How to market professional on mobile devices, or, should photographers and lawyers have apps to set themselves apart

Marketing your company on the web is similar to how marketing has been done for a long time, where you create newspaper ads, so now we have websites for each company.  You go to Google, type in a profession, and it can show you a map of where those offices are in your area, so you can decide which one to go to.

That may not be ideal, then we get to mobile devices, and now Google knows where you are, and can show you where you are and how far away the offices are from you, and if we have some Yelp/Google integration you may see ratings by each office, to give an idea where you may want to go.

Now these offices want to develop mobile applications so people can find them quickly.  So, I decide I want to get Christmas pictures early, so my family goes to a photography studio as we have an appointment, but, 10 other families had the same idea, and we don't want to wait 2 hours to be seen.  So, time to find a photographer.  I open up my apps, and for some reason I had downloaded a photographers app, so I just bring it up, and we head over to get our picture.

OK, that is silly, why would I have downloaded an app for someone close to my location?  Do I really need to have these personalized apps on my phone?  What benefit is there generally?  How often do I get my picture taken?

The issue is more difficult for lawyers.  I expect I will need  photographer a great deal more than a lawyer, so why do lawyers think we will have their apps on our phones?

This is the disconnect between how marketing used to be, and the fact that we are now in a brave new world, and these marketers seem to be clueless about how to handle the change.  So, this article is to help these clueless types navigate uncharted waters.  :)

So, Coca-Cola decides to make reinforce their brand on a native app.  So, they create a game with the Coke bears, and these bears have to navigate tough challenges, perhaps scale cliffs, ski down steep cliffs, and fight opponents.  They get beaten up, tired, and, as they get to the end, having defeated the final challenge on that level, the player gets to the treasure.  Based on how fast they went, how well they did on their challenges, their points are added up, and the player is happy, as that was the goal. But, while the points are being tabulated and displayed, you see the bear open a soda, drink it, and he stands taller, as he has more energy, and his injuries are healed, and the player heads to the next level.

Now, this same player is out biking, running and he starts to run low on energy.  What drink will he ask for to get refreshed?  A Coke, obviously, as he has been conditioned to see that it rejuvenated the bear, so he expects to get the same experience.  He should be able to drink the soda, and then go out to play hard again.

The ad would be effective as it is conditioning impressionable minds to a Pavlovian response, and it costs a great deal less than running ads on the television, and in the process you charge a dollar per download, and make a profit off of the ad campaign.

So, we are back to lawyers and photographers.  Not everything is going to work as a game, but perhaps we can find another approach.  You start with basic questions, such as, what is the end goal for the photographer.  Why do they want an app, what are they looking for?

Now, if the photographer wants to have his work admired, and is looking for work doing weddings and perhaps specializing in outdoor scenes, then why not put together an app that would allow several photographers to share some of their photography secrets, and let you use them.  So, for example, one may state that when it is really sunny outside, he takes the photograph and then uses a program to reduce the glare, so, now while you are on his tab, you have filters so you can do the same processing while you are taking a picture.  You look through the camera and the colors are less bright due to this.

Or, another one talks about the importance of removing haze from pictures, and he provides a filter that will automatically remove the haze before the photo is taken.

If you have enough participating photographers you may be able to have a database with these filters, and get filters for those in your area. So, when you travel, you may see new photographers, which could be interesting, as what works well when you are at home in Tampa FL, may not work as well in Denver CO.  New area, new experiences.

Along the way you have seen some examples of before and after photos from these people, and if you need a photographer, you may call them.  The reason for the app on your phone is to help you learn to take better photos, but the end result is that you are being exposed to photographers that you may never have heard of.

Mobiles app marketing requires creativity, ask yourself why someone will have this on their phone.  Is there some reason beyond vanity of the company?  What benefit is the user getting out of the application?

