Greek City Times is the leading online Greek news and lifestyle publication keeping Hellenes and around the globe updated daily with the latest Greek related articles from all over the Diaspora.
Greek City Times is an online publication that focuses on Greek news and lifestyle. They’re an established brand and wanted to improve their mobile presence.
We sat down with Nick Bourdaniotis, the General Manager of GCT, for a chat about their experiences with MobiLoud.
You Know What? We Need an App!
Nick explained to us some of the key motivators for getting an app built:
“Initially, we were relying on Facebook to grow our business - and they want you to pay a lot of money to grow. Even then they can dictate to you what they're going to show the public. We also saw that a lot of the established business people that read our content and followed us were older and didn't have Facebook. We thought -You know what? We need an app…..”
Facebook is a pay to play game now, and you’ll never control how visible your content there in the same way as you can with a native app - a channel you own 100%.
Greek City Times no longer have to rely on social media to distribute their content and know their audience will be checking for new content in their app. Native push notifications also allow them to reach 100% of their audience whenever they want, making for a much more effective engagement channel.
Finding MobiLoud
Nick shopped around a bit and came across us through Google. One of the key factors that appealed to him was that we’re a full service - not a tool or a platform - and everything is done for you from start to finish.
“We didn't have time to do it ourselves. We did a Google search, and MobiLoud came up”
They checked out out a few of our existing customers and were impressed.
“When we were researching, we found Business Insider NL were MobiLoud customers. We downloaded their app and were very impressed. The speed and interface were great. We thought - “You know what? This is it. These guys know what they're doing” - and went ahead with it”
So we got to work building Greek City Times state of the art apps for iOS and Android and had them ready to launch in a few weeks.
Launching to Success
Nick and the team had a smooth route to the App Stores. Because MobiLoud News apps are built from your pre-existing WordPress site - the process is fast, efficient and stress-free.
“MobiLoud did an awesome job”
Nick and his team saw great results soon after launching. Positive feedback from fans began flooding in from all over the world.
“In the first week or two, we started to notice that we were receiving a lot of downloads - our team of editors around the world were all loving the app too”
They decided not to push the app too hard, but even so it’s built up impressive momentum:
“Once we had that positive feedback from people, we did a soft release on Facebook and our website. We haven't put it in everybody's face, but it's been going well. It's been getting lots of engagement and traction”
Greek City Times readers around the world do indeed love the apps!
Integrating Directly with WordPress
Our solution integrates deeply with WordPress - the apps work hand in hand with your existing site, so the two can support each other. We can integrate any of the plugins you use on your site, and the apps will sync and update automatically with anything new you publish - so there's nothing to add to your workflow!
This has benefited Greek City Times and helped them to make money:
“Our website is where we generate our income. A lot of people land on our site now - a lot.”
We’ve been working with Nick to implement more targeted forms of advertising on the apps to increase their revenue:
“We are working with MobiLoud to do geo-fencing with ads on the app. We've been playing with that, and it seems to be working well and generating profits.”
We give you all you need to generate ad revenue through the apps. We integrate with the most common networks right out of the box, and can integrate any custom ad system you need too.
A Great Relationship and a Bright Future
We’ve worked with Greek City Times to help them get the most out of their app and make sure it’s always humming along smoothly.
“Any time we have any issues - not that we do really - they're [MobiLoud] very efficient and come back with a working solution really quickly.”
We’d like to thank Nick and the team at Greek City Times for their feedback. We look forward to continuing a successful relationship and helping them increase their traffic and revenue with a mobile app.
“As a business person to another business person, I would recommend it”
We have solutions to turn any site or web app into iOS and Android apps - but if you're a WordPress-based digital publisher looking to grow through native apps, MobiLoud News is for you.
If your site has a reasonable amount of traffic and you're willing to share a little ad space with us - you can even get native iOS and Android apps at zero upfront cost! Check out our publisher program today.
Greek City Times is the leading online Greek news and lifestyle publication keeping Hellenes and around the globe updated daily with the latest Greek related articles from all over the Diaspora.