#awakin

Last summer, when I was in Berkeley for the Metta Mentors program, I had the blessed opportunity to attend my first Wednesday in Santa Clara. Since then, for the next 12 weeks, Wednesdays were sacred, and instead of Wednesdays being fit into my schedule, my schedule was

"Companies are recognising that websites are not just about e-commerce, they are a gateway to the brand." - Todd Pollack, Head of Retail, Google

Over the holiday period businesses can usually expect higher profits and engagement, but you can take it for granted or assume that it's going to happen. With so much competition out there you need to stand out from the crowd and what better way to do it than with a Awakin Smartphone App or a mobile ready site for your business!

Why Go Mobile?

It's Simple - 51% of people research online and purchase items in a store, so regardless of what you are selling people will always shop around. I know what your thinking our website can do the trick, however with 41% of retailers owning smartphones your site better be mobile ready or there's a good chance customers will go elsewhere.

At Awakin Apps we can provide mobile solutions at a very affordable price, whether it be a full mobile app or simply a mobile ready website - contact us for more info!

Mobile Ready

With the constant growth in the smartphone sector it's imperitive that your site is mobile ready or better yet your business has its own mobile app because

70% of mobile users have compared product prices on their phones

65% have read product reviews on their phone

50% of mobile searches lead to purchase

If your still in any doubt whether of not your business need a mobile app or a mobile ready website then consider this - over the 2012/2013 holiday period there is an expected $119 Billion in sales through mobile devices worldwide!

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As a small business ourselves we don't have a fortune to spend on boosting the Awakin web profile - but we've managed to unlock a few secrets to make it a little easier and we want to share that knowledge with you!

I know blogging about blogging may seem a little redundant but at Awakin we’ve found that frequently publishing new and useful content (and maybe a selfless plug here and there) really does help boost your online profile and therefore your ranking in search engines. Blogging is a great way to built your online profile and while it may seem obvious it is time consuming and getting it right can be a bit of a dark art!

Here’s 3 important things to consider when blogging:

1) Keep it Updated - You've got to be regularly posting new content to appease the 'Gods' at Google. The more new content you generate, the more exposure you get in the search engine.

2) SEO is Key - Search Engine Optimisation is a vital part of any blog and this is were many bloggers fall short, because it's a fine line between using SEO keywords wisely and spamming your article so full of them that it's no fun to read.

3) Tracking - By using Google analytics (it's free) you can track how many people are visiting and where are they coming from, which may help you tailor your blog content!

Stuck for content ideas? Then why not step up a Google Alert - email updates of the latest relevant Google results. It’s a great way of finding out what’s hot and staying current! Best of all it’s free!

Insider Secret - Hit Tail

Hit Tail is a great tool for helping you generate blog content, you simply paste their code in your blog/website and they will track all the keywords and search terms from your sites existing traffic.

You can then use these keywords and Hit Tails suggestions to generate new blog posts with SEO friendly keyword that you already know works!

The only down side is that you have to pay for the service - however one of our services is boosting online profiles and we currently have a few clients who are already seeing the benefits.

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With our Awakin Apps platform you can create a smartphone app with many different features and we'll be detailing them all on our blog!

Check out our previous blogs about our Awakin Apps Features - QR Coupons and Push Notifications

Our GPS Map tab allow you highlight places on a map, give information about that place and give step-by-stpe directions to it! We have used this feature in every Awakin App to date because it's such a convenient and versatile tab.

You can have up to 3 categories, so for example if you are building an app for the tourism industry you could have a category for hotels, sight-seeing and entertainment! Within these 3 categories you can have an unlimited amount of places of interest (POI), infact one of our app have almost 100 POI's.

Of course this can open up a great opportunity for your business because you could sell this space to other business who wanted to advertise their product or service - sticking with the tourism industry example, you could charge hotels a fee to be featured on your map.

Another great feature that comes as standard with the awakin apps platform!

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Are you thinking of investing in a mobile app? If not you should be! But Awakin, why should we be spending money on designing and building a mobile app?

Well for starters it gives your company a unique selling point and you'll be able to communicate directly to your customers via push notifications not to mention increasing brand loyalty and repeat business by using QR coupons and loyalty stamps!

So your next question is probably how many people have phones? Here at Awakin we've done the had graft for you and found out the latest sales stats for the UK and Europe:

Recent sales stats (UK and mainland Europe):

IDC say 27.4 million smartphones sold in Western Europe in Q2 2012. Samsung's share is 43.6%, followed by Apple at 19%.

A May 2012 YouGov survey found 47% of UK mobile phone users now have a smartphone. They expect that number to hit over 55% by the same time next year.

comScore reckon there were just over 28 million UK smartphone users by May 2012 (3-month average), a year-on-year increase of 38%.

The same company put combined smartphone ownership for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK at 44% of mobile users as of December 2011 (104 million users).

Figures quoted in the FT put UK smartphone ownership at 46% as of August 2011.

