With everyone doing literally everything from their phone – you may well be reading this from yours! – it stands to reason that everyone who has any kind of business, small or large, should have their own mobile app. But the cost and technology involved can be intimidating and keep the average person from even entertaining the idea. That’s where enCappture comes in.
Founded by Denise DiSano, a leading technology entrepreneur with a deep understanding of technology and product development and a passion for making technology accessible to all, enCappture is helping to “democratize mobile apps” so that anyone – even independent musicians with limited budgets – can afford to have an app; widely considered a necessary tool in today’s internet and technology driven world.
DiSano’s track record of creating platforms to help any and everyone move forward in any and all aspects of their lives and careers is impressive; she co-founded Marked Private in 2012 and conceived their first engagement platform product, Invite Bandz, connecting physical wristbands to a party host’s online personal portal, which is now available at over 500 retailers, including Amazon and Party City. PopWrapped sat down with Denise DiSano to find out more about enCappture, to discover why having an app is important for businesses and to learn how her company is making having an app a snap!
Tell us how you started enCappture and how it bridged over to the music industry.
Funny story! enCappture was actually born from a totally different business I conceived called “Marked Private.” Marked Private was the first online engagement platform of its kind that connected the digital to the physical using a product we called “Invite Bandz.” It was a really cool concept where instead of a paper invitation you got a cool wristband that gave you a code to have “access” to the party, and all the info about the party via an online portal. The host had the ability to put all the party info on their own personal online party portal and create a “virtual community” around the event… I think this was even before Facebook Groups became big! We sold Invite Bandz to over 500 retailers, including Amazon and Party City and it was a great success.
We started to have a lot of small and medium sized businesses, organizations and personalities coming to us and asking us to develop more functionality from the platform and app beyond just the one event. Most of these folks did not have access to the enterprise-level software platforms that large companies had to help grow and market their businesses. We saw a real need in this market and wanted to provide affordable communication and engagement technology and tools for them. We initially started with service based businesses and membership based organizations but that quickly grew to commercial real estate, professional athletes, personalities and musicians.
Why is it important for a musician to have a mobile app?
One of the biggest things is connection and owning your audience. So many times people work so hard to develop a following on a social media platform, only to have to “Pay to Play” to reach all their fans. Not just that, there is a tremendous amount of “Noise” in a feed and you are in constant competition with all the other content on the platform.
If you have your own branded mobile app you have complete control over your audience’s attention, you own the platform and can curate the experience you want to provide for them and you have a direct line of communication to them on the one device most folks have at arm’s length 25/7…their phone! What’s great is you can use social media as a tool to drive awareness of the app and offer content you don’t offer elsewhere, which is an incredible way to drive downloads and adoption of the app.
What are the most popular features with musicians when using their enCappture app?
Definitely the direct communication aspect – Push Notifications and Direct Messages. The ability to have all your fans on the app and then do push notifications to let them know about new concert events or music releases is priceless! Event calendars are also great as you can put your entire event calendar on the app and even sell tickets directly through the app!
The app also has the ability to upload music so they can let fans sample music and even purchase products via the app. And you can get real time analytics to find out what fans are really listening to and loving. Weblinks is also another great feature as it allows you to map your web content into the app so it looks and feels native and you don’t have to recreate the content for 2 places which is a huge convenience. The whole idea is to have all your content in one place so you fans don’t have to go all over the place to see what you are up to! And having one place for them to congregate creates a more connected community. We also have photo galleries and message board features where fans can communicate with the musician and each other around events or new music releases. All great features to increase convenience and connection for fans.
Probably for most independent artists, the two biggest hurdles for having their own app is “it’s too much time/energy to create or use it” and “I can’t afford it.” Would you agree?
Funny you should say that as that is exactly why enCappture exists, our platform and “Done For You” model takes the time, complexity and frankly the stress out of launching a mobile app. We also provide a “Mobile coach” who works with you to create the app, populate the content and even help you manage it on an ongoing basis to keep it fresh and engaging.
In terms of cost…it is a fraction of the price of a custom app. We run on an affordable monthly fee with a small upfront cost to do the initial development, and we can get your custom branded app up and running in the app store in under 3 weeks!
For any musicians who are curious on how they can start their own app with enCappture, what’s the best way to find out more info?
Just go to enCappture.com and book a quick call and in 20 minutes or less we will show you how we can launch your custom branded mobile app featuring your music, in less than 3 weeks. Stress-free!
For more information on enCappture, check out Facebook and Twitter.
