Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing was a full-day session run by BookNet Canada and the ABPBC on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the SFU Downtown Campus, Vancouver BC.
2:00 – 2:45 pm: Tools to Use: The Google Suite from Genevieve Brennan
From Analytics to Website Optimizer, Google tools offer clear methods to set goals and track results of actions. Partner Manager Genevieve Brennan gave a thorough overview of the Google products relevant to online marketing for books. Genevieve Brennan, Partner Manager for Google Book Search, helps publishers develop and execute a strategy for promoting content online. She particularly enjoys working with publishers to maximize the benefits of adding search features directly to their own websites. Prior to coming to Google, Genevieve was Sales Manager for David R. Godine Publisher. She now works at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
3 Steps for Online Marketing (from the perspective of Google tools):
Drive traffic (PPC and SEO)
Measure (Analytics)
Test (Optimizer)
Quick Facts (any errors are mine):
1.4B online users, up from 500M in 2003
$420B in 2007 of ecommerce sales
183B emails sent per day 2M every second (jeez, I think they all come to me!)
Funny Traffic Spikes Marginally Related to Books:
Paris gets out of jail and is holding Power of Now
Search volume for “Power of Now” spikes 36% from April to May 2007
2nd book gets picked up on Oprah on Jan 30, 2008. Old book also mentioned.
73% spike in search volume for “Power of Now” from Jan to Feb 08
Other Tips and Conversation Points:
Drive Traffic: SEO and PPC: Nolo is a good example. They publish non-fiction, legal books and are optimized to show up for the search “legal books.”
Measure: Conversion tracking in Adwords, put the code on the thank you page to track conversions.
Other measuring tools: Google Trends: measure buzz (now insights), Google Alerts, Google Analytics: reverse goal path, internal site search
Potential tracking goals: ecommerce, lead generation, brand & product awareness, member acquisition
Testing: Test Google Book Search: you can change the percentage of book that is viewable, try 50-80% viewable, experiment. How much to people flip in a store? Browsing does lead to buying. Test.
Test & Analyze All Marketing Campaigns: Banner, search, email; SEO, referrals, affiliate, offline
Step-by-Step Plan:
look at organic: what are they searching for? Book, author, topic. Then make decisions about what to feature.
Take that message and buy the keywords in that vein
Make sure analytics and adwords are tied together
Check Keyword positions > click on keyword and select visits in the drop down, then in the second column set it to Average time on site.
Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing was a full-day session run by BookNet Canada and the ABPBC on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the SFU Downtown Campus, Vancouver BC.
10:00 – 10:45 am: Event Marketing: Taking the Faces Out of Facebook from Evan Munday of Coach House Books
The Coach House Books Facebook Group has more than 1000 members (and continues to grow). Coach House publicist Evan Munday discussed how to channel online passion to drive turn out at offline events. Evan Munday is the publicist for Coach House Books, a Toronto-based literary press, where has worked for the past 2 1/2 years. He is also a sometime artist who has done illustrations for various magazines. He collaborated on a novel with author Jon Paul Fiorentino, Stripmalling, out in Spring 2009, and is semi-hard at work on a YA novel. He is also very funny.
Here’s what Evan had to say:
Over 1000 facebook users. Word of mouth is what drives more members.
Event marketing on facebook: If you have over 1000 members in your group, you can’t invite them to an event. Instead you have to send a message and ask people to rsvp.
With Facebook, we use the event as the publicity hook.
We [publishers] are all fishing in the same pond when we use our regular tactics. With Facebook Coach House is seeing new people at their events, people they’ve never met before.
Facebook Promotion of the Open House:
Coach House Books’ annual Open House: 132 confirmed guests on Facebook (doesn’t mean people will show up)
The Open House is for friends, readers, neighbours. No readings. Instead it’s a tour of offices and book table. Publicize on Facebook. Usually about 300 people come to the event.
This year we set up a ballot box. How do you know about Coach House: Author, friend, facebook, avid reader.
Only 30 respondents. 1/6th said the Facebook group, no other relationship to the press.
The Idea is to convert these unrelated strangers to Coach House book buyers. Get them talking about Coach House.
Evan’s Take-Away Lessons:
Be selective about event marketing on Facebook
Coach House has 60 events: Only invite people to bigger events, not all events.
Be careful about location. 60% in TO, don’t waste their time with Calgary events.
If members are outside TO, Coach House will create the event pages but maybe send only an email with links to all events across the country.
Don’t harass people. Be judicious in messaging.
Inject your personality. Make it seem like it’s not a marketing message.
Other Interesting Points:
Facebook referrals visit at least 5 pages and have a 43% bounce rate.
Nomediakings: Jim Munro, a self-publisher, drives a lot of traffic. We are unsure why. No link on the site.
