Category Archives: Online Marketing

Mobile Website vs. Mobile App (Application) – Which is Best for Your Organization?

For Broad Marketing Outreach, A Mobile Website is the Place to Start ……

If you’re planning to establish a mobile presence for your business or organization one of the first considerations that will likely come to mind is whether you want to create a mobile application for users to download (app) or a mobile website, or perhaps both. Mobile websites and apps can look very similar at first-glance, and determining which is most suited to your needs will depend upon a number of factors, including target audiences, available budget, intended purpose and required features.

What’s the Difference Between a Mobile Website and an App?

Before you can evaluate the benefits of a mobile website vs. an app it’s important to understand the key differences between the two. Both apps and mobile websites are accessed on a handheld devices such as smartphones (e.g. iPhone, Android and Blackberry) and tablets.

A mobile website is similar to any other website in that it consists of browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and accessed over the Internet (for mobile typically WiFi or 3G or 4G networks). The obvious characteristic that distinguishes a mobile website from a standard website is the fact that it is designed for the smaller handheld display and touch-screen interface.

Like any website, mobile websites can display text content, data, images and video. They can also access mobile-specific features such as click-to-call (to dial a phone number) or location-based mapping.

Apps are actual applications that are downloaded and installed on your mobile device, rather than being rendered within a browser. Users visit device-specific portals such as Apple’s App Store, Android Market, or Blackberry App World in order to find and download apps for a given operating system. The app may pull content and data from the Internet, in similar fashion to a website, or it may download the content so that it can be accessed without an Internet connection.

Which is Better – an App or a Mobile Website?

When it comes to deciding whether to build a native app or a mobile website, the most appropriate choice really depends on your end goals. If you are developing an interactive game an app is probably going to be your best option. But if your goal is to offer mobile-friendly content to the widest possible audience then a mobile website is probably the way to go. In some cases you may decide you need both a mobile website and a mobile app, but it’s pretty safe to say that it rarely makes sense to build an app without already having a mobile website in place.

Generally speaking, a mobile website should be considered your first step in developing a mobile web presence, whereas an app is useful for developing an application for a very specific purpose that cannot be effectively accomplished via a web browser.

Advantages of a Mobile Website vs. Native Apps

If your goals are primarily related to marketing or public communications, a mobile website is almost always going to make sense as a practical first step in your mobile outreach strategy. This is because a mobile website has a number of inherent advantages over apps, including broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness.

Immediacy – Mobile Websites Are Instantly Available

A mobile website is instantly accessible to users via a browser across a range of devices (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc). Apps on the other hand require the user to first download and install the app from an app marketplace before the content or application can be viewed – a significant barrier between initial engagement and action/conversion.

Compatibility – Mobile Websites are Compatible Across Devices

A single mobile website can reach users across many different types of mobile devices, whereas native apps require a separate version to be developed for each type of device. Furthermore, mobile website URLs are easily integrated within other mobile technologies such as SMS, QR Codes and near field communication (NFC).

Upgradability – Mobile Websites Can Be Updated Instantly

A mobile website is much more dynamic than an app in terms of pure flexibility to update content. If you want to change the design or content of a mobile website you simply publish the edit once and the changes are immediately visible; updating an app on the other hand requires the updates to be pushed to users, which then must be downloaded in order to update the app on each type of device.

Findability – Mobile Websites Can be Found Easily

Mobile websites are much easier for users to find because their pages can be displayed in search results and listed in industry-specific directories, making it easy for qualified visitors to find you. Most importantly, visitors to your regular website can be automatically sent to your mobile site when they are on a handheld (using device-detection). In contrast, the visibility of apps are largely restricted to manufacturer app stores.

Shareability – Mobile Websites Can be Shared Easily by Publishers, and Between Users

Mobile website URLs are easily shared between users via a simple link (e.g. within an email or text message, Facebook or Twitter post). Publishers can easily direct users to a mobile website from a blog or website, or even in print. An app simply cannot be shared in this fashion.

Reach – Mobile Websites Have Broader Reach

Because a mobile website is accessible across platforms and can be easily shared among users, as well as search engines, it has far greater reach capability than a native app.

