8 Mobile Apps Stats For 2015 Reveal All!

Wondering if mobile apps are here to stay or just a passing fad? These stats will leave you in no doubt.

1. Mobile devices are everywhere

1 in 5 people across the world own a smartphone
In Australia, the figure is close to 80% of the total population

2. App Usage Is Increasing

The amount of time people spend using Apps has increased by 21% since last year

3. Increasing Numbers Of People Buy Through An App

74% of smartphone users turn to their phone to help with shopping and it gets even better.
42% of all mobile sales by the top 500 merchants came from mobile apps.
Mobile coupons are 10x more likely to be redeemed than printed coupons.

These numbers are increasing!

4. People Would Rather Use An App Than A Website

85% of people prefer mobile apps to websites and mobile app usage is now higher than desktop usage.

5. Time On Mobile Is Increasing

Adults spend on average nearly 3 hours a day using mobile devices.

The evidence is clear.

Consumers prefer mobile, prefer apps to websites and usage is going nowhere but up. Take a look at 5 key ways mobile apps help your business, arrange an obligation free demonstration or download our App Success Quick Start Guide for your business.

5 Key Ways Mobile Apps Help Your Business

In this post, we look at 5 key ways a mobile app can help your business.

1. Communicate Instantly With People Who Are Interested In What You Do

Whether it’s existing customers or hot prospects, only people who are genuinely interested in your business will download your app. Keep interest high by sending out push notifications linked to content your audience will want to consume. Many business owners worry about people turning off notifications but in reality they’re easy to consume for a user, compared with having to deal with an email.

No matter the category of business you’re in, effective communication should form a large part of your app usage for maximum success.

2. Increase Your Revenue

Send out offers, new products or app only specials. Just remember your audience wants to hear from you but not to have advertising rammed down their throats, so how you craft your messaging and content plays an important part. Use coupon systems to reward customers’ loyalty and keep them coming back for more!

On average you have a 5-20% chance of selling to a new prospect which jumps dramatically to 60-70% for existing customers.

3. Highlight Case Studies

Showcase your work by highlighting examples of what you do, with real life case studies. Some businesses suit this more than others but even sandwich shops can do this if they put their mind to it. For example, Subway™ highlights people who have lost weight by eating Subway™ low fat subs. Think about how you can champion your customers. (We’re not affiliated or endorsed in any way by Subway™)

4. Keep Customers By Providing Better Customer Service

Research shows one of the main reasons businesses lose customers isn’t because of competitor pricing but rather due to lack of customer service.

Research also shows almost 90% of people are willing to spend more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service, especially with a personal touch.

Use messaging to keep your audience informed, write from a person and not the company and try to help your audience with relevant information.

5. Educate Your Audience

By educating your audience on your products and services you create desire. At the same time you demonstrate why your audience should want to buy from you. I’ve lost count of the number of business owners who are great at telling one person at a time about their offerings, easily selling when face to face. In the same breath, they usually complain ‘If only I could only get the word out to more people’. Well now you can!

Apps Together specialises in mobile apps for businesses. Arrange an obligation free demonstration, or download the quick start guide for your business, and see what a mobile app could do for you.

Millions Of Free Images You Can Use Commercially

If you’re anything like us, you’re always on the lookout for images you can use digitally.

For your convenience we have compiled an extensive list of websites where you can get royalty free stock images for free.

Most are completely free for commercial use! If you find any sites we have missed, leave a comment below and we will add it to the list.

