Neemware Blog

Don’t guess; Just ask !!! – Mobile In-App Polling

Mads Srinivasan — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 02:15:12 +0000

You have a great app. You’ve marketed it well. You got few thousand downloads. Your user base is growing steadily. You are happy. Few months go by, and now you start to notice that your growth is hitting a plateau. Then you think, “May be I should add few more features and release a new version”. And you add three more cool features and release version 2.0 of your app. You get few thousands additional users. Again you start noticing the app analytics. Of the three features you introduced you see that only one is being used regularly by your users. The other two features, though you think are really great, are not getting that much usage. You sit and analyze the data you gathered from your app. The data you collected is not giving you a full picture. You try to trace the click streams and start to make intelligent guesses. You start thinking, “May be the color is not attractive, may be the user does not see the images of the new features, may be they didn’t read my release note for this version …..may be …..”.

STOP. Stop the “may-be”s. Stop the guess work. Just ask your users. I know what you are thinking “Ask the users??? How to ask them? Should I send them emails, i don’t have their emails. Should I meet them? How many should I meet?”. Here is my answer – Ask them when they are are inside your app, when they are actually using your app. You will get much better answers. (A restaurant manager will get a much better answer to a “How is our service?” question, if he asks his customer when the customer is in his restaurant, than asking the customer to fill an online survey).

Using Neemware, it is very easy to ask your users highly contextual and targeted questions, in just 3 steps:

Step 1 – REGISTER your app in Neemware Web dashboard. And obtain API Key.

Step 2 – COMPOSE your question. (e.g. How do you use our new ‘Search’ feature?)

Step 3 – CALL Neemware’s Question API from your App

https://api.neemware.com/1/questions/.json?api_key=&did= & …..other optional parameters.

Result

Your question will appear in the app like this:

Within a week or two you should start getting highly qualified answers like these:

And with these responses, you can make fast and intelligent decisions about your app.

Don’t Guess, Just Ask.

In-App Mobile Feedback & Messaging – From 1 Star to 5 Stars

Prince Arora — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:02:49 +0000

Mobile users have a great way to let the developers know how they feel about the app. However, there is no way for developers to talk back to users, in the app or via the app store. It’s sad to see how developers are putting so much hard work in their apps but suffering due to bad reviews in the app store, sometimes it’s small things that could be easily resolved by communication between the developer and user.

A few months ago Google Play launched a feature where selected developers (developers who have Top Level Badge) can send a message back to users who left a bad review or requested new features. iTunes store still doesn’t provide anything.

You still have a choice – integrate a simple feedback mechanism in your app. This will allow users to talk directly to you, and you can talk directly back to them. This will help in reducing negative reviews and increasing positive reviews. We wrote an article on this top – 3 Reasons Why You Should Collect Mobile Feedback and Feedback Form for Your Mobile App.

Here is a visual walk-through on how you can help your mobile users, manage mobile feedback and go from 1 Star to 5 Stars.

When’s the last time you reached out and connected with your mobile users? Get Started Now – Communicate with yours.

Mobile lead generation and engagement with Neemware

Ian — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:50:00 +0000

When’s the last time you reached out and connected with your mobile users? This is not about day-to-day use of the app. Rather, when’s the last time you sent them a message, asked them a question, used email to get in touch, or otherwise engaged with them?

Many mobile businesses would answer “seldom” or “never”. And it’s not hard to see why. The ability to reach out and connect with users is severely limited by Apple, Google, and other platform owners.

For instance, Apple knows exactly who downloaded and paid for your app, via iTunes and the Apple App Store. But Apple doesn’t give you users’ contact information, or the ability to easily contact them via the app. Apple truly “owns” the customer, to the detriment of mobile businesses that want to establish relationships with their customers.

But there are ways to make those connections. In this post, I’ll demonstrate how Neemware can be used to reach out to mobile users. The tools to do this include Neemware’s Messaging Module as well as the Questions Module and Feedback Module. As an example, we’ll use a fictional women’s clothing chain, Tanager Styles, that has its own app.

