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):

  1. Drive traffic (PPC and SEO)
  2. Measure (Analytics)
  3. 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:

  1. Paris gets out of jail and is holding Power of Now
  2. Search volume for “Power of Now” spikes 36% from April to May 2007
  3. 2nd book gets picked up on Oprah on Jan 30, 2008. Old book also mentioned.
  4. 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:

  1. look at organic: what are they searching for? Book, author, topic. Then make decisions about what to feature.
  2. Take that message and buy the keywords in that vein
  3. Make sure analytics and adwords are tied together
  4. 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.
  5. Optimizer with adwords: test, test, test

All the tools are available here: www.google.com/bookpublishers

Q: How does Google index full site?
A: Sitemaps is one way.

Q: Is there a Google Book Search equivalent for magazines?
A: Yes, the News Archive Program is the Google Book Search for newspapers and magazines.