Most of our readers subscribe to multiple categories. Whether they are visitors to our sites or signed up for our newsletters tracking their click behavior allows us to optimize their experience in our ecosystem, to gain an understanding of the books they love to read, the authors they are passionate about, the series they can’t get enough of—and the surprise books they don’t know yet but we know they’ll love.

Delivering highly personalized content keeps our community of readers coming back again and again. We keep refining our offerings, not just on the titles but on choices around frequency, timing, messaging, variety, cadence, price point, and retailers, among many variables. As we continue to refine, we are mindful of the fact that consumers now expect you to know who they are, what they want, when they want it, how often they want it, where they want to buy it and how much they want to pay for it. The better you are at identifying and delivering on those expectations the better your retention will be.

Establishing a 1:1 connection with an audience is a primary responsibility. Authors and publishers are entering into a long-term relationship with those consumers. From the initial outreach via search analysis, you begin asking questions that will help you identify the folks most likely to become consumers of your product through their web searches. You then transfer that search [intent] into discovery using best practices in Search Engine Optimization. Ensuring that highly relevant content (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) lies at the other end of the search click will largely win the battles for search. Remember that Google is looking for its consumers to have the best possible experience, to find what they are looking for, and to get the answers they need. Aligning your goals with how search works means that your conversion rates will be strong. Your clicks to sign-up, your clicks to retail, your clicks to sponsored posts—will be delivered by providing the right content for the right people. Then, the hard work of retention and advocacy begins as your (hopefully) delighted customers continue to come back for more of your content and share it with their circles.

The new CMO perspective in publishing is consumer-focused, data-driven, tech-based, and results-oriented. This, along with the growing amount of revenue coming via online purchases, means that CMOs are directly responsible for revenue. This consumer-focused marketing approach has direct economic benefits. It drives dramatic increases across titles, it brings new readers to aging franchises and the discoverability provides a halo effect benefitting authors across all formats and titles. The strategic benefits are even greater: as a company you hone highly effective digital marketing skills, and you maximize the value of your catalogs from the hidden gems to the bestsellers.