The benefits of investing in a professional website design and development for your business or personal brand are clear. However, is it really worth it and what ROI can you expect as a result? To help you figure that out, in this article, we’re going to cover:

• How to calculate website ROI
• Strategies to improve website ROI

But before we do any of that, we’d first like to discuss the importance of website ROI, despite the countless benefits that come with having a website.

Why Website ROI Is Important

Generating a positive return on your investment is crucial, and that also applies to the money you spend building your website. With that in mind, here are a few reasons why website ROI is important:

Measuring Website Effectiveness

While building a website will have a big impact on your credibility and brand awareness, what truly matters is the amount of revenue that your website generates.

And by keeping track of what your website has cost you to build compared to the amount of revenue that it has generated, you can measure how effective your website is in positively impacting your bottom line.

Justifying Website Investments

When investing any amount of money into your website, website ROI will help you justify the money you’re about to spend. And if the calculation ends up working out in your favour, then making the investment will be much easier.

Identifying Areas for Improvement

Keeping track of your website ROI isn’t just about identifying success. It’s also about spotting areas that need improvement. This can be anything from optimising your website’s loading speed to testing your call-to-action placements to ensure that they’re as effective as possible.

How to Calculate Website ROI

Measuring the ROI of your website is essential to understanding how it is performing and identifying opportunities for improvement. Here is a rundown of how to calculate website ROI:

The Basic ROI Formula

The basic formula for calculating ROI is pretty straightforward:

• ROI (%) = [(Revenue – Costs) / Costs] × 100

In the context of your website, the revenue will represent the income that is generated directly from your website, such as online sales, leads converted to sales, and so on). As for the costs, that would be any website-related expenses, such as hosting, maintenance, marketing, and development.

Key Metrics to Include

When calculating your website ROI, there are a couple of metrics that you should include, including:

Website Traffic and Conversion Rates

Website traffic refers to the total number of users who have visited your website, while conversion rates refers to the percentage of visitors who have completed a desired action, such as making a purchase.

Average Order Value (AOV)

AOV refers to the average amount of money spent per transaction on your website. If you’re in e-Commerce, this is a crucial metric to include in the calculation of your ROI.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV refers to the average amount of money you can expect from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship with your business. This metric can help you forecast future growth in revenue based on your expected growth in traffic.

Cost of Website Maintenance

Depending on the nature of your website, the cost of maintenance can be anywhere from £50 or less to hundreds and even thousands of pounds per month. Some monthly website maintenance costs include:

• Hosting
• Development and design updates
• Marketing campaigns (SEO, paid advertising, email marketing)
• Subscription fees for any analytics tools or plugins

Tools to Help Measure ROI

There are a handful of tools that can help measure the ROI of your website, including:

• Google Analytics: A great tool for tracking traffic, user behaviour, and conversion rates
• HubSpot: An all-in-one marketing platform with tools for lead tracking and analysing ROI
• Tableau or Databox: Tools that can consolidate metrics into visual dashboards for easier analysis
• Hotjar: A tool that can help you analyse the user behaviour on your website through session recordings and heatmaps

Strategies to Improve Website ROI

Improving the ROI that your website generates is never a bad idea. Here are a few strategies that can help you with that:

Optimise for Conversions

The ultimate goal of a website is to convert visitors into paying customers. If your website isn’t optimised for conversions, you may still get customers here and there, but you’re definitely missing out on more business. To optimise your website for conversions, you can:

• Improve website navigation
• Improve loading speed
• Enhance call-to-actions (CTAs)
• Leverage A/B testing

Drive Targeted Traffic

Although having traffic to your website is important, it’s also important to remember that not all traffic is the same. To maximise your website ROI, you need to drive visitors that are actually interested in the products or services you sell and the best way to do that is through SEO and paid advertising.

Enhance User Experience (UX)

A website that offers a great user experience (loads fast, is easy to navigate, etc) will make visitors a lot more engaged and more likely to take action. And that’s just one of the benefits of good UX design.

Monitor and Analyse Performance

If your website is already live, make sure that you’re monitoring and analysing its performance over time. This can help you identify issues (such as loading speed if the bounce rate is high), which you can then quickly address.

Retargeting and Customer Retention

While attracting new visitors to your website is important, re-engaging with your existing customers is often more cost-effective since they already trust you and are likely to buy again.

So, be sure to consider setting up retargeting campaigns and enhancing your customer retention strategies, and you’ll see a significant increase in website ROI.

Final Thoughts

While having a website is important for every business, making sure that your website generates a positive ROI is what truly makes it a valuable asset. After reading this article, we hope to have helped you better understand why website ROI is important, how to calculate it, and the strategies you can deploy to increase it.

If you’re yet to invest in a website for your business and want to hire a team of specialists to bring it to life, contact us today and we will gladly discuss your options with you.

The post Website ROI: A Complete Guide appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

If your business doesn’t have a website, you’re quite literally leaving money on the table. And while that may seem like a far-stretched claim, the reality is that a website is one of the most effective tools for nurturing potential customers and growing your business in today’s digital world.

To help you better understand the importance of having a website for your business, in this article, we’re going to cover:

• The importance of having a website
• Who can benefit from having a website
• 8 reasons why every business needs a website
• Common misconceptions about websites

And in the end, we’re going to explain how you can get started with your own website.

The Importance of a Website in Today’s Digital World

As a business, having a website isn’t just an optional luxury anymore; it’s a necessity that can completely transform your business for the better. Here’s the impact a well-built website can have on your business:

• New customers can learn about your business and your offerings 24/7, 365
• A well-built website can build credibility and trust among potential customers
• Having a website allows customers to have a great first impression
• A website can extend your business beyond your local community through the power of SEO and paid advertising

Who Benefits From Having a Website?

The truth is that no matter whether you offer a service or sell a physical product, almost every business or individual can benefit from having a website. And that comes as no surprise considering 22.6% of all global retail purchases are expected to be made online by 2027.

To give you an idea, here are some real-world examples of who can benefit from having a website:

• Service providers such as plumbers, fitness coaches, and accountants
• Small businesses such as restaurants, hair salons, and private tutors
• Educational facilities such as schools, colleges, and universities
• Retailers such as gift shops, grocery stores, and bookshops
• Self-employed professionals such as lawyers, digital marketers, and nutritionists

Reasons Why Every Business Needs a Website

If you’re a business owner still wondering, “Why do I need a website for my business?” you’re not alone. Here are just some of the many reasons why every business, regardless of size or industry should have a website:

Builds Credibility and Trust

Having a website allows your customers to not only learn more about your business and the services or products you sell, but also signal that you’re legitimate and trustworthy. And this matters more than you think, considering a staggering 91% of customers say that they’d buy from a company that has gained their trust.

Increases Visibility and Reach

By having a website, new and existing customers can find you online, read about the products and services you sell, and decide if they want to do business with you. This is crucial because unlike a physical store, which is limited to a certain area, your website is available to everyone, regardless of the user’s location.

Attracts New Customers

Long-gone are the days where people actively ask their closest friends and family for recommendations. Today, almost everyone goes on Google and searches the web for a solution to their own problems. And guess what, by having a website, people who are searching for what you’re offering will sooner or later end up finding you.

Enhances Marketing Efforts

SEO and paid advertising are two of the most powerful marketing methods in today’s digital world. And when you have a website, all that traffic can be directly funneled to your website and converted into new customers and more revenue.

Generates Revenue

If you’re a company that sells any type of product or service, you can design your website in such a way that it can accept payments, opening a brand new source of revenue for your business.

