Like its competitors, Digicom Satellite built a retail Website a few years ago and loaded it with content that it needed to compete in the fast-growing dish TV market.

Products and services? Check.
Enticing offers? Check.
Contact information? Check.

Initially, the Website performed well by satisfying customer requests for information. Most sales were driven by newspaper ads anyway, so the Website was an extra sales tool that reinforced Digicom Satellite’s presence in the Southern California market it served.

But as economic downturn wore on, new customers became much harder to attract. They were not responding to Digicom Satellite’s print ads like they once did. Owner Jim Hastings and his team knew it was time to take a fresh look at his marketing, especially the Website.

A review of the most likely search terms told the story. Digicom Satellite showed up #1 on Google searches of its exact name, but was no higher than page 4 when more generic satellite TV searches were conducted. Often, it didn’t show up in the first 7+ pages. It was clear the site was not attracting new customers.

The Website was clean and did contain a lot of information that potential customers would want. But it looked just like its competitors’ sites and lacked some ingredients that would make it more search-engine friendly.

After reviewing the site, several changes were identified that could improve Digicom Satellite’s marketing position.

1. Rewrite the home page to include several keyword-rich phrases.
2. Add an About Us page to reinforce Digicom Satellite’s unique position as both a dish TV retailer and installer.
3. Add an FAQ page that would answer the most popular questions (and searches), while positioning the company as a solutions-oriented dish TV expert in Southern California. Search engines love “authority” sites that provide helpful information, so the content on this page would be crucial.

How will we know if these Website enhancements are impacting traffic, especially among new prospects who are the primary targets? We started by setting up Google analytics tracking to establish a baseline. We learned that site visits included lots of bots and spiders, but few organic searches. We now have a baseline.

Just this week we added the FAQ content under a page called “Dish Detective FAQ”. We’ll spend the next few weeks promoting the site and letting the search engines become familiar with it.

Will these changes work? Will traffic increase? Will Digicom Satellite’s page ranking rise on dish TV-related searches  conducted in Southern California?

Check back in December for an update. For now, feel free to visit the site and offer your feedback. Post your comments by clicking here. We’d love to know what you think.

Once again Apple tops this week’s tech news with the official launch of iCloud. The iCloud service further cements Apple’s monopoly on all things digital. By seamlessly integrating several high-use applications on multiple Apple gadgets, the company makes it easier for consumers to go “all Apple all the time”.

It’s a good thing Amazon and Google teamed up to launch the Kindle Fire last week. Otherwise, the Apple steamroller would dominate tech conversations 24/7.

If you haven’t already seen it, here’s Apple’s iCloud video. And here’s Apple’s marketing introduction on its Website, summarized below.

“iCloud is so much more than a hard drive in the sky. It makes it quick and effortless to access just about everything on the devices you use every day. iCloud automatically stores your content so it’s always available to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. It gives you access to your music, apps, latest photos, and more from whichever device you happen to be using. And it keeps your email, contacts, and calendars up to date across all your devices. No syncing required. No management required. In fact, no anything required. iCloud does it all for you.”

The Website emphasizes how automatic iCloud service will be. Newly purchased Apple products will have it built-in, requiring just a few set-up steps. Users get 5 gigs of free storage, not including products purchased through Apple or Photo Stream storage. Hence, Apple-centric users of music, photos, email, books, video, and apps probably won’t need to purchase extra storage.

You have to give Apple’s marketing team credit for vision and execution. They continue to present products and services in a way that entices users to choose Apple as their default tech products vendor.

One irony of the iCloud is it could lead to consumers owning fewer tech products. With hard-drive storage needs severely reduced, it will be easier to consolidate gadgets. Some day I suspect we’ll all buy the “iTransformer”, a do-it-all device the size of an iPod that expands into a camera, phone, tablet and laptop.

I hope Steve Jobs included such a device in his legacy plan. If so, it’s going to be awesome.

Editor’s update: Yesterday’s death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is a dark day for tech fans worldwide. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Jobs family.

The Apple brand and its family of products are nothing less than marketing royalty. Flaunting culture-changing Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, iTunes and more, Apple has left most competitors wrecked on the shoulder of the electronic super highway.

I have a feeling Apple’s dominance is about to subside. It won’t happen immediately because Apple simply has too many happy customers and tons of cachet.

So how will this happen and what does it mean for marketers?

Like every great dynasty, Apple has become a target the size of Washington state. Competitors of every size and shape are lusting for a slice of Apple’s pie.

With the iPad, Apple has pitched a nearly perfect game, besting dozens of would-be tablet makers with innovation and savvy marketing. Until now, they’ve pretty much owned the tablet market.

Last week Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire, a long-awaited tablet that will compete with the iPad on price, marketing and operating platform. But will this be enough to steal significant market share from Apple?

