Marketing strategies in digital publishing

Rebecca Smart, CEO, Osprey Group | @rebecsmart

UK publishing landscape Book sales in the UK £4bn per year

Nielsen TCM records £1.5bn per year

Ebooks 20% of total sales ( 1% vs 2012)

50% for fiction, 10% for non-fiction

Avg selling price £3.50 ( £0.50 vs 2012)

Print sales down 10% vs 2012

Physical

Display and browse

Digital

Search and authority / voice

Challenges and opportunities

B2B → B2C

Discoverability

Global

Lower barriers to entry

Specialise in the customer

Repeat purchase

A brand is a voice

What are we good at?

The destination for enthusiasts

Niche

Customer focus

Brand

What else do they read?

Case studies

Osprey Publishing

Website – traffic and engagement

Building twitter and facebook for younger customers

Partnerships

Memberships

Crowdsourcing content development

Angry Robot

Symbiotic relationship between authors, publisher and readers

Websites – blogs plus Robot Trading Co

Social media – twitter personality

Robot Army – bloggers

Editors – new hires

Subscriptions

Clonefiles – bundling

Noisy innovators

DRM

Obscurity is a greater enemy than piracy

It doesn’t work

Brand as DRM

Community policing of copyright

DRM-free as marketing

Thank you

Rebecca Smart, CEO, Osprey Group | @rebecsmart