Strengthens Your Brand Identity

Your website gives you the opportunity to tell your customers your story, highlight your values, and separate yourself from your competitors. Through consistent messaging, visuals, and tone of voice, you can create a memorable impression that will make your business more recognisable and build loyalty among your customers.

Offers Cost-Effective Advertising

Whether you invest in SEO or any paid advertising or choose to only have a website, that’s still better than not having one at all. And the reason for that is because every time an existing or potential customer finds and visits your website, you’re practically advertising yourself to them completely for free.

Provides Better Customer Support

If a custom has a question or wants to express a concern, when you have a website, they can quickly and easily visit it and reach out to you or your customer support team. When you don’t have a website, customers may be a lot more confused about how to reach you, leading them to become more frustrated.

Common Misconceptions About Websites

Despite all of the benefits that come with having a website, there are still some misconceptions, which cost businesses a lot of money each year, including:

“My Business Is Too Small for a Website”

A large percentage of small business owners believe that their business is too small to have a website. The reality is that in today’s digital world, even the smallest of businesses can see significant benefit from having a website.

“Social Media Is Enough”

Although social media can generate a great deal of revenue for a business, it’s important to remember that you don’t actually own your social media profiles. Whether through an error or if you accidentally violate the terms of use, your social media profiles can get permanently deleted.

When you have a website, you’re in full control. Not only that, but having a website can also enhance your SEO efforts, which will make it easier for even more customers to find the products and services that you offer.

“Websites Are Expensive and Complicated”

This was true many years ago. Over the years, however, drag-and-drop website builders have grown in popularity, allowing you to quickly and easily build yourself a stunning and fully functioning website even if you’ve never done it before.

Sure, it may take some time getting used to, but it’s not going to cost you thousands of pounds, which makes having a website a no-brainer, even if you’re on a tight budget.

How to Get Started With Your Website

If you’re yet to build a website for your business but are keen on giving it a go, follow the four steps below to get started.

Choose the Right Platform

Whether you’re planning on hiring expert website builders to develop your website from scratch or you’re planning on using an off-the-shelf solution, the first thing you need to do is decide which website platform you’re going to use. Some of the most popular platforms for websites include:

• WordPress
• Shopify
• Wix
• Squarespace

Design for Your Audience

The importance of UX design that focuses on your specific audience cannot be overstated. When you have a well-designed website, it’ll not only look professional, but it’ll also be more engaging and easier to navigate, which will naturally incline more people to take action.

Add Essential Features

Once you’re happy with the overall design of your website, it’s time to add all of the essential features. This includes adding e-commerce functionality (if applicable), contact information, customer testimonials and reviews and integrating your social media profiles, to name a few.

Maintain and Update Your Website

Once your website is built, you need to make sure that it is regularly updated. Remember, unlike a physical business, people can visit your website around the clock, so making sure that every piece of content is accurate, relevant, and up-to-date is crucial for maintaining a good user experience.

Final Thoughts

Having a website is crucial, regardless of how big or small your business is or what product or service you offer. Hopefully, after reading this article, you now have a better idea of the importance of having a website and what it might mean for your business if you don’t.

If you’d like a website for your business but you don’t trust yourself with making one, that’s okay. Please contact us today and our website development team will be more than happy to discuss everything with you in more detail.

The post 8 Reasons Why Every Business Needs a Website appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

Are you creating a new digital product and need to confirm that it will work? What does an MVP and Proof of Concept look like in terms of promotion? We asked a colleague at Marketup.

What did the PoC of your business look like?

When I co-founded our company Marketup with Mirko Král, we had the benefit of a long career in management positions in large corporations where any new product or investment goes through a process of business planning, risk assessment, and competitive product assessment. We did the same process.

We have mapped out the competition and the particular products we will be offering to our clients in a highly detailed manner. We defined how we would differentiate ourselves from the competition and created a financial business plan that included both a cost and revenue side. The details were worked out for the next 3 years but we created projections of basic financial metrics for 10 years ahead. Even though many things have changed in our industry and in our expectations over the past 10 years, those overall financial numbers have been successfully met. 

I see proof of concept as testing the MVP (minimum viable product) on a smaller scale, which then is used to modify the product or confirm the predefined assumptions. For us, this PoC was the first year of the agency’s life, when we verified and corrected our assumptions and adjusted our plans for the following years.

What all do you need to know about the company you are promoting the project to?

Since our product is a wide portfolio of services ranging from digital marketing to creative services, consulting in the field of marketing and digitalization of companies,…, the main information we need to know from the client is: “What do you need to achieve through our services?”.

In case the client is already using similar services, we are interested in what he needs to improve and how the cooperation should look like to make him satisfied. Of course, we then need to know more detailed information for the actual creation of the offer, such as the client’s current results, budget, information about the technology platforms used, and so on. 

To what depth do you verify the solvency of the client?

We currently work mostly for large clients where client solvency is not usually an issue. However, even for large clients, we monitor their riskiness in terms of their line of business, as some industries have a greater potential for insolvency in a crisis than others. 

However, in the first few years after the start of our firm, of course, we intensively addressed the solvency of our clients, using publicly available information from public and insolvency registers.  We also had the advantage of meeting other agencies providing similar services on various platforms and even here we occasionally found out which client did not have good payment morality. 

Even so, I recommend that every startup should always think about how to collect payments for their services into their account as quickly as possible, e.g. by prepayment, advance payments, etc. Firstly, this ensures early signaling of an imminent risk of non-payment for services and gives the entrepreneur room for negotiation with the client, timely stopping of service delivery, etc. And secondly, it is very positive for the cash flow of the company, which is often, in case of mismanagement, the cause of company bankruptcies. 

What is a signal to you that the cooperation will or will not work?

There are several signals. But I would like to turn this into a positive and describe when collaboration works well. 

We are very happy to work with clients who take us as a partner and are interested in our opinion. In this case, both partners respect each other, listen to each other, work together and the results don’t take long to come. However, this ideal state always needs to be worked out first, as it usually comes only after a few weeks and sometimes even months of cooperation.

Such cooperation sometimes develops into personal friendships between the two companies. The cooperation also works very well if the client knows what he wants or at least cooperates with us on the definition of this target state.

In this case, is possible to design the services in a way that the goals can be successfully met. However, sometimes at the very beginning of the cooperation, can happen that the client needs a different solution thanks to the commonly defined goal. But I consider this case also as a success because the client is closer to the goal and the relationship with the client is set up well for possible future collaboration.

The post MVP and Proof of Concept of digital product appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to boost your marketing campaign by making the target audience more engaged and emotionally connected to your brand. 

Would you like to learn how to make the most out of AR in your campaign? How to integrate the process of AR development in your campaign planning? How to pick the right technology, how much resources should you allocate, and what common mistakes should you definitely avoid when working with AR?

Then this extensive guide is precisely for you. We will cover:

• How can AR boost your marketing communication?
• What types of AR experiences should you consider?
• How to choose the right technology for your AR development?
• 5 mistakes to avoid when using AR in marketing
• Why is this the perfect time to make use of AR?
• Step by step guide to implementing AR in your campaign
• Our AR development case studies

And here are the key take-aways: 

• AR has tremendous potential for making your target group engaged with and immersed in your campaign.
• You cannot rely on AR’s novelty effect. The technology must be smoothly embedded in the whole campaign plan if you want to avoid wasting resources.
• WebAR has recently made AR in marketing more affordable – this is the perfect time to use AR in your campaign.

How can AR boost your marketing communication?

Before we answer this question, let’s just quickly cover the difference between virtual and augmented reality to make sure we are all on the same page. 

In short, virtual reality (VR) brings a user to a brand new digital world. An example would be a simulated walk through a virtual 3D castle. Contrarily, augmented reality (AR) brings artificial elements to a real environment.

AR layers virtual objects onto users’ reality – think of Snapchat or Messenger photo filters. Both technologies allow you to design interactions with the virtual world, or virtual elements in the real world.

The most well-known AR-based digital product is definitely the Pokémon Go mobile game which launched in 2016 and became an instant sensation. Pokémon Go definitely proved the enormous potential of AR for the gaming industry. But can brands and campaigns also benefit from the technology?

The short answer is YES, they most definitely can! Otherwise we won’t be writing this extensive guide to AR development for marketing campaigns.

According to Deloitte, more than 90% of companies with $100+ million annual revenue leverage AR and VR in their marketing efforts. But how can we be sure they are not just pumping money into the most recent, “coolest” technologies available?

Well, we can’t be sure – many of their campaigns have probably flushed the AR-dedicated money down the toilet by only using it as a trendy, novel element. However, if AR is applied in a smart, well thought-through way, it can greatly boost your campaign’s interactivity, creativity, and immersiveness.

Your product or message becomes more tangible, and this in turn makes your target audience more emotionally connected to the brand. To back this up with numbers, a 2018 study found a 20+% increase in interaction rates and a 33% increase in click-through rates when AR was part of a communication campaign.

What types of AR experiences should you consider?

When using AR in your marketing campaign, you can really make the most out of your team’s creativity. The chance to create new virtual elements and bring them to the real world opens up an endless amount of possibilities.

However, you should try to sort your team’s ideas for interactive AR experiences into three main categories. This will come in handy when planning the AR development itself.

World effects

Let’s start with world effects. This type of AR is all about virtual objects becoming part of the real world, and usually also interacting with our reality. World effects are a great choice if you are bringing certain imaginary objects or creatures to life.

Two great examples of world effects are our AR-based mobile game for Kofola, and our AR development project for Universal Pictures – both will be described in more detail later in the case study section.

For Kofola, we developed a game which challenges users to catch virtual Foam Eaters flying around the real environment after scanning the logo of the company. The Universal project was all about bringing the famous dancing and finger-snapping hand to life after pointing the phone at the DVD of the Addams Family movie.

A world effect might be marker-based or surface-based. The former means that the virtual object is bound to a specific point in the real 3D environment. The example below shows an effect which is tied to the wine bottle label.

Contrarily, a surface-based world effect means the virtual object or creature is moving on a specific surface, such as a table or the floor. The video below shows an Australian toy store’s campaign activating young visitors with an AR-based Easter Egg Hunt. By scanning the game stickers found on the floor, children could “summon” virtual animals that were then running around them on a specific surface.

As you can see, world effects are perfect for designing a gamified experience for your target group. They allow you to get really creative, design your own playful virtual elements and bring them to life with varying levels of interactivity.

For instance, in 2018, Google Maps introduced virtual companions guiding you from A to B in a playful manner.

Another example of a surface-based AR experience is the very popular IKEA Place app – one of the pioneers among very practical applications of AR. The concept is quite simple: You can choose an item (usually a piece of furniture) from the catalogue and place it into your house to see how well it fits and matches with the rest of the room.

Filters

We are so used to fun photo filters being part of our everyday digital conversations that most people do not even think of them as a type of AR.

Whether you personally are a big fan of photo filters or not, you have to acknowledge their popularity and ability to make people entertained and engaged, and to encourage interaction with one another.

If your campaign strategy is primarily social media-based, adding a custom filter to it might benefit its levels of engagement and entertainment.

Filters will also be a great choice for you if your plan is to bring your target audience an innovative, practical tool that will help them choose the right product without visiting a physical store. One of the most well-known examples is L’Oréal’s MakeUp Genius app from 2014 which offered a super-convenient try-on of most of the brand’s products.

Although we are most familiar with face filters, other applications might be developed too. A good example is the Wanna Kicks app from 2019 which allows you to try on a wide variety of sneakers from your home.

Another filter application might be so called hyper-reality in stores and malls. This type of AR is often used for engaging and immersive navigation around a specific real environment.

Making OOH ads fun again – that’s another goal for which an AR filter might be an excellent choice. All you need to do is create a fun and brand-relevant concept that will attract attention, design a custom animated filter and record the surroundings. The outcome of this process might be as crazy and heart-racing as this zombie attack in the streets of Vienna.

You can also work with OOH ads without installing anything in the streets. Just use the ads of your competitors. Last year, Burger King pushed the frontiers of its ever-lasting rival battle with McDonald’s by encouraging people to burn down McD ads with their AR app.

Portals

This type of AR allows you to take your target audience on a journey to discover a whole new world. When the experience is triggered, the user can look around and navigate through a virtual environment with their smartphone handled in the real world.

PortalAR is an AR app developed as part of the #ScotlandIsNow campaign, promoting Scotland among foreign students, tourists, entrepreneurs and investors. It opens up a portal which allows you to explore a number of different parts of the country and learn more about its landmarks, culture, and business potential.

How to choose the right technology for your AR development?

Alright, so you already have a better understanding of the different types of AR experiences. Let’s talk tech now! You will need to answer two main questions: What platform is most suitable for your AR development plans? And what is the ideal AR experience trigger for your campaign? 

Choosing the right platform

Your AR experience can be web browser-, app-, or social media-based. 

When deciding which of these options is the most suitable for your campaign, you should consider the communication touch points you are planning to introduce, the technological capabilities of your target audience, the time and place where people will most likely be confronted with your AR elements, and the way they should interact with them.

WebAR

The term WebAR describes AR experiences that are accessible through a common mobile web browser, without the need to download and install any special app. In our opinion, this technology is a game-changer in the field of AR marketing as it diminishes one of the main barriers to interacting with AR elements of a campaign – the fact that people hate downloading new apps.

Although opting for WebAR inevitably brings certain technological limitations, you will still be able to get creative with simple animations, videos, basic interactivity, and target image detection. A great tool for web-based AR development is the 8thWall SDK.

App AR

Choosing the app approach will untie the hands of your creative team. You will still be limited by the current technological advancements of AR but your possibilities will get much broader compared to WebAR.

Think of advanced interactions, mind-blowing graphics, or a playful interface designed fully in line with the overarching campaign. 

For this type of AR development, you will get to choose from a rich variety of frameworks such as ARKit, ARCore, Vuforia 9 or Unity 3D SDK. Our mobile app developers in London will be happy to come up with the most suitable technological solution for your AR campaign.

AR for social media

Are you working on a new social media campaign which could benefit from an AR element? Do you think that AR might spice things up nicely but you don’t want to make it one of your fundamental tactics and spend too much resources on AR development?

Then you might want to go for a custom camera filter. This will naturally largely limit your possibilities, however, a filter might still add a very nice engaging touch to your social media communications. 

There’s been a ton of successful filters developed for social media campaigns before. And the platforms are actively encouraging advertisers to create more. For example, Snapchat AR Lens offers a convenient, easy-to-use web builder of filters made of customizable pre-defined elements.

This part of your AR development planning is all about getting in the shoes of your target audience and deep-diving into the use cases of your AR experience. 

Triggers and interactions with the environment

Where, when, and how should people interact with your AR? What is the best way of intertwining the AR element with the rest of your campaign? 

As we’ve already covered, world effects can be either marker-based (locked to a specific point in the real environment), or surface-based (moving along a detected surface in the real environment). This should be mainly based on the practicalities of the target use situations.

But how should the AR experiences start? What will be the turn on button? 

Many AR campaigns use image-tracking. The experience is triggered once the user captures a specific element in the real environment. Mind that this doesn’t need to be a QR code, it can also be your product, for instance.