I think it will. Here’s why.

Marketplace equilibrium. Everyone loves a winner, but they also love an underdog – especially if that underdog is offered by a reliable provider. By using Google’s Android operating system, Amazon’s Kindle Fire leverages two highly trusted brands.

Marketplace freedom. The Intenet’s openness and flexibility have created an expectation that information should be shared freely and with little cost. Apple’s near monopoly in certain tech segments has allowed it to circumvent these expectations (think music and iTunes).

More recently, Apple has been rigid in its handling of publisher-created content for the iPad. Apple has declared that publishers must provide it with a 30% revenue royalty, adhere to Apple’s strict policies on subscriptions, and forego demographic data on who is buying publishers’ content.

It’s the last item that has publishers seething. Apple wants to “own” the buyer. Publishers hate that because it weakens their ability to develop brand loyalty and ongoing revenue. Many publishers will partner with Amazon simply to gain leverage with Apple.

Marketplace positioning. Now that Apple has skimmed the cream off the top of the tablet market, the battle will shift increasingly to cost. At $199, the Kindle Fire is less than half the cost of Apple’s cheapest iPad. Amazon’s other Kindles will attract buyers at even lower price points.

Amazon is counting on product purchases to generate revenue, not the Kindle Fire itself. Getting readers hooked on the Fire is akin to mobile phone companies giving away phones in order to generate huge monthly service fees. Amazon’s goal is to sell its vast inventory of books, DVDs and magazines.

Marketplace vision. The departure of Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO should not be underestimated. When a franchise loses its star player, it’s rare that it can maintain superiority over its competitors. True, Jobs will remain Apple’s chairman, but visionaries like Jobs come around once in a company’s lifetime. With Jobs out as CEO, expect Apple’s mojo to suffer.

The release of the Fire is great news for marketers. Such strong competition will require Apple to respond with lower prices and products and services, more flexibility, and increased customer service.

So whether your company is provides content, buys ads, or offers related services, the Android-based Kindle Fire gives you new and cost effective marketing opportunities.

OK, so maybe you’ve avoided joining Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and their imitators. I understand. Not everyone wants to go public with their lives. Until recently, you were in good company.

But the ranks of non-social (unsocial?) media users is dwindling. According to a new survey released by Pew Research, for the first time ever, 50% of all U.S. adults now participate in the social media.  The report indicates that two-thirds of adult Internet users now use a social networking sites, up from 61% last year.

Not surprisingly,  social media use among American online adults under age 30 is at 61%, and they frequent these sites nearly every day.

But the bigger trend is how Internet users ages 50-64 are using social media sites. Those in this age bracket who indicate they use social media sites on a typical day, grew by 60%, from 20% to 32%.  Nearly one-third of the “boomer” generation are hooked on social media.

Say it ain’t so – social media is getting grayer (or at least creatively dyed).  I saw the film “The Social Network” and no one in that movie was older than 25.  Is this the downfall of Facebook and the other social media sites?

Apparently not. According to a newly study released by eMarketer.com, Facebook’s advertising revenues are estimated to double to nearly $3.8 billion in 2011. Advertisers like what they see.

That’s staggering growth achieved in midst of a killer economy. Conversely, many traditional media owners continue to cut staff, frequency, volume, and even once-venerable titles.

For marketers, Facebook’s growth is a good thing. If you are a marketer and want to use social media to connect with specific segments of the population, it is now easier and more efficient.

Social media can be a highly effective “golden goose” to build awareness and fans for your company, products and services. But don’t get greedy and abuse it. Hard-core sales pitches or misleading posts will cause your followers/friends to drop you like a week-old rotting fish.

Make sure your posts provide value and and leave readers wanting more.

Bloggers are helping to change the face of media.

While print is not really dead, there was enough accuracy in this scene to send a cold shiver down the spines of  print media pros, especially for those who have fallen behind the digital curve.

So how much fact is there in the theory that print media is dead? Most everyone agrees print media is fading, but how about some fact-based perspective? Read this excellent article by Erik Sass of Mediapost summarizing media trends for the last 30 years.

Accurately measuring media platform vitality is difficult because digital media metrics have traditionally been easy to inflate. Just let the spiders and bots find your site enough times and your online traffic might look pretty good compared with other types of media. However, the MediaPost article focuses on advertising revenue, which at least shows us where advertisers are placing their media dollars.

If you are a staunch print media traditionalist, you might want to cover your eyes when you click the link. The trends are pretty ugly. But if you love the digital world, the forecast is sunny and 80 degrees for the forseeable future. Here’s a short snippet from “Winners and Losers: The Changing Media Ad Landscape, 1980-2011″.

