Promote Like a Pro: Tips from our Team Today’s Installment: See and Be Seen One of the questions we get pretty frequently at AppStack HQ is, “Why don’t I see my ad?” Today, I want to provide a few reasons why it can be perfectly normal not to see your Promote ad when you search Google, as well as some tips to check up on your ad. Part 1 - Where’s my ad? With Promote, we run ads for your business on Google with one goal: getting you customers. This means that some optimization tactics will result in your ad not being shown 100% of the time you look for it. Several factors affect when your ad shows, including your budget and your campaign settings: Scheduling: Our AdWords-certified Account Managers will work with you to ensure your campaign is active only during the times you are regularly open to do business. For example, if you only serve clients between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm, we can work to ensure your ads do not run at 3am when you are closed. Budget: If your budget is set to accommodate, say, 10 inquiries to your business (that is, paid clicks on your phone number, clicks to your landing page, etc.) and hundreds of thousands of people are searching for a business like yours in your area, Google AdWords may not show your ad for every search. This is to ensure that your advertising budget is spent evenly throughout the day. If you would like to show your ad more times per day, you may work with an Account Manager to process an appropriate budget increase. Device: We optimize your ads to show to potential customers searching on their mobile phones. If you are searching on your laptop, it is unlikely you’ll see your Google AdWords mobile Ad powered by Promote. Because each advertiser structures their campaign different, Google may rotate ads in their search results. As a result, sometimes you will be seen and sometimes other advertisements will be seen. But did you know that Google customizes the search results for each individual? That’s why searching for your own ad might result in you seeing it less often than others. When you click on your ad, you wind up taking from your ad budget. That’s why it’s a good idea not to click on your ad. However, when you search for your ad and you do not click on it multiple times, Google’s system begins to infer that you are not interested in the results you are seeing and begins showing you different ads. This can result in you not seeing your own ad even though other people are seeing it. So what can you do? Part 2 - Oh, there’s my ad! The good news is that you can use Google’s Ad Preview Tool to see your ad like other people are seeing it: https://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview You can use the Ad Preview Tool to simulate searches from different cities, on different devices and even in different languages! When you use the Ad Preview Tool, you don’t alter your Google AdWords statistics in any way, either. This means that you don’t have to worry about skewing how often your ad shows or where in the search results it shows on Google. If you still have concerns about whether or not your ad is showing after trying the Ad Preview Tool, be sure to give us a holler at support@appstack.com. We’re here for you! posted by Mychal Stone, AppStack Account ManagerMychal recently used his mobile phone to network with beer enthusiasts using the Untappd app
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Promote Like a Pro: Tips from our Team

Today’s Installment: See and Be Seen

One of the questions we get pretty frequently at AppStack HQ is, “Why don’t I see my ad?”

Today, I want to provide a few reasons why it can be perfectly normal not to see your Promote ad when you search Google, as well as some tips to check up on your ad.

Part 1 - Where’s my ad?

With Promote, we run ads for your business on Google with one goal: getting you customers. This means that some optimization tactics will result in your ad not being shown 100% of the time you look for it. Several factors affect when your ad shows, including your budget and your campaign settings:

  • Scheduling: Our AdWords-certified Account Managers will work with you to ensure your campaign is active only during the times you are regularly open to do business. For example, if you only serve clients between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm, we can work to ensure your ads do not run at 3am when you are closed.
  • Budget: If your budget is set to accommodate, say, 10 inquiries to your business (that is, paid clicks on your phone number, clicks to your landing page, etc.) and hundreds of thousands of people are searching for a business like yours in your area, Google AdWords may not show your ad for every search. This is to ensure that your advertising budget is spent evenly throughout the day. If you would like to show your ad more times per day, you may work with an Account Manager to process an appropriate budget increase.
  • Device: We optimize your ads to show to potential customers searching on their mobile phones. If you are searching on your laptop, it is unlikely you’ll see your Google AdWords mobile Ad powered by Promote.

Because each advertiser structures their campaign different, Google may rotate ads in their search results. As a result, sometimes you will be seen and sometimes other advertisements will be seen.

But did you know that Google customizes the search results for each individual? That’s why searching for your own ad might result in you seeing it less often than others.