LifeCycle – Mobile Websites Can’t be Deleted

The average shelf-life of an app is pretty short, less than 30 days according to some research, so unless your app is something truly unique and/or useful (ideally, both), it’s questionable how long it will last on a user’s device. Mobile websites on the other hand are always available for users to return to them.

A Mobile Website Can be an App!

Just like a standard website, mobile websites can be developed as database-driven web applications that act very much like native apps. A mobile web application can be a practical alternative to native app development.

Time and Cost – Mobile Websites are Easier and Less Expensive

Last but certainly not least, mobile website development is considerably more time and cost-effective than development of a native app, especially if you need to have a presence on different platforms (requiring development of multiple apps).

Support and Sustainability

The investment considerations of app vs website don’t end with the initial launch; properly supporting and developing an app (upgrades, testing, compatibility issues and ongoing development) is more much more expensive and involved than supporting a website over time.

When Does an App Make Sense?

Despite the many inherent benefits of the mobile web, apps are still very popular, and there are a number of specific use scenarios where an app will be your best choice. Generally speaking, if you need one of the following, an app makes sense:

Interactivity/Gaming – for interactive games (think Angry Birds) an app is almost always going to be your best choice, at least for the foreseeable future.

Regular Usage/Personalization – If your target users are going to be using your app in a personalized fashion on a regular basis (think EverNote) then an app provides a great way to do that.
Complex Calculations or Reporting – If you need something that will take data and allow you to manipulate it with complex calculations, charts or reports (think banking or investment) an app will help you do that very effectively.
Native Functionality or Processing Required – mobile web browsers are getting increasingly good at accessing certain mobile-specific functions such as click-to-call, SMS and GPS. However, if you need to access a user’s camera or processing power an app will still do that much more effectivley.
No connection Required – If you need to provide offline access to content or perform functions without a network/wireless connection then an app makes sense.
As with any project, when developing an app you want to ensure that your are getting an optimal return on your investment. What you want to avoid at all costs is the needless and expensive exercise of building an app to do something basic that can be achieved with a mobile website.

In Conclusion

As long as mobile remains a relatively new frontier, the “app vs web” question will remain a very real consideration for organizations seeking to establish a mobile presence. If your mobile goals are primarily marketing-driven, or if your aim is to deliver content and establish a broad mobile presence that can be easily shared between users and found on search engines, then the a mobile website is the logical choice. On the other hand, if your goal is interactive engagement with users, or to provide an application that needs to work more like a computer program than a website, then an app is probably going to be required.

Kelsey Media Production has produced several mobile websites that are formatted to work on all the popular mobile devices. Call us now at 781.365.4800 or visit http://www.kelseypro.com

Make your website come alive with a Video Spokesperson…..

“A Website Spokesperson is the most effective way to bring awareness to your product or message!”

CHOOSE AN ACTOR OR BE YOUR OWN WEB SPOKESPERSON

An online spokesperson program allows you to pay a one time production fee, for complete ownership rights to a customized video production for your website. Your production incorporates one of our live actors combined with your customized message.

Our more popular walk on approach allows the actor to appear in front of your website and remain in place as your visitor interacts with your website page. Our code can control the website spokesperson to be viewed once or multiple times per visit.

For a more personal touch you or someone you know can be your Web Spokesperson. Call or visit us online to check out our samples, portable chroma key services and discount special. Be ready to welcome guests to your website and provide them with information, products and special offers.

CALL US NOW AT 781.365.4800
or visit http://www.kelseypro.com

This entry was posted in Kelsey Media, Marketing, Online Marketing, Technology, Video on March 24, 2011 by Stephen.

175 Million People Log Into Facebook Every Day……

It’s no secret that online social networking (done well) is a great way to market yourself or business. Social network applications can make that even easier. Our applications are designed to enhance the experience for users on Facebook. Kelsey Media Productions most recent projects have included creating Facebook applications designed to help corporations, small businesses, schools, houses of worship and artists. Each app. we develop can be seamlessly placed into a FB page. Our FB apps. can be used to help market, promote and bring awareness to your products and services. If you have a following on FB and are looking to create a buzz, then a custom FB app. would be an effective way to showcase you or your company. Click on the link below, navigate through our website app. and then give us a call.

< Visit Kelsey Media Productions Facebook App. >

< you may need to [LIKE] this page to view >

Kelsey Media Productions specializes in Marketing Communications, Video Production, Digital Media, Marketing Events, Website Spokesperson, Desktop/Mobile/FB Apps. Shopping Carts, Web Design for Internet & Mobile Devices.
Call us now at 781.365.4800

Kelsey Media Productions | Burlington, Massachusetts USA | www.kelseypro.com

This entry was posted in Kelsey Media, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology on March 15, 2011 by Stephen.

The Best Facebook Shopping Cart has Arrived!

Everyone is on Facebook these days…….. so why not sell your products there!

Kelsey Media Productions is offering a Facebook shopping cart that we can setup with your products. This cart can be seamlessly embedded into one of your FB pages. Customers never have to leave Facebook to place their order. This is a great way to provide social networking for your business along with excitement about products. Take this shopping cart for a test drive and see for yourself….Facebook Shopping Cart Demo

Kelsey Media Productions specializes in Marketing Communications, Video Production, SMS Text Messaging, Digital Media, Marketing Events, Website Spokesperson, Desktop/Mobile Shopping Carts, Web Design for Internet & Mobile Devices. Call us now at 781.365.4800

This entry was posted in Kelsey Media, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media on March 3, 2011 by Stephen.

BRING YOUR WEBSITE TO BILLIONS OF MOBILE USERS

“It is important to make sure your website can be accessed by customers using mobile devices.”

More people are accessing the internet with mobile devices than computers. The holidays are already predicting more smart phones will be sold than ever! Kelsey Media Productions has produced several websites for businesses… We will create a website designed to render on all the popular hand held mobile devices. Your project will be handled by a team who knows their way up, down, and around the entire process of designing, developing and deploying mobile websites.

Unlike most companies offering this service, we will take your existing web design and format it for mobile use. There is no additional costs required. Your mobile website can be placed within a folder on your server. We will install a redirect code within your main website home page that will detect when a mobile user is visiting. The redirect will automatically direct the mobile user to your new mobile website.

Mobile and PC users can have different reasons for visiting the same site. Mobile users are more likely to want information to help them at that location or time, such as finding directions or finding out what services are offered.

If you already have a website…. without using the proper coding and design your existing website navigation may be frustrating or your page layout along with content may be impossible to read. Flash buttons along with animation will not work properly with most mobile phones. Because of this, you may risk losing ground to your competition, failing to connect with users and missing out on opportunities to extend and strengthen your services.

Our experience and expertise will make your mobile device website a winner. For more information and work samples visit http://www.kelseypro.com

Time to go mobile –

This entry was posted in Kelsey Media, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Uncategorized on November 29, 2010 by Stephen.

On-Line Mobile Ordering Increased Revenue…..

Rungreen mobile site increases online traffic by 10 percent.
By Rimma Kats
July 22, 2010

Online retailer Rungreen has increased its online traffic 10 percent via the launch of its mobile-optimized site.

“We asked to be upgraded as soon as possible so that we could maximize the huge potential of mobile going forward,” said Paul Bondsfield, ecommerce manager at Rungreen, Holland, MI.

“We know that smartphones are being utilized at a rising pace – and wanted to be part of that.

“[A challenge was] the ability to stay on top, continue to tap into new customer bases, and make our products available quickly and efficiently,” he said. “We hope to utilize new technology to solve any challenges that stand in the way of our customers browsing where they want and when they want.”

Rungreen is wholly-owned by Fillmore Equipment, which owns several John Deere dealerships.

Mobile retail
Using the service, retailers can bring their online stores, individual products or promotions to their social media communities.

The mobile package lets a retailer open a mobile-optimized store that is accessible from any iPhone or other smartphone platforms.

The package includes an mcommerce template design, mobile store logo, mobile banner graphics and an auto-detect script that routes mobile consumers to a retailer’s store.

