eBook and Free Download Results

Thought you might want to see how different types of content are consumed by you, the loyal MineThatData reader.

Free Content:  A Few Observations About Modern Catalog Marketing

• 2,500 Blog Subscribers, 2,700 Twitter Followers
• I Project 700 Individuals Will Read The Blog Post
• 110 Downloads

Gliebers Dresses:  Catalogs on Trial, $0.99 via Kindle/Nook

• 2,500 Blog Subscribers, 2,700 Twitter Followers
• I Project 700 Individuals Will Read The Blog Post
• 59 Clicks to Amazon, 6 Clicks to Barnes/Noble
• 24 Requests for a Free Copy (recall the 48 hour free copy offer last week).
• 20 Purchases in 4 Days (Projects to Sales of 200 to 500, life-of-book).

Digital Profiles eBook:  $95.00 via Kindle/Nook

• 2,500 Blog Subscribers, 2,700 Twitter Followers
• I Project 700 Individuals Will Read The Blog Post
• 9 Clicks to Amazon, 0 Clicks to Barnes/Noble.  5 of 9 clicks outside of United States.
• 2 Purchases in 3 Days (Projects to Sales of 10 copies, life-of-book, based on prior tests at a $75 price point).

Most of the advice you read suggests that free is best.  This analysis demonstrates that folks will pay for content.  Clearly, there is an "elasticity" between free and $95, isn't there?  But that's why we analyze this stuff.  You are probably building this kind of intelligence into your marketing strategy, right?

By the way, if we evaluate short-term benefits on sales generated, then 2*$95 > 20*$0.99 > 110*$0.00.  Just saying ...

Most important ... pay attention to the "funnel", or what I call "low probability" events.

• 2,500 blog subs and 2,700 Twitter followers. 
• About 200 actions from at least 3,000 and probably closer to 3,500 unique individuals.
• Around 25 purchases.
• Maybe 6% of individuals take action, with maybe 15% of the 6% (about 1% of the total audience) purchasing something.

These low-probability events are not well understood by marketers who don't focus on math.  They reflect the modern reality of a digital world.  I repeatedly hear that "new media doesn't scale", be it mid-media like search or e-mail, or new media like social / mobile.  Scale isn't as much an issue as the fact that new media is a "low probability event".  When it works, it scales times ten.  For the other 99% of us, this is the outcome we must be satisfied with.