If you’ve happened upon this post and you’re reading it, you might just be a small business owner who has recently discovered that your competition across the street has a mobile app. And you’re asking yourself, how on earth can they afford one? Maybe you’re peeking through your blinds watching passerbyes become walk-ins after they scan the QR Code in the window. And they’re walking out…with bags.  “Damn, those people could be walking into MY store.”

The answer to your question: Not only can you afford a mobile app, you can’t afford NOT to have one.

Obviously, it’s tools like Magmito that make app creation easy and affordable. How’s $9.99 grab ya for an app that reaches all phones? It’s certainly a small investment when it means grabbing customers. And the benefits to creating and sustaining a small business app strategy extend beyond revenue into significant cost savings.

A recent study by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council estimates that small business owners are saving 372.8 million hours of their own time, and 725.3 million employee hours annually. In total, the co-authors estimate that small businesses are saving almost 1.1 billion hours annually by using mobile apps…employee hours saved alone, are worth an estimated $17.6 billion each year…

Source: Saving Time and Money with Mobile Apps: A Small Business ‘App’ortunity

There are a number of apps created by third party developers that small businesses are using to save time and money. And thanks to tools like Magmito, small businesses are creating their own apps for product promotions, event invites and agendas and company overviews…all mobile marketing related. These apps can be cross-promoted via other marketing channels like print, Web, email and even product packaging using QR Codes and social media integration, effectively ‘mobilizing’ traditional marketing tactics.

Those are some of the obvious uses for the tool. But then we have some forward-thinking small businesses who are using the tool internally to save time, money and increase productivity.  According to the same study, “nearly 50% of the small businesses surveyed believe they have been able to spend more time on growing business revenues due to their use of mobile apps.” How?

Take, for example, a customer who uses a Magmito-generated mobile app to communicate with its service technicians in the field. Not only do they dispatch service personnel to repair jobs but those folks report back to HQ via a simple app form.

A simple app for field technicians

Technicians just input info for direct communication with HQ

Think about the benefits to this business. They’re processing calls faster, servicing clients faster and reducing the amount of ‘paper’. Techs can spend more time servicing and less time filling out reports.

We also have a client who uses apps to train its salespeople on the fly. Read about how Sennheiser communicates the latest product info and offers to its sales reps.

Sennheiser has reported better and more timely communication with its reps, with 100% of them accessing the app.

Think about the areas of your small business that could be optimized and develop your own comprehensive mobile app strategy. From mobile marketing campaigns that drive traffic and revenues to up-to-the-minute internal communication that increases productivity, make more money with mobile apps today.

And with Magmito, you’re looking at $9.99/month or $99.99 a year per app for a business version OR $4.99/month or $49.99 a year per app for a 10-page app. Beat that .

Until our big announcement on Monday (which has to do with small businesses ,

Ted…

Wanted to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day. Hope there’s lots of love in your life today. It also happens to be my mother’s birthday so Happy Birthday Mom!

Speaking of feeling the love, we sure have been lately:

Our gift to you! Our new pricing launched last week, making it even more affordable for everyday people and small businesses to create and promote apps. For just $4.99 per app/month or $49.99/year, users can now take advantage of publishing ad-free apps with up to 10 pages of content. Businesses can add up to 50 pages of content and take advantage of additional branding opportunities for $9.99/month or $99.99/year. Compare that to the cost of a run of business cards, an ad campaign in your local paper or your website. Learn more about our new pricing, here.

A gift to us: Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to chat with Roger Cheng, formerly with The Wall Street Journal, now over at CNET a few times. His knowledge and insight into the mobile industry always makes for good discussion and mandatory reading. It’s no wonder they’ve promoted him to executive editor in charge of east coast operations for CNET News. Yesterday, he wrote a piece on DIDMO’s place in the DIY mobile app creation space as the tool for small businesses to get their apps discovered, beyond the app store, with a focus on Magmito’s recent integration with Constant Contact, a leading email marketing platform with over half a million customers.

