Step 1: Describe and also get described.

A simple but clear description about your app is an absolute must. It should not be the bare minimum. But then again, it should not be a long essay either. The trick is to make it interesting so it can grab the consumer’s attention. Ensure that the description is written well, along with all the details and the key features, which would compel the user to download the Ipad app. Attaching screenshots of the App, would also be an advantage. To have a better idea, look out for similar apps in the Apple App Store that are successful, to get an idea of what is working for them.

By getting described we mean get good reviews and ratings. Getting good reviews and ratings would put the iPad app at a higher rank in the App Store. One does not need to hire a PR Agency to market their app. You can simply do a Google search of your app’s topic. This will lead you to finding relevant newspaper columns and blogs, which you can target with a press release. Mention that promo codes are available for whoever would like to review the app. This can be a clever form of marketing.

Step 2: Are you making your Ipad App social?

This question determines how well you can market your Ipad app. In the current times, promoting an app mostly happens online and social media is the key. Using popular social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and others, to promote your app is a common and effective method. Liking, sharing and commenting have become a big way to sell your app to people. This, basically increases the visibility of the app. Another way to boost sales for your Ipad apps is by following pages of app development, marketing, sales, etc. Being connected to likeminded people will help you understand better.

Step 3: Be smart

We advice that you do not charge the customer for your app at the first go. Consider offering a “lite” or a “trial” version of your Ipad app. It should contain adequate key features of the main app, so that the consumer knows what he will be purchasing. Also, it ensures that he is adequately excited about it.

Here, we divulge a bit and tell you that, it is important to know how to monetize your apps. Marketing takes time and till then one must keep afloat. Do read our previous blog on the same to get a fair idea on how to do so. Click here.

Step 4:  Get Your iPad App on the Web

It is not a necessity to spend a fortune on a website. It could be just a standard WordPress site, which would work just as fine. What you need to consider is the quality and the content on the website. It should not look amateurish. Your website will act like an online business card. It will give the customer an idea about your company and your app. The trick is to make sure your website creates curiosity. We tend to remember those, that makes us curious.

Next, SEO (search engine optimisation) of your website is very important. Identify the keywords for your app, optimize the content for these keywords and ensure you drive traffic to your site through search engines. This is called organic traffic and is the cheapest, the best and the most relevant traffic you can ever get. Also, once the visitors land on your site, make sure you convert them into your clients by continuously improving your website.

Step 5: Here comes the iPad App!

Now comes the time to launch your app. All the strategizing, planning and marketing has led you up to this. Ensure the visibility of your Ipad app is high. Making noise about your app at this stage is the way to go. Get in touch with bloggers, journalists, etc. to spread the word about your app. Getting people interested in the app is the first step to having a successful iPad App. But do make sure you have an app that is clean, bug free and unique. It can be the same old story but with your unique twist.

(image source – http://timenerdworld.files.wordpress.com )

“You put water into a cup it becomes the cup,

You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle.”

A responsive website is something like water. It can take the shape and size of the device you are visiting it on.  It also helps you stand out from the crowd. Times have changed and more people are online from their mobile devices or tabs. Hence, it has become a necessity to have a Responsive Web design that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere and on any device without an issue. There are several advantages of having a Responsive Website, but we list you the Top 4.

#1 – Because Google says so!

Google is the God of all search engines and we are sure you want to get a high rank here. And, guess what Google loves? Responsive Websites. They feel this is the best Industry practice that you can follow. A Responsive Web Design has the same URL and the same HTML no matter which device you use. This makes it easier for them to index and organize the content. This is basically very user friendly as all the content is available on one website and on one URL. This makes for easy browsing and sharing.

#2 – SEO is the last word

SEO is the last word for websites in the current scenario. If you have a good SEO strategy that usually assures that your website gets a higher rank on the various search engines. Having one website means having one set of hyperlinks. This reduces the hassles of maintaining the website and helps in focusing on how to increase the reach with a consolidated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. It is not economically viable to have different SEO campaigns for different devices. With a Responsive Website the focus then narrows down to just one link. Thus, making strategies and tactics for every device easier and SEO effective.

#3 –   Let’s Save

Needless to say, that adopting Responsive Web Design to your website would lead you to saving a lot of time and more importantly money. By testing the development, support and maintenance across a number of websites, the overhead charges increase. This can easily be avoided by maintaining a single responsive site, as there will be less content to manage. This also means the high bounce rate, which mobile websites usually face, can be combated. Less bounce rates mean more footfall on the website, which obviously means more out of less investment.

Also, for businesses and individuals who don’t have a need to create and publish a mobile app on the app stores (be it iOS, Android or Windows), responsive websites save a ton of money because you also cater to your users on mobile through a good website that can be optimally used on phone or tablet screen through the browser.

