According to Nielsen, based on current uptake rates over half of all mobile phone users in the U.S. will be using smartphones by mid-2011. And, people now spend as much time on their smartphones as on their laptops or desktop PCs for things like finding information, entertainment, emailing, etc. So, it is vital your company has a marketing presence on this exciting new channel in order to stay relevant and connected with your customers.

Smartphone apps are a new and powerful marketing platform for small and medium sized businesses. They enable a mobile, always-on, real-time, optimized platform with which to reach your customers and provide them with information about your business.

Do you have some last minute tables to fill in your restaurant? Send a deal using push notification to all customers with your app and they will receive an alert about your deal, real-time.

Are you a bar and you’ve decided to do a special happy hour this afternoon? Send a deal to customers with your app to alert them. When they get off work and are deciding where to go using their smartphone, they will see the alert about your special happy hour.

There are as many use cases as there are individual business out there, but the point is that the World Wide Web was big in the late 90s and early 2000s, social network marketing has been big the last 4 years or so, but apps are where it is at now. Instead of being one of many and trying to stand out above the noise on Facebook or Twitter, you can put your brand directly on customers’ screens, provide a much richer experience and open a direct line of communication with them.

It’s easy and economical to get up and going with your own app using Apptive – check it out today.

Custom developers are very expensive and therefore don’t make sense for the typical small or medium size business. Minimum pricing from a custom developer for a basic app is often around $10,000 and can easily go up to $30,000.

Even if you have your app developed by a custom developer, then there is no good way to manage your app with new content and the like on an on-going basis without shelling out even more big bucks to the custom developer each time you want to do something new.

In short – not at all! Apptive was started specifically to make the app creation and management process extremely simple.

There is no coding or technical know how required to create your app. Instead, you simply use Apptive’s intuitive “What You See Is What You Get” series of steps to design your app and to fill in your business’ own information. The result is a highly customized and powerful app that gives you a mobile, always-on, real-time marketing platform and a great new way to communicate with and build deeper relationships with your best customers.

With Facebook and Twitter you are one of many and it can be difficult to set yourself apart and to get customers’ attention. In addition, both tools essentially only offer you the ability to send textual updates to your customers – it’s difficult to create a rich brand experience.

Building an app for your business or organization with Apptive provides the following benefits:

• Your brand gets a piece of real estate right on your customers’ iPhone screen – something they’ll likely see multiple time per day.
• Your app gives customers the ability to interact with your business while they’re on the go. They can look at your menu, see daily specials, see your events calendar, make reservations, among many other possibilities right from your app, anytime, anyplace.
• You have a direct line to customers with your app, no noise to cut through.
• Your app can utilize push enabled app modules, which give you a supercharged mobile marketing tool. Alert loyal customers with your app of deals and coupons and realize the power of real time, mobile marketing!
• You are able to provide a rich, beautiful user experience which will reflect positively on your business and brand.
• You’ll be utilizing one of the hottest consumer products out there (iPhones and Apps) to promote your business – cool!

Apptive recommends in-store signage prompting customers to download your company’s app, promotion on your website, and promotion in any other place you can think of including at the bottom of receipt print outs. If you have a customer email distribution list you can also email a direct link to the Apple App Store where your app can be downloaded. You will receive an Apptive Welcome Package upon submission of your app which includes several promotional items, including window stickers and table tents with messaging alerting customers to download your app.

No, your app will be free for your customers to download.

Really any type of business can create an app with our EasyApp platform. If you don’t see your business type listed in beginning of the app creation process then just let us know and we’ll add it – we’re adding new ones all of the time.

The same goes for app modules. If you don’t see an app module listed that you would like to have in your app, most of the time we’ll create it for you at no extra charge. Just contact us and ask.

You can contact Apptive Customer Service via email at support@apptive.com with your request. If it is something that can be reused by other Apptive customers in the future, most of the time we can provide this to you at no charge. If your request is highly specific to your company or would not be usable by other Apptive customers in the future we will provide you with a price quote to complete requested work.

It can take anywhere from 1 week to two months for Apple to approve and publish an app but most typically this process takes about 7-14 days.

Apple will contact Apptive when your app has been approved and once it is available for download in the App Store. Apptive will contact you via email at this point to alert you that your app is live.

Currently you can build your company’s app for the Apple iPhone, by far the most popular and most used smartphone for consumption of Apps. In the near future we will offer app support for Android and Blackberry as well.

A push notification is a message that you can “push” or send to those with your app that will appear as an alert on their iPhone. The push notification shows up as a red circle badge on your app’s launch icon. Then once opened, within your app the app module the push notification is associated with also displays the same alert badge.

Here is a graphical illustration of what a push notification alert looks like:

Alert on App Launch Icon

Alert on App Module

The important thing to note about push notifications and push-enabled app modules is that they are what enable your app as a real-time marketing platform to send deals, offers or coupons to your customers.

To update your account, billing or payment information, you just need to login to your account at Apptive.com and then click on the Account Information or Billing Information link in the left hand menu. There you can view and update your account information, billing information and method of payment.

Currently Apptive accepts all major credit cards.

Your credit card will be charged at the beginning of each month by Apptive.

If you are unhappy with your app or the Apptive service and wish to cancel your account, we will be happy to refund 100% of your monthly fees anytime within your first 60 days of service. If you are considering canceling service and seeking a refund, please call Customer Support.