An alternative approach is location-tracking. The experience starts as soon as the user moves to a certain place in the real environment. Mind that the user first needs to allow tracking their location in settings to make this work. And for some user segments, sharing their location is a no-go.

5 mistakes to avoid when using AR in marketing

AR clearly offers a great opportunity for marketers to boost the engagement rates of their campaigns. 

However, as it is with many exciting, emerging technologies, AR experiences can also drain a large part of the budget if they are poorly integrated in the overarching communication plan.

Before you start with your AR development for marketing, make sure to go through our list of the most common pitfalls. 

1. Don’t rely on novelty

Yes, AR is still a very cool technology with great potential for creativity. But it is far from new. 

Making AR development part of your plan will not instantly make your campaign innovative and effective. You will need to figure out how to integrate AR in your campaign in the smartest way possible. The main goal is to create meaningful connections between you and the target audience, and to generate strong brand engagement.

2. Don’t jump right into AR development

Make sure you get a solid understanding of the technology and its capabilities and limitations before you delve into designing and developing your AR experiences. You will avoid wasted resources.

Reading this extensive guide is a good starting point but you should definitely invest more time and effort into acquiring a good overview of all the different approaches and AR technologies available. Or at least reach out to experts who will give you good advice.

3. Don’t divert attention away from your message

AR is a very captivating and immersive technology. It might very well take all the precious attention of your target audience away from the core of your campaign. Make sure you prevent that.

Your AR campaign elements should be in line with the main message that you want to convey. The AR shouldn’t create too much of a wow effect – this means that your target audience shouldn’t be so amazed by your use of AR technology that they cannot process your communication. Make sure it’s still about the message, not the medium.

4. Don’t be inauthentic or antisocial

If your brand personality is traditional and serious, creating a fun AR experience will most likely be a terrible move. Don’t use the technology in a way which doesn’t correspond with your target audience and the nature of your brand and product.

Make sure you carefully consider the sharing options and other social prompts as part of your AR development. This technology has a great potential for encouraging people to share your content. Make the most out of it by designing the AR experiences as social from the start.

5. Don’t build AR experiences for the latest iPhones

This pitfall is especially relevant if you decide to build an AR app. Sure, your creative team can come up with truly breathtaking concepts if you’re working with an app. However, it is crucial to consider the performance of your target audience’s phones.

Make sure your app and the AR experiences it offers are inclusive. This means that all (or at least 98%) of your target segment can run the app and enjoy the AR interaction without any technical issues. Otherwise you will make people disappointed, or perhaps even annoyed and mad, which is certainly not what your marketing goals are, right?

Why is this the perfect time to make use of AR?

Are you still hesitating to invest in AR development? These are the three main reasons why we are convinced that this is the perfect time to make AR part of your marketing campaign.

Increasing expectations of your target audience

The constant battle for attention is getting increasingly tough in the world of marketing. A well-resonating core message is often not enough. A compelling storyline also doesn’t always do the trick, neither does precise and original creative execution.

People seek meaningful, immersive interactions with brands. Offer your target audience mutual engagement, an innovative, unexpected exchange of ideas and actions via an emerging technology – AR.

Better performance of their phones and browsers

AR technology has been with us for many years already. However, it wasn’t until recently when the performance of an average smartphone reached a level which allows you to truly leverage the full potential of AR in your campaign. Better performing smartphones unlocked all abilities of AR apps for marketing campaigns.

The same goes for web-based AR. Browsers now enable much better quality and speed of AR effects – and these are two key conditions of effective design and development of AR experiences.

WebAR makes AR so much more convenient

For a long time, the necessity of downloading and installing a new app just for the purpose of a one-time AR interaction with a brand’s campaign was a deal-breaker for many companies. And it made all the sense in the world. People generally tend to avoid downloading new apps as much as they can – the incentive for installing it would need to be very large.

Luckily, a hero arrived to save the show – WebAR, especially its current possibilities, are a great alternative to AR apps. Without asking your target audience to go through the hassle of downloading an app, this technology still allows you to come up with very creative concepts boosting the interactivity and engagement of your campaign. Moreover, the AR development process is simpler, faster and cheaper if you opt for a web-based solution.

Step-by-step guide to implementing AR in your campaign

Let’s summarize the key decision points you will need to go through when implementing AR in your campaign. Here’s our overview of the process of AR development for marketing:

1. Is AR for you?

There’s no shame in answering “no” to this crucial question. Although AR has already proven itself in a variety of conditions, it still remains a rather fun, loosen-up technology. 

Make sure you carefully consider if the use of AR goes well with your brand identity, and whether or not it will facilitate a meaningful interaction and connection between the brand and the campaign’s target audience.

2. Concept creation

The most creative step of the journey. Ideally, the concept for your AR experiences should come from the overall campaign idea, not the other way around. 

Get together with your creative team and come up with an engaging concept suitable for a technology which allows you to bring virtual objects and places to the real world.

3. Interactions and content

So you already have your creative concept, great! Now let’s design all interactions a user will have with the AR experience. What will they be able to do, and how? Make sure the interactions are not too complicated, and that the whole AR experience is easily shareable.

And what exactly will be the content of your AR experience? Beautifully crafted virtual objects work the best of course but you should be realistic in terms of scope and quality even before you get to the next point of our process – working with the budget.

4. Budget

This is a key phase of every campaign planning. First and foremost, you should decide with your team on the most comfortable budget zone – the resources you are willing to allocate to AR development while taking into account the creative concept you came up with and the added value it will bring to the campaign.

The total cost of AR development will depend on a number of factors: the type of the AR experience, the quality and number of models, the type and length of animations, and the type of interactions. These factors can always be adjusted based on your optimal budget zone.

To give you an idea of the cost of AR development, let’s take a look at these three general indications: A custom face filter will cost you £3.000+, a more creative AR experience will range between £5.000 and £10.000, and a very complex AR app such as a mini-game will require £10.000+.

5. Finding the right partners for AR development

Another very important part of your journey. Make sure you find skilled and experienced professionals who will not only conduct your AR development but will also guide you through the whole process and advise you to pick the most suitable solution.

Our app developers from London have the skills and experience needed to create beautiful AR experiences, both app-based and with WebAR. If you are interested in teaming up, or if you just want to ask a couple of questions regarding the potential of AR for your campaign, don’t hesitate to contact us.

6. Ideal solution – technology, platform, and dev. process

If done successfully, step 5 will also ensure that you succeed with step 6. In other words, your AR development partner should ideally advise you on the most suitable technology, platform, and development process for your particular project.

Things to consider here include whether the AR experience will be app-, web-, or social media-based, if the trigger will be an image- or location-tracker, and if your world effects will be surface- or marker-based. We covered all of these dilemmas in the sections above.

7. Implement, test & launch!

Alright, that’s it, you are ready to bring your first AR baby to life! The demandingness of the process of AR development might vary according to the complexity of your AR experiences and other factors too.

Make sure you enjoy the whole journey towards the end product. But before you run the campaign and share your AR experiences with the world, test everything thoroughly – every detail matters with AR!

Our AR development case studies

Congratulations, after reading this elaborate guide to AR marketing, you can consider yourself an expert!

Let’s wrap things up with two of our AR case studies to demonstrate that we are also experts on AR development for marketing campaigns.

Universal Pictures: WebAR for Addams Family

Universal was looking for a partner to offer the fans of Addams Family an extra dose of engagement with the show. The new animated movie was about to be released on DVD. The goal was to offer people a convenient, easy-to-trigger interaction with this new product.

The chosen virtual element was the show’s character “The Thing” which we made dancing to the popular theme song of the Addams family. First, we needed to design the interactions and content, and decide on the trigger and ending of the AR experience. Then we designed the character’s 3D model.