When you click on your ad, you wind up taking from your ad budget. That’s why it’s a good idea not to click on your ad. However, when you search for your ad and you do not click on it multiple times, Google’s system begins to infer that you are not interested in the results you are seeing and begins showing you different ads. This can result in you not seeing your own ad even though other people are seeing it. So what can you do?


Part 2 - Oh, there’s my ad!

The good news is that you can use Google’s Ad Preview Tool to see your ad like other people are seeing it: https://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview

You can use the Ad Preview Tool to simulate searches from different cities, on different devices and even in different languages!

When you use the Ad Preview Tool, you don’t alter your Google AdWords statistics in any way, either. This means that you don’t have to worry about skewing how often your ad shows or where in the search results it shows on Google.

If you still have concerns about whether or not your ad is showing after trying the Ad Preview Tool, be sure to give us a holler at support@appstack.com. We’re here for you!


posted by Mychal Stone, AppStack Account Manager
Mychal recently used his mobile phone to network with beer enthusiasts using the Untappd app





Designing for the Mobile-Only User Taking a look through the interwebs last week, I came across this incredible article on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/05/the_rise_of_the_mobile-only_us.html <digression> But … but you’re a designer! Why are you reading HBR? Shouldn’t you be spending your time browsing Dribbble and TypeEverything? Don’t worry, I think those are important, too, but HBR is actually pretty cool! </digression> Anyway, if you’ve been designing professionally for a bit, you’ve probably heard someone in your company say, “We have to take a mobile first approach!” This article verifies that assertion—we really can’t get by with offering a watered-down version of what we’ve designed for desktop anymore. We have to consider that there is an audience that doesn’t even have access to a desktop computer, as well as growing audiences that prefer mobile internet even if they have desktop internet access. The article does a good job of outlining some of the reasons why these audiences exist. If you’re interested in learning about the demographic or economic indicators driving the “Mobile Only” user base, click on the link above. Or, ask someone on the marketing team at your company. My pal Andrew from the marketing department at AppStack has been going ham about this stuff for days. Instead of recapping what the article says, I’d like to share a few thought starters for my colleagues in the design community (sorry, Andrew) when it comes to designing for the “Mobile Only” audience. 1. Don’t just make it look good. Your mobile design should FEEL good and WORK exceptionally well. A lot of folks think they can cut corners just by chunking up their site content a little differently and making navigation buttons more thumb-sized and touch screen friendly. That’s a good start, but it’s often not enough. We’re crazy about user testing at AppStack. When designing the landing pages for the users of Promote, we conducted hundreds of hours of user testing. Why? Successful design takes a user-centric approach. You can learn more about this concept in the Virtual Crash Course on Design offered by the Stanford d:school. When designing for a mobile-only audience, be sure to have a few options for users to try. Should your navigation always be present on the bottom of the screen for users? Should it be collapsed behind an expandable menu? I can’t give you an authoritative answer, but your users will let you know if they prefer one or the other for your particular use case. 2. It’s not just about resizing. I won’t name names, but I’m sure we’ve all visited mobile websites or mobile apps that try to replicate the entire desktop experience, and simply just scale everything down in size. Maybe they reposition a few things. What that fails to consider is that the way someone looks at a really big desktop monitor is going to be different than how they review a mobile phone screen that takes a smaller portion of their field of vision. For example, when we updated our website at startpromote.com and made its mobile counterpart, we ditched a lot of the images. After all, if someone is viewing our site on their mobile phone, wouldn’t an illustration of a hand holding a mobile phone look, well, a bit redundant? We decided not to induce Inception (“It’s a phone! Inside a phone! We have to go deeper!”) on our mobile users and cut the graphics entirely. Looking for inspiration that isn’t from a project I’ve worked on? Check out the mobile sites for Wikipedia or Warby Parker. Both do a great job of paring down the content of their desktop sites for mobile, while offering the option to switch to the full content experience. 3. DO something. And DO it awesomely. Most people have smartphones stocked with Apps. As in Applications. As in software that makes a computer DO something. People using their phones expect their phones to be a part of their active lives. Don’t just show a pretty picture or tell a nice story—help mobile users accomplish something! Even better, accomplish it in a way that hasn’t been done before. A nifty example of this is Tall Chess. There are plenty of ways to play chess on your phone, but what I love about Tall Chess is that it lets you play chess in a stunning-in-its-simplicity environment, and adds value like being able to export the moves of your game! Do you have to be a bit of a chess geek to appreciate that? Absolutely. But if you’re a chess geek would you love that feature? Hands down. 4. Something else Honestly, I just saw that people on our blog tend to post their content in threes and I felt a need to switch it up. Keep designing awesome things, my friends—and be sure to think of those people who will see your work solely on their mobile device! Posted by Jed Bridges, Director of DesignJed recently used his mobile phone to play chess; he mentions this above  
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Designing for the Mobile-Only User

