Book Marketing in a Digital World: How Analytics & Tracking Help

Book Marketing in a Digital World: How Analytics & Tracking Help

Aerio Staff

Why are analytics necessary?

For book marketers & publishers that are not analysts, digital marketing analytics can sound intimidating. But analytics can be incredibly useful – even for those of us who don’t dabble in data science.

Digital marketing analytics can help:

  • Determine which marketing campaigns are effective
  • Continuously improve upon book marketing strategies, and content
  • Gain insights into audience behavior
  • Better segment audiences
  • Determine where to focus time
  • Make better decisions and define future strategy

How are digital marketing analytics different?

When you think digital marketing analytics, what comes to mind? Our go-to answers likely come from a basic understanding of Google Analytics, like the number of unique visitors to your website, page load time, bounce rate, and how long visitors spend on the site. All relevant metrics that pertain to website performance.

Digital marketing analytics assess a broader view of your marketing strategy and provide meaningful insights into your individual prospects and how they interact with all of your digital channels. Are you using social media, email or a blog to market your book online? Digital marketing analytics covers all your digital traffic and focuses on the customer or lead versus website performance.

Some examples of digital analytics are:

  • The Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for paid advertising and emails
  • The “lead to close” ratio (the number of successfully closed sales divided by the number of sales leads over a set period of time, multiplied by 100)
  • The conversion rate for newsletter signups
  • SEO keyword performance

These analytics can help you better understand your audience, refine your messaging and tactics appropriately, and boost book sales.

Why are digital marketing analytics important for book sales?

Digital marketing analytics can be used to deliver an almost inexhaustible amount of data on YOUR specific audience, such as how they use your digital channels, what motivates them to take the next step, and ultimately what closes the sale. By leveraging data, you can determine which marketing strategies are really delivering ROI, and continually enhance initiatives that deliver book sale results.

Here are a few actionable ideas on how you can put digital marketing analytics to work:

  1. Determine what kind of content resonates with your audience. Do you have a blog? An e-newsletter? Pick a source of content and use your blog or email marketing analytics to drill down into which posts or issues were the most popular. Look for trends. Does your target audience react more positively to previews on new releases, or particular genres? Do they like background information about authors or book signing events? Tailor content around what they are most interested in and use what you learn to keep experimenting with similar topics to find your sweet spot!
  1. Assess the performance of social media channels. Social media management can be time-consuming. Determine which channels are working for you and invest your time there.
  1. Analyze email marketing data. This will help you determine the ideal frequency for sending campaigns, which campaigns have the highest conversion rates and how to improve performance by segmenting lists.
  1. Strengthen your SEO strategy. Use sites like SEMrush or Moz to determine which organic keywords drive site traffic, as well as additional keywords that can improve your search rankings. Review these reports often to benefit your SEO content strategy and grow your brand awareness.
  1. Use analytics to assess which digital channels are delivering and where they fit in the overall sales funnel. Focus your efforts and energy appropriately. Which channels are better for engaging prospects, which are best for growing and nurturing your leads, and ultimately, which excel at influencing book buyer behavior.

How to Incorporate Digital Marketing Analytics into Your Goals

Getting started with analytics doesn’t have to be complex. There is a lot you can track and measure. The very best way to use digital marketing analytics to market and sell your books online is to incorporate them into your goals and then use the measurements to continually make better decisions going forward.

First, understand your own marketing objectives. What data will you need to measure and quantify that your objectives have been met? For example, with a pre-pub campaign marketing a book yet to be released, knowing the number of clicks and pre-orders collected is data that helps measure your success.

Don’t get caught up in trying to measure everything. What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that matter to you? Figure out what matters to your bottom line, tie your KPIs back to simple, specific & measurable goals and start there.

Regardless of the size of your business, you can put digital marketing analytics to work for you. With the right analytics, you can gain a solid understanding of your primary audience and how they use your channels. Analytics also help to develop targeted messaging, which creates a customer journey that speaks to your audience preferences. And ultimately, analytics can help you sell more books online!