Misha Patel

My company isn’t that small – we have about 400 employees across the Mid-Atlantic region. However, since the pandemic began, we have rolled out a variety of mobile applications! Externally, we run a lot of our client’s compliance, reporting, and permitting applications. Internally, our training site and safety app have all gone mobile. It’s interesting how the pandemic pushed these efforts forward! I think the civil engineering industry was slow to adopt new mobile technologies all around and the changes in how we work brought on by covid restrictions forced everyone to react.

What other long-term changes have you noticed in your industry since the pandemic began?

My old company attempted to build a mobile app. It ultimately failed and was a waste of money. The biggest reason? Because it wasn’t designed to work for the people who used it. Instead they hired people from an overseas call center to build it. I’m not knocking their choice to save money, but I definitely feel it would have been used more if someone who actually used the app had been listened too. I feel like many small companies are having that issue, and they really need to think about if an app is necessary and if so, how do they make sure it works best.

I think its amazing to see very large company who do well (profit wise) and have no app, and much smaller businesses who do have apps. I do see a trend for small business to want to have apps, only because I think they think they should and not because it makes their business better for their target audience. I do agree with Amanda, small companies do need to think about having an app that is necessary for their consumers.

I work for a small company, 10-15 people. We are about to launch our first mobile application. 90% of our users are on mobile so it just made sense. This will open many doors for us. As I think because of the pandemic more small business would want to create an app, there’s a lot more that comes into play. Do they have the funds, the team, the resources to launch such an app, where are their users. does it make sense to have an app? Although those are simple questions, many small businesses can not create an app because of that. Each company needs to evaluate their target and internal resources to see if it’s smart and feasible to do so.

We have ~300 employees at my employer and have built and deployed over a 100 “apps” for internal use and for our clients. Keep in mind, we’re not a creative agency so we’re not in the business of building apps on behalf of our clients.

They’re not what you’re all thinking of (available in the app store), but they are very much self-contained experiences built to facilitate a specific function or access curated information.

Is it still an app if it’s not downloaded through the app store? In our case, the experience is further complicated by the fact you access these solutions through a dedicated domain we manage.

The individual experiences are very much in the spirit of the native apps we discussed in class. Usage varies as does their longevity. It’s not unusual for two apps to be merged into a singular experience, but it would be for us to “add functionality” to an existing app.

The key to our success has been to keep the use case simple and to minimize the steps to access them (our portal).

I don’t work for a small business nor do we have an app, but I do shop from multiple small boutiques that have launched apps over the last two years. It seems that the e-commerce shopping experience is booming through live sales through apps – and the checkout experience is easier than ever with Apple pay and other quick transaction options. Personally, I think this is a great opportunity for small businesses and e-commerce. I think launching an app for a small business will be successful if it’s where their audience is and they have the right type of content. It’s all about the right content at the right time on the right channel. So it may make sense for a small boutique but not a small bakery? (just an example)

I almost want to insert an unpopular opinion here just because it seems like a lot of people are for apps for small business. In general, I’m against creating an app for any business without a clear reason AND utilization. If you are creating an app that has functions you are bringing in from several other features from programs across the company, I’ve frequently seen apps fail because the end user does not want to adopt. Sometimes it goes beyond just being lazy– a lot of people fail to realize that an app developed in house may end up having bugs without solutions, or there’s not enough support for the app. If you are gong to create something, you have to make sure that everyone is invested in its success, not the developers. Teams at my old work location is a great example– what will Teams bring to the table if only one or two of the leadership team actively uses it and the rest have gone back to Outlook? Apps are great and really useful, but only when teams can use them properly.

I do work for a large company (~7,000 employees globally) but we only have a few apps (well, in the US at least). These apps are mostly for the patient audience to either gain awareness about Sleep Apnea or to get daily updates on how they are tracking on their therapy devices. Recently I was approached to think about creating an app for our sales team that makes access to our product catalog much easier to access compared to a massive-sized pdf or printed booklet. My only reservation about creating an app for this use case is the number of updates that it will receive on a monthly basis and then making sure the updates get pushed to the sales team’s phones correctly. So I am proposing a web-based app so it operates like a website and is not dependant on the user’s platform. And the sales team can always create a home screen shortcut to the web app. We’ll see how this goes.

So what do you think is the strengths and weaknesses of SEMRush compared to Hootsuite? is there a reason that you think it isn’t as popular as Hootsuite?

Thanks, Misha! This post was awesome. Especially for someone that doesn’t have a lot of marketing experience. I have tried to use SEMRush to understand the platform and audit potentially companies I am interviewing at, but your post was extremely insightful.

Interesting post! I was completely unfamiliar with SEMrush until Greg had mentioned Similarweb in some feedback on an assignment….looking into Similarweb caused me to find SEMrush, and now I am seeing ads for it ALL THE TIME 🙂

What is very curious to me is how many competitors are out there. When I google “SEMrush alternatives” I can find a number of lists that don’t even mention Hootsuite; yet there are others that do. So, so many options to choose from. I’m trying to find out what gets used in my company. While I’m not in a position where I’d make use of these, you never know where life will lead you, so I’m glad to know about them. And I’m glad to hear that the certification was really helpful for you in your job, Misha! That’s a bonus!

When it comes to content marketing, there are many variables to assess when looking at Hootsuite vs. SEMRush. Hootsuite enables customers to realize savings in time and money as it streamlines everyday business operations. SEMRush tracks organic data in Google and Bing SERPs, allowing users to see where competitors are ranking in the top 20 Google and Bing results for top organic keywords.
Deployments:
Hootsuite
– Cloud, SaaS, Web-based, Mobile – Android, Mobile – iPhone, Mobile – iPad
SEMRush
– Cloud, SaaS, Web-based
Support and Training:
Hootsuite
– Email/Help desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge base, Phone support, 24/7 (Live rep), Chat
SEMRush
– Email/Help desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge base, Phone support, Chat

Thank you for sharing Misha! I was first introduced to SEM Rush during a SEO internship I did with a marketing agency. Although I never got formal training in it, the tools I used really helped me create solid work for my clients. This being my first agency experience I did not realize the struggle it would be to research basic knowledge about all the different industries my clients represented. From pet insurance, to cruises to toothpaste. SEM Rush and its tools made it easy for me to not only find highly ranked keywords but also fine tune my ad copy to include competitive information.

Hey Misha! Thanks for sharing. I’ve been intrigued about SEO since starting this program because my interests in digital started to gravitate from social media to paid search. I really think the research integration in this program is immensely useful because it’s all done in-house. Like you said, this is the perfect tool that encompasses an entire marketing plan versus several softwares that make up 1/3 of a marketing plan.
Do you feel this software is friendly to new users who may be completely unfamiliar with some of the service aspects?

Interesting, I have used Semrush for so many years and didn’t realize it allowed you to publish your social posts from its platform. I guess I have always focused on just the keyword search results, content competition reports, traffic, etc. I would say from a content posting standpoint I think Hootsuite is more advanced and I would definitely use it for that purpose over Semrush. Semrush does SEO best and I think they should stick to what they know. Instead of trying to compete with Hootsuite, they should focus on the competition with ScreamingFrog. ScreamingFrog allows for more in-depth website audits where Semrush falls short. This is just one example.