SITE QUALITY VARIETY URL
Pixabay 4 5 http://pixabay.com/en/
Free Images 3 5 http://www.freeimages.com/
Raumrot 3 2 http://www.raumrot.com/
Freepy 3 1 http://www.freeepy.com/archive
MMT 4 1 http://mmt.li/
Hi Res Stock 4 3 http://hiresstock.com/
Best Stock Photo Free 3 1 http://beststockphotofree.com/
CC Search 3 5 http://search.creativecommons.org/
Flickr CC 3 5 https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/
Open Photo 3 3 http://openphoto.net/
New Old Stock 4 1 http://nos.twnsnd.co/
Start Up Stock Photos 3 1 http://startupstockphotos.com/
Pexels 5 3 http://www.pexels.com/
Jay Mantri 3 2 http://jaymantri.com/archive
IM Free 5 4 http://www.imcreator.com/free
Stock Photos 3 5 http://stockphotos.io/
Picography 4 1 http://picography.co/
Skitter Photo 5 2 http://skitterphoto.com/
Life Of Pix 5 1 http://www.lifeofpix.com/
Je Shoots 4 1 http://jeshoots.com/
ISO Republic 4 1 http://isorepublic.com/
Unsplash 5 3 https://unsplash.com/
Travel Coffee Book 3 1 http://travelcoffeebook.com/
Kaboom Pics 4 2 http://kaboompics.com/
Gratisography 5 1 http://www.gratisography.com/
Splitshire 4 1 http://www.splitshire.com/
Pic Jumbo 3 2 http://picjumbo.com/
Stocksnap 3 5 https://stocksnap.io/
Designers Pics 5 1 http://www.designerspics.com/
Magdeleine 5 1 http://magdeleine.co/
Public Domain Archive 4 4 http://publicdomainarchive.com/
Foodies Feed 5 1 http://foodiesfeed.com/
Cupcake 3 1 http://cupcake.nilssonlee.se/
Morguefile 4 5 http://morguefile.com/archive
RGB Stock 4 5 http://www.rgbstock.com/
Free Stock Photos 3 5 http://www.freestockphotos.biz/
Dreamstime 3 5 http://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos
Free Range Stock 3 5 http://freerangestock.com/
Free Pixels 3 4 http://www.freepixels.com/
Alegri 4 3 http://www.alegriphotos.com/
Death To The Stock Photo 5 3 http://join.deathtothestockphoto.com/
Studio 25 3 4 http://www.studio25.ro/EN
Stock Media 4 4 http://stockmedia.cc/
Superfamous Images 5 1 http://images.superfamous.com/
Lock & Stock Photos 5 1 http://lockandstockphotos.com/
Snapwire Snaps 5 1 http://snapwiresnaps.tumblr.com/archive
How To Check If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly For The Google Update

How To Check If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly For The Google Update

In my recent post I highlighted the impending Google update, which will effectively penalise sites that aren’t mobile responsive.

It’s a straightforward process to check if Google thinks your site is mobile friendly.

There are 2 ways to do this:

  1. Go to Google on your smart phone. Open up the internet and search for your company name. You should come up as number 1 in the search results. Under your name and URL in the results, it should say ‘Mobile-friendly -‘ before your website’s meta description. This shows you as already labelled correctly and you shouldn’t have any issues. It’s still worth checking the second method below.(Incidentally, if you don’t come up as the number one listing when you type in your company name, or you don’t have more than 1 link for your site when you do, please get in touch and we can offer you an inexpensive solution to make sure people who do search for you, actually find you!)Here’s an image showing you what this looks like when I search for ‘Apps Together’. Notice the multiple pages and the mobile friendly tag.apps-together-mobile-friendly
  2. The second method is to use Google’s testing tool. You simply go to this link and enter your URL to get the results. This is also available in Google Webmaster Tools. Here’s the link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

It’s really important you make sure you’re not going to be affected by the update. If you have any concerns, please choose one of the options on this page.

Here’s a useful infographic from http://www.firstsiteguide.com

mobile friendly website

MAJOR Google Update – This Could Seriously Affect Your Business Revenue

Google has announced a major update to their search algorithm which could seriously affect thousands of small business owners across Australia.

It could mean as much as a 60% or more drop in website visitors for these businesses!

Watch the short video below to learn more about the update, who it will affect and how you can prevent this loss for your business…

As you can see, this is going to have a huge impact on the exact search results which benefit so many small businesses.

Click here to learn how to check if you will be affected

Here’s what to do if you think you may be affected:-

Option 1: Order Your New Website – You can go ahead and order a responsive website from us for just $950+GST. You just pay a small deposit today and the balance is due once we have built your new site and you approve it to go live.

You can view a demo site here

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Option 2: Discuss With Our Team – If you would like one of our friendly team to contact you to discuss your requirements, or if you’re not sure if the update will affect you and you want to find out more, please fill out the short form and we’ll be in touch.

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Further reading

Here are the links mentioned in the video:

Google’s Official Announcement
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html

Search Engine Land Related Articles
http://searchengineland.com/google-search-algorithm-adds-mobile-friendly-factors-app-indexing-ranking-215573
http://searchengineland.com/google-sending-mobile-usability-warnings-huge-number-webmasters-213113
http://searchengineland.com/study-78-percent-local-mobile-searches-result-offline-purchases-188660