The rise of the eBook saw retailers and technology companies such as Apple and Amazon providing publishers with quick and simple routes to market via their platforms. Although this was initially beneficial, it resulted in publishers becoming reliant on a few dominant retailers. By ceding control of the eBook value chain, publishers have become limited in their ability to take full advantage of the opportunities presented. Publishers face significant challenges when they attempt to reduce this reliance and seek alternative and more direct routes to market. Building and maintaining a direct sales offering can be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, and there are myriad regulatory requirements to comply with. Many of those who have braved these obstacles have achieved a disappointing return on investment, as they have struggled to create a differentiated offering and a compelling value proposition for readers. At Erudition, we embarked on a range of experiments to find new approaches to direct sales that can be highly beneficial for a wide range of publishers. One of our most successful projects was the development of a direct sales offering for a small publisher of digital resources for musicians called Informance. Despite being a small publisher in a niche market starting from scratch, Informance was able to build a profitable business with more than 95% of revenue from direct sales to customers in over 70 countries. How was it achieved? Here are a few things that worked particularly well for this publisher. A simple, one-page guest checkout, making it as easy as possible for customers to make a purchase without onerous registration steps upfront Using this checkout as a landing page with discount offers for online marketing campaigns via platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords Bundling […]
