Guy Clack, CRM Expert

Having worked on an app for our CRM software Sage ACT! for the last year or so I was especially amused to see last night’s The Apprentice and their attempts to design and release an app in just 24 hours.

The world of mobile is certainly here, and it’s a fast moving one. It’s all about apps, accessing data, accessing the mobile internet on the move and using the device of your choice. Yodel, a leading research company in this field helps businesses understand mobile through a simple lens,  say “Mobile” for a business is being able to communicate, interact and supply a service to your audience or customers at any time and at anyplace” and they encourage businesses to think outside of the box when interpreting Mobile – “Mobile is your tablet, your phone, your Kindle, your MP3 player, GPS… “

For businesses it’s important to capitalise on having a mobile app but also to ensure that customers can access their business through the mobile internet. The first is a bigger step change for businesses, than repurposing or changing an existing website to be mobile friendly and compatible. However, across the globe there are now 700,000+ apps now available from Apple and Google app stores with a breathtaking 13bn downloads to date. In the UK market, 33% of UK mobile users are already using apps of the 45 million aged 18+ mobile phone users.

The opportunity is clearly there for small to medium sized businesses and most now are already capitalising on the opportunity that mobile presents; through the usage of apps to improve business efficiency, communications and market to their customers. Helping their customers to find out information or complete a task quickly and simply.

For a business venturing into the mobile app space for the first time, it can be quite daunting. So to help you along the journey here’s some tips on how to design the perfect mobile application for your business:

Flesh out your idea

• What do you want it to do – It can be a game or something for your business but make sure it satisfies a need or customer want, is supported by research and doesn’t offend anyone.
• Who you want to attract ­- local to global new and existing customers
• What your commercial model might look like – You might offer it for free to start with. Think additional functionality, tiers and revenue opportunities going forward
• Building your app – You’re not alone. There’s a vast community of mobile developers and “build your own” tools that can help you get the mobile app for your business at the price you want.

Designing your app

• Easy to use - get it right first time. Successful apps are really easy to use and deliver on the need
• How it looks on the device – the look, feel and use of the app all important to the user. Use effective icons, design for touch and help the user get results quickly and effectively
• Personalisation – Users may want to personalise the way they use or see the app. Provide users with some capabilities to do this with early releases of apps
• Choose the devices, platforms and app stores for your app – You’re not in control of the device, platforms or app store your current and / or future customers use. Understand what’s hot and what your customers use and build solutions for these.

Getting your app out there

• Post it to the app stores – Your apps built, press the button and launch it the app stores of your choice.
• Provide a description to support your app – Describe your app in a short punchy strapline. Something that will instantly turn on your users and get them to download the app.
• Promote your app – showcase and communicate your app to everyone. There’s some great technology websites who can help you and a recommendation, as opposed to a mention can mean the difference between a few downloads and millions.

So, be inspired by The Apprentice and start work on your app today. If they can, anyone can!

We’d love to hear how you’re getting on with your own app.

Guy Clack, Sage ACT! Team

www.twitter.com/guyclack

www.sage.co.uk/act

It’s remarkable how many good ideas die on the kitchen table or how company’s sales and marketing executives run around like headless chickens looking for new customers whilst totally ignoring their existing client base. These they leave to the mercies of other predatory organisations that will offer them love and support at the time when they need it most.

Roger Foster, South East Regional Director

New business does not necessarily mean new customers.

In these difficult times be sure to love and nurture your existing customers, make them feel special. Reward them for their loyalty and be sure that you quantify that reward to them, subtly. But most of all be sure that you have identified all possible opportunities within them. Only then should you go prospecting for new customers.  Remember it’s up to ten times more expensive to gain new customers than to extend your trading with existing friendly ones.

By embracing the five marketing areas below you’ll significantly improve your chances of success with your existing customers and it will give you a framework for prospection for new ones.

• Segment your existing customers and apply your findings to new ones
• Ensure your brand values and positioning is applied consistently in all communications with existing and new customers.
• Review your channels to market and ensure you have all possible outlets covered
• Produce an integrated communication plan to embrace all these areas.
• Most importantly ensure that you continually train your staff to respond to changing commercial and economic conditions

You’ll be surprised how much success you’ll gain and, if smartly applied, you’ll see improved profits.

The customer is king but money talks

The customer is king but it’s money in the form of profit which rules. That’s why you are in business. The Chartered Institute of Marketing in partnership with Sage CRM Solutions is running an event The customer is king but money talks where we will clearly explain how to get more profit from social networking sites and intelligent application of CRM. We’ll also have a representative from Lloyds bank to explain how to get the most out of your bank. Paul Fifield will demonstrate the strategic approach to marketing for profit and Robert Craven, from the Directors Centre will give ten tips on how to improve your company’s profit.

You’ll leave the event invigorated, enthused but more importantly with a toolkit that you can implement immediately which will improve your company’s performance and profitability. The event will be run at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre in Swindon on the 31st March and there will be plenty of opportunity to look round the centre and network during the day.

Roger Foster, South East Regional Director, CIM

Roger will be taking part in the The customer is king but money talks on the 31 March in Swindon.

The blog you are reading is one of the ways that Sage is using this evolving area and combined with our twitter, facebook and youtube activity we were invited to share our thoughts to the people thinking of setting up a business in 2010.

Despite being the Digital Strategy Manager at Sage and having worked in digital for over 10 years now I still try to start my presentation planning using pen and paper. I find it slows down my brain and as a result makes me think a lot harder about what I am saying. The moment my fingers hit the keyboard I know that without that pre-planning I’ll waffle – and I think anyone who has given up time to listen to me deserves better than waffle.

Many years ago an old sales director of mine taught me a lesson. He took a sales presentation I was due to make and ripped it to pieces – each slide was trying to make multiple points, was full of text and required a lot of effort from the receiver to understand. He re-wrote it and killed 70% of the words and made sure every slide made one point and one point only. If someone who picked up the presentation could not tell what the slide meant without my explanation I had not been clear enough. Like all good lessons it hurt a little at the time but I am a better presenter for it.

Anyway the talk was very well attended, seem to be pitched at the right level and generated some great questions. The best question for me was “how do you deal with complaints and competitors moaning at you online?” At Sage we have a secret weapon (she’s called Cath) who listens out for issues and problems and then either talks directly to the person involved or directs it to the relevant part of the business. I explained that every business will have these issues – these conversations will take place – but it’s how you seek to address them that defines your commitment to your customers. We also discussed how labour intensive this area is and that its not something you can just dip in and out of – that point seemed generate a lot of head nodding.

What was most interesting for me was to see how start up businesses already have social media at the heart of their marketing planning. It’s something that a lot of very well established businesses have not even thought about. it makes me feel very positive about the future for social media.

Pete Wilson, Digital Strategy Manager