“a shift from selling to enabling, from transactions to relationships, from supply to support, from publisher to facilitator.”

How can today’s publishers engage consumers beyond a book sale?

Consumers are the main drivers in the publishing industry today. Driven by social media platforms and a distrust of traditional media, consumers have become influential players and are constantly changing the way content is created and consumed. This is a positive opportunity for print and publishing as print is taking on a new premium role within the customer journey. Publishers can use print to connect with their consumers on a more valuable and individual level with personalised content, enabled by technologies such as digital print on demand. The secret is to understand them better. Get to know their interests and passions. Find out how they will use the content. Once this is achieved, brands can provide tailored content. Take the example of a home cooking enthusiast who buys a cookbook. The publisher could invite them to an event with their favourite chef or include a QR code within the book linking to a YouTube channel with exclusive recipe demos. They could even encourage consumers to share their own tips and recipes with one another. It’s about having a two-way ongoing dialogue across diverse communications channels, including both print and digital. Such interactions are the building blocks of communities, bringing together consumers in an enduring way in which they share their passions and preferences. Communities fundamentally change the way publishers engage with their markets – a shift from selling to enabling, from transactions to relationships, from supply to support, from publisher to facilitator.

So what do publishers need to do to learn about their customers’ wider interests?

Publishers need to go where their consumers are – within these communities – and actively become a part of them. You can see examples in many other industries. For example, Lego Club enables children to share their creations with other kids across the world for inspiration, engaging them much more deeply in the brand’s world. Communities engage people beyond the sale of a product, opening up a wider conversation.

And it isn’t always about creating new communities. Some of the best ones already exist – people already do what they love doing. However, publishers have the opportunity to add more value in new ways, be it through books that allow people to indulge and share their passions or in content and services that go beyond what we currently think of as a book.

A great example is cycling brand Rapha, which started in London and now has ‘Cycle Clubs’ around the world where cyclists can meet, have a coffee and go on bike rides. Of course they can buy clothing, get their bikes serviced and more, but consumers don’t just come to the club to buy products. They come to share their passion with like-minded people and for the experience that the community has co-created. This is where the brand adds value.

And there are more examples too: Harley Davidson’s owners group; GoPro’s action photography and sports community; LinkedIn’s business platform and Glossier, the world’s fastest growing beauty brand, which was established through an online community.

The opportunity for growth is huge.

Publishers’ business models need to evolve. They need to be open to the challenges and opportunities of fundamental change. Large companies find such change the hardest, having grown familiar with their old models that made them successful in the past. Small to medium-sized companies have the agility and flexibility to change their business model, but a large organisation with a legacy in the industry may be reluctant to make the switch. The positive is that larger businesses have the scale, the people, the customer database, the IT and the money to try new ways of engaging with customers. And it doesn’t have to be instant. Publishers can implement small incremental changes while continuing old ways of working.

To what extent do you think the publishing industry is already beginning to use consumer insight to drive business growth?

A couple of years ago at Future Book Forum, we discussed data’s potential to transform the publishing world – and how it can enable publishers to be more predictive, more personalised and more profitable.

Many publishers now see data as their most valuable asset and the key to how they can sell, innovate and grow. But despite publishers having access to industry data, retail data and the data they capture directly, they still aren’t collecting all available customer insight. And even if they do, they aren’t using it cleverly to add value to consumers or drive business growth.

By collaborating with consumers, other brands and even competitors, publishers can use data to its full potential, connecting them with their customers and driving innovation. Insight can be used to understand customers better and even to predict their future behaviours and buying patterns using tools like Artificial Intelligence.

So how can publishers use communities to grow their businesses?

At its simplest level, an ongoing relationship with a consumer helps brands to understand them better, which allows the development of new products and services and also cross-selling of other content that engages the consumer. An educational textbook might be complemented by a practical workbook or online videos for example.

Communities have challenged the traditional ‘book’ and changed our way of thinking around how we consume content. For example, Hooked is a chat fiction app where users co-create stories via a series of posts or text messages – the key part being that the consumer decides what is included in the story.

Alternatively, communities allow for new business models that challenge the traditional publishing model. Take America’s Test Kitchen. It offers a paid subscription service that enables home cooks to access a host of resources online, including recipes, reviews and top tips, as well as printed books and magazines. By integrating its offering, the company generates more than just sales. It’s able to build a community – a platform where people co-create content about their common passion – cooking.

Publishers should no longer just put a price on the product, but on access to a community in which the printed book is just one part of a richer, extended experience.

What is your message to publishers today?

I would recommend that publishers take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The growth opportunity is no longer in selling a book but in rethinking how to maximise customer engagement by appealing to their passions.

New content formats are emerging that make publishing more valuable. New business models and revenue streams now exist. And most importantly, audiences play an increasingly crucial role in the creative process and they are influenced by what other consumers value. Publishers need to be ready for this change and how it will impact their business.

We see from other industries the power of communities. Brands need to step into the consumer’s shoes and understand how to do more for them and enable them to achieve more. Brand affinity and new revenues will follow.

The biggest opportunity for publishers to grow is through communities, engaging people in what they love and enabling them to get more value out of their relationship with a brand.