#4 –   Be in the loop

Responsive Website is the most ‘in’ thing and a necessity today in order to flourish your online business. With the growing number of mobile phone and tablet users, soon all websites will have to have a Responsive Web Design in order to sustain. Since the new trend of online shopping has completely taken over, not having a Responsive Website would end up with you losing customers or users. Also, remember, not everyone would like to download your app due to a variety of reasons (hassle of downloading, the bandwidth issues, the memory the apps eat away, etc.). So responsive websites then are a must.

We strongly feel, that a Responsive Website is the key to expand and make your online business a success. It not only makes managing the SEO strategy, but also provides a great user experience across any device.

Want to build your responsive website? GoodWorkLabs specialises in building beautiful responsive websites with great user experience. Contact us today.

Vishwas Mudagal, CEO of GoodWorkLabs, will speak at Nasscom Product Conclave, Kolkata on 18th July 2013 on the topic “Ideas to Inception – Lean Startup Philosophy”

Register for the mega event today and catch up with him!

http://npckolkata2014.sched.org/speaker/vishwas_mudgal.6ffgs4k#.U3L1Jq2SwvM

Continuing the series ‘Choosing The Right Outsourced Product Development Partner‘ we bring you the 4th and the final part of the series –

Case Study – Outsourced Product Development – Part 4

To illustrate the significance of product outsourcing partnership in current outsourcing scenario GoodWorksLabs and S.T.Dupont case study provides some good insights.

GoodWorksLabs is a new-age global software lab with strong know-how to solve software related business problems and building world-class products and apps.  S.T.Dupont is a Paris based super-luxury retail brand, which provides lighters, pens, wallets, watches, cigarettes and fragrances.

S.T. Dupont’s know-how in traditional luxury retail is unmatchable. With the time, the need of going electronic and mobile became significant for the company. The company had a problem to be solved. They needed,

• A superior in-store iPad application that showcases all their products and helps them engage with their customers in their stores.
• A technology that will scale across their stores globally, used by their headquarters, store managers and clients giving them personalized shopping experience.

GoodWorkLabs team was entrusted with the responsibility of solving these business issues for S.T.Dupont. Clearly, S.T.Dupont was not looking for an outsourced partner who develops the application as per the requirements given by the company. They were looking for an outsourced partner who understands their business, their culture, their clients and their business problems to come up with a world-class solution that represents their high-end brand. Because of this alliance,

1. Company received the technical expertise of GoodWorkLabs in the domain where it had no expertise (i.e. technology, mobile apps, user-experience and UI)
2. GoodWorkLabs created an easy-to-use and beautiful iPad application keeping the brand design guidelines in mind.
3. GoodWorkLabs achieved this by developing the product iteratively using Agile software development (SCRUM) and Extreme Programming, working alongside ST Dupont’s team.
4. GoodWorkLabs successfully created personalized shopping experience for consumers of S.T.Dupont brand. The essence of brand was intact in the new application.
5. GoodWorkLabs also made sure that within the organization this technology change is adopted smoothly. Hence, application was equally focused towards backend staff, as it was towards customers.

“Brilliant team and superior product delivery! GoodWorkLABS built our in-store mobile app that powers our stores worldwide”
– Megha Malgatti, Corporate Strategy, ST Dupont, Paris.

For consultations on how to choose a right product-outsourcing partner, do get in touch with GoodWorkLabs at www.www.goodworklabs.com

You can access the complete series here –

Series: Choosing The Right Outsourced Product Development Partner – Part 1

Strategic Advantage of the Outsourcing Partner – Part 2

Does your product outsourcing partner meet your Fit and Trust criteria? – Part 3

GoodWorkLabs had the pleasure of being a part of exclusive group of companies meeting the Kenyan ICT Authority delegation to India. Vishwas Mudagal, CEO of GoodWorkLabs, addressed the delegation that comprised of Kenya’s ICT Authority (that is responsible to plan and execute Kenya’s growth in IT),  government’s county departments and private companies. In his address, Vishwas spoke about Kenya’s rapidly growing market, praised the development the newly formed counties have achieved and willingness and interest of GoodWorkLabs and Indian companies to collaborate with Kenya and being a part of the growth story. Eunice Kariuki, Director of Marketing, ICT Authority, Kenya, spoke about why Kenya is a great place to be and how the economy and the ICT sector is transforming and growing. We thank Nasscom for facilitating the event, which was great to understand the strengths of two countries and explore ways to work together.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Vishwas Mudagal, CEO of GoodWorkLabs, addressing the Kenyan ICT delegation.

Andrew Lewela, Project Manager, Kenya ICT, addressing the event.

Vishwas Mudagal with Eunice Kariuki, Director of Kenya ICT Authority

Vishwas Mudagal with Andrew Lewela

Hellen Kirui, Market Development, Kenya ICT presented the exquisite Kenyan Coffee to GoodWorkLabs. Thank you for the great coffee!

Continuing the series ‘Choosing The Right Outsourced Product Development Partner‘ we bring you the 3rd part of the series –

Does your product outsourcing partner meet your Fit and Trust criteria? 