The App
Tanager Styles is a small clothing chain, with eight stores. It recently launched an iPhone app that connects to individual stores’ inventory management software, and is capable of displaying available items in each store. Customers also like to use the app to see new arrivals (announced on the splash screen) and find the stores on a map. There are no m-commerce features or the ability to collect information about users.

Connecting with users, step 1: Find out what people think about the app

Like many mobile businesses, Tanager Styles has depended on face-to-face feedback as well as app store reviews to understand how their customers feel about the new app. Both methods are useful, but there are drawbacks.

Face-to-face feedback is neither recorded nor tabulated, and feedback is random. A customer might make a remark about the app, or it could come up in conversation when talking with staff or management.

There are less than 20 comments in iTunes, which is typical for a niche app. Most are complaints. Some of the complaints are useful, but it’s impossible for Tanager Styles to respond individually. In addition, the negative feedback hurts adoption when other potential users browsing the App Store see the complaints.

Tanager decides to use Neemware’s Feedback module. It has several benefits over the existing methods:

The SDK can be rapidly dropped into the app by the developer (15 minutes is typical for an experienced developer).
Once the app is re-approved to Apple’s App Store, anyone on staff (that is, not just developers) can create and launch feedback forms in real-time, using the Neemware Engagement Dashboard.
The module is much easier to use than App Store reviews, and in fact helps defuse complainers by having them directly contact the company instead of going online or to iTunes to complain.
The Feedback module uses easy-to-understand icons to register how users feel about the app on a five-point scale.
Users can leave long-form comments about specific features.
Users can leave email addresses. This allows Tanager to respond to complaints or suggestions — and also lets the company follow-up with special offers or alerts.
This data is automatically tabulated and can be instantly reviewed by staff.
It can be targeted at heavy users of the app, who are Tanager’s best customers.

Connecting with users, step #2: Gathering more leads, in-app promotions

Through the Feedback module, Tanager learned that customers really wanted notifications of new arrivals via email, as well as special offers through the app.

Neemware’s Questions Module can be used to expand the company’s mailing list. It’s very simple to set up a banner that displays questions to heavy users, as well as users who are active during certain parts of the day. The store starts a campaign to gather email addresses using questions like:

“Early bird shoppers: Enter your email address below to be put on the Early Bird alerts list, with special deals and closeouts announced twice per week!”
“Want to be notified of special deals and new store openings? Leave your email address to sign up for the Tanager’s New Style e-newsletter!”

The Messages Module is also activated. It lets Tanager use simple text messages and images of items for sale to make promotions in real time. It’s particularly useful for store managers who have excess inventory to unload at the end of a sales period.

Connecting with users, step #3: Email/mobile marketing

The final piece of Tanager’s mobile enagement plan is leveraging the leads. The email addresses can be used to make a simple mailing list. However, the company’s marketing manager realizes that sophisticated email tools such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact can be used to:

Send out great-looking e-newsletters with photos
Set up segmented and combined lists based on the source of the emails (for instance, from the feedback form, or the people who responded to the early bird and special alerts appeals).
Automatically manage opt-outs.

The company also starts to think of creative strategies around using email to increase mobile downloads. For instance, special emails can be sent to the lists, encouraging customers to share the alerts newsletter with friends and reminding them that additional specials can be seen on the app.

For Tanager, this is just the beginning. The company knows that within a year or two, nearly every one of their customers will own a smartphone and the devices will become even more sophisticated. Many will want to use these devices to improve their in-store shopping experiences, and even make purchases using the phone. In the meantime, the retail chain will use Neemware to better connect with its best customers, increase visits to the store, and ultimately boost sales.