“Web stores like Rungreen need to be able to provide their clients with the ability to buy their products from wherever they are located,” he said. “Many times their customers may be out in the field when they realize that they need a specific part, being able to order the parts or products without needing to go back to their office is essential.

Social media
In addition to the mobile package, there is also a Facebook Package that adds an online store tab to a retailer’s Facebook profile page and a Facebook icon to the online store for instant shopping links.

Retailers using the Twitter package can create and send promotion updates.

Additionally, the blog package lets retailers create their own blog and post entries.

“From the mobile version of the Web store, customers can view the home specials items that are currently on sale, as well as search for items on the store, or browse store categories,” Mr. Gil said. “Once a product they are interested is found, they can view the product along with all images available, any reviews for the product, and options available.

“The visitor can add the item they are looking at to their shopping cart and checkout securely,” he said. “Additional functionality includes the store administration being able to log into a mobile version of their store control panel to view orders, customers, and products.”

Kelsey Media Productions can provide on-line shopping for computer and mobile devices call us now at 781.365.4800 for more information.

This entry was posted in Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology on August 22, 2010 by Stephen.

Creating more webtraffic with Video Marketing

Introduction to Video Marketing
Without going about the usual blabber, I’m just going to ask you a simple question and that is … have you ever heard of YouTube? If your answer is yes, then you have already experienced the effects of video marketing and if you honestly answered no to that question, then I have to honestly tell you that you’ve been living under a rock all this while. I’m dead serious.

Because you see … out of the millions and millions of webpages and websites out there, YouTube is ranked #2 in terms of the volumes of traffic that they experience. What does this tell you? It tells you that video is extremely engaging and addictive which brings us to our main point and that is “How can I bring truckloads of targeted traffic to my website?”.

Easy on me now as I do my best to explain step by step and give you countless tips as to how you can go about riding on the coattails of sites like YouTube and the like and get lots of traffic. Oh, did I mention also that the traffic is FREE and viral?

Before I show you how you can create your own videos, let me show you the pointers to making Video Marketing work:

1) Keep Your Video Short … People in this day and age are busy and easily distracted so unless there is real value and the video is really engaging, they will MOVE ON. By keeping your videos short, they are more easily persuaded to check out your video and also grasp the point of your video much more quickly. As a general guideline, anything from 1 min 30 secs right up to 10 mins would be good.

2) Give Quality Information and Great Value … Surfers like to pick up new things and find out great information all the time. By giving them great value, you also make your videos viral because they are then persuaded to share the videos with their friends thereby increasing your visibility.

3) Title Your Video Appropriately and Attractively … If your video is about your great tips on fishing, title it something like “Watch Me Catch 20 Kgs of Fish In Just 74 Mins”. Compare that to “Great Tips On Fishing”, which do you think works better at getting their attention? Remember, you want to appear unique and interesting. One very important point to note … make sure your keywords are in there also. We must never forget SEO or search engine optimization. You want your videos ranked highly on search engines, dont you?

4) Submit Your Videos To Multiple Video Sites … You need to leverage as much as possible every single video you create. Why submit to one site when you can submit to 20 others? Why 20 when you can do 40? After all, your whole point of video marketing was to gain traffic (which hopefully turns into a positive cashflow). What follows is a list of the best 8 video sites that you can submit your videos to:

YouTube – Biggest One Of Them All (Lots of junk here though)

DailyMotion – Gotten lots of views with this

MetaCafe – Same goes for MetaCafe

Revver – Pretty strict with copyrighted stuff

LiveVideo – Good clean interface

Break.com – More fun than serious (Good for viral videos)

Google Video – Lots of YouTube videos here as well

Yahoo Video – Just updated with a new interface

5) Display Your Site URL Clearly … There are 2 main places to display your url so that your audience know where to look for you. You need to put your link somewhere on your video (more on that in point #6). The other place you should have your URL / site link is where the description of the video is (see screenshot). Some sites make it clickable (like YouTube) so that’s to your advantage.

6) Display URL on the Video … There are 2 main styles of displaying your URL on the video. One is to pad the video at the beginning and at the end of it. The other is to show the URL at the bottom of the video throughout the video. Decide what’s best for you.