The only question left is why an Awakin App? Well we can offer your business its very own smartphone app with any of the following features:

Create interactive treasure trails/walks

QR scannable codes for rewards

Send specials and coupons directly to users with push notifications

Display your full event list

A Loyalty feature for repeat customers (stamper card)

Turn-by-turn GPS directions to your business 

Music player (able to purchase songs)

We can integrate your Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Photos, etc 

Update your app on your own using our easy edit tools

Plus much more…

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Why choose our E-Marketing solution? Through our research and experience with past clients we have defined several key benefits to using an email marketing campaign to boost your profile and sales, it’s with these key benefits in mind that we will build your list. Head over to Awakin.com to see our past work!

1. Instant Communication

Unlike more traditional ways of getting your message across, such as print, e-marketing allows you to communicate directly with potential customers that have been gathered in your mailing list. Not only do you know that they will see your message but because they are on your list they already identify with your product/service.

2. Create Engaging, Interesting Content

Our e-marketing campaign gives you the chance to send interesting and interactive content - e-mail has always been about more than just words. You’ll be able to send hyperlinks to external pages such as an online shop or a booking site and even images and video links. At Awakin we believe great content supported by a strong call to action will drive the customer to where you want them to go!

3. Hyper Targeted

As mentioned before the customers that you will be targeting already have an affinity with your product/service because they have signed up to your mailing list, this gives you a great advantage in the market and also helps identify what content they would like.

4. Cost

Compared to the tradition forms of marketing/advertising (or whatever term you want to use to mean getting people to care about your product) e-marketing is far more cost effective. Why? I hear you ask! Well simply because are targeting potential customers who have already expressed an interested in your brand by signing on to your mailing list! In addition to buying to ‘air’ space you’ll have need to hire a design so it looks cool enough to catch peoples eyes and it won’t be cheap!

5. Reach People Like Never Before

We are basing this on having a mailing list to market so how do you get them? We’ll it’s quite simple (but potentially time consuming) - first you need to define your market and find out where they spend their time online. Once you’ve found the most popular forums and blogs you can post on them with links back to your sign-up page or even contact the blogger directly, generating content for them works well here.

6. You Can Benefit From Forwarding

People love to share stuff! Whether its links, info, movies of pictures they love it! SO if you email’s are interesting, chances are they will get forwarded on (think how many FWD’s you get in your inbox!). It’s not just forwarding to their friends emails but they can share them on facebook and twitter - imagine how many eyes will see your brand then!

7. Track It!

Mail Chimp and AWeber (the 2 most popular platforms) have built-in analytics so you can see open rates, click rates, what they click on, how many time they opened it and much more! You can’t do that with a newspaper ad!

8. It’s Not Easy Being Green

Because its all digitally managed there will be no tress harmed during the making of this campaign! Not to mention the saving from not having hardcopy print outs!

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At Awakin Apps we like to understand our users as best we can and what better to understand their smartphone usage than to look at socially active they are! SO we've found this cool infographic for comparisons between Android and iOS.

To date they are 500 millions activated Android, which has the edge over 410 million activated iOS device but the sticking point here is that there are many devices available on Android such as HTC and Samsung (to name the most popular) so you would expect the share to be in their favour.

In terms of popular social apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, Android has more downloads however new iPhone 5 come with Facebook and Twitter integrated into your contacts!

This latest research on Facebook usage for each platform shows that are almost 37,000,000 unique app visitors from Android devices compared to just over 26,000,000 on iOS - but why should you care?

Well as social media has become such an important part of our lives people can share their recommendations for products and services to all their friends - just think of the free advertising! Generally speaking people are more likely to trust their friends recommendations rather than some advertising blurb!

So how can you use this info? Well if you had an app specific to your business with Facebook and Twitter integrated into it your customers could help promote your business for you, without even realising their doing it!

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Hey at Awakin even thought we're based on the Causeway Coast we don't just surf and play golf we do actually do some work too! We've recently teamed up with the guys behind Irish Fireside to create a travel app - The Ireland Travel Kit

The Ireland Travel Kit App gives users the chance to discover the 'offbeat and often missed' sites of Ireland from their smartphone or tablet. The app features an interactive map, 400+ sites, a constantly updated blog and the chance to experience some traditional Irish Music.

At Awakin we pride itself on developing local and national tourism we jumped at the chance to work with Corey Taratuta, an award winning blogger from Irish Fireside. Together we were able to come up with a mobile solution for very successful travel blog - Ireland Travel Kit. Delivery to the American market can be challenging and Corey wanted a company with local passion and knowledge.

The app itself highlights the lesser treaded spots in Ireland Tourism and gives users the chance to View by map and get directions from your current location, dig a little deeper with photos and links to more information for every listing, stream samples of great Irish music and podcasts from our playlists and submit photos of your favorite places.

Corey Taratuta, Founder of Ireland Travel Kit

“I thought it was wishful thinking that we’d complete our app this quarter, but once Awakin jumped in, everything fell into place. The entire process was streamlined, well-guided, and responsive.

“Wonderful having the folks at Awakin make my app ideas take shape. When developing my app, I needed a partner, someone with knowledge and skill, and able to recognize my vision. I found that with Awakin”

Could we do the same for you? Are you in need of a smartphone app for your business?

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