Integrating Content Marketing In Your Mobile App Development

So let’s talk Content Marketing combined with Mobile Apps. It’s a vital piece of the puzzle when you’re planning your marketing strategy, and it’s something that needs to be done and updated throughout the year.

As the search engine algorithms keep updating, and not usually for the better for advertisers, content marketing is one piece of the puzzle that will have great returns over the long run. That is, prrovided that you take the time to research your topics thoroughly and provide fantastic and valuable information to those that are searching for it.

Gone are the days when broad or generic information could get you ranked high on the front page of Google because of keywords used in your content. Too much on your post or page could actually hurt you, so to find 10,000 word articles was usually only found on academic type sites.

Not anymore.

Today, longer posts of great quality content that's original, gets you ranked in the search engines. But you probably already knew that.

More importantly, with the recent search engine changes, the way your posts and pages show up on mobile also is gaining traction. Un-friendly mobile websites or sites with too many pop-ups are being penalized, while sites that are mobile friendly and have a great user interface are being rewarded.

As more and more consumers move away from traditional desktop computers for their personal needs, they’re turning more to their mobile devices since they can access what they want anywhere, anytime.

But what does that mean for your marketing strategy? Plenty.

It means that there are several adaptations that your company needs to plan and implement in order to capture that growing market.

First, you need to ensure that your website is 100% mobile friendly. It needs to be tested on many different platforms to ensure that WHAT you’re publishing can be read from a variety of devices. Some pages don’t respond well on iPhones as they do Android devices. Remember what happened when Apple announced that they wouldn’t support Flash anymore?

Secondly, you should really consider a mobile app. It’s a way to directly communicate with your customers in real time and doesn’t get lost in their inbox like traditional emails.

Now, don’t get me wrong - building your email list is still vitally important. But what if you had the option of delivering that content directly to your customers without worrying if your email blast went to their spam folder?

And that’s where mobile app development come in.

Developing your own app with a qualified mobile app development company can do wonders for delivering your content with a variety of ways. Push notifications, alerts, SMS messages and more are all at your fingertips.

One of the added benefits is that hiring a mobile app development company means that you won’t have to do the coding yourself, hiring an employee to do it for you half-baked, or wonder if it will pass muster through Apple or Google’s stringent requirements. These are professionals and stay up to date with all the changes that are happening at light speed in the industry.

How does one go about hiring a mobile app development company? It’s a similar process as when you go searching for an accountant or lawyer.

Start the process off with figuring out what you’ll need in your mobile app. Not all apps are the same and neither are the mobile app development companies. Some only do website-within-an-app while others are full-service companies, offering all the bells and whistles of custom coding and integration with a variety of services. You’re also going to need to determine what your overall budget is going to be. A mobile app that is fully custom can easily run you more than $10k, but the return on that investment can be a hundred-fold if done right.

Next comes asking other business owners that have mobile apps. Ask who they used for their mobile app development, what the cost was, how long it took and how happy they are with the company. You might even want to contact companies of apps that you use personally and ask them how they developed their app and who they used.

You can also do a lot of searching through the search engines for Mobile App Development Companies and you’ll get a lot of results from that. That’s a great way to build a list of potential companies that can do what you want. This way is a little more time-consuming since you’ll need to look through a lot of websites, but with the right search terms, you can narrow down the list.

For example: if you want push notifications and SMS messaging in your app, you may want to search for Mobile App Development Companies + Push Notifications + SMS Messaging. That will return a very specific list for you to evaluate from there.

Once you’ve chosen the company you want to work with, you’ll begin the layout of the app. Basic pages will correspond to your website, if you want them to, or they can be completely customized from scratch.

One of the most important things to consider is how your content gets posted to your website. This should be integrated into your new mobile app. The mobile app development company you’re working with should take that into consideration to ensure that your content can be viewed correctly on mobile devices of different operating systems, versions and screen sizes. Thorough testing should be done on multiple devices and you should ask them for a demo of your almost-completed app to ensure it will show correctly for your consumers.

The name of the game is to make your super-valuable content available as quickly as possible on mobile devices, so you want to be sure that your content isn’t covered up with ads and auto-playing videos. Your customers will thank you for that and more than likely will use your app on a regular basis if you design it from a consumer’s point of view instead of a marketer’s view.

You want that mobile app to deliver your content quickly, efficiently and you want to be able to reach your customers through all the noise that is trying to grab their attention, which is no easy task these days.

One of the simplest ways to deliver your content is through the option of push notifications inside your app. When you publish content through a blog post or article (or whatever you may call it), a notification is sent out through the app in real time, alerting your consumers that there is new information available. The message may or may not contain the link directly to the article/post, but you want to make it as easy as possible for your consumers to get to that content.

Even if your consumers turn off the option for push notifications, you can still have your app show a notification, similar to the indicators like Facebook and Instagram have.

The other piece of the puzzle is to be consistent. With all the options today for scheduling content, be sure that you’re ahead of the game with content scheduled out and ready for delivery well in advance of the publish date. If you’re keeping up with your content and marketing calendar, that should be easy.

So keep developing that fantastic content and start searching for top app development companies. You’ll be thankful you did.