Marketing Report from Android Marketplace

Here are some findings from a recent marketing report on the Android Marketplace:

• Android 
Market 
developers 
publish
 most 
apps 
on 
average
(4.38
 active 
apps 
per 
active 
publisher).


• 37% 
of 
apps 
have 
been 
deactivated 
since 
launch 
of 
the 
store,
 leaving
 nearly 
320,000 
apps 
available 
for 
download 
for 
users 
of
 Android 
Market.
 

• In 
September 
2011, 
Android 
Market 
added 
a 
record‐breaking
 42,000 
new 
apps.

• At 
the 
end 
of 
September, 
34% 
of 
active 
apps 
were 
paid, 
however,
 this 
month
 that 
figure 
is 
only
 26%, 
which 
shows 
that 
developers
 are 
developing 
more 
free 
content 
than 
before.


 

• Average 
selling 
price 
in 
Android 
currently 
equals 
$3.18.
 

• Nearly 
50% 
of 
newly
 added
 content 
falls 
into 
four 
top 
categories:
 Games, 
Entertainment, 
Personalization 
and 
Music 
& 
Audio.


The number of content in the games, entertainment, personalization and music & audio categories simply makes me think that one of the most important things that apps can bring to consumers is ways to make their phone very personal to them - the phone is both a diversion and a form of expression.

Making Money with Mobile Apps

Computerworld has a good article on the challenges and how-tos of making money with mobile apps. Since so much of my business is helping mobile app developers make money of them (by getting as much publicity as possible for their apps), I thought I would share this great article on my blog.

It is useful in that it discusses the three models of making money (monetizing) mobile apps: freemium (giving away a less functional version to entice people to pony up for a more feature-rich version); service-and-subscription model (providing a reader for instance, then selling the content on a montly basis); ad-funded model (free version with ads, or pay for a version that is ad-free); pay-for-product (sold!).

The article mainly lacks in how you actually make your app stand out in such a crowded marketplace. What advertising to use, what forms of social media, how to maximize PR (news and reviews), etc.

From the PR perspective, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to cut through the clutter of others asking writers to do the same thing I'm asking them to do -- namely, write about my clients' apps. So I'm getting as much as I can and then helping companies to distinguish themselves in the app store with keywords, well-written copy, and managing social media.

Church Marketing

I'm charged with "communications" at our church -- which entails both internal and external marketing. It's the most fun you can have in ministry, until you have to come up with a new logo that somehow encapsulates and represents both the old-time religion folks and the Millennials who don't care much about the institution of "church" but just want to get busy helping people.

This video has been around for awhile, but I watched it again last night and I just have to laugh every time I see it.



I've never understood how the collective Christian church, representing the Person who without a doubt was the greatest communicator who ever walked the planet, could be so lousy at communicating. Church Marketing Sucks! Which is, of course, why there is a great website by that very name!

Because of the new logo project I've been undertaking, I've searched the web to see what other churches have done with their logos and websites. Ugly stuff, let me tell you! Like any organization, a logo needs to reflect the organization's purpose and culture rather than being contrary to it. If the logos and websites I witnessed are reflective of their respective churches, then I would expect the churches to be very cookie-cutterish, emotionless, and unimaginative.

There were, however, some gems out there. Here are some of the churches that I think really stood out for their attractive websites and logos:

Calvary Church
Grace Community Church
Kingsfield Church
Stonebriar Community Church
The Crossings

A Touch of Luck?

I was on the treadmill this morning and looked up to the TV screen on the wall of the gym in time to see an ESPN replay of a PGA golfer chipping out of a sand trap. The ball delicately dropped a few feet short of the hole and rolled forward until -- PLUNK -- a miracle shot worthy of an ESPN highlight.

I don't know who the golfer was, but he's obviously talented enough to use his sand wedge to make such a great shot -- but not talented enough to avoid the bunker in the first place. His shot was both skill and luck. Sometimes it takes a good mix of both to be successful. If it was pure skill, pro golfers would never be in the bunker, and every tough shot would end up in the hole. Skill gets them close, but luck takes them the rest of the way.

When I'm launching a new app for, say, the iPad, the techniques may be similar as I'm reaching out to many of the same writers. Some of these campaigns are crazy successful (check out GoodReader -- STILL the #2 best-selling iPad app in the iTunes App Store after several weeks) while other campaigns are successful but maybe not what I'd hoped (boffo!). The difference may be timing, message, or the product itself, but some of it is just the level of luck -- hitting the right shot with the wind just-so and a squirrel that brushes the ball with his fluffy tail to cause the ball to drop in the hole.

We can't count on luck, so we must learn and practice the best techniques to get us as close to the cup as we can get (and perhaps a dash of luck will give us a highlight of our own).

Judging books by their covers

I was perusing the bookshelves of Target the other night and wandered past the "Young Adult" section. "Did the lights go out?" I ask myself. No, it's just that pretty much every book for teens and "young adults" are black. I know they're into vampires big time, and you can't really have a happy, cheerful color on the covers of books about vampires -- but not all those books are about vampires.

