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.