Show Notes: Kindle and Google and Nook, oh my!
“Search drives sales,” said Google’s Gavin Bishop at a much-anticipated Monday afternoon session at the two-day Digital Book World Discoverability and Marketing conference at New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion. Bishop delivered results from a study the search giant did of 250 New York Times bestselling titles from 2010-2012, analyzing 130,000 search queries on said titles across laptops, smart phones and tablets.
What the study found is that there’s a definite “sales funnel” for online search, with 50 percent of searches falling under the heading of “discovery” where searchers are looking for inspiration; 40 percent of searches falling under “consideration” where searchers are narrowing their choices; and 10 percent fall under “intent” with searchers closing in on a purchase.
Bishop noted that it’s not a pure funnel, in that while some searchers go through all three phases, many buy directly from earlier stages.
Good news for publishers is that search volume has risen over the period of study for nearly all genres and formats (with the exception of textbooks). It’s also risen for categories such as “best books” (up 33 percent), brick and mortar bookstores (up 20 percent), ebooks and e-readers (up 69 percent), audio books (up 22 percent) and online bookstores (up 23 percent).
The study found, perhaps not so surprisingly, that there is a direct correlation between search and sales.
Bishop said that a whitepaper based on the study is forthcoming, and that those interested in obtaining it should send an email to thinkdbw@google.com.
•If Google’s search data indicates a rising tide (more interest in books), then Amazon is further poising itself to capitalize. In a talk on Tuesday morning, Jon Fine, Amazon’s director of Author and Publisher Relationships, expanded on this theme, presenting “some of the Kool-Aid I buy into” that Amazon is committed to the mantra of “more books, to more people, in more ways” and that “At the end of the day, it’s not print vs. digital. It’s books vs. everything else. Movies games, browsing the web.”
Fine announced that Amazon will be incorporating Facebook feeds into its author pages (amazon.com/author available to any author who has anything for sale on Amazon), as well as making Kindle sales figures available to authors on Amazon imprints.
He noted that Amazon’s Search Inside The Book feature is a boon for discoverability, making books that use the feature much easier to find in searches (on Amazon).
Fine also gave a bit of solid, if blunt, advice, regarding upkeep of metadata on the Amazon landing page for most any book: “You may have an amazing website on your own. Your publisher may have an amazing website. But right now, this is your book’s home page on the web.”
•Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute (and who’ll be running November’s Content Marketing World conference in New York) gave a Tuesday morning presentation that turned a lot of conventional wisdom on its head.
“Most publishers are working with a flawed model,” said Pulizzi, noting that publishers are too consumed with channels: books, ebooks, etc. “Focus on being the leading information provider in your niche,” regardless of what channel you’re publishing in.
Pulizzi’s message was to focus on niche, suggesting that general interest publishers focus on specific audience groups and market to them. “If I were a big publisher, I’d chop it up and focus on audience groups.”
He provided a 99-to-1 ratio of free content to paid content, noting that free content creates social presence, building a publisher’s image as an expert. Once expertise is established, events, books and consulting can be sold.
He also gave a prescription for social media success, something he called Social Media 4-1-1, the idea being that of every six items you share on social media, the first four should be sharing content from your followers/influencers, one should be your own content and one should be a sales offer.
•A busy morning here also featured a short technology session from Google’s Daniela Crocco, who discussed the Google Ad Sense campaign employed by Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek.” Ferriss’ original title for his bestselling book— Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit—had been roundly rejected by, among others, Walmart which was going to distribute it, so he tested six titles using Google Ad Sense to arrive at his NYT and WSJ No. 1: “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich.” Crocco also shared the insight that of the 211 million Internet users in the USA, 56 percent bought at least one book in 2011, which adds up to 123 million online book buyers.
•Jessica Best of Emfluence delivered a compelling session on the enduring power of email marketing, providing a list of musts for successful email marketing:
- Targeted
- Relevant
- Accessible: Images (23 percent of your audience will have images off by default in their email client, so make sure your text is readable)
- Accessible: mobile (25-70 percent of your email list will read something via a mobile channell)
- Quick to Digest (short)
- Timely
- Cross Promotional
- Permission Based
- Integrated
- Branded
- Creative
•Rounding out a day highlighted from reps from big players in publishing, Sasha Norkin, VP of Digital Marketing, Barnes & Noble, will be speaking this afternoon on "How You Can Use the B&N and Nook Platform to More Effectively Market and Sell Your Books."
See our Day 1 recap here.