#awakin.com

"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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I'm sure you've noticed, through the course of your browsing, that websites are now asking consent before saving cookies on your machine.

Well that's because of the governing law brought in by The Information Commissioners Office to help protect against privacy issues and all websites are now required to comply with this new law. 

Read more about it here!

So if you haven't made steps to implement this into your website, then now is the time!

But How?

If you are not overly confident in using and editing html code or java script but own your own website, there are ways round it.

Contact us and we'll be able to point you in the direction of a free service and we'll even give you some advice into installing the code into your website.

However if you outsource your website management, your developers will asssist you in implementing this piece of code. if they haven't already you may need to bring the issue to their attention (on the the ball or what!).

Our Sites

Our sites are now compliant and come with customisable privacy settings.

It also shows the users exactly what sort of cookies we use.

Get in touch here if you are unsure about your options or would just like some advice!

Insider Tip - Take Tourism Digital

If you work in tourism then this is a great opportunity for your business. 

The Northern Regional College (NRC) are launching their new eTourism Project providing small to medium sized businesses with the free opportunity to set up their own social media strategy, engage with their customers directly and grow their business online!

Read more about it here

But why take your business digital?

Creating a digital strategy is something which is becoming very important and frankly something which you can not afford to be left behind in, with more and more visitors using smartphones now is really the time to connect with them - before one of your competitors does!

Did you know?

1 in 6 mins online is spent on social media

78% of online consumers trust peer recommendations for products and services while only 14% trust ads

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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Smartphone Users - The info seekers!

95% of smartphone users have looked for local info

88% of these take action within a day

77% have contacted a business - 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business

If we put searching aside and look at what smartphones users want, we can clearly see that games play an important role in their smartphone usage! 93% of app downloaders are willing to pay for the games they play, this tells us that games are a vital way of communicating with users. In fact mobile games are the most popular app category, weighing in at 64%!

What's not surprising is that IOS (iphone and ipad) and Android donimate the mobile games market. IOS gamers spend 14.7 hours on mobile games, while Android gamers spend 9.3 hours on mobile gaming - with the industry standard coming in at 7.8 hours. 

At Awakin we believe in the power of mobile gaming and have had great success with our Titanic Game, which to date has over 30,000 downloads and increased website traffic increased by over 1000%. 

Building a mobile game to support your business could cost less than you think and it's a lot of fun and a great way of engaging customers. We can build a mobile game for any industry - for more info visit our website

Here at Awakin.com we just love a good infographic so here's a cracking one we came across that has data from both Google and Nielsen!

So just how users spend time on their smartphone? We'll according to data collected by Google and Nielsen, what do they spend their time on:

81% browse the internet

77% search

68% use an app

48% watch videos

When do they use it:

39% while going to the bathroom

33% while watching TV

22% while reading a newspaper

79% while shopping

So how can you use this information? Well considering that 59% of smartphone users  connect to social networking sites via their device you mat want to consider a mobile app for your small business! 

I know what your thinking, ‘how much does it cost to build an app?’ well at Awakin we have the perfect solution we can build you a Lean Launch Preview app with push technology, the ability to put video loops, events listing, QR coupons, GPS check-in and of course Facebook and Twitter connectivity! We can also take it a step further and develop your very own fan wall (its works much the same as Facebook’s wall but its specific to your app!)

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At Awakin Apps we can help you grow your business with a smartphone app for less than you might think! We can also offer our advice and services on Social Media Management and E-Marketing Solutions - get in touch at [email protected] to find out more or CLICK HERE to see our latest special offer for new customers!

Mobile isn't a trend, it's a new era!

At Awakin we believe in the power of mobile and can direct you in how to get the best from it, it's easier than you might think. You can break it up into 5 steps:

Build a mobile site

Make it easy for people to take action

Create an experience that useful andunique to mobile

Learn from how your customers interact with your site

Make mobile part of your marketing plan

See it doesn't sound so scary now does it? What is scary is how fast it's growing, but that's a good scary! Here at Awakin we know how much it costs to make an app and how much it costs to build a mobile website and it's less than you might think! Contact [email protected] for more details.

But why should you be concerned about how fast mobile is growing?

9 out of 10 phones sold are smartphones, 

Tablet shipments quadrupled in 2011

700,000 Android devices (700K) activated each day - that's more than new born babies

89% of people use their mobile devices to access the web every day in Spain, 93% in the UK, 90% in France and 85% in Germany

Researchers say that by 2013 more people will access the web through a mobile device than through a computer

So get involved before your business gets left behind!

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At Awakin Apps we can help you grow your business with a smartphone app for less than you might think! We can also offer our advice and services on Social Media Management and E-Marketing Solutions - get in touch at [email protected] to find out more or CLICK HERE to see our latest special offer for new customers!

The London 2012 Olympics is an event that can connect the world through varying online media. As mobile app and mobile games developers we can appreciate that such a global event would magnify mobile usage stats but they are important to use and you nonetheless!

Since Danny Boyle's opening ceremony lifted the curtain on the London Olympics around half of searches and video streams are coming from mobiles and tablets, as reported by NBC and BBC. Dai Pham and Adam Grunewald of Google’s mobile ads marketing team write:

“We see these trends in many multi-screen events (such as the Super Bowl, Oscars, and Eurovision). But the Olympics represents an even more pronounced trend and one we can see happening at a global level.”

To break down the actual usage stats, over the first 2 days of the London 2012 Olympics the combine mobile smartphone and tablet search share for Olympic related queries were staggering! Well highlight a few countries mobile usage stats (see image for full breakdown of countries)

Japan - 55%

United States - 47%

United Kingdom - 46%

Australia - 45%

Canada - 32%

But what does this mean for you and your business? Well it means that people are constantly going to their smartphones and tablets for information and if your businesses online presence doesn't accommodate that then you can bet they'll move on to a competitor pretty quickly!

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At Awakin Apps we can help you grow your business with a smartphone app for less than you might think! We can also offer our advice and services on Social Media Management and E-Marketing Solutions - get in touch at [email protected] to find out more or CLICK HERE to see our latest special offer for new customers!

Social Media as a customer interaction hub? Your brand on Social Media - Part 2

So now we've looked at the positive ways you can influence customers using social media as a point of customer service (read post here). It very important to know the pitfalls so that you can avoid them, just how important? Well according to American Express 83% of people who used social media for customer service have walked away from an intended purchase because of a poor experience!

60% of companies don't bother responding to customers via social media when asked a direct question! And, 70% of complaints made by customers on social media go completely unanswered! You wouldn't treat a customer who called your office like that so why do it on social media?

By growing your brand on social media networking sites (much like with your actual business) it will become more popular and therefore get more attention but this will only last if you treat your customers and potential customers the right way, after all 65% of customers prefer to contact companies through social media rather than via a call centre (Pew Internet Research)!

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If there’s one thing we believe in more than our ability to create affordable business apps or awakin web design it’s the unquestionable importance of social media! In fact we offer a social media management service that will help your company engage more and get useful ‘likes’ for more information drop us an email at [email protected] to see how we can help!