Mobile Application Development - iPhone, iPad (iOS) Development & Android

Mobile Marketing is the Future. 39% of US phones are smart phones. That number will double over the next two years. Online holiday shopping for 2011 also showed 37% of the shoppers used smart phones to make purchases online.

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.

The Difference Between a Mobile Website and a Mobile App

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. If your company is utilizing a Content Management System (ie. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Expression Engine) its very inexpensive to deploy a mobile website. That typically involves downloading, installing and configuring an extension, component or plugin and coding of mobile website template.

Mobile 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.

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 goals are primarily marketing driven, or if your goal 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 a Mobile App is probably going to be required.

Mobile Application Development Process

Once we have an understanding of the Mobile App you want to develop, InteractiveWest provides a detailed proposal, outlining the services and costs associated with the project.

Initial Meeting: Team members meet with your staff to gain a greater understanding of the entire project and to set guidelines and expectations.

Content and Materials Gathering: InteractiveWest develops a Scope of Work and all content, assets and images are gathered.

Wireframe Creation: InteractiveWest creates black and white depictions of your Mobile App including the placement of text and images and where the overall flow of your Mobile App is also designed.

Application Design: InteractiveWest designers build the design for your Mobile Application - for what it will look like, what fonts will be used, and what graphics will be displayed.

Development and Integration: Our development team then goes to work in development of your Mobile Application, builds coding to connect with any necessary databases, integrate web services, and perform rigourous testing.

Project Sign-off, Launch, and Marketing:Once your Mobile Application is developed, InteractiveWest works to ensure your Mobile App is successfully launched by creating and executing a internet marketing plan to promote your Mobile App.

Types of Mobile Applications:

Android
Android is a Linux-based operating system primarily designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers utilizing ARM processors. A secondary target for the light weight OS is embedded systems such as networking equipment, smart TV systems including set top boxes and built in systems and various devices as varied as household appliances and wrist watches. It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance, led by Google.

BlackBerry
Blackberry devices are smartphones which are designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, cameras and much more. They are primarily known for their ability to send and receive (push) email and instant messages while maintaining a high level of security through on-device message encryption. BlackBerry devices support a large variety of instant messaging features with the most popular being the proprietary BlackBerry Messenger service.

iOS
(previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV. Unlike Microsoft's Windows CE (Windows Phone) and Google's Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware. As of June 12, 2012, Apple's App Store contained more than 650,000 iOS applications, which have collectively been downloaded more than 30 billion times. It had a 23% share of the smartphone operating system units sold in the first quarter of 2012, behind only Google's Android. In June 2012, it accounted for 65% of mobile web data consumption (including use on both the iPod Touch and the iPad). During the first the first half of 2012, there were 410,000,000 devices activated.

Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market. The software is integrated with third party services and Microsoft services and sets minimum requirements for the hardware on which it runs.

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InteractiveWest covers every angle so you don’t have to - including Website Design & Development; Content Management System and Ecommerce Application Development; SEO, Pay-Per-Click and Local Search strategies; Mobile Application Development; Internet Marketing Campaigns; Web Based Email Campaigns; Social Media Integragion; and Web Hosting services. InteractiveWest delivers effective web development and internet marketing solutions with an experienced team of Internet Marketing Strategists, Designers, Web Developers and SEO Consultants at a much lower cost than at a traditional large web development company. Because of our unique business model, InteractiveWest can provide the expertise you need at a price you can afford. Call InteractiveWest today at 303.306.8746, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or use our convenient only Contact Us form to schedule a FREE no-obligation appointment today!

Web Based Email Campaigns

Before getting into the details, there are some uncomfortable facts that those new to HTML web-based email should be aware of. Building an email is not like building a web page for your website. While web browsers continue their onward march towards standards, many email clients have stubbornly stayed put. Some have even gone backwards. In 2007, Microsoft switched the Outlook rendering engine from Internet Explorer to Word. Yes, as in the word processor. Add to this the quirks of the major web-based email clients like Gmail and Hotmail, sprinkle in a little Lotus Notes and you’ll soon realize how different the email game is.

Email marketing campaigns are something that more and more businesses discover and put to use each day. If you are a novice or even an old-time email-marketing expert, we think that you will make great use of our email marketing campaign software. At first, you think about what you want to achieve with the campaign (for example, promoting a new product or service) and then choose to which subscribers you want to send your email campaign to. After that, you work on the details like the design and content to send emails regularly to a select group of customers. Logical? Yes. Effective? Most certainly.