The world effect we created could be initiated by scanning the DVD. We used the 8thWall technology for WebAR which offers great image-tracking quality. After playing the AR animation, users were invited to join the movie’s community on Facebook.

Although this AR experience was a rather minor element of the overall campaign for the launch of the DVD, it resonated very well with the target audience.

Kofola: The Foam Eaters 2 AR game

We teamed up with advertising agency WMC|Grey to create a summer campaign for a beverage brand which is best known as the “Czech Coca-Cola”. The objective was to engage and entertain the large fan base including both adults and kids with a mobile game supported by a series of TV ads.

We helped the agency to design the game mechanics and contributed to the tender-winning pitch. After winning the project, we provided WMC|Grey with technical guidance during the whole AR development process and brought the AR-based mobile game to life.

The concept was very entertaining. People were encouraged to order a draft Kofola in a pub and scan the brand’s logo to summon so-called Foam Eaters – beautifully designed creatures flying around your glass and stealing your foam. The goal was obviously to catch them all! The game included many different levels and special hunting gear unlocked with more progress made.

The mobile game was a great success among the target audience. People were excitedly sharing it on social media and some users spend incredible amounts of time playing it. A meaningful interaction and connection with the Kofola brand was achieved.

And we are ready to do the same magic for you – if you’re interested in AR development for marketing campaigns, get in touch!

The post How to Use AR In Campaigns: The Ultimate Guide to Augmented Reality Marketing appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

In the final episode of 2019, we had the pleasure to discuss the topics of growth hacking and sustainable product growth with Craig Zingerline. By virtue of his vast and varied experience in this field, Craig was able to offer us both the growth hacker and startup founder perspective.

We deconstructed growth hacking as a distinct discipline for some and a buzzword for other, took a stroll through the AARRR model, talked about the importance of sustainability and summed up some key learnings for entrepreneurs and founders in terms of marketing and growth. Enjoy!

This episode’s guest:

• Craig Zingerline is an entrepreneur, growth & product leader and Chief Product Officer at Sandboxx.
• Craig has a strong background in technology, product management, and B2B/B2C marketing & growth. Apart from his role at Sandboxx, he is also a multiple-time founder, author, and advisor on growth hacking.

Your host:

• Marek Hasa is WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED’s marketing and behavioural adviser.
• WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED is a product design & development consultancy with offices in London, Amsterdam and Prague

The post Growth hacking and sustainable growth with Craig Zingerline (WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED podcast ep. 10) appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

Being a start-up owner can be a headache sometimes. How to prioritize what is important and what isn’t? We’ve worked with start-ups for over seven years now and we have seen some of them succeed and some of them fail.

We have made this list of 48 things you have to keep an eye on so you can learn from other’s mistakes. Take a look and write down the areas you have some problems with, so you can decide what to work on next.

The idea

You need to make sure that your idea can stand in the eyes of future users. Before you start with the UI or UX design or hire developers for your start-up, make sure that you have defined your USPs and plans for the future.

1. Single unique value. Define your unique value and USP. Don’t copy, be original and innovative.
2. Roadmap to glory. Create and maintain a detailed roadmap of your product and releases.
3. Proof of concept. Validate your concept and idea with the lowest budget possible.
4. Get feedback. Gather feedback from friends, users and other industry players.
5. Define the user. Define your target audience. Discover what your future users need.
6. Why others failed. Conduct a comprehensive research and discovery phase. Cover your competition and predecessors.
7. Meaningful partnerships. Connect with like-minded people with a similar mission. Get advice or team-up.
8. Market developments. Keep track of how your target market progresses. Learn about every new competitor.

Finances

Managing your finances is going to be one of the areas you will have to focus on. From careful investors to hungry employees, you will need to balance your needs and possibilities, monitor cash flow and limit your spendings.

1. Manage cash flow. Make sure to keep an eye on your cashflow. Manage your finances on a daily basis and step in whenever you don’t follow your plan.
2. Track all spending. Keep everything in order. Make sure every little expense is noted.
3. Limit expenses. Spend only on the things you truly need. Stay focused on what brings you value, don’t waste resources on gimmicks.
4. Realistic optimism. Remain optimistic and build enthusiasm within your team but prepare for the worst.
5. Efficient use of time. Track the time invested in all processes. Optimize the allocation of your team’s capacities.
6. Resourceful funding. Acquire external funding. Identify potential sources of additional funding for later phases.
7. Know your tax obligations. Make sure you understand relevant tax policies. Hire quality personnel or external services to handle taxes.
8. Financial goals. Set clear and measurable KPIs and long-term financial objectives.

Process

One of the key elements of a successful product launch is the methodology you choose. Make sure everything is clear and orderly. Define your goals and monitor your progress.

1. Validate every new idea. Prototype and test every new idea or feature with real users.
2. Be Lean. Build as little as possible, analyze the results and learn your lesson. Release as often as possible.
3. Project management. Choose a project management methodology that suits your project and make sure everyone follows it.
4. Prioritized backlog. Keep your issues in order, divided into releases and prioritized.
5. Measuring progress. Measure the speed of your progress with story points and burndown charts.
6. Clear roles. Make your rules stand out. Everybody needs to know what his role is and what is expected from a person in his position.
7. Make use of retrospectives. Make sure your process is reviewed periodically in the form of a short workshop where everybody has a say.
8. Define your KPIs. Clearly define your goals and KPIs. Measure them regularly and evaluate your progress.

Technology

The tech side is always tricky, especially when you don’t have technological back-ground a building of your start-up involves app development or web development. Keep those rules in mind, or you’re set for a disaster!

1. Choose the right technology. Carefully choose the right technology that suits your project size, your team, budget and future plans.
2. Document every step. Set-up your repository and push regularly, make sure your team comments on every function.
3. Maintain quality. Implement test-driven development, code reviews and end-to-end testing.
4. Infrastructure. Set up your cloud infrastructure and automate your deployment process.
5. Continuous development. Plan small releases. Test new functions and deploy as often as possible.
6. Great user stories. Take good care of your user stories. Make sure that they are easy to understand and execute.
7. Ensure scalability. Make sure that your solution is scalable and sustainable.
8. Automated tests. Implement test-driven development. Write tests first and run them automatically.

Team

Your team is going to achieve all your goals and dreams if you work with it properly. Make sure everybody is on the same side. Keep your team motivated and in a good mood. Don’t let your problems to yourself.

1. Empower the team. Make sure everyone on the team is heard and can contribute and make decisions.
2. Resources plan. Carefully plan your work. Don’t overload your team members but keep your team size reasonable.
3. Suppliers in place. Find reliable partners that you can work with, that are familiar with your project and can help you if necessary.
4. Give feedback. Don’t keep your opinions to yourself. Make sure your colleagues know how happy you are with their performance and can work on their issues.
5. Find time to study. It’s not only about working. Allocate some study time for yourself and for everyone on your team.
6. Evaluate performance. Make sure to track time, performance and other attributes of each of your teammates so that you can find out who is helping and who isn’t.
7. Keep it positive. Maintain a positive mood in your team. Motivate yourself and the people around you.
8. Keep it open. Share as much information with your team as possible. Don’t hide your problems, goals and obstacles.

Marketing

One of the common mistakes is forgetting how important and powerful marketing is. The quality of your marketing plan is going to decide what happens with your product when it’s ready for launch.