Make Facebook the rec room of your publishing company. Post videos and links from the event.
All my friends are superheros: published in German by Random House, who created a very strange music video. (I’ll have to check it out.)
Things we don’t do:
No Facebook ads becasue it costs money and sometimes there are minimum buys of $1000. They are also not effective.
No Facebook Fan pages. Like Anansi. Instead of we have group, they have “Anansi”. You become a fan instead of joining group.
In a Group: no applications, no analytics, little info on members, no ability to send targeted ads. Fan page might be better for your press. Know the options.
Facebook pages: unlimited apps, extensive analysis, more info on members, ability to send targeted ads.
No Free copies: HarperCollins. First 10 to send message get X. Idea is to get people excited and posting. Thinks it’s great but Coach House print runs are so low, we can’t do it. Eg. Quest for the Ice Fox: contest to win a $200 travel voucher, users had to find the fox.
Our Facebook Plan:
start group
invite friends
make events and invite people
see strangers at your event
report on events (send photos to quill, blog, facebook group, encourages fun. “I’m sorry I missed that”. Come next time.
Q: How much time?
A: Very little time: 1 event week or every 2 weeks (15 min); post info. Ehren: online is his fulltime job is online, but blogging has moved to a publicist role now.
Q: Do you have a blog?
A: Coach House coffee room serves as a blog. (But really, the whole site is run on a content management system, which is what blog software is. The Coach House site, the whole site, is a blog, the coffee room is the bit that looks like what we think is a blog.)
Defining Success: Accountable Online Marketing for Book Publishing was a full-day session run by BookNet Canada and the ABPBC on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the SFU Downtown Campus, Vancouver BC.
9:00 – 9:15 am: Opening Remarks from Michael Tamblyn, BookNet Canada
Michael Tamblyn couldn’t print his presentation so he read it off his phone. A perfect intro to a day about online media and the changes it has brought to consumers and book publishers.
9:15 – 10:00 am: Blogs, Context and Conversations: Interaction, Change and Measuring Results from Ehren Cheung, online marketing specialist for Dundurn Press
Ehren Cheung discussed the elements required to build, maintain and grow a successful blog like Dundurn Press’ Defining Canada with a focus on how to set goals that measure what matters. Ehren has been involved with expanding Dundurn’s Internet marketing initiatives since he joined the publisher a little over two years ago. I really like following Ehren online: Dundurn blog, on Twitter, he’s great.
Key Points from Ehren Cheung:
Using Facebook and other social media is about sharing. I’m defining my identity. I’m telling people about myself.
There are 3 basic ways we discover something new: Browsing (exploring), sharing, searching
Defining Canada started because Dundurn was overhauling its main site. In the interim the blog was created to tell people about what was going on. Sharing the news about the news: interviews, Q&As, videos, insider news.
In planning a blog, started with: What do we want to do? What are our goals? What should we be measuring?
Start by measuring: Unique visitors, how many pages do users visit, are they loyal, are they increasing their time spent on the site, how many clicks through to ecommerce do we see, what’s the impact of blog posts from authors ...
Ehren has worked hard on the design of Dundurn blog, which I think works for them.
Listen to the conversations, connect on a genuine level, Share content and information.
Questions from the Audience
Q: How has the purpose of Defining Canada changed over time?
A: Defining Canada currently is an extension of the brand messaging. We arel slowly moving toward building community, focusing on calls to actions.
Q: How does the management view the blog and outreach?
A: We have 521 unique visitors per month. How do they feel about that? Good.
Q: Why do you suggest Twitter?
A: It’s important to my day. Monique suggests it’s like a news ticker in the background. Keep a finger on the pulse of personal contacts and business. Follow us and see what it’s all about:
@ehrenc
@definingcanada
@somisguided
@BookNet_Canada
2. Crab Whisperer: James’ exploit hand-catching crabs is caught in VanMag. (Ok, not book related but publishing related.)
3. Stowe Boyd has a great list of the tools he uses. I’m there baby! (Yup, also not book related but Stowe is awesome.)
4. ATM for books: Print on Demand. “Angus & Robertson today became the first Australian book chain to install the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), capable of printing, trimming and binding a paperback book on demand within minutes.”
5. BookNet Canada and the Association of Book Publishers of BC ran a full day session on internet marketing for book publishers. I presented on understanding and measuring results and will post those notes over the weekend.
ExpressionEngine is a CMS that I use for web design. I love it. SoMisguided runs on EE, as does BoxcarMarketing.com.
The event is for designers, developers, project managers and EE users who want to learn more about the tool, how to use it and design in it, what’s coming in the next release, how it performs with modules, extension and SEO capabilities, and there will be drinking and nibbling on tasty Havana treats.