Taking a look through the interwebs last week, I came across this incredible article on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/05/the_rise_of_the_mobile-only_us.html

<digression> But … but you’re a designer! Why are you reading HBR? Shouldn’t you be spending your time browsing Dribbble and TypeEverything? Don’t worry, I think those are important, too, but HBR is actually pretty cool! </digression>

Anyway, if you’ve been designing professionally for a bit, you’ve probably heard someone in your company say, “We have to take a mobile first approach!” This article verifies that assertion—we really can’t get by with offering a watered-down version of what we’ve designed for desktop anymore. We have to consider that there is an audience that doesn’t even have access to a desktop computer, as well as growing audiences that prefer mobile internet even if they have desktop internet access.

The article does a good job of outlining some of the reasons why these audiences exist. If you’re interested in learning about the demographic or economic indicators driving the “Mobile Only” user base, click on the link above. Or, ask someone on the marketing team at your company. My pal Andrew from the marketing department at AppStack has been going ham about this stuff for days.

Instead of recapping what the article says, I’d like to share a few thought starters for my colleagues in the design community (sorry, Andrew) when it comes to designing for the “Mobile Only” audience.

1. Don’t just make it look good.

Your mobile design should FEEL good and WORK exceptionally well. A lot of folks think they can cut corners just by chunking up their site content a little differently and making navigation buttons more thumb-sized and touch screen friendly. That’s a good start, but it’s often not enough.

We’re crazy about user testing at AppStack. When designing the landing pages for the users of Promote, we conducted hundreds of hours of user testing. Why? Successful design takes a user-centric approach. You can learn more about this concept in the Virtual Crash Course on Design offered by the Stanford d:school.

When designing for a mobile-only audience, be sure to have a few options for users to try. Should your navigation always be present on the bottom of the screen for users? Should it be collapsed behind an expandable menu? I can’t give you an authoritative answer, but your users will let you know if they prefer one or the other for your particular use case.

2. It’s not just about resizing.

I won’t name names, but I’m sure we’ve all visited mobile websites or mobile apps that try to replicate the entire desktop experience, and simply just scale everything down in size. Maybe they reposition a few things. What that fails to consider is that the way someone looks at a really big desktop monitor is going to be different than how they review a mobile phone screen that takes a smaller portion of their field of vision.

For example, when we updated our website at startpromote.com and made its mobile counterpart, we ditched a lot of the images. After all, if someone is viewing our site on their mobile phone, wouldn’t an illustration of a hand holding a mobile phone look, well, a bit redundant? We decided not to induce Inception (“It’s a phone! Inside a phone! We have to go deeper!”) on our mobile users and cut the graphics entirely.

Looking for inspiration that isn’t from a project I’ve worked on? Check out the mobile sites for Wikipedia or Warby Parker. Both do a great job of paring down the content of their desktop sites for mobile, while offering the option to switch to the full content experience.

3. DO something. And DO it awesomely.

Most people have smartphones stocked with Apps. As in Applications. As in software that makes a computer DO something.

People using their phones expect their phones to be a part of their active lives. Don’t just show a pretty picture or tell a nice story—help mobile users accomplish something! Even better, accomplish it in a way that hasn’t been done before.

A nifty example of this is Tall Chess. There are plenty of ways to play chess on your phone, but what I love about Tall Chess is that it lets you play chess in a stunning-in-its-simplicity environment, and adds value like being able to export the moves of your game! Do you have to be a bit of a chess geek to appreciate that? Absolutely. But if you’re a chess geek would you love that feature? Hands down.

4. Something else

Honestly, I just saw that people on our blog tend to post their content in threes and I felt a need to switch it up.

Keep designing awesome things, my friends—and be sure to think of those people who will see your work solely on their mobile device!