The Neemware SDK is free to try. Register and download via the following link:

How to use Neemware to increase sales for an m-commerce app

Ian — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:17:49 +0000

Imagine you have an iPhone app in iTunes that sells T-shirts. Let’s call it the Sea Squirt T-Shirt App. It’s a simple app. The splash page shows the company logo and the most popular items in the store. Users can browse the entire catalog via an icon in the nav. Tapping a T-shirt brings up the product page, with pricing, color and size options. Users can add the item to a shopping cart, and then complete the sale right on the screen. The T-shirts are shipped from the company warehouse within 48 hours.

But there’s a problem. Despite healthy downloads and good reviews in iTunes, Sea Squirt sales are lagging. Using mobile analytics, developers determine that 45% of people who download the app only activate it once or twice. Another 30% use it 3-5 times. The remainder use it even more. However, after two months, only 6% of users are still active users (defined as using it at least once in the most recent 7 days).

In other words, of the 55% of mobile users who download and open the T-shirt app three or more times, most end up abandoning the app after two months. They’re interested enough to return to the app and see what’s available, and maybe even make a few purchases, but after some time most walk out the door, never to return.

There’s another problem: Only 3% of user sessions result in sales.

What’s going on? The makers of the Sea Squirt T-Shirt app are very concerned — they want to see higher levels of engagement (that is, more active users) and better sales.

There is a two-part solution, based on Neemware’s Feedback and Messaging modules.

Step 1: Determine why users are dropping off

This is a huge question for so many app developers and mobile businesses. They create an app, implement useful features, design it to be easy to use … and then watch as engagement drops into the single digits. It’s very frustrating. In most cases, it’s difficult to connect with users to ask them what’s wrong. Hardly anyone uses email-based feedback.

This is where Neemware’s Questions Module can help. Using a simple interface, can ask their users questions and get text answers, as well as survey data.

The makers of the T-Shirt app sign up for the Neemware SDK and drop it into the app — it literally takes 15 minutes to do. Once the app has been re-approved by Apple, Sea Squirt T-Shirts can use the online Neemware Web Dashboard to activate modules in real time.

Sea Squirt activates the Questions Module, and ask a simple question: How can the app be improved?

The responses are interesting. Some users say that it’s hard to find cool new designs. Others want to see more special offers. These responses lead the makers of Sea Squirts to come up with an in-app marketing campaign to boost sales and retention, using the Neemware Messages Module.

Step 2: Implement in-app marketing campaign

The Neemware Messaging Module can display text or image-based messages, coupons, and promotions, right on the screen. Further, the messages and marketing can be targeted to certain segments — for instance, heavy users of the app (who are likely to be repeat customers), light users of the app (who may be the group who drops off) as well as people using the app at certain times of the day.

The Sea Squirt T-Shirts team comes up with a plan to boost retention rates and sales using Neemware’s Message module, based on three customer segments:

Heavy users: This group likes to buy special designs before everyone else gets them. Sea Squirt T-Shirts decides to promote limited edition tees to those users who have opened the app at least 20 times. The first promo can be seen in the inset screenshot.

Light users: This group comprises the 30% of downloaders who open the app between 3 and 5 times. Most of them stop using the app after two months. Sea Squirt T-Shirts decides to offer a special deal to anyone who opens the app at least three times: a $15 T-shirt special (including shipping).

Night owls: Looking through the mobile analytics, Sea Squirt T-Shirts discovers that U.S. customers who make purchases after midnight are most likely to buy joke-themed shirts. For this group, the Neemware Message Module is set up to offer the newest “joke” T-shirt..

The campaigns are a success. Two-month retention rates rise to 9%, and sales to the heavy user and night owl segments rise 23%.

This example is only fictional, but it illustrates how Neemware can be used to boost engagement and sales for an m-commerce app. If you’re interested in trying out Neemware, you can download the SDK for free:

How To Incorporate Feedback Into Lean Mobile App Development

Ian — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:00:21 +0000

If you’re an app developer or mobile product manager who uses Lean methods of product development, one of the most difficult elements to get right is feedback. In this post, I’ll discuss how Neemware can be used to generate feedback and other data that can be used to more efficiently develop mobile apps that users love — and will pay for.

