Nottingham-based AppInstitute has delivered its first masterclass with Santander, as part of the bank’s Breakthrough support for ambitious businesses. The masterclass was designed to educate small and medium-sized organisations on how to leverage the power of mobile marketing and build their own mobile app regardless of their technical ability.
AppInstitute hosted 18 businesses from across the Midlands at their Nottingham HQ over the course of a day, with delegates learning the theory and value of mobile marketing before going on to develop their own app.
Attending businesses came from a wide variety of sectors and backgrounds, from BioTech and farming to retail, leisure and hospitality.
AppInstitute CEO and Founder, Ian Naylor, said:
“We had a fantastically productive day working with a very diverse range of businesses at different stages of growth and maturity. The aim of the day was to demonstrate the power of mobile marketing in today’s smartphone-centric society and how easily it can be harnessed by all.
“Consider for a moment the difference in message open rates when comparing push notifications via mobile apps with traditional email marketing - we’re talking 97% vs. 4% for email. Factor in that 90% of push messages are read within 3 minutes and you have a hugely powerful tool at your fingertips that enables small businesses to act swiftly and with accuracy.”
AppInstitute provides a simple way for small businesses to create, publish and manage their own iPhone and Android app using their DIY app builder platform, making entering the app market easy for even the least tech-savvy small business owner - that is the key issue, according to Ian:
“There are perceived barriers with regards this exciting opportunity but we are helping small businesses to clear them by removing both the technical and financial barriers to entry into the mobile app market.”
“This event was the first of its kind with Santander through their Breakthrough offering. Breakthrough is a unique suite of support helping ambitious businesses to grow and prosper and we’re very proud to be working in collaboration with them. We are working with Santander over the coming months to see how we can collaborate further to help bring our support to growing businesses who are looking to expand through digitisation.
As part of the masterclass, AppInstitute gave away 1 year’s free hosting for all attendees of the masterclass. Local firm said:
“I’ve been able to come away knowing how to produce and publish an app for our business. Not only that, it has given me new ideas about how to better engage with our customers and integrate the app into our wider digital strategy. It was a really useful and productive event” Alice Carr, Great Northern Inns.
“Digitisation can be a challenge to many businesses, so offering the opportunity for 18 organisations to come along to our masterclass with a fantastic local company such as AppInstitute has been really worthwhile. Seeing them leave with new ideas and their new apps, means we can really help them to prosper” Paul White, Regional Director - East Midlands, Santander.
About AppInstitute
Founded in 2011 AppInstitute is a 20 person, young, innovative, SaaS business based out of Nottingham’s Creative Quarter.
Currently boasting over 30,000 customers from all over the globe using their Business Apps CMS platform to create mobile apps. AppInstitute is at the forefront of the smartphone app platform industry with partners and customers including PayPal, John Lewis, Loreal and Nissan.
Dubbed the 'Wordpress for mobile apps', AppInstitute's cloud-based service aims to revolutionise the app market by providing a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that allows SMEs and individuals with little to no prior technical knowledge to create their own app with ease.