Influencing the Consumer Path to Purchase

In a digitally-connected world, marketers must have a nuanced understanding of the many ways consumers discover, discuss, compare, purchase, and otherwise engage with books and authors—everything that leads to a consumer buying your book and what you can do to reach and influence them at each stage.

The Book Buyer’s Journey

Let’s take a look at the three primary stages or phases of the marketing funnel and some potential consumer touchpoints and actions along the way.

	Discovery Initial attention and awareness		Consideration Interest and engagement		Conversion Ultimate purchasing decision
1	Hears the author on a podcast	>>	Looks at the author’s Wikipedia page	>>	Purchases the new hardcover on Amazon
2	Gets an ebook deal promo	>>	Clicks through to read the product description	>>	Buys for $1.99
3			Checks release date for favorite author’s next book on Amazon	>>	Notices pre-order price has dropped and adds to cart >>
	Sees recommended “also bought” pre-order from another author	>>	Reads great review quote in the description headline	>>	Also adds that book and completes checkout
4	Notices a friend tag a book “want-to-read”	>>	Likes the cover and reads the book description	>>	Decides not to buy (but adds another book from the same author to want-to-read)
5	Sees an ad on Facebook	>>	Reads the blurb and thinks it looks interesting	>>	But doesn’t click >>
			Notices it on sale at local bookstore the next week	>>	Buys

It's important to remember this path is not linear. Consumers may jump in and out of the funnel at different times, and often via different channels and modalities; so you need to have a marketing plan designed to address consumers wherever they might be in their path to purchase.

Engaging Consumers in the Funnel

Marketing, sales, and publicity efforts should all be thoughtfully coordinated to ensure consistent messaging and to reach the right potential buyers, with the right content, at the right time.

Discovery
Ensure that products and brands are present and discoverable in key web and social channels.

• Via keyword optimization and search. Search is very often the first point of entry for a consumer. Use search engine optimization practices and keyword research to improve organic search rankings on high-intent keyword phrases in Amazon and Google.
• Via core book and author presences. If a book isn't listed, a consumer won't see it. If an author has no web footprint, a consumer can't learn more. Make sure you have a strong foundation in place so that when someone is looking, there's something for them to find.
• Via sales placement, promotions, and merchandising. Just like a stack of books in the front of a bookstore, online promotional placement is a key driver of consumer awareness and sales. Much of this happens via algorithmic "decisions" on e-retail sites like Amazon.
• Via inbound and outbound marketing activities. Publicity, events, ads, social media, email marketing, and all of your other marketing efforts contribute to establishing consumer awareness of a book or author.

Consideration
Ensure that potential buyers find rich, compelling information about the product and brand across the web.

• Via search engines. Consumers should find fresh and accurate information in a search result. This includes items like retail links to the book, a complete Wikipedia page for the author (when appropriate), up-to-date websites from the author and/or publisher, links to recent news mentions or events, social media links and status updates and other relevant, useful content.
• Via social media. Authors should strongly consider having well-maintained and up-to-date profiles in major social networks where their audiences can be found. Active author and publisher accounts should include frequent posts, scheduled throughout the day to reach readers in different time zones. Books should generate activity as well—likes, comments, reviews and ratings.
• Via retail product pages. All books should have complete product data, including reviews from trusted sources, a mechanism by which consumers can preview or sample the content, and a detailed, properly structured description. The descriptions should be optimized to speak the reader’s language—connecting the title to the relevant topics and trends of interest to the book’s audience—covering not just what the book is about but also why a reader should care.

Conversion
Ensure that products are attractively positioned to encourage likely buyers to complete that purchase.

• Via strong social proof. Professional reviews, awards, bestseller status, and consumer reviews (both within the retail environment and elsewhere) are critical to reinforce quality and establish relevance with potential buyers.
• Via attractive pricing and promotions. Buyers like to feel like they are getting relative value. Price drops and special deals can provide a boost in sales (and often a temporary halo effect even after the price is raised again). However, regardless of the selling price, even a perceived discount (e.g. the ebook price as marked down from the print list price) has a positive impact on consumer psychology.
• Via quick, predictable availability. Products should always be in stock, available for purchase, and ready to "ship" (whether physically or virtually) as quickly as possible. Any delay or unexpected consumer experience in the receipt of the purchase will severely negatively impact conversion rates.
• Via a clear “why to buy”. All of your marketing and sales efforts ultimately lead to this final decision point. Ensure that you address the question clearly in all of your messaging with straightforward calls-to-action.

How does Marketing Insights help?

We believe that the key to successful marketing today is smart, actionable data. Marketing Insights gives you visibility across the consumer path to purchase, with analysis, clear performance indicators, and insights and actions to tell you how you're doing and what you can do to improve.

References & Resources

• How Marketing Funnels Work [Kissmetrics Academy]
• Content and the Marketing Funnel [Moz]