Free mobile apps are dominating the app stores for a reason. They present an appealing business prospect and have proven to be a working model with just a little marketing know-how. Furthermore, free apps are a great way to spread ideas.

Perhaps, it will also be a relief to find out that successful apps needn’t be based on world-changing ideas either.

The Pou app, for example, is one such story. Developed by a 24-year-old Lebanese programmer, Pou allows users to take care of a virtual pet – much like Tamagochi. The app sells for $1.60 for iOS devices and is completely free for Android, with an option for in-app purchases. It gets between 260k-320k downloads per day.

What we are saying is: free apps are trending at the moment, and as such, are a great tool for making money.

In this article, we take a look at 8 ways to ease the free app development process and generate revenue from it:

1. AdCharge

AdCharge is an innovative advertising method that allows app owners to equip their mobile app with the ability to show ads after incoming calls. AdCharge shows ads that are tailored for users to receive guaranteed views all the while not interrupting their smartphone usage experience.

App owners who have integrated the AdCharge algorithm receive a hefty piece of the advertising revenue as well as boost their app’s value in advertisers’ eyes. 

2. Sponsorship/Partnership

Alternatively, you can arrange a sponsor for your app. This step could be taken in its pre-development stages. Our advice is to do your research and pitch your idea to the right company or person.

Sponsorship ensures that the full cost of the development—or a part of it—is covered. In return, you rent a piece of your app, like its name or a periodical content quota for example.

Sponsorship is not only an excellent way out of the financial elements involved in making an app but also a way to scoop into your sponsor’s followers. The bigger the company sponsoring you, the better your app’s visibility will be.

3. Freemium App

The Freemium business model utilizes both paying and non-paying customers. Its path to monetization is nested on the degree of users’ engagement to your app content. The idea is to allow your app users to enjoy and engage with the content before you ask for money.

By removing the heavy burden of financial worry off people’s shoulders, you make your app much more downloadable.

4. Subscriptions

Subscriptions are often used for restricted-content apps. Apps that offer cloud services, newspaper and magazine apps and video-streaming apps fit this category.

Most app owners use subscription following a free trial period. If your content is engaging, app users will be much more willing to pay for it.

5. In-app purchases

In-app purchase refers to direct revenue from within the app, from sales of additional functions or content. According to Statista, in-app purchasing (IAP) holds the lion’s share of the revenue for free apps compared to other methods of income.

In contrast to the subscription method, IAP apps offer free content plus boosted-value, payable but not mandatory content. In other words, the app can be used but with limited content.

6. Affiliate advertising

Affiliate advertising is a way for you to earn commissions from the promotion of third-party products on your app. More than 80% of brands and publishers utilize this method of advertising.

Ideally, it is advisable that you select a product that reflects your audience’s interests, and that you don’t mind advertising.

Affiliate advertising can be utilized in the following ways: banners, interstitial, native ads, video ads, playables and push notifications.

7. White Label Code

White label strategy is a smart way to make money from a free mobile app, which has already achieved some positive results in the app stores. If you are certain that the code for it is exquisitely written, you can re-sell it to other companies. They can then base their apps on your code.

8. E-mail Marketing

While e-mail marketing will not get you direct revenue immediately, it’s a very powerful method to build-up your app and generate more users.

There are various ways to kindly collect your app user’s e-mail addresses, for example by providing the Facebook log-in option to them. E-mail marketing will provide your app with a steady increase in subscribers and ultimately revenue down the road.

If we have you convinced that making a free mobile app is not ‘fighting on the losing side’, we have a team of experienced developers who can help with all aspects of your project.

Get in touch with us at info@speedflow.bg and let’s talk.

Very often, our customers are asking us about their strategy for marketing on social networks:

“Where to focus my efforts – on Facebook or Instagram. Which would do a better job for my business purposes?”

This is a very interesting question and we are sure that you have been asking it yourself too. The truth is that there is no universal formula, and it all depends directly on your business niche and the goals you have set.

Today we will give you some hints and insights to help you (hopefully) make the right choice for your particular business case.

 

Instagram advantages

A leader in users’ engagement

Instagram is a social network for sharing photos and short videos. And that’s exactly its strongest side. Consumers respond much better to visual content than to text-only, easier to remember, easier to associate with, more likely to interact with the brand. And Instagram offers just that. This is the platform with the highest percentage of user engagement. Posts in Instagram have a lot more “likes”, outperforming both Facebook and Twitter. For example, the average number of “likes” that a post on Victoria’s Secret on Facebook gets is [2,078], and on Instagram [283,030]!

