To locals, Johannesburg, the largest city of South Africa, is endearingly Joburg or Jozi; and when you are done with your visit to this teeming metropolitan town, there is likely to be a little endearment or two you have in mind for this place yourself.Johannesburg is a vibrant city of great extremes. It has deep roots in European culture as well as African culture; there is business, culture and art of the highest order in its old world atmosphere and its glittering skyscrapers; and there are miles of shantytowns, traffic that knows no laws, and people, people everywhere. The city is home to some of the worst apartheid atrocities ever known of; and it is the home of an inspiring freedom struggle.When you visit South Africa, travel to Johannesburg has to be the highlight of your trip; the city may be a bit dangerous in some of its seedier areas, but most of the places you would want to venture to are pretty great.Let’s cover some of Jozi’s best offbeat attractions in pubs and restaurants, art galleries and everything else. Let’s start with Arts on Main, an exciting bunch of shops, all hidden away in a reclaimed warehouse right in the center of the city. The whole enterprise is a part of the city’s plans to take advantage of the history that the city possesses. There are galleries and little bohemian shops by the dozen that should easily take up a couple of hours spent exploring. Check out http://www.Artsonmain.co.za for details.If you want a piece of history for your South Africa travel plans this time, try the Market Theater, otherwise known as the Theater of the Struggle. During apartheid times, the theater’s management felt that art could have a great contribution to make to the country’s political struggle, and frequently put up shows that challenged the government’s policies. A visit there today, and you’ll see some of the best that South Africa’s arts and music scene has to offer. Check out http://www.Markettheatre.co.za for details.Keeping with the apartheid theme, how about a trip out to the suburb of Soweto, a massive place that all blacks in Johannesburg were forced to leave for each evening in the apartheid era, after their work in the city was done? Soweto featured prominently in the country’s freedom struggle, and is home to hundreds of thousands black South Africans. Things aren’t as desperate around here as they once were. The economy in Soweto is booming, and the energy in the air is palpable. It would have to be, what with two Nobel Peace Prize winners living there, on the same street (Vilakazi Street) no less. What South Africa travel plan would be complete without a visit to Nelson Mandela’s home (converted into a museum now)? For a little authentic Soweto cuisine, try the Nambitha Eatery, the Sakhumzi Restaurant and Wandies Place. You could be in for a treat with ox tail stew and other South African delicacies.If you truly want to get in touch with the earth in South Africa, travel to the world heritage site of the Cradle of Humankind. It’s just a half-hour’s drive outside the city, and here you will find stunning exhibits of exactly where it is that the human race came from. The Sterkfontein Caves are a part of the tour, and they contain the oldest fossils of pre-Homosapien primates ever found. Or how about trying the site of one of the lustiest gold rushes ever, the Old Kromdraai Gold Mine?
Why An Effective Email Marketing Strategy Is Important Now More Than Ever
Email marketing is a very successful marketing strategy employed by many businesses today in drawing more consumers into the business fold readily with attractive contents promoting the business wares. This marketing approach is seen as an effective marketing tool with a simple but powerful email message that could stir the hearts of consumers into supporting the business and make purchases to benefit the company.However, the rising competition in the marketplace sets a challenge to businesses today in sending through their emails to consumers who are flooded with business emails every day. Many of these promotional emails are labeled as spam or junk mail which is deleted automatically by the mail system instead of being viewed by the consumer for a favorable purchase decision.Good Email Marketing TipsMarketers who are faced with intense competition in the marketplace on email marketing must engage white hat email marketing tactics to get their emails delivered and read by targeted potential leads. The success of any email marketing campaigns depends heavily on the delivery of the emails and the appropriate actions taken by the recipient.One of the best email marketing tips is to secure a strong subject line or title on the email to entice consumers in opening the email to read the full message. This simple phrase must be interesting and appealing without too much marketing hype or desperation. The words in the subject line must be carefully chosen to avoid being flagged as spam or junk mail.An empty subject line on any email would not augur well with the business or marketer for the system might pick it up as spam mail. It may also reflect poorly on the company when the email is not clear or complete in its entirety.The subject line of the email must be powerful to capture the recipient’s attention to arouse curiosity and interest which compel an immediate opening of the email. This would boost the sales conversion rate of the potential leads towards the business. A well crafted email subject line is instrumental in opening doors for the business to be accepted quickly.Next, the first email paragraph must be impactful on the recipient to make or break the connection between the consumer and the company. The first few lines of the business email must captivate the attention and interest of the recipients as they read the mail. Instant gratification must surface from the benefits arising with the best words chosen to form the first paragraph. This is the anchor of the email message which must be persuasive and appealing. There must be a strong enticement that whets marketing appetite with their curiosity aroused for more.Every impactful business email must provide a great story with a happy ending. This approach takes consumers’ minds off the true essence of the email which is marketing business wares, but concentrates on the benefits offered with simple actions taken by the consumers. Great email stories must be cleverly formulated to captivate interest and stimulate the right emotions that would support the business. Such stories could be informative or educational about the business, but must be interesting and entertaining to direct consumers’ thoughts and actions towards the business.Well crafted email stories are excellent in communicating the business message without being too obvious or desperate to turn the consumers’ heart and mind towards the company.Effective EmailsA diligent marketer who engages email marketing must generate effective emails that would ensure a definite delivery and response. The email message must be focused on the identified theme or topic to help readers stay on track with the offering. There should only be one theme in every business email to avoid challenges on consumers in deciphering or processing the subject matter.Every email should be formulated with the highest presentation standards that would impress and not offend the recipients. The layout, format and style of an email must be professional without spelling mistakes or incorrect grammar as these would ruin the presentation or cause possible miscommunication. Poorly developed business emails are a bad reflection on the company, brand and services which put off potential leads to the business. Effective business mails could be developed in-house by eloquent writers or hired professionals in the market.Modern consumers are busy individuals with their life plate full at all times; hence, they would not want to read long emails which convey a simple message. Email contents should be written precisely to encourage a quick understanding of the message with a prompting to take the desired consumer action such as opting in or making an immediate purchase. Effective emails should communicate the message clearly in simple manners that the consumers would enjoy reading. More time would be executed to take the appropriate action when the email content is readily understood and impacted on the consumer.Higher Conversion RatesThe primary purpose or objective of generating an effective email message for any business is to secure the potential lead as a customer in as short period of time as possible. This would save the marketer time and effort as well as cost if the potential lead could be converted as a customer; and over time, a loyal customer who makes regular purchases and holds a high esteem of the company and brand. Such customers could even be unofficial ambassadors of the business if they are totally satisfied with their purchases on the brand.Hence, it is crucial for marketers to engage email marketing correctly with all the intuitive approaches that would win over the potential lead as a customer. A higher conversion rate is good for the business where the customer list of the business keeps growing to offer more potential sales leading to higher profits.Higher conversion rates on potential leads to customers can only be achieved through consistent high quality email delivered and marketing services that would impress and satisfy business prospects. Email marketing provides an excellent marketing opportunity where potential leads are given a direct exposure and experience on the brand and company that proves favorable to the business.