The content of the book doesn't matter if the cover doesn't appeal to the target audience. Obviously book publishers have discovered young adults have an affinity for black.

Regardless of what "content" is in your "book" (the product you sell, if you're not getting the metaphor), is your cover designed to reach your target audience?

Now if I were publishing a popular book for young adults, and knowing that everyone else's book would hardly be distinguishable from each other, I'd make mine in red.

The value of public relations

Toronto-based MDC Partners has announced it has acquired a majority interest in Sloane & Company, a New York-based public relations firm. Miles Nadal, MDC chairman, has said he's willing to spend up to $100 million on agency and personnel acquisitions in the coming months! Hey Miles! Over here in Topeka is a great boutique agency specializing in the booming mobile app business!

Here's his quote that I'd like to splash around today:

"We believe that most of the innovative initiatives happening in marketing communications today are happening within the public relations arena," Nadal said in a statement. "Clients are under enormous pressure to deliver measurable results in a shorter and shorter time frame. Smaller entrepreneurial firms that are empowered to think differently, have the ability to do brilliant work and want to share the wealth, are the best partners for us."

For all of the negative flack the PR biz gets, especially from our friends in the media who have to put up with cold-pitches and poorly aimed emails from PR people who don't do their homework, it is true that the best results and the greatest innovation comes from within the PR disciplines. Engaging publics through social media is much more a function of the PR form of strategic communication than other forms of marketing communication.

Since I started Talon 12 years ago, it's amazing how many times I've had to reinvent what I do. With technology and consumer changes, the task of the PR force is to recognize how to leverage those new technologies to reach those new consumers and influence them favorably toward the organizations we represent.

This is what Winning Rules is all about. Let me know if you discover any of those "innovative initiatives" Nadal talks about so we can explore them together.

Getting noticed on the web

I've spent a bit of time over the past few days looking at church websites. Man, they're bad! Of course, that's why there's a website called Church Marketing Sucks! As the communication team leader at my church (charged with internal and external publicity), I want our church website to look good, offer usable content, and be easily found by people looking for a church home. Unfortunately, our website comes with a subscription-based church management system that offers a really grand "behind the curtain" online community for members -- and while better than most church websites, ours still sucks.

We're going to take matters into our own hands and develop our own website that looks much better, is written for the web, and is search engine optimized.

When you put together a great looking website, how do you get people to find it? If you're looking for local traffic, you can advertise it to your local market in the newspaper, on Facebook or Google, or on radio or TV (if that makes sense to your kind of business). Don't forget the obvious: put it on your business cards, stationery and brochures!

There are important steps you need to take that will pay off in much bigger results for building your web traffic. Include target keywords and phrases that your prospects would be using to find you online. If you don't overwhelm your pages with meaningless words, the prominent use of keywords will make the page more appealing to the search engines and more meaningful to potential customers.

Carefully evaluate the benefits of online advertising (banners and pay-per-click). The nice thing is you can tell pretty easily if your investment is paying off and then adjust your budget to those ads that get the best results.

And use a blog and social media (Twitter and Facebook are no-brainers for many kinds of businesses) to connect with and keep in touch with customers -- and remind them about you and your website.

Game du Jour

Ah...the Internet. Filled with great information and tools to increase our productivity, right? No, it is the biggest productivity killer ever invented--but it's so darn wonderful we can't get enough of it.

One of the biggest time killers of the Internet is searching the world wide web for "bargains." You pit our desire for a good deal with our penchant for friendly competition, and you get massive successes like eBay. First there was auction sites, and then later came "one deal a day" sites such as Woot.com.

For most "one deal a day" sites, you are in a rush to get in on the deal before supplies run out. There's a new one that will really kill your time--and supplies are unlimited.

Game du Jour offers one heavily discounted casual PC game per day. It starts at midnight and the deal lasts for 24 hours and then a new game is available. If you are into "casual games" and not necessarily the action-packed assassination and warfare games, this is a great site for you.

So what does this have to do with our favorite topic? Essentially, Game du Jour is a marketing company that helps software companies get a rush of sales of their product and increase brand awareness. They introduce your game to people that might not otherwise know about it. Considering how enormous the game development sector is, this kind of publicity can help to really boost awareness of that product and get gamers interested in the rest of your line.

Will it Blend? Great viral marketing

Looking for another time waster on the Internet (other than this blog)?

Go have some fun at WillitBlend.com. The PR geniuses at Blendtec have produced a series of videos in which they blend a variety of everyday household items and answer the question I'm sure we've all asked ourselves: Will it blend?

Check out the iPod! And, in time for Christmas, see what happens when he tries to blend a couple Nutrackers!

This site is great fun...and a good example of how a business came up with a viral marketing approach that draws attention to their website, gets people to talk about it (like I'm doing now), and shows off the features of their product. Very, very savvy!

Now excuse me while I go buy a Blendtec blender!