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6.28.2005
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Volume Three
Issue Six
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Welcome to our June Monthly Update. This issue features The Book Report Network's Carol Fitzgerald, who discusses how her "seduction marketing" approach has helped author Joseph Finder's latest novel, Company Man, become a New York Times bestseller. Read on...
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Client Feature: Author, Joseph Finder
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Author, Joseph Finder and Carol Fitzgerald
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Client Since: January, 2004
Current E-List Size: 1,850
E-mail marketing isn't just for arts organizations -- it can be just as powerful and beneficial to individual artists and authors, too.
Today's feature is all about an innovative way that one of our clients, the bestselling author Joseph Finder, was able to create buzz and excitement about his upcoming book by sending e-mail newsletters to his readers.
His e-marketing strategy and campaigns are developed and executed by Carol Fitzgerald, president of TheBookReportNetwork.com, a client we featured in our January, 2004 Newsletter. Carol discusses what she did for Joe Finder below.
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Q & A with Carol Fitzgerald
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Joseph Finder in his Steelcase Chair!
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Carol, give us some background about the set of e-mail campaigns that you recently sent out for Joseph Finder. What was the main purpose of the series?
We wanted to create pre-publication buzz and excitement for the book. While ads and bookstore appearances influence book sales, we know about the power of reader word-of-mouth. Books - unlike their other entertainment counterparts: movies, music and television - rarely get traditional attention pre-release.
We knew we needed to work Joe's existing mailing list and prime those readers to hit the stores the first week the book was released to ensure that the book would make the bestseller lists. We also know that pre-sell on a title can help develop new readers on the strength of committed readers saying, "You have to read this book."
You have described your approach as "seduction marketing" - can you tell us the general principal?
Most announcements about a book are ostensibly sell messages. Their theme is "buy it now." Instead, with these newsletters we had readers getting to know Joe and some of the background about the writing of the book. Sure we were asking them to pre-order or buy the book in each message, but we gave them a lot more.
We shared chapter excerpts, including one that was cut and pasted right in the newsletter and only available to newsletter readers. We gave away baseball hats with the Company Man logo on them as part of a contest. We released tour dates so they could mark their calendars to see Joe on the road. We organized an advance reader giveaway. We posted reader comments and feedback, which showed subscribers the raves from fellow readers. We made readers feel "invested" in the success of Company Man.
We wanted them to feel that they were not just readers, but rather part of Joe's inner circle.
Tell us the specifics. What exactly did you do? And what was the response like from readers?
We created a calendar outlining the campaign about three months before the book was published. We decided that we would do a series of six newsletters with weekly messages coming out over the three weeks before the book released. We also scheduled a follow-up newsletter after the release to thank readers for buying the book...and to announce that Company Man had made the bestsellers lists.
For each newsletter we had a content plan so we were sure we were covering each of the areas that we wanted to communicate to readers. So each newsletter had both content and a personal voice and readers seemed to really appreciate that - our open rates for the series were always between 40% and 50%!
We also grew Joe's mailing list by 30% from January to April just through viral marketing and a special contest that we held.
You did something unusual - a contest with Steelcase chairs, right? Can you describe the contest and tell us about the results?
Nick Conover, the CEO protagonist of Company Man, runs an office furniture company. As I was reading an early manuscript and trying to come up with promotion ideas, the one that immediately came to mind was that we should give away a high-end, ergonomic office chair. When I shared this thought with Joe, he immediately said, "I wrote my book in a Steelcase Leap Chair." It ends up that Joe had had some real problems with his back because he was writing long days and nights as he finished the book and his doctor recommended a good chair, thus his Steelcase purchase.
He called Steelcase, with whom he had a relationship from his research. They graciously agreed to provide a $1,200 chair for the contest. Joe had a photo of himself taken in his chair and we created a contest where people would win a chair "just like the one that Joseph Finder wrote Company Man in." Readers needed to read an excerpt and answer a short question to be eligible to win. Two goals were being met here: We had people sampling the book pre-publication and we were spreading word about Company Man via word-of-mouth buzz.
The contest page went up in a hidden area online and was only available to newsletter readers for about 48 hours. Then it was opened to all visitors to the site. We created a graphic and paid a nominal fee to a number of niche suspense/thriller websites to post it during the duration of the contest. The result: we had more than 3,000 contest entries in a three-week period. Soon we will run a picture of the winner in his Steelcase chair on the site and thus close the circle on this promotion, making readers a part of Joe's website.
We know this effort contributed to Company Man hitting the New York Times bestseller list the week it came out.
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Click here to visit Joseph Finder's website
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E-Marketing Seminars Coming this summer -- Register now!
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This summer, Patron Technology's president, Eugene Carr, will be presenting a full-day seminar in four cities this August.
Titled "Smart E-Marketing for the Arts," this session is a comprehensive way for you to get your e-marketing strategy right for the coming season.
It will cover tips and techniques to improve your e-mail marketing and the quality of your web site.
The dates and locations are:
August 18 - Chicago, IL
August 22 - Los Angeles, CA
August 25 - Washington, DC
August 26 - New York, NY
(If you register before August 1st you'll receive an early-bird discount price.)
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Click here for complete details or to register
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming July 26, 2005.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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