Posted by Jed Bridges, Director of Design
Jed recently used his mobile phone to play chess; he mentions this above

 

Promote Like a Pro: Tips from our Team Hi there! This is the first in a series of posts from our team to help users take full advantage of our product, Promote. Not a Promote user yet? Join the growing community of Promote Pros by signing up at startpromote.com! Today’s installment: Call Me Definitely One of my favorite features of Promote is our Call Dashboard. Today, I want to share some tips about how to make Promote get you more customers, more efficiently by using the Call Dashboard. If you are logging in on the web at startpromote.com, you can access your dashboard by following these steps: Click the ‘Sign In’ Link Enter your login email address and password and login You should see your calls in the center of your ‘Overview’ screen If you are logging in via the Promote App* on your tablet or smartphone, follow these steps: Open the Promote App on your tablet or smartphone If you don’t automatically see the ‘All Calls’ screen, click the menu icon in the top left (it looks like a few horizontal lines stacked on top of each other) Select ‘Everything’ Once you’ve located your calls, you can take a few actions, like “starring” your important calls for action later. Today, though, we’re going to focus on listening to your calls to get insights that help you get customers. First things first. You know your business the best! You’ll know what makes a good call versus a bad call to your business. Take note of your good and bad calls and think of any trends. Here are some things to look for: Are people asking very basic questions about your business? Consider updating the ‘Services’ and ‘Portfolio’ sections of your landing page. You can make these updates in your online dashboard. In the Services section, you can add details about what services you offer and their price; this can help make sure customers call you ready to do business instead of inquiring about pricing. The Portfolio section is where you can “Show” instead of “Tell.” Sometimes a customer needs to see what you do to believe it! Are people confused about how to find you? Make sure you’ve updated your ‘Contact’ information to accurately reflect your business address. This way, users can look up directions quickly and directly from your landing page without taking up your time over the phone. You might also consider adding a photo of your physical storefront to your ‘Portfolio’ to make sure people know what your business looks like from the street. Put us to work for you! There are a few additional things you can look out for in your Call Dashboard to help you maximize the return on your investment with Promote: Are you getting calls outside of your service area? Are you getting calls requesting services you don’t offer? Are you getting calls outside of your business hours? If any of this is happening, please let us know! You can contact our team of account managers at support@appstack.com. Please include a summary of what is happening, and what you would prefer happens. For example, if you are there are calls in your Dashboard that were received outside of your business hours, please include that in your email to us, as well as your business hours. We can use that information to adjust the settings on your Promote Package to do our very best to make sure you get more and more of the calls that matter most to your business. We look forward to continuing to help our customers get customers. posted by Taylor Rose, Customer Care ManagerTaylor recently used his mobile phone to confirm the hours of his local driving range *You can download the Promote App in the iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store
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Promote Like a Pro: Tips from our Team

Hi there! This is the first in a series of posts from our team to help users take full advantage of our product, Promote. Not a Promote user yet? Join the growing community of Promote Pros by signing up at startpromote.com!

Today’s installment: Call Me Definitely

One of my favorite features of Promote is our Call Dashboard. Today, I want to share some tips about how to make Promote get you more customers, more efficiently by using the Call Dashboard.

If you are logging in on the web at startpromote.com, you can access your dashboard by following these steps:

  1. Click the ‘Sign In’ Link
  2. Enter your login email address and password and login
  3. You should see your calls in the center of your ‘Overview’ screen

If you are logging in via the Promote App* on your tablet or smartphone, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Promote App on your tablet or smartphone
  2. If you don’t automatically see the ‘All Calls’ screen, click the menu icon in the top left (it looks like a few horizontal lines stacked on top of each other)
  3. Select ‘Everything’

Once you’ve located your calls, you can take a few actions, like “starring” your important calls for action later. Today, though, we’re going to focus on listening to your calls to get insights that help you get customers.

First things first. You know your business the best! You’ll know what makes a good call versus a bad call to your business. Take note of your good and bad calls and think of any trends. Here are some things to look for:

Are people asking very basic questions about your business?

Consider updating the ‘Services’ and ‘Portfolio’ sections of your landing page. You can make these updates in your online dashboard.

In the Services section, you can add details about what services you offer and their price; this can help make sure customers call you ready to do business instead of inquiring about pricing. The Portfolio section is where you can “Show” instead of “Tell.” Sometimes a customer needs to see what you do to believe it!