“Living in Manhattan, I’m around a lot of mom and pop pizza chains. I’d love to be able to pull up their customer app and order a pie. With Magmito, that’s actually a realistic scenario.” Roger Cheng, “Didmo: One way to get your small-business apps discovered“, CNet

Sending our love to all of you today!

Ted…

It’s a new year and over the weekend we broke the 20k barrier!

That’s right, over 20,000 apps made with Magmito. Many of you have been drawn to us through good ole’ fashioned word-of-mouth and have created some amazing apps. Thanks all of you for your support in 2011 and for a great start to 2012.

Pretty soon we’ll be introducing new pricing to Magmito, making it even more affordable for everyday people and small to mid-sized business (SMBs) to create and distribute mobile apps for any phone.

Cheers! Ted…

I thought my last post would be my holiday wish to you all. It isn’t. I couldn’t let 2011 come to a close without properly thanking all 13+ thousand of you for your support this year. Not only did you find us, embrace the platform and use Magmito to develop some unique and creative mobile apps, but many of you have written in to us with feedback; everything from feature requests to suggested improvements and virtual pats on the back.

With  social media being such a pervasive and instant form of communication, it’s so easy to express our feelings about companies and products for the world to see and respond to. So for folks to take the time to send an email (almost akin to sending snail mail 15 years ago), it means they’re invested in our product and our future. Within three days,  these four users thought enough of what we’re doing to send us a message and we’re very grateful:

“I am getting the hang of building these apps. I will be purchasing some of these apps in the near future. Good job!”
Henry B., USA

“This is a great program! I love it and would recommend it to all app developers!”
Jeramie, USA

“I think that Magmito has a lot to offer and I already told 2 people about it. It’s flat out better than (competitor name)…and it’s faster, easier and covers more ground.. that’s one of the key things I am so impressed with about your company’s product.. It’s definitely worth talking about all over the place and I can push it onto some networks for mommy-bloggers who would love to have an app that hits most phones!” Stevie, USA

“Hi, I’m searching a very long time for something like your product. I just came across it yesterday. I have to compliment you, It is a great program.” Nico, South Africa

Yes, the word is spreading thanks to our users and also thanks to some recent media coverage:

• Take a look at my latest article for Mashable “5 Small Biz Mobile Marketing Strategies for the Holidays”
• I was recently asked to do a podcast for Independent Retailer to accompany their story, “Magmito promotes easy mobile marketing for independent retailers”
• Biz Report  published the following feature story on Magmito, “SMBs: You may need an app for that”

2011 has been a great year for DIDMO and for Magmito. None of our successes would be possible without the support of our shareholders who see the vision, believe in the team and keep us focused. My biggest thank you goes out to the TEAM in Sweden, the US and Canada, whose hard work and dedication make DIDMO the exciting company it is. Well done!

We’re looking forward to great things in 2012 and wish you all the best for the New Year. Enjoy the holidays, wherever and however you’re celebrating. Since we’re big on Christmas around here, enjoy our Swedish/Canadian/American Christmas app featuring recipes, music and more!

Scan the QR Code to Download some Christmas Cheer!

All the best, Ted…

Hi Readers,
Very busy times and exciting times in the DIDMO office these days. We’re constantly working to update the Magmito platform with the latest and greatest features and very soon we’ll be introducing a new, more flexible pricing plan that will make ad-free Magmito apps even more affordable for our users. Stay tuned!

We’re now up to over 19,000 apps created using our tool. Have a look through the Showcase on magmito.com to see and download some of our favorite apps.

Magmito has been in the news a lot recently which helps to spread the word of our innovative platform far and wide. Here are some recent highlights:

• D&B, the world’s leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, is celebrating 200 Million businesses listed in its database. They featured DIDMO as one of 200 businesses in 200 days. See it here!
• Independent Retailer, a leading trade pub for independent retail store owners, pointed retailers to Magmito to create holiday shopping apps. Read, “Mobile Marketing a Crucial Part to Holiday Shopping”.
• Angelo, our VP Business Development in the US, talked to Small Biz Technology.com about how Magmito empowers small businesses to enter mobile marketing. Read, “Mobile Apps as Simple as 1,2, Magmito.”
• Angelo predicts dramatic mobile ecosystem expansion thanks to DIY tools in this Opinion Editorial for Mobile Marketer: ““New developer community to soon embrace mobile marketing”
• I was given the honor of writing an Opinion Editorial for Mashable this past month, “Beyond the App Store: 3 Tips for Marketing Your Mobile Offering” where I explained how SMBs can promote their apps via QR Codes, SMS and location-based services. Here’s an excerpt:

“Apps are synonymous with app stores. If you’re marketing the next Angry Birds, app stores are the perfect distribution medium. However, today’s app stores do little to promote discoverability for budget-conscious small businesses and many app stores are often platform-specific, alienating a potentially large percentage of customers. Unless you’re spending “preferred placement” dollars to be in the top 10, your place in the App Store is akin to being on a shelf in the IKEA warehouse. Without a map or directions, it’s likely your app won’t be found.

SMBs need to look beyond app store distribution and treat their mobile offerings as they would any other marketing vehicle: part of an integrated approach that ties closely to established business objectives.”

With over 1400 shares, I’m really looking forward to my next piece with Mashable.

Well that’s all for now. Expect some really big news from us in the new year that will further solidify our status as the mobile content creation platform for SMBs. Wishing you all Happy Holidays! And to kick off the holiday spirit, our Santa ball has officially made its appearance back on the site:

Happy Holidays from all of us on Team Magmito

Until next time, Happy holidays and God bless us all, Ted…

We’ve known about Dr. Hank Feezer, Professor at Purdue University, and his use of Magmito in-class for some time now. As part of a few classes now, Dr. Feezer has required his students to create their own mobile apps using Magmito. A few months ago, we noticed a growing collection of snazzy mobile resumes (which I feel will be the must have for anyone looking for work in the future). Turns out it was assignment time in Dr. Feezer’s classroom. How the time flies.

The great thing about Dr. Feezer is that he always collects and passes along student feedback on the tool. He is an unsolicited fan of our platform and the comments and suggestions are invaluable and much appreciated. This time, however, he took things one step further. The assignment? As part of their final exam, students in his MGMT64900, Global Marketing Management class were broken into groups and told to create a marketing plan for DIDMO to launch Magmito into a specific geographical area: Europe, Asia, etc. And they broadcast the presentations LIVE. I got the opportunity to go through a few of the visual presentations and I was impressed with their recommendations for product development, marketing strategy and future innovation,. All were well thought-out and thoroughly researched.

Here’s an example of how post-secondary institutions are not only taking notice of what’s happening in an industry but taking an active role in championing what they believe in and investing time to push its evolution.

Here’s a professor who sees user-generated mobile content is becoming the next phase, similar to when Web content creation was placed into the hands of the masses. He found our tool, has embraced it, and together, with his students, is nurturing it. He’s provided and continues to provide strong opinions on how it can be improved and advanced over time. He’s training his students to see past the status quo and to where the market is, and could be headed. And he’s doing it by asking his students what they would do if they were running this company, how they would both improve the current offer and innovate to secure a competitive position in the future.

This exercise normally takes place with either fictitious or larger companies. Dr. Feezer has taken it to the next level, focusing on a real company, real product, and real market. And a smaller, up&coming company at that. Not only does this pose a greater challenge for his students but when shared with the actual company (which he has done), provides them with invaluable support and fresh insight. These students are not “affected” the way we are. They can observe from the outside, see the forest through the trees. When your head is down and focused on your balance sheet, it’s difficult to take an objective step back sometimes, even if it’s during one of those posh company retreats.

The reality is, most of these students will not be asked to draft marketing plans for companies within weeks of setting foot in the office. In this scenario, they have a real-world opportunity to do just that. They may not be getting paid to do it but their compensation comes in knowing their work is valued by Up & Comers like us and ultimately has an impact on shaping an industry that is changing the way we communicate.

Thank you Dr. Hank Feezer and students of the Global Marketing Management class.

Here’s a video from June featuring another of Hank’s class’ comments on Magmito: