Publisher marketing has quite been a buzzword recently. Essentially through the ‘Viral’ dimension of it, publishers now have a much stronger reach and hold on their target readers. This section will unleash the newest trends in the Publisher Marketing arena, giving away the best ways to leverage it for your business.

Publishers! Buckle-up for the viral marketing lane.

Why Viral marketing?

One of the coolest things about the Web is that when an idea takes off, it can propel a brand or company to seemingly direct fame and fortune. For free. Whatever you call it—viral, buzz, or word-of-mouth — having other people tell your story drives action. The challenge for marketers is to harness the amazing power of word-of-mouth.

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s coverage and influence. It doesn’t matter if you have an outstanding product or an extremely well designed website, if people don’t know that it exists.

What’s in for the Publishers?

Promoting the e-book can be a crazy affair.

People can instantly see the value of a book that looks like for-purchase content but can actually be downloaded for free. Online tools are enabling publishers to spread the word about their books to more targeted audiences—and sometimes, at a much lower cost—than traditional marketing methods.

And the winner is – Widget Marketing!

Widgets are a Serious Marketing Opportunity and brands can use them tactically to form direct relationships with customer. They are like free advertising as they get your content/message onto peoples web pages and desktops at just the cost of the efforts invested in design and content. Their viral nature also means that a properly executed widget can reach the massive number of social networking audience.

What are Widgets?

Web widgets can be composed in HTML, JavaScript, Flash, and other scripting languages. These widgets run in the web page when the page is activated and is normally noticed along the left or appropriate feature bar or in the center of the post.

Widgets combine a range of digital marketing techniques:

• Online PR and strategic viral marketing
• Brand advertising and Brand engagement
• Direct response on sales and lead generation

Benefits of widgets for web marketing includes:

• Reach your customers faster!
• Low cost option
• Visitor engagement and effective call for action

Not only does the Widget enable publishers to promote their brand on the Internet, but also helps in increasing sales by directing traffic straight to the bookstores or retailers.

The Widget in a way acts as multiple storefronts spread all over the web. When a reader chances upon a widget he can view the table of content, browse a few sample pages from a book and search within the book before making a purchase decision.

This article was featured in the iPublishCentral Newsletter. To subscribe to our newsletters, write to us at marketing@impelsys.com

Commercial tablets and readers have taken the market by storm. In the tablet category, the iPad certainly set the pace for what’s shaping up to be a hot sector. Electronics manufacturers have accordingly sought to capitalize on this trend by creating a range of new devices to access these media, which in some cases have further influenced and altered consumer behavior. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the most exciting trends of the eReaders and Tablet market.

Demand for e-book readers remained strong in first-quarter 2011, with global shipments soaring 236% on year to 4.8 million units. Global e-book reader shipments will reach 27 million units in 2011. Among the brand-name vendors, Amazon will continue to be the market leader with 60% share of global shipments in 2011. Barnes & Noble may hold on to second place, but its gap with third-place Sony will narrow. In just a couple of years e-book readers have turned from devices for the big pockets to machines almost anyone can afford, with recent price cuts having led to a strong competition in the $149 to $199 category.

North America will remain the biggest market for e-book readers, accounting for 72% of global shipments, but growth in the area is slowing down. E-book reader vendors are now aggressively expanding their presence in the Europe market, which is registering higher-than-average growths. Monotone e-book readers will remain the mainstream in the next three years, during which no breakthrough in developing color devices can be expected. Global e-book reader shipments will reach 63 million units by 2014.

Market Dimensions

The starting of 2011 saw a sale upsurge of estimated 10.3 million tablets and 6.7 million eReaders. As far as eReaders are concerned, the Kindle remains the most popular unit, followed by Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Strong sales of Amazon’s Kindle, which was refreshed in August and priced more aggressively, as well as significant gains from competitors such as Pan digital, Barnes & Noble, Hanvon, and Sony among others, contributed to market growth. Apparently, people whose households net is $150,000 annually or more are more than twice as likely to report owning a tablet or eReaders.

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape has more or less stayed intact the way it was for FY 2010, with Apple taking a clear lead in the Tablet market. Samsung, Motorola, and perhaps now Sony all have entrants in the field, and time will tell whether the android-based devices will offer Apple as much competition on the tablet front as on the mobile phone front.

For single-use, high-price devices such as the higher-end eReaders, growth is certain to slow in the coming years as tablets and the larger smartphone gain popularity as reading devices, as well.

The Online-Reading Pie

In addition to facing competition from these traditional print publications and tablets with eReading capabilities, eReaders must also contend with PCs and smart phones, which are also popular among respondents for ebook-reading capabilities.