Are people confused about how to find you?

Make sure you’ve updated your ‘Contact’ information to accurately reflect your business address. This way, users can look up directions quickly and directly from your landing page without taking up your time over the phone.

You might also consider adding a photo of your physical storefront to your ‘Portfolio’ to make sure people know what your business looks like from the street.

Put us to work for you! There are a few additional things you can look out for in your Call Dashboard to help you maximize the return on your investment with Promote:

  • Are you getting calls outside of your service area?
  • Are you getting calls requesting services you don’t offer?
  • Are you getting calls outside of your business hours?

If any of this is happening, please let us know! You can contact our team of account managers at support@appstack.com. Please include a summary of what is happening, and what you would prefer happens. For example, if you are there are calls in your Dashboard that were received outside of your business hours, please include that in your email to us, as well as your business hours. We can use that information to adjust the settings on your Promote Package to do our very best to make sure you get more and more of the calls that matter most to your business.

We look forward to continuing to help our customers get customers.

posted by Taylor Rose, Customer Care Manager
Taylor recently used his mobile phone to confirm the hours of his local driving range

*You can download the Promote App in the iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store

#SFSW13: What We Learned Street Fight Summit West [Pictured: AppStack CEO Stephen Espinosa presents at SFSW13; photo credit Andrew Shotland, @localseoguide] Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending Street Fight Magazine’s Street Fight Summit West in the city I call home, San Francisco. It was a great day to reaffirm some of the guiding principles and truths that drive our business at AppStack, as well as a chance to hear new insights into how local businesses are making the most of their digital opportunities. For those who weren’t able to attend or who are still digesting their notes from a great day, here are three main take-aways that really struck a chord with me: #1 - The Future is already here! Square’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Chuck Kimble remarked, “The devices SMBs already have work to run their business. They need the right software to make it happen.” In other words, the hardware technology we have today&#8212;tablets, smartphones, laptops&#8212;is what business can and will be using to power their growth in the digital age. There’s no need to worry about learning a brand new device if you’ve already mastered your smartphone. Now it’s up to companies like Square and AppStack to build the solutions that work with the hardware you already know and love. Be on the lookout this summer for updates to our Promote product that will help you do even more of your business in the palm of your hand! #2 - Local Businesses can do business better when given access to the right data Many of the speakers shared interesting data points on the local, search, mobile and related industries. During a panel on scheduling services for local businesses with Josh McCarter (CEO of Booker) and Ethan Anderson (CEO of MyTime), both executives remarked that service providers need to understand the data users look to in order to make decisions. For example, even though a Dentist Office and a Salon both keep schedules of their customers’ appointments, a successful day of bookings for a Dentist office looks much different than for a Salon. I enjoyed this insight because, in the middle of a day that spent a lot of time getting excited about big data, it affirmed the need to easily synthesize relevant data. That’s why, with Promote, we distill key data points into reporting that reflects how many phone calls and true leads our customers actually get with our product, while retaining the ability to provide more discrete data about clicks, clickthrough rates, impresiosn share, etc., if requested by our customers. #3 - Mobile users take action As conference attendee Brian Smith captured for us in his Twitter feed: “60% of consumers that look at restaurant menus online via mobile device convert within one hour.” I think that’s astonishing! Expect to see local businesses using mobile tactics to get customers because mobile continues to prove that it connects businesses to customers during their moments of highest intention to act. Were you at Street Fight Summit West? What did you think? Let us know on Twitter @appstack Posted by Rajan Prajapat, Director of Business DevelopmentRajan recently used his mobile phone to find a restaurant near the CalTrain Station
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#SFSW13: What We Learned Street Fight Summit West

[Pictured: AppStack CEO Stephen Espinosa presents at SFSW13; photo credit Andrew Shotland, @localseoguide]

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending Street Fight Magazine’s Street Fight Summit West in the city I call home, San Francisco. It was a great day to reaffirm some of the guiding principles and truths that drive our business at AppStack, as well as a chance to hear new insights into how local businesses are making the most of their digital opportunities.

For those who weren’t able to attend or who are still digesting their notes from a great day, here are three main take-aways that really struck a chord with me:

#1 - The Future is already here!

Square’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Chuck Kimble remarked, “The devices SMBs already have work to run their business. They need the right software to make it happen.”