The biggest benefits of well thought out email marketing campaigns are that you can send regular targeted email, you can measure the results and efficiency and you can have complete control of how often and when are the emails sent. If you use an outside vendor such as Salesforce, Constant Contact or SwiftPage to manage your company's email campaigns, you will be able to also see the results which will help you decide whether or not to continue, which content to include or not and will simply serve as an efficiency measure.

It is important to test your email designs on a regular basis BEFORE sending a mass email campaign to your customers. InteractiveWest typically sends test emails to test accounts we have setup at Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL etc. The good news is that after designing and testing a few HTML web-based email campaigns, you will find that order will emerge from the chaos. Many of these pitfalls will become quite predictable and your inbox-friendly designs will take shape with them in mind.

Best Practices for Email Marketing:

• Use Incentives to Increase Open Rates
• Stick to Fewer Than 3 Typefaces
• Keep the Main Message and Call-to-Action Above the Fold
• Keep Your Email 500-650 Pixels Width
• Put Your Logo in the Upper Left-Hand Side of the Email
• Write Compelling Subject Lines
• Use Auto-Responders for Opt-Ins
• Closely Tie Emails to Landing Pages
• Conduct a 5-Second Test

Send a copy of the email to a friend or business associate. Can they quickly tell what your call-to-action is? If so, you’re golden. If not, keep working. There are a lot of new tools in a marketer’s tool chest that are getting a good amount of attention these days. But don't forget about old, yet reliable and faithful tools that can still really help you get the most out of your marketing initiatives.

Web Based Email Marketing Benefits:

• Reduced Time & Effort
• Real-Time Messages
• Personalize Messages
• Segment User and Customer Database Information
• More Frequent Communications
• Test Marketing Messages
• Information Spreading
• Reduce Overhead Costs
• Exponentially Better Ability to Track Sales and User Engagement
• Save the Planet with Email Marketing!

Although not the most compliant (or fashionable) medium, the results speak for themselves. Email is and will continue to be one of the most successful and targeted marketing channels to reach both current customers and potential customers.

Contact Us

InteractiveWest covers every angle so you don’t have to - including Website Design & Development; Content Management System and Ecommerce Application Development; SEO, Pay-Per-Click and Local Search strategies; Mobile Application Development; Internet Marketing Campaigns; Web Based Email Campaigns; Social Media Integragion; and Web Hosting services. InteractiveWest delivers effective web development and internet marketing solutions with an experienced team of Internet Marketing Strategists, Designers, Web Developers and SEO Consultants at a much lower cost than at a traditional large web development company. Because of our unique business model, InteractiveWest can provide the expertise you need at a price you can afford. Call InteractiveWest today at 303.306.8746, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or use our convenient only Contact Us form to schedule a FREE no-obligation appointment today!

Social Media Marketing

A fundamental power shift is under way in the relationship between businesses and customers. Traditional one-way, seller-to-buyer communication is evolving into a two-way dialog as social media technologies give buyers a voice. Companies can use social media to encourage that dialog resulting in more intimate, beneficial relationships with its customers and increase their sales as well. There are many well-known free social media websites. The ones InteractiveWest recommends including in a Social Medial Campaign include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest.

Two trends have fueled an explosive growth in social media over the past few years. First, new website applications like YouTube, WordPress and others have emerged that have made it easy to integrate pictures, music and video into social media. So, people and businesses are now able to express themselves easily in a more exciting and personalized way than ever before. Secondly, mobile phones, computers and Internet connections we all use to create and view social media have continued to become more powerful, allowing for more and more creativity and capability. Mobile phones in particular have become a major driver of social media in the last couple of years with the emergence of the 3G and 4G network capabilities for mobile phone service providers.

Social Media Strategy:

InteractiveWest will create a coherent strategy that is consistent with your overall Internet marketing goals and help plan and implement your Social Media Campaign. We will uncover what people want - whether it is product information, reviews from users, customer service and support or input into product and services development. As InteractiveWest develop your Social Media communication strategy, we typically will start small - concentrating on how to meet the needs of your audience.

There are many social media experts out there who will tell you that social media is really important and you should learn to do it for yourself. But as InteractiveWest looked at what it takes to really execute a social media strategy for our clients, we've realized that there are at least five very different traits needed for success:

Creativity: You have to be able to write something interesting that other people want to read.

Accuracy: If you want to be taken seriously, you posts can't contain inaccurate facts or errors.

Scheduling: You have to create new content and publish on a reliable, consistent basis.

Available Free Time: It takes time to do it right and free time is something most of us never have enough of.

Technological Expertise: And of course, you have to be computer-oriented to manage your online presence.

