need to be sold to the market. For large companies dealing with higher amount of money of shares, most big investment banks also act as underwriters. They are commission based. Underwriters also aid the company in dealing with the financial and legal regulations enforced by the state. They also need to obey various rules and regulations of various countries. If the IPO is launched successfully, companies required to submit their yearly business pay reports to the board since the shares of the company will be shown in the stock market.

A company or an establishment who doesn’t go IPO will often have a difficult time in expanding and growing. If your company needs improvement then you must take the advantage of the opportunities given by IPO that will help you and your business to succeed in a long run.

Pinterest “boards” do have a visual layout which is very attractive which displays photos in collections under a common theme.

For example, a pin board titled as “Favorite attractions to visit in Hawaii” would include different pictures of various Hawaii locations. The pictures are then linked to a specific URL where the consumer can go for more information. Pin boards are great for discovering and housing great ideas for bridal planning, gift ideas, food recipes, places to travel, inspirational content, and much more. Others can also re-pin other fellow “pinners” photos to share them with their followers. There are a lot of creative opportunities and ways to market your business on this platform.

When you decide to commit to Pinterest, a creative strategy and engagement techniques must be considered, because over self-promotion and outright selling will be scorned or ignored. However, if you try to post pictures that are eye-catching, interesting and relevant to your business to creatively named boards, you’ll start to see engagement, an increase in followers and and increase in traffic to your site.

So how can a small or medium sized business effectively use Pinterest? Below are 3 ways how:

• First is that, you must be aware that Pinterest is social. Which means that you are able to connect, build relationships and engage with fans like other popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This gives your business various opportunities in establishing and nurturing the relationship with existing and potential consumers. By building a presence on Pinterest, this will help you bring awareness to your brand and also drive traffic to your site.
• Next is to build many fun and creative pin boards. Keep in mind that you’ll want to build pin boards and pin photos that are relevant to your brand to those pin boards. For example, if you’re an Organic Cupcake Bakery, you may want to pin photos of your designs, of your flavors, DIY organic party ideas, Organic cocktail recipes, healthy lifestyle photos and more. Think about the interests of your key target consumer. There are endless possibilities and its something that you can have fun with.
• Last is to remember to pin photos from your site to help guide your followers to more information regarding your business, or that particular photo. Pinterest can be a great way to drive traffic to your website, or blogs, and other  social media sites. If you’ve already established an online relationship with your followers, you’ve most likely already have seen an increase in community and traffic. Also, driving more traffic to your website, or blog will help in increase your SEO too.

Pinterest now one of the newest and most popular platforms in social media, due to its attractive design and functionality, its likely that it will continue to grow and become more popular. The efforts in online marketing for your business will be enhanced surely if you join this valuable community. Have questions, or need help with creating an effective marketing campaign? Contact us today!

Effective lead generation online should take a serious view at the leading websites that most user visit all the time. According to recent reports, leading is Google then followed by YouTube and Facebook takes the third spot.

Facebook is leading the way in innovative social media advertising.

Unlike other websites, Facebook lends more opportunities for advertisers in a more sophisticated way compared to Google. Facebook ads are fundamentally different in so many ways. After all, Facebook is a social network wherein the dynamics are extremely different. Head over to Facebook’s ad center to get started.

There are certain convincing facts that should enhance your interest in experimenting with Facebook Ads:

• Facebook gets almost 260 billion page views per month, much greater than compared to Google and YouTube
• Facebook has more than 800 million active users
• People spend more than 700 billion minutes monthly on Facebook
• And the main advantage is that Facebook has roughly 80% less promoters than Google. By this you have the opportunity to sell your products and services better because of low competition.

You must consider all the important factors before opting to Facebook ads such as Facebook uses presentation advertising that’s based on the interests and profile details of the users. Facebook ads don’t use context searching like Google AdWords, therefore it is very essential for you to make relevant advertisements that attract viewers you are targeting. You must be aware that Facebook subscribers allow giving their opinion regarding the ads. They have all the willingness to vote negatively or positively about your Facebook Ads. You should make a comparison and testing Google PPC with your Facebook ads. In most cases, Facebook is cheaper yet effective. However, you must consider important detail in order to make your Facebook Ads more noticeable:

• You can use an attention grabbing image which is relevant to the product
• Ask a relevant question in your header
• Make a guarantee about the product

In order to avoid your advertisements from getting disapproval on Facebook you should consider these essential rules of thumb:

• The spelling should be correct, use accurate grammar and never use incomplete sentences or slang words
• Avoid using irrelevant images
• No offensive text, images or false claims
• No symbol or abbreviations of words
• Never capitalize whole words
• Once the CTR of your Facebook ad falls to 2 percent then you must revisit the copy and revise it in a way to enhance the appearance of your ads.

Facebook ads are some of the more effective and reliable ways in boosting your sale as well as spreading the popularity of you product, company and personality. This is very much something to consider if you are managing a small business.

You decided on a native app or a mobile app based off my previous article – Check.

You designed and developed the greatest app in the world – Check.

Now you’re ready to launch your app in the app store and make millions – Wrong.

A careful strategy must be laid out in order for your app to be found and successful. The global app market will be worth an estimated $174 billion by 2017, according to Global Industry Analysts. App store optimization will be an integral factor affecting visibility and growth in the ever-expanding mobile market.  Here are a few tips to help your app succeed in the App Store.

Icon

You only get one chance to make a great first impression!  Your icon needs to standout and catch the eye of a user.  The thumbnail needs to be a beautifully unique icon.  It must convey the purpose of your app.  Even with a professional and articulate description, a poorly designed icon will only decrease your chances for success.