In other words, the hardware technology we have today—tablets, smartphones, laptops—is what business can and will be using to power their growth in the digital age. There’s no need to worry about learning a brand new device if you’ve already mastered your smartphone.

Now it’s up to companies like Square and AppStack to build the solutions that work with the hardware you already know and love. Be on the lookout this summer for updates to our Promote product that will help you do even more of your business in the palm of your hand!

#2 - Local Businesses can do business better when given access to the right data

Many of the speakers shared interesting data points on the local, search, mobile and related industries. During a panel on scheduling services for local businesses with Josh McCarter (CEO of Booker) and Ethan Anderson (CEO of MyTime), both executives remarked that service providers need to understand the data users look to in order to make decisions. For example, even though a Dentist Office and a Salon both keep schedules of their customers’ appointments, a successful day of bookings for a Dentist office looks much different than for a Salon.

I enjoyed this insight because, in the middle of a day that spent a lot of time getting excited about big data, it affirmed the need to easily synthesize relevant data. That’s why, with Promote, we distill key data points into reporting that reflects how many phone calls and true leads our customers actually get with our product, while retaining the ability to provide more discrete data about clicks, clickthrough rates, impresiosn share, etc., if requested by our customers.

#3 - Mobile users take action

As conference attendee Brian Smith captured for us in his Twitter feed: “60% of consumers that look at restaurant menus online via mobile device convert within one hour.”

I think that’s astonishing! Expect to see local businesses using mobile tactics to get customers because mobile continues to prove that it connects businesses to customers during their moments of highest intention to act.

Were you at Street Fight Summit West? What did you think? Let us know on Twitter @appstack

Posted by Rajan Prajapat, Director of Business Development
Rajan recently used his mobile phone to find a restaurant near the CalTrain Station


Meet the Team: Andrew Stinger, VP Marketing AppStack is proud to welcome Andrew Stinger to our team! Andrew joins us from Google, where he spent several years in sales, SMB customer service management, product development and go-to-market strategy. In addition to helping top clients and basic users alike understand how to make the most of changes to YouTube, Andrew resolved hundreds of SMB customer issues, ran trainings in a dozen different Google offices and developed integrated communications plans for new Google products and features. A skier, snowboarder and marathon runner, Andrew is stoked to take the exciting and easy-to-use new features for AppStack’s Promote product to market and to continue to share AppStack’s business expertise with business owners around the world!   You can see just how stoked he is in his first blog post for AppStack!
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Meet the Team: Andrew Stinger, VP Marketing

AppStack is proud to welcome Andrew Stinger to our team!

Andrew joins us from Google, where he spent several years in sales, SMB customer service management, product development and go-to-market strategy. In addition to helping top clients and basic users alike understand how to make the most of changes to YouTube, Andrew resolved hundreds of SMB customer issues, ran trainings in a dozen different Google offices and developed integrated communications plans for new Google products and features.

A skier, snowboarder and marathon runner, Andrew is stoked to take the exciting and easy-to-use new features for AppStack’s Promote product to market and to continue to share AppStack’s business expertise with business owners around the world!

 

You can see just how stoked he is in his first blog post for AppStack!

Why an Industry Increase in Mobile Investment Matters

On the heels of Mary Meeker’s exciting 2013 Internet Trends report, eMarketer reported today that 65% of top marketing executives plan to increase their investment in mobile. This makes mobile the top marketing channel for which executives plan to increase investment above social, video and even television. The full article is available on eMarketer.

At AppStack, we’ve believed from day one in the power of mobile advertising to grow local businesses of all sizes, and want to help anyone planning to invest in mobile do so intelligently.

As I reflect on eMarketer’s article from AppStack’s headquarters in Temecula, California, I look out across our office and see account managers, designers, developers, sales people and our executives lean in further to invest in our flagship product, Promote, and I couldn’t be more excited! After all, it’s one thing to invest in mobile advertising, but it’s another, more impressive thing to do so in an integrated manner that ensures mobile ad investment actually drives customer action.

When I made the decision to join AppStack, I did so because I truly believe AppStack’s Promote product will be the product that empowers business owners to thrive via solutions that fit in the palms of their hands. AppStack’s comprehensive approach to mobile goes beyond the standard campaign management of other firms. With Promote, our customers are building beautiful custom landing pages, launching and optimizing mobile advertising campaigns with support from our account managers, recording and reviewing calls to their businesses and reporting on other valuable customer actions like getting directions to their businesses—and they’re doing it in mere minutes.

