We’ve all read those articles about how mobile marketing and having a mobile presence is now indispensable. Lucky for you, we’ve got options on how you can get one. We’ve already shown you how you can create a quick and easy mobile-optimized website with Songpier. With one of our latest partners, ShoutEm, you now have a way to create a full-on mobile app from scratch, available in the Apple and Android App Stores.
To install the app, head over to The Orchard Marketplace and click on the Install App button. Once you’ve accepted the Developer Permissions, you’ll arrive at the mobile app builder. To access the information pulled from your Artist and Release Builder profiles, click on the Integrations tab. Here, you can select which Audio, Videos and Photos you’d like to include, and you can add News and Events feeds that update automatically within your app so you don’t have to worry about manual upkeep.
To customize the different features and functions of your app, head over to the Content tab. Here you can choose to include a whole selection of modules such as News, Events, Photos, About, Videos, and more. Some neat ones include Audio podcasts and Radio streaming, and the Social network module allows you to create an interactive spot within the app for your fans to communicate. Last but not least, the app allows you to send Push notifications to users who have installed the app, instantly letting them know of special offers, impromptu events, or whatever awesome things you wish to share with them.
The Design tab gives you full control of your app’s appearance, from artwork to layout, and the Publish Info tab includes the information that will appear in app stores, such as name, description and price – though we recommend making it free to increase usage (who doesn’t like a free app?). ShoutEm also offers some sweet Goodies to encourage app downloads, like a promo widget to embed on your site and a popup script to raise awareness.
When you’ve finished tweaking your app, you can preview it on your iPhone by downloading ShoutEm’s Mobilizer app in the iTunes store. Unfortunately, we have here a case of temporary Android discrimination, but the ShoutEm folks promise to get on that soon. When you’re satisfied, you can choose to push the app in the stores through your own developer account, or via ShoutEm directly.
Get a visual feel for the app with ShoutEm’s demo below:
ShoutEm is available via The Marketplace. Find out more about them on their One-Sheet.