7) Mass Submitting Your Video … Coming back to point #4, if you’ve decided that you or you would like Kelsey Media Productions to put up your videos on multiple sites, it’s best then to use some tool to achieve that so that you save your time (i.e leverage). You don’t really wanna log in to each and every single video site and upload your video one at a time, do you?

8.)Be passionate and enthusiastic – This is a KILLER TIP! If you can convey a sense of enthusiasm and passion shows up clearly in your videos, you have a very high chance of your audience wanting to find out more about your products and services. Ask the top salespeople around. They’ll attest to this.

9) Be focused – Be focused on the objective of your video so that your audience know what is going on. Confusion is not going to work well in your favor.

10) Provide a call to action – At the end of your video, provide a call to action such as “Head over to http://… right now” or “Want A Free Report?”, etc

11) Submit Your Video To Social Bookmarking Sites – Yes, you can submit your videos to social bookmarking sites as well like StumbleUpon, Digg, etc … No better way to get even more viewers!

Video Marketing in Conclusion

I hear people say a lot of times why they don’t want to do any video marketing and I’ll like to address some possible objections here:

1) I can’t speak well enough – Hey, if you can speak to the average person on the street in your own language, there’s no reason why you can’t do videos. Contrary to the myth that you need perfect english, a casual tone would work much better than the “perfect professor’s english” (if you know what I mean).

2) I’m too ugly for video – Sheesh … you don’t have to appear on video if you don’t want to. And if there’s a real need for a real person’s face to present some product or service, photo stills can work or you can always outsource it, can’t you?

3) It’s too time consuming – Well, it depends on the niche and how complicated you want the video to be.

So you see … there’s really no reason for you not to give video marketing a shot. If you like to get in touch with us, feel free to contact Kelsey Media Productions 781.365.4800 and have fun with your video marketing! =)

This entry was posted in Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Video and tagged intoduction to video marketing, uploading to multiple video sites, video marketing tips, web traffic on January 3, 2010 by Stephen.

Top Ten Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing

written by Jason OConnor (c) 2009

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that asks you a basic question, “What are you doing?” It allows anyone with an account to write up to 140 characters in a text field as a means to update, comment, promote or communicate to others who are “following” you. When people follow you, they see what you’ve recently contributed when they login. They see your “tweets”, which are the messages you leave. And of course you can follow others who tweet about the things that interest you. As an Internet marketer you may want to follow other Internet marketers, for example.

Like anything, and this is especially true of working with social media, the more you give, the more you get. In other words, the more often you tweet the more activity you’ll generate. Some suggest that you tweet a few times a day, every day. Not every tweet needs to be profound. But they should all be useful.

It’s important that you don’t abuse Twitter for marketing and promoting your products, services or affiliate links. Most of your tweets ought to be about offering your followers useful and valuable information. Only once in a while should you try to use Twitter to promote something. Otherwise you’ll be perceived as a spammer, and no one wants that tag.

Imagine if you had a large number of people following your tweets? Some people have tens of thousands following them. If you had something to promote and you had a large following, you could quickly and efficiently alert a lot of people of your promotion. It acts sort of like an opt-in mass emailing blast to your house email list, but it’s a heck of a lot easier and faster. This is the power of Twitter.

One thing that I’ve noticed with Twitter is that it can seem overwhelming at times. The sheer information on Twitter, the ‘how-to’s’, tutorials and all the other ubiquitous advice on how to use and take advantage of it can seem hard to understand and implement. So here’s an easy-to-understand list of the top ten ways in which you can use Twitter to market yourself, your business and your website.

The Top 10 Ways To Use Twitter for Marketing:

1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)

2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you’ll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.

3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?

• You’ll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they’re selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?

• Since every link has ‘http’ in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.

4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter’s search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your opt-in house email list. Invite these people to join.

5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.

6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.

7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you’re at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you’re doing and invite people to visit you in person.

9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.

10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep you and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.

You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven’t already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.

And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don’t only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.

This entry was posted in Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media on October 30, 2009 by Stephen.

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