As Mads pointed out in the Value of Feedback In Lean Product Developement, leveraging feedback should take place at all four stages of the product development cycle:

Customer Discovery
Customer Validation
Customer Creation
Company Building

In the first stage (Customer Discovery) developers will be using demo versions of apps, wireframes, or presentations that communicate app concepts or features to potential users. Feedback may be gathered in face-to-face sessions, or via a survey (“How much would you pay for an app that does xyz?”).

In the next stage, Customer Validation, the developer takes this early feedback and applies it to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is the prototype that users can try out on TestFlight or on a device loaned to them by the developer. Feedback is often gathered using visual observation, while other developers incorporate Flurry or some other tool to gather data points about usage.

As Mads noted in his earlier blog post, one of the important steps during the Customer Validation phase is coming up with initial pricing for the product. If it’s a prototype application, it may not be possible to place it in the app store (especially Apple’s App Store, which has high standards for approval).

However, it is possible to use Neemware’s Feedback Module to elicit opinions about pricing. For some people, $0.99 is not always the right price to purchase an app. For others, in-app purchases may be acceptable to upgrade, buy gameplay points, or activate new features or levels. Neemware’s Feedback Module can be configured to prompt all users or just a select group (e.g., the testers who are using it the most) to ask them specific questions about pricing (“Would you pay $2 to activate this feature?”) and rank how they feel about the app using visual cues.

If the reaction to the product features and pricing is negative, it’s back to stage 1 — Customer Discovery. But if the reaction to the MVP and pricing is positive, it’s onto the next step: Customer Creation. At this stage, the app is ready to be launched. The focus of the company is driving demand for the app, but listening to new customers is still required. Again, Neemware’s Feedback Module can be instrumental in understanding users of the app. But there is also an opportunity to use Neemware’s Questions Module to ask specific questions about the app, how people are using it, and how it can be improved. Here are some sample questions:

Have you experienced any bugs while using the app? Could you describe them?
What new feature would you like to see in the next version of the app?
How do you typically use the app?

The final stage of Lean product development is Company Building. The app (or family of apps) have scaled … and so has the company that launched the app. This doesn’t mean a bloated organization; the company must be able to respond quickly to evolving customer needs and competitive threats. Neemware’s Feedback and Questions modules are not only able to help companies gather this data, the Neemware Engagement Dashboard can present the metrics and responses in real time.

The Neemware SDK is availalble as a free download. It literally takes 15 minutes to drop it in. Once it’s in the app and the app is live, the Feedback and Questions module can be activated in real time to help you strengthen your Lean development processes.

Neemware video: How the SDK works, what users see

Ian — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:39:23 +0000

The Neemware team has just uploaded a new video. It not only demonstrates what the Neemware SDK can do for mobile apps, it also explains the benefits for users — and shows what they will see when messages, promotions, questions, and feedback forms appear on their devices.

Here’s the video. To see the details close up, click the icon in the lower-right corner to expand it to full-screen viewing:

Three design patterns for mobile marketing

Mads Srinivasan — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:34:16 +0000

I am a software guy. And like many people who create software, I seek out patterns. In software, design patterns are akin to templates that can be applied to situations and tasks, to better understand the situation and to design solutions. To this day, one of my favorite books on software is Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, known colloquially in the software community as the “Gang of Four” Design Pattern book.

Recently I came across a good article on mobile advertising. In that article, Amy Gershkoff of Burson-Marsteller describes “three promising models” for mobile marketing.

The first is way in which Amazon is enabling consumers to scan products in stores with their mobile devices to get their online price. The second is Starbucks initiative to enable their customers to pay for their coffee via mobiles. And the third is the geo-targeted and content-targeted advertising that YouTube has developed specifically for mobile devices.

I would like to extend Amy’s models to the “pattern” concept described above. As I see it, the three models map to three broader marketing patterns.

