DevelopmentNow Blog

When Teaming Up Makes Sense – DevelopmentNow

Posted on February 16, 2012 by devnow_adam

Do you do your own taxes? Do you change your own oil? Cut your own hair? Even for the biggest micro-manager or penny-pincher, you can’t do it all yourself. If you could, you probably weren’t doing enough to start.

DevelopmentNow is unique in that we can jump in at different points in projects. Whether you’re already knee deep in your project and needing a boost or just getting started with an idea and investment, we can fast-track you to where you need to be. While other companies require that they host, (and you pay them to host), we are able to work at our client’s request with regard to hosting, source code control and other things that might otherwise stall a team up.

Recently, a client came to us most of the way finished with their Social Media project. Although the client was a very skilled coder themselves, they were stuck and could not launch. Days of frustration spent searching for a fix. He contacted us and in hours our expert had solved the problem. Whether it was past experience and expertise or just a fresh set of eyes that prevailed, the partnership was a win-win.

Sometimes it’s all about what piece of the puzzle you hold.

In-house IT teams have the advantage of being, well, in-house. Often projects come along where teaming up makes more sense for a number of reasons. In the ever-changing continually competitive Mobile+Social world, we separate ourselves by being able to seamlessly work with your guys to get the job done fast.

-adam

Blogging FTW

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Old School Marketing in a High Tech World – DevelopmentNow

Posted on December 12, 2011 by devnow_adam

Almost every firm these days is getting at least some leads from the tried and true cost-per-click (CPC) advertising. While these leads can be useful and having a continual stream of them is good business, some companies have chosen to think outside the search engine box. DevelopmentNow, mailed postcards to hundreds of different Sales, Marketing, and E-Commerce directors a few weeks ago. The postcards (below) compared a screen shots of the recipients’ website on a smartphone with a shot of their competitors’ mobile site. The heading read simply-

“ROBERT, YOU ARE LOSING MONEY AND CUSTOMERS.”

Why CPC Marketing Can Suck

While CPC ads provide leads who want to talk with you, there’s no way to know if they have a need for you, have the budget for you or are even the decision-maker. This can waste both parties time if a lead isn’t realistic about what they can have done within their budget.

Pre-Qualifying Your Leads

With our direct marketing campaign, DevNow was able to handpick companies we knew had a need to be mobile, had the resources to go mobile, and were a good fit. These postcards were sent out just before the holiday shopping season, so we focused a lot on the apparel and fashion industry hoping to catch companies wanting to get mobile. Direct marketing lets you choose the targets and get straight to them.

Direct Marketing Tips

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind to for your next direct mail campaign a success.

  • Make sure your card passes the ‘glance’ test. Does your lead know what you’re about by just glancing at your card? Is your message clear if people don’t read the entire thing? (note: the backside of the card with the address is the side most often seen by recipients).
  • Makes sure you have a clear ‘call to action’. This is something that makes your audience feel an urgency to contact you right now. (“You are losing money and customers”) is direct and hopefully urgent to a business owner
  • Give them something other than a sales call. Companies may want to talk to you, but aren’t planning on doing anything in the near future. While some would write this off as a polite ‘no thanks,’ it really is an opportunity to build a relationship with a potential future client. We offered a free mobile report and screen shots of what their site could look like mobile.

Conventional internet marketing methods are yielding way to ‘old fashioned’ marketing strategies and methods. Progressive firms are making inroads by finding different ways to reach out to companies who are off the ‘Google Grid.’ It’s cheap, and it’s paying off.

*DevNow’s postcard used variable data to personalize the text as well as the screenshots used. While this is a more pricy option, many printing shops offer 1000 postcards to be printed and mailed out for as little as $400, or .40 a card. Our campaign was a success and after consistent follow-ups it brought in $10k+ in proposals and counting.

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QR Codes – Not just a bunch of random pixels.