Why Havana? Because it’s at Havana restaurant in the theatre there. $50 for the afternoon (1-5 pm) and then the party (5-7pm).
ALMOST GREEN is a quirky look at one man’s quest to build an eco shed, a sustainably designed writing studio. This “green” house was one work of wonder in terms of battling opinions, neighbours, suppliers and the land itself.
Amazon.com announced today that it is acquiring AbeBooks of Victoria, BC.
“AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books, with over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world.”
I was also pretty desperate to hold that book. The little white gloves of the Sotheby’s staff are etched in my mind.
And NOW ... Amazon has the exclusive right to sell The Tales of Beedle the Bard to the masses. There is a limited collector’s edition that I just pre-ordered and a standard edition.
Here it is. Drool away. And if you want to order the book and follow my link below, I’ve signed up for the Amazon affiliate program and will get a percentage of the sale. That would be a nice Christmas present and could pay the hosting fees of SoMisguided or I could turn it back to you in the form of postage and mail you out any book that I’ve reviewed on my site (except for the signed copies of stuff I’m particularly fond of ...) Ya, that’s a better idea.
Who’s for that? If we make any money, I’ll post the amount and how many books and postage that equals and I’ll send you Christmas presents. We’ll figure out the details as we go. (I’m saying Christmas because Beetle isn’t published until Dec. 4—but you can pre-order.
I’m fascinated by Amazon’s business strategy. It’s really clever.
* Amazon acquires Audible.com (January 2008)
* Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos invests in Twitter (June 2008) through his personal fund, Bezos Expeditions.
* Kindle sales are 12% of Amazon’s total sales [update: Kindle sales are 12% of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form] (June 2008).
Social retail. Retail on the go. Sales using your Amazon account. Sales via cell. It’s all credit card processing.
And yesterday, Amazon beefed up its payment services by launching Checkout by Amazon and Amazon Simple Pay.
Why is this clever? Because. Amazon became huge by allowing developers to use their API. To create their own stores.With these payment options, other e-commerce sites can insert an Amazon Checkout cart on their sites. E-commerce is hard. This is easy.
* For the user: One-click ordering for anyone with an existing Amazon account
* For the website owner: Order management, shipping, sales tax calculations and more from a reputable checkout service
* For Amazon: data mining and part of the transaction fee. Transaction fees start at 2.9 percent of the order amount, plus 30 cents per order (unless you’re doing a lot of business). And for transactions less than $10, Amazon charges 5 percent plus 5 cents.
Here’s what I think their new motto is:
Amazon. Solving the Hard Problems.
Payments. Data storage. Cloud computing services. Hello Amazon. You’re not the bookstore I remember. But you’re certainly making money.
Amidst all of the discussion about the iPhone 3G that hits stores tomorrow, another industry changing gadget is getting overlooked. According to Time Magazine:
“On a title-by-title basis, of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form, Kindle sales now make up over 12% of sales for those titles…. At a technology trade conference in May, CEO Jeff Bezos said that Kindle sales accounted for 6% of book titles sold for the Kindle and in print. So Amazon appears to be selling more e-books.”
Those are big numbers. 12% of sales for books that are available in print AND on the Kindle are purchased for the Kindle
There’s something about dance video commercials that totally capture my interest. If saw Drench in a story, I’d think of this guy. It would make me happy. I would have good associations. Check it out.
The Long Tail theory, as explained by its creator, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, holds that society is “increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of ‘hits’ (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.”
Anita Elberse, a marketing professor at Harvard’s business school, argues that the hits are still holding true online. See the full article here. The most popular YouTube items tend to concentrate on a few. The hits and blockbusters are still how we operate as a society.
This may be true but one of the things Anderson argues in the Long Tail, which business are definitely seeing, is that the hits are becoming smaller because the audiences are more fragmented. So although the hits are still working, the question for me is “for how long?”
The other part of the Long Tail is that businesses need to stop thinking about marketing only in the mindset of the hits. For example, the tv ad, the Grand Central print ad placement, the NYTimes ad. Less and less effective.
I’m glad these discussions are still going on. To me it shows that there’s something great opportunity to fix the way marketing works today.
Zoomii bookstore shelves are pulled from Amazon data and you can zoom in, scan the shelves and click for book details. This is a cool idea: browse 22,060 books, search 156,580 books.
Plain Words, Uncommon Sense A blog on books, writing, tap dancing, technology, and the other amusements of Monique Sherrett (or Monique Trottier in unmarried form).
Monique Sherrett lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada and is a litblogger, among other things. Find out more ...
"So misguided." A comment often uttered in my eclectic salon.
Contact
Send me book galleys, ARCs or review copies. Contact me at monique at somisguided dot com Contact me at Boxcar Marketing