Pull:
In this pattern, the mobile device acts as a tool to bring customers closer to the brand/business. The Amazon Price Check app that Amy referred to is a good example. Other examples include the Ikea Catalog app that lets users scan pages in the print catalog to get additional information about specific items. The Homes.com Real Estate Search app lets users search nearby homes for sale and rent and connect with real estate professionals.

As you can see, in this pattern businesses offers some handy tools for their consumers to bring them closer. This pattern will be more applicable to large scale e-commerce retailers with high-volume inventory and high-touch goods. In terms of the marketing funnel, this pattern applies to the mid-funnel activities. It would be appropriate to apply this pattern if a customer already aware of a specific brand and the brand wants to bring the customer closer.

Transactional:
As consumers are becoming more comfortable with buying things using their mobile devices they tend to perform more transactions using mobile device/apps. Businesses provide apps to make this interaction easy and convenient. The Starbucks App is a good example. Other examples include:

In this pattern, the customer is not only brought closer to the brand, but is also made to transact with them. In the marketing funnel, this pattern corresponds to bottom of the funnel. This pattern applies to anyone who is trying to sell something through their mobile channel.

Push:
In this pattern businesses push (relevant) materials to users in order to increase awareness and increase brand affinity. Most mobile advertisements fall under this pattern. Many brands also build apps to push content to their customers. Examples include:

Banner ads served by different ad networks
Apps that provide “fun” content, such as the Virtual Zippo Lighter app
The Magic Coke Bottle app

In terms of marketing funnel, this will apply to the top of the funnel activity. Brands push messages to increase the awareness amongst their potential customers.

Of these three patterns, which ones would I put my biggest bets on?

Based on the way mCommerce is trending, i see that most of the retailers will soon start providing mobile apps with transactional capabilities. And business will continue their spend on advertisements and pushing content. So I would double down on Transactional and Push patterns.

But there’s an even more important question for marketers: How can you leverage these patterns?

Splitting a mobile marketing budget, some might think the easiest way to proceed is to split the spend equally on each pattern, as shown below:

But as I just pointed out, I believe there will be tremendous growth in the transactional patterns. Further, there will be many more mobile channels to push your marketing content. So, if I were in your shoes, my allocation would be as follows:

At Neemware, we strongly believe in the transactional potential of mobile apps. Our platform has been designed to help marketers increase mobile transactions, through the use of in-app messages, promotions, conversations, and feedback. We have further built our in-app marketing platform to have contextual, targeted engagement with mobile users from within mobile apps. The Neemware SDK is extremely easy to use, not only for developers (integration takes just an hour or two) but also for marketing staff who can send real-time messages and promotions using a simple Web dashboard. It’s FREE to try. Get started by signing up here: http://www.neemware.com

Five reasons why app store SEO is not enough

Ian — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:37:15 +0000

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post about effective techniques for App Store SEO. The post was based on my own experience quadrupling the number of daily app downloads in iTunes, which was the direct result of following the advice given in this AppCod.es slideshow:

The post resonated with a lot of developers and app creators who were frustrated with the discovery problem in iTunes and the iPhone/iPad App Store (see also: iOS 6 App Store sorting options change: “For a small developer, this is terrible news”).

Some developers may assume that once app store SEO techniques are implemented and downloads get a bump, their marketing job is done. Not so! The following list shows some of the limitations of App Store SEO:

1. App store SEO does nothing for engagement.
While App Store SEO is crucial for getting users to find out about apps, it does absolutely nothing to keep them engaged with the app once the download is complete. And engagement for most apps is terrible. I’m looking at the Flurry benchmarks for all apps from one month ago. Of the new users for the week of August 27, the retention rate (meaning they’ve used the app in the last week) averages just 11% for all apps used in the Flurry benchmark. For apps downloaded the week of July 30, it’s just 5% overall. For some categories, such as Business, it’s even less.