The problem that we see is that it's almost impossible for any particular person to have all of those traits! Many people are good in one area but not another. How many creative people do you know who are regularly punctual? And how many people who are fastidious about accuracy that have a lot of creativity? InteractiveWest realizes that it takes a TEAM to do Social Media Campaigns well.

Social Media Services:

InteractiveWest does your social media work for you. We start by working with you to decide what kind of social media initiative you need (ie Blog, Facebook Company Page, Linked-In Page etc.). Then, we figure out how frequently you need to have new content and features added in order to match the expectations of your customers. Then we get to work.

Your Social Media Campaign may consist of a monthly blog posting where you share ideas and opinions about your industry. Or it might be a daily Facebook update to tell the world about fun things happening at your business. But whatever you need, it's our job to make sure it all happens consistently, professionally and without adding anything else to your to-do list!

Once we have all your information our team of experts will begin building your social media campaign that improve and enhance relationships with your customers:

Content:
This is the part of the team that creates custom blog postings and other content for clients. Our content experts add creativity, new ideas and creative writing expertise for the project.

Publishing:
This is the technical part of the project, where our responsibilities include posting content; managing Social Media sites; and keeping up on new tools, features and innovations on Social Media platforms.

Project Management:
The Project Manager act as liaisons between the client and personnel executing your Social Media Campaign ensuring that the project is running smoothly.

Every customer is unique, of course. But pricing is almost always based on how often you need fresh content written and new features added to your Social Media presence. InteractiveWest will be happy to develop Social Media Campaign specifics that are customized for your business at a price you can afford.

Contact Us

InteractiveWest covers every angle so you don’t have to - including Website Design & Development; Content Management System and Ecommerce Application Development; SEO, Pay-Per-Click and Local Search strategies; Mobile Application Development; Internet Marketing Campaigns; Web Based Email Campaigns; Social Media Integragion; and Web Hosting services. InteractiveWest delivers effective web development and internet marketing solutions with an experienced team of Internet Marketing Strategists, Designers, Web Developers and SEO Consultants at a much lower cost than at a traditional large web development company. Because of our unique business model, InteractiveWest can provide the expertise you need at a price you can afford. Call InteractiveWest today at 303.306.8746, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or use our convenient only Contact Us form to schedule a FREE no-obligation appointment today!

Internet Marketing Campaigns

Internet marketing is considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems are also often grouped together under Internet marketing.

Internet marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, email marketing, mobile advertising, and Web 2.0 strategies.

Just as Internet research becomes an increasingly important tool during the purchasing process, more marketers are seeing the advantages too. It’s a win-win situation. Marketing departments are investing more into online marketing today because it’s:

• Attractive to a significant segment of the demographics for most customer profiles. It can effectively reach your target customer.
• Faster and less expensive to conduct direct marketing campaigns (For example, an email campaign or online newsletter compared with traditional printing and direct-mail costs.
• More economic to communicate via email, online chat, and video conferencing than long distance phone calls or toll-free numbers offered by your company.
• Measurable, which means that successes are identifiable and repeatable.
• Set up for real-time results monitor, and it can handle real-time tweaks and on the fly changes.
• Open 24-hours a day, which means that even potential customers with insomnia can be reached at some point during the buying process.
• Targeted, allowing you to pinpoint using geography, contextual relevance, and other useful parameters to reach a very specifically defined audience.
• Continuously available, letting you give away whitepapers or free webinars to gather good sources of leads over time. Products with high price points and long sales cycles require many “touches” and follow-up with a potential customer.
• Cost-effective, in the long run. By adjusting your paid search campaigns to find which ads work best for different keywords, you reduce your ad spend and online efforts over time while maintaining or increasing the number of leads or purchases gained.
• Going social, as more people share information among peers on websites like Facebook and LinkedIn , for business purposes. A recommendation from your friend or peer can go a long way towards closing a sale.

Contact Us

InteractiveWest covers every angle so you don’t have to - including Website Design & Development; Content Management System and Ecommerce Application Development; SEO, Pay-Per-Click and Local Search strategies; Mobile Application Development; Internet Marketing Campaigns; Web Based Email Campaigns; Social Media Integragion; and Web Hosting services. InteractiveWest delivers effective web development and internet marketing solutions with an experienced team of Internet Marketing Strategists, Designers, Web Developers and SEO Consultants at a much lower cost than at a traditional large web development company. Because of our unique business model, InteractiveWest can provide the expertise you need at a price you can afford. Call InteractiveWest today at 303.306.8746, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or use our convenient only Contact Us form to schedule a FREE no-obligation appointment today!