Buyer's Guide: Marketing Automation Accelerates D2C Efforts

This article is from the Book Business Buyer's Guide which is a publisher's reference on emerging technology in the book industry. You can find other Buyer's Guide Sections here:

Ebook & App Solutions
> The Nuts and Bolts of Ebooks and Apps
> The State of Ebooks in 2014

Digital Workflow & Conversion Services

Ecommerce Solutions

There's no doubt that Amazon's market dominance can be sobering, accounting for up to 65% of ebook sales, followed by Apple and Barnes & Noble. Book publishers are facing pressure to evolve their digital marketing practices. Yet book publishers have an opportunity to gain ground where behemoths like Amazon fall short: individual consumer engagement.

While Amazon has the algorithms to suggest complementary titles to individual consumers, it's not engaging them beyond the sale. It's an efficient retail experience if you come seeking product information or a transaction, but you wouldn't go to Amazon to simply pass the time.

The challenge, however, is that Amazon is so good at providing that retail experience, that book publishers will need to work extra hard to lure them away. They can't just provide a good experience for consumers—they need to provide a great experience for consumers.

Publishers are finding they must engage directly with consumers, and fortunately they have a powerful tool for doing that: content—and lots of it. The challenge is then to provide opportunities for engagement, rise above the noise to attract the most relevant audiences, and do so efficiently.

The Powerful Lure of Content
Despite the fact that the majority of consumers have nearly unlimited access to any kind of content at any time, people have learned to navigate the online information barrage to focus only on what's truly relevant to them. To put it another way: good content is quickly becoming a valuable digital currency.