This is a big deal. As users walk away, they take with them future revenue, feedback, shares/recommendations, and downloads of new apps offered by the same company.

2. App store SEO doesn’t boost in-app purchases
While app store SEO can result in increased revenue for developers who make paid apps, it does not help with in-app purchases. And, according to Distimo, in-app purchases are where the money is coming from for the majority of the 200 top-grossing apps in the iPad, iPhone, and Google Play app stores:

How can developers boost in-app purchases? Users generally figure out the rules, when trying to activate a certain feature or advance more quickly in a game. But in-app messaging is another way to remind users of paid features.

3. App store SEO has a limited impact on cross-app promotions
For developers who have two or more apps in the app store, there are a few SEO techniques that help with cross-promotion. Listing the name of a more successful app in the description or keywords can help boost sales of the newer or less successful app. However, the best way to maximize cross-promotions is in the app itself. If users like an app, there is a high probability they will enjoy other apps by the same developer.

4. App store SEO has limited impact on real-world activities
For apps that have a real-world component, such as shopping, checking in, taking and uploading a photo, or completing some other action, SEO has only a limited impact. Certainly, the first time a user tries the app, it may be a result of what he or she saw or was looking for during the search in the app store. For instance, if the search was for a “location app”, then one of the first actions the user will undertake after downloading and installing it is trying out the location features. However, the user may need to be reminded to keep checking in or trying other features.

5. App store SEO can be outgunned by the competition
One thing I’ve learned about app store SEO (and, indeed, SEO for any popular search engine) is successful techniques will eventually be utilized by the competition. Over time, this will reduce the number of downloads, as other apps show up in the search results and/or users download competing apps. But it’s important to remember that app store SEO is just one of the battlegrounds. If a developer can win on quality and engagement with mobile users, this may erase the SEO gains of competitors.

Looking back at the list, it should be obvious that while app store SEO can get people in the door, continuing engagement is necessary to boost retention, revenue, cross-promotions, and recommendations. Developers and app owners who understand this have a higher chance of app store success. Developers who fail to address engagement will have a harder time making traction, and may miss some incredible opportunities to help their users derive more value from these apps.

If you’re interested in bringing engagement to your mobile apps, consider Neemware — the SDK takes just an hour or two to integrate into an app, and lets anyone on staff send in-app messages, promotions, surveys and feedback forms in real time! It’s free to download.

iOS 6 App Store sorting options change: “For a small developer, this is terrible news”

Ian — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:18:29 +0000

(Welcome Reddit and HN visitors!) As the post-launch hubbub over iPhone 5 and iOS 6 dies down, developers and some users are pointing to a big problem with the updated App Store experience on iPhones: It’s not possible to sort by release date.

In iOS 5 and earlier versions of the App Store on iPhones, each category has three sort options: Paid, Free and Release Date (see inset photo). Paid and Free are for top apps, and almost all of them are the hugely popular apps that have become mainstays of people’s mobile lives — Angry Birds, Instagram, Facebook, etc. The sort by release date option serves as an alternative discovery method for users who don’t want to rely on the “top rated” criteria to find new and interesting apps to try out.

However, in the iOS 6 version of the App Store on the iPhone, the sort options are Paid, Free, and Top-Grossing. Although it is possible to find new apps via search or Genius recommendations, there is no way to see the newest apps in the App Store’s category view. Users have noticed, and are leaving comments like this on forums and other social media:

In the App Store the tab that I always use to look at was the “release date” tab. However when I compared Games-Action-Release Date to the ios 6 Games-Action-New they were different in what they had in them. They need to bring this tab back since a lot of home developers apps will get overlooked and the fun of discovery for me and a lot of others will be gone.