Brainstorming The Ideas for Influencing Your Mobile App Audience
Once the app is downloaded, you have little time to take a sigh of relief, and then again start focusing on making things easier for the them till their goal is achieved.
According to the AppsFlyer, an app marketing company, the global uninstall rate for apps after 30 days is 28%. Entertainment apps are most frequently deleted, whereas apps based on Finance is least frequently deleted. No matter which app category you belong to, your strategy should be to remain in the mobile phones of users for a long time, and not just sit around but to fulfill your purpose as well.
If we analyze the encounters of users with an app step by step, it can help us unveil the critical factors that influence mobile app audiences, so that we can work upon those and achieve our purpose. Here are the details:
Step1. Finding Your App in Appstore
For this, we have to first find out what exactly users type to search an app. Based on a research, it has been found that 47% app users on iOS confirmed that they found the app through the App Store’s search engine and 53% app users on Android confirmed the same.
What have been their search queries? Interestingly, as the per the data provided by the TUNE research, 86% of the top 100 keywords were brands.With little scope for non-branded categories, most of the keywords were either of games of utility apps. Common keywords in the non branded category are: games, free games, VPN, calculator, music, photo editor, and weather.
Leaving brands aside, if we analyze the user-type of a Non-branded category, we will get two types of users:
1. Users are informed, and they know what they are search
2. Users are exploring possibilities, have no precise information in mind.
If you are a mobile app development company, targeting non-branded users, then your efforts must be directed to creating apps that compel these two types of users. To do so, we have to analyze once they are on an app store, what keywords they use to search. Regina Leuwer, with expertise in marketing & communications, bring some light to the subject. She reached out Sebastian Knopp, creator of app store search intelligence tool appkeywords, who shared with her the data of unique trending search phrases. And according to that data, in 2017, there were around 2,455 unique search phrases trending in the US.
Now, if we study these data to get information, we will find that name of the app is critical to attract the attention of the users.
If your app belongs to non-branded category, then make sure your app name is similar to the common search queries but also unique in comparison with your competitors. So that when your app name is flashed, they click it on to it, finding it purposeful and compelling both.
Step 2. Installation
Remember your users are on mobile devices has limited resources, from battery to storage and RAM to Internet. Everything is limited. So better create an application that is easy to download or say get downloaded with 5 minutes. One critical advice here:
1. Keep the application file size small.
If you are a developer, use APK Analyser to find out which part of the application is consuming maximum space. You can also reduce classes.dex file and res folder that contains images, raw files, and XML.
Step 3. Onboarding
After the user has successfully downloaded your mobile application, don’t leave anything on assumptions. Guide them properly. This you can do through an onboarding process, where users can learn the key functionality and where to begin with the mobile app. Below are the 3 things you need to keep in your mind when creating an onboarding process for your users.
Short and Crisp: The entire guidance of features and functions should be completed within few seconds, with easy options loud and clear option to skip.
Precise Information: Don’t introduce them to the app. They already know what they have downloaded. The objective to inform about the key functions and features.
Allow Users to Skip: Let the tech-savvy users skip the intro. Your app is to meet their requirement and not to have a friendly session.
Step 4. Purpose and UI
Here, the stage is set for your app and it is the golden chance for you to impress your users. What is needed here is the collaboration between purpose and UI of the app. It totally depends on the problem-solving capability and ease of use of the mobile app. Interface design plays the critical role, allowing the users to access features of the apps easily and quickly to perform the task for what they have downloaded the app. When it comes to interface design, make sure that the design is interactive and task-oriented. Here are some factors that you must take care off while creating mobile app interface:
1. Usability: The Mobile phone is an epitome of convenience and if your users find it difficult to use your app, then there is no way there are going to make the space for it in their mobile phones. From screen size to the color of the app, there are many factors that are equally critical and need attention.
2. Intuitive: To create an intuitive User Interface, you have to read the mind of the users, and develop a model based on that. The next should be precise, clear and ‘obvious’ in an interface.
3. Availability: Key features should be hidden in the drop down menu or even if so, it should be obvious for the user to look into the drop-down. An intricate work of design and research is required to make essential features available for the customers and they don’t need to navigate here and there.
If you need more help with the user-interface and innovative ideas for a mobile app, write to me [email protected] and I promise to get back to you with interesting mobile app designs.