E-Readers and E-commerce

Shopping via tablets has become so popular that a new term has been coined — “t-commerce.” While only 9% of online shoppers own tablets, their behavior is encouraging for retailers. Consumers tend to spend more time on the Web after buying a tablet, and nearly half shop from the device, according to a survey of more than 2,300 consumers.

Tablet owners tend to be wealthier, which gives retailers a self-selected audience of their best customers. They may also be encouraged to spend by less tangible attributes: large touch screens that draw users into the content, and a portability that helps users get more comfortable than when surfing on PCs. While some eCommerce professionals may want to lump together tablets and smart phones as “mobile devices”, the data above on usage could revise this train of thought. Retailers may want to look at their industry and their own web analytics to determine what plan of action is necessary for portable devices.

Source:  CBS Interactive, IDC, Nielsen, Forrester

This article was featured in the iPublishCentral Newsletter. To subscribe to our newsletters, write to us at marketing@impelsys.com

Device innovation and Children behavior – What’s the Connect?

Devices are all over the marketplace! They have found an invincible chunk in all the segments, verticals and industries. The most exciting role they have to play in though is the Children segment. There has been a huge traction seen in the way children have started using gadgets and smart phones for fun-learning, entertainment, gaming and education. Not just that, but to add is how the Publishers have started looking at this as a big challenge.

Time management is an issue for most people today. The regimented life of the average student seems designed to overwhelm that of kids. Grades have become all-important at a time when distractions and extra-curricular activities explode. It has increasingly become a trend wherein parents are concerned about the way their kids learn – more effectively, faster and with utmost exposure to technology advancement.

Children Segment – Are Mobile-Apps the new buddies?

It’s the mobile era! When every other thing is on mobile, the kids can’t keep themselves off the gadget charm. And why would they – for the benefits and the fun they offer!

The Books are just not in trend anymore. Mobile apps have become the new buddies and the answer to everything that can help children learn faster and more effectively. While the world of mobile applications—tabbed as the new Wild West by developers and consumers alike—continues to explode with everything from games to online books to interactive tutorials, there is a lot of content designed to fit the face-to-face classroom. There’s something so intuitive and simple about touching things on the screen that tempt children needing to be shown how it all works.

Conventional Learning – A passé!

Conventional mode of learning has become a passé, and the learning modes have gone Mobile! Be it the poem recitation as a part of the classroom study or the illustrative study of the Human Body – the Books are just not sufficient to satiate to impart the required knowledge. Reasons?

· Are Books interactive? No.

The books have transformed from being hardcopy entity to high-definition interactive apps. The interactivity element has given ebooks a preference over conventional learning modes in the education industry. Learners can now take-up online tests, self-assessment lessons customized to their competency level, which was otherwise never feasible through textbooks.

· Do Books offer rich media? No.

Books as an App come with an in-built capability to present information in a rich and attractive format to enhance the learning experience. Rich media helps deliver 3D animation and flash with a high level of precision, thus finding a huge utility in study of Human Biology, Architecture and Engineering subjects.

· Books speak and sing? Never did they.

Children books thrive on bright colors and fun elements. Books as an App makes it a fun-filled experience for children to learn and absorb the knowledge.

Challenge for the Publishers

Looking at the speed the mobile and gadget market is growing, it has become a huge matter of concern for publishers to keep up with the pace of this advancement. Most of the publishing houses saw the onset of digital publishing strategy in past few months. Publishers are faced with questions such as:

• What should be the digital strategy to penetrate into the Children segment?
• How to convert the textbook content to rich and exciting apps?
• K-12 readers are all going digital. What are the devices that these readers are using?

Success Story: HMH iPad App for the Digital Generation

HMH designed an iPad app that engages tech-savvy 21st century students with access to over 400 video tutorials, step-by-step animated instructions, instant feedback on practice questions, and the ability to write, record and save notes.

HMH Fuse App encourages:

· The use of personalized lesson plans by combining direct instruction, ongoing support, assessment and intervention in a single platform.

· Multiple presentation methods and modes

· All-in-one app with built-in tools including Algebra Tiles, Linear Explorer, Quadratic Explorer, a graphing calculator, text and audio note-taking, scratchpad, and a student response system for instant learner feedback.

Value-Add

· Teachers and students can customize learning and meet individual needs by combining instruction with ongoing support and intervention

Harnessing on the growing advantages of digital publishing has become critical to children’s publishers. The results over the time have made subtle the need of a right and proactive strategy for this segment.

Thus, publishers have now realized a need to have a go-to-market strategy to take their books to the right audience and in a right mode – the Mobile Mode.

This article was featured in the iPublishCentral Newsletter. To subscribe to our newsletters, write to us at marketing@impelsys.com