 

The power of the #Hashtag

Instagram allows much faster and easier access to a new audience. This is possible thanks to the use of hashtags along with the posts. Facebook also allows the use of tags, but the extent of their influence on Instagram is much greater. A photo posted with hashtag in the description will be seen even by people who are not your followers. They may like it, comment, even look at your profile. And if they find what they are looking for, they can follow you. At the same time, in order for your Facebook post to be seen by someone who does not follow your page, you need to advertise your content.

 

Уounger audience

You must be aware of Instagram demographic data so you can properly build your strategy and produce effective content. Considering that 59% of social network users are between 18-29 years of age, Instagram is a “must-see” place for brand positioning and attracting the attention of young potential customers.

 

Influencers

Influencers are well-known individuals among the broad audience which make collaborations with big brands and advertise their products among their followers. About 80% of Influencers choose Instagram as a platform to make these promotions. Influencer marketing is a great way to boost sales growth. Allows you to reach thousands of new people in an elegant way.

What are the most frequently asked questions we get about Instagram, you can read them here.

 

Facebook advantages

The Phenomenon of Sharing

Here is one of the biggest benefits of Facebook in front of Instagram. Facebook is a social network for sharing content of all kinds.

You like the video – you share it!
You like an article – you share it!
You like a photo – you share it!

This is the idea of ​​the social network – to voice your opinion to the things that are important to you and which others would appreciate. And if someone sees and really likes what you share, you can share it with your circle of friends. So the same post goes on the chain, over and over again. It’s called viral or more common “virus sharing” of information.

Everyday people see in their new feeds posts on pages that do not even follow, just because one of their friends shared them. This is not possible on Instagram. In the Instagram feed, the user only sees the personal posts of the followers. The ability of your brand to become a Facebook brand is much larger.

 

Different age audience

Not only does Facebook have the largest community of other social network users but also covers all age categories. The platform is widespread across the globe and your message can reach your target audience quite successfully, even if you do not set specific age limits. If you want to make your Facebook campaign really successful, read the article “8 essential elements of a Facebook campaign”

 

No limit on shared links

You are most likely already aware that in Instagram, links usage and sharing are limited. But on Facebook, they are not. You can share as many links as you like – to your own products from your E-commerce website to other pages, website, blog, video channel or whatever. This increases traffic to your website or landing page significantly.

 

Easy communication

Customer service is also made easier on Facebook thanks to the Facebook Messenger app. Your business can maintain a good relationship with its customers, resolve problems, create personal contacts, send promotions, and increase brand loyalty.

 

Well, what do you choose for your business? Facebook or Instagram? Or both? If you hesitate, contact our team at info@speedflow.bg. We will help you make the right choice!

The term Inbound Marketing was introduced by HubSpot for the first time in 2006 as “an approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are helpful and relevant.” This is a multi-component strategy that includes search engine optimization (SEO), blogging, creating text, visual and video content, email marketing, social network marketing (SMM).

 

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is not an invasive way to attract consumers to a brand. It is not intended to interrupt users constantly without their permission as we know Outbound marketing does (billboards, ads, press releases, etc.). Inbound messages are not intrusive at all. On the contrary, they attract those who are looking for answers. By using Inbound Marketing tools, you help your potential customers find you more easily online. Provide them with enough information about your product or services and they will be able to make an informative decision about purchasing what you are offering.

 

 

Nowadays, it would be very unusual if a company does not use Inbound Marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. To find out where you should put your efforts in 2018, do not stop reading. Here are four Inbound marketing trends that will help your business become even more successful in 2018.

 

Chatbot

We hope that you are still not tired of listening about artificial intelligence (AI) and the benefits it has on business. Chatbots are a type of AI technology that is becoming a powerful tool for Inbound Marketing. Why?

Over the last few years, people have begun using messaging applications more than social networks to keep in touch with one another.  What is interesting is that they use them more and more as a way to communicate with brands too. A chatbot is a computer program that makes it possible for brands to provide 24/7 customer service on the biggest messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Viber, Skype, and more. These virtual assistants answer user questions via automated messages. At the same time, they collect valuable information and statistics about their preferences. Companies can then use the gathered data to improve and update their marketing strategies.

 

Guest blogging

Everybody knows that having a blog where you publish articles regularly is an extremely successful method for generating organic traffic to your site. Millions of articles are published online every day. Blogging has grown into an actual industry. It evolves continuously and competition is becoming fierce. A good way to spice things up while attracting new customers is through guest blogging. This means that your article will be published on another website or blog. Although this is not a new practice at all, 2018 has set big expectations about it.

NOTA BENNE! Publishing an informative and quality article on a website that has less than 1000 visits per month and users who do not share its content would be totally meaningless. When you blog on popular websites with good rating and of relevance to your business, you will bring quality traffic and adequate potential customers back to your page. And this is directly related to the number of sales if the page offers some kind of product or service, such as “eCommerce website development” for example.