1. Challenges you’re solving. Identify the problems your product will tackle. Define your mission and vision.
2. Customers’ needs and wants. Understand your customers’ short- and long-term needs and aspirations. How can your product fulfil them?
3. Study user behaviour. Collect data, talk to potential users and listen carefully. Learn all you can about their interaction with competing products and services.
4. Map out the competition. Identify differences and similarities between you and competing products. Learn how they acquire and retain users.
5. Position yourself. Find a distinct spot within the target market. Highlight your unique selling points and differentiate from others.
6. Create a brand. Come up with a catchy and relevant brand name. Don’t stop investing time into building a strong, distinct, well-known brand.
7. Draft marketing mix. Define your initial strategies and tactics that will help you build and nurture your user base. Make the plan flexible and revise it periodically.
8. Networking. Connect with non-competing companies with a similar mission. Find opportunities for collaboration and marketing support.

The post 48 Problems You Need to Solve as a Start-Up Leader appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

We invited Sergey Shchelkov from Epom Ad Server to discuss the current trends and future prospects of the online advertising world. We touched upon the ad-blocking phenomenon, efficiency of the most popular ad formats, programmatic buying, the rise and fall of ad servers and the future of digital ads with 5G on the horizon. 

Your host:

• Marek Hasa is WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED’s marketing and behavioural adviser.
• WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED is a product design & development consultancy with offices in London, Amsterdam and Prague
• https://pixelfield.co.uk

This episode’s guest:

• Sergey Shchelkov is Sales Executive at Epom Ad Server and Epom DSP with a hands-on, data-driven approach and deep knowledge of the programmatic landscape. He is responsible for all global advertising sales efforts and partnerships.
• https://epom.com

Listen here:

The post Key trends in online advertising with Sergey Shchelkov (WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED podcast ep. 8) appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

Even the best app idea can lead to failure and disappointment if it’s not accompanied by a suitable way of generating income with the final digital product. As you will soon find out, paid downloads are definitely not the only possible source of income – this article will offer you nine prevalent monetization tools.

Your monetization strategy should be based on the type of app you’re dealing with, the specifics of your product or service, needs and behaviours of your target audience, estimated number of active users and their behaviour within the app. The value of the app industry should hit the $580 billion mark by 2020. Before you jump headfirst into it, conduct a thorough analysis of your situation and choose the approach that is most likely to not only cover your initial investments but also to bring profit on a long-term basis, which is crucial for maintaining and updating the app.

Even though we spend up to 90% of our mobile time in apps, not all mobile applications are used regularly and in the long term. If you expect your app to be one of the rarely used products, you might want to consider one of the first three monetization approaches we will present to you.

1. Crowdfunding and donations

Let’s start with a strategy which entails raising the needed funds beforehand. Mobile app development generally requires substantial investments. These could potentially be covered either by big investors and capital funds or by a large group of individuals who got excited by your idea. If you came up with a truly original app, crowdfunding might be a very smart choice for you.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are not interesting platforms solely for sustainable clothes, futuristic sneakers or new comic books – software products of all sorts are also most welcome to come and try their luck. Other crowdfunding options include peer investment platforms such as Crowdfunder or pre-sale websites for innovative products such as Quirky.

Hopping on the crowdfunding train might enable you to avoid dependency on paid downloads or income from in-app advertising. However, you should first evaluate if your app idea has the potential to generate sufficient interest and hype in people even way before the launch.

The strategy of collection donations is somewhat similar to the crowdfunding approach. Some apps are simply relying on the willingness of users to regularly contribute to their maintenance and updates.

Pros: independency from in-app ads and paid downloads, building user base already during the campaign

Cons: uncertain outcome, highly competitive area, one-time income

2. Sponsorship

If your app is not unique and attractive enough to cover the initial investments with crowdfunding, and if you would still strongly prefer to avoid letting advertisers into the app, charging money for downloads or selling bonus items and features in the app, you might want to consider looking for a strong partner who can back up the whole project.

You should aim for a sponsor whose brand won’t completely (negatively) overshadow your app. The partner’s business activities should ideally be closely linked to your app’s focus and mission. Being backed up by a sponsor is especially advantageous for apps with a health or social focus which strive for positive societal impact without any profit ambitions.

Pros: independency from ads, opportunity to focus on a hassle-free UX
Cons: getting overshadowed by sponsor’s brand, dependency on a third party

3. Paid downloads

The vast majority of mobile apps are available for free. In 2019, only 4% of Android apps and 9.7% of iOS apps were fully paid. However, your app might very well be one of the few apps for which paid downloads are the most profitable monetization strategy. One of the benefits of this approach is the solid predictability of revenue – you simply multiply the estimated number of users by the desired price.

Keep in mind that people tend to be quite hesitant when it comes to paying for unknown products, especially when your product category within the app market offers several solid alternatives available for free or in the freemium model. Your app will need to be absolutely unique, unprecedentedly quality, or at least exceptionally well promoted.

Pros: potentially very large profit if the product is really good
Cons: smaller user base, threat of good alternatives available for free

4. In-app advertising

The worldwide in-app ads revenue is projected to grow higher than $200 billion by 2021. Inviting advertisers into your app is the most wide-spread monetization strategy these days. This approach allows you to create a substantial source of income which has the potential to be very stable in the long run. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to keep in mind that user experience must always come first.

Although many apps today profit from subtle native advertising, generally quite well-received banners or even positively praised video ads with rewards for views, some aggressive advertising formats can interfere with user experience so hard that it forces users to uninstall the app. Less aggressive formats are usually linked with the Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) billing principle, while the nature of Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Action (CPA) inevitably leads to more intrusive forms of advertising.

You can relinquish the sales of your app’s ad space to one of the many global advertising networks. For instance, you could rely on AdMob, Facebook Audience Network, MoPub by Twitter, Conversant or InMobi. If you want to start with in-app advertising straightaway, read this quick start guide to AdMob.

Pros: potentially very profitable, rich variety of ad formats
Cons: dependent on the number of active users and their time spent in the app, often interfering with UX

5. Ad-free version

If you’ve already opened your app for advertisers, adding this tool to your monetization strategy mix might be a very good idea. Cover part of your investments into mobile app development with an ad-free version. This option will be especially well-received by users who simply hate advertising – they will be more than happy to pay a small fee for the “clean” version of your app.

Pros: smart addition to in-app ads, many users will appreciate having an ad-free option
Cons: the pre-requisite is having in-app ads in your product

6. Freemium

We’ve already mentioned that only a small percentage of apps are fully paid. However, the truth is that a great part of the “free” apps are not entirely free of charge after all. Even though users can download the basic version for free, they will be required to pay if they wish to use the app to the fullest with all its features.

Are you confident that even the limited version of your app with only the basic functionality will be attractive enough to trigger interest in users and lure them purchasing the full version, the freemium model might be a smart move. Build a solid user base by virtue of free availability of the basic version and then offer people more advanced features as part of the premium (full) app – they will find this offer very hard to resist!

Pros: you won’t lose any potential users compared to the fully paid approach
Cons: difficult to find the perfect balance between limited functionality and sufficient attractiveness

7. In-app purchases

Although only a few percent of users purchase special features and various bonus items, the income generated by this strategy is much, much higher compared to paid downloads. This is despite the fact that in 2017, an average in-app transaction amounted to only $0.43 for Android and $1.08 for iOS.

Your app can be developed into a platform which enables users to buy exciting features or cool game items in just a few seconds by adding them to cart and making one-time purchases.

Pros: opportunity to broaden sortiment and keep stable income, users usually only pay small amounts
Cons: solution needed for completing orders and processing purchases

8. Accompanying products and services

The sole purpose of some apps is to function merely as a marketing tool created to promote the sales of a company’s main products or services. Is this your case too? That makes your monetization strategy much simpler – there’s no need to squeeze any direct income out of the app.