To explore this idea I wrote a photography app in Xamarin, so I could have an iOS and Android version, and the Android version is up on the Play store as a alpha version application.  All it does is explore if you have a list of photographers in sections, and then can see their pictures.  The idea is that you could have a website of photographers, where people can vote for which ones they like, and the top 20 will be packaged up in a new application, so you can download that and smaller versions of their pictures.  Or, you may download those that got the most votes and are closest to you.

But, what problem does this solve?  Is there some way to do this without having to create a website for the voting?  If these are nature pictures, would people like it if they are puzzles, or a game so the idea is to look at a 3D version of a scene and decide what is the best camera angle to take the picture, and then see what the photographer chose, and why, to help you take better pictures.

Some marketing campaigns can easily be turned into something fun, or something that has more uses than just marketing, and others require a great deal of creativity, and a better understanding of the goal of the client to decide why someone will want that app on their phone.

Mobile app thoughts on a pet company, such as PetSafe

There is a local company, PetSafe, http://www.petsafe.net/blog/, that has a dog park across from the office in town.  So I was thinking about how mobile applications or taking advantage of changes from mobile devices.

Web pages led to companies changing their business approach, and what worked before is not as effective now, so I will write several blog articles, I expect, to help different industries think about changes.

So PetSafe has a blog to help connect with their customers, but imagine if they had customers send in photos of their pets with some of the equipment from PetSafe, and if you strip out the geocoded information, write a dynamic wallpaper that gets images from near your location, so if you take your dog on a trip, you can see pictures of how people are using this equipment there.

On the website, or use the mobile application to allow people to vote on uploaded images and those that get the most votes are selected to be part of the next update.  Perhaps have 10-20 images, and the updating can be automated as people upload images and other people are voting on them.  Some people may want to download a zip file with the next image set, but since they are unzipped outside the application, people can copy those images and they may be found in other applications.  If losing control of the images is acceptable then it would be simpler to just download the new set.

Another application would be a dog park finder that works well, and again, let people take pictures of the dog park and strip the geolocation information, but store it in a database, so people can look for close dog parks, and see pictures of that park to decide if it is a good park for their beloved pet.  If there are enough pictures then perhaps show those that were taken in the approximate time of day and time of year, to give people more information, so that would mean that the application should be able to take the photos and upload them.

But, there are other applications that would perhaps help open up new opportunities for this company.  Next I will just describe three applications.

The first is to help people see how they can use the products sold to help pet owners improve their pet's lives.  So, allow people to take give an approximate sketch of their home, and what type of pets they have, and then they can start to place different products and see how it may work. So, put a doggie door going out back, for example, and then have the application simulate temperatures to see how it may affect their air conditioning.  This idea would require prototyping to see how to make it useful to people.  One idea would be to allow people in similar environments to share their photos and experience, with hopefully similar breeds.  But, you may also want to target potential pet owners.  Why not work with SPCA organizations in the local community so they can display pictures of some pets for adoption that may be well-suited for the prospective pet owner, based on type of home, number and age of children.

It is important not to share more than is necessary with the webserver that will determine which pets to show, so try to keep it at a minimum, and if possible, it may be better to just send course location and basic data is returned so the application can prune out based on information from the user, so the number of children and ages are never sent out from the phone.

The next idea is similar but allow the user to sketch out their yard, and help them to see how to make a child/pet fun place.  This will go beyond what PetSafe sells, but it opens up new opportunities to form partnerships with non-competing businesses, and can help bring out possibly new product opportunities that are missing.  So, for example, build a platform to hold swings and a slide, but what if there is a ramp so dogs can run up and down, chasing after children.  Then the dog may decide to go down the slide, or have a way to chase the child that does go down.

The last idea is to look at the wearable space.  If there is a device you can click to a collar that transmits a signal that is picked up by a mobile application then when your dog escapes you can more easily follow it.  This may require a new collar to help hold some of the circuitry.  The trick is how do you get it to turn on?  For example, if there is a device in the garage and it activates the collar as the dog goes by that may help.  Wearables have great opportunities but it requires a new way of thinking, so it may be better, initially, to form partnerships, and do a great deal of prototyping.