It’s not just users who are concerned. The developers and companies which make apps are also worried. This is especially true of makers of local apps, niche apps, experimental apps, and apps from obscure studios and brands that are difficult to discover through the category lists or featured rankings. Even though only a fraction of users on older versions of iOS click on Release Date to browse these apps, iPhone ownership is so widespread that most newly released apps will experience a small rush of new users in the first day or two after launch. This opening bump was a good way to get some early user feedback, and in some cases, resulted in a cycle of early positive reviews and downloads that helped get apps into the top 100 of their respective categories. As noted by Chris Newman of the Lightwood Games blog:

For a small developer, this is terrible news. Although it’s only for a short period, the “new release” exposure is extremely valuable. It’s our opportunity to grab people’s attention, build the initial user base and gauge the public’s reaction without needing to spend a fortune on marketing.

Practically speaking, what does this mean for developers? Getting early users certainly becomes much more difficult, and leads to delays in building feedback loops and traction. Developers (or the owners of the app) are then forced to search for alternate means of getting the word out, generating feedback from mobile users, and getting reviews in iTunes. Neemware’s in-app messaging, feedback, and cross-promotion modules let developers make these connections with their users; to learn more visit the Neemware features page).

One interesting note: On the iPad, the situation is a lot different. Installing iOS 6 updates the App Store interface, but it’s not as restricted as the iOS 6 version of the App Store for the iPhone. It is also possible to sort by new releases within the categories. There is also a prominent “New and Notable” listing, but the list appears to be hand-picked and includes many apps that aren’t new at all.

What the iPhone 5′s big screen means for mobile advertising

Ian — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:03:08 +0000

Until last week, the iPhone has presented a frustrating opportunity for advertising. About one in five American adults uses an iPhone. There are more than 500,000 apps in the iTunes app store. People have collectively spent billions of hours using these devices. They are an indispensable tool to many. And yet advertisers have had a difficult time realizing the full potential of the iPhone.

It’s not for a lack of interest on the part of companies, agencies, or others in the marketing ecosystem, such as mobile ad networks. Marketers go where people go, and are always on the lookout for new opportunities to attract and engage. The platform owner — Apple — has invested heavily in its own advertising network (iAd), and optimizes its iOS mobile operating system to allow developers and marketers to be creative.

But it’s hard to be creative when the marketing canvas is too small. On the iPhone 4S and earlier models, a 640 x 960 pixel display (3.5 inches on the vertical axis) has been good enough for most apps, but when banner ads, promotions, and other messages are added to the mix, sacrifices have to be made. Check out some of the examples below, in which ads and app cross-promotions have been squeezed into the app canvas:

As you can see, the cramped space doesn’t leave much room for text, photos, links, or interactive elements. The narrow vertical dimensions cause banners to blend in with the navigation or other app elements, such as the in TV Guide and Wall Street Journal apps. In the case of the Jimmy Dean ad on the New York Times app, the product image has been shrunk to the point of being unreadable.

The bigger screen on the new iPhone 5 (and other features offered by the new iOS 6 operating system) changes the equation. The display of the new iPhone (as well as the new iPod touch) is 640 x 1136 pixels, which adds a half-inch to the vertical axis. Marketers and app developers haven’t had a chance to really experiment, but the extra real estate and new software capabilities in iOS 6 offers clear benefits:

“Rich media” opportunities
Larger/longer creative elements
More convincing 3D effects on logos, buttons, etc.
Larger fonts, more room for text
Better in-ad controls or navigation
The ability to better differentiate between creative and app navigation

At Neemware, we recognize big screen is a big opportunity to drive engagement and revenue. We’re already upgrading our in-app marketing SDK to take advantage of iOS 6. We’re also exploring how our customers can better leverage the bigger screens on the new iPhone and iPod touch for more effective surveys, cross-promotions, special offers, and other messages. In the meantime, for those customers who are still working on campaigns that use the smaller iPhone screen dimensions, note that Neemware modules leverage a much larger portion of screen real estate than the cramped banner ad, cross promotion, and reminder seen in the examples above. It really is an opportunity to take iPhone marketing to the next level.

Learn more about Neemware’s features and download the SDK.