However, if you aim to lure new customers to your offerings through the app, put great emphasis on designing user journeys which neatly direct users to conversions on your sales channels.

Pros: smooth UX, app freely available
Cons: uncertain ROI, linkage to your sales channels might not be effective enough

9. Data licensing

Are you working on an ingenious idea for a community-based app which will be regularly and frequently used by many people? Then you should consider the approach of licensing your data in order to avoid in-app ads and other monetization tools. While users will be enjoying a very helpful and freely available service, you will be collecting very interesting piles of data which might be incredibly attractive for other companies.

Foursquare and Waze are probably the two most well-known examples of community-based apps which sell licenses to both commercial and governmental partners for the use of their Big Data, collected and anonymized in the apps. Anonymization and data security are two crucial aspects which you must adhere to because users tend to be very sensitive and suspicious when it comes to selling data about them or their behaviour.

Pros: perfect UX, app completely for free
Cons: users can be easily triggered and might revolt against you if you violate the principles of anonymization and data security

Conclusion – key monetization principles

Before you start drafting the business model of your app, let’s go through three essential principles of mobile app monetization which you should definitely remember after reading this article.

1. Design and develop your app with a clear monetization strategy in already in mind. Use realistic estimates of the number of users and the time they will spend in your app when writing the financial plan.
2. Regardless of the monetization approach you end up choosing, always keep users’ needs and your app’s specifics in mind to ensure that the final UX is still positively received by the user base. User experience is king – remember that, or else your user base will soon get shattered.
3. Feel free to combine the monetization tools we covered above. For instance, the Storki app we worked on is based on the freemium model but it also capitalizes on in-app ad revenue. However, the ad formats were carefully picked so that the UX wouldn’t suffer from the presence of ads.

Last but not least, don’t forget that every strategy can be adjusted later on. React to the way your user base responses to the monetization strategy in place and adjust your tactics in accordance with user behaviour insights and the latest app market developments. If you feel like you could use a good chat about app monetization with an expert, send us a message. Good luck!

The post Make money with your app: 9 popular mobile app monetization strategies appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

How much does it cost to develop a mobile app? If don’t have any experience with creating digital products, you probably have very little clue when it comes to the necessary expenses. The amount of the initial investment is determined by multiple factors – this article will cover them one by one, following the sequence of a standard development process.

Your mobile app development will most likely include several steps which keep being repeated every time the app improves, scales up, adjusts its focus or acquires a substantial amount of new users. This is called iterative development. So what are the areas you will need to invest in as part of each step?

App Preparations

“Look before you leap.” In the field of software development, this saying is of utmost importance. Many inexperienced clients start with digital development head-first and want to get straight to prototyping, design or even programming.

Take our advice and don’t do that! Every project should start with thorough preparations assisted by developers, designers or a marketing agency. What are the points to cover here?

• business plan – how will you make money with the app and in what time period? What percentage of your resources can you dedicate to operations and maintenance? Learn how to write a business plan.
• target group – who are your users, what are they like, how can you motivate them to engage with the app? Read more about target groups.
• USP – what is the added value of your app? What problems does it solve and how is it unique compared to other solutions? Define your USP.
• marketing plan – how will you get the app to real users? Get inspired on how to promote your app.

How much will this phase cost you? You will mostly need to cover your own time and the time of your employees and colleagues, perhaps also the capacities of an agency that will be advising you. Make sure to reserve at least a few weeks for creating and polishing the concept.

Price: Resources covering your time and the capacities of your team

Prototyping and Design

What does the term “design” encapsulate? Design is way more than just “the looks” of an app – colours, fonts and a logo. The designing process deals with the whole concept, from thinking through each element of the app to projecting user journeys and the overall user experience.

Prototyping and designing will consume at least tens of working hours, hundreds if you want to create a truly successful digital product. If you are developing a commercial app, you should also invest some time into testing the prototype with real users to gather insights from potential customers. User testing and subsequent implementation of the insights will consume another bundle of hours and days.

Isn’t user testing just a superfluous luxury? Definitely not! Testing your prototype thoroughly will save you a great deal of resources in the long run. Even though it makes the pre-development phase more demanding, you will eventually get the money back because your development process will then be much faster.

Design Sprint Cost

There is no better tool for giving your app idea a shape and turning it into a tangible bluebrint than the design sprint. What will you be paying for here?

Design sprints generally last one week. The amount of necessary sprints is dependent on your app’s complexity. This phase will most likely cost you something between 3.5 and 12 thousand pounds – a sum accounting for 10-40% of the overall budget, based on the type of your app.

This investment will cover the capacities of a product designer, UX/UI designer, tester, and project manager, perhaps also a few more experts if the project requires a very comprehensive design approach.

Prototype Validation Cost

The process of prototype validation shares some common elements with design sprints. However, it is more suitable for concepts which are much more thought-through already – the goal here is to exteriorize your ideas.

When validating a prototype, fewer client workshops are necessary and the number of iterations decreases, which makes the required capacities and cost lower compared to design sprints. All you are paying for here is the time of UX/UI designers and a project manager.

App Design Cost – Summary

What is the key takeaway of this section?

• the price of designing and prototyping your app will most likely be somewhere between 3 and 12 thousand pounds
• creating and validating a prototype will take between 1 and 4 weeks, depending on the app’s complexity
• do not underestimate the value of prototyping and user testing, this process can save you a lot of money in the long run

Design & Prototyping Cost: £3.500 – £12.000

Programming and Coding

The most demanding phase of the whole development process consists of coding, programming and testing. The time of quality developers is very valuable, their hourly rate can go as high as hundreds of pounds. Therefore, a crucial prerequisite for this phase is a set of documents explaining clearly all the features of the final product.

Regardless of the scope of your app, this will most likely be the largest item of your budget split. It may be that some small yet very original concepts require more investments in the designing and prototyping phase. Nonetheless, 50-80% of a typical app’s budget goes to coding and programming.

What will the programming cost depend on?

Development Methodology

The way you develop is a crucial determinant of the overall price. If you opt for typical project management, you will know the scope of necessary work and total project cost prior to the development. Contrarily, if you decide to adopt the agile development approach, you will first define a complete a smaller part of the project before you proceed with another one.

If you choose the former approach, mind that it is absolutely crucial to write a perfectly detailed specification of the product because:

• things not covered in the specification will require extra work, resulting in unexpected increases in cost
• every adjustment to the specification will again increase the price

That’s why we generally recommend agile iterative development. Create the design of your app’s first version, bring it to life, gather feedback from real users and then proceed with more features and improvements. The initial price serves as an estimate in this case, the actual cost can only be calculated for one or a few iterations. This approach has several advantages:

• you receive and control the work frequently, any issues can be identified very early
• the development process is flexible, you can react to the changes between iterations without the need to stop the development process and change the initial specification
• features or details you happened to forget about can easily be added to the next iteration
• if you decide to change your business plan or objectives, agile development enables you to hit the brakes faster

Technology

The choice of technologies will greatly influence the app’s price. However, you should never base this decision solely on the cost. What are the options here?

Hybrid development will lower the necessary expenses but also limit the app’s possibilites. A hybrid app will probably be more difficult to scale up and it might not run very smoothly on older devices.

Native development will not result in these issues. However, you can expect a substantially higher cost because the app needs to be developed for each platform separately.

Is it necessary to invest in native development? Not always. It depends on the type of your app and long-term plans. A quality digital agency will advise you on choosing the most suitable technology and discuss all potential pitfalls with you.

Team

It’s probably of no surprise to you that the ideal size of the team is dependent on the type and scope of your app. Developing the initial version of the app over many months doesn’t make much sense, it’s crucial to enter the market as soon as possible. Another important factor to take into consideration is the hourly rate of programmers, of course.