“From 1997 to 2010, Internet advertising revenue soared 2,788% from $900 million to $26 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In the last five years, revenues almost doubled from $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2006 to $7.3 billion in the first quarter of 2011. This rapid growth has translated into a large increase in online advertising’s share of total ad spending, from less than 1% in 1997 to 16.7% in 2010. In just the last five years, the proportion more than doubled, from 9.2% in the first quarter of 2006 to 18.7% in the first quarter of 2011.”

In terms of advertising share of market growth, the Internet is really cleaning up. Its growth curve is leaving all other media segments in the dust. Following the Internet is Cable , Outdoor, Broadcast TV, Radio, Magazines, and Newspapers.

If your company is overly reliant on print media for its share of market, revenue, or brand reputation, act soon (i.e. leap into digital platforms now) or pay the consequences. Media brands have no choice but to follow advertising dollars, and those dollars clearly are heading into digital platforms.

The shift to digital ad spending is indeed contagious. Just watch the trends. Everyone, it seems, is pumping dollars into digital advertising.

Is it time to dump print?

No. Print is NOT dead. It remains highly trusted and valued by millions. Print just needs to be aggressively integrated into a robust media buffet that is served up fresh and restocked frequently. You need to serve your clients no matter how they prefer to approach the media table.

Start by killing your weakest print products and replace them with multiple digital products. Some will fail, but many will soar - and so will your company.

Since Apple released the iPad 14 months ago, it seems the world has gone app-crazy.  If you are a small- or medium-size company, do you need your own app? Do you risk becoming irrelevant if you don’t have an app? 

Apps can be time-consuming to develop and expensive to launch. Then there is the Apple approval process, which can take any where from a few weeks to months and could end in rejection. And apps need constant updating to respond to changing customer needs, technology updates, and competitive pressures.

Nonetheless, nearly all the marketing buzz seems to be about apps. According to Apple, there are more than 90,000 third-party apps for the iPad, an astounding figure for a devise that’s only been on the market for a year and a half. Total unit sales are estimated at 15 million+. 

The iPhone, which won’t turn five-years-old for a few more months, has an even more, a mind-boggling 425,000 apps and growing daily to serve about 90 million iPhone owners. Earlier this year, the Apple App Store recorded its 10 billionth download.

Despite Apple’s marketing prowess, it might end up being #2 in the app universe behind Google’s Android open-source platform. By erecting fewer proprietary barriers, working with more partners, and encouraging more free apps, Android apps are actually growing faster than Apple apps. Android apps number about 250,000 at this point.

 So you should definitely build your own apps, right? 

Maybe. First, ask yourself some gut-level questions. 

Do I want to launch an app to be part of the buzz, or do I have a strategic pan to grow  business by leveraging the app? 

Are my products and services suitable for the tablet crowd, the smart phone crowd, or both? 

Can I commit to not only building the app, but updating it frequently? 

If I launch an app, how will I market it so people will download it? 

And if they do download it, how often might they use it? 

Remember, you’ve got tremendous competition from hundreds of thousands of other apps, as well as the Internet, movies, games, social media and email. 

As far as tablet users are concerned, early adapters seem much more interested in having fun with their tablets than using them to conduct business (although that will surely grow). 

According to Seven, a Great Britain-based content-management company,  iPad users  are using their devices in this way: Accessing the Web (75% do so at least every other day), emailing (63%) and games (48%), social networking (41%), researching products and services (29%), reading books (25%), music (21%), shopping (19%), magazines (13%), work (13%), and watching TV (11%).  

My advice is to make sure your foundational marketing is operating well before plunging into an app. Ask yourself these questions.

Is your Website being updated frequently with quality content?

Have you positioned your content as educational, informative and helpful, or does it read like a sales pitch? 

Can you add white papers, case studies, third-party articles, and other less biased content? 

Have you linked to partners, vendors, customers, associations, certification groups, and independent resources? 

Have you maximized SEO by via keywords and back links? 

Are you collecting data on your customers and prospects? 

Are you emailing them useful information, driving them to your Website, at least once a month? 

If you’re doing these well, then an app may indeed be your next marketing step – aslong as your are committed to doing it well.

The Most Powerful Marketing Lead-Generation Tool Is…

Print advertising is known for its image- and awareness-building. Many surveys show that print advertising remains the most trusted form of advertising.

But what if you want to generate leads? Print isn’t the answer. According to a new research study conducted by Advertising.com, the most effective lead-gen marketing tool is pay per click campaigns.

Here’s how six different marketing options fared in the survey’s “most effective lead-gen” question:

• PPC campaigns – 35.9%
• Online display campaigns – 17.9%
• Other – 13.7%
• 3rd party opt-in email campaigns – 11.3%
• Tradeshows – 7.7%
• Direct mail – 6.5%
• Cold calling – 5.9%

If sales leads are a priority for your company, consider adding pay per click online advertising to your next campaign.