Fit:

You want a partner who fills the gaps in your business, fulfils your outsourcing objective and easily becomes part of your business philosophies. Determining if the partner will fit can be tricky, because fit cannot be determined only by evaluating your partner. For determining good fit you need to introspect and evaluate yourself, evaluate the partner, and understand the market. To exemplify this point let’s consider a case on evaluating a partner on one critical point – the process used for developing a product.

What will be the best production process for collaborating on developing a product with an outsourced product development partner? Do you wish to go by planned, stringent way of developing a product or you wish to go agile? In a planned methodology of product development the process order of requirement, design, implementation, verification and maintenance is followed in very stringent manner. While agile methodologies embrace iterations. Small teams work together with stakeholders to define quick prototypes, proof of concepts, or other visual means to describe the problem to be solved[i].

1^st step here is to determine your own requirement and then to evaluate the partners on the basis of how well prepared they are to implement projects on Agile or Planned methodologies depending on your requirements. For determining requirements consider,

1. Markets (i.e if you are dealing with stable or highly erratic markets)
2. Your own clarity on product (i.e you exactly know what product you want vis-à-vis you have a business problem and partner should help you come up with product specification to solve that particular business problem)

Following table provides framework to suggest what will work best in which situation.

• Situation (A): If product is well defined and markets are stable go for    planned methodology and exercise governance over partners. However, this situation rarely exists in real life business scenarios
• Situation (B): Even if products are well defined by you but market is highly erratic, Agile makes sense. As market demands adaptability.
• Situation (C): When product is loosely defined but markets are stable, Agile will make sense. At any point in the product development life cycle, you may get an idea for improving the product, which needs to be incorporated.
• Situation (D) : When product is loosely defined and market is highly erratic, you need extreme flexibility. So you need to go with partner which incorporates the best agile practices in developing the product.

Once this is done you know what works best for you. If I am a company which is facing situation D, I know that I need to see if my partner will provide the efficient product development through agile practices.

Besides process (agile or planned), fit needs to be evaluated on various aspects like,

1. If the partner is filling gap in terms of capabilities? What kind of innovations they are capable of making? Will you benefit from the same?
2.  They should have better know-how and resources in the domains in which you lack expertise.
3. Are they good problem solvers with specific business problem that you are outsourcing to them? They should be able to act as your consultant and be proactive with solving the business problem.
4. Do they have same level of passion that you have for a particular project? As a company you have a better clarity of the overall outcome the project. Most of the partners will see the work as a onetime assignment. Few will understand the end-to-end processes and repercussion of the project’s performance.
5. Does your outsourcing partner understand the positioning of your brand? Your outsourced partner plays as critical role as employees when it comes to delivering the brand promise to the market.
6. Do they understand the new product impact on the internal aspects of your organization? They should not only be able to develop a product but should also be able to guide you on training your people and adjusting your processes as per the changes that the particular product development project will bring to the organization once it is complete and running.

These are some of the major aspects where you will evaluate the partner’s fit with your business goals. Use a framework to evaluate yourself and market on these various critical aspects and then match the capabilities of the partners to determine the fit.

Trust:

Trust is built overtime. It is difficult to have trust and faith in new partner right away. But trust is critical in this business relationship, as you share critical internal information with your partner. You want to make sure that your business processes, internal knowledge, resources, etc. are safe with this partner. You also want to have trust in them, from the very initial level, on their capability to deliver the project at par with or beyond your expectations.

How can you trust someone with whom you are working with for the very first time? Let’s look a few parameters that will help you decide a right partner.

1. Past projects:

Look into the past projects that the firm you are planning to partner with has delivered. If possible, talk to the organizations with which the firm in question has partnered with on an outsourcing project in the past. Also, look at the market performance of the past projects. This will provide you insights on people, work style, commitment, quality, etc.

2. Product Development Experience:

Most companies in IT outsourcing services space do not possess the end-to-end knowledge and expertise of developing and deploying a product. A product requires high-end design, coding, testing and UI skills. Look for a partner who specializes in building end-to-end products and not plain vanilla IT outsourcing companies. Further, if the partner understands steps that need to be taken to launch a product, it’s a great benefit.

3. People:

If possible meet all the people who will be involved on the project before making the final decision. Not only the decision makers but also the team involved on project is important element of your decision. Make sure that they understand the new product impact on the internal aspects of your organization.

Meeting with people also gives you a fair idea of how passionate your partner is for the project. Passion to deliver and excel can be the best clue for you to have trust in your partner.

If possible, interview developers and employees who will work on your product.

4. Strong communication flow:

How good is the organization with its internal and external communications? They should be efficient with sharing and discussing all the information and know-how, freely and systematically, within and between the organizations.

In the next and final part, you will read a case study of a product built by GoodWorkLabs for ST Dupont.

You can access the complete series here –

Series: Choosing The Right Outsourced Product Development Partner – Part 1

Strategic Advantage of the Outsourcing Partner – Part 2