 

Podcast

A podcast is an audio show that is broadcasted over the Internet. More and more companies are incorporating such type of content creation in their brand awareness strategies. Consumers can listen to podcasts anywhere, even in the shower! Although this is a relatively new tool for Inbound Marketing, 11% of marketers are planning to include it in their marketing strategy in 2018.

Podcasts provide informative content in a very convenient way. They are extremely user-friendly. It’s nice to listen to something interesting without the need to constantly stare at the computer screen, phone or tablet. Podcasts are the favorite blogs of people with limited spare time.

Creating a podcast does not require any investment. The best part is that after broadcasting it, you can transcribe the dialogue and publish it as a blog post with a link to further increase the traffic to your website. Eric Siu, co-host of Marketing School along with Neil Patel, says that once they began making podcasts, their website traffic increased by up to 25-30%!

 

Live video

When we talk about trends in Inbound Marketing, we cannot miss mentioning live videos which will still keep a top position in 2018. People like live streaming and statistics show it clearly:

• 82% of users prefer watching a live video to reading a blog post;
• Live videos are viewed three times more than regular videos on Facebook;
• The most viewed live videos are about breaking news and conferences (56%) followed by concerts (43%);
• 67% are more likely to buy a ticket for a concert or conference after watching a live video about.

That’s why your brand should start live streaming interesting brand happenings. Share about an event you are attending or an interview with an expert someone, show people behind the scenes stories, anything that matters to you and your target audience.

 

What other Inbound marketing trends you think will rule in 2018? Share with us in the comment section below.

Last month Facebook announced that they are making three major updates in the way the whole social media network works. The changes will completely revamp the algorithm which is responsible for the order in which posts appear in individual News Feeds.

As it’s already clear from our blog article “Facebook News Feed – changes and their impact on business” the platform is constantly being updated and changed. Here’s what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shares on his wall:

“We’re making a major change to how we build Facebook. I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to help you have more meaningful social interactions.“

So about the last three updates and they are:

 

1. More posts from friends and family

Facebook and users

With the new Facebook version, people will see more photos and posts from their friends and family. The same goes to publications that encourage better communication between users in the form of comments, conversations, likes, shares. As a result, there will be fewer public posts from companies, brands, media, celebrities.

Posts that encourage engagement in communication will see a boost in the News Feed. These are for example live videos, group posts, business and media pages that share local events and news important to readers. Have you noticed that the changes are already taking effect and that your News Feeds is dominated by such posts? If not, try. You will definitely see the difference.

 

Facebook and business

Since space in the News Feed is limited, the new update will undoubtedly have an effect on public and corporate pages. A decline in their traffic is expected. Of course, the magnitude of the changes will vary from page to page depending on the content they publish and how people react to it. Pages that generally cause less interest, have no comments, shares, etc. will notice the biggest decline in reach on Facebook. On the other hand, pages that create prerequisites for dialogue and interaction between friends will not see a significant change.

!Nota Bene: Of course, your content will not disappear completely from the Facebook News Feed section. Facebook now offers to See First, an option where users can set their preferences and thus not miss posts from their favorite pages. The change is not supposed to eliminate public posts, but simply to display more publications from friends and family. The update does not apply to paid Facebook promo!

 

2. More posts from trusted sources

Shortly after Facebook prioritized posts from friends and family, from the management announced their next step towards bringing communities closer together – optimizing the quality of public posts. This change is aimed to reduce the amount of misleading and fake news. News that users rank as credible and from trusted sources will appear higher in Facebook News Feed. Thus the Facebook team wants to make sure public posts are of good quality and are useful to the global community.

However, it will take awhile for these changes to take place. A considerable number of surveys needs to be conducted. The process has been initiated in the United States and by the end of the year, it is expected that credibility will become one of the signals for post ranking in Facebook News Feed.

3. More regional and local news

There will be more local and regional news in the News Feed according to the latest Facebook update from 29^th of January. Your location, the pages you like and the posts from local publishers will determine what you will see first in your Individual News Feed. It is easy to predict that this will have a positive impact on public pages that share local news and are targeted specifically to local communities.

But how does it work?

Is this domain local?

Facebook says: “To determine if a domain is local to you, we look at where its readers on Facebook come from. If you live in the same area as the majority of those people, it is considered local to you.”

 

Is this domain a news source?

And: “We use a variety of signals to identify news sources on Facebook. These could include hard news, sports updates, a neighborhood blog, or other local sources.”

 

However, the change will initially start in the US and will gradually spread to other parts of the world.

 

Don’t forget to follow our blog and be one of the first to find out what other Facebook updates are coming! For now, only time will show.