Title

Is the app name short and to the point? Does it convey what the app is about? Does it fit in the first line of the results? This is probably the single most important thing you can do to optimize your search results in the iTunes Store.

The Title should be easy to remember for the user and focus on branding. If you can incorporate your keyword into the title of your iPhone app, it can help improve your app store ranking. The app name is used by Apple to create your app URL. Do not include any special characters in your app name.

There is an important field in the info.plist file in Xcode, called the ‘bundle display name’, that is used to create the name in the iPhone home screen. It is important to create longer names with more keywords in them to improve the app’s ranking in searches. If users are on the App Store using their iPhone, they will only see the first 19 chars of your app name when browsing (i.e., without being on your app page).

Another tip that should be mentioned is early on in your app’s development process, you might want to search for the title you have in mind; just to make sure that it isn’t already taken as Apple manually flags (and disables) the concerned keywords.

App Description

The app description plays just as much an important role as the title itself. An app’s description is generally a paragraph which summarizes the app and shares the app’s benefits with the potential user.

Descriptions should be catchy, easily understood, have necessary keywords and of course should describe the app in less than three lines. The best descriptions are usually one sentence long that can be read completely without the viewer having to press the “read more” link. You only get three lines and 120 characters to capture your audience’s attention.

You will want to incorporate your keywords into the description because these pages get indexed and ranked by the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. This will enable users that are searching via their computer to have a better chance of finding your app.

Keywords

This has now become the most important component when submitting to the App Store.  It is important to not use your iPhone app’s name or your company name as a keyword. It’s redundant. By default, users will be able to search for your app by name or company, and not using them as keywords will free up some space for keywords. Keep in mind that you only have 100 characters to work with.  Try to use common sense when choosing your keywords.  Use tools like Google Keyword Tool to see the popularity of your keywords.  The app store has an “auto-suggest” feature, be sure to utilize this service.  Finally, use your keywords in your app title if possible.App keywords do not need to be separated by spaces, only commas. Try to avoid using the name of other popular apps as keywords.  You don’t want to help your competition with additional ASO.

Category

The app store functions in the same manner as a traditional directory on the web.  When submitting your app, be sure that you have identified the appropriate category for the app.  Research your competition to see where they have placed their app.  Check other categories to see if your app would be a nice fit somewhere else.

Screenshots

When choosing you screenshots, be sure to capture images that contain clean pages with beautiful graphics.  You do not want to display screenshots that are heavy with text, but illustrate an app that is easy to navigate.  With the release of the new iPad, be sure to take high resolution screenshots that are retina, or HD ready.  Many developers today will make the mistake of not creating retina ready graphics for the new iPad and new iPhone.

Many users view the screenshots to see if the app is really useful to them. Entice the user to download you app with beautifully aesthetic screens. If you decided to use marketing messages and copy in your screenshots, make sure to not obscure the truly well designed elements of your app’s interface. Blocking views of the app with marketing messages can dissuade users from downloading it.

Reviews

This is probably the most simple concept of all. The more positive reviews your app obtains, the more downloads you will have.  The higher the number of downloads, the greater prominence in the app store.

The first two weeks of an app’s life are critical and will likely determine its future visibility in the app store. Be sure to have friends, family, co-workers, and more write a positive review for your app.  Although ethically not recommended, some developers have used services like Fiverr to have positive reviews created for their apps. Please take note that competition will have the ability to leave negative reviews of your app.  You must be prepared to accept a negative review, but try to have several positive reviews follow that up. Authentic negative reviews can give you ideas on how to improve your app for the next release. Every cloud has a silver lining, take advantage of users providing you with informative reviews.

Pricing

You want to keep your pricing from $.99 down to free.  Most users will not download an app that is over $0.99 unless it comes highly recommended, or has a significant amount of value.  One of the most important search terms in the app store is “free”.  Try to use the terms “Free” as many times as possible when setting up your app in the app store.

Installs

The amount of users that have installed your app is logged and tracked by mobile device. A huge amount of downloads provides you a higher ranking in the store and builds trust for additional downloads.  Users can read these reports and they will peak curiosity.

Marketing

Not having a marketing strategy for the launch of your app is the same as launching a new website and not telling anyone your domain name.  A detailed communications plan must be put together that outlines dates, news outlets, promotions, etc.

It is a good idea to utilize a technique call a “Burst Campaign”.  Burst campaigns happen when an app developer concentrates their advertising spend over a short period of time to boost their app’s popularity. Use SEO, webinars, advertising, promotion, a press release, cross-promotion, website forums, and trade shows to your advantage.  Trade Shows offer a great outlet because you can have hundreds, even thousands, of users viewing your app on display.  The first two weeks of an app launch is the most critical; focus your efforts strongly during these two weeks.

Another key component to marketing your app is Link Building. Post links to your app on your website, write a post about it on your blog, send you app link to other bloggers, send to other friends who have their own site or blog.  Also, post on Facebook and create a Facebook page promoting the app.  Post links to your app on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.  Post beautiful screenshots on Instagram.  Try to gain as many followers as you can on many different social networks. Increasing exposure for your app isn’t only about links; it’s also videos on YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo and all the other video sharing services available at your disposal. On many of these video sites, you can add descriptions in the video with links to the app store.  Be sure to make high-definition videos displaying your app in action.

In Conclusion

When it comes to your app, we’ve covered the bases with ASO. From keyword rich descriptions to beautiful screenshots, reviews to link building, you’re now ready to share your app. With all of this in mind for the launch of your next app, you will be able to optimize your app’s page in the app stores around the world.

Have any questions, or need help launching your newest app? Contact us today!