For additional survey results, visit: http://media.advertise.com/leadgensurvey/

I love printed magazines and newspapers. They have played a pivotal role in my personal development and career.

As a young teen, I delivered the Detroit Free press early every morning. After my deliveries, I always settled in and read my own copy. In doing so, I gained tremendous appreciation for the skills of the feature writers. reporters and columnists.

I was so in love with newspapers that I went to college to become a journalist. Four years later I launched into a great career in publishing, including positions as a writer, editor, and director for dozens of print products, as well as numerous digital products.

Even today, I still pick up a copies of newspapers and magazines when traveling. But the rest of the time I am an Internet junkie, consuming vast amounts of Web content and eNewsletters.

Yesterday another nail went into the coffin of print. Penton Media, one of the largest b-to-b publishers in the U.S., closed its second magazine this week, according to Folio Magazine.

First Penton killed American Printer magazine, a 123-year-old periodical, citing a lack of advertisers and consolidation of readers. Yesterday, Penton discontinued Paper, Film & Foil Converter. You can read about it here.

***Update***Forbes just reported that Q2 2011 brought more downturn to the newspaper industry. Here’s a snippet: “Based on data from the Newspapers Association of America, second quarter print ad growth came in below consensus at negative 8.9%.  Revenues on classified sections deteriorated substantially, with growth down to negative 10.9% versus estimates of a decline of 5.1%.  National print advertising was marginally better than expected, falling 8.8% compared with estimates of a 10% drop.” Read the article here.

Meanwhile, media industry buzz continues to be centered around iPad and Android apps. Everyone, it seems, is consuming content on their laptops, tablets, and smart phones.

This week’s death of two more printed magazines (plus others converting to digital only) inspired me to dig into an old box of printed newspapers I keep in storage.

Bombshell front-page stories like “Nixon Resigns” and “Not Guilty” (O.J.) have far more impact on me in print than they do online. I’ll miss the attention-demanding nature of huge stories splashed brilliantly across page 1.

The reduction of printed materials (also a key factor in the US Postal Service’s gigantic mess) reminded me of a sad image I noticed while running in Florida last year. As I trotted by an attractive building, I saw two signs out front.

One was beautifully etched in stone and proudly proclaimed the name of the printing association which at one time inhabited the now empty building. The second was a giant “For Sale” sign posted a few yards away.

Suddenly that stone sign resembled a tombstone, and now represented the possible death of the printing association and some of its members.

There is no going back. Digital media reigns. I will remember the print era fondly while embracing the digital era.

Print Media has served humanity (and marketers) extremely well ever since the invention of the printing press. If you represent a progressive business, how long do you continue to offer printed literature to your clients and readers?

Most companies are loathe to dispense with printed literature because there are always a few clients that (we surmise) still depend on that printed brochure, price sheet, catalog, or magazine.

So how much time do we have before printed literature will look outdated (think phone booths)?

Folio: Magazine published this article that tracks and projects paper use. Newspapers and magazines can posture all they want about the health of print publications, but they can’t hide from the fact that people are simply reading print much less. It’s a digital world.

Report: Tablet Sales to Cut Magazine Paper Use 20 Percent by 2015
Tablet sales to reach 195 million by ’15, per RISI.
Stefanie Botelho FolioMag.com
08/22/2011
Even paper-focused companies are predicting a major fall for the printed page in the coming years.
According to a study [1] from forest products industry information provider RISI [2], tablets will have a serious effect on use of paper products in the near future. With over 10 million tablets currently in use in North America alone, RISI says that by 2015 paper end uses (including magazine, book and newspaper) will drop 12-21 percent from 2010 numbers.
Over the next 15 years, paper usage will decrease more rapidly, with numbers dropping another 40-50 percent.
As print circ falters in the magazine industry (about 45 percent of consumer magazine report circ losses in ABC’s half year report), publishers have been putting an enormous amount of time and resources into producing digital editions for magazines. More publishers are striking deals for subscription sales with Apple (last week, Reader’s Digest ] joined a growing group of publishers including Conde Nast, Time Inc., Hearst, etc. who now offer digital subscription and single copy for purchase through the App Store.) Time Inc. also recently announced that its entire magazine portfolio (21 titles in total) will be available for the iPad by January 2012, while it and other publishers like National Geographic are developing apps for Android-based tablets as well.
B-to-b publishers are getting into the tablet game as well, as American Banker just released their tablet-ready edition last week.

About New Voice Media

New Voice Media creates and manages content for print and digital platforms, including magazines, brochures, Websites, blogs, electronic newsletters, advertising and marketing.

New Voice Media was launched by Tim Fausch to provide business proprietors with an effective means of reaching their audiences and developing new customers. Tim has spent 30 years in the media field, working in various management, creative, and content development roles. These include include Websites, blogs, newspapers, magazines, marketing, and audience development.