Posted on November 30, 2011 by devnow_adam

They’re on billboards in Bangkok and two liters of Pepsi in Portland, and they look kind of like a really hard level in Pac-Man. They’re called QR Codes.

QR What?

A QR code is similar to a bar code in that it stores information and can link to a mobile website. Most all smartphones today have the option of a free downloadable QR code reader so you can see whats beyond the pixels.

How can I use QR codes?

Anything you can do to drive traffic to your site is usually a good thing. What’s even better about QR codes is that you can direct the user to whatever page/site/video that you’d like, without appearing to be just another advertisement link. QR codes give users a way to take a physical product or experience and learn more about with the snap of their phone.

Some creative uses of QR Codes

Sporting Event Tickets – While advertising on the back of ticket stubs is nothing new, putting QR codes on them that lead customers to eCommerce or special coupons take that marketing a step further.

Business Cards – Ever wish you could give your clients more than a business card, but don’t want to feel like you’re spamming them with brochures and handouts? Put a QR code on your business card and that client can access all that info, while you come off looking like a modern day tech wiz.

Resumes – As mobile is huge in the staffing industry, QR codes on resumes leading to LinkedIn profiles or personal websites let recruits offer the ‘wow’ factor to potential employers, and recruiters attract higher quality recruits with that same wowness.

The possibilities are endless and companies are taking stabs at using QR codes in marketing. As long as people search for reasons to fiddle with their smartphones, QR codes will be a great marketing resource for companies that utilize mobile.

-Adam

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Case Study: H&M Using Mobile to Drive In-Store Traffic: H&M

Posted on November 15, 2011 by devnow_adam

Black Friday is just days away and some brands have used mobile marketing to promote their newest clothing lines.

H&M is using mobile to alert smartphone-savvy fashionistas about the newest pieces from the upcoming Versace collection; and with (GPS positioning) they’re alerting customers who are close to a store.

In addition to placing mobile banner ads within Pandora, H&M used a GPS location-based campaign to alert customers that they were close to an H&M, and the new Versace line was in.

“Special offers and announcements can be targeted at consumers who, by their actual real-time location, are far more likely to act upon that message, visit a store and convert a purchase,” he added.

These H&M mobile ads also let consumers opt-in to company newsletters, making it easy to build a base to re-market in the future. This campaign is a great example of how mobile can be used connect with specified consumer groups unlike any other channel. Mr. Kerr adds the in-house benefits of growing your mobile commerce-

“As long as a retailer has online sales capability, they should actually make more margin by selling products through mobile commerce, since items do not have to be stocked and, as such, inventory problems are sidestepped,” Mr. Kerr said.

Mobile is still a media channel that hasn’t been entirely figured out; H&M gives a good example of appearing in front of potential customers through different routes, whether it be a Pandora banner, a location-based push notification, or mobile newsletter. 

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What’s Black and White and Ships March 11th?

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Brendan Adkins

It’s the iPad 2: thinner, lighter, faster, Verizon-ready, and with the same pricing model and battery life as the original.

Two iPad 2 devices on stands, facing each other.

With the specious rumors about seven-inch models and Retina displays finally dispelled, we can actually get to what the new device means for apps. The two biggest changes? Everything will run faster thanks to a new A5 chip and significantly improved graphics capabilities, and with a new HDMI adapter, you can mirror video to your big-screen TV or projector at resolutions up to 1080i. The latter is a particular boon for educators and seminar leaders who want to reduce the cumbersome arrangements required for laptop presentations. And you can place FaceTime calls to an iPhone 4 from day one, thanks to the new dual cameras.

The new iPad, now with over 300 cameras. Happy?

We’ve seen growing interest in iPad development, both on the consumer front–where content licensers are eager to take advantage of the iTunes paid digital ecosystem–and in B2B, where businesses outfitting their reps with tablets are staying ahead of the curve with in-house apps. To read more details about the new device and Apple’s revamped flagship apps for it, head over to Ars Technica for excellent coverage.

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