What is the average hourly rate? The same rule as in many other domains applies – the rate greatly depends on the level of experience. A price of tens of pounds per hour signals a junior developer, quality agencies with experienced programmers often charge hundreds of pounds per hour.

Carefully consider how serious you are about the app and what is your target level of quality. If you’re only working on a pilot project or developing an app for fun, partnering with junior developers might be optimal. However, if you are developing a commercial product which will be an integral part of your business activities, definitely go with quality, well-qualified and experienced developers.

Features and Complexity

The fact that the total app development cost will primarily depend on the app’s complexity is quite obvious. Some of the important factors are:

• using hardware smartphone features such as a camera or gyroscope
• working with maps
• the scope and complexity of your back-end
• processing payments
• implementation of a third-party software (for instance, an accounting solution)
• enabling communication between users (chatting)
• dealing with calls, voice messages or videos
• processing videos or streaming content
• collecting and analyzing data about users’ behaviour
• AI or machine learning implementation
• working with AR/VR

This part doesn’t allow for a general price estimate. However, you should keep in mind that each of the elements above increases the total cost, especially the use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality or machine learning.

Marketing

The marketing part of your budget split is not directly link to the development process. However, if you are developing a commercial product, this area is absolutely crucial for the app’s success. Make sure you develop a quality strategy and dedicate a reasonable part of your resources to getting the app to its users. What are some of the important factors determining your marketing budget?

• are you creating a commercial app, or an app for internal use?
• is the app merely complementing an already existing product, or are you coming up with a brand-new service?
• are there many apps on the market that will probably compete for the same user segment?
• do many users search for the problem your app is solving? Is there already an existing market for the app?

Agencies and Advertising

If you decide to partner with an ad agency and promote the app by means of advertising via traditional media channels such as print, TV or radio, your investment will probaly go (much) higher than 40 thousand pounds.

PPC and Ads in Stores

Advertising in online stores with apps works pretty much the same way as PPC ads in search engine results. If you want to attract a substantial amount of new users to your app’s page in AppStore or Google Play, in-store advertising will probably be a necessity. You can generally expect a cost per download between 2 and 30 pounds.

There are many more ways how to promote your app, of course. If you’re interested in this topic, read this step-by-step guide to marketing your mobile app.

App Operation, Maintenance and Updates

How much does it cost to operate and maintain an app? You will be paying mainly for:

• hosting – a server on which the app runs
• support and updates for new versions of operating systems
• analytics and further development

The required resources for this continuous follow-up phase greatly vary but generally speaking, you should prepare around 10% of your app’s development price per year.

Cost: at least 10% of the development price each year

Examples

Simple App

Brief:

A straightforward mobile app for your sales team. It will allow your employees to show a product catalogue to clients, go through their purchase history and make the next order.

Solution:

You will take care of the preparatory phase. The business objective and financial outcome will be clearly defined from the start – save your sales team some time, facilitate communication between departments and speed up the ordering process. Prototyping and design will not take too much time, the prototype will be tested with your own sales team (future users), and the actual development and integration with your current ordering software will be fast and smooth.

Price: £8.000 – £14.000

Typical App

Brief:

Let’s zoom in on a simple MVP of a cooking app. What will it offer? Users-chefs will be able to post their own food offers, customers will then be able to choose a number of portions and pick-up time. The app will also enable card payments and basic chatting between users.

Solution:

This app will be more complex than the first example. We will first need to clearly define the MVP and all the features absolutely crucial for the initial phase. Prototyping will take two weeks and the subsequent development will last around two months.

Price: £14.000 – £25.000

Complex App

Brief:

Let’s stay focused on the app from the previous example, only this time we will not be developing an MVP but a more complex digital product. The chat will allow for emojis and sending pictures. The app will also cover billing through an integration with a billing software. The back-end of the app will allow the client to analyze users’ behaviour, financial flow and provisions.

Solution:

This version of the app ismuch more demanding compared to the MVP. Therefore, we will strongly advise the client to split the app development into phases and add the features one by one. We will do several rounds of prototyping, design, development and users’ behaviour evaluation. In the meantime, we will identify the problems the real users are encountering in the app and polish the user experience to perfection. Feedback from users will always serve as a foundation for the next iteration. The final product will be perfectly user-friendly and ready for a big commercial success.

Price: £40.000+

How low can I go and still end up with a solid app?

If you want to see your app succeed, a budget less than 5 thousand pounds won’t suffice. Even simple mobile apps require a larger investment. And more complex apps require far more funds.

What if I am on a tight budget?

If you don’t possess a large budget, don’t worry. Here are some tips that should help you succeed even with limited resources:

• before you start developing the product, conduct a proof-of-concept test to see if users actually want the product or not
• make your MVP as simple as possible – focus on one feature with the largest added value and add the rest later
• as soon as you have your first version with some real users, finding investors will become much easier
• partner with a strong player in your field who will be able to help you with funding, marketing or attracting the first users
• focus on organic and viral promotion activites with social media tactics, quality content and guerilla marketing efforts
• choose a technology which will lower the cost but at the same time allow for scaling and further adjustments in the future
• don’t try to save money on prototyping and testing – a smaller app which is positively accepted by users is much better than a large app which doesn’t make any sense in the real world

The post Mobile App Development: Price and Expenses appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.

If you are like me, you are probably asking yourself the same question every single day. What can you do to step out of the line?

The answer might be advergaming. Before you start reading, be aware that I am not saying it is a suitable solution for everyone. It is not. But it is definitely something, which brings great results to those companies, who have invested in advergaming and did it right. 

You might have already guessed that advergaming is a marketing tool using gamification to get people pay attention to your brand or product. Although some people think that it is something new and modern, it is not. The term advergaming was first used already in 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis. 

Why all the games and fun

Let’s have a look at some of the successful stories. We don’t even have to far. Our game developers in WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED have launched a great example recently. It is an mobile app for one of the biggest companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The app is using augmented reality to connect the brand and fun experience. So what is it all about? You need to be in a restaurant, where you can buy draught Kofola (a soft drink brand). After you scan their logo on their mug, a monster will start running around you in the restaurant (only on the screen of course) and your task is to catch it. After that you get points and coins, which can be then used for buying staff to help you with next levels. Their marketing results are more than enviable. 

Hundreds of thousands users looking for places where they can order Kofola and beat their friends with a better score. And the biggest benefit? People get angry for not receiving a mug with Kofola’s logo. Isn’t it something we all want?

A little bit of theory

Advergaming can have various purposes. It might be brand awareness, introduction of a new product, brand activation, support of other marketing campaigns. The best part is, that people are more likely to give you their personal information. Pride has a big role there. Who wouldn’t sign up with their email account, when they have the opportunity to be listed in a high score table. This way you can collect the information and use it for your future campaigns. 

Also, if the game is successful, your brand will no more be just “the company selling this and that”. You are going to be the company, which “allowed me to catch 35 super cool monsters, which is much more than my best friend has.” 

This one depends on your industry, but thanks to advergaming, most of the companies are able to reach a broad spectrum of consumers of various ages. 

Getting people to play and interact with your brand

By this time, you are probably wondering how much you need to invest into promotion of your game, as the development and design itself is not cheap at all. Well, it is hard to answer. Of course, it is great if you have a budget for TV advertisement. But always remember that if the game is good enough, you can start with much smaller investment. Never underestimate human playfulness and competitiveness, which can result in a very effective WOM (word of mouth), which is, after all, much more effective than paid advertisement. 

The post Advergaming – is it worth the investment? appeared first on WASH & CUT HAIR SALOON LIMITED blog.