We understand that an independent business owner has plenty to manage as it is. There are leases to pay, tax laws to understand, employees to manage and so much more that take up their valuable time. As more customers use their mobile phones and as more marketers unlock the value of mobile advertising, we strive to help our users get customers for their businesses with solutions that are simple, quick and accountable.

We also strive to do much, much more than get customers for our users. Stay tuned to our blog, follow us on Twitter, add us to your circles on Google+ or like us on Facebook for the latest updates on how Promote is helping businesses succeed in the mobile era. You can also see the latest and greatest on our website for Promote: startpromote.com

Exciting things are coming from the team at AppStack working on Promote. We hope you’ll join us on our journey into the future of mobile solutions for local businesses.


posted by Andrew Stinger, VP Marketing
Andrew recently used his mobile phone to pay for his dirty chai latte at a major coffee chain

Business Champions Worth Following

Last week, Melinda Emerson shared a list of the Top 30 Small Business Champions Worth Following on the Huffington Post. I’ve encouraged my entire team to follow each of these champions on Twitter as we work on continually being better partners to the local businesses with whom we partner.

Social media is a great tool for promoting your business, but it’s also a great resource for learning how to do business better. Already, members of my staff have found exciting insights courtesy of the expert curation of Amanda Littlejohn, time management advice from Ramon Ray, and tips on getting known in in your community courtesy of Stephanie Chandler.

Our goal at AppStack is to build the best solutions for small business owners in the mobile era of doing business. With Promote, we seek to get customers for our clients simply and accountably. We’re working on bringing additional technologies into one simple business management mobile app, but we’ll probably never be the foremost tax experts for Small Businesses. For that, we recommend following experts like Barbara Weltman.


posted by Steve Espinosa, AppStack Founder & CEO
Steve recently followed Goldman Sachs Elevator (for fun) on Twitter 

Meet the Team: Scott Kirkpatrick, Director of Sales AppStack is pumped to welcome Scott Kirkpatrick to our team! Scott brings an impeccable track record of global sales and consulting success to AppStack. Scott’s past endeavors as Co-Founder and CEO at Superior Internet Solutions have been highlighted by the Wall Street Journal and Inc., and he has also received recognition for running one of the fastest growing businesses in his hometown of San Diego. Scott is passionate about building and mentoring effective teams, delivering world class customer service and the ruthless pursuit of efficiency. When Scott is not spending time with his two amazing children, Scott is a one man Van Halen, playing guitar, bass and piano.
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Meet the Team: Scott Kirkpatrick, Director of Sales

AppStack is pumped to welcome Scott Kirkpatrick to our team!

Scott brings an impeccable track record of global sales and consulting success to AppStack. Scott’s past endeavors as Co-Founder and CEO at Superior Internet Solutions have been highlighted by the Wall Street Journal and Inc., and he has also received recognition for running one of the fastest growing businesses in his hometown of San Diego.

Scott is passionate about building and mentoring effective teams, delivering world class customer service and the ruthless pursuit of efficiency. When Scott is not spending time with his two amazing children, Scott is a one man Van Halen, playing guitar, bass and piano.

Meet the Team: Rajan Prajapat, Director of Business Development AppStack is proud to welcome Rajan Prajapat to our team! Rajan joins us from Google, where he grew business for Google across Traditional Media, Display and Mobile partnerships. Originally from the UK (where his love of “football” means something entirely different), Raj can currently be found enjoying the food and wine scene of San Francisco with his loving wife. Rajan will be adding an MBA to his Law Degree in June, and is excited to build the future of mobile marketing and customer acquisition with the AppStack team!
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Meet the Team: Rajan Prajapat, Director of Business Development

AppStack is proud to welcome Rajan Prajapat to our team!

Rajan joins us from Google, where he grew business for Google across Traditional Media, Display and Mobile partnerships. Originally from the UK (where his love of “football” means something entirely different), Raj can currently be found enjoying the food and wine scene of San Francisco with his loving wife.

Rajan will be adding an MBA to his Law Degree in June, and is excited to build the future of mobile marketing and customer acquisition with the AppStack team!