Book Marketing on the Web
I chose HarperCollins Canada to explore book marketing on the Web. My initial impressions of the website from a marketing perspective were quite positive. The home page is jam packed with promotional tools and marketing strategies. For instance, HarperCollins offers a ‘Featured Books’ section, which highlights one featured book that is readily available in bookstores for purchase. It contains an image of the book cover, with a marketing tagline and short but enticing plot summary. It also provides a ‘More About the Book’ link, as well as a direct link to buy the book. To the right of this featured book, HarperCollins features an additional 3 books in a smaller image size, with a link to find out further information. From a marketing perspective, this is a strong promotional strategy as it effectively sells its product and provides an easy method of purchase.
The Author Tracker is an effective tool allows readers to keep track of their favourite HarperCollins authors. It requires an email address that permits HarperCollins to email alerts when their favourite author comes out with a new book, goes on tour, etc. This is a smart way for HarperCollins to track the website users and gain valuable contact information. By obtaining email addresses, HarperCollins now has another outlet to market their books, promote their authors, and brand themselves within an increasingly competitive market. Also featured on the homepage is a program called First Look, which allows readers to preview books in literary fiction, young adult fiction, suspense, biography, and other genres. Each month, HarperCollins offers Advanced Reading Editions (ARE) of great books by fabulous authors that members will have the opportunity to review. Reviewers are selected at random, but the website users must enter the program to be eligible. In joining the program, HarperCollins gains more information to track their audience. Upon registration, a user must indicate their favourite genres, this allows HarperCollins to obtain information in regards to what types of books their users are interested in. This program is an effective way to get readers to feel as though they are apart of the editorial process, it allows HarperCollins to gain knowledge of their target market while at the same time getting the readers excited about upcoming book releases. It’s a clever marketing strategy.
The Invite the Author program brings book groups and authors together. This online reading community encourages reading groups to invite an author to their next book discussion. Authors participate via telephone with a select number of book groups chosen in random drawings. Once again, to be apart of this experience, the user is required to join the reading community via email. It’s a smart marketing tool to provide users with a sense of community while at the same time giving them access to the authors they love. Additional home page features include: ‘In the News’, keeping readers up to date and in the know as well as ‘Newsletters’ for every genre, the HC reading group, and for teachers and librarians. The Bestsellers list gives readers a simple and easy way to find what’s popular within the market. For some readers, this provides them with a reliable and trustworthy list to buy from. Overall, from a marketing perspective, I believe this site effectively uses innovative strategies to appeal to the readers wants while providing them with a strong sense of community.
The site is extremely well organized and user-friendly. The layout of information is concise and uncluttered. A reader can easily access the site and navigate through it with no difficulty. This is very important because the more enjoyable the online experience is for a reader, the longer they will spend searching through the site, and the more likely they are to revisit in the future. The top panel of links include: Books, Authors, Readers, and Members. This organization clearly marks a desired path for the user without the hassle of having to search through the site to find what they want. HarperCollins also provides a drop down category tab to search for genres such as Fiction, Children’s, or Cooking. Again, this provides users with an orderly tool to allow them to effectively search through the site.
The website effectively sells the companies overall mandate/message. I believe HarperCollins has effectively branded themselves as a leader within the Publishing industry. As prestigious and award-winning company, HarperCollins has illustrated strength within areas of literary and commercial fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, cookbooks, and reference and spiritual books. Its message to readers is one of prestige, strength, reliability and innovation. Through its well-thought out marketing strategies, HarperCollins succeeds in captivating a loyal target market.
I believe the language within the site is intended to not only inform the user, but to also sell products. However, I do believe that selling products is their main priority. On the home page, the first half is dedicated to promoted their publishing list and giving the reader the option to buy online. For example, “Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean the gift-giving should end and after a stressful season who better to gift than yourself?… Diane Schoemperlen, the beloved author of Our Lady of the Lost and Found returns to bookstores next month with At a Loss for Words.” Within the second half (located closer to the bottom), the language tranforms to inform the user of upcoming events and news. “George MacDonald Fraser passes. The beloved author of The Flashman series and The Reavers has died at the age of 82. HarperCollins extends its sincerest condolences to the family and friends of this true literary star.” This language structure is consistent throughout the rest of the website, with its main focus on selling the product within a community-like atmosphere.
Specific purchases include books, and audio books. The users are directed to make purchases at national online retailers such as Amazon.ca, Chapters-Indigo and McNally Robinson. Additionally, they offer independent online retailers for each Canadian province. Each online retailer has their own specific discounts, if any. The publisher does not provide discounts to their consumers through the website. HarperCollins has made buying online an easy and attractive process to its consumers.
In terms of graphic design, the layout is clean and simple. The only questionable graphic is the homepage banner, as I am not quite sure why they chose an image of fireworks. Otherwise, the design is consistent on every page. Navy blue is the prevalent colour throughout the site, and I believe this colour evokes a classy and prestigious image, consistent with the message they are providing to readers.
During my internship, the suggestions I would offer would include adding an Really Simple Syndication feed (RSS) at the top of the home page allowing users to keep up to date with the HarperCollins website in an automated manner, which easier than checking it manually and keeps the user updated on a more frequent basis. I would also recommend providing social bookmarking links so that users can save the HarperCollins link as one of their favourites, this can provide more exposure for the website and increase online traffic.
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